Posts Tagged ‘design’

New intuitive ways to display information

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

We have probably seen this example of a USB stick that swells up when full, and deflates when empty.

Inflating USB stick

(source: www.smallsurfaces.com)

Although this is a mockup that apparently has been going around for quite a while, I do think these sort of designs are interesting examples how interaction with technology can be made more intuitive.

This phone made by Samsung is real:

Phone with water level

(source: www.mobilecowboys.nl)

It’s screen displays a water level that corresponds to the level of ‘juice’ left in the battery.

From www.slashphone.com:

NTT DoCoMo in Japan just started selling the N702is 3G cell phone to its subscribers. The phone has a built in motion sensor. When the screen saver is activated, the screen displays glass-like water. The “water” moves when you move the phone around. The water level also reflects your current battery status, the lower it reaches, the less power you have.

Tags: ,
Posted in announcements | 1 Comment »

Mobile phone modding

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

(Via Mobile Cowboys)

MobModding

British site www.modyourmob.co.uk is dedicated to modding the phone. Modding the phone in moderate ways already happens quite often, I think, as a means of personalize your phone. But now telcom operator Orange has stepped into it and gives away prizes to the best mods.

Interestingly btw how the site at more than one place speaks about how this modding supposedly is “big in Japan and it’s going to be massive over here”. This sounds more like a strategy to encourage people to get into it, since we al now Japan is the furthest of al countries in mobile phone development, craze & hype, and we don’t want to stay behind, now don’t we..?

Tags: , ,
Posted in announcements, play, technology | No Comments »

Visual power Show in Essen, Germany June 23

Monday, June 26th, 2006

visualpowershow

This Friday, Mylene and I did a bit of a crazy thing and drove over 200 kilometers east to Essen and back again at the same evening to see the Visual Power Show. It was held in a former industrial complex called Zollverein, in the cole-washer to be exactly. They are transforming many old factories in the Ruhr-area into ‘creative zones’ now as a way to preserve them. It was tamed wildness: you couldn’t wander around and explore the building or the terrain. Finding the venue turned out to be a real pain: first we drove the wrong way to Essen, then we arrived on the terrain but had to find out where it was, together with some indignified Germans.
Although the show sometimes leaned toward platitudes about modern day consumerism, I thought it was really fun to watch. A lot of speed, rapid changes between speakers, who held their presentations very brief (10 min max). Unfortunately we didn’t stay to see the whole show because we didn’t want to get back too late.

Tags: ,
Posted in meetings/events | No Comments »

Some more fun designs for mobile phones

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

Not too long ago I posted these cool designs for mobile phones that make you think about their use in public space. Now here is another line of (humorous) products that make you think about the uses of mobile phones:

  • Tru:th – a phone with a build-in alcohol promilage meter you can only use when drunk and are more likely to tell the truth
  • Rosary – a phone that portrays religious icons, so you can pray to them on-the-go
  • Phish – a phone that makes the water in your fish bowl raise by one degree every minute, so keep it brief!
  • Cactus – a phone with sharp spikes on its keys, so the one who is called knows he/she’s really special to the caller

They are designed by a collective that calls itself the MPAA (Mobile Phone Abusers Anonymous). Here’s what they do:

Our primary purpose is to foster awareness of the mobile phone — the devastation it can cause, and the salvation it can offer. We do this by offering meetings, mobile phone discussions, replacement products, activities and much much more.

Tags: ,
Posted in technology | No Comments »

Cool design project with mobile phones

Monday, March 20th, 2006

Everyone knows mobile phones can be irritating as hell to others, especially in public places. But as soon as we ourselves are calling, we don’t care so much any longer about others near us, do we…?

SoMo is a cool & funny design project that questions our behaviour in public spaces, and gives us some sanctions to ‘enlighten’ others. 5 Different mobile phones have been designed:

- SoMo1 is the electric shock mobile.
- SoMo2 is the speaking mobile.
- SoMo3 is the musical mobile.
- SoMo4 is the knocking mobile.
- SoMo5 is the catapult mobile.

Tags:
Posted in technology | No Comments »

Mood phone in the make?

Thursday, January 19th, 2006

According to Textually.org, a student has won a price awarded by Motorola for a competition to make the world “seamlessly mobile”. Student John Finan has written an essay (PDF) about a ‘mood phone’ that would be very useful for someone with e.g. the Asperger sydrome, a mild form of autism that makes it difficult to assess non-verbal clues.

This raises some interesting questions, e.g. whether human emotions are attributable to machines (yes, I think, to some extent), and how this transforms ‘the medium into the message’.

More info in this Herald Sun article.

Tags: ,
Posted in announcements, technology | No Comments »

Physical contact via internet?

Monday, November 28th, 2005

Scientists in Singapore at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have developped a kind of vibrating jacket that children could wear to receive ‘hugs’ from their parents that are away via the Internet. The jacket is already being tested on chicken. The wireless jacket is controlled with a computer and gives the feeling of being touched. The jacket could be used to transmit feeling over the internet.

This development touches upon issues like:

  • the role of the body in an online environment
  • the importance of physical contact in developing identity
  • the ‘multimedialisation’ of the internet and its experiences

From the Reuters article:

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore scientists looking for ways to transmit the sense of touch over the Internet have devised a vibration jacket for chickens and are thinking about electronic children’s pyjamas for cyberspace hugs.

A wireless jacket for chickens or other pets can be controlled with a computer and gives the animal the feeling of being touched by its owner, researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) told Monday’s edition of The Straits Times.

The next step would be to use the same concept to transmit hugs over the Internet, it said.

“These days, parents go on a lot of business trips, but with children, hugging and touching are very important,” the paper quoted NTU Associate Professor Adrian David Cheok as saying.

NTU is thinking of a pyjama suit for children, which would use the Internet to adjust changes in pressure and temperature to simulate the feeling of being hugged. Parents wearing a similar suit could be “hugged” back by their children, the paper said.

Article link on Reuters.com.
Link on Tweakers.net.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Identity | No Comments »