Strange inventions....

Just a few things that i thought should be seen, dunno why they've been made but you know whatever floats your boat.

Aint sure why but well done whoever invented this.....

It's called CB2 (Child-Robot with Biometric Body) and is the freaky creation of the Japan Science and Technology Agency. It can stand with assistance, roll around like a baby and even mimic some facial expressions - although not in a way that would make you want to cuddle it. One thing that worries me is that it sounds like a small yapping dog....weird.

The ACM-R5 comes from Japan, it has a small camera, lights and is powered by a lithium-ion battery that will allow it to swim menacingly for up to 30 minutes. I think it's cool how realistically it swims and can only imagine how much fun i could letting it loose in a public pool......hahaha.

Watch Phone??

This is a new watch phone i think this is very cool and futuristic, i mean it plays music, video, phone text and all other functions you'd expect a phone to have...very cool piece of tech.

Strange..

Those wacky Germans. Who else would think of creating the world’s "strongest artificially generated tornado" inside an old car museum?

The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, and the twister has been officially given the thumbs up by the Guinness Book Of World Records. The tornado measures 34.4 metres high and, in typical German fashion, was designed not as an attraction or an installation but as an innovative way to channel smoke out of the building during a fire. As fire fighting technologies go, this has to be one of the coolest looking.

Smallest Computer

This is the smallest computer money can apparently buy it has vista and many other features there is one thing it just seems to be drastically needing, a touch screen. This is getting more and more like future tech but it doesn't have that space age look that some new products offer.

Cool Animation

I saw this earlier and thought it was really cool, i like the way it's very dark humour.

Concept computers

These are Samsungs new concept pc's, you could be forgiven for thinking they are just modern sculptures but they all look as functional as each other,.......that is useless.

Brain Power.....

This is what i think of as weird looking technology, i mean people say this is the future but i wouldn't put one of these on my head for fear of a mad scientist coming and removing all my memory. The idea that you mind can control a computer's working process is cool but it just looks to space age, when the technology is made smaller in size or at least looks slighly less invasive it could be a good idea but then asks the question of what happens if someone hacks into your thoughts????.

"What progress is being made in the search for new ways of interacting with computer systems? Moving beyond the keyboard and mouse towards more natural ways of interacting with computers is a long-standing research vision. One possible approach is to use thoughts; just think of something, like moving the ever present pointer on a computer screen to a new location, and it happens! This is exactly what is demonstrated by the PRESENCIA project. This is an opportunity to experience firsthand, human-computer interaction using a brain-computer interface. Based on a normal pocketsize battery powered computer, with electrodes fitted to the scalp, visitors can learn more about how the interface works and discover the new possibilities enabled by this technology."
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/istevent/2006/cf/exhib-detail.cfm?id=775

Printmaking

I have just completed my elective which was on Printmaking, it consisted of doing an assortment of traditional printing methods including monotone, dryprint, etching and aquatone amongst others. I think that it was good learning these methods due to how some effects can be recreated digitally but it just isn't the same as doing it by hand. When you do prints yourself you often have a nice mistake where something looks better when it reacts differently to how you thought. I think that i will try to apply these methods into future projects as they could aid in making intersting pieces.
An example of etching plate prints.

E-ink Watch

E Ink Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, and Seiko Watch Corporation are pleased to announce the demonstration of the world's first watch to utilize an electronic paper display. This 'Future Now' design incorporates an easy-to-read, ultra-thin, low-power display integrated into an eye-catching curved band.

The unique electronic paper display module in this Seiko watch is the result of a joint development effort, bringing together E Ink's 'electronic ink' technology and Seiko Epson's advanced display manufacturing and electronic circuitry techniques. When combined, these technologies offer a wide range of display design possibilities - including flexibility!

http://www.eink.com/press/downloads/index.html

Hand Held

This is the Sony UX ultra-portable PC. Here are the facts known so far. It has a 7-inch touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Core Solo processor, Wi-Fi, biometric sensor, two cameras, Windows XP Pro, 3G and Bluetooth. Whew, that was a lot. These details and specs are from Mobility Today, so be warned the info may not be accurate. This is what hand held computers are like at the minute and i intend essentially designing an advert for a a futuristic version of this product.

Alien

This is a piece of animation that we were shown today, it is a good example of how characteristics can show alot about the animation, the movements are very bold, confident and precise which suggests the figure is a female and is a diva. The movement involved is also very nicely done, the way the figure moves its hips and shoulders when it walks shows it's female form.

Virtual Laser Keyboard

The revolutionary Virtual Keyboard (VKB) uses the latest infrared & laser technology to project a full-size keyboard onto any flat surface. For the first time Users can then type as normal on this virtual keyboard (VKB), enabling them to work quickly and effectively, taking the pain and frustration out of minuscule keyboards and handwriting recognition software. You can also make your typing accompanied by simulated key click sounds!

Imagine how much easier it would be if you had a proper mobile phone keyboard that fits in your pocket ... The VKB works either with laptops, PCs or compatible Smartphone and PDA.

If this is the technology available now the way i see technology changing is it becoming smarter and smaller, so i think this technologyis valid just i think that in the future it will be much more compact and probabley more aesthetically impressive.

Research Into E-Paper

Electronic paper, also called e-paper, is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later. Unlike traditional displays, e-paper can be crumpled or bent like traditional paper. One important feature needed is that the pixels be image stable, or bistable, so that the state of each pixel can be maintained without a constant supply of power.
Electronic paper was developed in order to overcome some of the limitations of computer monitors. For example, the backlighting of monitors is hard on the human eye, whereas electronic paper reflects light just like normal paper. It is easier to read at an angle than flat screen monitors. It is lightweight, durable, and highly flexible compared to other display technologies, though it is not as flexible as paper.
Predicted future applications include e-paper books capable of storing digital versions of many books, with only one book displayed on the pages at any one time. Likewise with e-paper magazines. Electronic posters and similar advertisements in shops and stores have already been demonstrate

Technology

Electronic paper was first developed in the 1970s by Nick Sheridon at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. The first electronic paper, called Gyricon, consisted of polyethylene spheres between 20 and 100 micrometres across. Each sphere is composed of negatively charged black plastic on one side and positively charged white plastic on the other (each bead is thus a dipole). The spheres are embedded in a transparent silicone sheet, with each sphere suspended in a bubble of oil so that they can rotate freely. The polarity of the voltage applied to each pair of electrodes then determines whether the white or black side is face-up, thus giving the pixel a white or black appearance.
In the 1990s another type of electronic paper was invented by Joseph Jacobson, who later co-founded the corporation E Ink which formed a partnership with Philips Components two years later to develop and market the technology. In 2005, Philips sold the electronic paper business as well as its related patents to Prime View International. This used tiny microcapsules filled with electrically charged white particles suspended in a colored oil. In early versions, the underlying circuitry controls whether the white particles were at the top of the capsule (so it looked white to the viewer) or at the bottom of the capsule (so the viewer saw the color of the oil). This was essentially a reintroduction of the well-known electrophoretic display technology, but the use of microcapsules allowed the display to be used on flexible plastic sheets instead of glass.
One early version of electronic paper consists of a sheet of very small transparent capsules, each about 40 micrometres across. Each capsule contains an oily solution containing black dye (the electronic ink), with numerous white titanium dioxide particles suspended within. The particles are slightly negatively charged, and each one is naturally white.
The microcapsules are held in a layer of liquid polymer, sandwiched between two arrays of electrodes, the upper of which is made from indium tin oxide, a transparent conducting material. The two arrays are aligned so that the sheet is divided into pixels, which each pixel corresponding to a pair of electrodes situated either side of the sheet. The sheet is laminated with transparent plastic for protection, resulting in an overall thickness of 80 micrometres, or twice that of ordinary paper.



The network of electrodes is connected to display circuitry, which turns the electronic ink 'on' and 'off' at specific pixels by applying a voltage to specific pairs of electrodes. Applying a negative charge to the surface electrode repels the particles to the bottom of local capsules, forcing the black dye to the surface and giving the pixel a black appearance. Reversing the voltage has the opposite effect - the particles are forced from the surface, giving the pixel a white appearance. A more recent incarnation of this concept requires only one layer of electrodes beneath the microcapsules.
Other research efforts into e-paper have involved using organic transistors embedded into flexible substrates, including attempts to build them into conventional paper.

Microsoft Table

Microsoft unveiled a brand new product for POS interfaces - Microsoft Surface. It’s multi-touch, as seen in the computer demo videos, and it is very similar to the interface of Apple’s iPhone.
This new technology from Microsoft, which is essentially a computer table, if popular, will bring about a fundamental change in the way we interact with computers. T-Mobile stores, Harrah's and others have snapped them up at a mere $10000.

This is a product Microsoft are planning on having available by 2010 and it is some very impressive technology, it is a dining table that is completely interactive allowing the user to use their digits to control. This technology could be applied anywhere though with the use of a 2-d screen, therefore i think the product i am going to advertise will be a this tech just on a piece of interactive paper allowing it to be rolled up and used anywhere.

Next Step

If this is what is becoming more and more like standard technology then the item i'm thinking about may have to be more futuristic than i first imagined....

Rationale

This brief is about communicating who I am through mainly visual media using as little or no text as possible, I want it to reflect my personality and show what I’m all about. I plan on using dark and light colours to show the how my moods change between my likes and dislikes. I plan on showing my hobbies and interests also. This will all be produced finally in Photoshop. I want to take images of myself using the best quality digital cameras available, in different positions and poses so that I can edit them later half will be happy half will be angry I want to use multiple images of myself to show how there is more than meets the eye, which I will also show with the perspective of the figures. The item’s I dislike about myself being towards the back being more translucent in appearance and features I like about myself at the front bolder so they stand out. I would like to do this in the photography lighting studio so I get professional looking shots but if this isn’t available I will take pictures in front of a white background so they are more easily editable after. I will be trying different layouts so that I know what sort of shots I need to achieve for them to work in my piece. Then using Photoshop paste each picture together to create one piece as a sort of digital photo montage, to show my likes and dislikes I will give each “mini me” a different item that I either like or dislike depending on the emotion involved.