Hasta La Ideas

The ITP Winter Show 2010 brought a new level of polish to the presentation of this semester’s plethora of reactive screens and new interfaces. There were more projects than usual from foundation classes like Intro to Physical Computing and Computational Media, but the immersive engagement of projects like Channels (paddling in pails of water to navigate a 3D environment), Cadence Chair (carefully control the speed of a rocking chair to resolve the video and audio), Pulse Drip (a mechanical readout of your heart rate from ink drops), Thought Bubbles (blowing bubbles releases users’ ideas about bubbles), and Song Cabinet (rearrange objects and drawers to change the tune) belied their first year graduate course nature–to name just a few.

Moss was a popular material (Moss Invaders, Polymoss) this semester, as were furry creations (Monster Valley, Noise Nest), while newer classes like Designing Living Systems (Planting Steps, CrabSense), Video Sculpture (Write Me, Record Player, Dollhouse), and Basic Analog Circuits (time machine: inner landscape, REMI) also had strong representation. Projects reflecting popular concepts like instrumentation (Rain Drop, Musical Thread), wearable technologies (Smart Phone Jewelry, Fe Wearables, We Flashy), and tele-presence/awareness (WebCatting, Miriam’s Boner) also had strong showings.

There were also a number of screen based data visualization, and even 3D, projects that simply weren’t translatable into photographs, and I decided against invading the men’s washroom to photograph the ITP WC project, but you can view those named above and more at our gallery.

>> view gallery

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The North American International Auto Show is the oldest, and many would argue, most important auto show in the United States. On the eve of the auto show press days, the Motor City Automotive Industry Night demonstrated the way a young, design program adds vitality to the industry. Design is where automotive innovation takes shape.

Keith Nagara (MAIN Organizer) with Lezley Anne models

In its inaugural year, the MAIN Event was an exclusive Detroit affair at the Compuware Building, for luminaries in the auto, design and fashion industries. Guests heard speakers, checked out forward-thinking product design and took in fashion designer Lezley Anne’s signature whimsical creations on the runway. Keith Nagara, who heads up Lawrence Tech University’s design program, coordinated the event.

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With almost 150,000 people in attendance at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, CES had the buzz of the 2007 and 2008 shows and the long lines at the convention center was a good indication that the market is booming once again.

From the design perspective, there was a lot of great color material finish (CMF) examples and some interesting forms. Speck has nice in-mold fabrics and House of Marley really did a kickass job using real wood and other natural material in its inspired products. (Ed. Note–check out our post about House of Marley!)

There was a ton of hype around tablets. With over 15 new Android-based tablets on the floor I was really expecting more compelling product. Blackberry’s Playbook fell a bit short but the cases were cool. Motorola’s Xoom and Artix with built-in phone charger were pretty dope as well. However, you won’t see me ditching my iPad any time soon.

Razer’s Switchblade mobile-gaming PC was probably the most innovative device I saw on the floor. A customizable switch-on-the-fly keyboard and 7-inch LCD screen means this little guy packs a mean punch for mobile-PC gamers. Razer also had a pretty sweet Tron-inspired keyboard and mouse.

The Casio Tryx was also one of the more innovative designs I saw. Its articulating design allows the user to set up and hold the video camera in an infinite number of configurations allowing you to capture any moment. Microsoft’s new Multitouch & Arc touch mouse were pretty sweet as well and for those of you who have not tried out Kinex yet make sure you do.

See more of Jordan Nollman’s Roundup at Sprout and make sure to check out his comprehensive Flickr Roundup!

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Sparkfun is having their second annual FREE DAY starting just about…now. They’re giving away $150K in merchandise on a first come-first serve basis so get your trigger finger ready. A quick customer survey and then shop till you drop starting at 10AM EST.

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Nathan Bergey: Mechanical Integrator
Building open source, open hardware rockets in Portland, Oregon.

Nathan Bergey is a volunteer rocket scientist for Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS). PSAS is a student/community run aerospace engineering group that is building ultra-low-cost, open source rockets that feature the most sophisticated avionics systems of any similar group in the world. Recently they launched a successful test of their roll control system making them one step closer to full active guidance — the holy grail of rocket design.

Nathan will talk about how he got to be rocket scientist and why it’s so cool (hint: it’s rocket science). He will show off some of the amazing rockets that PSAS has flown and talk about the challenges and unexpected problems that come up when trying to get something into space.

Nathan grew up in North Carolina and studied Astronomy and Physics at Appalachian State University. He moved to Portland in 2006 and has worked as a consultant until recently when he took time off to work on rockets and other side projects full time. He is a coder, scientist, space enthusiast, and problem solver.

Come on down tonight:

January 11th 6:00 PM

Hand-Eye Supply
23 NW 4th Ave
Portland, Oregon

and we’ll be posting it here live too!

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