This furniture chart entitled 'What is Your Sofa Personality?'
by Singapore online design retailer Hip Van offers an interactive way
for homeowners to find out what couch design is best suited for their
lifestyle. The infographic cleverly pairs up the reader's personality to
a sofa style that best suits them.
The 'What's Your Sofa Personality?' chart highlights six different types
of people and couches that match their lives. The first is The
Socialite that suits best a Chesterfield couch that is designed to
accommodate lots of guests, offer an elegant decor and last during
countless parties. The infographic uses colorful block graphics and
minimal text to interact with the reader as they figure out what couch
is best suited for them.
The Internet of Things
isn’t just limited to smart refrigerators, smoke detectors, and other
static in-home devices. The world of sports has also been infiltrated by
sensors you can use with baseball bats, golf clubs, and football
helmets. Adidas released its MiCoach smart soccer ball last year. And hoops has been sort of a hotbed for connected equipment, with products like the 94Fifty smart basketball and ShotTracker net-mounted sensor.
Now, Wilson Sporting Goods is bringing a traditional brand name to the world of smart basketballs, and the company’s Wilson X Connected Basketball
is significantly unlike anything else out there. Products like the
94Fifty need a separately-sold “smart net” to track the shots you make
and miss, and the ShotTracker needs to be mounted on a net to do the
same.
Wilson’s ball simply uses a sensor inside of it and some heavily
tested algorithms to magically track your baskets and bricks. And unlike
the 94Fifty ball, you don’t need to recharge it; it has a battery
inside it rated to last around 100,000 shots—about two years of heavy
usage, according to Wilson. After that, you can use it as a
non-connected “dumb” basketball or possibly even trade it in.
“We will celebrate any shooter who shoots 100,000 shots,” says Bob
Thurman, Head of Wilson Labs and the company’s ‘VP of Innovation.’ A
running total of a user’s shots with the ball is among the things
tracked in the mobile app. “They can contact Wilson about getting a
replacement ball if the battery runs out after that milestone. That’s a
lot of shots and we’d love to see the product used like that.”
While the indoor/outdoor X Connected ball itself looks and feels
similar to the company’s Wilson Evolution balls, the major, very
high-tech differences lie below the surface. The ball has a Bluetooth
radio, low-power processor, and three-axis accelerometer inside of it,
and it uses machine learning and some proxy processing by the cloud and a
connected phone to calculate shot percentage and the shooter’s distance
from the hoop.
“Since 2005, there’s been a lot of demand for sensors in balls across
sports,” says Thurman. “We wanted to reach the masses with our ball.”
The plan of attack there was to make using the ball much like playing
mini video games, with different app-driven modes for free shooting,
working on foul shots, and going against the clock in a “Buzzer Beater”
mode.
To log and crunch all the data, Thurman says the company worked with
SportIQ, a Finnish company that develops real-time analytics and
coaching tools for basketball and hockey. SportIQ created an algorithm
that’s “98 percent accurate on makes and misses,” according to Thurman,
based on tracking 50,000 shots in a controlled environment.1
The ball is designed to work on a 10-foot hoop, but during some
hands-on tests with it, it also tracked makes and misses accurately on
an 8-foot rim. The setup is easy: You pair the ball with an iOS app over
Bluetooth (an Android version is coming later), throw the ball about 10
feet in the air with a lot of backspin, let it hit the ground, and the
phone shows it as paired up. From there, you can select a game mode,
start the clock by tapping the screen, and log your stats.
And it really does work sort of like magic, albeit with limits. The
ball was certainly very accurate in identifying makes and misses—on both
a 10-foot and 8-foot hoop, and with both swishes and lucky rim-ins—but
it did log a false-positive on an air ball and didn’t register a few
shots altogether. There are a few types of shots the ball won’t track by
design: Any shot less than 7 feet away from the rim, and any where the
ball doesn’t hit the ground after going through the hoop. So if you have
someone shagging rebounds for you during a shootaround, make sure they
let the ball hit the ground after each shot for the best results.
This rock is designed for single-person usage, because the ball
doesn’t “know” when it has changed possession. That means it won’t split
stats between two people playing one-on-one. But for lonely shooters,
there are plenty of goodies: Badges you can earn based on your
improvement, a one-on-one virtual game between you and an app-driven
ghost player, and crowd and buzzer noises to augment your clutch
shots—and a canned “clank” noise to augment your bricks.
The secret to the battery life is that the ball goes into
“hibernation” mode after a few minutes of inactivity. If you’re just
taking a water break, you need to do the backspin-and-bounce process
again to pair it back up. Unlike the 94Fifty basketball, this is a ball
built solely for tracking your shooting progress; there are no dribbling
drills or anything like that, just stats and games that make you work
on your perimeter prowess.
This all comes at a cost—make no mistake, it’s an expensive
basketball. At $200 for both men’s and women’s sizes, it’s around four
times the cost of the Wilson Evolution indoor/outdoor ball. But it’s
genuinely fun to use, even if your game is beyond all hope of
improvement. And forget about padding your stats with layups and
super-sick dunks on an 8-foot rim, because it simply won’t register
those shots—this is a ball for stat-hungry shooters and all the hopefuls
who want to join their ranks.
“I look at history, permissiveness, touch
and taste, understanding of the body or how humans interact in a pub. I
find that much more useful than looking at what’s happening in other
companies,” Sam Bompas says of the new services he’s following within
the business of Vice. “Everyone talks about multisensory but nothing is
as multi sensory as smoking a joint, or taking alcohol or having sex.”
PSFK Labs speaks exclusively with one half of the culinary-wizarding company Bompas and Parr, an expert in designing interactive experiences to stimulate an audience, in anticipation of the Virtues of Vice Debrief.
With the expertise of drug historians, scientists, chefs and more,
the UK-based duo examine attitudes towards and modern forms of vice to
build them out as fully immersive installations. So, for instance, if
you’ve ever aspired to inhale a misty cocktail through your eyes
or lose yourself in a life-size labyrinth on a climactic journey to a
woman’s G-Spot or get your mind-rocked (legally) by psychoactive plants,
Bompas and Parr can make your wildest fantasies come true.
Like something out of the Matrix, we're entering an era where it may
be possible to boost your memory with a few zaps to the brain.
A few dozen people who were given brain implants that delivered
targeted shocks to their mind's memory center scored better on memory
tests, DARPA announced at a conference in St. Louis last week.
These implants could someday be used to restore memory to people
suffering from traumatic brain injury or other neurological problems,
agency representatives said.
"As the technology of these fully implantable devices improves, and
as we learn more about how to stimulate the brain ever more precisely to
achieve the most therapeutic effects, I believe we are going to gain a
critical capacity to help our wounded warriors and others who today
suffer from intractable neurological problems," program manager Justin
Sanchez said in a statement.
Total recall?
The goal of the study, which is part of DARPA's Restoring Active
Memory (RAM) program, was to allow scientists to read and interpret the
brain activity involved in forming and recalling memories and predict
when a person is about to remember something incorrectly. The electrodes
can then be used to deliver targeted electrical shocks to specific
groups of brain cells that store a memory, making it more easily
accessible, according to DARPA.
A team of USC scientists that is not part of the DARPA effort has
also been working for several years on developing brain implants to boost and enhance memory in rats and other animals, but this is the first time this kind of technology has been tested in humans.
The people who received the implants volunteered to test them while
they were having brain surgery for neurological problems unrelated to
memory loss.
During the surgery, scientists implanted small electrode arrays in
brain regions involved in forming declarative memories — the kind of
memory used to remember events, times, places, or lists of objects — as
well as in areas involved in spatial memory and navigation.
In preliminary findings, the researchers were able to not only record
and interpret the signals that store memories in the brain and retrieve
them later, but also activate memory areas to improve the patients'
recall for lists of objects.
Scientists are still figuring out the best way to deliver the
stimulation, i.e., when the lists are first being memorized, or when the
person is trying to recall the items.
DARPA is withholding some details of the study because they haven't been published in a scientific journal yet.
Other brainy boosts
The RAM program is just one of several efforts aimed at boosting memory or cognition.
While we're nowhere near the ability to download skills into our
brains like Neo in the Matrix, another DARPA program launching in
October, called RAM Replay, aims to improve people's memory of physical
skills, by mimicking the brain's natural process of replaying these
skills — something our brains do naturally while we sleep.
Meanwhile, DARPA's Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging
Therapies (SUBNETS) program is developing implants to provide relief to
people suffering from PTSD and other neurological disorders.
From making flights tolerable to modernizing the museum, here are 2015's best examples of experience design.
Good design goes beyond the simple act of imbuing a product
with visual beauty or perfect functionality. It's also about making
someone feel satisfaction, excitement, or comfort while interacting with
it. That's where experience design comes in, and this year's finalists
and winner exemplify this facet by updating the museum visit for the
21st century, making your flight less miserable, or making it easier to
navigate through complicated spaces. Congratulations to all, and many
thanks to our judges: Dan Gardner, cofounder of Code and Theory; Mauro
Porcini, SVP and chief design officer of PepsiCo; and Kevin Young, SVP
of product experience at Continuum. And finally, a sincere thank you to
everyone who entered and supported Fast Company’s commitment to elevating the design profession.
A simple, effective buy
button sounds like a no-brainer today, but building one has proven
trickier than you’d think. Up to $4 trillion worth of merchandise will
languish unpurchased in online shopping carts this year. No wonder
trying to build a frictionless buy button remains a crucial effort in
online commerce. Here’s a brief history of the quest for the perfect,
profitable click.
Après des semaines de teasing et autant d’interrogations, le
constructeur automobile Lexus a enfin publié une vidéo de son hoverboard
en action. Surréaliste.
As a Chinese person living and working in the western world, it is
unlikely avoidable to hear people talking about, in a negative or
positive way, how Chinese people can pretty much copy everything.
Honestly, myself joke about how much lack of creativity we are while
being unintentionally proud of the powerful capability of C2C
(Copy-to-China) that Chinese people uniquely own: it is already amazing
to copy something so well; and it’s even better that this thing can be
tailored so well that it works perfectly in the local market. Xiaomi is
such a brand well-known for starting its business by copying Apple but
technologists really need to recognise that the brand has a bigger
ambition, which leads its business into a different arena.
Try go on Xiaomi’s website.
If you were not in China, you would probably be automatically directed
to its global website where you can see six product categories: phone,
tablet, TV, smart band, batteries and headphones, like every other
normal hardware brand. Each of these products clearly embeds a simple
aesthetic design just like Apple or any other trendy international
brands.
If you googled Xiaomi, you probably would find bazillions of angry
Apple fans shouting for copyright protection or simply complaining about
Chinese people. But hey, hold on, check out Xiaomi’s Chinese website here.
What
do you see!? It’s a much more complicated website with a much more
diversified product portfolio and services! If you still consider Xiaomi
as a tech plagiarist, you might be fooled by its past — Xiaomi has a
bigger ambition and it has been working on this since the brand started
making routers in 2013.
This year in January, Xiaomi launched its new product for
home — Xiaomi Smart home family set which includes Xiaomi
multi-functional gateway, body sensor, door/window sensor, and wireless
switch. Users can supervise and monitor their home environment through
Xiaomi’s smart phone application. When Wired or Business insider kept
reporting on Xiaomi’s strategy which is to sell cheap smartphone to
everyone. Despite the fact that this remains true, it is important to
acknowledge that Xiaomi has already quietly built up its own business
model with a future emphasis on Smart home technologies.
Xiaomi’s
first so-called smart home product was a socket. The brand noticed an
annoying fact that people’s tables nowadays are always messy because of
cables and plugs. The brand was inspired from this and thus designed a
socket to solve the problem. Nobody within Xiaomi’s design team has
expected that this ameliorated version of a normal traditional hardware
turned out to be extremely successful in China. Since then, Xiaomi
developed and launched products like smart remote controller, water
filter, air cleaner etc. Only till the end of last year, when the brand
released a smart control centre, its appetite for competing in Smart
home technologies was clearly revealed. Xiaomi was very careful in every
step it made in this area. By now, besides the products mentioned
above, Xiaomi’s home products also include body scales, bulbs, blood
pressure monitor, stereos, lamps.
On
top of continuously inventing and releasing new products that lie
perfectly in line with Xiaomi’s eco-chain technologies, Xiaomi
recognises its limit as a mobile phone device maker. Therefore, the
brand entered into a partnership with a leading Chinese home electronic
appliance brand Meidi to
install its technologies through an intelligent module into traditional
home electronic products. As a Chinese consumer, I can see myself or my
families buy the idea.
I am a loyal iPhone owner. When Xiaomi started
getting popular in China while me being abroad swallowing criticism on
various Chinese copying behaviours, I was emotionally against this brand
and thought this was another repetitive story where I had to defend my
country for what it had to do in order to advance. However, Xiaomi’s
story reminded me that the world, as well as myself, need to give a bit
more patience or even forgiveness to a business with a less original
start; and to a developing country with its own struggles and
confusions.
The next time when I visit home, it’s time to get myself some Xiaomi smart home products.
(This article only represents my personal opinions. The pictures used here all belong to Xiaomi.)
This revealing photo-series compares models wearing Victoria’s Secret swimsuits and everyday women working for BuzzFeed. The shoot took place on a beach in Malibu where each woman tried to re-create the pose and look of the original Victoria’s Secret shot. Although there was ample opportunity to feel self-conscious, the experience yielded some insightful commentary.
One woman reflected, “I think everyone should get photographed on the beach in a bathing suit at some point in their life…it is a really fun experience that kind of helps you to get over any insecurities.” Another shared a similar sentiment: ”We may not all be models, but the world is a runway for ALL of us.”
These women tried to recreate swimsuit-model shots in Malibu
A
Madrid, les opposants à la nouvelle loi de sécurité intérieure ont
organisé une manifestation d'hologrammes devant le Parlement espagnol
Des hologrammes manifestent contre la "loi du bâillon" en Espagne. E.B./L'Obs
Ces manifestants là ne risquent pas de se faire embarquer par la police. La nuit vient de tomber à Madrid, vendredi 10 avril, quand démarre une drôle de procession devant le Congrès espagnol. Une centaine d'hologrammes en colère brandissent des pancartes "Liberté d'expression", "Non à la censure", ou "Stop la répression".
L'Espagne inaugure une nouvelle forme de militantisme futuriste où les silhouettes de lumières ont remplacé les citoyens amers. L'objet du courroux ? Le gouvernement de Mariano Rajoy, qui vient de faire passer en force une loi de sécurité intérieure extrêmement répressive, que les opposants ont surnommé "loi du bâillon".
Les fumées crachées par les cheminées des usines à charbon
sont à l’origine d’un problème sanitaire majeur en Chine. La société
Xiao Zhu va utiliser intelligemment cette fumée pour passer un message,
projetant sur elle des visages d’enfants désespérés…
On estime qu’en Chine 500 000 personnes décèdent
chaque année à cause de la pollution et de ses dommages. On peine à
imaginer une telle quantité. Évidemment, les personnes les plus
fragilisées sont les premières à souffrir de ce mal. La plupart des
personnes décédées lors des grandes vagues de pollution étaient
principalement des enfants ayant développé des problèmes respiratoires.
Pour Xiao Zhu, un spécialiste chinois de la purification de l’air, les
chiffres ne sont pas suffisamment éloquents pour mobiliser la
population. Il a donc développé une campagne forte pour sensibiliser aux
dangers des fumées d’usines mais aussi pour faire la promotion de leurs
solutions.
Industry standard sole manufacturer Vibram has unveiled a bizarre
new footwear contraption. The Furoshiki shoe takes inspiration from the
Japanese tradition of wrapping objects in cloth, and consists of a
gripped sole unit which wraps around the foot with stretchy straps,
making an innovative, adaptable shoe that Vibram promises will provide
“comfort in every environment.” The shoe sports an anatomically-designer
sole which promises to accommodate all foot shapes without sacrificing
grip or comfort, and was originally designed for use in the water
sports.
Head to the Furoshiki Shoes website for more information and the chance to cop – although be warned, the website is mainly in Japanese.
Cet été, le Huff Post vous a livré quelques clés pour éviter de commettre certaines erreurs lors de vos vacances à l'étranger.
Mais au cours de votre séjour de l'autre côté du globe, vous avez
remarqué que vos hôtes n'ont pas toujours la même conception que vous en
matière de conception de la vérité ou encore résolution d'un problème.
Avant de dénoncer les clichés sexistes dans "Homme/Femme. Mode d'emploi", la designer chinoise Yang Liu s'est attaquée aux disparités culturelles entre l'Asie et l'Occident dans "Orient/Occident. Mode d’emploi".
Pour simplifier la compréhension et améliorer la communication, elle
présente, tout en finesse et humour, une série de dessins qui illustrent
quelques différences évidentes, ou parfois subtiles dans chaque
culture.
Ce roman graphique, premier volume de la série phénoménale de la graphiste chinoise publié chez Taschen,
livre avec efficacité le regard sur les chocs culturels de cette
artiste qui a voyagé de Singapour à Londres, en passant par Berlin et
New York a pu expérimenter.
Voici quelques unes de ses illustrations:
A
Niort, quand les bulletins scolaires arrivent dans les boîtes aux
lettres de certains collégiens, aucun risque d’y trouver un zéro pointé,
ou une note sous la moyenne… Il n’y a plus de notes dans leur
établissement, le collège Gérard Philippe.
Il y a trois ans, les enseignants ont décidé de les supprimer. Ils
ont mis en place une nouvelle pédagogie, fondée sur la bienveillance, un
accompagnement personnalisé des adolescents. C’est un projet atypique,
dans le système scolaire français, souvent perçu comme trop élitiste.
En décembre dernier, les experts du Conseil supérieur des programmes
ont fustigé une école qui « réussit » aux bons élèves et décourage les
moins bons – il y a chaque année 140 000 décrocheurs. Mais est-il si
simple de se débarrasser des notes ? Sans elles, comment évaluer les
élèves ? Est-ce la garantie d’un meilleur apprentissage ? Qu’en pensent
les parents ?
Pendant trois mois, Envoyé Spécial a posé ses valises dans une classe de 5ème de ce collège qui dénote.
Un reportage de Perrine Bonnet, Claire-Marie Denis et Delphine Arzur,
diffusé au moment de la rentrée, jeudi 3 septembre à 20h55 sur France
2. Lors du magazine Envoyé spécial.
If you’re afraid to walk your dog at
night (and your dog is the kind that would rather lick the attacker than
protect you) – this werewolf muzzle is for you! The Russian-designed
dog muzzle sells for about 30 USD and permits your dog to slightly open
its mouth, allowing it to pant. It is made from non-toxic plastic and
nylon.
Some countries require that all dogs
wear a muzzle when out in public. However, if you live in a country that
also permits the carrying of firearms in public, this muzzle is
probably not for you. While you see a cool dog accessory, others might
only see a terrifying dog, which can have unpredictable results. Terrify
responsibly!
A travers son étude de l’usage des couleurs dans l’intrigue d’un film,
Lewis Criswell explique comment les effets cognitifs de la température
des couleurs sur les thèmes abordés apportent un sens supplémentaire aux
films. Il s’appuie sur des exemples en faisant un large tour d’horizons
: Springbreakers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Enter The Void, Inside Out, Kill Bill, Amelie Poulain, Moonrise Kingdom, Birdman, et bien d’autres films.
Cette semaine, nous nous penchons sur le travail d'un directeur artistique publicitaire américain : Stephen McMennamy.
Également photographe, il réalise des photomontages insolites en
réunissant deux univers que tout oppose. L'artiste joue avec les
échelles, les raccords, les formes et les couleurs pour créer des objets
ou des situations extraordinaires.
