Blow Jobs are great!

That’s what Lithuanian artist Tadao Cern thought when he created blow job, a photography series of peoples portraits in a wind tunnel.

Some pretty awesome results, check them out

you can see all of the here and he is also quite active on facebook.

@maniac13

Touch me and I can see

That is the basic model behind the wearable camera that blinds a user until he is touched by someone else.

The project was created by Artist Eric Siu and is called Touchy.

With Touchy, Siu wants to highlight social anxiety, which he believes is caused by the increased reliance on communication mediums like Facebook and Twitter. He says that the helmet emulates the isolating experience of over-reliance on social networks, and turns the wearer into a social device.

Touchy has two giant shutters that remain closed without human contact. Once the helmet’s sensors detect touch, the shutters open and illuminate the wearers eyes, the blindness is temporarily lifted until the connection is broken. If someone maintains contact for ten seconds, a photo is taken by the camera mounted on the front of Touchy, which is then displayed on a screen round the back.

Check out the heartwarming video below

@maniac13

Everything will be touchable with Touché

Disney Research is always working on some cool stuff and now they are showing off a pretty cool and quite sophisticated touch-sensing technology called touché.

Compared to capacitive touch screens that measure 1 frequency this new technology is measuring a range of them which means it not only can detect multi touch and gestures, but also distinguish between different objects or parts of the body.

It will also add touch to non-traditional surfaces, like liquid.

Check out the video below and see some of the examples on how Disney sees this technology being implemented in the future.

@maniac13

So you want to shoot some video?

So you want to shoot some video? No problem.

I have a degree in Television producing, so surely we can figure something out. I know a friend whose parents still smother him with gifts (instead of love) and he just got a new Canon 5D – he probably knows how to use it by now too. While everyone else was studying Economics, another friend and I spent our senior high-school years ‘learning’ Film & TV. He used to have a pirated copy of Final Cut on his laptop, so he can probably edit some stuff to look real sexy.

Yeh, we can make you a video alright. Maybe it’ll even go viral – why not? As for remuneration, just buy us a case of beer and we’ll call it even. Easy.

…if only.

The art of film is exactly that – an art. Professionals exist for a reason, and have spent years refining their skills in one of the many particular and often excruciatingly specific roles that exist in the industry. You’ll find a guy on set whose only role is to change the focus of the camera during a shot (Focus Puller). Why? Because he is damn good at it.

As Razorfish moves further into the realm of creating great video content for its clients, we must accept that we aren’t traditionally the experts in this area. Luckily, the guys at Thinkbone are.

To set the scene (so to speak) this week Thinkbone’s crew turned our lobby into a live set in order to teach us a thing or two about production, budgets, and the different outcomes you can expect. They were to film the same scene (Pulp Fiction’s famous “$5 Milkshake”) three times – each with a different budget, and thus final product.  For the purpose of the exercise, let’s assume each budget is for 60 seconds of final video.

• Low budget: For this we are looking at a stripped back pre-production (logistics, scripts, basically all the organizing), three days of post, a bare minimum crew (Producer/Director, Production Manager, Production Assistant, D.O.P), catering and a basic camera and tripod set-up. Oh, and your mate/Mum/cousin acting. Approximate total: $20,700.

For that you can expect to produce something resembling the quality of video below:

• Medium budget: In addition to the above, we’d be looking to add an Art Department, props, wardrobe, casting, semi-professional Actors, make up, location costs, and a beefed up camera kit. Approximate total: $ 65,200.

And for the extra money and effort you’ll be looking at something of this quality (ignoring travel costs):

• High budget: Let’s add more crew, professional actors, expert lighting, more location costs, more catering, and amongst other things, a better camera, a dolly (the thing on the train tracks), and a dolly operator. Approximate total: $97,000.

Now we are looking at some high-end video production capable of matching, or even improving on the original scene. This isn’t to say you need to spend big for every bit of video you create. Each grade of production serves a purpose, so it depends on the individual project and the objectives as to how much you should be budgeting.

Here is the final take of the day (sound is from the camera mic, so apologies). Thankfully, Thinkbone opted to waive the $97,000 – thanks guys. That case of Superdry should arrive any day now.

Dean

@deanvowles

The birds and the city

Heiko, our German development guru found a passion for the birds in Sydney and he wasn’t alone. Here is the story of Wingtags told in his own words:

“Ever since my fiancée and I arrived in Sydney two years ago, there was something we particularly liked about this city. It’s probably because we both grew up in Germany, not a place exactly famous for abundance of wildlife, but we were always delighted to see these large, noisy, sulphur-crested cockatoos flying low across our heads, chasing tourists in parks and stirring up the CBD area with their distinctive raucous calls. Having had the chance to live close to the botanic garden for almost our entire stay, we started to study and eventually grow fond of these remarkable birds that turned out to be surprisingly intelligent.

Earlier this year we started to collaborate with a University of Sydney & Royal Botanic Gardens project which attempts to monitor their movements, breeding and habitat preferences with the aim to better live alongside urban wildlife. Even the SMH talked about it already here. Being both experienced mobile app developers, we couldn’t ignore the crowdsourcing potential and started to design a little iPhone app that comes with a simplified interface to report sightings of tagged birds. The App is called Wingtags and you can download it from the link here and below. Just spot the number on the wingtag, enter it into the app and feel free to attach a photo of your encounter if you get close enough for a nice shot.

Download the app from the App Store

 

We hope this project gets one or two Sydneysiders a little more curious about the feathery inhabitants of this extraordinary city. Once the database starts filling up, we’ll also be able to visualize the movements of birds right within the app. Spot a bird in Potts Point in the evening just to find out that it had breakfast in Manly – that may pretty much coincide with your own commute.

Special thanks goes out to Robbie Tapping (Amnesiafish in Melbourne) for building the API for the database and to Amnesia Razorfish for sponsoring hosting and bandwidth. The birds do very much appreciate it.”

Let the bird catching and cataloguing begin.

@maniac13

First Timer

Last week provided a couple of firsts – both different but equally as exciting from the perspective of a Junior.

I am currently completing my rotation within the Creative Team, which has seen my copy skills exercised within an agency for the first time. Back in Brisbane I was fortunate to have a few scripts shot and aired during my stint in children’s television. It was exciting at the time, but I like to think I’m playing with the big boys now. And so, having my first bit of copy approved by a Razorfish client was a great feeling. Worth celebrating even…

As if on cue, last Friday I was invited to join the Media team at a media-partner’s yearly social event. I hastily accepted – bottomless jugs of Pimm’s and the chance to see Igor and Dave take to the court was an offer to good to refuse.

As someone who is still narrowing down my first-choice department, it was nice to see the perks that partner all those media numbers!

Dean
@deanvowles

Japanese supermarket scanner that doesn’t need bar codes!

A Japanese supermarket is currently using a new Toshiba scanner that recognises objects based on their colours and shape, so products no longer need barcodes; with all the AR applications for smartphones, developments like the Google goggles and so on, it was just a matter of time for someone to be able to develop this amazing scanner.

Let’s hope Australian supermarkets get them soon enough.

 

Find more technical details about the scanner here:

http://www.toshibatec-ris.com/industries/retail/

To pin or not to pin?

Amnesia Razorfish, an agency of many facets and faces, has joined the Pinterest train. Why may you ask? Well because it’s the big man on campus, socially media speaking.

Plus we get to pin cool stuff like this:

Freddy Mercury riding Darth Vader.

According to Google Ad Planner, Pinterest drew 38 million unique visitors globally in March, which is up from 23.7 million in February and 3.5 million in September last year.

The Los Angeles Times reported how Pinterest is ranked the third-most-popular social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter and the trend is set to rise.

There are articles dedicated to fighting or nurturing Pinterest addictions and Repinly is a page created for the sole purpose of monitoring the most trending Pinterest topics (Food & Drink for now).

So it seems that every marketer, trend observer and media analyst wants a piece of the Pinterest pie, with twitter streams full of answers to the power in a pin.

However for brands, Pinterest is not always the miracle solution for reaching target audiences and, particularly in Australia, the site is yet to prove itself to cautious digital strategists.

For now, these Australian based statistics, found using Google DoubleClick Ad planner, show that while Pinterest is a creative and connected platform, it may not be suited to everybody.

March Pinterest demographics

Pinterest in Australia attracts an older audience, with 34% of users in the 45-54 age bracket.

Of these users, an overwhelming majority (62%) attended ‘some college’ and based on the ‘Audience Interests’ below, the types of colleges become clear.

The most interesting statistic shows that where globally women comprise 72% of pinners, in Australia men are leading the game taking their 52% cut of people pinning.

So what does this mean? Are Australian men less averse to the pictures of cupcakes, Martha Stewart-esque home renovations and wedding dresses dominating Pinterest?

This ostentatious display of everything girly is responsible for the Pinterest inspired site, Gentlemint, that with its mustache logo and promise to be a ‘mint of manly things’ abhors anything with glitter or kittens.

Just like Pinterest, Gentlemint is invitation only and once accepted, men can pin images on “one of the more manly websites on the planet”.

So, what’s on Pinterest that Australian men go gaga over?

Kristie

@kristiebeattie

IKEA is entering the SMART TV market

Yes you read that correctly, our beloved furniture maker from the days when we didn’t have money and we were all about DYI has announced that their TV storage units now come with build-in TVs – called Uppleva.

The LED backlit TVs will be available in 24 – 46 inches and will be build into the furniture together with a Blu-ray / DVD player and a 2.1 (2.1? really? what kind of surround sound is that?) surround sound setup.

The TVs are Full HD, SMART Vs that are Wifi ready and play DivX files which is something that all TVs should do.

One of their selling points is that all the cables are hidden to reduce the clutter, but at the same time the TV offers multiple USB and HDMI ports on the side – so luckily you can add all your other gadgets to it and bring back the cluttered cables

Mind you as a student with no money, just moved out of home and your parents offered to buy you some furniture, why not have the TV build into it. Prices seem to be starting at around $1000 and it should be available later this year in selected European countries.

Will I buy one? probably not. I think IKEA needs to stick to what they are good at and that is furniture.

Check out their video below

Let me know what you think in the comments

@maniac13

Caine’s Arcade

What an amazing kid! which games company is going to snap him up?

I love the calculator authentication bit…

The Fun Pass is an awesome deal!

 

Asteroids 2.0 – now an MMO

Remember the days when you were sitting in front of your CRT TV playing with your Atari 2600 playing Asteroids by yourself? I do.

Now that is all in the past as the new version of Asteroids here is a massively multiplayer online (mmo) game and instead of chasing asteroids you shoot other players from all over the world.

It’s a relatively simple arcade-style game in which you attempt to rack up as high a score as possible before running out of lives, and you can sign in with Twitter to put a name to your score.

@maniac13

Facebook acquires Instagram for $1billion

The technology world is buzzing about today’s announcement that Facebook has acquired social image sharing app Instagram for $1billion dollars.

In a recent statement  Zuckerberg promises that Instragram will not be absorbed directly into the Facebook platform:

“We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook…. That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently…. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products.”

Interestingly, the LA times points out that the image based social sharing site has “just 13 employees. That works out to be $76 million per employee.”

The future of Eyewear is Googles Project Glass

The rumours have been around for a while but Google finally unveiled Project glass. 

Google X – the secret Google lab that focuses on technology that should reach the masses. They worked on this project to deliver a technology that should work for you, to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t. Augmented reality puts information in your field of view with information about your surroundings, answers to questions you asked and waypoints on maps if you want directions. It can also take picture that you can instantly share with your Google+ circles.

check out the video below to get an idea of what it is capable off.

The glasses are in Beta testing at the moment and Google hasn’t released and dates or prices for it yet.

It is fair to assume that Google will release the technology and glasses manufacturers will be able to implement it into their creations.

So where is my prototype to test it, Google?

@maniac13

A Good Week

This blog may make no sense, so I apologize in advance. Why? Because you’re a busy bunch and I’m a considerate guy.

Oh, you mean why won’t it make sense? Well, because I have had the most inspiring week on record at Amnesia and my head is swirling – with inspiration, possibilities and just general motivation. If there was ever a time for you to abuse my grad status, now would be it (but you didn’t hear that from me).

The week kicked off with a visit from our Global Head of Strategy, Joe Crump, and a talk on Digital Darwinism. He told us a brand’s ‘DNA’ can be made up of seven different measures, to be thought of as dials you can turn to increase or decrease. Authentic, Adaptive, Relevant, Transformative, Fresh, Immersive, Social – how does your brand stack up in these categories?

Joe also left us with his own bag of tricks and suggestions to keep inspiring us into the digital future:

• Find an unmet need – the gap in the market is where you want to be
• Invent something
• Go Beta – we should constantly be testing new work
• Pay attention
• Evolve forever

With all this still sitting fresh in my mind it was off to Circus for two days of immersion amongst some genuinely great thinkers. And speakers of course – it wouldn’t be much of a festival if they just internalized everything.

I’d need a few pages to give a complete rundown of the topics covered, but some statements that struck me as interesting are below.

MDC’s Faris Yakob:

• -  “The CMO will spend more money on technology than the CIO”
• -  “Consumers can make content, but they can’t make technology. Let’s make technology…code can be a creative area, not simply a production”

R/GA’s Nick Law:

• “Media is software, and we are in the media business. It’s time Madison Avenue met Silicon Valley”

The theme of marrying creative and technology was touched on several times throughout Circus. It is nice to know I’m sitting in the middle of an organization that woke up to that need long ago.

When I heard some of my fellow graduates were not allowed by their respective employers to attend Circus – to be exposed to such a broad array of thoughts and ideas – I couldn’t believe it. I found this week to be incredibly beneficial for me and hopefully, in some small way, I can one day make it beneficial for Amnesia too.

future touch screens have no lag

Most touch panels and controllers today suffer from about a 100ms delay and while most people got used to it, I still find it really annoying.

And so does Microsoft as they are putting money into the task of getting rid of that lag. Microsoft Research has figured out a way to get the delay down to 1 ms.

check out the video below to see the difference.

Pretty awesome and I can’t wait to see this technology going mainstream and into all kinds of touch devices.

@maniac13

You can run, but you can’t hide

The smart peeps at MIT have created a camera that can look around the corner.

To do this, the system uses a so-called femtosecond laser to send out extremely short light pulses that are aimed at a nearby wall, then bounce around, hit the object hiding and then bounce back to the camera.

Then smart software figures out what is lurking behind the wall by determining how long it took those pulses to return to the camera.

This happens over and over again at different angles, meaning that the system will ultimately be able to get a general idea of the object hidden.

check out the video below

 

@maniac13

Once upon a time…

As someone who spent his University days writing TV scripts and the odd travel blog, one of the biggest things I’ve been looking to find out during my grad program is what role – if any – the old art of storytelling can play in digital advertising. Outsiders may assume that online narrative is limited to three frames on a banner ad – they would be wrong, thankfully. The reality is technology has always helped us to tell stories, so why should digital marketing be any different?

Last week I was lucky enough to run along to AdTech and soak up a bit of what the industry leaders had to offer. I say a bit because, if I’m honest, a lot of the more data-based content may have gone over my head. One talk I did enjoy, however, was by Publicis’ own Tim Buesing on storytelling. It was nice to discover that story can play a big role in online – if not more than offline. It is simply a move toward a more fragmented narrative structure rather than the linear style they still teach us at University. Of course telling stories across different media and platforms is nothing new, and you can find a host of Transmedia experts dryly discussing this phenomenon online.

For us, I suppose this means furthering a campaign or brand story at each consumer touch-point. Which leads to one of the main takeaways from Tim’s talk: story is the new branding. It would take someone a little more experienced than myself to flesh that concept out in detail, but as a junior in the industry who enjoys telling a good story, that is great news!

Dean
@deanvowles

The Hunger Games and HTML5

How do those 2 fit together you ask? Microsoft has teamed up with Lionsgate to show off the latest HTML5 techniques (movie-like effect: stream, lens flare and video projections) and to promote IE9.

Check it out here

I had some issues getting onto the page, but I think it is because it is making the rounds in the internet and everybody is checking it out.

Nevertheless it is a pretty nifty and beautiful site and you have the ability to connect it to your facebook and your friends appear on billboards and screens.

The site also gives you some exclusive movie content and there are 2 easter eggs that reveal 2 never before seen clips.

• 1. In the Control Room you can type in “ivolunteer” on your keyboard after clicking on the map section
• 2. In the Avenue of Tributes you can click on Katniss and then Peeta to reveal a clip from the training center

I can’t wait for the movie to come out as it looks great and it looks like HTML5 is being pushed to its boundaries on this site.

Check out the trailer if you haven’t seen it.

@maniac13

And the winners of the 2012 ad:tech Digital Young Guns are….

Nikki & Meghan

We are all so proud of you. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!

 

The girls in action!

 

The future of gaming

is still ugly and it reminds me of those VR systems in gaming arcades that somehow died out.

Forth Dimension Displays, a company that produces high resolution near-to-eye microdisplays that are used in microscopes, film cameras erc., want to take their displays to get to the next milestone of gaming.

Last week they demonstrated Half-Life 2 with their head-mounted, motion-sensing, high-definition displays, a vest loaded down with two large drive electronics kits and a modded PlayStation Move gun.

Check out the video below

great video here as well from the verge

I can’t wait for Xbox to support this so I can have one at home.

@maniac13