The Look 586 Mondrian.

Via VeloNews.

This is the music video for Clap Your Brains Off, the first single by No Somos Machos Pero Somos Muchos (NSM PSM).

Interestingly, the video was shot by Frank Beltrán using only a Canon EOS-1D Mark III, a digital SLR with no ostensible video mode. It can, however, shoot 10 frames per second (which explains the jerky footage on the otherwise smooth Vimeo) for about 10 seconds.

Also, check out the making of Clap Your Brains Off.

Via  S U A V E

Check out this lumbering Styrofoam robotic remote-control lawnmower sheep from Carnegie Mellon:

If you need more Carnegie Mellon robots, check out my recent post on the Keepon.

There’s inspiration, then there’s this.

The Panasonic RP-HTX7 headphones, released in 2006:

The Boosted Stiloso headphones, released in 2008:

The similarity is stunning, right down to the two small screws attaching the similarly perforated headband. It’s not apparent in these images, but both headphones have unusual cloth-insulated wire connecting the headband to the cans. These photos are roughly to scale—the headphones appear to be the exact same size.

This sort of thing is common with inexpensive items imitating products costing orders of magnitude more. Oddly, the original Panasonic RP-HTX7 headphones are actually cheaper than the Boosted Stiloso headphones.

I noticed the Stilosos in my local Urban Outfitters. I own the Panasonics (in white) and they sound great. At nearly half the price, I highly recommend them over the Stilosos.

However, Eric and I were recently talking about missing keyboard shortcuts, and I figure it’s worth sharing.

Add a “Zoom Window” Keyboard Shortcut on Mac OS X

1. Open “System Preferences”
2. Click “Keyboard & Mouse”
3. Select the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab
4. Click the “+” button to add a new shortcut
5. Choose “All Applications” in the Application dropdown, type “Zoom” in the menu title field, and set your desired keyboard shortcut (I chose cmd-shift-M).
6. Click “Add”.

Voilà. There does seem to be an outstanding issue in which this does not work properly in Firefox 3, but it works like a charm in every other app I’ve tried.

Swissmiss strikes again with more gold. Anti-theft lunch bag.

Swissmiss posted this irony-rich product from Thorsten Van Elten, available at Velocity Art and Design. I probably need this one.

Core77 mentioned the impending arrival of the new Leica D-LUX 4 as reported at Digital Photography Review. I use it’s predecessor, the Leica D-LUX 3, and I love the crisp optics, the macro option, the range of focal length in the optical zoom, the 16:9/3:2/4:3 aspect ratio options, the option to go fully or partially manual with aperture, shutter speed, and focus, and the Leica compact digitals are the most elegant-looking cameras in their class and price point (in my opinion). I have a few gripes about the usability design, including the lens cap, the arrangement of functions on the function wheel, the separate setting for macro auto-focus and normal auto-focus. My primary complaint, however, was the single lens strap attachment. It’s seemingly minor, but it is such a glaring issue in my opinion just because its faults are so apparent and the fix is so laughably simple. [Editor’s note: at this point, I had written a very long diatribe about this problem, but I realized that nobody wants to read my peeved product design venting, so I deleted it. Maybe someone does want to hear it. If so, leave a comment.] When photographers carry their cameras, they use their neck, not their wrist. See excellent t-shirt below for example.

With the D-LUX 4, Leica has improved the optics to allow wider angle photojournalist-style shots and provides for wider apertures to improve low-light photographs. In-camera color and contrast are fine tuned to simulate the image characteristics of Leica’s film cameras. Technical improvements aside, let’s take a look at the interface. The function wheel is now arranged without the playback mode, which was definitely a problem on the D-LUX 3. If you wanted to go from automatic (“A”) to an automatic mode with certain user-selected settings (Program Autoexposure: “P”), the camera would have to pass over the playback mode and the internal computer would get momentarily confused. The added hot-shoe on the D-LUX 4 is clutch. Most importantly, Leica added that second strap loop! Finally, Leica D-LUX users can carry their classy compact digital like they’ve always carried their cameras! I would genuinely consider swapping up to the D-LUX 4 for that feature alone. Fortunately, that option isn’t open to me yet because the D-Lux 4 still isn’t available.




Leica D-LUX 3


Leica D-LUX 4

At the other end of the Uncanny Valley from Keepon is BigDog, developed by Boston Dynamics, with funding from DARPA.

It can best be described as a pack animal: about a meter in length, it walks at 4mph, climbs slopes up to 35°, and carries loads up to 340 pounds. Oh, and it’s creepy as all get-out.

I subscribed to Ambidextrous, Stanford University’s Journal of Design. The magazine is edited by the Stanford Design community and receives content from contributors around the world. It’s a very well-done publication and I would recommend subscribing if you are a designer, engineer, scientist, anthropologist, interaction, UX, HCI, or really anything else because you’re bound to find these articles worthwhile.

Reading through issue nine, I was particularly impressed by a robot designed by Hideki Kozima in Kyoto and programmed at Carnegie Mellon by Marek Michalowski. It is known as Keepon (from Japanese kee for yellow and pon for bobbing). This robot is designed for interaction with humans, particularly children with developmental disorders such as autism. The little yellow dancing robot has been able to elicit social behavior from autistic children that was impossible to achieve from directed human interaction. Keepon has a microphone in it’s “nose” and two cameras for eyes along with four degrees of mechanical freedom that allow it to rotate, bob, pitch, and yaw. The software processes visual and auditory stimuli that allow the Keepon to invent dances when it hears music and engage eye contact with people, as well as other seemingly intelligent responses.

No, they’re not for sale unfortunately, but Keepon has danced to a song by Spoon on YouTube, leading to its debut acting role in an official Spoon music video.

Emotional Response


Dancing


Starring in the Spoon “Don’t You Evah” music video

This little yellow dancing robot has melded high tech, human interaction, emotional response, and high value seamlessly. I really hope this robot reaches the mass market.

You can actually read the whole article as a .pdf to preview Ambidextrous Magazine and you can follow the progress of Keepon via its website, BeatBots.org.