EXP: physical digital Archives

Noteput: Blending Digital and Physical to Teach Music Notation

by Craig Kanarick on February 16, 2010 | No Comments

German Jonas Heuer has prototyped a rather simple, yet compelling, example of a physical/digital interactive machine to teach people about music. The Noteput allows users to physically place giant notes on a screen showing a musical scale and then plays the music accordingly.

As he describes it, the Noteput was designed to combine as many of the senses as possible -- touch, sight and sound in this case. As someone who has forgotten how to read music, I could certainly see playing with this for hours on end.

NYC BigApps Winners Announced

by Craig Kanarick on February 5, 2010 | No Comments

NYC BigApps is a contest to drive innovation in software that can help the city of New York become more sustainable through transparency, accessibility and accountability. The requirements were simple: write an web-based app that utilizes data from the NYC.gov "Data Mine" -- a catalog of sets of public data produced by local agencies.

The content awards $20K in cash prizes to 13 winners announced tonight. I know a lot of the judges and I think they did a great job acknowledging some really good entries. Personally, I think Trees Near You and WayFinder are the best of the best. Core77 has some in-depth reporting on these and other winners.

Imogen Heap and Her Interactive Dress

by Craig Kanarick on February 4, 2010 | No Comments

Last weekend, at the Grammy's, Imogen Heap wore was was called a "Twitdress", a dress with an attached monitor that supposedly displayed tweets in real-time. The screen was so small and hidden during the broadcast that it was difficult, if not impossible, to tell if it was working but it sure looked interesting. While this wasn't the best example of how to infuse an outfit with technology, given the size of the viewing audience, might be the most exposed example of interactive fashion in the world. The parasol-as-wifi-antenna was a particularly inspired touch.

She wore the dress as she accepted the (appropriate) award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Not only does she have 1.3 million followers, she's embraced the digital age by inviting her fans and followers to provide feedback, remixes and lyrics ideas.

Maison Hermes by Tokujin Yoshioka

by Craig Kanarick on January 27, 2010 | No Comments

Thanks to designboom and pixelsumo, I got to see this amazing video by Tokujin Yoshioka for Maison Hermes. The combination of digital video and fans make an incredible illusion that blends wit, grace, digital and physical. File under "I wish I had made this."

New Zealand Night Lights - Yes Yes No? Yes!

by Craig Kanarick on January 27, 2010 | No Comments

Night Lights is an interactive installation that uses the body, hands and a phone for a massive and colorful game of charades. Staged at Aukland's Ferry Building, the project is the upshot of a joint effort among four creative agencies and the public audience.

Using software created in openFrameworks by YesYesNo, the team projected a sequence of six scenes every hour onto the building's facade over the course of five days. Created for the rebranding of Telecom New Zeland, the project transformed the city's main transportation hub into an exciting display of lights.

The software created for the project is currently being prepared for Open Source release. Living in NY, with so many large buildings, makes me now see every facade as a canvas...

The 2009 Feltron Annual Report

by cool hunting on January 25, 2010 | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Clearly a person who loves data visualization and thoroughly understands the power of illustrating personal tracking, infographic designer Nicholas Felton released his fifth annual report, the culmination of yet another year's worth of data accretion and (according to his Facebook status) well over 200 hours of labor. With The 2009 Feltron Annual Report, Felton stepped up his game a sizable notch by creating his first ever crowd-sourced report, enlisting the help of relatives, friends, colleagues and even his dentist.

Calling daily on the people he met who he felt "had discerned enough of my personality and activities" to submit a record of the encounter through an online survey, the designer tracked responses and used his own subjective analysis to come up with the data set. While Felton acknowledges the variations in accuracy his methods produce, he explains that he "strives to sort and collate the data in a clinical and repeatable manner that could be reproduced by someone looking for the same stories I have selected. "

Felton also notes that the volume of data was so unwieldy it could have easily spiraled into several more reports. To manage all of the information (and keep his sanity), he enlisted the help of such tools as Processing and Amazon's Mechanical Turk. The final product once again makes an intriguingly elegant representation of an individual's activities over the course of a year--this time recorded under the surveillance of his peers.

La Vitrine by Moment Factory and Photonic Dreams

by Craig Kanarick on January 25, 2010 | No Comments

Created in August of 2009 in Montreal, this reactive video wall was designed and produced by Moment Factory, known in the industry for designing incredible productions for clients as diverse as Cirque de Soleil, the United Nations and Nine Inch Nails. Called North America's first large-scale permanent outdoor reactive wall, the project was originally supposed to be a temporary installation but was so popular, it has become a permanent fixture. I say that's a good move.

Bigert&Bergström: Tomorrow's Weather

by Craig Kanarick on December 15, 2009 | No Comments

Stemming from a childhood fascination of a weather ball on the top of a bank building in Minneapolis, I am intrigued by Tomorrow's Weather, a double helix sculpture in Denmark comprised of over 60 molecular globes.

What's interesting about this is that traditional weather balls--also known as weather beacons--are usually located on top of buildings or attached to towers. Tomorrow's Weather uses current technology to forecast upcoming elements just like a weather ball, while remaining affixed to the side of the building.

Weather beacons are found in cities from Sydney to Cincinnati, so have a look around to see if your city is included. Often a little poem is attached to the weather codes to make its information easy to memorize. I will never forget that "when the weather ball is red, warmer weather is ahead..."

For real weather fanatics, check out the ambient weather beacon, a home device that also forecasts the upcoming weather.

Reactive and Interactive Digital Billboards

by Craig Kanarick on December 9, 2009 | No Comments

As we are knee deep in decade-review media chatter about the death of the TV ad, I decided to think about other forms of advertising pronounced dead in the past, billboards.

One of the oldest forms of advertising, the billboard first gained traction in the late 1800s. The popularity of the Model T in 1908 drove billboards to become common as roadside advertising and in 1925, the Burma-Shave billboards start populating US highways, cementing outdoor as an important channel for consumer messages.

Over the years, the billboards were the playground of advertising creatives and continue to push the limits of the format. In the 1920's, billboards became reactive and changed their content in realtime with giant thermometers, changing their display with the ambient temperature. What follows is a brief natural history of the reactive and interactive billboard in recent times.

October 2003

Coke launches a 99-foot wide interactive billboard in Picadilly Circus recognizing and responding both to the weather and people waving to it from below (above left).

May 2004

Stellar interactive firm R/GA creates a billboard for Yahoo!'s automotive web site allowing pedestrians to play a video game on a 23-story billboard via mobile phones (above right).

July 2004

Ogilvy launches an SMS-reactive billboard for the Ford Fiesta in Belgium, the first of its kind in Europe (above left).

February 2005

Amex Belgium launches a billboard in which users can upload a photo to a website that in turn displays it on the billboard where a live webcam photographs the billboard and emails it back to the user (above right).

May 2005
Nike ID uses a 23-story Times Square billboard for users to design shoes via mobile phones and see results in real time. The one-minute design session also sends emails and discounts to the designer, er, customer (at right).

February 2006

Disney Interactive has an 57-story tall reactive billboard featuring imagery of the Himalayas. The billboard blinks the eyes of a yeti upon receiving SMS sent to it.

January 2007

Mini Cooper USA launches in Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco. After the Mini drivers answer some basic information about themselves, Mini USA sends them a special key fob identifiying them to the billboards they pass by, delivering a personal message based on the information provided.

June 2007
One of my absolute favorites is the BBC America billboards shown above. They were placed in New York where viewers sent SMS messages to answer polls and updated the billboard in real-time.

July 2007
Adobe uses a billboard that reacts to the motion of the person standing in front of it. The system, which uses a simple webcam with complicated processing code behind it is a joy to look at and fun to interact with.

August 2007
Ecko launches a billboard that allows users to digitally spraypaint using a Blackberry.

Feb 2008

Australian billboard sneezes on people.

October 2008
A billboard in New Zealand by ddb tests earphone levels from the National Foundation for the Deaf.

January 2009

Sharpie creates gorgeous interactive billboards.

Feb 2009

Cadbury Splat the Egg interactive bus shelter ad allows waiting passengers to pass the time by playing a video game.

March 2009

In a Rotterdam bus stop, health club chain Fitness First converts the bench into a digital scale with the readout on the shelter wall (at right).

July 2009
Caldwell Banker creates a live 150-foot billboard that responds to text messages with Zip codes by displaying the highest, median and lowest price properties in that zip code within seconds.

July 2009

In Korea Nikon does what looks like a truly amazing job with an interactive billboard that simulates paparazzi to launch their D700 camera (at right).

Sept 2009

I hate to end with a billboard fail, but who can resist laughing at the twitter-enabled billboard below...Happy New Year!

Continue reading Reactive and Interactive Digital Billboards.

Physical Digital Physical Mushrooms

by Craig Kanarick on November 29, 2009 | No Comments

From the super smart Dr. Nicholas Nova (Pasta&Vinegar) in Geneva, we have a great example of physical inspiring digital inspiring physical. What it lacks in reactivity, it makes up for in cuteness.

This Is Plot Jewelery

by cool hunting on November 18, 2009 | No Comments

The brainchild of a strategist and an art director, This Is Plot illustrates the subtle beauty of economic data. Each necklace is handcrafted by the London office of advertising giant Wieden+Kennedy, and is comprised of the traded commodities gold, silver, oil and lead. Celebrating the "stories of exact facts," each necklace plots the price of its representative commodity over the span of thirty years, beautifully marking its highs and lows.

The clever necklaces are seemingly the first to plot data as well as the first collection for Wieden+Kennedy, who are plotting another series soon. Prices vary depending on material, range from £94-240 and can be purchased from This Is Plot.

The Fun Theory

by Craig Kanarick on November 10, 2009 | No Comments

The Fun Theory is a new project from Volkswagen that integrates digital technology into every day physical experiences with the expressed goal of making sustainable behavior (walking up stairs, throwing away trash, etc) into fun activities. The theory is that if walking up stairs was more fun, more people would do it, and I agree. How great would it be if every staircase was a piano?

They are also using Open Innovation practices to extend the project by awarding a cash prize called the Fun Theory Award to people who submit similar ideas to the one illustrated below...

[ Thanks, Alex ]

Live Ships Map

by Craig Kanarick on November 9, 2009 | No Comments

MarineTraffic.com is a new website based on Google Maps and some open data that allows people to monitor real time ship traffic around the world. Because of some data constraints, the information is mostly about ships on the European and North American coastlines, but a full range of ships are in the system.

The project is hosted by the Department of Project and Systems Design Engineering at the University of the Aegean in Greece. Rolling over a ship icon reveals information such as the heading and history of the vehicle.

The site refreshes itself automatically every minute or so (depending on what part of the world you are monitoring), making the entire experience fun to just use as a screensaver.

Digital Graffiti Wall

by Craig Kanarick on November 6, 2009 | No Comments

Last week I wrote about a great integration of digital and physical technologies to allow people to simulate painting called Digital Painting. Today a reader tipped me off to another digital painting example called the Digital Graffiti Wall. It is created by Canadian consulting firm Tangible Interaction, a company that claims to create "full-on sensory experiences people can interact with in the everyday physical world."

While the other version used roller brushes with LEDs, this version uses spraypaint cans as the physical controller and can support up to 10 users simultaneously. It is rentable, portable, and outdoor safe, so think about this for your next birthday party!

My Friend Tucker Viemeister Starts Blogging at Fast Company

by Craig Kanarick on October 29, 2009 | No Comments

A quick shoutout to my good friend and collaborator, Tucker Viemeister, who is now blogging at Fast Company. He is heading up the LAB at Rockwell Group, a team I helped found, that sits at the intersection of the physical and the digital.

Check it out, I am sure it will be worth reading.

Heat Sensitive Street Lights

by Craig Kanarick on October 27, 2009 | No Comments

The fourth largest city in France, Toulouse, turned on new body-heat sensing street lights today in an effort to reduce energy consumption.

The one-third mile stretch of between a sports stadium and a university is just an experiment, says the Mayor, but if it goes well they plan on rolling them out across the entire town. The lamps now default to a new dim setting but if they sense body heat, they change to a brighter setting for ten seconds. As a result, the new lights are estimated to save about 50% of their energy costs.

They aren't the only ones experimenting with attacking street lights as a way to reduce energy consumption and light pollution -- earlier this year, the 9000-person German town of Dorentrup decided to turn all of its street lights off at 11pm but users can call specific lights by mobile phone to have them turned on for 15 minutes. Studies have shown that in most cases, lights are only turned on once or twice per night since the changeover.

I can't seem to find out exactly how the technology detects body heat or what happens in inclement weather, but it seems fascinating. If only we could get NYC to turn down some of its lights...

Digital Painting "The Landing" by SWEATSHOPPE

by Craig Kanarick on October 22, 2009 | No Comments

SWEATSHOPPE, comprised of New York artists Bruno Levy and Blake Shaw have released The Landing, an amazing video of their project that blends traditional wheatpasting x graffiti x digital video projection. By attaching green LEDs to wheatpasting roller brushes and tracking their motion in software, they are able to project a digital video reacting to physical actions.

This video is inspiring as an example of a digital physical integration that has a wide range of uses and I look forward to when they release software that could make digital painting kits accessible to a wide range of individuals and organizations.

Reactive Shirts and Sweaters

by Craig Kanarick on October 17, 2009 | No Comments

Integrating digital tracking technology with apparel and robust software, The NikePlus experience has been the talk of the industry since it launched a few years ago -- it even helped move the needle for design firm RG/A. NikePlus provides a user audience with something extremely useful -- an easy way to systematically analyze, plan and improve his or her experience of running. Like the iPod, which one could argue is a piece of clothing, NikePlus did a great job of integrating hardware, software, social connections and other support and as a result attracted a large, loyal audience of customers. The system also makes great use of networking, creating a slew of communities and different use cases.

I'm surprised we don't have more digital technology integrated into our clothing. There is a large research community in the wearable technology industry and a small number of designers who are incorporating digital technologies into clothing to make them more reactive, so the range of low-cost widely available products remains small.

Ten years ago I had a handful of watches that displayed interesting light shows in response to sound. Each time I wore one, regardless of my location, it was an immediate conversation starter. Three years ago, I purchased a T-qualizer t-shirt that reacted to ambient sound, and similar to the watch the few times I've worn it kids and adults alike can't resist it. Now many more sophisticated versions are available at places like 2 BuysTH, which has a huge selection of sound-reactive and wi-fi-reactive tshirts, speakers and pillows.

This Drumkit T-shirt generates sounds by reacting to touch.

My current favorite is this Temperature Sweater but can't tell if it is real, student work, a proposal or something else. Either way, I want one!

Two Great New Self-Tracking Tools

by Craig Kanarick on October 6, 2009 | No Comments

Today is a good day for people wishing to track the caloric intake and usage with the release of two new tools. The first is DailyBurn's FoodScanner which is an iPhone app allowing users of the $.99 program to scan UPC barcodes with their device and automagically look up nutritional information from a database of over 200,000 food items.

Fitbit is a new standalone clip-on passive geotracking device that records physical activity 24 hours a day and computes calories burned and amount of time sleeping based on the wearer's movement. While not great for running or biking or other fast-moving exercise, once the data is uploaded, the user can modify it easily.

Nearness

by Craig Kanarick on September 29, 2009 | No Comments

Nearness draws its inspiration from The Way Things Go but with a digital spin -- this machine uses digital technology to communicate between many of the objects in the sequence, mostly by RFiD.

Nearness from timo on Vimeo.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Obscura CueLight Pool Table

by Craig Kanarick on September 22, 2009 | No Comments

No sooner do I write about a digitally augmented air hockey table than I come across this: a $80,000 digitally enhanced pool table light. Motion sensors track the balls and project video accordingly.

What other digitally augmented table games are out there? Digital ping-pong, anyone?

Obscura CueLight from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Trippy Air Hockey

by Craig Kanarick on September 22, 2009 | No Comments

Over on Geekologie today I read about a crazy new Sega air hockey table that has a video screen as the main playing surface. By integrating digital technology into the previously only-analog experience they were able to add new features such as a variable sized goal and automatic scorekeeping.

While I appreciate the new functionality, it seems like the actual design is more distracting than helpful.

How long is it before tennis players play on giant video screens instead of clay?

Tim Schwartz's Command Center, 2008

by Craig Kanarick on September 18, 2009 | No Comments

Fine art holds a great deal of potential opportunity for smart data visualization installations that integrate with analog elements. Tim Schwartz's Command Center is an elegant example of this, combined with a serious message. Tim has written a very useful tool for data visualization -- a graphing interface for a dataset consisting of every word written in the New York Times since 1851. This huge set of data drives the Command Center by displaying the frequency of certain words (weapons, war and others) on old-fashioned analog gauges and the year on a red LED counter.

The content is a loop that starts in 1851 and progresses one year every few seconds. Over time viewers develop a sense of a slice of history as translated by the Times and Mr. Schwartz.

AT&T "You Will" Campaign, 1993

by Craig Kanarick on September 17, 2009 | No Comments

My friend Joshua Walton send me the following email this morning:

It is amazing how many of these things are part of our lives now. It makes me believe whole heartedly in the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I agree with him. I loved the You Will ads when they came out back in 1993 not just because they were so inspiring and accurate, but because I was lucky enough to design one of the Web's first banner ads as part of the campaign. I can't find the original, which had cleaner graphics, but you get the gist.

Here is the original banner:

It doesn't seem like 1993 was so long ago.

Loyalty is Shifting from Brands to Experiences

by Craig Kanarick on August 25, 2009 | No Comments

Earlier this week, The Seattle Times wrote about research by local firm Hartman Group, who asserts that consumer loyalty is shifting from products and brands to retailers, based on the experiences that are offered as opposed to product selection.

This comes as no surprise, for nearly 15 years I've been saying that for retailers, digital technology removes their previous competitive advantage of location. While it may be true that there is a Barnes & Noble in the local mall, bn.com and amazon.com and powells.com are all the same distance away from me: one click. Now that I can shop from the comfort of my own home from bookstores all around the world, all of which carry exactly the same product at essentially the same price, my experience with them is the deciding factor for who I chose to shop with.

According to the research, this type of mindset is also starting to impact real-world retailers. "Capturing the attention of the consumer requires different tactics, getting a lot more intimate and experiential."

I formed much of my thinking about integrating digital technology into physical space in order to create a unique and memorable experience during my time at Rockwell Group - where I learned that telling the story of a brand through architecture and space is a powerful tool. Much of that thinking is what led me to start this blog, and it is nice to see other organizations starting to publicize this thinking as well.

Clearly, companies like Starbucks, Apple, Zingermans, Zappos and Trader Joe's all understand the value of a great experience is equally important as a great product. I'm excited for our future, when a majority of companies understand this concept and are busy making sure their customers are happy and satisfied in an experiential way.

For some additional great thinking on this topic, check out Jonathan Salem Baskin's take on this interesting study.

Technology on the farm

by Craig Kanarick on August 10, 2009 | No Comments

Demonstrating the broad reach of real-time communications tools, CNN recently published an article about how people like 39-year old Nebraska wheat farmer Steve Tucker uses twitter over ten times a day during work. This usage isn't unique -- every Tuesday from 6-8pm Eastern, farmers meet on twitter and post with the hashtag #agchat, utilizing the platform as a large public chatroom. Started by agriculture advocacy writer and speaker Michele Payn-Knoper, these chats have dedicated subjects each week and can draw thousands of participants.

Discussions aren't the only use of real-time digital technologies being embraced by the farm. PureSense, an irrigation software company, recently released an iPhone version of their main product, allowing farmers to remotely monitor the real-time water content of various locations of their land. According to most reports, the system not only saves farmers water, they also have higher yields, clearly a sustainable benefit.

Another example comes from Danish firm Smarterfarming who just released its CowDetect RFID system for tracking cows' locations, consumption and other activities. By looking at visualizations of the data, cow owners can discover information about a cow's health and optimie milking schedules. They claim that a $511 per cow investment (for a farm with 200 cows) will yield $500 per cow per year in savings. The system also issues daily warnings about cows it thinks might be at a health risk or crisis, allowing early intervention on potentially damaging conditions.

Come in to the Closet

by Craig Kanarick on July 24, 2009 | No Comments

IKEA gets it, as demonstrated by a totally compelling and wickedly fun microsite called Come in to the Closet. The interactive catalog lets users play with the onscreen characters who respond to the customizable soundtrack or other input: play the keyboard as a drum machine or yell into the microphone on your computer to see how the characters respond. The only problem I could find with it is that I spent so much time focused on the fun interaction and music, I forgot to actually look at the products they were trying to sell!

The site, created by Swedish firms Forsman & Bodenfors and Kokokana, has a long and growing list of awards including a 2009 Bronze Cyber Lion and a Bronze from the One Show Interactive.

Infernoptix Digital Pyrotechnic Matrix

by Craig Kanarick on July 19, 2009 | No Comments

Lending a new meaning to "playing with fire", the Infernoptix Digital Pyrotechnic Matrix is a 12x7 programmable display comprised of small flame throwers, allowing the user to draw shapes and patterns. Even with its relatively low resolution, the ability for a variety of pre-programmed and live messages is impressive. Versions 1.0 and 2.0 were created in 2006 and are in the backyard of inventor and designer, Neal Ormand, and are available for special events. Neal recently emailed me and said he is currently working on another one at least 25 times as large for a specific (and confidential) client.

In the mean time, enjoy these images and videos and imagine what this kind of experience could bring to a hotel pool area at night...or better yet, as a new scoreboard for the Miami Heat!

Thanks, Neal.

Saturn Nextfest Grass Wall

by Craig Kanarick on July 11, 2009 | No Comments

The Saturn Nextfest Grass Wall, created in 2006, was a 45-foot wide video projection of an animated field of grass. What made it exciting is that each blade of grass moved independently and would move more quickly as spectators moved in front of it, implying that the visitor was created a small breeze that was impacting the grass. The audience was also able to input messages on a kiosk and have those displayed in front of the grass for short periods of time.

This project is one of the first that convinced me of the power of reactive spaces. It was produced by big agencies shown at a big event and was beautiful, engaging and impactful. At the time, it was also one of the best examples of the then-in-beta, now released, Processing programming language.

Reactive walls are still underleveraged as tools to express attributes of a brand. They are relatively inexpensive to create and maintain and can be used to tell great stories and get customers to interact with a space very easily.

Fiat eco:Drive

by Craig Kanarick on July 10, 2009

Fiat eco:Drive is a system that helps drivers analyze their driving habits, allowing them to improve their fuel consumption up to 15%. Available in the UK and other locations, the system works by recording driving data on a removable USB thumbdrive. When transferred to a PC, the Microsoft-crafted software analyzes the data, displays it, and gives recommendations to the driver about how to increase their fuel efficiency.

I like it because it integrates digital technology into cars, devices that seem so far behind in terms of technology development it is almost depressing. More importantly, by providing the driver with crucial information, the system transfers some of the burden of responsibility towards a better planet to the driver instead of just on the car company -- it enables the driver to do something about the planet directly.

Congratulations to digital agency AKQA who won a well-deserved Cyber Lion in Cannes this year for the project. Now, if we could just get one of these in the States...

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