links for 2006-03-25
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Author Archives: schwa23
links for 2006-03-24
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server side recognition of logos and other distinguishable marks
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augmented reality game; you must shoot the hidden viruses that are floating around your real world.
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cameraphone game where you move a ball through a maze using the camera to detect motion.
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game that uses cellphone camera to detect ‘kick’ of football
links for 2006-03-22
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basic cell phone app for motion detection using camera
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(tags: itpwearables wearables)
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riya is a facial recognition-based photo service. they haven’t launched publicly yet, but it could be really cool. as you upload pix it detects the faces in your images and tags them appropriately. hopefully yahoo will buy them an integrate it with fli
wearables: trucker hat – a photoset on Flickr
For this week’s project the assignment was to hack a toy or some other piece of consumer electronics. I decided to incorporate an X10 wireless home automation remote control into this trucker hat (which I bought from a homeless guy at SXSW for $2). The idea came from wanting to do something with the gesture of tipping the hat — so I put soft switches on the corners of the bill; when you squeeze the bill you can turn on (or off) whatever device is plugged into the wireless transceiver.
There wasn’t a whole lot of hacking involved — basically soldering some magnet wire to the contacts of the switches in the remote. I created some simple soft-switches with conductive fabric and a leather barrier between each piece, et voila.
Reacting to Marie-Laure Ryan’s narrative as Virtual Reality
“It is the ability to tell stories that will decide whether hypertext will secure a durable and reasonably visible niche on the cultural scene or linger on for a while as a genre consumed mostly by prospective authors and academic critics” — chapter 8, Can Coherence Be Saved?
One element of hypertext that gets thrown in the storytelling mix which I find most interesting is how the reader can quickly become the author, imbuing new facets to a story, or creating an altogether new meta-story. Continue reading
On Paul Valery’s ‘Some Simple Reflections on the Body’
In the section ‘On the Blood and Us’, Valery raises questions surrounding the essence of life; What if our blood were pumped in directly without all the prerequisite processes of nutrition, oxygenation, etc, were removed and only the system of the blood remained? It’s sort of a paradox, to think about it; our blood system is certainly the ‘central’ and most important, but only because it exists to replenish and satiate the rest of our organism.
I’m reminded of Ray Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines, where he argues that in the future our bodies will be replaced by hardware smart enough to emulate their functions. The question boils down to, what is life? What is our essence that makes us ‘us’ — is it biological, or spiritual, or somewhere in between?
SXSW 2006 Music Wrap Up
Quick little post about bands I saw at SXSW that I deemed worthy, in no particular order. I’m so ignorant of music these days that SXSW was worth it just to introduce me to some new tunes. I’m sure plenty of folks know of all these bands already, but with a couple of exceptions (Spoon, Blackalicious), their music was new to me:
* The Research (UK): these guys were great; the show was only hindered by the stench of backed-up plumbing that overran the Parish II downstairs.
* The Chalets (Dublin, Ireland): fantastic quintet, put on a very entertaining show. Favorite song “I know you love me but you’re f*cking crazy”
* Art Brut (UK) : I guess these guys are huge in the UK, and they deserve it. “Ready Art Brut? Art Brut go!”
* Gil Mantera’s Party Dream (Youngstown, OH): OMFG. I’ll call them Andrew W-KLF — rock-dance music, insane performance that involved semi-nudity, and skilled use of the Vocoder by Gil. Also probably get the award for best banter, with tales of woe from O-hi-o.
* The Envelopes (Sweden?)
* The Young Knives: Man, did this 3 piece from the UK rock. I don’t know what else to say, but these kinda-nerdy guys gave the hipsters a run for their money with one of the better shows.
* Spoon (Austin, TX): Just voted band of the year by the Austin Chronicle, they played a great free show at the Auditorium Shores…
* Blackalicious : Same venue, played before spoon and these dudes can freestyle like nobody’s bizness.
* Kris Gruen (Montpelier, VT): My friend christin r. plays cello for Kris Gruen; we saw them play at a backyard BBQ, atmosphere was great and the music was melodic and warm.
* The Gossip (Olympia, WA): Holy sh!t does beth have some pipes. Another band I’m embarrassed I had never heard of, I bought one of their CDs the very next day.
* Tralala (Brooklyn, NY): these guys played with Ted Leo — four girls and three dudes, playing poppy punk rock. Kind of reminded me of a rock-and-roll fannypack — cute girls rocking your socks off.
Pretty awesome bands all around. Also, on the plane ride home I sat next to Kori from Mates of State, and because I’m a musical idiot, I had never heard of them. She let me hear one of their tracks, and I loved it, and now I’m listening to “Our Constant Concern.” Apparently their new record is out March 21st, and they’re doing an in store at Virgin Record Store, followed by a headlining gig at Bowery Ballroom on April 12th…
links for 2006-03-10
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this could be really cool; java based development for small, wireless prototyping modules
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one suggestion for my wearables project was to hand-felt it, which would allow me to create ‘channels’ for my wiring. here’s some DIY felting stuff
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more felting stuff
Apple’s Latest…
…intern. Yup. I’m going to intern with Apple in Cupertino this summer, working with the .Mac web team. If you know me, you know how excited I am. I haven’t mentioned it here on the blog for fear of jinxing it, but now that it’s official (well, just about official. They still have to do a background check on me. Hmmm, will that traffic violation come back to haunt me? Hope not!), I thought I’d write a little bit about the experience of interviewing for the position.
links for 2006-03-08
links for 2006-03-07
Oscar Hates Technology.
Was I the only one who noticed the scolding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences gave to those of us who enjoy films on DVD in our home theater instead of going to the multiplex?
The president of the AMPAS took a convoluted side track from his empassioned speech about movies and the art of storytelling in order to remind everyone that going to the movie theater is different than watching a DVD at home. Well, duh. He even said, “I know that none of the artists nominated tonight finish shooting a scene and say ‘That’s gonna look great on the DVD.'” Don’t tell that to someone like Peter Jackson, who knows that DVD is a perfect opportunity to tell your story in a more robust and expanded form than what can be toelrated in the theater.
Continue reading