A Wider Net

Information Aesthetics points to a really cool coffee mug that reminds us with every warm beverage that we need to take global warming seriously.

The image of the iceberg is gradually replaced by an image of a melted iceberg when the mug warms up. This would make a great premium gift from a green company. Does this mean we all have to switch to iced coffee?

I apologize - I’m a little late to the party with any mention of Google Android and the Open Social initiative that seems to be smashing Facebook with a book in the face. Honestly, things have been very very busy and I’m still digesting the big news from Google this past week.

Here are some of the recent happenings that I need to write more about, and a quick idea of what they’re all about:

Surface: Last Friday we were given a private showing of Microsoft’s Surface product. WOW. This is the most natural human-computer experience I have yet to encounter. I love this and can’t wait to offer it to customers for a variety of applications.

Google Android: This is a mobile operating system (sort of) and not the Google Phone everyone was waiting for. It has tremendous potential but was honestly a bit of a let-down. We have a while to go before the potential is realized, but it does appear Google is out to fragment another industry and keep it open (and keep it hooked on search). It may be the best thing to happen to the US mobile phone market ever, but I doubt Verizon is going to let it happen casually, since they will be less able to control the sale of overpriced ringtones and wallpapers.

Open Social - probably the biggest Google announcement - has immediate application. This initiative will (in theory) allow developers to make “widgets” or “applications” that work on any social network that supports the Open Social initiative. It will also allow users to share their data across all those social networks, making it easier to maintain just one “page” and “friends list”, etc. Social Network startup and emerging juggernaut Ning has already rolled out support for the platform, and almost 20 companies are on board immediately. Except Facebook. They’re clearly left out for a reason. Google seems to want people to stop flocking to Facebook and return to an open internet (where they still need Google and their advertisers). Open Social will be very important to marketers. More to come.

Today, I’m visiting Mobile Internet World and I may have a tidbit or two to discuss regarding the future of web marketing to handhelds.

Oh, I also recently visited Communispace in Watertown, MA - they have a truly remarkeable approach to building and maintaining highly focused and vibrant social communities for market research, brainstorming, and many other applications.

Catch you later.

Gesturetek, makers of some of the coolest gesture-based interactive displays and software products, recently announced an interesting upgrade to their Screen Xtreme product. Screen Xtreme is a compelling digital signage product that allows the user to interact with the sign simply by passing in front of it. A camera picks up their motion and converts it to a variety of effects and controls. Users can point or wave to control the experience. Often times this experience involves “playing” with a sponsor brand. In one example for the Venus Razor, the screen is filled with colorful flowers, and when the user waves their arm, the flowers scatter as if the user created a virtual breeze. In other examples, the arm wave causes a page flip to additional content. Since the sign can react to someone who merely walks by, it can attract attention far more effectively than a simple video screen or static sign.

The announcement states that their Screen Xtreme system now supports a variety of standard Active X controls, which allows the software to run in coordination with standard digital signage software. Using this approach, retailers and exhibit marketers can produce an informational digital sign that features a highly interactive portion, rather than dedicating the entire sign to the interactive element. That way, the interactive eye-catching part can be the sponsor or big promotional area that pays for the sign, while the rest can be utility information that provides value to the viewer. Everybody wins that way.

In the picture above, which I grabbed from the video on their site, you can see a typical digital sign with a variety of content on the lef side and bottom. The large image shows the President of Gesturetek interacting with the Venus brand by moving his body and arm in front of the camera. Notice how the primary brand image in the lower right is in front of the rest of the interactive, so he can’t mess that part up. This layering effect is a nice bonus so you can be sure to have a sponsor’s logo present at all times.

In fact, the layering capability is core to most of their effects. In many cases, a wave of a hand pushes an array of virtual objects around on the screen, temporarily revealing an image behind them. Eventually the objects manage to flow back onto the screen to once again cover the image. It is that sense of interaction and discovery that makes these types of displays fun and engaging. Now that they can pair up with more traditional signage apps, they just got a whole lot more practical

For more information:
Gesturetek Press Release

Microsoft is bringing Surface to Boston for a public viewing at the Sheraton on Saturday. Details are available on this Microsoft Developer blog. This may be your best chance to see this exciting new technology firsthand as they roll it out through Sheraton hotels and a handful of other launch partners over the coming months.

Touch technology makes an incredibly intuitive user interface for a variety of applications. Touch kiosks and ATMs, when well-designed, have made our lives easier in many self-service solutions. The runaway success of the Nintendo DS handheld game system, which features touch control, has taught us a great deal about human/computer interaction and preferences. Sony has even introduced touch controls on the backs of their digital cameras. But those examples are nothing compared to Surface.

Surface features multi-touch capability, so you can interact with more than just one finger (think iPhone on steroids). It also features a ton of technology under the hood to recognize objects placed on it’s surface and interact with them digitally. It’s not a touch screen - it’s a whole new way of interacting with content.

For more information about Surface, check out Microsoft’s Surface page or my previous post.

Wovin makes a series of unique textured wall materials with surprising versatility. Using a proprietary set of frames and interwoven “tiles”, a Wovin Wall looks literally like a giant weave of stuff. In fact, a wall made of tiles using their wood laminate finishes looks surprisingly like a giant basket weave.

But that’s just the beginning: Wovin materials also include translucent polypropylene for a backlit colored wall, metal laminates for a wild industrial look, and printed materials for a 3D mosaic image tapestry.

They also have a linear “wave wall” which creates horizonal strips that dip in and out of the wall in a wave pattern. These can also be made of translucent backlit materials.

Wovin Wall

Big3D - the big, er, 3D people famous for 3D motion lenticular billboards and soon-to-be-famous for delivering printed video clips have launched their 3D motion cups.

Big3D has been able to produce high resolution (9600dpi) lenticular 3D and animated posters and cards for years now, but they have managed to get the material thin enough to wrap around a drinking cup. They also, of course, have managed to handle the hairy math of creating a 3D illusion printed on 2D paper laminated in lenticular lens sheet and wrapped around an almost-cylinder. Part of me thinks it should not work - it’s just too many transforms from 3D to flat to cylinder. It’s as if they’ve created a perpetual motion machine or a time machine.

Unlike the perpetual motion machine and time machine, these things are real, they’re real cheap, and they’re real recyclable. Yes, these cups may appear to be wrapped in plastic, and they sort of are wrapped in plastic, but these are recyclable - unlike other lenticular cups. They even have a green statement on the page. Bravo.

I forgot to ask them if anyone has played the practical joke of creating a 3D virtual “mug handle” sticking out of the side of the cup.

EDIT - I stand corrected - the cups are made from polypropylene lens material with the printing directly on them - there is no paper, and the whole thing is recyclable. Slick.

I highlight a lot of USB drives. Perhaps too many. But they’re fun, practical, and now that you can launch applications from some of them, they’re a viable means of distributing easy-to-launch applications.

If you happen to work at a company whose name or product rhymes with, or has anything to do with, “chicken”, or “foot” then this one may be for you. There’s a bunch of fun jokes with this, starting with “open laptop, insert foot” and ending with “helping you get a leg up in 2008″.

Originally spotted at Whazatt Goes Chicken Huntin’

With a big tip of the hat to Agency Fusion, and credit for the link to coworker/Front End Developer/Artist Rob Larsen, I direct your attention to www.makemylogobiggercream.com - one of the funniest marketing design parodies ever.