Nike shoe speakers challenge our throw-away culture

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I'm loving these Nike shoe speakers that challenge our throw-away culture by repurposing old shoes. "The Havana Club have issued a call for entries into the Inspired Ingenuity competition. The challenge of the competition is to:

take the everyday and turn it into something special

It’s intended to celebrate the culture of repurposing evident in Cuba, and accordingly, the winner of the challenge will earn themselves a trip to Cuba. Given reports of obsolescence oriented consumerism stalling somewhat these kinds of competition are a welcome addition to the design landscape."

Continue reading on PSFK. Images from PSFK.

Will Turnage shows off his "rocker" garment at #sxsw

[gallery] I'm currently at #sxsw interactive in Austin soaking in all the ideas, conversations and people. I was pleasantly surprised when R/GA's Will Turnage stood up in his talk with Chloe Gottlieb titled The Refrigerator Speaks: The Secret Language of Things to show off his awesomely smart "rocker" garment. To make a point about hacking into #smartthings, he created a smart shirt equipped with a Lilypad, Bluetooth, and lights that could be controlled by your cell phone. Punch in some commands and the lights would illuminate. He even added gestures. Tilt the phone right and the right side of the shirt would light up. Tilt left, and the left would light up. He then explained how he used Twitter's APIs to allow for the audience to tweet commands. Through the rest of the presentation, his shirt would light up as people tweeted about the presentation.

Turnage does a great job demonstrating how, as designers, we can take objects and services, augment them and combine them in interesting ways to create new and meaningful experiences. What are other ways to do this?

Check out this book they recommend referenced during their talk: Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design by Mike Kuniavsky.

Get a summary my sxsw visit so far on the Artefact blog.

Sneakers that take microblogging one step further

[gallery] I'm currently at SXSW in Austin where the talks are barraged with analysis and future speculation around social graphs, keeping up with them, and taking them further. Twitter and microblogging is the only way to weave your way around here. Naturally, I'd like to share this project, Rambler, developed by Ricardo O”Nascimento and Tiago Martins of Popkalab, which "aims to bring the practice of microblogging to one of many possible extremes, turning it into an automatic, thoughtless act of diffusing large amounts of slightly ambiguous, repetitive and arguably useless personal information". Continue reading on Popkalab.

I could really use a pair of these right now...

Images from Popkalab.

Robotic arm cuff therapy

[gallery] Fire your shrink. Jens Dyvik, a freelance designer in Holland, has created a therapeutic robot that provides more intimate psychological coddling than you ever knew you needed. That’s because you wear it.

Ref is a haptic creature that straps onto your wrist and twists, curls, and nuzzles against your skin in response to changes in your pulse. The movements are designed to soothe, to “help people become familiar with their emotional world,” Dyvik says and, by extension, calm their demons. Would something like this work? Well, the simple act of being more aware of your emotions and stress levels has a long history in psychology and even Buddhism -- it's the main tenet behind both Cognitive Behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation.

Continue reading on Fast Company Images from Fast Company

Wallets help you manage your money

[gallery] Researchers at MIT's media lab are exploring ways in which technology can be embedded into our wallets to help us manage our spending habits.

"The widespread adoption of credit and debit cards means, for many people, the cashless society is already a reality. However, this means the simple system of checking how much cash you’ve got in your wallet before making a purchase is no longer an accurate reflection of your finances, making it all too easy to succumb to temptation and overextend yourself financially. The Proverbial Wallet project at MIT is looking at “un-abstracting virtual assets” with wallets that provide tactile feedback that reflects a person’s current financial state."

There are three concepts:

1. Bumblebee. A wallet that uses a vibrating motor to ‘buzz’ whenever the bank processes a transaction on the user’s account
2. Mother Bear. A wallet designed to promote saving featuring a hinge that keeps the wallet shut tight when the user goes over budget
3. Peacock. A wallet that grows and shrinks relative to the user’s bank balance

Here how it works:

Continue reading on Gizmag. Images from Gizmag.

Exploring the relation between technology and intimacy

[gallery] The Intimacy series is a project by Daan Roosegaarde, Maartje Dijkstra, Anouk Wipprecht, V2_ Lab (Simon de Bakker, Stan Wannet, Piem Wirtz) and the team of Studio Roosegaarde (Peter de Man, João Carneiro). It consists of a growing number of gorgeous and evocative projects that investigate the relationship between technology and intimacy while considering the worlds of fashion, wearable technology and the electronic arts. The projects have already achieved international exposure and are often showcased in events and museums, helping to feed the ongoing dialogue about our contemporary technology-driven society.

The first of the series, designed by fashion designer Maartje Dijkstra titled Intimacy White, is made out of white e-foil that turns transparent to reveal the body based on your interactions with it (such as your proximity to the wearer).

The second dress, designed by fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht titled Intimacy Black, uses a newer version of the e-foil that transforms from black to transparent.

"The project[s] consist of high-tech garments made with wireless, interactive technologies and smart foils, which can become transparent. The distance towards the garments determines their level of transparency, creating an intimate experience and a sensual play of disclosure." continue reading on V2_Lab.

Images from V2_Lab.