Bizarre websites showcase Flash, JavaScript

Smashing Magazine has put together a collection of their favorite, “bizarre” websites. (GSP-produced “And Then There was Salsa” is featured under “Bonus” at the bottom of the page).

(Pictured Above: Incredibox)

This a great showcase of what is possible with Flash and JavaScript when designers push themselves to the limits.

Pixel, A Pixel Art Documentary

A comprehensive history of the pixel aesthetic, from primitive gaming graphics to modern art.

via laughing squid

Google Latitude Location History

Google Latitude Location History tracks where you’ve been, but also includes privacy controls for how much of your location history you share and with whom. They have released an API for developers here.

Leave digital breadcrumbs with DispoMaps

Ever wanted to leave a trail breadcrumbs through the city for your friends or to keep for later use? The folks over Urban Informatics have created an app for that: Dispomaps.

DispoMaps enables you to share your current location on an online map with anyone. The map is constantly updated as you go, using your iPhone’s GPS.

DispoMaps is easy to use. Launch the app, switch Location Sharing to “ON,” and decide how you want to share your location: via SMS, email, twitter, or facebook.

Your recipients will be sent a link to a unique web page displaying a map of your real-time location. Once you have arrived at your destination, you can easily dispose of your map by switching Location Sharing to “OFF.”

Lots of potential uses. Here are a couple that come to mind:

1 – Travel efficiencies/Mass Maps: Monitor your daily movement vs. others and then add efficiencies.

2 – Shared Explorations – Friends can literally follow in each other’s footsteps. Or, if meeting, they can easily locate each other, making meeting up easier than ever.

3 – “A night with [insert celebrity]” – Now Kim Kardashian can take her Twitter audience along with for a night on the town.

Foot note: One of the coolest features of the app is the disposability of the maps. Maps are made and can be shared and then easily deleted through the app. This could make for some very interesting time-sensitive, live events.

The Google Job Experiment

In a tough economy teeming with hungry, creative workers, Alec Brownstein found a novel way to differentiate himself from the competition:

Brownstein bought Google adwords for the names of industry bigwigs like David Droga, Tony Granger and Ian Reichenthal.

When each creative director did a “vanity google” of their own name, an ad appeared in which Brownstein asked each exec for a job. The result? After investing a total of $6, Brownstein is now working for Y&R .

(via HuffPo)

Alec explains the idea himself in this humorous YouTube video:

Gesture-based Computing from MIT

Graduate students at MIT have created a 3D, gesture-based computing interface using an inexpensive, multicolored glove:

Other prototypes of low-cost gestural interfaces have used reflective or colored tape attached to the fingertips, but “that’s 2-D information,” says Robert Wang, a graduate student in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory who developed the new system together with Jovan Popović, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. “You’re only getting the fingertips; you don’t even know which fingertip [the tape] is corresponding to.” Wang and Popović’s system, by contrast, can translate gestures made with a gloved hand into the corresponding gestures of a 3-D model of the hand on screen, with almost no lag time. “This actually gets the 3-D configuration of your hand and your fingers,” Wang says. “We get how your fingers are flexing.”

(via MIT News)

Wang demos the glove in the following video:

The creators envision a wide of uses for the glove:

The most obvious application of the technology, Wang says, would be in video games: Gamers navigating a virtual world could pick up and wield objects simply by using hand gestures. But Wang also imagines that engineers and designers could use the system to more easily and intuitively manipulate 3-D models of commercial products or large civic structures.

(via MIT News)

It’s fascinating to think about the potential for these more intuitive computing interfaces to open a field like product or building design to a larger audience.

Nike GRID made running into gaming

Last month, w+k and Nike took London by storm with a real-time running game. Entitled Nike GRID, the event playfully extended of the brand’s massively successful Nike+ campaign:

Nike GRID uses the now almost defunct iconic London telephone box to track a runner’s progress at designated Nike branded locations. After registering online, players run between two phoneboxes and punch in their unique user id number at each, logging their run and earning them points online.

The more runs, the more points earned for that postcode. The person with the most points in each area claims the crown of that postcode, badges are also awarded for speed, stamina and insider knowledge of the streets.

(via Contagious Magazine)

The idea is concisely summed up in this video:

(Note: the w+k London Blog provides further background, including strategic thinking and details about GRID execution.)

Two interesting bits about the GRID:

1 – Gamer motivation. By integrating a time-sensitive gaming element, Nike drove user participation. Over 3,000 runs were logged in 24hrs.

2 – Technology as an enabler. Rather than running the campaign through a service like FourSquare, which remains inaccessible to many, the campaign utilized technology that any player could access. Technology enabled more participation instead of limiting it.

AR for Home Improvement

Designer Maxim Barkhatov recently posted a video for his concept glasses known as ARPA (Augmented Reality Project Assistant):

ARPA is a concept product & interface that fuses together the IKEA model of furniture assembly & the do-it-yourself mentality inspired by the Home Depot. It allows the user to digitally interact with their real-world environments while planning their projects with the patented augmented reality technology.

(via Barkhatov)

Barkhatov joins a series of others active in the AR furniture game.

Not the first thing I’d do with AR goggles, but pretty awesome nonetheless.

Exclusive Nike content, if you “Like”

Nike and W+K’s World Cup campaign kick-off features an interesting use of the Facebook “Like” button:

Nike today kicked off its FIFA World Cup campaign with a 10-minute film on Facebook featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney and other top soccer stars.
The video, viewable only when visitors click the “Like” button, includes a three-minute advertisement, called “Write the Future,” with some of those same players.

(via AdWeek, emphasis added)

Nike’s move to add value to the “Like” button is mutually beneficial. For the brand, the promise of exclusive content encourages users to connect with the Nike campaign. For users, the content provides a neat reward for publicizing the campaign to their news feeds.

Check out the ad shown before the short film below:

What other added value content can be given to reward fans for “Liking” brands? Are there ways to directly reward users who Like products on a brand’s site?

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