Livescribe - A notetaking computer in a pen.
The Livescribe paper-based computing platform by Pulse, consists of a smartpen, paper, software applications, and developer tools.
Despite its inherent lack of digital connectivity, pen and paper endures because it is incredibly well-suited to the unstructured, spontaneous, flexible nature of our lives and work styles. A simple pen and paper gives people contextual cues and perspective, supports collaboration in live groups, and allows for very easy navigation, reference and comparison of information.
But paper and pen present serious limitations in an increasingly digital world. Paper documents are static and difficult to share. Written notes are susceptible to loss and damage. What’s missing is a way to maximize the freedom of expression and rich context afforded by pen and paper while delivering the connectivity, archiving system and “capture” capability of a computer.
That's where Livescribe comes in. With Livescribe, people will no longer have to settle – they can have the best of both the paper and digital worlds.
A high speed infrared camera (over 70 images/sec) records every move over the specially mapped paper.
The smartpen is about the size and weight of a large Montblanc pen, and comes equipped with a removable ink cartridge, a microphone to record audio, a speaker for playback, a small OLED display, and an internal computer chip that captures handwritten notes and drawings. When someone writes with the smartpen on Livescribe paper, the recorded audio is automatically linked to the written notes.
The paper is an integral part of the smartpen package. Imagine a piece of paper the size of Europe and Asia, where every 3 square millimeters is covered with a unique pattern of dots practically invisible to the human eye. The pattern of simple, micro-dots enables a patented dot-positioning system to precisely track the smartpen’s movement on paper. As a result, anything you write – words, numbers or drawings – can be stored, recognized, and intelligently responded to by the Pulse smartpen
For more information, visit the Livescribe website and/or watch a Video.
Worldometers - world statistics updated in real time
Worldometers is managed by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers with the goal of making world statistics available in a thought-provoking and time relevant format to a wide audience around the world.
The counters that display the real-time numbers are based on Worldometers’ algorithm that processes the latest and most accurate statistical data available together with its estimated progression to compute the current millisecond number to be displayed on each counter based on the specific time set on each visitor’s computer clock.
Many of the statistcis are eye-opening and the rapidly increasing numbers on some of the subjects can be shocking.
Check out Worldometers for yourself to see real time statistics of things including how big the world's population is (approx 7,000,000,000) and how quickly it is increasing, how many computers sold worldwide this year, how many lightning strikes have hit earth so far this year (2,000,000,000 and counting), and how many cumulative hours waited for web pages to download this year (approx 20, 000,000,000 to date).
Read the full article
Taking photos with grass.
Art can come in many forms, but grass? This year at the 2008 Wimbledon Tennis Championships, Grass Art took center court in a new kind of art installation. UK artists, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey used grass as a photographic paper by projecting a black and white image onto a large panel of grass in a dark room.
They are acclaimed for their ground-breaking work with the light sensitivity of seedling grass and its ability to record complex photographic images, creating unique works that articulate the seductions of time and visibility.
Ackroyd and Harvey stumbled onto this technique after producing an installation that involved covering an indoor wall with living grass. A ladder was leaning against the wall, and the artists noticed that after it was removed a faint outline of the ladder remained on the grass.
They set about experimenting with ways of enhancing this effect, and soon they were using a slide projector as an artificial light source for growing their unique photographs. A typical exposure time is just over a week, with the image projected for 12 hours a day.
Unfortunately, the images don’t last for too long without continued maintenance. Once exposed to natural light, the grass begins to grow more evenly and the images fade away.
Ackroyd and Harvey have received numerous awards including the Wellcome Sci-Art Award, NESTA Pioneer Award and the L'Oreal Grand Prize for the Art & Science of Colour.
Click for more of Ackroyd and Harvey's work.
All images courtesy of Creative Review
In depth article on Jean-Marc Wiederrecht/Agenhor in iW magazine
There is an excellent article on Jean-Marc Wiederrecht and his company Agenhor by Elizabeth Doerr in the July 2008 edition of iW (International Watch) magazine.
Although he has been a highly respected and prominent figure in the Swiss horological industry for decades, Wiederrecht and his company Agenhor were practially unknown to the general public a year ago due to the fact that they worked for brands (who usually preferred to take all credit for themselves).
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That all changed late 2007 when two major events served to bring Wiederrecht the notice of a much larger audience: the first was being awarded the inaugural prize for best watchmaker at the prestigious 2007 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève - you can see more of that here - and the second was the unveiling of MB&F’s Horological Machine No.2,a project in which Wiederrecht was the principle watchmaker (and you can learn more about that here)
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Click ‘Agile_Agenhor.pdf’ to download the iW article and ‘Friends’ behind Horological Machine No.2’ for the complete list of people involved in the project.
Read the full article
Extreme kayaking gets ever more extreme!
Over the last few years extreme kayakers have started paddling free-falling over ever higher vertical drops.
Professional photographer Lucas Gilman took this breathtaking picture of professional US kayaker Pat Keller plummeting straight over the cliff face at La Paz Waterfall in Costa Rica at high speed. Mr Keller escaped with only a broken hand - fractured when he hit the water at the bottom of the 120ft (36.5m) fall.
Extreme kayaker Tao Berman setting a world record drop.
"When these professionals are freefalling they want to be in the Oregon Tuck, with a curved back," says Paul Robertson, brand manager of Dagger Europe. The paddle presents another potential liability. "It should be parallel to the kayak so that it isn't blown out of their hands - and doesn't break their nose or dislocate their shoulder on impact."
Impressive stuff indeed, but we'll leave it to the pros thank you!
For more information on Extreme kayaking (tempted?) please check out
BBC news magazine
Telegraph article
Photographs by Lucas Gilman