Nova DSLR Concept

The Nova DSLR Concept takes the standard, age-old, SLR and likewise DSLR camera enclosure idea, and asks the oh so important question - why do DSLR's have to be shaped like SLRs? And the answer is, they don't! Aside from the sensor, and the lens itself, the camera enclosure itself need look nothing like its film counterparts, yet year after year we see revisions of the same old design.

Erin Fong has sought to change this stagnation of thinking. Instead he asks the question, what camera design would be most appropriate for a variety of holding styles? What design would make changing settings, zooming, etc. all readily available, at the tips of one's fingers?

The design above attempts to find a truly original answer to these ongoing questions. True, this concept is nothing more than that, just a concept, yet such "out of the box" thinking is quite promising. I'd never even considered the true necessity of my current DSLR design. As with many consumer electronics we assume they are shaped the way they are due to necessity, but often we fail to realize, with continual advances in technology, such barriers are constantly being altered.

Who said designing a new product actually had to mean designing a new device? How about redesigning a new product to make it more efficient? Sure, engineers should think of these things, but digital designers need to as well! Looking at what is already there provides much more doors to open than the single door into the truly unknown.

Source

Google Chrome OS

I suggest watching the video below about Google's impending Chrome OS. I will discuss thereafter.



When I saw this video, and finally completely understood what Google has been, and continues to oh so diligently work on, my draw dropped. After reading a number of viewer comments on Engadget, Gizmodo, and Google's blog I found a resounding opposition. So many people seem to be saying "Everything operated via internet connection...FAIL!"

Yet I see this as entirely the opposite. It is anything but failure, but a huge stride forward in where things are going. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand some people's opposition. The "power users" if you will (of which typically hang out quite a lot of the tech blog websites) - those that eat Photoshop, Final Cut, and Crysis 3 for breakfast - are in opposition to an idea with complete disregard to the target market.

Chrome OS is not (well at least currently) attempting to replace your desktop computer, yet instead trying to replace your netbook. Netbooks, as you may or may not know, are one of the fast growing sectors in the computer industry. As a whole everyone (aside from the mysterious Apple of course) has jumped on the Netbook bandwagon. And what are Netbooks for... well... the Internet of course!

Sure they can do a number of other tasks, yet when it comes down to it, most Netbooks are used for like three things - email, web browsing, and maybe some word processing stuff. This being the case Chrome OS can do all of this - in the browser!

The idea here is what I find so interesting. Ultimately, Google is stretching from the world of hard drives with their ever-present limitations to that of "the cloud." Which sure, it too has a bunch of hard drives, yet as internet streaming capabilities continue to increase, we may see smaller and smaller devices - is it not the hard drive that deems the size of most of our devices? And even if you were to counter with flash memory for example, think about power consumption? If we were to put everyting in the cloud, a streaming internet connection would of course be needed, but that's it! Your computer would no longer be running a continuous 50 background applications.

I find this concept quite exciting, for think of future applications. When internet truly does become all inclusive (which may be a while, yet LTE proves a quite promising not so distant future) one could effectively reduce their everyday browsing devices significantly.

Granted as smartphones continually progress, I imagine the Netbook market, though currently blossoming, will quickly again become obsolete - given impracticality of having a Netbook for web-browsing, a phone for web-browsing, and finally a computer for some hardcore functionality.

I would hope, and as many reports have suggested, this cloud transition will move to most of our wireless everyday devices - as both Apple and MIcrosoft have confirmed their future focus. The idea of moving to the cloud could open up a multitude of computing frontiers, thus I must give praise to Google - for it has taken that first leap needed, to push technology ever-further.

Google Blog

Sleepbox

The idea behind Sleepbox - a 2x1.4x2.3m cubicle lined with LCD screen, power outlets, and automatic sheet-changing bed - is that people could pay (in 15 minute chunks) for access to their very own tiny office or hotel room. The idea at first seems quite ludicrous, though its starts to make just a little bit of sense when analyzing the target audience.

The manufacturer plans to place these sleep cubicles in airport terminals - thus giving those waiting for, or between, their flight an alternative to crowded airport lounges.

It actually seems like a plausible idea (providing the cubicles are quite sound resistant of course.)

Ultimately, this concept conveys our cultural evolution. As our lives become ever increasingly busy, the idea of sleep is fading from a necessity to a convenience - to be had when time permits in our bustling lives. It may sound scary, granted I'm all for an anti-sleep movement. Sleeping 1/3 of everyday seems just so... wasteful.

Regardless, the idea of a Sleepbox is quite intriguing. If it were to become common place, I imagine many more would be needed. In effect we would be building tiny micro-hotels all around major airports! Its a tiny step closer to the sleeping chambers of sci-fi movies, yet one problem still persists. Amount of sleep is not as important as quality. If technology could find a way to improve quality of sleep, even at minimal durations, think of the changes in society itself that could occur!

Our days are ruled by the day-night cycle. Our circadian rhythms are calibrated by the sun (yet slightly off at 25 hours if you want to be technical). What if we could tap into this calibration?

Bustling cities at 3:00am! Mail on weekends! Movies on Wednesday nights!

The possibility of freeing our very restricted night and day cycle could lead to huge increases in productivity, while simultaneously greatly expanding one's free time to explore and experience in this great world.

Yet I've digressed...


Sleep Chamber Website
Information about Circadian Rhythms

Metal-Air Battery

A Metal-Air Ionic Liquid Battery is being designed at Arizona State University under the guidance of Professor Cody Friesen. The design attempts to use ionic liquids as an electrolyte - such electrolyte would not evaporate - thus providing much longer battery life. Also, another issue involving dendritic growth, which causes a decrease in charging capacity of batteries has been resolved.

As research continues towards this battery, that which I am most excited is its possible applications. At an expected "11 times more energy than Lithium-Ion" our battery technologies will have finally approached a similar level of our electronics.

The introduction of such a better battery would be immediately seen in the electric car sector. At such a greater total charge, the practicality of driving somewhere and back solely on battery would become quite plausible.

These batteries would hugely impact the medical device market as well. As of now most problems with medical devices arise, for there is no easy way to charge for instance a pacemaker, or prostethic limb, or vagal nerve stimulator, or visual prosthetic. If batteries of such greater charges were designed, smaller batteries could be made and implanted in the human body - resulting in fewer battery changes, less chances of surgical complications, and of course an expanded opportunity for devices that have yet to find an answer to the eternal power source question.

Such batteries could remarkably extend the battery life of our everyday devices. Currently cellphones are not inhibited by processor technology, but instead the power needed to run such processors. Photo editing on my phone could be possible! Yet it is not necessarily the availability of these advances that is so important, as is the advancement of wireless technology as a whole. Laptops could be used for more than just a couple hours at a time outside, the hardwired idea of a business setting could be completely readapted.

These batteries could also provide a very positive impact on the environment, for if they were able to hold such long charges, yet provide continual consistent use, natural energy gathering methods (solar panels, windmills, hydroelectric, ect) could be used to charge a spare over the two or more days that one is using the original. Then switch. Such a method could greatly improve global electricity use and efficiency, while simultaneously lessening its negative impact on the environment.

Vercorin Gallery, Switzerland

(click image for larger version)

What you are seeing is not a trick of photoshop, but instead a work of art by Felice Varini, called "Cercle et suite d'éclats" in the town of Vercorin, Switzerland. Ultimately, the entire project is an optical illusion, that when viewed from certain angles, converges with a quite surreal effect.

As impressive an undertaking as this project was, that which I am most amazed is the support by so many locals. I cannot imagine readily agreeing to let an artist paint part of a circle across my roof - given the assurance that it'll look really neat when all put together!

One could only dream of future projects that could be developed if people were so willing to allow for artistic endeavors. I mean think about it, a local artist could paint all of the roofs of a town to converge into an image when flown above by helicopter. Or maybe cut all the grass in the town in a specific pattern to produce a specific shape. What if we were to build our towns and cities not as a group of individuals, yet instead as a representation of a culminating whole?Yet in this argument I find quite the irony. In such artistic endeavor, in such acts of creativity, we would resultantly need the conformity of many, many others.

Regardless, that which I like most about this artistic undertaking, is that is so well represents an act of camaraderie. Sure a single artist designed it, but it was with a widely held support that the final breathtaking effect was produced.

Digital Candy

Flickr has reprioritized the means of basic Internet usage. It isn't quite a networking site, nor is it a homepage into your soul. Flickr attempts to blur the line between portraying your images, but more so integrating your images with "contacts." That which makes Flicrk so unique is that it isn't a site for advertising, yet it is most definitely a way to have your voice, or maybe more specifically your vision, heard. Flickr is the YouTube of photography - it is open to everyone, everwhere. There are loads of professional bombarding the website with truly magnificent nature shots and 15 year olds alike taking pictures of their puppy with their iPhone. Flickr is an endless database into our culture's history - uploads in the thousands every minute! Just the other day I found myself browsing photos from the 1930's - free for my perusal!

Flickr, like YouTube, and even Facebook and Myspace for that matter, is not a means to make huge incomes, but instead a means for people to reach out towards one another. A way to share. A way to integrate our everyday lives and our digital lives. Photosharing has seemed quite an integral part of our American lifestyle (think of just about every family reunion, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.)

My point, is that people LOVE to share photos. Yet similarly, people LOVE to look at photos. Flickr gives us such an opportunity... wherever we may be (providing of course an internet connection is within reach!)

With the age of digital technology, and idea of printing photos has, and continues, to fade. Back in the day (three years ago) I worked in a photography lab. In just those 6 months there I noticed quite a rise in online photo prints, as compared to film - honestly, the only film I ever processed were from 35mm disposables, and the remaining few with those ever-so irritating APS formats.

Regardless, we did get quite a few digital orders, yet with the advent, and continual improvement of digital photo frames, I imagine the day will come, where 4x6's are more of a memory (or a commonly used OLED format!). When this day finally comes, flickr, as it is slowly becoming now, will be a centralized database for photo sharing. I will stream my photos to my phone, to my television, to my computer, to my digital photo frame, to my friends, etc.

I imagine Flickr has quite a stable life in front of it. As much as I love the quality of a print, digital RAW data files are in fact lossless - and uploads onto Flickr... well... are acceptable.

When the day comes, when internet databases allow for lossless photo uploads, will be the day memory constraints stop holding us back. We'll see if Flickr jumped on that bandwagon, or fades into memory.

I suppose similar things could be said for music. Even though mp3 are being popularized and largely distributed, the older formats remain. They remain, for at the end of the day, the true sound, the true data, need remain intact.

Extreme Sheep LED Art

Granted the act of herding a bunch of scared sheep around just for the fact that one can seems a little immoral, I have to give it to the creativity of these Wales natives. Given some very careful planning, time lapse photography, some battery powered LED's, and a geeky outlook, a truly unique art form has been created.

I scoured the interwebs to see if I could find more acts of such brilliance. As of this writing... nothing. This single viral video is in itself, a sole contribution to the art form.

This video, though arguably entertaining, raises a number of issues. Most significantly is that of course of morality. Granted none of the animals are getting physically hurt, they are being frightened into direction. I imagine similar tactics used on humans would be well... banned. Yet in a similar light what if we were to use such ideas to create a human scale artistic expression?

Well, such expression would probably be accepted as a dance. Drill charts for a symphony of movement. And when you really consider it, is that not what this Extreme Sheep Art is? It's a beautiful synchronized dance... without... well... free will.