Great interactive installation, by Matthew Plummer-Fernandez at The Selfridges store in London. The project, entitled Apifera, looked at the role of the shop window as a part of architecture that functions to attract people noting similarities to the function of flowers within plants. The Apifera is a responsive window that takes inspiration from the science of attraction developed in flowers, hence the complex fractal geometry and its ability to respond and change its breathing rate according to the daylight and passers-by. The program runs on an Arduino and the movement is created with an array of computer fans.
The window will remain on Duke St until the end of October 2008. Window concept, electronics and programming by Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, production by MP-F, Rebecca Lucraft (who did the papercraft), and Nicholas P-F.
The application works by assuming a constant viewing angle (35-45 degrees), typical for when the device is placed on a tabletop. The 3d scene’s perspective is warped using anamorphosis, the same technique used in Hans Holbein’s painting The Ambassadors. This application does the exact same but updates dynamically.
The new Rubik’s cube does away with colors and instead has blocks of different sizes that have to be lined up. It is also covered with mirrors and opens up completely making it even more challenging to get all the blocks in a row.
News Knitter is a data visualization project which focuses on knitted garments as an alternative medium to visualize large scale data.
News Knitter converts information gathered from the daily political news into clothing. Live news feed from the Internet that is broadcasted within 24 hours or a particular period is analyzed, filtered and converted into a unique visual pattern for a knitted sweater. The system consists of two different types of software: whereas one receives the content from live feeds the other converts it into visual patterns, and a fully computerized flat knitting machine produces the final output. Each product, sweater of News Knitter is an evidence/result of a specific day or period.
The NeoCube is composed of 216 individual high-energy rare-earth magnets. These magnets allow you to create and recreate an number of shapes and patterns.
Adrian Bowyer and Vik Olliver with a parent RepRapRepRap machine, made by the RepRap on the left. The child machine made its first successful grandchild part at 14:00 hours UTC on 29 May 2008 at Bath University in the UK, a few minutes after it was assembled. machine, made on a conventional rapid prototyper, and the first complete working child.
RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right - a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn’t even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about €500). That way it’s accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence.
Not counting nuts and bolts RepRap can make 60% of its parts; the other parts are designed to be cheaply available everywhere. This is an interesting coincidence: we can make 60% of our proteins; the other parts are evolved to be cheaply available everywhere…
The primary goal of the RepRap project is to create and to give away a makes-useful-stuff machine that, among other things, allows its owner cheaply and easily to make another such machine for someone else.
To increase that 60%, the next version of RepRap will be able to make its own electric circuitry - a technology we have already proved experimentally - though not its electronic chips.
In order to expand the flexibility of the cooking system, the cooktop have been splitted in to two elements: a smart surface ( which features the control interface and the power system) and the tiles ( which take the place of the burners).
Taking advantage of WiTricity the tiles can be arranged and grouped freely on the cooktop, in order to manage in a personal way the location and the dimension of the burners, as well as use the surface itself in different way, like for cutting the ingredients
The “Polygon Playground” is a large scale interactive lounge object. It offers room for up to 40 persons at a time to walk, sit and explore its multifaceted surfaces. Gradient ramps guide to the top plateau or offer space to sit and rest. The installation features a software aided 3D surface projection system to cover the object with a seamless 360 degree projection mapping. An additional sensory system detects peoples positions and proximity.
The visual appearance of the “Polygon Playground” changes continously with the presence, movements and touches of its visitors. The object detects the positions and directions of people and reacts with evolving visual moods and graphic styles.
The hardware and software system of the “Polygon Playground” can be applied to virtually any 3D body to turn it into an interactive object.
Tikitag is an Alcatel-Lucent Venture based in Antwerp, Belgium which provides a service to link the real world with the online world for consumer and business usage. We are currently in alpha, and we welcome any suggestions or feedback on suggestions@tikitag.com. The beta launch is planned for launch on October 1st, with the availability of tikitag starter packages and tag packages via e-commerce.
Spatial Robots, created by Miles Kemp in 2007, is a website dedicated to cataloging, discussing and promoting interactive spatial systems, user interfaces and emerging technology in architecture.
