Good article: ‘Augmented Reality’ Smart Phone Apps Revolutionize Museum Audio Tours

Media_httpgraphics8ny_tbhye

Excerpt:

"PARIS — “In the ’50s, we were the first museum in the world to have an audio tour,” Hein Wils, a project manager for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, said last month. “Today, we’re one of the first to have augmented reality.”

Mr. Wils was speaking about the museum’s project that lets people use their smartphones to enrich their museum visits. Smartphones can overlay digital content, like images or movies, across real spaces. Mr. Wils wants visitors to use their phones as lenses, allowing them to see otherwise invisible images — like sleek computer-generated sculptures or floating interviews with artists — on the screens as they walk around the Stedelijk and point their phones’ cameras at objects. This creates what developers are referring to as “augmented reality.”

The Amsterdam museum is not alone in its use of smartphones. Within the next year, many of the top museums in the world — especially contemporary ones — will introduce applications for smartphones, if they have not done so already. The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art offered smartphone applications this summer, and European museums are following suit. Think of it as a 21st-century update on the audio guide, that staple of museum education departments...."

Read the full Art News post:

http://artisticallyconnected.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/augmented-reality-smart...

Simple. Eerie. Mesmerizing: One Hundred and Eight – Interactive Installation by Nils Völker

One Hundred and Eight is an interactive wall-mounted Installation mainly made out of ordinary garbage bags. Controlled by a microcontroller each of them is selectively inflated and deflated in turn by two cooling fans.

Although each plastic bag is mounted stationary the sequences of inflation and deflation create the impression of lively and moving creatures which waft slowly around like a shoal. But as soon a viewer comes close it instantly reacts by drawing back and tentatively following the movements of the observer. As long as he remains in a certain area in front of the installation it dynamically reacts to the viewers motion. As soon it does no longer detect someone close it reorganizes itself after a while and gently restarts wobbling around.

nilsvoelker.com

2.40 x 1.80 m
fans, plastic bags, MDF, relays,
a camera, a computer, a microcontroller
and countless screws

summer/autumn 2010

Love this. Pictory: a curated collection of personal photo stories. Project by Laura Brunow Miner

Letter to My (Past/Future) Self

Perhaps you’re in a time of flux, confusion, or doubt. Or maybe you’re just anticipating the outcome of major events in your life. Compose a photo story message to your past or future self about where you are right now.

Submit now (5 days left)

Submit to the current themes:

Also:

Portrait of a Place: New Zealand

and more....

Very Cool. TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits by Scott Wilson — Kickstarter pledges @ 30 x original request!

About this project

Hi! Thanks for checking out our project. With your help we would love to make our idea a reality and get them on as many wrists as possible.

TikTok and LunaTik simply transform the iPod Nano into the world's coolest multi-touch watches. The idea to use the Nano as a watch was an obvious one ever since the product was announced. But we wanted to create a collection that was well designed, engineered and manufactured from premium materials and that complemented the impeccable quality of Apple products. Not just clipped on a cheap strap as an afterthought. We wanted to create a product that your friends and strangers would stop you and ask "WTF is that??? And where can I get one?!"

TikTok is a simple snap-in design. It allows the user to easily and securely snap the Nano into the wrist dock. It cleanly and simply integrates the Nano and transforms it into a modern multifunction timepiece.

LunaTik is designed and intended to be a premium conversion kit for someone that wants to dedicate their Nano to being a watch and the newest conversation piece with their friends. It is forged from Aerospace Grade Aluminum and then machined via CNC into its final form.

The straps are made from high grade silicone rubber and the hardware is solid stainless steel not some chrome plated brass that will wear off. The quality of these watch cases and straps will be scrutinized very carefully and produced in the same factories that produce the best watches for companies like Nixon, Diesel, Vestal, and Nike.

So many watch companies have struggled to make a multi-touch color display watch to date. It is no small task. The Nano itself is an engineering wonder. Multi-Touch, color display, long battery life, MP3, radio, photos, pedometer, Nike+ and clock all in an impossibly small package. Just like reinventing the phone it took Apple to make it possible. And in clock mode the Nano battery lasts at least a week before recharging. We are excited to help complete the effort in converting it to a watch that everyone can enjoy.

So here is where you come in. Designing products is what we, MINIMAL, do day-in and day-out for big brands. But like most designers our dream is to eventually make our own products. But funding, manufacturing and distributing a new product is a whole other story. Kickstarter is a great way for us to realize many of the ideas that we have in our small studio that we know people will love but big companies are scared to do. We love creating cool stuff without the big company politics and indecision. We believe in the emerging power of community and the individual to bring ideas to life and we hope that this is just the beginning. By pledging at least $25 you are pre-ordering TikTok or by pledging $50 you are pre-ordering the LunaTik and helping make what we believe is a very cool iPod accessory a reality.

And if you pledge at the Limited Edition levels you will get one of the red anodized Backer versions.

With your support we are targeting to have the TikTok shipping to Backers by late December and the LunaTik by mid January. We hope that you are inspired and excited by the idea and choose to support the project. Either way please spread the word and share with your friends. Everyone has at least one friend that is a watch geek.

Thank you!

Note: TikTok will retail for $34.95 and LunaTik will retail for $69.95. iPod Nano not included. iPod Nano, Apple logo and Apple are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.


Project location: Chicago, IL

This I Will Consider: Apple wins patent for glasses-free 3D display (Wired UK)

Media_httpcdniwiredco_ziimi

Excerpt:

"Named "three-dimensional display system", the patent claims to allow 3D content to be displayed without those goofy goggles, while also letting multiple people view simultaneously and keep up the 3D illusion even as they move about the room.

It's by no means a simple solution. The proposed device would keep a constant watch on the viewer's position and movement, to beam the 3D image focused at their eyes. As you move about the room, the special display would change its projection angle so your eyes are constantly receiving the correct images...."