Tuesday, February 16, 2010


g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

The New York Times' Bits Blog reports that John Underkoffler, a science consultant for Minority Report, has worked for the last decade with his company, Oblong Industries, to take the gesture-activated interface from the screen to, well, the screen. Underkoffler unveiled the interface, called the g-speak Spatial Operating Environment, at Friday's annual TED conference.

The interface has been tested for a number of applications, from virtual pottery-making at RISD, where you watch a user create a digital wire-frame pot as if using a spinning wheel, to the more intangible Tangible Media Group at MIT, where the g-stalt interface allows the user to "manipulate complex data sets with the hands".

Several computer, PC and console makers are already getting ready to release gesture-based interfaces and consumers should start seeing them sometime within the next year, according to the Times.

Source:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/minority_report_in_your_living_room_gestural_inter.php

Friday, February 5, 2010



Sikuli is a new app that makes automating as simple as taking screenshots, if you watch the video below, you’ll truly know how oldschool macros now are. Instead of programming actions, all you have to do is put screenshots of the particular UI items that you want to automate in a list and then the app will use visual cues to do whatever you want it to do. Not only does it make things much easier when actually writing scripts, but it also gives you countless options in terms of automation.

Sikuli can automate any app that has a graphical user interface, because all it has to do is recognise that GUI on your screen. That includes web apps too, Sikuli is a MIT project which means it is completely freeware and supports Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Find out more here…

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Japan-based interactive design studio Wow Inc. just released this app that generates instant graphic design layouts—not at random, but, according to the addLib app site, based on rigorous, educated calculations. The app takes your photos and incorporates them into a visually pleasing layout by combining facial recognition tech and applying traditional graphic design theories like the grid system, the golden ratio and fractal theory.



Source:
http://creativity-online.com/news/wow-addlib/141930

Zugara, the company behind AR-shopping app Fashionista, recently released its latest in Augmented Reality technology, ZugStar. Short for Zugara Streaming Augmented Reality, the technology enables video chatters to share their AR experiences in real time.

The company recently integrated the tech into Fashionista, which originally enabled shoppers to try on clothes virtually using AR and then send images of their outfitted selves to their friends. Now, with ZugStar, friends can try clothes on together, kind of like being in the same virtual dressing room.

But ZugStar doesn't stop there. As seen in this demo video, the tech can also be applied to other areas such as hospitality, medicine, gaming, education and more. "Our plan is to integrate this tech not only into the shopping application but also to look at creating other prototypes," says Zugara CEO Matthew Szymczyk.



Source:
http://creativity-online.com/news/zugara-zugstar/141929

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The World's Biggest Signpost from adghost on Vimeo.


To Promote Nokia's Maps feature and to make a presence in the already cluttered market of Navigation Guiding Products, NOKIA came up with a very simple IDEA. The World's Biggest Signpost digitally guiding you to your destination.
A 50 meter tall interactive structure that points out people’s favourite locations all around the world. You could submit your location either trough your phone or by dropping a pin on the Good Things map, and within moments the 60 ton structure turned and pointed out the direction and distance to your location. Brilliant!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010



BBH London has released a series of funny mobile apps as part of the Lynx “Get In There” Campaign. The first one, shown above is called “Say Cheese” and the mobile app lets you take a photo but automatically show an alternate pic of your choice after the photo is taken.
Below are two other app demos, “Spin The Bottle” where you can actually fix who you’d like it to land on and another mobile app called “Perfect Man Revealed” where ladies can fill out the key attributes they’d like in a man, from which the app then scans a database of relevant people only to find you!





Source:
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/lynx-effect-mobile-apps/



In support of Nike and (RED)™’s partnership they launched a new campaign called: “Lace Up Save Lives” approach to fight HIV/ AIDS in Africa. Crossing the boundary between the different sports, a more representative group of world class athletes teamed up to raise awareness on the AIDS.
Didier Drogba, Andrei Arshavin, Clint Dempsey, Denilson, Marco Materazzi, Javier Mascherano, Fabio Cannavaro, Maria Sharapova and Kobe Bryant using the laces on their feet, hands and as a ball in the movie and want to encourage fans around the globe to join the Lace Up Save Lives.



Source:
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/nike-red-lace-up-save-lives/

Monday, February 1, 2010




In DDB Stockholm's latest iteration of the Swedish Armed Forces online challenge, would-be soldiers are put to test on their teamwork. The agency worked with ACNE to create a multiplatform challenge in which you are connected to three other players. Success depends not just on your own brains and hand-eye-coordination, but how you put those skills to work as part of a team.

Saturday, January 30, 2010


With the arrival of iPad, Kindle and many such Portable tablets/Netbooks in the market, is this the future of the Newspaper. The New York Times brings to you Times Reader 2.0 recreating the newspaper experience. Which means you'll discover great articles that lead to more knowledge, insight and enlightenment.

Whether you're using Windows, a Mac or Linux, in less than a minute, you get everything you'd expect from The Times in print, delivered straight to your computer.



Once you download that day's New York Times, you're good to go. It's all in your computer. No wireless or Internet connection needed.

Is this the future of Newspaper? Check out their site here

Thursday, January 28, 2010



Pepsi launched the Refresh project, a grants scheme providing millions of dollars to fund good ideas, big and small, that make the world a better place. Pepsi has up to $1.3 million in Refresh grants to give out every month, ranging from $5000 through to $250,000. The social investment campaign, online at www.refresheverything.com, is being presented as Pepsi’s alternative to spending on television advertising at the SuperBowl this year.

Pepsi is collaborating with Hulu and Ford to tie the Refresh Project with an online reality show ‘If I Can Dream‘. The show, launched by 19 Entertainment, the owner and creator of American Idol, will follow five would be stars living in a Hollywood house as they try to make their way into the Los Angeles entertainment industry.

Source:
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/the-pepsi-refresh-project/#more-39145



Cadbury Cadbury Creme Eggs has turned a gala premiere for Vertigoo into goo mayhem to celebrate the start of Creme Egg season. Creme Eggs are the best-selling confectionery item between New Year’s Day and Easter in the UK, with annual sales in excess of 200 million items and a brand value of approximately £45 million.

View the site here

Check out all the videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/CremeEggGooTube



Chrysler’s Dodge was released on the Belgian market in 2007 as THE macho car brand. In 2008, the challenge was to sell the first Dodge family wagon while strengthening the macho image of the Dodge brand. Proximity BBDO came up with the concept of “Baby Made On Board”, a play on the “Baby on Board” stickers seen in the back of many family cars. Having a family car should be seen as a sign of virility, not the end of it. The Baby on Board campaign focused on conception, inviting prospects to test the backseat of the Dodge Journey, and make a baby during the test drive. The campaign won two Promo Lions at Cannes International Advertising Festival, a Gold and a Bronze, and a Gold at the Golden Awards of Montreux in the Web/Online/Viral/CD category.

Source:
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/dodge-baby-made-on-board/

Sunday, January 24, 2010



The brief was to reach 30 to 40-year-old men with 'a genuine blow-out moment in these serious times'. Sony Music Entertainment UK decided to offer them a moment of rock ‘n’ roll escapism at work. Most office workers are subject to a restrictive internet policy which essentially stops them from having fun. Sony Music Entertainment UK decided to raise two fingers to the IT department by including AC/DC’s music in an Excel spreadsheet, a file type allowed through every corporate firewall. Now we just had to make the spreadsheet compelling enough for people to pass it on. To achieve this Sony Music Entertainment UK created the world’s first music video in Excel with the video playing back real time, frame by frame in ASCII.



Elderly Jewish voters are a crucial voting block in Florida. In 2008, this group was beginning to lean towards John McCain. Droga5 targeted this group in a way they couldn’t refuse: by encouraging their pro-Obama grandchildren to visit and talk to them about Obama. Droga5 spread the word with a viral video featuring comedienne Sarah Silverman and a website that united, educated and inspired a younger generation to do their part. Millions viewed the video, 26,000 members united online and thousands of media outlets covered The Great Schlep. It was the first time in twelve years a democratic nominee won Florida.



GT Tokyo used a genuine long distance couple for this campaign. They ran a 1,000km marathon, and images of the two were broadcasted live on the internet for a whole month. The couple were allowed to keep in contact only through blog, TV phone and SMS messages. Thus all correspondence between the couple was displayed to the public on the internet. This also provided users with a simulation of a long distance relationship. The men's site and the women's site were created separately; on the day of completion, the two sites come together as one. And that was when the name of the client and the product was revealed.

Source:
http://awards.dandad.org/2009/categories/onln/online-advertising/25046/love-distance

Thursday, January 21, 2010



A great way to promote its Music Section, MySpace uses technology to Get you 15 mins of Fame by integrating your Profile pic in the Music Videos of 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, N-Dubz, Florence & the Machine and Pixie Lott and more. First time ever using a competitors login access, MySpace has shown its interest in using technology to promote itself. Facebook Connect implementations have been shown to dramatically increase page views on sites with potentially viral content, so MySpace's media content, including MySpace Music is a perfect candidate for this.
Check out the Fanvideo site here

Tuesday, January 5, 2010



The clever Japanese geeks (Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa and Dr. Takashi Komuro) over at Tokyo University have come up with a new interface for mobile phones. This isn’t an application which you would be able to install onto your iPhone or Android phone though. Its a completely new thing. The so far named “vision-based Input Interface” new technology enables users of the mobile phone to control the device without actually touching it, kind of like an “in air” mechanism.

This means, the device utilies the interface’s ability to recognise in 3D the motion of finger movements, thus allowing direct control of the mobile.

Sounds complicated and it probably is, but to use it looks like a piece of cake, check out the video below.

While it is very fancy and all, a major drawback is that this new interface requires your device to have a camera that video capture at 154 fps. Also it may not be very convenient and practical, afterall who would want to control your mobile in such a way when you could just touch the screen instead?

Source:
http://www.gadgetlite.com/2010/01/05/latest-technology-touchless-mobile/

Monday, January 4, 2010



It’s the iSpy Levi’s Twitter Campaign Case Study from their innovative social play earlier this year. Levi’s sent out hand selected people in their signature jeans across Australia and New Zealand while clues were released through twitter as to their whereabouts, after following clues through out the day, all you had to do was ask the person if they were wearing Levi’s… if you were right, they dropped their pants and gave you the jeans on the spot! Very cool.

Source:
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/ispy-levis-twitter-campaign-case-study/