The 'Magic Wall'

I'm not sure if or where you watched coverage of the 2008 US elections but if you saw CNN's 'Magic Wall' at any stage I imagine you were pretty impressed.

The system was created and installed by Perceptive Pixel, who have designed and developed an interface that allows a user to interact with their information in a way no one has achieved with a commercial, available product.

Sure the system retails at $100k but lets face it, there are plenty of companies just like CNN who would be willing to pay this. This type of technology would be perfectly suited to corporate lobbys as information touchpoints and net access points. Imagine interactive maps that could utilise Google Street View style visualisations at various points around themeparks or shopping centres.

Enough said, check out the video....

Bit of a redesign

I've been thinking about moving my blog to a dedicated hosting package and getting a 'proper' domain in place. In doing that though it makes most sense to also do a redev of the site (something else I wanted to do for a long time), but I don't have the time to do any of that now.

So instead I thought I do a bit of a change to the colour scheme.

Let me know what you think.

This is how it did look...

The LG Watch Phone

This is just nuts - touchscreen watch phone!

Mad Men Returns

Ok, ok, it may be the absolutely pre-digital era but by God it's good tv. So rejoice, Mad Men is returning.

In absolutely brilliant news, creator Matthew Weiner is reported to have just signed a fat seven-figure deal for two more seasons. As far as I have been able to find out, Weiner (who previously wrote for the Sopranos) signed up to do the show for feck all when it was originally selected for production. Thankfully that particular deal was only for two years, and now that the show is proven we will hopefully see further investment in all areas of production and creation.

So the only remaining question is, what'll happen with Peggy and Pete?

Financial Webisodes

Three Drunk Monkeys in Sydney are changing the way banks speak to customers by using internet video to give advise about the current financial climate. With a somewhat 'Australian' outlook, the ads are a little 'tongue in cheek' but also contain essential financial information in simple everyday language.


This is the first one:

Light Lane

If anyone's ever had to cycle a bike around Dublin, you'll know that at the best of times you're taking your life into your own hands. Now imagine you could have a cycle lane everywhere you went. Well here you go.


Ok, fair enough, it's not exactly a cycle lane everywhere you go but it does help to make drivers aware of you as you cycle. Using lasers, the system projects an illuminated bike lane all around you wherever you go. Pretty sweet.

Augmented Reality System

Mobilizy, an Austrian business specialising in smartphones software, has developed a working location-based augmented reality system.

The system, The Wikitude AR Travel Guide, is a mobile travel guide with augmented reality functionality based on Wikipedia and Panoramio. First you search on a 2D map for landmarks in your surroundings, you then use your phone's camera with an augmented reality (AR) view. Basically you see where ever you point the camera, but with an overlaid annotated landscape showing points of interest and their associated information.

Imagine a situation where the digital landscape becomes sellable media, with any building having the potential to sell it's frontage as advertising space. Or perhaps you have your latest campaign running over relevant businesses various premises.

Demonstration video (working real time)