Social network Think.MTV.com has been released on beta; the Schematic-designed/architected site targets youth activism and features blogs, videos, profiles and podcasts, among other features. Founding partners include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; famous contributors include Bono, Brad Pitt, Chris Rock, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay-Z, and John Mayer. It’s like Facebook with a social conscience. And it will be a big hit with advertisers looking to score points with the under-30 crowd.
Think.MTV.com is slated to fully launch by the end of 2007.
Think.MTV.com
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- October 3, 2007 at 9:32 am
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October 3, 2007
Technology
Context-Sensitive Display Technology. That’s fancy talk for encoded info that can be seen only when looking at an image taken by a digital camera.
Kameraflage™ works by using colors invisible to the human eye that are picked up by the silicon chips in digital cameras. The technology, which works on all digital cameras, including iPhone, opens up a new advertising and audience participation model with some interesting applications. For example, you can plant messages on T-shirts, movies and billboards that can only be seen with digital cameras.
Kameraflage
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- October 3, 2007 at 9:23 am
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October 3, 2007
Technology
Summer 2007 may one day go down in geek history as the Age of the Finger. In the last few months, we’ve seen the following:
• Finger vein money: Hitachi’s biometric cardless credit payment system that reads the unique pattern of blood vessels in the fingers to verify an individual’s identity. For identity purposes, finger veins are better even than fingerprints or retinas, because they’re beneath the skin and are thus difficult to counterfeit. Finger vein authentication technology is in use right now in Japan (and elsewhere) to verify identities for ATMs, controlled entries and computer log-in systems. As a commerce enabler, it works like this: you register your finger vein pattern with your credit card company, who pairs this data with your account information. When you want to buy something, you just stick your finger in a vein reader at the cash register and the transaction takes place instantly. [Link]
• Vibrating GPS rings: In conjunction with a GPS controller that you wear around your neck, these rings take you where you want to go by using simple buzzing cues that tell you which direction to take. [Link]
• Wireless 3D ring mouse: Five Worcester Polytechnic Institute undergrads have come up with a wearable mouse that allows users to navigate on their computers simply by moving a finger. The so-called “MagicMouse” works on the principle of time difference of arrival (TDOA), which is the principle that underlies the GPS system. Every 16 milliseconds, receivers detect ultrasound waves emitted by the mouse’s transmitter. Software takes the varying distances between the transmitter and each receiver, as calculated by the differences in the time it takes the sound waves to reach the receivers, and computes the receiver’s location in 3D space. [Link]
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- October 3, 2007 at 9:21 am
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October 3, 2007
Technology
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working on a nanogenerator that will use your beating heart to power your iPod, your laptop, as well as a host of medical applications.
Immersed in biological fluids or other liquids, the new cellular engine will produce electricity for small electronic devices by using ultrasonic waves as the energy source.
Researcher Zhong Lin Wang states: “Our bodies are good at converting chemical energy from glucose into the mechanical energy of our muscles. . . . These nanogenerators can take that mechanical energy and convert it to electrical energy for powering devices inside the body.”
They’ve already managed to produce miniscule amounts of energy from the prototype and are confident that it’s only a matter of time before they’re able to raise the voltage to 0.5 V, the threshold necessary for powering devices.
Full Story
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- October 3, 2007 at 9:12 am
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October 3, 2007
Technology
Australian researchers have produced a device that lets you use ten simple hand gestures to switch channels, adjust volume and turn your TV or DVD player on and off. The device uses a built-in camera to capture your gestural commands and translates the appropriate signal to the Universal remote control. Apparently, it can also tell the difference between your intentional actions and those of your cat. So for the terminally lazy or disorganized, or for those who can never remember to buy batteries for the remote, help is on the way. What’s next: Sony is said to be interested in how this new technology could be used in gaming applications.
Full Story from The Age.com.au
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- October 3, 2007 at 9:10 am
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October 3, 2007
Technology
Puzzler of the day: to what extent is it a breach of privacy to use the personal information that people make public on social networking sites in order to target ads to them? An opt-out clause is probably on the horizon, if privacy advocates have their way. After all, the info we put online to help our friends keep in touch with us is not necessarily the info we’d like the police, the government, or A Corporation to know about us.
Full Story on Privacy Digest
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- October 3, 2007 at 9:06 am
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Google Gadget Ads are highly customizable mini-sites in a box. According to Google, they “offer an opportunity for innovative, interactive exposure and marketing of your products/services by utilizing widgets as new web-based information-rich advertising vehicles.” Check it all out, including Gadget Ads for “A Mighty Heart” and Nissan
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- October 3, 2007 at 9:04 am
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October 2, 2007
Technology
Google continues to undermine the business models of the last generation, but their new 1-800-Goog-411 service has been receiving mixed reviews.
While the new service is simple, free, and has cool options (SMS directions, maps), some people are none too happy with the voice coming through the other end of the phone.
It turns out that Google used its own staffers–not professional voice actors–to do the voices. And some think it shows.
At university, we had a phone registration system called MARS that would also tell you your grades. One day my roommate found out that a woman in the registrar’s office was the voice of MARS. It was strange to realize that the voice that had been telling me my grades and that classes were full, came from a living breathing human.
Photo by nickstarr
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- October 2, 2007 at 10:44 am
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October 1, 2007
Technology
Arguably one of the most influential bands of the past 25 years, Radiohead is at it again. This time, they’re selling their new album through their website and letting fans decide how much to pay.
Folks who don’t have $80 can still pick up a boxed set that includes the CD, a vinyl edition and full access to the digital downloads. The price: whatever.
A lot of people think that Radiohead is going to infuriate the music industry with this move. Only time will tell, but it’s not hard to imagine fans weary of being called pirates, and possibly being sued for ripping a CD to an iPod, being appreciative of such a benevolent gesture.
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- October 1, 2007 at 8:33 am
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September 27, 2007
Technology
Even our vices are switching from analog to digital. A company called Crown7 is manufacturing digital cigarette cartridges that serve as nicotine delivery devices without the harmful smoke of cigarettes.
The refillable cartridges (shaped like a cigar, pipe or cigarette depending on your habit) will hold some water, propylene glycol, nicotine, and a tobacco flavor of your choice. One cartridge contains the nicotine equivalent of about two packs of cigarettes.
What an age we live in.
Crown7 Site
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- September 27, 2007 at 8:07 am
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