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Humans And Machines: Beyond Touch : All Tech Considered A demonstration of Oblong's g‑speak SOE (spatial operating environment), technology that was featured in the film Minority Report. (Vimeo) Computer chips and technology are invading all sorts of previously dumb devices. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, touch pads are everywhere — in phones, in tablets and laptop screens. "The whole idea that it is socially acceptable or functionally acceptable to have a whole mass of humanity that is staring down at a piece of glass and pounding on it with their thumbs is kind of absurd," says Feld, a venture capitalist at the Foundry Group. "Twenty years from now the way we interact with computing will be unrecognizable to us today," he says. hide captionAttendees try a prototype 3M Touch Systems projected capacitive display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller/Getty Images Attendees try a prototype 3M Touch Systems projected capacitive display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Nest
Meditation found to increase brain size Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office Sara Lazar (center) talks to research assistant Michael Treadway and technologist Shruthi Chakrapami about the results of experiments showing that meditation can increase brain size. People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don’t. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input. In one area of gray matter, the thickening turns out to be more pronounced in older than in younger people. “Our data suggest that meditation practice can promote cortical plasticity in adults in areas important for cognitive and emotional processing and well-being,” says Sara Lazar, leader of the study and a psychologist at Harvard Medical School. Controlling random thoughts
Farming the Unconscious The Architecture Department at the Royal College of Art had some thought-provoking projects at the work in progress show. Architectural Design Studio 1's exhibition was looking at how a dense and vertical architecture can bring back food production and consumption in the city. Image courtesy André Ford One of the students of the course, André Ford, looked at the intensification of the broiler chicken industry. Each year, the UK raises and kills 800 million chickens or 'broilers' for their meat. Broiler chickens spend their 6-7week lives in windowless sheds, each containing around 40,000 birds. Philosopher Paul Thompson, of Purdue University is a proponent of The Blind Chicken Solution. Sadly, the demand for chicken is rising and methods of production will need to intensify in order to meet this increase. As long as their brain stem is intact, the homeostatic functions of the chicken will continue to operate. Questions to the architect: How have people reacted to your idea so far?
Save Food from the Fridge by Jihyun Ryou Although we seem to think and talk about food almost constantly, do we really know how best to preserve it or do we leave this responsibility to technology? Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Jihyun Ryou feels we no longer understand how to treat food. Her Save Food from the Fridge project involves placing certain foods on a group of "knowledge shelves" outside the fridge. The ethylene gas produced by apples keeps potatoes from sprouting. Storing root vegetables vertically keeps them fresher longer. The umpteen tiny holes on the surface of an eggshell allows odors from other foods to be absorbed, so keeping them out of the fridge will ensure their tastiness. The glass cup of water is used to test freshness: a fresh egg will sink and remain horizontal. Fruit vegetables such as zucchini, aubergines, peppers and cucumbers are better off outside the fridge, placed above a water tray. The humidity from spices, however, can be absorbed by rice so that they will not clump.
What If Your Ovaries Could Live Forever? I, for one, can't imagine running after a toddler all day at the age of 48. I had a conversation with my mother about potentially having children a few years ago, specifically in terms of the help I'd need from her, and she told me that she honestly didn't know if she had the physical strength and stamina to raise a kid at her age (she was 50 then). Well, I had my kid at 40. OK, pregnant at 40 and gave birth at 41. Would earlier have been better? Yeah, even beyond the medical and health issues for both parent and child, raising a kid into your 60's isn't fair for either of you, but that's just my opinion. Yeah, I don't think that's an issue for either me or for my friend — as we are both first-time parents.
- Simple Harmonic (and non-harmonic) Motion § Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations [S | t | ★★★★] keywords: simple harmonic motion, periodic motion, quantum revival, aliasing What it shows: Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and random motion. One might call this kinetic art and the choreography of the dance of the pendulums is stunning! Aliasing and quantum revival can also be shown. How it works: The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. Setting it up: The pendulum waves are best viewed from above or down the length of the apparatus. Comments: Our apparatus was built from a design published by Richard Berg 1 at the University of Maryland. James Flaten and Kevin Parendo2 have mathematically modeled the collective motions of the pendula with a continuous function. Here at Harvard, Prof Eric Heller has suggested that the demonstration could be used to simulate quantum revival.
Futurefarmers Audiopad Audiopad is a composition and performance instrument for electronic music which tracks the positions of objects on a tabletop surface and converts their motion into music. One can pull sounds from a giant set of samples, juxtapose archived recordings against warm synthetic melodies, cut between drum loops to create new beats, and apply digital processing all at the same time on the same table. Audiopad not only allows for spontaneous reinterpretation of musical compositions, but also creates a visual and tactile dialogue between itself, the performer, and the audience. Audiopad has a matrix of antenna elements which track the positions of electronically tagged objects on a tabletop surface. Audiopad was developed by James Patten and Ben Recht. [Frequently Asked Questions] [Back to my portfolio.] Videos Audiopad installation at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona as part of the Sonar 2003 Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art. 1:00 [QuickTime 2.8MB] [Windows Media 1.1MB]
Reimagining City Life: One Startup's Vision of the Future The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter. From New York to Shanghai, one can quickly become irritated by the flaws and inefficiencies of city living. The startup was founded in 2010 by Adam Greenfield, who previously worked as head of design direction for service at Nokia and the user interface design and lead information architect for Razorfish's Tokyo office. The Downfalls of City Living ... Greenfield has lived in United States, the United Kingdom, France, Finland, Korea and Japan. "A lot of people face pretty profound constraints on mobility, enjoy only limited access to opportunity, and face serious difficulty in getting timely, accurate information about services available to them," he says. 1. Enter Farevalue. 2. 3. Series supported by BMW i
The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World [Editor’s note: In celebration of the holidays, we’re counting down the top 12 Flavorwire features of 2012. This post, at #1, was originally published January 31.] With Amazon slowly taking over the publishing world and bookstores closing left and right, things can sometimes seem a little grim for the brick and mortar booksellers of the world. After all, why would anyone leave the comfort of their couch to buy a book when with just a click of a button, they could have it delivered to their door? A gorgeous converted Dominican church gives the power of reading its due diligence. Modern design at its finest in a store full of art books. We love the stairs as reading and display area, the wall-to-wall bookshelves, and the simple, clean design. This divine neo-gothic bookstore, opened in 1906, contains what we consider to be the ultimate definition of a stairway to heaven. Somehow, this bookstore manages to be both whimsical and slightly macabre all at once.
Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial design - Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial desi