Archive for January, 2007|Monthly archive page
3D Face Morphing
Comments (2)From what it describes, it seems like the software is capable of constructing/modifying face features on the fly, based on its database of previously entered 3D face models. That isn’t all that new – it’s like a Poser for face. What’s really cool, however, is the ability to churn out usable 3D face models just from a picture alone – that’d really have some tremendous vanity applications, like putting yourself as a full-featured main character from Final Fantasy, or *gasp* a realistic Sims avatar. This is certainly one-up compared to the typical “paste-a-2D-face-picture-into-that-oval-shape-head” thing that some games currently use.
Anna Gram – “Ceramic for Mix”
The name of this object “Ceramic for Mix” doesn’t quite exactly illuminate its function, though it certainly hints at it. At first look I didn’t get what was it – but after I do, I liked the slightly-whimsical but interesting execution:
The ball is put into a glass built with special shapes. Then we have to pour some infused tea into it for exemple: the liquid pushes the ball, and invites users to move it by moving the glass. The ceramic ball comes to mix all various sugars, ringing the glass at the same time. When we drink, this ball is blocked by the gravity in the recess of the glass, moreover than its shape is too big to be ingested.
Ah, so that’s what the donut at the base is for! While I accept the fact that gravity would trap the ceramic ball rather than to flow into your throat, I wonder about the “ring tone” with the ball. The ball is sunk in the liquid loop – probably rather heavy – would it be able to drift around the glass and make those clanking sounds that we’ve come to associate with merrymaking?
[from Anna Gram]
Wind Turbines at Sea
Wind power is fascinating – it promises to deliver clean, renewable energy, except that everybody wants to have it at someone else’s backyard. I don’t quite get it though – I always thought wind turbines are such elegant, beautiful structures – I really don’t mind having one in my backyard, or the rooftop. But of course, there are people who sees them as eyesores. The sea thus become a likely solution – moreoever, the average wind speeds on sea are higher than land.
The seas aren’t always nice though – while the elegant wind turbines may seem dainty in the face of the open sea, some scale and perspectives could probably help visualise the scheme of things:
Damn, aint it HUGE?
But still, I really like the imagery in the first picture – it reminds me of palm groves in an oasis – except that instead of a desert, this vast openness is filled with water rather than sand.
[More here]
I Am @ Youth.SG
[UPDATE: Wow, I just realized that I've got shortlisted in the Top 11 for the Youth.sg blogging contest. Welcome to my blog - a collection of interesting tidbits on designs, ads, and other interesting stuff online. I didn't know that the blog contest would be a popularity showdown, but hey, if you like this site, vote for me! You might just win a $20 Kinokuniya book voucher for yourself!
How to vote: Email iam@youth.sg with the email header <i choose B8 - (your name)>. To vote, please include your Full Name, NRIC/Passport Number and Contact Number in your email for verification. (Yeah, I know this is a bitch).]
[utter blog-whoring]
While other high-profile bloggers can get free Ferrari laptops from Microsoft and then debate about the ethics of it, lowly 100-visitor-a-day blogs like mine get no such love. And so when I saw a post on Youth.sg dangling a chance to win a PSP in return for a blog post, I decided to jump, coz you’d never know if the planetary alignment today is favorable to good fortune, or if the gods are particularly choosing to bless you today. What’s the deal?
All you need to do is write a blog entry, in your own blog, on the theme “I Am @ Youth.SG”. You decide what “I Am @ Youth.SG” means to you, and you are free to interpret it any way you wish. Title the blog entry “I Am @ Youth.SG”, link it to us at www.youth.sg, and send an email to iam@youth.sg to submit your entry.
So I thought – how difficult can it get – I mean, it’s just writing some random paragraphs on your own blog. But I realised that when incentives are thrown in, the balance tips. When I was just writing for my own curatorial sake, for leisure, and with no profit, there were no pressure on my back. It was really easy writing those entries day in and out, because I didn’t have to crank my head in my posts too much to make them a little funnier, or the comments that much wittier, because in a way, I did not have obligations to please anybody on this blog.
In this case however, I spent the last hour trying to think of something witty, something clever, maybe something that deserves publication and glorification – I started to wonder how the people on Best of Craigslist do it. Or even local Singaporean favorite bloggers like Mr. Brown who have gone pro in producing amusing podcasts and blogposts.
I came to realise that churning good reads on a daily basis is definitely not easy – and when your livelihood depends on it, as in the case of pro-bloggers, it is perhaps even more difficult because every step you take does affect the readership, and eventually the bottomline. (And to think I once, and at times actually still do, harbor aspirations of being a pro-blogger). Bloggers, podcasters, news media, even aggregators and portals like Digg, Reddit and of course Youth.sg definitely have to keep scratching their heads to engage and involve their communities, or they’d simply fade out of relevance.
Perhaps an analogy would be between a job interview and a chat with a buddy. With an incentive, the nature of the conversation changes. In this post, I am interviewing with Youth.SG (albeit a Youth.SG with a big PSP face – damn to me who can’t see beyond materialistic possessions – though I think I do get excused because I’m an industrial designer, so I’m supposed to be into gadgets and all!).
Anyway, Youth.sg is a Singapore-based portal with content and links catering to youths – I (sadly) discovered that I am probably at the upper spectrum of “youthness” given that I am not quite captivated by either Superstars or the latest teen idols featured on their front page. Kinda like the adult-proof ringtone – you know’ve “arrived” when you’re deaf to these. But that’s just the old crummy me speaking – you may discover your cup of tea there!
For now, I’d just have to pray for an email to arrive in my inbox bearing good news.
[Youth.sg]
[/utter blog-whoring]
[Comments disabled due to influx of spam from this post]
Audi 4-rings ad
Audi is a brand that I aspire to – I always told friends of how I liked their blend of design and engineering. And this witty ad communicates precisely that – with a great dash of humour and creativity, just like their cars. Man, they just make me love them more.
[found via Base Camp]
Mandarin Ducks: Rite of Passage
Imagine this. You were born, and you grew up happily, fiddling with toys and your siblings. At age seven, where it is a watershed age for a child’s life, you enter a rite of passage. The rite of passage consists of lining up on a twenty-storey building, and jumping down. You have some leave foliage to help you cushion your fall, but well, there are just leaves.
That’s pretty much the standard for this community – this community of, well, mandarin ducks.
Manga Simpsons
おはよう、私達は”Simpsons” である!
If Homer worked in the Tokai Power Plant instead of the one in Springfields, here’s how he might have looked. The classic Simpsons character were given an manga facelift. It seems like Marge has the biggest transformation, shedding the trademark hair (that gave her an 8’6″ statute) for more fashionable locks.
[Art by spacecoyote]
Double You Happy New Year
The virtual world goes all out to imitate the real world, while the real world goes all out to imitate the screen. Here’s a pretty cool stop motion video of people entering and doing all sorts of random things in a drawn browser. Well, forget all that description – it doesn’t really matter – watch it, and maybe have a really alive new year in 2007!
[made by the people from doubleyou]
Soot in Manhattan
Saw this photo of people cleaning the soot off the wall of a typical building in Manhattan – man, that sure is hell lot of dirt/grime/dust. Not quite as artistic as the time where a graffiti artist used the dust for artistic/commercial purposes, but certainly almost as astounding. I’m sure it’s not just Manhattan, but practically any major metropolitan in the world. For years, people have turned a blind eye to pollutions in cities, taking them as a necessary chip for economic advancements. With the recent report on expats leaving Hong Kong for cleaner air elsewhere, it’s about time to realise that, hey, the environment does play an important role even if you just want to plainly look at the numbers.
Wall Street Bull – with Golden Balls™
This is the Wall Street Bull. Weighing a hefty 3200kg, the bronze sculpture was created by sculptor Arturo Di Modica as his testament to the vitality of American capitalism following the 1987 stock market crash. He made it at his personal cost, and had it placed (illegally) in front of the New York Stock Exchange as a form of guerilla art. Although the police had responded by seizing the sculpture, they eventually reinstalled it some blocks away following a public outcry.
It is now a tourist destination in New York’s Financial District, symbolising the aggressive financial optimism and prosperity as suggested by the bull’s eager stance, as if ready to charge. And now, the golden question:
Why does the Wall Street Bull sport a pair of particularly shiny, golden, erm, balls? Could it be that the artist intended the reproductive anatomy to symbolise the reserve from which the bull draws its vitality? For good fengshui?
It turns out that, it is simply due to human behavior – particularly, tourist behaviours. Touching, fondling, or otherwise rubbing the bull’s nuts have become a de facto photo-op, much like how you’d see hordes of people stretching out their hands to “hold” Pisa Tower. With that much fondling, the balls are certainly glistening and basking in flash-accompanied glory.
[video source]
