innovations
An interesting visualization technique that exposes regularities/patterns and repetition in musical compositions.
From the source:
The diagrams in The Shape of Song display musical form as a sequence of translucent arches. Each arch connects two repeated, identical passages of a composition. By using repeated passages as signposts, the diagram illustrates the deep structure of the composition.
Below, Madonna, "Like A Prayer":
Contrasting with, Chopin, "Mazurka in F# Minor":
Live Ink technology proposes a (research-backed) novel/alternate way to present/display text. One that claims a better reading experience, in all its vectors (ease/speed, proficiency/efficiency, comprehension/retention, etc).
This technique takes advantage of how the brain and eyes work to provide a more "natural" way to structure (the reading) text.
In order to achieve this/these effect/effects, text in the traditonal block format is converted/transformed, by proprietary/patented algorithms, into cascading-style formatted text.
Example/sample:
Clever, ingeniously designed, stackable blocks, assembled from cardboard.
Allowing for great building expressiveness, ranging from the most basic makeshift constructions to the more-or-less "permanent" structures, in the most varied forms and shapes.
From an initial design by Jef Raskin.
Viewing it as long-running experiment in emergent behaviour, life-creation, evolution, complexity vs. simplicity. Or simply as beautiful, artful, kinetic sculptures. Or, even, as the (re-)invention of a new (better) wheel (according to the creator himself). Or all of the above.
No matter the facet/lens one choose to look upon it, an interesting (and inspiring) endeavour/work.
Adam Benton's tentative design of a future iMac, for MacFormat magazine.
An enlightened way to present/showcase an imagined/proposed product/concept and its capabilities/affordances.
More on the process, and the outcome, after the jumps.
A proposal for an alternative/future desktop human-computer interaction method. One that incorporates, 10-finger, multi-touch input, to provide increased/added expressiveness to/for the user.
By R. Clayton Miller.
Love this! A proposal/concept to improve/simplify the alphabet as we know it. First presented in 1950, by Bradbury Thompson, it seems to remain, however, just an(other) idea.
From the source:
To remedy this, Alphabet 26, a plan based upon the logic of consistency, proposed that of the 19 letters that have dissimilar symbols 15 letters should use the uppercase designs [black letters below] and 4 letters should use the lowercase designs [green letters]. The other 7 letters already have identical symbols [blue letters].
The departing premise for such a solution, was the idea that, being the alphabet one of the ultimate objects of (human) design, it clearly/seemingly violates the principle of constancy/consistency, by having two different ways of representing the same symbol/sound.
In other words. Having, actually, 2 alphabets, instead of one (and 45 symbols to represent 26 letters).
The, now defunct (?), Project Looking Glass still holds (the good) promise of a more 3D(ish) desktop environment.
Tentative, hybrid, Manhattan representation/projection, that does away with the horizon, by curling/curving space to yield the best result, from the vantage point of the beholder.
A visualization/mapping technique that "screams" to be used in other/different contexts.
Modular electronics for the masses. Bringing this approach to the physical world allows for easy(ier) assembly/programming, and thus, effectively, lowering the entry barriers for the uninitiated.
Plus.
All the modules are also open source.
Now almost anachronistic and/or "superseded" (in a way) by the tactile input interfaces of today, it remains, however, an alternative input method with potential (future and present?) niche applications.
Morgan Freeman's voice presents life's mysteries, explored through the lens of science.
... And the same happened, again, in 2011:
Back in 2010, this video evoked/invoked into my mind Sir Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd Law.
It reads:
any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
The "culprit":
