Bionic Contact Lenses and Augmented Reality

Developed by engineers at the University of Washington, these bionic contact lenses are promised to do some very extrodinary things. They are capable of increasing nightvision, zooming in and out, and most importantly Augmented Reality. Augmented reality is very important because it has such mind boggling posibilities in the realm of what you might call new media.

Augmented reality is somewhat like virtual reality except instead of completely replacing an individuals field of vision with computer or virtual space, it actually allows you to see things on top of what you see in the real world. It is said that this type of technology will pick up where the rest of the industry is stuck meaning that it can compensate for the short comings of microcomputer screens. Everyone is so obsessed with small screens and watching movies on cell phones and iTouch devices. What about creating a movie that would blend in perfectly with the reality that you see? Or think of what this could mean for the world of psychology and education. Imagine being able to go to class and instead of having to look at the over head the whole class just syncs there bionic lenses with the teachers and then you get a customized lesson plan according to data collected over the span of your educational career. Imagine the rich media applications that could be made if this was linked with the Neuro-signal Acquisition and Processing Wireless Neuroheadset that I blogged about earlier. Being able to move superimposed images and graphics to suit your media needs is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't even want to think about what the military could do with this!

Country Time Safe

Cutting Edge Products, LLC is a manufacturer that specializes in creating products that can be used as safes but they look like everyday products. The average consumer will look at this and think that this is such a great idea. But at a close glance theres one big problem. What will happen if the safe is sitting around and someone is cleaning up and decides to throw the cans away? Also if you try to but this somewhere like on a book shelf or something it will look so out of place that a robber may notice that it must be a disguise because it should not be in such an unlikely place. Also I think that a safe that is this small doesn't have much of a practical use. What can you put in it besides a couple of dollars and some small jewelry? I think the only real use would be for a small time drug peddler who needs to hid crack rock when the police come and raid his corner. Its funny how this thing was invented to prevent theft but would actually be of more use to a street corner hustler!

The 01 Phone

Companies Alloy and T3 have joined together to create a phone that supposedly is going to blow the iPhone and all other smart phones out of the water. I think the design alone is pretty cool. The feature that I think I would enjoy the most is the keypad. Although it has a full touch interface you can slide down a rubber key pad. But thats not the catch because other phones can do that. The kicker is that the keypad content actually changes depending on what you are doing with the phone! If your using the calculator app then it will change to a calculator. If you playing a game then the keypad will form a video game controller. Also it is said that there is an alternate design were the keypad can be projected onto a hard service. the companies that designed the phone are said to have relied heavily on consumer input to drive the creative direction of the phone. The 01 Phone is said to be hitting the market in 28 days. I am beginning to doubt if it is really a possibility of this phone being made because there is a petition on the website to get a manufacturer to actually make the phone. http://www.the01phone.com/

mint.com

Aron Patzer founded mint.com after noticing how hard it was to use Intuit's Quicken. I thing that it is interesting to note the reason for why he came to the point of invention. It wasn't some desire to necessarily change the way people manage their money. It was because of a simple frustration that I myself can relate to. Me and my wife decided to give up on Quicken and Quickbooks because although the software is nice it is basically designed for someone who has the time to go through weeks and weeks of online tutorials and/or has a B.A. in finance or accounting. It is not very user friendly and is defiantly not the type of software that you can just pick up and run with.. Mint.com is very easy to use and get this...it's free! I think that it is very important that us media arts people realize that its not about simply making a cool game or a catchy commercial or fictional experience. Sometimes we have to look around and just realize that the world is full of things that need fixing. I think it is easy to get caught up in the hype and not realize our responsibility to contribute more to the world than a plethora of games and fictional content. I think that this is one of the cornerstones of this course. I actually think that this is what these blogs are all about. One can't possibly call himself a professional at anything that he/she is not willing to commit a daily allotment of time to. I think we get caught up in the hype and think that inventors and startup moguls are these people that are so smart. The truth is they are not afraid to see were the process takes them. They don't lie to them selves and say, "I can't think of anything", "I don't know what I am doing," and so on. You cant use those excuses when it comes to the real world because the world can't use people who are to lazy to think. So today I will make an effort to stop relying on my wits and rely on the process working through the process that leads true problem solving.

Ridiculous Treehouse

this is crazy! A tree house the size of mansion! This thing is 11 stories high and 90 feet tall. I wonder how many rooms it has! What purpose could a tree house this big serve? I mean it wouldn't be very warm seeing as though it has so many open spaces. I wonder if you can get electricity in there! This would be ideal for some sort of children's theme park or something. I like to know if an architect had something to do with this or is this some sort of ongoing nostalgic community project. I'd like to at least tour the thing and see what its like on the inside. I think that this could also be a very good way to provide shelter to animals.

Neuro-signal Acquisition and Processing Wireless Neuroheadset

Amazing! The scientist at Emotiv (http://www.emotiv.com/), a science laboratory founded in 2003 buy four award winning scientist have come up with a device that allows you to move things with your mind is finally hear. Well at least in virtual reality. With this device you can move things in a virtual reality setting such as a computer interface. It is said that this could be the next big was in human technology interaction. Although it is mainly being proposed as a way to manipulate virtual realities one can only imagine the possibilities. It would be a fairly smooth progression to move from this to a system were this is connected to a machine that could manipulate things in real life. Talk about interactivity. Its funny how things can advanced that they actually redefine the meaning of a word! What would interactivity mean when interactivity turns into a concept that means literally moving things with your mind and not using any sort of muscular activity! I wish there was some sort of way to try one of these things out. They are actually on the market and they are not as expensive as one would think. The device and license for the accompanying software can be bought directly off of the emotive website at http://www.emotiv.com/developers.html.

Ideapaint

Talk about finding a needle in a stack full of needles! What took anybody so long to take the surface of a dry erase board and turn it to a paint that you can use on the surface of your choice?

Apparently the first to actually get it right were John Goscha, Jeff Avallon, and Morgan Newman in 2008. The actually idea was though of by John Goscha who was a freshman at Babson College. Goscha lived in a section of the campus dorms mainly occupied by students studying entreprenership. While looking around has dorm room walls(as well as the walls of most the other student in the entreprenuership wing), he noticed that him and his classmates had a tendency to cover their walls with paper in an effort to create a serface to scetch out business ideas. He thought to himself oneday," wouldnt it be cool if we could just paint the walls and write on them?" thus we have Ideapaint! It seems that the idea is taking off like wildfire and the company has developed the paint to include 10 colors. It can be used at work, home, and especially at school. I would like to think of the possibilities! I would like to see them concentrate on making some glow in the dark idea paint with some contrasting markers! Wat about formulating a type of paint surface that would even make it easy to erase any type of permanent marker or paint? That would be extremely useful in public places known for graffiti. I'm also interested in how something like idea paint can contribute to the world of new media.

The Medusa Showerhead

Introducing the Medusa shower head produced by VADO, a manufacturer of bathroom accessories. I think that this is a great Idea that has the possibility to provide a customizable shower experience for the average consumer. Of course you would have to completely redesign it so that the average consumer could actually afford it. My uncle is pursuing a patent for an idea where the shower head that is completely portable and easy to install. It is economically sound and would be able to be sold at stores like Walmart and Target. I am surprised that no one has actually massed produced anything like this that the average consumer can afford. Who wouldn't spend fifty bucks for a shower head that would allow you to customize how your shower shoots water? It seems like sometimes it a matter of beating everybody else to the punch with is probably why it is important to constantly challenge oneself to get up every day and try to design something.

this is pretty cool! Who would have thought you could create a island for you kitchen out Lego's!
Legos are extremely durable and sturdy. Ther is a real potential to revolutionize the way people design their kithens. there are a few problem with this. Lego's are made out of plastic! If you consistently put things that vary in temperature on the surface it could really damage it over the long run. Also, I remember that when I was a kid I loved Lego's as a kid but I could never have all of the ones I wanted because they are really expensive! So economically this doesn't make very much sense but then again its an artful expression that was probably not meant to be a revolutionary as far redefining the modern kitchen. I looked online and I found there are no companies providing a system that allows a consumer to build and design their own furniture or surroundings in this way.

Digital Candy/Seasonal Website

I came across a website that takes adobe photoshop users through a tutorial about how to make digital candy. I thought that this was really cool and it gave me a good idea. What if there was a social networking website that published sub sites that were seasonal? Like say for instance, you could have a site called digital candy that allows users to create mediated interactive story games for their sweethearts the week of valentines day? What about a sub website for storing family moments on the holidays and after a few years there is a time-line of different family events? You could have a Halloween sub site that was up around Halloween that allowed the users to create there own Halloween greetings. The key would be making it so that the user can create what they wanted and not just a simple greeting. The site could allow users to have the choice of creating a mini site, video, song or what have you. There is nothing on the web now like this. When you say seasonal website today a person simply thinks of a website with a seasonal theme.

It is easy to look at an object and research the history of why it is what it is and why the artist chose to diplay it in the manner that he/she used. I think the hard part is figuring what it means to you and doing something useful with it. These particular doors stand out to me more that any other feature of the Indiana War Memorial. The building its self was modeled after the Tomb of King Mausolus. The designers Frank Ray Walker (1877-1949) and Harry F. Weeks (1871-1935) of the Walker and Weeks architecture firm were commissioned by the state of indiana on behalf of the American Legion to design a war memorial plaza in order to convince the American Legion to relocate its headquarters to indanapolis, IN. I say all of that to say that in order to convince a brotherhood of soldiers to relocate their headquarters you would have to embody the principles that are close to home for in your design. The words and all of the inlay and other ornamintation most likely did not just find its way into the sketch pad of the architect just because he thought it would be cute. Spirit, Light, Life, and Truth. It's funny how principles like these are so abstract that we can seldom explain them without going into some mindless never ending rant. When I see these things words on a building I see four things that are worthy of fighting for. Four things that these soldiers may not have even contemplated as they were on the battlefield. I think that what ever race, color, or creed you belong to it is worth a moment of silence to think about what these four words mean to you. It may not even be that we have truly arrived in a society that these for things are even a reality. But at the very least someone fought and died in order to get us one step closer to these four things that every human being wants. The right to experience the desires of ones SPIRIT. The LIGHT and wisdom to go about the pursuit of grasping that witch is in your SPIRIT. The right to live a LIFE that one truly desires to live in her/his SPIRIT and the right to the acquisition of the LIGHT to guide one through that journey effectively, which includes the education and training of ones choosing. And finally the right to exercise whatever version or the TRUTH that you find in fitting for your journey, whatever spiritual tradition you may choose including the decision not to have a spiritual tradition and work off of the inquisitiveness of ones own findings.

Indiana War Memorial: Use of Lions in Architecture and Art

For thousands of years humans have been fascinated with this creature we call a lion. This beast can be seen in sculpture, on the logos of world class institutions such as schools and banks, and also in various other forms such as architecture and countless other mediums. the male lion is seen as a create that embodies strength, character, nobility, courage, justice, protection, the lest infinitely goes on. I have a big problem with this. I wonder if any of the artist who use the male lion as an embodiment of the above characteristics has ever studied lions in their natural habitat! The male lion is one of the most vicious, sexist, selfish, and diabolical animals known to man! Male lions sit around all day and sleep, wake up and intimidate the females of the pride into doing all the hunting and child rearing and have the nerve to delegate who gets what portion or the gazelle that he most likely had no part in capturing! Male lions have been known to eat and/or kill the young of other lions for reasons ranging from the conquest of another pride or simply because they are hungry! In my opinion male lions are very despicable creatures when you look at how they treat those around them! I think that the real protector and prideful one is the female lion! She gathers, she hunts, she takes care of the children, and for what? So that she can come home to some over sized jerk who has nothing else better to do with his time but intimidate the people who help him the most? The Disney channel is no help either. They paint this picture of these noble creatures that are so vested in the interest of the entire pride land and the hyenas are the bad guys. When in reality the male lion is the worst enemy of the majority of the creatures in his habitat including other lions! So I urge all designers to thoroughly research that which they wish to use as a symbol of hope and pride. We can not afford to simply deceive ourselves artistically and philosophically and just take something and give it the attributes that we want it to have just because! In my opinion art should be rooted in some sort of truth in its use of symbols seeing as the the use of symbols is usually an attempt to shed light on a truth that otherwise would go unexplored.

Indiana War Memorial: Use of the Armillary Sphere in Art

I'd like to continue my discussion of the Indiana War Memorial building located in downtown Indianapolis. Today I'd like to point out the spherical globe looking object that seems to be made out of some sort of cast iron. It resembles what is called an armillary sphere. Anyhow I am going to speculate the reason for its use. I think that it has something to do with the symbolism of the globe and the armillary sphere when used in art. Many artist have used this particular item in many different mediums. It can be seen in sculptures, paintings, and even on the flag of Portugal. It is said that it is sometimes used as a symbol for knowledge, or at least the never ending quest for it. The armillary sphere was used in ancient times as a tool of astronomy. It was also regularly used for navigational purposes. So when you see it on a flag you may be seeing the desire of a certain principality to conquer any place that his/her state is able to navigate to. I would go even further to guess that innately man is portraying a thirst to navigate the entire material plane. Why else could it be showcased in the front of a war memorial? Or maybe it could be the conquering or mastering of one's self to the point of self sacrifice! That seems to make perfect sense to me! If you notice the relief work that it stands on it seems resembles a flower blossoming. Maybe its the full blossoming of that seed of human sacrifice that can only be brought forth in times of war! Then again it could just be a good use of ornamentation. One other thing I think about in relation to this is how many humans have a need to conquer something. It seems like human nature almost. If we are not trying to conquer the world, we may be busy trying to conquer video games, a conversation, weight issues, class work, relationships, or even ourselves! No matter what we are always in some sort of struggle, even if the struggle is conquer struggling! Talk about concentric circles! Which brings us right back to the armillary globe. WOW!

Below are a few other references to the armillary sphere in art and science.

This is the Portuguese coat of arms.

Jost Bürgi and Antonius Eisenhoit: Armillary sphere

with astronomical clock, made 1585 inKassel, now at Nordiska

Museet in Stockholm

An armillary sphere in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1480.