Apparently 95% of dreams are forgotten—if they’re not recorded—just after waking up. That means one-third of our lives is lost within the subconscious. With SHADOW, co-founders Hunter Lee Soik and Jason Carvalho are attempting to do…
Continue Reading…
In 1963, Yale University Press published a book that would change the way people approached color. Now, in partnership with The Josef and…
Continue Reading…
An artist and a technologist pair up to find the cultural meaning of words through pictures
Recently presented at Rhizome’s annual Seven on Seven conference, Aaron Swartz and Taryn Simon‘s “Cultural Differences” application culls the top six photos from a Google image search for a specific word in 15 countries, displaying a visual comparison of its meaning among an array of different nations.
The concept was born to follow the conference’s purpose of pairing a technologist with an artist to see what they can make in a mere 24-hour time frame. “Cultural Differences” highlights the incredibly talented and informed pair’s individual interests while showing where they connect. Swartz, a brilliant programmer and activist played to Simon’s background as a photographer concerned with exposing truths.
While they’d like to expand the app to cover every country, the duo began with the randomly organized selection of 15 currently shown on the site. The user simply types a word into the search field and hits enter to get a pictorial portrayal of how each culture sees the word. Swartz and Simon pointed out in the presentation that Obama yields a variety of results—while most are classic presidential images, in Syria Obama is linked to Beyonce and North Korea obviously prohibits any images of the American president. For the word “Jew” a variety of images pops up in various countries, but in Germany, the word for “Jew” is “Jude”, bringing up nothing but images of Jude Law with that search.
All politics aside, the app is a valuable tool for designers, who can immediately see that, for example, in Saudi Arabia, a search for an Eames chair generates few relevant results. By gleaning results from each nation’s local search engine, Swartz and Simon’s app refines results, thus usurping the limited scope of a Google image search.
Conceived and developed in less than a day, “Cultural Differences” marks an impressive concept sure to entertain, enlighten and inspire new ways of visually contrasting cultural conversations through simple technology.
Mobile watches zero in on the fitness market
As nostalgic as we are for horology, the developments in wearable digital media platforms are introducing some thrilling competition. Down at CES, tech heads were treated to a selection of accessories with intelligent interfaces, understandably weighted toward the fitness market, where pocket-less fashion necessitates uber-mobile technology. Below you’ll find GPS-tracking, heart rate-monitoring, statistics-organizing and time-telling watches that are making a go at usurping your old Timex.
The super-sleek Basis watch is aimed at health-minded individuals looking to track their fitness process. Detailing essential data like heart rate and calories, the platform allows users to share their progress with friends in a simple web “dashboard” that assigns point values to health achievements. Basis is launching Spring 2012 and will retail for $199.
The Magellan Switch series works best for hardcore athletes who often find themselves off the grid. Fitness feedback includes distance, speed and elevation provided by Magellan’s GPS system, and can connect with heart rate monitors, bike speed sensors and other ANT+ technologies for additional information. The nine activity profiles are ideal for multi-sport athletes, with progress uploadable to popular personal training sites like Strava and Training Peaks.
Motorola’s MotoACTV is another sports-centric watch with a heavy lean towards music playback. The workout tracker is powered by an Android app that is accessible online, with all fitness stats recorded without external sensors. The accompanying waterproof, wireless headphones are designed to tune out the pain as athletes work towards their fitness goals. MotoACTV is available from the Motorola store for $250.
For the everyday wearer, the WiMM One offers a simple platform that is easy to style individually. Working off of built-in apps, the platform is highly customizable, both in terms of mounting and digital readout options. The allure of WiMM is the platform, which is open to third party developers to create new uses for the watch.
The all-in-one i’m watch works with apps to connect the user to social media, news, weather and other essentials. One standout feature is the ability to send and receive calls through your Bluetooth connected phone from the watch face. The watch is available through i’m watch’s online shop for $329.
An app-based robotics platform integrates mobile connectivity, gestures and independent automation
While scoping out the developments at CES in Las Vegas, we were delighted to meet Ava, a new mobile robotics platform prototype from the minds over at iRobot. Most will recognize iRobot’s past work on the low-profile automated robotic cleaners Roomba and Scooba. While Ava may lack her siblings’ sleek looks, she shines with potential as the world’s first app-ready robot. Standing between three and five feet tall, the independently mobile robot looks vaguely anthropomorphic as she patiently awaits instruction from her designers.
Set to debut in the healthcare sector with InTouch Health, Ava is designed to imitate and interact with people in a life-like manner. She accepts voice, gesture and touch commands, even offering gesture responses through nods and shakes of her tablet head. Moving at a steady three miles per hour, the robot uses laser, sonar and 3D imaging sensors to accomplish completely autonomous navigation. Ava independently averts people and other obstacles, getting from A to B with graceful ease.
The inclusion of a tablet-based interface, along with information available through wireless connectivity, makes Ava readily incorporable into health and other sectors that already use these technologies extensively. iRobot engineers see Ava following users into homes, offices and retail locations in the near future. See a video of Ava in action as she tours a trailer at The Verge.
The luxury auto maker sets a new standard for in-car technology
We took CUE, (which stands for Cadillac User Experience) for a spin today and were impressed by the in-car tech system’s ease of use and innovations. In short, it works just like your smartphone or tablet. This is underwhelming until you realize that you can now interact with your car much the same way that you already do with your other devices, and it’s about time.
Three years in the making, the Linux-based system, featured on an 8″ LCD display, brings several firsts to the in-car user experience. It’s the first to bring haptics to a car display and controls, allowing for tactile feedback when scrolling, selecting and swiping (familiar to many Android phone users); the first to use proximity sensors to change the display based on active or passive use, displaying only what you need and want when you need and want it; the first to deploy multi-touch gesturing. It also powers a 12.3″ LCD instrument cluster with four different display options based on your driving and data preferences. Its Nuance-powered voice control allows for more natural language when communicating with the system. Like the 
One of the first things you notice is that there are many fewer controls in the main stack, as secondary functions appear on screen when needed. The controls also feature haptics, pulsing when pushed, and allow finger swiping to turn the volume up or down, for example. A swipe of the lower lip releases the control cluster, which raises upward to reveal a roomy hidden storage compartment, which also has USB inputs. CUE allows you to customize the display, including a top dock for your favorite apps, which are easily dragged into place.
It can handle everything from 3D GPS navigation to Pandora music streaming and OnStar. Best of all, your preferences are synced to your smartphone, so different driver’s profiles are easily accommodated (CUE can support two Bluetooth connections simultaneously, too, and a total of 10 device profiles).
CUE will be featured in the 2013 Cadillac XTS (available Spring 2012) and ATS sedans as well as the SRX crossover.
The limited-run new app puts antique type in your pocket
Nostalgia is a thing of the future with The Amazing Type-Writer iOS app produced by Devin Chalmers at Doormouse Manufacturing. Mimicking the old-time clickety-clack of a Remington, The Amazing Type-Writer runs on “micro-swingarms” and the “latest in mobile pneumatic tubes technology.” With the app’s moveable carriage, users can hack away cryptic ransom notes or lines from “The Shining,” displayed on a simulated piece of mimeograph paper. Referencing the original QWERTY keyboard, The Amazing Type-Writer captures the bygone look of typed-over letters with a signature “dead key.”
If writer’s block boxes you into a ‘quick brown fox’ quandary the application offers The Typewritten Gallery, a catalogue of textual musings on digital high-quality cardstock to which users can add their musings. Although The Amazing Type-Writer hasn’t re-created the disgruntled crumpled ball of a rejected idea, compositions can be deleted. If you’re pleased with your masterpiece, you can broadcast it to the gallery or share via e-mail.
The Amazing Typewriter is available through the iTunes App store and retails for $1.99—only a limited number are available, however, so hurry.
Keep track of places with an app designed for bookmarking on the go
Every day, we walk by countless restaurants, shops, galleries and general curiosities whose interior ambiance we mentally bookmark, telling ourselves we must go back. And yet, when it comes time to pick a place for a group dinner, entertain a date or simply recommend the perfect place for a friend, we draw a complete blank.
Referencing the age-old practice of grabbing a restaurant’s branded matches on the way out, Matchbook allows users to “bookmark a place to remember it later” using the location information from Foursquare. Through the iPhone’s built-in GPS capabilities, you can either type in the name of a place you’d like to save or tag it as you’re walking by, organizing fleeting intentions into a solid list of where to go around town.
If you’re ready to streamline from a desktop crammed with Post-it notes, ink-smudged jottings on your hand or a jar of actual matchbooks, the app can help keep you organized and on your way. Matchbook is free and available for download from iTunes.
App-driven toy helicopter puts flying at your fingertips
The latest in iPhone- and iPad-specific gadgets, Griffin Techonology’s Helo TC Touch RC Helicopter recently launched to the cheers of tech-savy kids “ages 14 and up” around the world. As a leap forward in app-powered innovations, the “Flight Deck” module attaches to your iOS device and works in conjunction with the Helo TC app to control and direct the helicopter in flight.
Although the agile little vehicle is impressive enough, the software is the real winner of the bunch. The iOS-specific controller works with multiple generations of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. For a familiar remote-control feeling use the joystick controls on your iOS device or switch controls and tilt your device to fly the mini-chopper. When you’ve found a path you like to fly over and over, use the app’s Flight Plan to record up to three routes to fly on demand anytime.
Keeping the twin-rotored helicopter flying high, the craft is constructed of a lightweight metal frame encased in a polycarbonate body; it charges (and recharges) by any USB power source. At just $50, the Helo TC has been in and out of stock since its release, so keep an eye on Griffin Technology online to claim one for yourself, then head to iTunes for the free app download.
How some of the most tech-savvy are using the latest social network
With any new networking platform, the tech crowd always takes the lead while the rest of us are still complaining about our parents joining Facebook. When Google+ launched last month it seemed like a particularly novel way to stay socially organized, but we still weren’t quite sure what to do with it. Turning to the digital community and beyond, we asked around to see how some of the earliest-adopters are engaging. From Refinery29’s VP of Engineering Jorge Lopez, Gina Bianchi (who herself enabled anyone to make their own social network by co-founding Ning) and Selectism editor Jeff Carvalho to Jean Aw, Notcot founder, the overwhelming response from the total of 10 people that we surveyed was that, while there’s tremendous potential, there’s still a lot of learning that has to happen on both the consumer and Google’s side.
Brett Renfer (Interaction Designer at Rockwell Group Lab) told us that the more he uses it, the more he’s discovered a need to share in the selective way that the site allows. Many from our list were on Google+ (or Plus, as some call it) since its launch, like technologist Joel Niedfeldt who described it as a “veritable ghostland at first.” Matt Spangler (a friend of CH and digital entrepreneur) relays his more common experience, “I’ve read about it in articles more than I’ve used it.”
Despite initial hesitations, most are checking Google+ two or three times a day. Ben Lerer, a Thrillist co-founder, and Taj Reid, who’s the brains behind WeJetSet, point out they visit more thanks to the mobile app. And, as illustrator Keren Richter predicts, while it doesn’t have the same activity as Twitter or Facebook, it “has a chance of catching on.”
Jeff: Circles, based on common interests. I have circles for people I know interested in technology and music, for example.
Jorge: The Stream is pretty much as far as I go with it. Going to Google+ has pretty much been a chore.
Taj: Definitely the Stream and Circles. I’m also interested in making more use of the photo section.
Gina: My team and I kicked Skype to the curb and now use Hangouts for our daily stand-ups because of the higher quality and reliability. I think they just nailed it.
Keren: I use the Stream, I post photos and update my status.
Ben: It feels like a blend between LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to me, but it has some advantages of all of them.
Brett: The Circles more closely mimic real-world social structure. I can see Google+ growing into more of a hub for me, especially in a work context.
Joel: They’ve built a very mature social networking platform that does away with the early-stage stuff that just annoys me now on Facebook. It’s more of a tool.
Jorge: If they had events, I like that I could create a public event and exclude some people. (Sorry parents, I love you, but I don’t want you to hang out with my drunk friends.)
Taj: I like how the posting works—it encourages stickier conversations.
Matt: I like the simplicity and clarity of its design and user interface. Its biggest advantage is integrating the magic of push notification alerts into my everyday media activity.
Gina: It’s seamlessly connected to Gmail as well as my Google docs and apps, so it fits in beautifully with the fabric of my workday.
Brett: My job is very tech-centric, so my circles lean more towards people I’m interested in because of work rather than people I know in a social context.
Jeff: Socially. We’ll see how their business model turns out for the service. I have a feeling it will not be free.
Jean: So far it’s the same mess I have on Facebook and Twitter.
Matt: I’ve started creating some client-specific circles that I’m monitoring, but its just the beginning of that. Once they open up the API and allow for third-party developing, I think I’ll both use the system more and it will drive a lot more adoption. I can imagine ways my small groups of trusted individuals can connect in more exciting ways, but it will depend on how well done the API is.
Keren: I’m not the most business-minded. Right now, it’s mostly for friends and memes, but it’s not SO much better than Facebook that there will be a mass exodus.
Contributions from Karen Day, Graham Hiemstra, Ami Kealoha, Evan Orensten, Josh Rubin and Greg Stefano
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
