Architec Tradure

Category: Uncategorized

  • 20JanA personal fitness coach

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    The Personal Robots Group at MIT researches on social affective touch for robots and designs robotic teddy bear! Recently Cory Kidd completed a PhD from the group and started a company: Intuitive Automata Inc.

    Intuitive Automata Inc. creates robots that can help you in your everyday life. By applying new research in sociable robotics, the company is developing robots that can talk, see you, and help you in many ways.

    Their first product is Autom™, a robotic weight loss coach, designed to help people who are trying to lose or keep off weight. Autom helps by encouraging you to stick with your diet for long enough to create long-term change and keep extra pounds off!



    Autom the weight loss coach! – Photo © Intuitive Automata Inc. 2007

    The research that led to this product started at the MIT Media Laboratory in the Personal Robots Group. Their earlier results in controlled Human-Robot Interaction studies have shown that a robot can be seen as more credible and informative than a character on the screen. Hence, there is reason to believe that a robot may be a more effective mechanism for conveying the behavior change message. Results showing that a robot can be more engaging than an animated character lends itself to the possibility of creating a set of longitudinal interactions, or a relationship, that is longer-lasting than previous techniques and therefore also more likely to have the opportunity to create long-term behavior change.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

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  • 22JanHuman sculptures

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    The gigantic modern bronze figures of taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming are inspired by the ancient Chinese martial art of tai chi chuan. His sculpted bodies in action remind me of the playstation statue-like forms of people playing with playstation. Our next step is to create 3d sculptures of people playing second life and exhibit them in second life!

    Thank you Nan Wei for introducing me to the work of Ju Ming!

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
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  • 22JanHuman sculptures

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    The gigantic modern bronze figures of taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming are inspired by the ancient Chinese martial art of tai chi chuan. His sculpted bodies in action remind me of the playstation statue-like forms of people playing with playstation. Our next step is to create 3d sculptures of people playing second life and exhibit them in second life!

    Thank you Nan Wei for introducing me to the work of Ju Ming!

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
    ♥ Architectradure
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  • 22JanPictograms

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    Screenshot from the symbol serie building

    I love pictograms. IIT Bombay offers graphic icons for signage systems to be used for your design works in .eps format: Hospitals, Railway/Bus stations and Public building environments. Enjoy!

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
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  • 24JanHugging my furniture

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    A landscape designed for the body. These livingstones, “les coussins galets” created by French designer Stephanie Marin, remind me of Ernesto Neto’s work. I stumbled upon these and I love them. I can now embrace my furniture, discover the spaces inside, around and between my body!

    See also the felt rocks by Molo!

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

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  • 25JanWearable vs furniture radiator

    Another interesting design concept, the modulo radiator by Anna Gotha, discovered on Kontrastblog. Anna Gotha wanted to make more use of the heat from a radiator by designing a radiator with multiple functions. The modules are designed with an upholstered aluminium core to use the installed radiator parts as a piece of furniture to lean up against. The core is warmed up by the radiator to be used outdoor.

    Apparently the radiator is made of multiple parts that can work independently from one another or connected to each others. Heating parts can be hanged on a wall, carried in a purse, or used more traditionally as a “furniture” that heats a large surface.

    Existing radiators take up too much room and the design is often rather conservative. With the new radiator, Anna Gotha has made use of the heat, and at the same time given the user a more functional and simple design.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

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  • 28JanDesigning the future

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    Food for Thought: typography and food reunited.

    “Holidays are always a time to gather around the dining table with family and friends to share good food and stories about times gone by. Now family favorites–whether text or images–can actually appear on the fruit, nuts, and vegetables being served with the help of a laser sign cutter. Since the process takes only five minutes per edible, the food messages can be extremely timely.”

    Before 3D printing musical instruments or computer etching on bread, David Small had thought of printing on fruits, a way to catch the attention of Martha Stewart. This is the story that today Dr David Small told us during a talk at our lab.

    Awesome speaker and visionary designer, he presented his twenty-year history of inventing the future of visual design. From the beginning, as a student of Muriel Cooper in the Visible Language Workshop, he has maintained a strong interest in understanding how technology is changing the way that information can be designed and appreciated. His company, Small Design Firm, creates unique environments in which people come into contact with rich, tactile information. With a focus on the interplay between computer technology, interaction, dynamic typography and information design, he sketched out some next steps towards the Design of the Future.

    I loved his story, the way he is fond of typography and sees it everywhere as a design principle for his interactive products. I found his Museum of Sex installation perfectly expressive.



    One of the four interactive exhibit for the Museum of Sex

    He revisited the written correspondence of a prostitute with one of her client. The exhibition presents a bed, with a women underneath a fabric, with letters projected onto the body shape traveling through the interstices of the white sheets. The letters resemble ants that dynamically convey the message of her fate, constructing words from her correspondence that announce her death. Very well executed, the piece is moving. What fascinates me about his work, is the actuality of his design principles. He proposes that design research is the key to the future innovation, well… we’ll see…

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

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  • 30JanTalking with owls using mobile phones

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    This project explores technologies to augment our understanding of bird populations in order to allow these populations to speak to us about their habitat. In particular, in a collaboration between the MIT Media Laboratory and Maine Audubon, the researchers use cellular technology to augment the process by which volunteers collect information for an annual owl survey in Maine.

    The core methodology was developed in a regional pilot census of Connecticut’s owl population demonstrating that the audio quality of cell phones is sufficient for the discovery and interaction with owls.

    In Maine, they plan to deploy cell nodes for calling and recording owls, and provide an interface for the public to vicariously participate in the census from the internet. They hope to gain insight into the social networking processes of collaborative interpretation and annotation of a shared database; and knowledge representation for the bird-census domain.

    The cellular-based survey may also provide insights into the hearing range of owls, duplication of vocalizing individual responses in adjacent experiment sites, the response rate of owls due to current weather or human presence, and comparison between trigger-based and naturally occurring responses in surveys.

    The Owl project’s web site.

    This work is created by Dale Joachim, Susan Gallo , Glorianna Davenport.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

    Architectradure

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  • 30JanTalking with owls using mobile phones

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    This project explores technologies to augment our understanding of bird populations in order to allow these populations to speak to us about their habitat. In particular, in a collaboration between the MIT Media Laboratory and Maine Audubon, the researchers use cellular technology to augment the process by which volunteers collect information for an annual owl survey in Maine.

    The core methodology was developed in a regional pilot census of Connecticut’s owl population demonstrating that the audio quality of cell phones is sufficient for the discovery and interaction with owls.

    In Maine, they plan to deploy cell nodes for calling and recording owls, and provide an interface for the public to vicariously participate in the census from the internet. They hope to gain insight into the social networking processes of collaborative interpretation and annotation of a shared database; and knowledge representation for the bird-census domain.

    The cellular-based survey may also provide insights into the hearing range of owls, duplication of vocalizing individual responses in adjacent experiment sites, the response rate of owls due to current weather or human presence, and comparison between trigger-based and naturally occurring responses in surveys.

    The Owl project’s web site.

    This work is created by Dale Joachim, Susan Gallo , Glorianna Davenport.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

    ♥ Architectradure

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  • 30JanZone of emergency – Networks, Tactics, Breakdown

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    Amber Frid-Jimenez is teaching a class at the MIT Visual Arts Department this spring on Introduction to Online Participatory Media: Zone of emergency – Networks, Tactics, Breakdown (4.366/4.381). The course is equal parts theory, art, technology and play, exploring the wild archive of the web. The class combines an overview of the historical “art for all” approach of early net-art and tactical media with an experimental take on the popular social web today.

    Time Mondays 7 – 10pm and Wednesdays 9:30am – 12:30pm
    Location N51-315 IEL

    The course introduces an overview of web-based platforms as means through which to explore the cultural, social, political, and economic impact of mediated communication. Hands-on design exercises and experiments are continually framed and examined by critical reflection and discussions. An overview of historical “art for all” and participatory art practices, of early net-art and current public art practices will show how digital communication and culture have altered the way in which collaboration occurs, changing conventional notions of authorship and giving rise to the collective elaboration of meaning.

    This seminar/workshop is taught in two parts. The Monday Night@VAP lecture series entitled Zones of Emergency co-organized by VAP Director Ute Meta Bauer and Lecturer Jae Rhim Lee will be open to the public, but will be considered a lab for the course. Lectures and panel discussions will serve to contextualize the theory of participatory design practices in times of emergency. This course is being co-organized with Jae Rhim Lee (4.391: Understanding the Problem: Research as Artistic Practice – FEMA Trailer Project).

    Students from various disciplines and backgrounds are welcome. Please
    contact Amber at amber [at] media [dot] mit [dot] edu for more information.

    Prerequisites: permission of the instructor. Limited enrollment of 12
    students. 4.381 Graduate Level H (12 units), 4.366 Undergraduate HASS-E
    (2-4-6 units).

    Instructor
    Amber Frid-Jimenez,(617) 869-9840, Office: N52-342, Hours: W 1–3pm and by appointment

    Teaching Assistants
    Kate Hollenbach, Course
    Cati Vaucelle, Lecture Series
    Lauren McCarthy

    About the Instructor
    Amber Frid-Jimenez is an artist, designer, and recent graduate of the MIT
    Media Lab, where she studied with John Maeda in the Physical Language
    Workshop. Her work confronts issues ranging from politics and surveillance
    to representations of women in media. Her recent work includes interactive
    video installations, performance-based participation from large-scale online
    audiences, and painting. She has presented her work internationally at
    institutions including Banff New Media Institute, Rhode Island School of
    Design, Cornell University, Harvard University, School of the Museum of Fine
    Arts (Boston, MA), Smithsonian Institution, American Institute of Graphic
    Arts, and at independent venues such as Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA),
    Upgrade! International (online), WMMNA (online), and DFN Gallery (New York)

    More resources
    Amber’s MS Media Lab thesis
    Course

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
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