Smart Surroundings

A few days ago, I attended the final event for the EU project, Smart Surroundings. Some people from Studiolab were also there with their prototypes. The event was in this typical ministerial building that one finds in the Hague (glass and triple story indoor atrium), there was a jazz band, free food and drinks. I am not sure what I expected, but I did see some nice and interesting projects. I was really interested in one in particular which was this flexible interface developed by engineering students from Lancaster University. The prototype consisted of elements (buttons, sliders, etc) that could be inserted into this foam board material that was overlaid with a sheet of graph-like paper. You could insert these elements anywhere and name them with a felt pen on the graph-paper. The pen was special because it had a camera that could read the written text and interpret it for use in, i.e. Photoshop. Instead of using these physical elements, you could also draw a slider on the paper and use the pen drawing movements as changing the state of the slider. It was really cool, but it looked like it still had a long way to go as a technology.

Another Idea

Since I got a new Canon SLR as a graduation preset from friends, I have been using an orange hat from Jorn's closet as a camera case. This is a side-effect of being both too poor and lazy to actually get a real decent camera case. On the upside, a hat is very flexible and easy to remove, much more so than traditional bulky camera bags, no matter how small or light they are. Once I developed a method for myself, it worked pretty well except for the issue of padding and camera protection...which leads me to my point and idea. I think it would be great to design a "soft" camera case with padding in just the right places, squashable, and out of the way when not in use; I imagine something like a laptop sleeve. I came up with some functional requirements. I hope one of these days, I will get my act together and actually come up with some prototypes.

Functional requirements:
- Easy to secure & remove (velcro?)
- Soft and flexible
- Padded in key locations

Ok, I just checked online. Apparently it does exist (ugly?!), but I still think it would be a nice DIY project and good gift idea for nerdy camera carrying friends. How hard is it to stitch neoprene?

I didn't know John Maeda was Asian

Recently I have been regularly watching lectures from TED talks. I watched one on simplicity given by John Maeda, a name that has been in in the background of my life for awhile now. His name seems to serendipitously appear whenever graphic design, information aesthetics, or programming is concerned. You can't escape his name when thinking of Reebok, Pentegram, or the Media Lab. It was surprising to me to learn that he is Japanese-American. The image I had in my mind had always been that of an old white man. I am pleasantly surprised although I know I shouldn't be.