gPhone - Google's phone launching soon

Apparently its only two weeks away from launch!!
Click here to read more

World longest visual website

The "longest visual website in the world" on which visitors are asked to submit a 300x700px image to contribute to a continuous vertical banner, now approximately 18665.64cm long. Great for those times when your needing a bit of visual inspiration.

CLICK HERE to be inspired

Virtual Me

Real time 3D rendered avatar face over your own via a web cam - looks like fun :)

see more clips here

All hooked up

Intel's UMPC [Ultra-Mobile PC] vision
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New Coca-Cola Happiness Factory

A great second release of the 'New Coca-Cola Happiness Factory' TV ad, created by Wieden + Kennedy and animated by Psyop

The agency actually premiered it in Second Life last week at a “glitzy event attended by nearly 100 glamourous avatars dressed in red carpet fashions, including reporters from all around the world”

Below I have also posted the “mockumentary” based on 'life inside the Happiness Factory' - for those who have not come across it yet.

Philips - Digi Graf Wall

Lil kid drawing on a digital wall.My parents would have loved to have one of these in the house when I was a kid growing up - would have saved LOADS of re-decorating:)

Mastodon Linoleum Knife-Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Intro

You gotta watch this! It was shown before the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie it features Mastodon as the voices behind the junk food band.Couple of my favorite lines from the animation:

"If I see you recording this movie,Satan will rain down your throat with hot acid and dissolve you testicles and turn your guts into snakes"

"This is a copyrighted movie for Time Warner.If I find it on Ebay, Iwill break into your house and tear your wife in half!"

Soundball [Physical+Virtual Toys]

Cool football created by Aleksei R. Stevens that connects to a computer via bluetooth and plays sound whist being played with. Here's the clip:


I love toys/object merging the boundaries between the virtual and the physical, the Nabaztag is a great example of this.
I've Gotta get me one of those 'wabbits' - Might have to put it on my wedding list :)

Nicolas Nova:Mixed digital & Physical environments [Turin 2007]

Long but interesting talk given by Nicolas Nova on Mixed digital and Physical environments. He talks about current and emerging technologies within the Ubiquitous computing arena as well as projects that he is currently working on. I especially like the 'blogject' (Blog-Object) project where objects such as Sony's Aibo could potentially automatically post to its own blog when having interactions with the environment and people. Worth while having a look if you have an hour or so free.

Diesel: HD 3D Holographic Fashion Show

Absolutely amazing!.I've watched this clip over and over again and every time I think 'shit the bed :).Diesels Spring/Summer 08 catwalk show is a great mix between physical space and technology.HD 3D animations were weaved with models walking down the cat walk at the Pitti Immagine Uomo fair in Florence. Based on an aquatic theme 'Liquid Space', the Hologram were viewable from both sides of the stage.The team that worked on it aswell as Diesel's creative team (overseen by Wilbert Das) were barcelona based Dvein who created the visual effects which were combined with the 'badass' technology provided by Vizoo based in Copenhagen.Ok you wanna see the clip,it 's a bit log at 17mins but worth a look :)

Wanna know how it's done?
On the crblog they asked Diesel and this was the response:

“The visuals are projected through a series of ‘foils’ into mid air, so you see the images in mid-air. The models can then interact with them and walk through them. We used plastic foils placed at 45 degree angles so that the projected light from the ceiling goes onto a foil, is reflected on to another and then into the air.

We worked it so it had a real catwalk feel and so that you could view it from both sides: you can see the models, the holograms and the public from both sides. It’s never been used this way before as the technology has just been used in the corporate world before, for sales presentations, and the visuals have always just been viewed from one side. So we set up two rigs instead.

The animations were done with standard CGI animation software but were made for a 15m by 2.5m screen. It’s all rendered in HD, too, so was quite demanding as it’s 30 frames per second. We worked on the whole thing, from storyboard through to the final render in just two and a half months. Bringing together Dvein and Vizoo gave us this unique, truly holographic, 3D motion graphic experience.”

If anyone has more in depth info i would love to know.