de·sign of eve·ry·day things

I Speak At Nordic Mobile Developer Summit 2011, Nalen 9th December Stockholm. nmds.se #NMDS11

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 04:53:00 -0800

These Sticker Sensors Can Help Automate Your Life (via @mrtall)

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:22:00 -0800

Last week, we got overly excited about Twine, a 2.5” sensor that you can put anywhere in your home and that wirelessly sends you alerts when different things happen (ex: basement flooding, dog wants to go outside, etc). Twine is fully programmable on the web, so that you can customize the type of alerts you get.

This week, we may have actually found something even cooler. The company is called GreenGoose, and they are making sticker sensors that can be attached to objects around your house (or really, anywhere within 250 feet of the provided base station, so long as there is wifi) that have embedded accelerometers that can detect motion and track movement. For example, you could put a sticker on your bottle of multi-vitamins to automatically keep a log of which days you’re remembering to take your vitamins. Or, you could put one on your dog’s collar to see how frequently he’s moving, playing and sleeping. You could even put one on the door to see when the kids get home, if anyone is entering while you’re away on vacation, etc. With an embedded accelerometer, these stickers can essentially do everything that the FitBit or Jawbone UP can do, as far as tracking movement goes. The company's website uses phrases like "play games" which makes me think that the web app being built to correspond to these sensors will enable you to track points and share with friends. That could be a really neat differentiator (as well as a great user engagement tactic).

Unfortunately, there’s no word on whether these sensors will ever detect anything apart from movement (like track GPS data, thermal changes, etc). In that regard, the Twine might still be your better bet. But with technology moving as fast as it is lately, there’s no telling what cool things GreenGoose might do next.
The sticker kits should be available for purchase as soon as next week (Dec 15th) and though no price is announced, will likely be fairly inexpensive. You can sign up to be notified when they launch here.

via hellobrit.com

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Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:16:00 -0800

via ted.com

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Canon EOS C300 = Awesome

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:14:00 -0800

via vimeo.com

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Microjs: Fantastic Micro-Frameworks and Micro-Libraries for Fun and Profit!

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:13:00 -0800

Fantastic Micro-Frameworks and
Micro-Libraries for Fun and Profit!

How much library code do you really need — 50K? 100K? 150K? More? How much of that do you really use?

Sure, we all love our favorite monolithic frameworks, and sometimes we even use them fully. But how often do we reach for the ride-on John Deere tractor with air conditioning and six-speaker sound system, when a judiciously applied pocketknife would do the trick better, faster, slicker?

Micro-frameworks are definitely the pocketknives of the JavaScript library world: short, sweet, to the point. And at 5k and under, micro-frameworks are very very portable. A micro-framework does one thing and one thing only — and does it well. No cruft, no featuritis, no feature creep, no excess anywhere.

Microjs.com helps you discover the most compact-but-powerful microframeworks, and makes it easy for you to pick one that’ll work for you.

Want to add your own? Fork this site on GitHub, add your framework to data.js and submit a pull request.

Can't get enough?

140byt.es provides tweet-sized JavaScript goodness!

via microjs.com

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Scoreoid - is a free service that provides basic game stat management; it allows you to offload the chore of tracking scores, players, achievements..

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:48:00 -0800

Scoreoid the ultimate game platform for developers!

Scoreoid is a non-restrictive, reliable and easy to use gaming platform designed to handle scoring, leaderboards and game management, including advanced functions for multi-platform games such as platform content awareness to advanced player management. Developed by game developers for game developers.

Scoroid’s goal is to handle scoring, leaderboard functionality and advanced features offering plenty of options to make games better; shortening game development time and costs, and giving developers time to work on their games. Scoreoid is a free hosted solution, sign-up now!

via scoreoid.net

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Face Recognition Moves From Sci-Fi to Social Media

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:05:00 -0800

Jen Myronuk

Immersive Labs in Manhattan has developed software for digital billboards that gauges the characteristics of passers-by in order to display ads likely to attract them.

via nytimes.com

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Facebook Timeline: Visual Check-In Logos

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:08:00 -0800

via digitalbuzzblog.com

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Introducing Adobe AIR Launchpad | Adobe TV

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:06:00 -0700

via tv.adobe.com

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Flash based apps: 3D comes to TV and top iOS apps | Adobe TV

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:59:00 -0700

via tv.adobe.com

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A Brief History Of Web Standards according to AEA/Vitamin Talent

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:38:00 -0700

via vitamintalent.com

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Typographic Design in the Digital Domain with Erik Spiekermann & Elliot Jay Stocks

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:15:00 -0700

via youtube.com

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Disruption [INFOGRAPHIC] - e-Strategy After Hours

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:11:00 -0700

via afterhours.e-strategy.com

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Evolution of a Logo Animation - (37signals)

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:49:00 -0700

I suppose this is my first SvN post, so by way of an introduction I thought I’d share a bit about creating the animated 37signals logo.

When I first came on as “the video guy,” I wanted to think about how to brand 37signals’ wide variety of content with an interesting and unifying bumper. We hadn’t had to deal much with incorporating our logo into video, so it was time we gave it a bit of motion.

37signals is all about building things—from building a business to building software. I wanted the logo to “build” itself to reveal the design.

I actually landed on the basic animation that would become the final product early on, but kept trying more and more complicated versions. I spent a week teaching myself new 3D software and countless hours tweaking every frame to get it just right, but as these things often go, we ended up back with a simple, clean design. The way the logo “builds” itself feels natural; it’s hard to imagine it moving any other way.

Not that it wasn’t worth it to challenge myself—I certainly enjoy learning new software and techniques, but it’s a good lesson to learn. More often than not, the simplest solution is often the best.

The chimes were a lucky coincidence. I needed some audio to give the animation a little more life. Using GarageBand and hitting four random keys on my keyboard, I came up with the chimes as a placeholder until someone with musical talent could get their ears on it. Like many things around here, it just worked—so we left it in the final version.

Here are a few of the different iterations we tossed around.

via 37signals.com

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MirrorCube - A room of glass, invisible to the human eye

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:14:00 -0700

via mirrorcube.se

Very spartan, simple and minimalist - just my cup of tea. If I had the money, I would definitely buy one of these as a summer cottage.

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Virtual dressing room uses Kinect and augmented reality

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:55:00 -0700

If you’ve seen the movie Clueless that came out back in 1995, you might remember the main character’s computer-programmed closet that showed the character in different outfits on a touch-activated screen. She’d scroll through articles of clothing until she found exactly the right outfit without ever having to try it on first. Fast forward 16 years and it looks like that technology, which was every teenage girl’s dream, has become a reality thanks to Microsoft’s Kinect controller.

The Kinect was originally intended for use with the Xbox 360, but thanks to its open-source capabilities, people have been hacking it to make a variety of inventions, from Kinect-driven recliners to Kinect-controlled UAV quadrocopters. One of these hacks turns the Kinect into a virtual dressing room.

Russian company AR Door paired up with Topshop, a British clothes retailer with stores in 20 countries around the world, to build a virtual fitting room for a new collection of dresses. Instead of entering a dressing room and having to squeeze into clothing, the virtual fitting room tries the clothes on for you. It’s simply a kiosk that sits in the middle of the store – and no, getting down to your skivvies is not required.

The first kiosk was tested in Moscow. Besides using the Microsoft Kinect, it also uses augmented reality, which allows the customers to choose a dress off the rack and try it on without actually having to put it on. The customer sees his or herself onscreen with a 3D replica of the dress. The customer can spin around to see all angles of the dress, and can control the program with gestures. Moving your hand to a virtual button will change the dress selection. The nice thing about the Kinect is it’s so easy to use. The built-in camera tracks the user’s body and superimposes it to the 3D model of the dress.

This isn’t the first case of a virtual dressing room we’ve seen. There was one popular model at this year’s DEMO conference called Swivel, and we’ve heard of another called TryOnBathingSuit. Both work in the same way as AR Door’s does using the Kinect sensor and augmented reality. The technology isn’t perfect just yet. The clothes still seem to hover on top of the body, instead of looking like they’re actually draped on the customer. Still, the technology is new, and these companies will hopefully refine their products more in the near future so the pain of going jean and swimsuit shopping can take a little less time out of our lives.

With that said, this is still not a replacement for trying on the actual garment. You really never know how well something is going to fit until you put it on, and although it may look good on 3D-you, it might look awful on the real you. The virtual dressing room seems like a good idea as an initial try-on and to see if the style is flattering, but to know if it’s actually going to be worth your money when you walk out of the store, you’re still going to have to try it on in a real dressing room.

Read more at AR Door, via TechTree

via geek.com

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Free Your Mouse - Coming soon to the Flash Player

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:34:00 -0700

via vimeo.com

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A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:23:00 -0700

via youtube.com

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Flash Professional Sneak Peek: A Glimpse at the Future

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:11:00 -0700

via tv.adobe.com

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Adobe Max 2011 Keynote Opener on Vimeo

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 06:25:00 -0700

At Elastic Creative we recently finished all the video material for Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch's yearly Adobe MAX keynote presentation.
The Opener was rendered at 9268x1356 and was 3d projection mapped on 5 300 feet tall screens at the Nokia Theater in LA.
Please watch in full screen mode.
Credits:
David Mackie: Concept
Brandon Blizzard: 3d moddeling
Hernan Santander: 3d modelling/animation
Ryota Saito: Matte Painting, Keying and Compositing
Ratha Nou: Design
Christoffer Bjerre: Concept, Design, Compositing, modelling, 2d and 3d animation

via vimeo.com

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