Stigmergic Collaboration is a model for the self-organisation of ants, artificial life and swarm intelligence. Wikipedia defines it as "a method of indirect communication in a self-organizing emergent system where its individual parts communicate with one another by modifying their local environmen...
From telemetry in trace park to the usage of urban (digital) traces
Augmenting amusement rides with telemetry is a paper about how wireless telemetry can be employed to enhance the experience of fairground and theme park. The idea is collect data (video, audio, heart-rate and acceleration) and stream them onto large public display through visualizations: "The first...
Japan is the first market to see PCs shrink
An interesting read in the SF Gate: this article about the decline of PC in Japan by Hiroko Tabuchi. Some excerpts I found pertinent: "The PC's role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act like pocket-...
An intriguing location-based service and the importance of "measurement"
The second issue of PEACH featured a very interesting article by Chris Hand entitled "Electronic Devices as Design Exploration". Mr. Hand describes how design can go beyond the Engineering approach to design interactive electronic products through Art and Design methods. This is exemplified by a lo...
Dubai is a powerpoint
Speaking about Dubai, Mike Davis in his essay "Fear and Money in Dubai" highlight this quote from an article by Ian Parker in the New-Yorker: "It’s as if a list of all known human pastimes have been collected on PowerPoint slides and then casually voted on by a show of hands." ...
Deliberately misleading ideas
As described by Bob Johansen in his book about foresight, Herman Kahn interestingly use this disclaimer in his reports: "some of the ideas in this report are deliberately misleading in order to provoke thought". I like that sort of angle, very close to the near future laboratory spin; not so much o...
Tangible interfaces: Collecting gestural and touch patterns
This transcript of an interview of Dan Saffer about his manifesto for gestural patterns for touch interaction is very pertinent. It's mostly about this wiki resource which aims at collecting and disseminating gestural interface information and patterns, such as found on such devices as the iPhone a...
Beat wartime empathy device
Look at this beat wartime empathy device by Dominic Muren. As he explained me in his email: "Though it's not the most traditional interface design, I feel more and more that really functional interfaces in our world of mediation, will need to be physical. And what more complicated topic to give phy...
Data for Foresight Research
"Foundations of Futures Studies: Human Science for a New Era: History, Purposes, Knowledge (Human Science for a New Era, 1)" by Wendell Bell is one the best book I've read in the last couple of months. It's definitely the bible of foresight research with some extensive discussion of future research...
The past future of computer games
A P&V reader recently commented on this post by sending me this incredible scans from the "Usborne Guide to Computer and Video Games: How they workd and how to win". The last part of the book is funny in terms of game experience. The predictions are quite on spot with multi-player games, long-dista...