No, it's not the ability to see dead people. It's a new device developed by MIT's Fluid Interfaces group, headed by associate professor of Media Technology Patty Maes. According to the group's website:
'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.
For those of you who don't speak Nerd, it is a prototype cobbled together with a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera that essentially projects information about an object on any surface. For example, don't have a calculator handy? Well, just project one on your hand.
Need to know the time, but don't have a cell phone (no cell phone? who the hell are you, the Unibomber?) and are too shy to ask your fellow citizen?
There are all sorts of possible applications - and many of them are demonstrated in the interesting (albeit somewhat long - 8 minutes) lecture and presentation posted below that Maes and a student in the Fluid Interfaces group gave to the TED (Technology, Education and Design) Conference. Side note: the Fluid Interfaces group has a website that showcases a number of other "really cool things" in development, and the TED website has great library of interesting lectures on a multitude of topics. Without further ado:
Yes, it's an ad, but give credit where it's due (thanks T-Mobile) - I think life is better with musical flash mobs. 13,000 people singing Hey Jude at once? C'mon, that is cool.
Man, they really can get away with anything in Germany, can't they? This is a commercial for BonTrust Bank. The agency created an entire 3-D world using banknotes from all over the world and origami techniques. Pretty cool. Also, crazy explicit - I don't think I can wash the image of Lincoln getting a plowchop* out of my brain. Also, Mao is a serious player.
*Imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now imagine his accent. Now imagine him saying "blowjob." As in "Maria, I would like a plowchop tonight." Credit to Flappy Days' friend Tony S for sharing that with us.
The human ability to invent new things and to push the boundaries of excellence in those endeavors is a beautiful thing to behold. Exhibit A - Danny MacAskill, a rider with the Inspired Bicycles team of Edinburgh, Scotland. The video below really gets going around 0:45 and then proceeds for another 5 minutes of jaw-dropping awesomeness.
Back in 2004, photographer Douglas Levere set out to find the New York City depicted in Bernice Abbot's Changing New York and highlight just how much had actually changed since the 1930s. I've posted below a sampling of what he found. If you like what you see, Levere's book (New York Changing: Revisiting Bernice Abbot's New York) is available on Amazon. You can also see more photos from the book at The Morning News.
First of all, if you're a new reader who found us because of the Busy Chef/Checker's linkage, welcome. We're not the most attentive bloggers around, so if you want updates, best to add us to an RSS feed rather than visit daily in the vain hopes that we've updated the blog. Chances are, we haven't (as you can see by the frequency of our postings).
The video below is called "World Builder". The description from Vimeo:
"A strange man builds a world using holographic tools for the woman he loves."
This award winning short was created by filmmaker Bruce Branit, widely known as the co-creator of '405'. World Builder was shot in a single day followed by about 2 years of post production. Branit is the owner of Branit VFX based in Kansas City.
It's short, it's sweet and it's damn cool. Enjoy.
Via Andrew Sullivan (like many of the cool things I come by in an average week).
Once in a while, you see something so new and cool that you don't really know how to categorize it, how to wrap your brain around the experience. That's how I felt when I first saw ThruYOU last week, the debut "album" of seven "songs" by Israel artist Kutiman (born Ophir Kutiel). The project consists of seven tracks that Kutiman assembled over the course of a few months by dissecting and combining youtube videos of various music clips, a Capella performances, random images and sound elements, with the final tracks spanning a variety of genres. The result is something so fresh and new it has to be experienced to be felt. I've posted my favorite three below, but do yourself a favor and go to the website to see the others.
Just some cool footage of a bunch of bat-shit insane dudes jumping from cliffs and darting around in flying squirrel suits to end 2008. May your 2009 be prosperous, healthy and unflappable. We will endeavor to post more often in the new year, I'm sure you are waiting with bated breath.
Brosephus and I received an email from our mother, Momma Bear/Nostra Mater, today:
"Not a single entry in October, shame on both of you!"
I bet Arianna Huffington doesn't get emails like that from her mother, but then again, Arianna Huffington posts more often than 3x a month, so Momma has a good point. So, in the spirit of keeping this blog-thing alive (really, we never left, just life gettin' in the way and all that), let's get this party started again.
I've been watching the new HBO series by Alan Ball (of American Beauty and Six Feet Under fame). It's called True Blood and it's about a world (specifically, Louisiana) where vampires are real and they're coming out of the coffin to integrate themselves with society. Six episodes in, and I'm still not sold, although, to be fair to Mr. Ball, it probably took just as many episodes for me to get into Deadwood and Six Feet Under and both turned out to be two of my favorite television series ever - Six Feet Under actually one of my favorite works of art - period. So, I'm still giving it a chance. The one thing I *do* love about this show, however, are the opening credits. Even with my TIVO in hand, I refuse to fast-foward through them. Enjoy:
Last week, an Italian architect with a decidedly un-Italian name (David Fisher) announced to the world his plans to build in Dubai (where else?) an 80-story skyscraper with the unique distinction of being the world's first "building in motion." Evidently, the floors will be built around a solid cement core, and each floor will have the ability to twist around the core using wind turbines, giving residents ever-changing views of the Persian Gulf and the ridiculously awesome (and ever changing) Dubai skyline. Oh yeah - and turning floors will constantly alter the shape of the building itself, as illustrated above. The best part is that you can get a 1,300 square foot unit for only $4,000,000. Sign me up!
No, it's not the ability to see dead people. It's a new device developed by MIT's Fluid Interfaces group, headed by associate professor of Media Technology Patty Maes. According to the group's website:
Need to know the time, but don't have a cell phone (no cell phone? who the hell are you, the Unibomber?) and are too shy to ask your fellow citizen?
There are all sorts of possible applications - and many of them are demonstrated in the interesting (albeit somewhat long - 8 minutes) lecture and presentation posted below that Maes and a student in the Fluid Interfaces group gave to the TED (Technology, Education and Design) Conference. Side note: the Fluid Interfaces group has a website that showcases a number of other "really cool things" in development, and the TED website has great library of interesting lectures on a multitude of topics. Without further ado:
