ideas

PBS TV: Everyday Edisons

Posted by _tango! on May 19, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, ideas, information, inspiration, me, style, tech. 6 comments
Everyday Edisons pbs tv show inventions

“Everybody has a great idea that could change the way we work, the way we live or the way we play. Everyday Edisons documents the development process of 14 inventions and the parallel stories of the people who invented them as they are taken from a sketch on a napkin to a store shelf.”

If your the type that craves to see, watch, and understand the creative methodology of a product idea to market, take a glimpse at the new documentry invention show Everyday Edisons on PBS (a Bouncing Brain Production), which follows a handful of inventors through their journey to bring their ideas to shelves for everyone to buy. Unlike some reality shows, there are no winners or losers and no cheesey competitions. This show follows and documents the story behind each individual over the time of a year working with a large team of people to make their products a reality with the real prize being a spot on store shelves.

The series started a few weeks back, so check out your pbs listings for your local air times(usually on Saturday). Even though the first season has not finished, it seems the show has licensed through some pretty good channels, skymall, and a few of the inventions have popped up on Amazon though not available at the moment.

update: They have their very own YouTube Channel to watch and subscribe to!!!!

iSave water indicator

Posted by _tango! on May 18, 2007
Posted in: design, experience, ideas, information, tech, thoughts. 3 comments
isave fawcet concept

iSave is a pretty sweet concept that just might make you behaviorally turn that fawcet off when brushing your teeth to conserve the amount of precious water you use/waste daily.”This device has a digital display that works with the help of a turbine. When you open the faucet the pressure of the water activates the device and it displays the amount of water consumed.”

I recently read in a card in the book “Drivers of Change” this:

“How long will we continue to flush our toilets with drinking water?”
“Although two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water, only 1% is fresh water.”
“Within 30 years, the majority of the world’s population will not have enough potable water” ‘water wars’ are very likely to occur.”

Personally, I’d love to have the iSave in my house, then yell at my friends that take 2 hour showers, or leave the fawcett running for 10 minutes while brushing their teeth. It’s almost like being carbon-neutral, but just in the world of water. Perhaps the same could be made for electrical sockets. Less is better…kinda like a weight scale when your dieting 😉

via newlaunches

Pong Watch

Posted by _tango! on May 18, 2007
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, style, tech, wacky. 2 comments



pong watch John Maushammer

This is way too geeky cool! I want one! In fact, I’d really like a Pong Belt Buckle as well! Creator John Maushammer has a documentry of his homemade creation on his site here. I don’t think he has any current plans to mass manufacture this watch yet, but when it does, I’m sure it’ll be a hit at gatherings.

Watch the video above or YouTube video here.

Ripple.org beta

Posted by _tango! on May 16, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, ideas, information, inspiration, tech, thoughts. 2 comments
ripple.org beta

“Save the World one click at a time!”

Wow, what an awesome idea (which I had once, but these guys made it happen). Basically, Ripple.org operates off the idea of using ad revenue as money for donations. You click, you’ve donated. How simple and brilliant. If your the type that advocates saving the world, but have no money, and only time, here ya go! Click away and save the world. 100% of clicks/revenue go directly to specified foundations, though I wished there was someway for individuals to see how much they have contributed click-wise, time, or money…. check them out..click away!

via NotCot

StoryCorps

Posted by _tango! on May 14, 2007
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, thoughts. Leave a Comment

storycorps

“StoryCorps is a national project to instruct and inspire people to record one another’s stories in sound.

StoryCorps celebrates our shared humanity and collective identity. It captures and defines the stories that bond us. The process of interviewing a friend, neighbor, or family member can have a profound impact on both the interviewer and the storyteller. People change, friendships grow, families walk away feeling closer and understanding each other better. Listening, after all, is an act of love.

A StoryCorps interview is an opportunity to ask the questions that never get asked because the occasion never arises. How did you come to this country? How did you and mom meet? How did Uncle Harry get the nickname “Twinkles”?”

StoryCorps is a captivating project by design studio LocalProjects with recordings from everyday people ranging from friendships, relationships, struggles, identity, heroes, disasters, work, and various other personal experiences told by people like yourself.  I’ve listened to well over a dozen recordings and feel like I’ve journeyed around the country meeting everyday people with fascinating personal stories over a nice cup of coffee conversations.

Take a Listen, Participate, or learn more about StoryCorps here.

Dragons Den

Posted by _tango! on May 11, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment
dragons den bbc

If your an inventor, designer, entrepreneur, business leader, or just curious about what make and breaks great business ideas, take a look at the hit show Dragons Den in the UK where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to Venture Capitalist (the Dragons) in seek of investments to develop their ideas even further in exchange for a percentage in their company. The show ranges from product inventions, to services, to strategies, business models, and every little aspect of what’s needed to be successful in creating a new company.  I’ve actually met one of the dragons during a pitch once before, but I’ll keep that to myself 😉

If your not in the UK, no problem….just go to their small video page here of winning pitches,(click the full screen button) or cling on to awesome video streams of each show at High Resolution at AllofTV.net (Dragons Den season 2, season 3, season 4) Most of the shows result in no investments, but the ones that make it through are pretty darn good. Here’s an hour long episode I watched recently…pretty good.

Clay Grass Tennis!

Posted by _tango! on May 3, 2007
Posted in: design, entertainment, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, thoughts, wacky. 4 comments

federer nadal tennis court grass clay
How bizarre! First came the breathtaking mile high tennis court with Andre Agassi, and now tennis star Roger Federer dukes it out with French Open champion Rafael Nadal on an experimental exhibition part clay part grass tennis court costing $1.63 million to set up(damn…give me $5000, and I’ll make that happen and pocket the rest). I’ve always been a fan of half&half pizza, drinks, hybrid cars, tools, payments, etc, but I never thought I’d see this happen. It would be interesting to see this again with the split happening horizontally (each player with both floors). Maybe a dangerous oncrete, clay, grass court is next.

Read the rest of the story with more pictures after the jump.
via Slam Sports and ESPN.

Continue Reading

VoicePrints

Posted by _tango! on April 29, 2007
Posted in: art, design, fun, ideas, inspiration, materials, style, tech. Leave a Comment
voiceprints

“Voiceprints is an experiment in the translation of audio information to visual imagery. Artist Pierre Proske records a person’s voice into a microphone, analyzes the audio file for frequency content, loops the sample, and then generates a variety of textile patterns arranged according to the individual’s vocal frequency imprint.The basic acoustic unit in human speech is called a phoneme. The visual equivalent is called a “viseme,” a basic speech unit in the visual domain. Interested in the audio to visual translation, Proske developed software that describes sound using basic visual units to represent recorded frequencies.

Proske reminds us that the use of computing in textile design is nothing new. Woven textiles actually form part of computing history, through Joseph Marie Jacquard’s automated patterned textile weaving machine in 1804 which led to the use of punch cards in computing devices.”
via TransStudio

“Book” means “Cool”

Posted by _tango! on April 24, 2007
Posted in: entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, me, tech, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment

txt msgBesides this weeks news of 13 year old Morgan Pozgar winning $25k for being the world text messenging champion, another fun, social, behavioral, and somewhat pop cultural fact I learned this past week was the effects of the T9 predictive typing system found on most phones:

“That’s so Book! In an interesting technical flavor to linguistics, T9 predictive text on mobile phones is now starting to have an effect on language. For example, ‘book’ now means ‘cool’ because when either is entered (2665) into a T9 predictive phone, ‘book’ is offered before ‘cool,’ and is now used in place of the latter.”

I don’t use T9 often since it never outputs my designerly modified crappy lingo but this might also be old news as my phone currently does output “cool” before “book”, as does the GUI on the T9 site.

So, can technology change our language or even definitions….sure! Many cultures shorten or replace words much like our Australian friends down under(lingo list). Even mashups are becoming more common. I learned a bunch of pretty sweet custom terms during word queen Erin Mckeans ‘Word Lovers’ Boot Camp during GEL last week. The two words that stuck in my head were:

1.”CrappyJack”: any kind of empty, snacky junk food.
2. “Drunch”: to consume alcoholic beverages with like-minded individuals between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday. 😉

I also learned the the term “Ecosexual: A person who’s into hybrid cars, low energy lightbulbs, and recycling.” via Treehugger

In-Flight Education

Posted by _tango! on April 23, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, tech. 2 comments
in flight education

Woa…cool..how smart! via springwise

“Giving customers the opportunity to learn a few words of Korean or Portuguese while en route to Seoul or São Paulo, Air France introduced in-flight language instruction on selected flights this month. An interactive audiovisual language program developed by Berlitz, the service works on regular in-flight entertainment screens. Passengers can learn and practice the basics of 23 different languages, in four main lesson categories: numbers, dates, words and dialogue.

JAL and Singapore Airlines also offer Berlitz Word Traveller as part of their in-flight entertainment package, and Virgin Atlantic has experimented with Japanese and Spanish lessons. It’s a great example of trendwatching.com’s status skills trend. As many consumers are demonstrating a value shift in status from passive consumption to mastering skills, smart companies are offering their customers the opportunity to add to their skill set. Similar initiatives include BMW’s Performance Driving Schools, the Sony Digital University or the Viking Cooking School. Watch and learn!”

IDSA Shift Conference: RISD

Posted by _tango! on April 21, 2007
Posted in: art, design, experience, ideas, information, me, style. 2 comments
idsa shift conference risd

I’m off to this years IDSA conference “Shift” over the weekend which is being held at the wonderful campus of RISD. I have not been to an IDSA conference for some time so I have no clue what to expect though I’m doubting it will as diverse as TED, GEL, or Poptech. Otherwise, I do look forward in seeing the students portfolios and seeing how digitalized, web savvy, and smart they are….hopefully none have fallen into the the “cool rendering” trap as good ideas! I’m seeking more of a real problem solving, storytelling, global changing, methodology type. If your near RISD this weekend, swing by…I think tickets are still available.