http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBYc20bB6LI
Samsung demonstrated a new flexible OLED display at CES 2013. This impressive screen is thin, pliable and can be bent without damage to the screen.
Go to 4:00 minute If you want to skip to the demo of the product.
This is an 18 minute documentary by Bassett & Partners and Microsoft exploring how our lives have and will change in a connected world. It features interviews from designers from Twitter, Arduino, etc. Definately not a statement, but musings and thoughts about how UX affects our lives.
Parallax based websites appear to be all the rage this days. Here is a great piece done by Nintendo. Don’t forget to use your mouse wheel or your keyboard arrows to see the effect.
http://www.nintendo.com.au/gamesites/mariokartwii/#rediscover
This for now goes into the “vapor-ware” category. Wearable electronics have existed for a very long time but haven’t gained much popularity. This startup out of Brazil is trying to change that by creating a jacket with an array of sensors. Each sensor is unique and can control a custom computer program behavior.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/machina/midi-controller-jacket-v01?ref=website
Using the Microsoft Kinect to fully immerse consumers in a digital experience
Wow. I thought that the “Our food. Your questions.” Canadian campaign executed by Tribal DDB was brilliant. Australia takes it to the next level with an augmented reality application that shows you where your food came from.
Next kinect
Just ran into a very cheesy video made by the manufacturers of the Xbox Kinect of their upcoming, much smaller sensor, named Capri. Take a look at the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w5QGf_9gGME
Why does it matter? Because the existent Kinect system is very successful in many practical applications beyond gaming. The Capri could be far more precise, powerful and smaller. Lots of applications for outdoor interactive with no need for touch!
Got this device about a month ago and had some time to use it both at home and at work.
I really like the Windows 8 operating system. I’ve been running it at home for the past 7 months but was using a mouse on my old laptop which hinders the experience. It is a much more pleasant experience to use it on a touch screen device like the Surface RT. Using the brand new Microsoft office applications on the device is great. There are 2 types of keyboard available for the device. One is flat while the other has raised keys (more traditional). Both are very slim.
The “RT” in “Surface RT” means that this is a potable device operating system, that can only run applications specially programmed for “RT”. It means that you can not use such a program as Quattro, as it was programmed to run on normal, non-“RT” computers. This is the biggest flaw of the device and for this reason I would not recommend buying it at this stage.
The full version of the Surface, which can run all the normally programmed applications, will be available in the next few months. The device will be double the price of the RT device.
Pros:
– up to 8 house of battery life
– extremely portable
– using gestures to close, switch and position applications is powerful
– display quality is very sharp, even though it is not as crisp as the iPad
– has true multi-tasking (also is a con, read below)
– unlike a regular tablet, has a standard USB port, so you can plug and use your printer, camera, USB drive etc
Cons:
– running power-hungry applications in the background could really slow the device
– you must use the raised keyboard, otherwise typing is difficult
– can’t run regular computer programs, has to run specially programmed RT programs
The current Kinect device for depth and gesture detection is small, but the next generation code name ‘Capri’ will be small enough that it’ll be able to fit into tablets (and eventually smartphones).
This has huge ramifications for all types of advertising.
It will be second nature for consumers to interact with store displays and billboards thru simple gestures and or voice commands.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/11/primesense-capri-hands-on/
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/12/primesense-reveals-capri-worlds-smallest-3d-sensor/
Leap Motion plans to bring the same motion sensing technology, with a focus on hand tracking, to the desktop and any screen in close proximity to the user.