The system works by using a central server that constantly takes screenshots of the external display and compares them with the images from the phone’s camera to track its location.

It then replicates what’s on the handset’s screen, while allowing you to add multiple image windows and position and rotate them.

Additionally, multiple users can collaborate and virtually project pictures or videos onscreen at the same time.

Personally I think your battery life will suffer the most, but in general it is a cool idea.

check it out in action below:

@maniac13

How he says on his website, every droplet is a unique piece of art. Pretty amazing

Check out his other work, which he says was not manipulated with Photoshop at all.

@maniac13

Now there is a solution for my first world problem. BitGym has created a control system for playing iOS games while you are on your favourite exercise equipment. Right now it is a racer (that looks a lot like Outrun) and you control the cars steering with you head and your acceleration is based on your exercise rate.

Check out the video:

nifty little tool, but I am not sure if the movements you have to do to get through the game are good for your posture

@maniac13

But nevertheless I still get to see all the cool new gadgets and while I have seen prototypes of this before, but this seems to be ready to be installed in my house.

The Samsung Smart Window – a transparent display that is touch enabled and a one sided pane which means people on the outside can’t see what you are seeing.

here are some videos of it in action:

I love the blinds, also word on the street is that mass production is starting in the next few month, but no word on price yet.

@maniac13

We have a big touchscreen in the office here so it is perfect for the Metro UI, but I have to say that the mouse interaction on a laptop without a touchscreen is very average.

Along came Tobii and at first you think it is just another gimmick, but everybody on the net who has actually tried it is blown away by it.

Tobii comes with an eye control device, a rectangular glass obilisk that is attached to the hinge of the laptop. It requires a personal calibration and off you go. It also controls all the swipe gestures available in Windows 8.

But enough said, check it out in the video.

here is another video of it in action

can’t wait to try it out

@maniac13

And now Microsoft Research has pushed a little further and gives us a 3D hologram that is floating in mid air at 15 frames per second and is viewable from 192 different points at a time.

reminds me of Star Wars

Of course Kinect is involved here and the depth sensor makes it possible to interact with the hologram – you can basically touch it.

It is still a long way off from 3D hologram telephony or a full size HoloDeck, but for now this is pretty cool.

check out the video:

@maniac13

I wrote this article to share a blog post from  SamsCode.com 

Link is : http://samscode.com/index.php/2010/06/entity-framework-v4-end-to-end-application-strategy-part-2-data-layer/

For those that are not tech-heads or geeks and are not sure what a DTO is; A DTO is the acronym for Data Transfer Objects, and they aid in making a web or software experience lighter, faster and easier to implement new features straight from your Database storage model.

So when Microsoft brought out the new paradigm of Database to -> Object & Object to -> Database mapping techniques called LINQtoSQL and LINQtoEntities a lot of people stopped creating DTO’s and started using the direct Entity Database object straight from your Data Access Layer….

Over time myself and other users have realised that this is a BAD! BAD! BAD!, Yes BAD! way of moving data around, due highly to these little boxes of data being transferred around your Web applications or Software applications and clogging up your memory allocation.

 What made me ask myself the question of using DTO’s again was in Development of a project on the ASP.NET MVC With Entity Framework 4.1 platform was being stuck with the dreaded Error Exception of “Unable to serialize and object, as there is a circular reference“.

What Entity Framework does is it maps out your Database Structure tables and creates a persistent class for each table and the constraints and associations each table has from each other.

For example in a database you might have a Table called “Employee” and you then have another table called “JobRole” and there is a linke between these two tables to show that an Employee can have multiple Job Roles. Entity Framework in .NET will create an object called Employee and create a Property on Employee with the name JobRoles, and this for each record in the Employee list will state an Employees Job Roles list.

So as I am personally a passionate .NET Developer, and I also love the idea of some automation, when used correctly if stumbled across maybe one of the best articles of the past 3 years in Database Object Mapping.

http://samscode.com/index.php/2010/06/entity-framework-v4-end-to-end-application-strategy-part-2-data-layer/

In this article from SamsCode.com he gives you some amazing and time saving approached to Entity Framework Templates & object classes to automate your whole Data Transfer Object Model directly from your Entity Framework Model. But more importantly his concepts are “Real World” and there is not one template that he talks about that won’t help you out with making your Data Layer & Business Layers of Web Applications and Software clean and nice. 

The campaign is a nice extension and  ties in nicely with Vodafone’s social voice this year which is all about encouraging their community  to ‘Make someone happy’ with Random acts of kindness.

Local Irish artists, took to the streets, creating light displays from messages submitted to the Vodafone Playgroup Facebook wall. Using new laser graffiti technology, these were showcased on the sides of buildings in three cities across Ireland.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all back in Ireland

*Quick pop quiz…

1. How many hours of video were uploaded to YouTube in 2010?

2. What percentage of smartphone owners, use their device while shopping?

3. What Australian state most frequently searches for the weather forecast?

As a planner, I’m always chasing that one research tool to bring them all together, and while Think Insights with Google attempts to do just that, it does fall short in a few areas. It’s missing the core search functionality that is the cornerstone of Google’s business. After all, the nirvana of a planner research tool would provide just that, a simple way to intelligently search and prioritise, facts, stats and behavioural trends based on a simple question, such as: ‘How many Australian’s use their laptop in the kitchen while cooking?’

On the flip side, this is a good resource if you are looking for general information on search and mobile related topics, particularly for Google brand related products. And, it does include over 100 custom reports, so you can certainly pop it on the list of go-to resources for all things digital.

My personal favourite resources on the site are: Our Mobile Planet tool (though the data is a little shady for the emerging markets such as India and China) and the Research Library finder.

Ultimately, Think Insights with Google is the perfect tool for media planners, and a useful resource for digital strategists too. Despite it’s downfalls it is one of the best free resources that I have found.

@mariagioffre

*Answers

1. 13 million hours

2. 70%

3. Victoria

Now there is another way of using Kinect – this time to track your customers in a retail environment. It’s called Shopper Tracker.

The sensor sits on top of the shelf and tracks the shopping behavior of the customers underneath. It then creates a heat map of the shelf so you can tell what your best selling items are. As far as I can tell it is not commercially available yet and no price has been announced, but that might change soon.

Check out their video below.

maniac13

That said you certainly don’t have to be a supporter of either to appreciate the sheer awesomeness of this video. Well executed and totally awe inspiring. Nokia successfully bring together the world’s most advanced 4D technology with great music to create an amazing free light show at Millbank Tower in London.

What happened?

“Each of the 120 metre high building’s 800 windows were covered with vinyl as 16 powerful projectors, stationed 300 metres away on the other side of the river, beamed 3D images onto the structure. Huge butterflies flew across the London skyline and the tower was twisted, pulsated and even fell down. Billed as the “future of live events” the spectacular show was accompanied by music from super producer deadmau5, who created exclusive remixes for the performance — adding the 4th dimension.”

Prepare yourself this is a light show like never before!

@lottienorman

This ad was broadcasted in October and it features pink exercise bikes in front of a, what seems to be, historic building in Paris and when some curious ladies start pedalling Neon lights come to life and reveal a male stripper starting to undress.

At the end the girls are told that they just burnt 2000 calories which falls in line with Contrex “My Contrexperience” digital campaign which says that we all would lose more weight if the process was funnier and these ladies definitely look like they had a good time.

Interestingly there are a few rumours online that claim that this is fake as nobody recognizes the building and citizens of Paris claim they never heard of it.

I think it is still a great campaign – tell me what you think in the comments.

@maniac13

2 “users” control real life football players by selecting commands on their Sony handsets that are then send to the players who are wearing ear pieces.

I like how the headband lights up when a player gets selected!

It seems a bit lagging at times, but it is a pretty impressive attempt

Check out the video:

@maniac13

The finalists are below and well done to TBWA for Gold on Pedigree in the same category.

Big effort from Iain, Heiko, Stephan and Dan for the work.

If you have not seen connect before you may well of been hiding under a rock so here it is in action.

Great result and hopefully next year we win gold.

@maniac13

Since the announcement of Kinect for Windows at the start of November, many have asked if there will be PC-specific Kinect hardware coming. Microsoft confirmed today that there will indeed be a new Kinect device for Windows PCs.

Simple changes include shortening the USB cable to ensure reliability across a broad range of computers and the inclusion of a small dongle to improve coexistence with other USB peripherals.  Of particular interest to developers will be the new firmware which enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device without losing accuracy or precision, with graceful degradation down to 40 centimeters.  “Near Mode” will enable a whole new class of “close up” applications, beyond the living room scenarios for Kinect for Xbox 360.

The full press release contains more details including the announcement of new support and mentoring programs for Kinect development.

Expect the new hardware in early 2012.

~@bradyohalloran

The Lexus LFA is the new limited edition supercar that came to Australia just a few month ago and was showcased at the Lexus stand at the Melbourne International Motor show 2011.

George P. Johnson came to us to create an interactive way to showcase the car that you can’t touch.

Straight away a few ideas popped into our heads and after presenting to the client we went with this:

The idea was simple:

We gave out a see through brochure to visitors of the motor show that will generate intrigue and drive them to Lexus stand to see what the completely clear brochure was all about.
The brochure then came to life when it was placed on the Microsoft Surface table, launching an app that gave them an interactive way to learn about and experience this amazing $750 000 car without actually touching it.

Lexus was the only stand at the motor show with a Microsoft Surface table and people from all over Australia got to experience the app and were blown away by it. On the app itself you could explore Images of the car, videos of it in action, a time line of its development and a section where you could “drive” a virtual LFA yourself. The competition gave everyone the chance to win a once of a life time experience where 1 lucky winner could drive in the LFA with a professional race driver.

Additionally we incorporated a separate section called “The Extraordinary Way” where Lexus showed off their way of developing cars to show that all the effort and research that went into the LFA is also used in all their other cars.

Check out our video below:

The results speak for themselves:

1502 people took the brochure to the table
4312 unique content views
1487 went to the competition
the virtual LFA was driven 1972.6km (that is 1472.6km more than the real LFA at that time)

@maniac13

Thanks to everyone who took their time to stay back and get involved! Stephan especially, his performance of the grinch reminded me of a young Brando, I suggest jumping back into that Darlinghurst theatre and sharpening that sword.

Christmas Party location revealed below…

Thanks for watching

@kreyman

Amnesia Razorfish has a new Creative Director – meet Jay Morgan.

This much we know: Jay was formerly National Digital Creative Director at Southern Cross Austereo, he roasts his own coffee beans and (perhaps surprisingly considering point two) is a really nice guy.

You can read some more about Jay’s appointment on AdNews or follow him on Twitter.

David has been helping us with one of our Kinect internal projects while he was working hard on his own university project called dOh

Ever had a doh! moment?, that moment when the door slams behind you and you slap your forehead realising you left the house without taking the keys with you?

dOh will help you remember your keys, wallet, phone or anything else you could possibly forget.

All you have to do is “tag” your items and when you try to leave your apartment your doorknob will tell you, by flashing a coloured light at you, that you forgot a tagged item.

A really nice idea and I am sure it will help people in the future not to forget their things anymore. It could potentially even tell you that you lost your phone when you come back to your home

@maniac13

@danKrause

nanotechnology, with a bendable transparent display and a fully touch sensitive casing are only some of the visions that Nokia cooked up.

Check out the video:

not sure if I agree with all of it, but there are some nice ideas in it.

@maniac13

If you’re not familiar with the report it is compiled by Razorfish in the U.S. and provides an in-depth analysis of emerging trends in media, technology and creativity.

A major theme from  this year is collaboration, content and relationships defining a new approach in media.

The year in digital media is reviewed here and other hot topics include:

Game Mechanics

How the Social Cloud can Accelerate Brand Interactions

Forget Mobile, Think Multiscreen

The Importance of Agency Collaboration

The Report is also available in presentation format here and you can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #orv10.

Happy reading.

Put it this way if the grinch stole Christmas that year, I wouldn’t exactly be over-exerting myself to try and stop him.

This year a few of us decided to stir things up and let me tell you…you can never have enough sauce.

The 2011 xmas party is a secret yet to be revealed and we decided to make a teaser trailer as a lead up to our short film to get everyone excited.

Check out the youtube video below!

@Kreyman

Last week was no different and they gave us 3 different projectors that allow you to interact with them through shadows and augmented reality.

3 devices, split up into camera, room and SLAM models, incorporate pico projectors, coaxial IR cameras, inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the company’s Kinect to project augmented visions onto surrounding surfaces. The environmentally aware systems allow for shadow- and touch-based interaction with the CG overlays, offering pinch functionality, icon selection and even painting.

Pretty cool you think? Check out the video

One day we might all have one of those to check out the latest furniture and what they will look like in our home.

@maniac13

Now Nokia had their Nokia World in London and Tapani Jokinen, Head of Design at Nokia showed off their bendable phone and how it would react when you bend it different ways.

The user will control this flexible Nokia Kinetic phone by bending, twisting and even squeezing it. Different bends will result in different functions on the phone and he had a good point when he said that it makes it much easier to use in the cold winters in Finland when you are wearing gloves.

Check out the video:

Pretty cool!

@maniac13

Indie Royale is a new video game bundle site with an interesting twist on the pay-what-you-like model. Every two weeks, the site will release a bundle of independent video games. Users can pay the current marked price, but as more users pay the marked price, the price will slowly increase. Paying more than the marked price, however, will bring the price down for everyone by an amount proportional to the extra paid.

The site is a joint venture of the blog IndieGames.com and the digital games distribution network Desura. They describe the site’s raison d’être here:

The point of Indie Royale is to put the spotlight on those indie titles which provide fantastic experiences, but may well have been passed over by a good portion of the mainstream gaming public. If you purchase an Indie Royale bundle, you can be safe in the knowledge that you’re not only getting four brilliant indie games – you’re also supporting worthwhile developers.

It’s a cool idea and I can see myself coming back every couple of weeks to see what’s available. Between Good Old Games, Steam and now Indie Royale, it’s getting far too easy to spend all your pocket money on cool games.

here is the teaser we saw last week

And then the gadget show aired a few days ago in the UK, but unfortunately if you are not in the UK you can’t use their streaming and catch-up services. Luckily they uploaded it to Youtube so if you have a cool 17 1/2 min to spare check out how the best FPS simulator was build

Did I say I want one?

@maniac13

Today its the HoloDesk, a tool that lets you manipulate virtual 3D objects with your bare hands. Looking through a transparent display, the objects react nearly instantly, rolling from a sheet of real paper into a real cup and falling into shadow if you block the virtual light-source.

Check out the super cool video of it in action:

If you haven’t guessed it, there is a Kinect sensor at its heart. Super awesome.

@maniac13

As you all know Amnesia Razorfish is always trying to stay ahead of the curve especially when it comes to new technologies so when Stephen had the idea of the BrandTable we were able to help him out a little.

Together with Publicis Mojo we were able to get him first hand insights into Paypal and Google and what they are planning in regards to mobile payments. We were also able to help him with the build of his prototype that shows how NFC could be used in future.

Check out the video:

Here is what Stephen has to say about his creation:

Brand Table is a product designed initially for shopping centre food courts that takes in an order via a mobile device in where item selection and payment will occur.

Brand Table uses NFC technology along with Java and the Android SDK to pull a menu for a restaurant upon contact with one of the specially designed Brand Stickers (to be placed on the table). This method should provide a low cost and tangible experience in where one can order a meal via mobile payments.

Some benefits include:

• Ordering on the go
• Not having to line up
• No Cash needed

Brand Table was created for ongoing research in mobile payments in conjunction with the University of Sydney,Mojo and Amnesia Razorfish.

Model of Phone used: Nexus-S

Special thanks to Stephan Lange, Heiko Schweickhardt and Tim Buesing for making this project possible.

Great work from Stephen and we are hoping to see this concept come to life and we don’t have to stay in line at our favourite food court anymore.

@maniac13

Watch the video below:

Of course we believe these issues will be fixed at some point – but for now anyone who cares about security /phone usage should be aware.