Picnik

A few days ago, I read about Picnik in a recent Mossberg column (sub req'd). It's an uncharacteristically glowing review with nary a negative word:

Picnik has a beautiful and responsive user interface .... If you want to see how good a Web application can be, take Picnik for a spin.

Intrigued, I hastened to check it out for myself. It didn't take me long to acquiesce (always loved that word) to Mossberg's assessment. It is indeed a beaut. And there's a fetching sense of humor sprinkled throughout, like in the loading screen (pictured above) -- "floating kites .... laying a blanket... warming breeze..."

Oh, so what Picnik actually does? (Guess I haven't mentioned that yet.) It's a web-based photo-editing program. It does the simple stuff -- crops, resizings, etc -- quickly and painlessly. I definitely recommend giving it a spin.

Check out their blog, too -- in a fun touch, they ask folks to help them come up with a name for the premium version, which is coming soon.

Tags: Picnik Mossberg photo editing

The iPhone: a head-turner

On the morning of June 30, the day after iPhones were released to the ravenous public, I was having some breakfast at The Globe Cafe and noticed, a few booths away, three guys gingerly passing a gleaming new iPhone back and forth. I couldn't help it: I had to walk up and get a closer look, and the owner was gracious enough to let me touch it.

The other day at work, one of my coworkers brought in his new iPhone and we all gathered round for a demo. Impressive? Yes, quite. I won't go on about its features, as they have been discussed in painstaking detail throughout the blogosphere.

People are impressed with other people's iPhones. So I predict that this summer, a sizeable number of people will successfully use their iPhones to successfully woo romantic partners. Just by flashing their iPhones as they walk down the street. It will happen. I'm sure.

Tags: iPhone woo head-turner

Thinking through video games

I was reading the Wall Street Journal in bed last night and came across a fascinating article: Mind Control for Videogames. You won't be able to see much there without a subscription, so here's the story from another source.

This is an interesting step forward in the world of brain-computer interfaces, over an almost-decade since the breakthrough news of the fellow who used only his brain to move a mouse cursor.

I'll be curious to see what happens with BCI in video games, and how quickly popular commercial adoption catches on. I mean, the novelty of it...I'm very curious to try something like this. Aren't you?

From the WSJ article:

Emotiv Systems...envisions players strapping on helmets with electrodes that read brain signals, allowing them to issue simple commands to enhance game play....Emotiv says its technology can distinguish between patterns of brain activity that can be designated to correspond to specific commands.

In a demonstration, Emotiv researcher Marco Della Torre donned a prototype headset and was able to move objects on a computer screen by visualizing pushing or lifting them....The technology also projected Mr. Della Torre's smiles, winks, or other facial expressions onto the face of an animated character, while software registered changes in his level of excitement.

Sony's Home service--which looks to be a souped-up version of Second Life--was also officially announced yesterday. I can't help but imagine how BCI technology might work in conjunction with virtual worlds. Seems like such a sci-fi notion, yes, but it's really not that hard to imagine that people will be able to use their minds to control their Second Life / Sony Home / whatever's next avatars.

Tags: Emotiv thought game controller Sony Home avatar

Four interesting developments

Four interesting developments to watch:

• Solar-powered marketing. A simple but compelling marketing concept used by McDonalds and the ad agency Leo Burnett.


• Speaking of marketing, now there's avatar-based marketing: advertising in virtual worlds such as Second Life. See this post in Towering Flat for a nice fleshing-out of this concept. In his book The Singularity is Near, Ray Kurzweil predicts (correctly, in my opinion), that avatars will become an increasingly important part of our lives.


• And speaking of Ray Kurzweil, he's gone and invented another handy gadget, a scanner-reader for the blind. It snaps a quick digital photo of printed material, scans it, and reads it out loud a few seconds later with a synthesized voice. James Gashel says that he thinks this is "the hottest new technology to be developed for blind people in the last 30 years."


• Denver's mayor has announced a Greenprint Denver plan. It's a sustainability roadmap for Denver that includes measures such as converting city cars to hybrid and biodiesel.

Tags: marketing avatar Ray Kurzweil blind scanner-reader denver

Man uses chip to control robot with thoughts

The New York Times reported today that a paralyzed man was able to control a computer, a television, and a robot -- using only his thoughts, which controlled a small sensor in his brain.

The paper helps “shift the notion of such ‘implantable neuromotor prosthetics’ from science fiction towards reality,’’ Stephen H. Scott of Queen’s University in Canada wrote in a commentary in the journal. The implant system, known as the BrainGate, is being developed by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems of Foxborough, Mass.

Via New York Times and Bodyhack

Tags: BrainGate implant robot thought control sensor

The keyboard food tray: enabling anti-social behavior

I consider myself to be a fairly extroverted socialite; I spend a lot of time with a variety of friends. But I'm definitely not one of those people who can never eat alone. Ever since my childhood days of reading "Choose Your Own Adventure" books (This Wikipedia entry gave me a burst of nostalgia) at the table whilst dawdling over my meal, I've always treasured a solitary meal and a good book. Or, as has been the norm over the past six or seven years, a lesiurely web-browsing session.

And so, I welcome the advent of the keyboard food tray. It's another step forward for multitasking. And one more reason to avoid face-to-face contact with others!

Via TechEBlog and Treehugger

Tags: gadgets multitasking anti-social keyboard

Aviation history is made by ornithopter

Yesterday Dr. James DeLaurier, an aeronautical engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies, fulfilled a lifelong dream, seeing his manned mechanical flapping-wing airplane, or ornithopter, fly - a dream first imagined by Leonardo da Vinci.

With the successful flight, DeLaurier has been lucky enough to touch what many describe as the Holy Grail of aeronautical design, achieving a place for himself, his team of volunteers and students in aviation history.

via Toronto Star | digg story

Tags: ornithopter aviation aeronautical engineering