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The Web Football Club Link "They are the Web Football Club",the IHT reports and they claim to be the world's first soccer team coached entirely by fans over the Internet. "Now in its third season,this amateur club from Normandy in Northern France plies its trade in the second division of the regional Caen league, the lower reaches of the French soccer hierarchy. The squad is made up of area residents who are students, teachers or real estate agents during the week but turn out on Sundays in the blue and gray colors of their team. At the helm are the "entrainautes" - a play on the French words for Web surfer and coach.In the run-up to each match,their online votes decide everything,from the starting lineup to game tactics. By voting for players who perform well,an entrainaute's influence in subsequent weeks increases.At the top of the tree are those with a proven record of successful voting. Many log on for up to five hours a week." For the moment there is no other system like it in the world," Fred Gauquelin, 32,the club's founder, said before a training session. He runs the club from home, juggling his job as a physical education teacher with maintenance of the club's Web site. He films each match, meticulously logging passes, tackles, assists, goals, and selecting highlights for broadcast on the site. Gauquelin says the site has more than 13,000 registered entrainautes,up from fewer than 100 just two years ago. They hail from 87 countries as diverse as Uruguay and Madagascar,and there are five Web logs dedicated to supporting the club. [ permanent link to this entry ]
Clothes with Sensing and Computing Capabilities Link Tom Martin and his colleagues in the Virginia Tech E-Textiles Lab are attempting to develop clothes that appear and feel normal but provide sensing and computing capabilities. Because the wires and sensors in e-textiles are woven into the fabric, wearable computers can be constructed as shirts, pants, hats, gloves or any clothing items to monitor factors ranging from how fast and far a jogger is running to the blood pressure and heart rate of a cardiac patient. These e-textiles will be able to sense their own shapes, the wearer's motions, and the positions of the sensing elements. According to the researcher, current e-textiles present problems associated with the placement and movement of sensors. Some sensors work well only if they are placed a certain distance apart on a garment. If shirt sleeves or pants legs are rolled up or other changes occur while an e-textile garment is being worn, the network of sensors needs to be able to "sense" the reconfiguration in order to perform effectively. The ultimate goal of this research is therefore to create a complete design framework that will enable novel applications that are not possible with existing e-textiles technology. [ permanent link to this entry ]
Japanese Soda-machines Zap You With Beamed Audio Link The inventor of a sonic flashlight that projects a narrow beam of sound at a distance is selling it to Japanese soda-machine vendors so that they can zap passers-by with seductive cola-pouring sounds. Thousands of soda machines in Tokyo will soon bombard passersby with the enticing sound of a Coke being poured, and several U.S. supermarkets will promote products to shoppers as they walk down corresponding aisles. Eventually HyperSonic Sound might enable a nightclub to play disco on one side of the dance floor and salsa on the other. Ambulances equipped with hypersonic sirens could clear the streets without waking the neighbors. [ permanent link to this entry ]
Loca: Location Oriented Critical Arts Link For example, a person walking through the city centre hears a beep on their phone and glances at the screen. Instead of an SMS alert they see a message reading: ”We are currently experiencing difficulties monitoring your position: please wave you network device in the air.” Or "Our server suggests that you may be late. You haven't been charged for this advice." Loca is an exercise in everyday surveillance, tracking digital objects in physical space. It looks at what happens when it is easy for everyone to track everyone, when surveillance can be effected by consumer level technology within peer-to-peer networks without being routed through a central point. More... [ permanent link to this entry ]
Sunlight-Transporting System
Parans’ luminaires give a mixture of parallel light beams and ambient light, just as when the sun strikes through the foliage of a forest. The system allows you to tell the weather even without windows or skylights, re-establishing a connection with the outside environment. [ permanent link to this entry ]
Electronic Price Labels on Japanese Shelves Link Bridgestone Corp., the Japanese tyre giant, has also surprisingly joined the electronic paper business. It has developed a bistable display called the "Quick Response Liquid Powder Display" which features quick response times similar to LCD displays (in contrast, Sony Librie owners will most likely tell you how slow their screen refreshes with current E-Ink technology). In Japan, retail store owners can now use this technology to power electronic price tags as part of a new billing system (called ESL).
The electronic display contains Bridgestone's Electro Liquid Powder, a 0.12mm thick substrate, which aims to generate greater brightness, faster responses, and a broader range of viewing angles than comparable LCDs. Another company currently prototyping electronic paper and using it as shelf labels is US-based SiPix Imaging, the developer of Microcup Electrophoretic Displays (EPD). EPDs are non-emissive display devices based on charged particles in a colored fluid. Since being introduced in 1969, EPDs have received attention due to their bi-stability, low power consumption, and wide viewing angle. [ permanent link to this entry ]
Digital Fragrances Link For a few years now there has been talk of expanding the pallet of sensory engagement via digital means, another twist on augmenting reality. In 2000, Aromajet developed Pinoke, a device able to recreate smells associated with computer games. Digital signals written into software code trigger the aroma generator to emit precise amounts of the appropriate aroma.
The American company also created E-Commerce Kiosk that have fragrance generating devices mounted inside to install the perfumes and cosmetics aisle of department stores. One of the ideas under development is a mother’s scent programmed into an aroma generating device placed near a crib to help comfort a baby. The possibility to reproduce scents directly via the internet has driven many other inventions. In February 2004, British operator Telewest announced ScentMail which will enable net users to send and receive codes to "scent domes," which mix liquid smells and spray them into the air around the PC. More... [ permanent link to this entry ]
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