A world without signs?

March 12, 2010 at 11:34 am
Filed under Signage, Technology, Wayfinding

(We don’t think so…) The sixth and final segment in Slate magazine’s excellent series on signage and wayfinding poses the question: Will GPS replace signs? It includes a cameo quote from SEGD’s director of education, Craig Berger. –P.M.K.

Eye Writer wins FutureEverything Award

March 12, 2010 at 9:35 am
Filed under Street Art, Technology, Uncategorized

Eye Writer, the low-cost, open-source eye-tracking apparatus that allows victims of ALS to create art using just their eye movements, has won the inaugural FutureEverything Award. UK-based FutureEverything celebrates outstanding innovations in art, society, and technology.

Eye Writer is the result of an ongoing collaboration among Free Art and Technology (FAT), Open Frameworks, the Grafitti Research Lab, and the Ebeling Group communities, teamed with legendary grafitti writer Tony Quan (aka TEMPTONE), who was diagnosed with ALS in 2003. Like many ALS sufferers, he is completely paralyzed with the exception of his eyes. The group’s long-term goal is “to create a worldwide network of software developers, hardware hackers, urban projection artists, and ALS patients who are using local materials and open-source research to creatively connect and make eye art.”  – P.M.K.

The new (augmented) reality

March 12, 2010 at 8:39 am
Filed under Architecture, Technology

Tali Krakowsky’s latest Creativity blog surveys the evolution of augmented reality and how it’s increasingly showing up in our world, in applications ranging from astronaut training to museums and from movies to helping you find your car in the parking lot. Tali is founder of immersive storytelling firm Apologue and a member of the SEGD board of directors. –P.M.K.

Skinput

March 3, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Filed under Technology

“Researchers have developed a way for people to use their own skin as a keypad or pull down menu to control MP3 devices, make phone calls or play games.

It’s called Skinput, and here’s how it works: The use wears an armband, which contains a very small projector that projects a menu or keypad onto a person’s hand or forearm. The armband also contains an acoustic sensor. Why? Because when you tap different parts of your body, it makes unique sounds based on the area’s bone density, soft tissue, joints and other factors.” — A.M.

Television on a stick?

March 2, 2010 at 11:50 am
Filed under Digital design, Signage, Technology

Photo: Fabrizio Constantini, The New York Times

They’ve also been called “weapons of mass distraction,” and many states are beginning to consider restrictions against digital billboards. In Michigan last week, the state legislature held hearings on a two-year moratorium on construction of digital billboards, and Minnesota will soon examine similar legislation. Private groups contend the billboards are major safety hazards, distracting drivers’ attention with their bright lights and moving images.

Interested parties are anxiously awaiting the results of an ongoing Federal Highway Administration study that will be complete this summer. A 2007 study by Virginia Tech concluded the billboards don’t change drivers’ behavior, but many consider its results suspect because the study was funded by the billboard industry.

While only 2,000 of 45,000 billboards in the U.S. are currently digital, the billboard industry sees it as a major growth sector. In years to come, they project digital signs will make up as high as 15% or their total inventory.  –P.M.K.

Find your way in a flash

February 25, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Filed under Maps, Technology, Wayfinding

“The TamTam Flash concept GPS torch is both a familiar looking and new technology in a number of ways. It resembles an ordinary flashlight and its name sounds an awful lot like TomTom, which neatly links to the fact that the concept torch is actually a GPS mapping device that gives its user the option of either a street map view or a turn by turn guided navigation projected onto a surface.” — A.M.

Paging Dr. Brendan. Dr. Brendan to the coffee shop.

February 10, 2010 at 10:12 am
Filed under City Happenings, Technology

Your devoted blogger would not even own a cellphone if she didn’t have to, but most SEGDsters are surgically connected to their iPhones.  If you live in Manhattan (or Houston), now you have another option when your baby goes down with a cracked screen or worse.  Dr. Brendan makes free house, office, and coffee shop calls. He says his prices are the best around, and you know you can trust a doctor. — A.M.

Kinetica with Jason Bruges

February 5, 2010 at 10:33 am
Filed under Interactive, Kinetic, Lighting, Media, Technology, Uncategorized

Jason Bruges’ light installations, interactive interventions, and placemaking projects sit somewhere between the worlds of architecture, art, and interaction design. One of Wallpaper magazine’s 10 “world-changing designers,” Bruges will be a keynote speaker at the 2010 SEGD Conference + Expo June 2-5 in Washington D.C. (Stay tuned for more details…)

In the meantime, Bruges is keeping himself busy with new projects including an Alexander Calder-inspired interactive light piece at Kinetica Art Fair in London. Kinetica is an exhibition of  electronic, robotic, sound, light, time-based, and interdisciplinary new media art. Bruges’ “Screen Cloud” recalls a Calder mobile, with 30 hanging screens that display changing content as they move. Each of the screens “understands” its orientation in relation to the other screens, demonstrating a concept called proprioception. — P.M.K.

(Design) help for Haiti

February 3, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Filed under Communication, Social Issues, Technology

“As much as I love design and interactive media, reading the newspaper every day is a sobering reminder of the fact that this is generally not a life-saving profession. It is greatly inspiring, then, to see how new media has been put to incredible use in helping the ailing Haiti. Here are some fascinating examples,” shares SEGDster Tali Krakowsky. — A.M.

Augment this

February 3, 2010 at 10:13 am
Filed under Technology

We’re all hearing a lot about augmented reality these days, so when I came across this video recently, I was curious enough to invest two minutes in watching it.

It’s architecture student Keiichi Matsuda’s take on the ultimate mediated environment, with the help of augmented reality. Seems eerily prescient to me, and a lot like what’s going on inside my brain these days. And once again, it seems like a situation that designers can make better. — P.M.K.

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.