Digital? Marketing? Blog!

The Wired tablet app

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:35:00 +0000

Wired have released a video demostrating the transformation that their publication is undergoing, metamorphosing into an interactive, digital format for upcoming tablets.

Indian Premier League (cricket) to be broadcast LIVE on youtube

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:31:00 +0000

This might be the answer to youtube's biggest way to make money. The IPL has announced that it is to show the 2010 season live on youtube across the world (except USA). The question will be if it will be subscription-based or if the share that Google will take from the sponsorship and advertising is all they need.

It brings with it new options for the user: from the announcment:

The most significant aspect of the deal is the amount of control it gives the viewers, who will be able to customise their viewing experience by choosing between different camera angles. Additionally they will be able to freeze, fast-forward and rewind the feed, as well as watch replays at any time during the day, a choice that is unavailable to television viewers who are bound by broadcast schedules.

It's allowed the IPL to totally side-step resrtictive individual market tv broadcast deals in one fell swoop, and may well lead to other sports following suit.

Read the full story.

Samsung's transparent, folding screens

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:23:00 +0000

Roll-up OLED 'newspapers' are something I've waited for a long time. Leave the house with your rolled (or folded) OLED 'paper', pass by a newsagents which transmits today's paper straight to you, and debits your account accordingly.

We're not at this stage yet (I actually think it's the infrastructure needs of that idea that would take longest to execute). But progress is being made on digital ink and displays:

Originally seen on Singularity Hub.

QR matrix projected onto a Tokyo building

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:16:00 +0000

This QR code can be captured using a mobile phone from the street, which allows the viewer to track real-time data and Twitter conversations from within the building.

Video below:

N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.

Ray Kurzweil's Blio at CES

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:12:00 +0000

I've been reading Kurzeil's books for a few years now. As a futurologist, his views fascinate me and he's often decades ahead of his time; something like a modern-day Nostrodamus.

The announcement that he's created Blio, a new eBook ready that maintains the format of the original, baffled me at first. What is a man so renowned for his views on technology (and even spirituality) doing dipping his toes in the muddy waters of paperback replacement? Well, it turns out that Ray has a lot of business dealings, such as FatKat investment software and Kurzweil Music Systems.

With the understanding that he's been something of an entrepeneur for a while now, I looked into Blio and what the intentions are. Check out the video below to hear from the man himself (skip to 2:50 for the interesting stuff):

So, what's the Blio system offering?

Preserved book formatting

Incorporated animation

High quality text-to-speech

Synchronized audio with the printed pages

Interactivity with the reader (see 4:15)

eBook readers are nothing new - so why is this special. Well, as Aaron Saenz in his Singularity Hub article puts it: "Integrating the ancillary media into the book itself is an amazing and necessary step". This really is the key. Imagine if the books you used at school had in-build video files, interactive quizzes to test and help you learn, and in-built audio. This could radically change the way books are used to learn. I've tried a number of digital book readers, and none has lasted with me for any length of time. There's something cold, and formulaic about it. It may be because I'm the last generation to grow up without eBooks being there when I was born, and thus I'm used to books as we know them. But I do think the Blio has the chance to be something unique and thus it may well succeed.

Parrot AR.drone - helicopter controlled by iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:54:00 +0000

Quadricopter? Check. Controlled by iPhone over WiFi? Check. Wet dream? Check. Oh my, now THIS is fun. This quadricopter has inbuilt cameras, gyroscopes and more goodness. Commands are streamed to the Parrot over WiFi via an iPhone app and pictures from the camera beamed back to the device.

There's also an AR version floating around that seems to allow basic in-flight realtime battles:

TV on the back of trucks

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:43:00 +0000

This seems like a really dangerous idea to me! By using the back of a large truck to show you what's in front of the truck, it (sort of) makes it invisible and allows you to see what's coming. To my mind, this would actually me massively distracting and you'd be more distracted by this, meaning you may have a different sort of accident.

Anyhoo, there's more at Engadget.

BrandFlakesForBreakfast also notes that advertising and marketing will likely snap this up, making it even more distracting :)

#uksnow map by Ben Marsh

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:34:00 +0000

Lovely idea this. Ben has mashed up Google Maps, with Twitter to allow the masses to track the mental weather we've been having of late.

To use it, you simply send a Tweet to #uksnow with your postcode and level of snowfall (1-10), e.g. #uksnow SE1 6/10

Simple, and nicely done. Check it out.

Adidas TeamGeist - A Graphic Novel Game

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:23:00 +0000

Saw this a long time ago, only just blogging it now.

It's a really, really beautifully executed piece of work. An astonishing amount of work has gone into this: design, copy, tech, everything. Stylistically, it's beautiful, and the game itself is genuinely enjoyable and challenging.

There's so much to this application that I'd need more time than I (sadly) have to do a proper write up of it.

Coming to us like a graphic novel story which leads to interactive Subbuteo games of football, it all flows very nicely. As you play the interactive elements, you have a set amount of time to click-select a player, and move him forward, pass to another, or take a shot at goal. When defending, you move or intercept. Tackles you make, are made on you, or shots you make, are governed in terms of success by your ability to click within a circle in a given time, with a 'wobbly' mouse pointer. It sounds a bit crappy, but actually works pretty well and means everything moves at a super-speedy pace.

Play the game at Adidas TeamGeist

Really nice print ad

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Nice work on this subway ad for the movie 2012

Via AdsOfTheWorld

LEGO's smart use of Augmented Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:02:00 +0000

There's a lot of hoo-haa about Augmented Reality (AR) at the moment. My concern has been that it runs the risk of being a cool gimmick, and will only survive if useful applications of the technology are found. After all, it's easier for me to go to a website and rotate a 3D model than it is to gather a printed marker, web cam, open up an application etc.

LEGO is using AR codes on their product boxes with a kiosk in Illinois, to allow little nippers to preview the model they can build when they shell out daddy's bucks. All told, it's a pretty slick idea and nicely implemented. Vid below:

Microsoft Bing! Maps goes indoors, overlays live video

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Complex to explain. So I'll just say, watch the video below. Skip to 4:15 for the really good (and scary) stuff. Before that, it's showing off MS's use of Photosynth & Seadragon in Bing! Maps.

After 4:15, you'll see MS overlaying live video on a map view, indoors. Which opens up so many new possibilities that I actually don't know where to start.

G-Speak: Spatial Operating Environment (think Minority Report)

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:30:00 +0000

Wow. I've seen a few gesture systems implemented and demonstrated, but this one looks the most intuitive to me.

You may watch the video below and think, "Hey! That looks like the interface shown in Minority Report" (which I've also posted below). Well, there's a good reason for this. John Underkoffler led the team that created the interface for the movie, and has since spun off his own company, Oblong Industries, to bring the system to reality.

I've often voiced my dislike of current interface methods with friends (ooo, lucky them. Yes, I'm a ThunderDork). I don't think 1 letter at a time, so why must I be slowed down massively by having to use a keyboard? Equally, using a device on a horizontal 2D plane (a mouse on a desk) to control content on a vertical 2D plane (a screen), which can often itself be in 3D (at least graphically) is just as bizarre to me. The quicker we move to more instinctive interfaces, the better. Look at the incredible rise of the Nintendo Wii - especially with audiences that hitherto struggled with 'using computers' (as an example, my 65 year old mother has a Wii and never read the instructions, just picked up and played. Using her email, however, still remains a baffling mystery :)).

Microsoft are on the verge of releasing Project Natal, and Playstation are bringing out Playstaton Motion - both planned for this year. I think it's fair to say that gestural systems are very much on the way - exciting times!

G-Speak Spatial Operating Environment demo video

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Interface clip from the film Minority Report

Microsoft Project Natal

Playstation's Motion project

Blog Lag

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:02:00 +0000

I know, I know - it's been somewhat... stagnant on here for a while.

I need to streamline my workflow - i have about a dozen or so subjects stored for which I need to write an article and post. I'm just struggling to find the time. I shall think on it some more.

For now, expect some new posts today (hopefully. Gah. Damn my lack of commitment).

UK grocery retailer Ocado releases user rate and review functionality

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:30:00 +0000

(Sorry for the hiatus - Christmas and all that means a time of rest for me, and it's taken a while to get back into the swing of things. But, here we go... :) )

Back in July 2009, I wrote a blog post about UK grocery retailer Ocado, and their release of a really rather impressive iPhone grocery shopping application. I held it up as an excellent implementation of an already-impressive web-based application on the smaller, touch-screen device; an opinion I still maintain now. Indeed, information I have direct from Ocado, is that the iPhone application now accounts for "3% of company sales" - an impressive feat to achieve in just 8 months - which would seem to indicate that others are finding the application familiar enough that they are changing shopping habits of a lifetime.

One of the other things I noted about this move by Ocado, was my surprise at a supermarket brand leaping into the application world with such commitment. We'd seen a number of brands 'give it a go', such as Barclaycard and their waterslide game app, but these were really rather throwaway 'toe-in-water' attempts. They've had huge success with it, but it was little more than brand campaign awareness.

Far from taking their foot off the pedal, I've now been priveleged enough to receive advance notice that Ocado are about to release 'Ratings & Reviews' on their grocery website, "allowing customers to score and evaluate all 21,000 products". Intially available to Ocado Demand and Ocado Reserve customers as of this week - with a full rollout to consumers in February - Ratings & Reviews will implement the familiar 5-star rating system (as seen on the likes of Amazon and TripAdvisor), allowing their consumers to leave their rating for any product they choose. Additionally, consumers will be able to leave a review of the product, under an online 'alias'. It's unclear as to whether this alias is linked to the user's account or created at review-time, but I'd expect it to be linked to their account to maintain the loop of sign-up provide a means of tracking offensive or problem reviews. Indeed, moderation of all this new, freely entered information on the website will be one of the challenges facing Ocado in this new venture, as each review will require vetting to ensure there is nothing offensive in them. Or perhaps they will implement 'Mob Moderation', which is (seemingly) the method of the likes of Amazon and Google. This assumes that people are largely good, and lets the users of the site moderate posts and flag offensive content to the site owner. A quick look at the screenshots I was sent below shows "Flag as inappropriate" functionality so this would indeed seem to be their way forward.

So, let's take a look at what's coming up for the site. Click each image to open a full-screen view...

Whilst browsing for products, it would appear that consumers will be able to see the current overall rating for each, allowing them to make informed decisions when deciding between similar products. I'm a fan of this system - it informs many of my decisions when shopping from the likes of Amazon, primarily because I'm more inclined to believe 100 consumers who've shelled out and tried a product, than the opinion of the company who has something to gain from selling it to me in any case. The use of the star rating system will be familiar to millions of web users so Ocado's consumers should be able to hit the ground running with this. I'm pretty sure my missus will give a 5-star rating to their jars of Silverskin Onions and Cornichons, given that we get through about a jar of each a week ;)

I'd hazard a guess that the button beneath the stars (that looks like a 'plus' symbol and 4 horizontal lines) opens a text area and associated buttons to allow the consumer to post a review right from here, but I can't be sure until I see it in action.

The updated product view also shows the overall 5-star rating, but also details how many customers have recommended this product to others for purchase, which is also a fairly standard feature. We can see the share functionality here too, allowing users to share a link to the product with other on social sites such as Facebook, Digg, Delicious, MySpace and Twitter. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out - how useful people will find this. I'm not sure that I would want to Tweet about a can of Lyle's Golden Syrup, but then I've been wrong about the social media before, complex beast that it is. It might be that it's used between people discussing recipe ingredients, but either way it'll be good to see how this is used.

We can also see the usual "was this review helpful to you?" functionality, again a familiar device to many web users. Interesting to see that you can read all reviews by a user here too, which seems to both confirm that a user will need an account to be able to post, and also suggest that there may be a reward scheme in planning for users, to encourage people to write reviews and rate products.

All-in-all, it's good to see a major high-street brand taking this approach to user interaction. It provides Ocado with a closer link to their consumers, which should have a positive impact on how their consumers view the brand. At the same time, it provides a useful and broad feedback loop in one fell swoop - helping Ocado to weed out the products that are less valuable to their range and tailor their stock to consumers' needs. The introduction of the social sharing functionality is a little unclear to me at this stage, but giving users the tools to seed your 'wares' will at least potentially broaden Ocado's reach and hopefully reign in some new customers. At the same time, it may help to break down the perceptions that Ocado are expensive. If users inadvertently see a product they are familiar with in their social stream, being sold by Ocado at a reasonable price, it may lead them to look into shopping with them directly.

Of course, there is some risk associated with this sort of mechanism: primarily, that of transparency. One of the fundamentals of Amazon's sales model that I reference is that they don't sell their own goods. Therefore, if Item X is a piece of cr*p, ultimately, consumers blame the originating brand, and don't see this as a fault of Amazon per se. However, Ocado will be selling third-party and own-brand goods. So, it's entirely possible that their own products will receive bad ratings and negative reviews. This is one of the fundamentals of transparent interaction with your customers and user-generated content - there is inherent risk, so be prepared to take the rough with the smooth. As long as Ocado are true to this and don't delete/moderate negative comments of their produce (an even worse tactic as you always get found out and the web community start referencing 'Big Brother' and all manner of chaos ensues), then they should be fine.

Overall, I'm really pleased to see Ocado pushing proven functionality into everyday life, and it will be interesting to see how they fare. It'll also be interesting to see what comes next. I'd be keen to see some easy method for users to recommend alternatives (sold by Ocado) to others on the site. So, for example, someone may offer an alternative to the golden syrup I'm considering buying, because they've found that it stays more liquid even when cold, and is therefore easier to cook with. And yep, that was an issue I had with syrup while cooking at the weekend, so - Ocado - if you want a case study for future functionality, drop me a line... :)

Molson Dry's innovative augmented reality bottle campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:21:00 +0000

This one totally passed me by, dagnammit.

Molson used the physical object of the Molson bottle (as opposed to a printed AR marker) as the marker for their AR campaign. What's really nice about the work is that they thought through the campaign end-to-end. Purchase of the bottle opened up the touch-point for the AR. Users could then record themselves dancing/whatever with the bottle as a captured video using the downloaded application. This video could then be uploaded to a site where other users had done so and the most creative ones were used in MPU banners that spread the word further.

Nice work.

AR advertising arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Well. Only a matter of time really. Mashable reports that Brightkite has added Best Buy (for now) ads into its AR application for iPhone and Android. As a result, using the Layar-style interface will also show you Best Buy ads and locations (as Powered by Google).

The end of AR is nigh... :)

The Whisper Deck: AR + voice commands

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:51:00 +0000

Neat. Take augmented reality, viewed through a headset (first time I've seen this), and mash it up with voice commands, that change the 3D model data. In the example below, the user views an AR marker which is showing an animated rotation of images from Flickr for a given term. By speaking the command, "Search Boston Terriers", the search term is changed to "Boston Terriers" and the images returned are for this search (along with a Wikipedia definition read aloud).

Its the 1st time I've seen AR mashed up with voice, which is great.

How AR may change how we decorate our homes

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:39:00 +0000

The video below shows the use of large AR markers, with a hand-held tablet PC to simulate how objects may look in various positions, sizes and colours in a room. This is an interesting application, as AR projects often focus on the use of AR outdoors, to apply information layers to real world views.

Check out the video below to see 4th Wall Technologies' vision of this:

As the article at ARTimes points out, this could be a very useful step forward for the likes of IKEA, who've so far only done a basic iPhone catalogue application.

30 clever and creative package designs

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:26:00 +0000

Straight from creativenerds.co.uk, comes this collection of really, really impressive examples of creative packaging.

Some stand-out ones for me...

Weird packaging for weird clothing

Frusion

Mr Clean dumbbells

Check them all out at creativenerds.co.uk

iPhone home automation app from Crestron

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:59:00 +0000

Engadget (again - dang these boys have a far reach) has a September report about an app that allows the iPhone to control Crestron automated home devices. From the looks of it, temperature control, lighting etc can be controlled at the touch of a finger :) Should be noted that a recent iPhone ad showed a similar setup using the Schlage LiNK system.

(Image credit: www.engadget.com)

This is really exciting - the iPhone really is a mobile, WiFi-enabled platform; that's it's greatest strength. Seeing these integrated apps appear is really exciting stuff.

RedEye's IR adapter for iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:41:00 +0000

Hot on the heels of the blog post I wrote about UiRemote a few days ago, Engadget brings us a report about RedEye, a WiFi-enabled IR docking station that also turns the iPhone into a universal remote. This looks like UiRemote in 12 months time, and comes with device management, multiple room support, multitouch and accelerometer support. The app is free, but the base station is a fairly hefty $188. Check the vids below for full demos...

iPhone in iPhone AR app from Orange

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:16:00 +0000

This looked kind of pointless when I first read about it: point your iphone (running an AR recognition app) at an AR code to render a 3D model of an... iPhone. Kinda like looking at a mirror of a mirror (except this only has 1 depth, unless the AR-recognition app can be run on the rendered iPhone too /Has brain melt-down/).

Anyhoo, when watching the video below, 2 things struck me. 1: that the app buttons on the rendered iPhone are clicking from the hand-held iPhone (still with me?), and 2: that the 3D model can be rotated by swiping a finger over the hand-held iPhone. Nice.

Right, so, now that I've explained it in the most confusing way possible, watch the video. It's much easier :)

Seen on Engadget

Wallpaper* magazine joins Esquire in AR January edition

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:44:00 +0000

Wallpaper* magazine has joined Esquire magazine (I wrote about this in November) and is releasing an AR-enabled magazine in January.

Read about the Wallpaper* January AR magazine cover on dexigner.com

Nvidia, Ferrari and AR that recognises light sources

noreply@blogger.com (Leon McComish) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:39:00 +0000

Wow. OK, not seen this before. Apart from the pretty cool usage here, that means you could tailor your car parts in the shop before you buy them, this use of AR codes is reacting to the lighting source being used, reflecting light on the 3D model itself. Niceness...