5th Ave Frogger is a hacked version of Frogger pulling in real-time 5th Ave traffic as game data. If you’re in New York this weekend, you can play.
via laughing squid
Nubot is a doll ready to host smartphone video chats via Skype.
The remote user can control the doll’s body gestures (wave, bow, turn) giving them more of a physical presence.
The folks at Nuuo that developed Nubot use it to have teleconferences between their offices.
We’ve seen a more mobile, albeit less cute, telepresence robot named Texai in the past.
Prototype of a digital rug that changes shapes as you walk over it.
Contributed by Ellie Hardy
Roof-mounted sensors translate light, rain, wind and thunder inputs to generate an impromptu musical score.
Drawing its sounds directly from the elements, no day’s synthesizer-style music is the same — who knew lightning could sound like reverb and that moonlight purrs?
Another take on a musical house from the artist Swoon: http://kck.st/lDCdCT
Via Laughing Squid
Most of us are familiar with the current technologies and buzz words of the Web — various browsers, APIs, HTML5, WebGL, etc. But how many know how we got here?
The Evolution of the Web beautifully charts this history. An interactive timeline, it invites you to poke around, browse screen shots of antiquated programs, and click to learn more about different technologies.
Keiichi Matsuda imagines what it would be like when digital layers of information converge with the physical environment – no device required. (Best viewed in 3D if you have 3D glasses handy)
A digital tool for letting out your frustration — just grab your iPhone, hold it tight and shake your fist!!!
These guys (formerly featured on the blog here: http://gspdigital.com/create-your-own-is-parade/) made the app, in their words, “as a way to release for our frustration with the uncertainty of post 3.11 Japan.” Check it out more here: tinyriot.jp
Contributed by Tomohiko Hayashi
Jean-Christophe Naour’s Kinect Graffiti uses Microsoft’s Kinect to respond to gestures creating real-time light paintings.
via laughingsquid
It may not be the most innovative idea ever, but this live version of Angry Birds was probably really fun to produce. Plus it’s always interesting to see the translation of an online experience into the physical world — it definitely started a party in Barcelona!
Contributed by Collin Whitehead
Using four Kinect sensors and some heavy duty realtime processing, 3D videoconferencing has been set up at University of North Carolina.
3D is the latest gimmick when it comes to watching TV, but this is something beyond novelty. Apart from making the “tele” part seem more realistic, the system can use “mixed reality” to track eyes in 3D space. This opens up the door to more serious applications not just about how we’re perceived, but about how we blend our natural communication methods with digital ones.
http://www.vizworld.com/2011/06/amazing-kinect-driven-3d-telepresence-system/
Contributed by Kevin Jeong