Microsoft Research have turned Kinect into a 3D scanner that allows you to quite literally vacuum a scene into your computer.
We present KinectFusion, a system that takes live depth data from a moving depth camera and in real-time creates high-quality 3D models. The system allows the user to scan a whole room and its contents within seconds. As the space is explored, new views of the scene and objects are revealed and these are fused into a single 3D model. The system continually tracks the 6DOF pose of the camera and rapidly builds a volumetric representation of arbitrary scenes. (link)
The 3D modelling implications are interesting, but the cool part for me is how getting such quick models of a space make it possible to further blend the physical and the virtual (see the augmented reality part of the demo, 3:48 onwards).
Good piece on the narration of Bastion, a Diablo style game set in a shattered world, where your every action is narrated by the verbal lovechild of Samuel L. Jackson and Faithless.
Early on in the project when we were exploring the tone we wanted, we were talking about this idea of, what if the great American author Cormac McCarthy wrote fantasy video games instead of writing these vivid, hard-edged stories about the American southwest and the evil in the hearts of men and all that? He’s written Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, The Road, and others. The atmosphere he creates is amazing, as he paints these beautiful and desolate landscapes with these intense characters who don’t need to say much to say an awful lot.
So we were interested in that kind of feel for our game, minus the terrible evil and the terrible violence, because video games have enough of that already and we wanted a somewhat more uplifting and optimistic tone. So with all that in mind, Logan delivered the voice we wanted. We made sure to define our narrator not just as a voice but as a fully developed character with his own detailed backstory so that anything he ever said in our game could be rich with subtext and emotion.
Amazing just how much the voice adds to the game. Via Bitmob
If Canabalt and Mirror’s Edge made sweet love in the back of Tron’s car outside a party thrown by their good buddy Rez, you’d have this little masterpiece. The visceral gut wrenching jump and hope and fly through the air praying that you’ll land *inches* far enough on the correct side of the chasm…
Man… they nailed it.
I wish it was longer. Fotonica reminds me of the creativity of the demoscene or of music visualizers (I still remember my first time playing with Winamp’s AVS visualizer kit and being amazed by the creativity of other people’s releases). Also, Processing. Also, Rez and Child of Eden for their creation of a larger, evolving world. It’s clear that Santa Ragione have barely scratched the surface of the potential of this game, and the possibilities for those visuals to interact with the gameplay.
He put it harshly, but I agree with Chris Hecker’s sentiment when he asked indies to ‘please finish your game‘. The core mechanic so gorgeous that I’d love Santa Ragione to push the variety and depth of so that Fotonica becomes a journey rather than just a quick trip.
But as pay as you want (with no DRM), it’s a no brainer! Go get it.
I love synchronizing different senses (my favorite thing: snowboard turns in time to a song). So I had to dig this good ol’ Chemical Brothers video by Michel Gondry.
Even cooler is the making of, which shows Gondry prototyping with pen and paper and then (skip to 7.21) with random objects. That’s a whole lotta oranges.
Open source evangelist Jamie Zawinski in 1999, on Mozilla’s failings:
You can divide our industry into two kinds of people: those who want to go work for a company to make it successful, and those who want to go work for a successful company.
[a] red phone that they leave with prospective clients. The client only needs to pick up the phone to be put in touch with one of the Breakfast partners.
I am honestly not sure how this works, but I think the idea is that Breakfast leaves the phone at the clients without much explanation. Who can resist picking up a red phone, especially when it has a blinking red light?
Client reaction? Here’s one, transcribed from the Breakfast website. It is the Senior Vice President of Entertainment Marketing at Turner. She says “This is the coolest thing I have had any agency send! This is awesome!!!
This may not be a new technique, but it somehow never seems to lose its appeal and done this well… Wow. I’m jealous of anyone who gets to see this show.
Compare & contrast with the old masters of the AV, Pink Floyd. From Roger Water’s arena tour this year, where he brought The Wall back to the stage, beautifully updating the concept of building a wall between the audience and the performers as the show goes on. It’s less glitzy, but a more emotionally gut-wrenching blend of visuals, music and story.
“I’m convinced that for an existing company to innovate, they must first make the decision to get rid of something. Unless you get rid of it, it will always be more a more compelling argument to improve the old rather than commit to the new. That small decision over time adds up to a total deflection, and you are never as motivated to innovate as the unencumbered new entrant.”
- Richard Foster
I’d go even farther. Not only do you have to get rid of something, you have to actively kill it and everything that supports it. If the new product is coming from a new process you have to disenfranchise old, powerful teams. If it’s even a slightly different size you have to let the old version dwindle to nothing on the shelves of Walmart and Costco before they will (at great cost to you) plug the new version into their system. If the new widget is a real leap you have to kill the old perceptions so the new ones can take root, and suddenly your brand has a long climb back to being instantly recognizable. There are very tangible reasons that gradual change just might not be possible.
The real dilemma – and the quote captures it – is that the tradeoff isn’t between an unsuccessful status quo and an obvious improvement. The real decision is usually to kill a very comfortable status quo not because it’s bad, but because someone else eventually will. You’re diving into an uncertain decision to avert an inevitable, but completely unpredictable outcome.
You have to be willing to risk cratering an entire business to let the new one grow.
And this gets to the heart of it; companies don’t get rid of something, people do. Individuals have to wrestle with a series of ‘bet the company’ decisions that are concrete and gut wrenching.
There’s fear in spades.
So as designers we have to remember that it’s not just our job to compellingly sell our vision of the future. We also have to arm our clients and executives to kill the past.
Hybrid thinking is more than just having multidisciplinary teams. It’s about having multidisciplinary people — folks who are one-part humanist, one-part technologist and one-part capitalist. When multiple disciplines inhabit the same brain, something magical starts to happen. The disciplines themselves start to mutate. They hybridize. We start practicing business like a designer — think Mark Parker at Nike. We shape technology like a culturalist — think Steve Jobs at Apple. And we start thinking about the most complex problems that plague our societies like an entrepreneur.
What organizational structure supports this? How hybridized should different parts of a company be – i.e. do we want all employees to be hybrid thinkers?
And most importantly – where are the hybrid thinkers already working in the system, unrecognized and hidden behind ill fitting job descriptions? My gut tells me there are many doing this under another name, so recognizing them may be the first step to wider adoption.
Projecting power; it’s pretty amazing how much of social hierarchy we decode from the tiniest verbal and non-verbal cues. So here’s a old, but awesome, example of how tiny and rapid those cues can be.
On November 14, 2007, first term junior senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama is invited to speak at Google, followed by a conversation with CEO Eric Schmidt. He delivers his stirring stump speech, and then. to a standing ovation, comes the moment to transition from the lectern to the armchairs for that conversation.
Now, what’s the typical script for this kind of moment?
Take Chris Dodd, also a presidential hopeful and a much more experienced one at that, having been re-elected to the senate four times since 1981 (26 consecutive years in office).
He finishes his speech, to applause. Google’s Kent Walker (offscreen) motions him to come over. Gesturing back while awkwardly turning a question into a rhetorical statement, he says “Up here(?)” as if to double check the next step. He walks over to the chairs and there is a muted flurry of exchanges to clarify the seating arrangement and a joke about getting the director’s chair, and then the ritual transition of authority to the interviewer: “Senator Dodd, thank you very much for coming, we are honored to have you.” “Thank you.” The interview ensues.
It’s the same for John McCain. He finishes his story, and, as the crowd applauds, Eric Schmidt thanks him, introduces the senator to the audience, and then begins the conversation.
What about a different kind of candidate, one arguably just as fervently beloved as Obama was: Tina Fey. She walks on stage to an explosive standing ovation, which she self-deprecatingly tries to placate. She sits, Eric Schmidt walks over, gestures towards her in appreciation, she stands, returns the favour (somewhat jokingly). They both sit. She bemusedly accepts all the authority granted to her by the crowd, and the standard script ensues graciously: Eric Schmidt introduces and thanks her, and once again, the interview begins.
That makes sense – he’s in charge of one of the most important companies on planet earth.
What’s fascinating is the one, tiny four word thing Obama does which reverses that entire dynamic. At 15:57, as the crowd applauds him, he gestures down to CEO Eric Schmidt and tells him: “Eric, come on up.”
(Uncharitable translation: “Beg. Now sit. Good boy.”)
What gets me about this is thinking about the impact of being able to constantly reassert one’s authority while still being gracious. It’s feedback loop, and is predicated on such subtle skills that those who can pull it off can quickly rise to the top. In a way, Tina Fey does the same with her self deprecating humor. Wielded more clumsily, it dilutes what authority your achievements should entitle you to.
It takes just a few words or gestures (and a truckload of chutzpah) to break the script, and a split-second to change your place in the story.
And not just for people. What’s the equivalent of “Eric, come on up” for service design in particular, but also interaction design in general? (Apple’s iOS notifications come to mind – a slap in the face delivered with a velvet gloved Jony Ive hand). What is an authoritative experience design?
Jane McGonigal from the Institute of the Future at TED. Millions of gamers have a fully fledged education in skills that could help save the real world… if it was more like a game. 10,000 hours “The average young person today in a country with a strong gamer culture will have spent 10,000 hours playing [...]
Tokyo’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) doesn’t pull its punches. While many museums seek to entertain, this one hits you with beautifully presented information that rewards your attention with real teaching. The first exhibit I’ll mention is particularly relevant for readers of this blog. It’s dedicated to five types of innovation: Alternative: [...]
In their heyday, the existence of Native American Indians revolved around the buffalo. They used every part: “The buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, [...]
