Weird. I don’t really like place with extreme weather conditions (too hot, too cold), but somehow I always wanted to visit Alaska and experience the pure wilderness I imagine it to be. Recently, I have also found this documentary about … well, the North of U.S.:
Reminds me a lot of the Stephen Fry in America series, through the places they visit and the type of questions they ask. Truly people-oriented. Thumbs up!
Very interesting talk about virtual spaces and communication, as well as a comparison between conversation, connection and isolation in our Facebook-enhanced days.
One of the main ideas that I like in this talk suggests that posts are ok for transmitting feelings and simple ideas, but not for really understanding each other. Furthermore, posts really don’t enable reflexion about oneself, or discussion about the own persona.
I think all these insight are extremely important for the visualization and social interaction communities, as we can—and need to—improve the breach and depth of experiences that users can explore in the virtual environment. At the same time, these need to be further connected and intertwined with real-life experiences and events.
As the current way of being connected gives us the false impression of being less alone, a couple of steps are suggested that one could take to improve this. As I agree with these completely, I wanted to enumerate them bellow:
- Solitude as a good thing. Teach your children the value of solitude.
- Create sacred spaces at home and reclaim them for conversation.
- We all really need to listen to each other, including to the boring bits. When we stumble or hesitate, we truly reveal ourselves to each other.
Since the Microsoft Kinect came out, research labs and passionates have tried to modify the gaming controller into a more complex, more specific, or more general application controller. Now it seems there’s a commercial solution directly aimed at the PC market: the Leap.
Gesture control is extremely useful and even cool. But what if you can’t always track it visually in order to detect it. Well, one alternative is EMG and an EMG bracelet:
I can’t wait to see the Nokia 8o8 PureView in action! I mean, seriously… where have you heard of a digital camera with 41 MP… in a cellphone?!
But more importantly, here‘s how it all works. I wonder what the results will be once it’s on the market and there will be some user-made images online…
