Tuesday, November 9, 2010
NetDev - How MIT's Hybrid Bike Wheel Came to Life
Developed by a student team out of MIT's SENSEable City lab, the wheel recently won the U.S. round the James Dyson Awards. Even Sir James lauded the design's versatility and elegance, telling us, "It's a well thought out design in that it addresses a number of problems beyond tired legs."
Inside of the hub, there's a 250 watt motor. And when you pedal, there are sensors in the wheel that detect torque. So once the torque sensor detects a certain amount of exertion, it knows to supplement your pedaling. So if you're going up a hill, you get more an assist. The idea is not that you stop pedaling and the motor takes over -- you're always pedaling, and the feeling is like having a friend pedaling with you.
Finally, you choose how much assist you want through the iPhone interface. You can choose from low to high amounts of assist -- so anywhere from 100% boost to a 300% boost.
Read the full article from Fast Company Design.
NetDev - The Future of Screen Technology
This is the result of TAT's Open Innovation experiment. It is an experience video showing the future of screen technology with stretchable screens, transparent screens and e-ink displays, to name a few.
Apple Acquires Polar Rose, Facial Recognition Software. Uh Oh!
Apple has been rumored to have acquired facial recognition software company Polar Rose. The above video shows off some crazy features that I would want on my phone fo sho. The thing is will Apple give it to the people and if so, what will they be doing with this software behind closed doors? There are quite a few cool things about being able to see the public profile information about anyone who gets caught in my iPhone view finder. There are some creepy things about it too.
Don't get me wrong I'm for this. I want this. I need this at times (what's your name again...), but someone will come to use this type of technology in an inappropriate way. Drunken txt's were just the beginning of appropriate mobile phone behavior. Now you can find all about that hot chick at the bar before you ever meet them.
Social media strikes again!
Create a Group Texting Party For the Length of a Show
Name: Fast Society
Quick Pitch: Fast Society is a free iPhone app that groups contacts into an instant, short-term team, combining group text messaging and one-touch conference calling.
Genius Idea: Ever attended a crowded show with a group of friends, only to notice that John-Boy has wandered away to the merch table, Esther (who is shorter than the rest) has been lost in a sea of concert-attending ogres and Marcel has passed out somewhere in the corner? Well, Fast Society is the perfect solution for those crazed, crowded situations.
Fast Society takes the group texting experience to the next level with conference calling as well as geolocation. The other week, we covered GroupMe, a mobile app that lets you create an SMS chatroom on any phone. The app is awesome in its simplicity, but its use-cases are still up for debate. Yes, group texting is fun and useful for a brief period of time, but after a while it either becomes (1) annoying, or (2) forgotten and replaced with another diversion.
Well, Fast Society co-founders Matthew Rosenberg, Michael Constantiner and Andy Thompson set out to fix that issue after attending a Bloc Party concert during which their friends kept getting separated. While group texting would have been helpful in this situation, Rosenberg and Co. wished that they could create a specific group (i.e. the Bloc Party concert-goers) that would be able to converse for a specific time (i.e. the duration of the show). Enter Fast Society.
NetDev - Frog Design CD Adam Richardson on the future of NetDev
Adam Richardson keynote The Next Web 2010 from The Next Web.
frog Creative Director Adam Richardson gave a keynote speech at Amsterdam’s Next Web conference, the fifth annual gathering to discuss trends in the digital landscape, on how “The Future of the Web Will be Invisible.” Richardson discusses the intersection of the physical and the digital, and his term “Webjects,” the blending of objects and the Web. Richardson believes that computers and phones are on a collision course. In the past, we believed that in order to truly understand computers, we thought we would have to go into a computer (i.e. Tron) but now, computers are stepping into our world (i.e. augmented reality).
NetDev - Internet Device Series
NetDev's are devices or products that have direct and deliberate internet connected features. Socimedia has been taking a close look at the world and how we socialize with it. We've all thought about how the physical world and the digital world will collide, but this generation we can see it more than ever before.
A lot of this has been because of the mobile world's ability to allow us to be connected to digital content and information at all moments of our days. It's not the iPhone or Google phone that runs our world, its the application developers that create new reasons for us to connect to the digital world. The phones are becoming more and more the same. One big ass screen, a few buttons and the ability to touch, swype, read, play and watch our lives away.
Soci will be investigating and reporting on devices that really attempt to leverage connectivity features. We are in the process of creating our own product too and if you visit Soci 4DV Fourth Dimension Video I think you'll figure out what's coming.
Twitter Creators Becoming Celebrities? Thanks Fallon!
It's taken some time, but the creators of some of the worlds most widely used social networks have made it to celebrity status. Two of Twitter's founders -- Ev Williams and Biz Stone -- will appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC.
You'de think this type of thing would have happened sooner, but the truth is, no one really adores the creators of websites, apps or even the digital products that govern our lives. I mean I don't want to login into Mark Z's face. I want his Facebook so I can see what's up with my friends. I'm not even friends with him on Facebook so how much do I really care about what he does on a daily basis. When Victoria Beckham goes shopping with her kids everyone tunes in, but Tom Anderson co-founder of MySpace gets the boot, who really cares?
However, it seems this could soon be a shift. If web gurus decide to make there way into more MTV parties and viral video directors get face time at the Emmy's, things will get a little more interesting. Sooner or later it's bound to happen and no can stop it now.
Unit9 Interactive Street Game
As part of the Internet Week Europe festivities starting today, Unit9 has set up this interactive street game in London's Hoxton Square. Game play takes place in the evenings until November 12, and the public is invited to escape a ghost and collect evil pumpkins.
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