c0nn0r.info/blog

I collaborated with Jacky Lee while in Taiwan on this interactive TV project as part of our ongoing research into interactive and emotionally-reactive television. It was installed at the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the Animamix Biennial.

The “Community Vending Machine” or simply “Pepsi Machine” was a project that I completed while at the MIT Media Laboratory that was shown at Wired NextFest 2006 in NYC. I don’t have time to go into details now, but just know that it’s an interactive media purveying platform that uses multiple (14) individual spanning screens, computers, microphones and computer-vision to allow people to interact both explicitly and implicitly.

Most interesting for me is the fact that the machine passively generates knowledge about the specific audience that visits it and can then use this data to inform the content creators or even as a commodity to sell to 3rd parties. To this end the Pepsi Machine has expanded possibilities for generating value… I’ll elaborate more later.

small, medium or large video demos available.

If You don’t see me online or wonder why it’s taking me 12 extra hours to reply to your emails it is because I am in Taiwan giving a series of talks and demos.

Yesterday I spoke at Gamania about the Pepsi Machine, kameraflage and demoed my Motion-Sensing Dog collar concept (Which they totally loved).

Today I was supposed to give a similar talk at ITRI, but there is a category 5 typhoon on the way and it is dangerous to travel… Plus I have serious jet-lag, and need to save my energy for Nightmarket; a 3-day hack-a-thon.

As I am resident technologist/artist/hackist for Nightmarket, I will be helping the participants implement their ideas in addition to building my own installation from scratch with Jacky Lee to be unveiled/installed at the National Taiwan Museume of Fine Art

I’ll be back in Cambridge, MA. the first week of September with serious jetlag and a hankering for a cheeseburger.

A few weeks ago Natasha took me out for lunch on Newbury St. (Boston’s poshest area). As we were walking down the street a lady approached us and stated that we were the hottest couple on the street (um… ok) and that she and her partner were doing a documentary on the iPhone. She wanted to know if I wanted to say a few things on camera about it. I hesitated but Natasha urged me to do it, so I did.

A few weeks later I get a call from some producer at Moxie Pictures which is an agency that makes the commercials for Apple on behalf of Apple’s ad agency TBWA \ Chiat \ Day. The lady congratulated me and said that I landed the role as the next guy to be in Apple’s iPhone ad campaign! My reaction was like the caveman from the Geico commercial “YEAH, uh… what?” They said that they would fly me to NYC for a 2-day shoot next weekend. I even had to sign and FAX an NDA.

Apparently the documentary was just a cover, and that those people were simply casting for the agency.

Anyways, to make a long story short I am not able to do the campaign because I am not legally allowed to work in the USA.

kameraflage^TM: Display Technology Visible Only to Digital Cameras

Here is my latest design that uses kameraflage^TM display technology. As you can see, the garment has elements that appear only in digital photographs. In this example you can see that the thundercloud has a lightning-bolt when viewed through a digital camera's viewfinder.

This garment, as well as other designs that incorporate kameraflage^TM technology will be on display at the 2007 ACM SIGGRAPH Unravel fashion show on August 6th at a club called "On Broadway" in San Diego, California. Come check it out and say hi!

In the meantime I invite everyone to check out kameraflage.com to learn more about how it works and its other uses.

~ High-resolution press photo is available here.

~ Special thanks to Becky Hehn (model) and Dana Dodson (make-up).

The website for kameraflage^TM is now online and no-longer password protected. Why? I finally filed for a patent!

Go ahead, tell your friends! I am currently seeking investors to help me bring kameraflage^TM to the next level.

Next on the list: Incorporate an LLC.

I am happy to report that the fashion version of kameraflage™ has been accepted to be shown at the SIGGRAPH UNRAVEL fashion show (world’s top venue for far-out fashion technologies) in San Diego this August.
I will be showing two new designs that are sure to amaze and delight

Stay tuned!

The XO-1 (nee OLPC, nee $100 laptop), for those who don’t know, is a computing platform developed specifically for young children in developing nations. It has been designed from scratch to address the needs of this unique audience.

Recently I have become interested in designing devices that empower childen (the “Children’s TV” is my first design in this regard). As part of my research I bought a Texas Instruments “Speak & Spell” which is a computer designed to help the children of the 80’s learn the alphabet and how to spell.

After playing with the Speak & Spell for a bit I realized that the keyboard is a kid-friendly ABCDEF layout rather than the typical QWERTY found on most keyboards.

Perhaps there should be the option for XO-1 users to physically change their keyboards. Youngsters can start with ABCDEF and advance to the less intuitive (but standard) QWERTY layout when they enter grade-school.

~ This post also appears at creativesynthesis.net

It is not uncommon to stumble across a graveyard of BBQs in London, Canada. Also as you can see, Canada is all about the propane.