Hasta La Ideas

Google’s latest Chrome Experiment aims to demonstrate the browser’s ability to turn speech into text by letting users add intertitles to old film clips by speaking into their computer’s microphone

Google has recently developed a Web Speech API for Chrome which enables users to interact with their browser via speech rather than using the keyboard. This latest project from Google Creative Lab is an attempt to demonstrate the abilities of the API, but in an engaging, fun way.

At Peanut Gallery Films, users can choose a film clip and add their own title screens by speaking into their microphone (using Chrome and with the API installed, of course). Those clips can then be shared with friends. Why Peanut Gallery? Apparently it was the nickname for the cheap seats in early American cinemas.

It’s not perfect – Google recommends you speak slowly and clearly, punctuation must be added by saying ‘question mark’, ‘period’ etc and you can only use ‘regular dictionary words’. When we tried it, “My mother is upstairs” came out as “My mother is a test” and, bizarrely, our attempt to start our clip by shouting “Action!” came out as “Vagina Action”!! And, of course, one of the first things we tried was swearing which disappointingly is asterisked out.

But it’s a lot of fun and will no doubt prove far more effective at sharing the news about Google’s latest technical development than any dry press statement might do.

Design note: the lettering used in the project is by Jessica Hische.

CR in print
The March issue of CR magazine celebrates 150 years of the London Underground. In it we introduce a new book by Mark Ovenden, which is the first study of all aspects of the tube’s design evolution; we ask Harry Beck authority, Ken Garland, what he makes of a new tube map concept by Mark Noad; we investigate the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface; Michael Evamy reports on the design story of world-famous roundel; we look at the London Transport Museum’s new exhibition of 150 key posters from its archive; we explore the rich history of platform art, and also the Underground’s communications and advertising, past and present. Plus, we talk to London Transport Museum’s head of trading about TfL’s approach to brand licensing and merchandising. In Crit, Rick Poynor reviews Branding Terror, a book about terrorist logos, while Paul Belford looks at how a 1980 ad managed to do away with everything bar a product demo. Finally, Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on the merits on working home alone. Buy your copy here.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

Jólan van der Wiel‘s “Gravity” stools, tables, candleholders, and bowls appear ripped from an enchanted sea floor–or are they Magic Rocks run amok? At once otherworldly and organic, these moody forms are in fact the products of the Amsterdam-based designer’s “Gravity Tool,” an innovation that earned him top honors at last year’s DMY International Design Festival Berlin. “I admire objects that show an experimental discovery, translated to a functional design,” explains van der Wiel. “It is my belief that developing new ‘tools’ is an important means of inspiration and allows new forms to take shape.” Now, just two years out of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy designLAB, he has a “Gravity stool” at London’s Design Museum, as part of the “Designs of the Year 2013” show that opens today. This short film by Miranda Stet provides a luscious look at van der Wiel’s unique process, which is something of a team effort among opposing magnetic fields, the forces of gravity, two-component plastics, and good old-fashioned elbow grease.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Après avoir voyagé 9 mois en Chine, le photographe espagnol Álvaro Escobar Ruano a réalisé cette série « Censured » : une métaphore de l’aspect strict et prohibitif de la société chinoise, en montrant des voitures dissimulées sous des bâches. A découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.

Après une première série magnifique dont nous avions pu parler sur Fubiz en août 2011, le photographe danois Morten Koldby nous propose de nouveaux clichés d’animaux toujours aussi impressionnants. Plus d’images de cette série à découvrir de manière complète dans la suite de l’article.

The Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO, has established itself at a variety of tradeshows here in the States, and they had doubled their presence at the International Home + Housewares Show, with a second pavilion in the Clean + Contain section to complement their row of booths in Dine + Design (Marna, which we covered last year, was in the former section this time around). Similarly, the number of exhibitors from the tsunami-ravaged Tohuku region jumped from five to 11, several of which were exhibiting in the U.S. for the first time.

Mio Kawada, Executive Director of JETRO, New York, was kind enough to give us a quick tour of the highlights from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Fukushima’s Kodai Sangyo offers products for the kitchen and bath in hinoki, or Japanese Cypress

Nagatani-En of Iga-City specializes in traditional earthenware pottery, executed in contemporary design language. It is said that almost every household in Japan owns a donabe

Like their Western counterparts, Iga-yaki donabe pots have high heat capacity

The mushinabe can also be used as a steamer

Kotodo offers tin tea canisters in a choice of thousands of different Washi paper varieties…

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