| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
« April 2007 | Main | June 2007 »
In traditional Ga culture you are buried in a coffin that reflects how you earned your living and lived your life. Samuel, the creator of these clever and witty pieces first worked as an apprentice coffin maker and then, in order to pay off his tuition fees, worked many years on a low salary. eShopAfrica gave him some sample orders which he made in his spare time. He consistently delivered high quality work and now has his own business based on orders from eShopAfrica.
An Israeli optics company has developed a miniature video projector that turns regular eyeglasses into a personal video screen. Apparently, these are the same glasses worn by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. The glasses project a wide-screen video image unnoticeable to anyone 
but the bespectacled individual.
In this illustration, the camera on the side of the glasses [picture left] projects an image through what seems to be an otherwise clear lens. Within the lens, however, there are a series of embedded, partially reflecting facets. With a projector on each side of the glasses, you get the viewing experience of a distant screen: an enlarged, distant image, with a large field-of-view. It's apparently free of chromatic aberrations and optical distortions. The Lumasvision site has a short video report from Reuters on its front page.
I suspect that the real power of heads-up displays will come from the ability to layer information over the real world, in effect fusing the two. But the Reuters video is stuck on two different appeals. The first imagines a woman sitting at a cafe table with a friend, but secretly watching a movie in her glasses—a real friendship killer. The second starts with that hallowed phrase of corporate appeal—“Imagine being in a business meeting and being able...”—then tempts us with the prospect of being able to read an email that gives one that all-important leg up with the boss. How drab. If it comes to that, I'd suggest reading email off your cuff link or the little logo-button on your Kate Spade purse.
Up to the 70's the area known as Les Halles was the major outdoor market in Paris, a mecca for any visitor to the city. But it was “urban renewed” out of existence by commercial interests who turned the are into a contemporary Euro shopping center.
Today the local area government is planning to revitalize the gardens in Les Halles, and they seem to be soliciting plans from everyone but the local residents. So the locas are fighting back by inviting people to develop their own design ideas and install them in the online world Second Life. If the idea succeeds, they'll install them all on an island where they can be viewed, compared and discussed.
It's another example of ways in which people are accomplishing real-world tasks in virtual social spaces. I'll try to revist this in a year or so to see how this came out. There is a steep learning curve to learning Second Life, and although I have had several demo tours of the joint, I've never invested the considerable time required to become a skilled practitioner. Perhaps the notoriously short French work-week will give them the necessary advantage. [BBC and City Mayors]
Here's an example of large-scale mobile x-ray surveillance, AS&E's Z Backscatter Van. It can tool around the city peering into objects the scale of a car and larger. Similar technology is being used in some cases at our borders; some at the entrance to military bases. This is the first I've seen on wheels for cruising the post-9/11 metropolis.
“A
breakthrough in X-ray detection technology, AS&E's Z Backscatter Van (ZBV) is a low-cost, extremely maneuverable screening system built into a commercially available delivery van. The ZBV allows for immediate deployment in response to security threats, and its high throughput capability facilitates rapid inspections. The system's unique ”drive-by“ capability allows one or two operators to conduct X-ray imaging of suspect vehicles and objects while the ZBV drives past.
The ZBV can also be operated in stationary mode* by parking the system and producing X-ray images of vehicles as they pass by. Screening can also be accomplished remotely while the system is parked. Remote operation allows scanning to be done safely, even in dangerous environments, while maintaining low-profile operation. The system is unobtrusive, as it maintains the outward appearance of an ordinary van.
The ZBV employs AS&E's patented Z Backscatter technology, which reveals contraband that transmission X-rays miss - such as explosives and plastic weapons - and provides photo-like imaging for rapid analysis. The ZBV is also capable of identifying low levels of radioactivity from both gamma rays and neutrons with optional Radioactive Threat Detection (RTD) technology. The ZBV is ideal for counterterrorism applications, as it can detect dirty bombs and nuclear WMD, in addition to conventional explosives.”
[More] [Via Boing Boing]
Lifecaching is a buzzword reflecting the fact that increasingly we are turning our lives into digital databases. We blog ourselves. MySpace ourselves. Shoot thousands of images of our kids with digital cameras. With all of the tools of media production at hand, we turn to our favored subjects, ourselves, and fire away. Or as Justin himself says: “I started Justin.tv becuase I thought it would awesome [sic] for people to see what is was like to be Justin.”
In
the snap here, and AS I WRITE, Justin is being interviewed by something like German TV or the like. He's checking out his own phone before getting started. It slips out that he has had a “style consultant” help him with his clothes, although “he wasn't really into that.”
Justin has installed what looks to be an iChat camera off the side of his baseball cap, and begun to put this life “24/7 to the web”. There is also a live chat accompanying the feed with comments–mostly dopey–from people who are checking in. As I write this some “Heil Hitler” texter has claimed the chat space.
Anyway, this looks to be an interesting “my life as database” project to check in on the future. That is, if he keeps it up. As of now, Justin is “Live for 15 days, 19 hours, 19 minutes.” Already he has had three interviews, which, as I watch further, this seems to be about.
As I conclude he's talking with his Mom or Dad. He's explaining that people of their generation won't get it, and that “it's the people of his generation who are going to make them money. [...] We're publicizing the show!”
So much for conceptual art experiments in the '70's, this is something rather different.
No doubt anyone reading this blog is long ago familiar with Google Earth. [If not, it's a must download, a wonder of the post-modem world.]
New imagery is available of post-Katrina. On the map here, each colored line is in fact made up of individual maps. Apparently the .kmz file that you will need to download to look at these maps will automatically refresh in the next months as they add new or more detailed images. I've had trouble posting .kmz files in the past, so you may be better off heading hear to get your own link. If you want to follow this, I'd suggest keeping an eye on this page, or the excellent Google Earth Blog.
