What is it: a software that combs through pictures taken in the same place at different times, angles and positions, and construct/reposition them such that you can see in a virtual 3d environment. That was a mouthful that perhaps didn’t explain much – the video will make it clear.
A very powerful idea, indeed.
Zozo Town is a concept retailing environment that mimics real life retail environment – it has virtual shopfronts whose architecture is somewhat reflective of the brand (or so I assume). Given that these virtual architecture are not going to be limited by real-life constraints like costs, municipal rules (perhaps there are some in ZoZo, not sure), the virtual architects could really express what the shop brand’s essence and vision through daring and creative architecture.
And so I envisioned myself zipping in and out of these virtual shops – but alas, beauty is skin deep in this site. While you do enter a “lobby” or shop space (a beautiful space indeed!), you can’t move around in that. To browse/buy any items, you revert to the standard boring style where grids of products are lined up, prices underneath. What a letdown after the anticipation!
And that brings me to wonder, now that architecture, industrial design, interior design etc. all uses 3D CAD models, I’m sure it’d be a rather interesting project to create a virtual city based on such 3d virtual files. An architecture professor may commission a zone to be developed, while individual students chooses a site/building within that master plan. At the end of semester when work is completed, all the 3d models are imported into the grand master plan site – mmm. A city built with raw vision. Ambitious indeed, but certainly not impossible, especially since we see the possibility of immerse experiences in virtual architecture enabled by gaming engines like Half-Life – Walkthrough of Fallingwater.
Paul Curtis is a graffiti artist who uses dust and dirt (or rather, the lack of) to his advantage. Dirty walls as canvas, he selectively cleans off parts of the wall to reveal his messages in tunnels, floors and walls. It is controversial in some ways – is this a crime? While you can easily charge someone for spraying paint onto public walls, can you really charge people for cleaning up public spaces? If you do, does that mean that you can technically be charged for picking up banana skins off the floor? And sometimes, it is uplifting to see some surprise in the daily life – where people like Curtis leave behind an “Aha” moment and inspiration.
However, public “feel good” graffiti messages like the one shown above (Go Gently) isn’t just the only genre that Colev engages in. He accepts corporate assignments as well – for example, creating images of “X”s on the floor for Microsoft’s Xbox. While generally people are much more accomodating with the public message graffiti, patience runs thin much faster when yet another corporate marketing gimmick invades the already-plastered public domain. It does not help when the first line in their website removes all benefits of the doubt by defining the activity as “innovative forms of advertising”.
Personally, I’m delighted to see a creative means of expression that deviates from the routine – the dreary urban landscape do need some freshening-up. But when it encroaches into commercial exploits, please just leave my space – or rather, our space – alone.
[via neatorama]
Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.
One of the typical experiences of being on board many commercial airlines is the announcement of the safety procedures. Usually casual air-stewardess would suddenly stiffen like perky lifeless Barbie dolls, and proceed to mechanically commence with the safety directions. This article from the Economist sheds some light on what could be announced if the airline was being a little more truthful.
Full article here.
George Steinmetz took these photos of camels in 2005, and it was considered one of the best photos of that year. I took a glance at this and I went “Huh? Well this is kinda nice but, one of the best?”… until I realized that, hey, those black things are not camels.
They are actually the shadows. The camels are the little white lines. That is amazing.
[via Snopes]
Houten Fire Station in Belgium
This is the Houten fire station in Belgium. It was designed by Samyn and Partners.
This research by Dr. Ian Walker claims that the likelihood of an accident increases when you put on a helmet when you ride a bicycle.
“Either way, this study suggests wearing a helmet might make a collision more likely in the first place,” he added.
Dr Walker thinks the reason drivers give less room to cyclists wearing helmets is because they see them as “Lycra-clad street warriors” and believe they are more predictable than those without.
This is an interesting, but not entirely surprising finding. Other studies have found that humans have an inherent subconscious threshold of perceived risk. As risk is reduced by interventions such as safety mechanisms, we subconsciously become more daring/dangerous to bring the inherent risk back to the threshold level.
So if you’ve switched from normal brakes to ABS (anti-brake lock system) for your car, you are probably going to brake later and drive faster. In the research, wearing a helmet may have induced the biker to be faster or more daring unknowingly, while other motorists had also driven closer to the bicycle.
In some ways, the difference in the average distance where the cars overtake the bicycle can perhaps be conceived as an indicator of the perceived reduction in risk brought on by the bicycle helmet.
While we’re on the subject of biking, above is a video of very daring New York messenger-bikers weaving in and out of traffic through impossibly small margins. Based on the human behavior researches, it would perhaps even seem that they have to ride dangerously just because they’re skilled in bicycle-riding.
On the subject of animals, here’s a site that truly demonstrates the extent of niche and specificity. This site archives pictures of animals that are unlikely friends.
Combine a guy on roller skates with a Mozart symphony. The results are fun.
This is Caffeinated Soap.
It is purportedly “infused with caffeine anhydrous, each bar of Shower shock contains approximately 12 servings/showers per 4 ounce bar with 200 milligrams of caffeine per serving. No, we’re not kidding and no you don’t eat it. The caffeine is absorbed through the skin”.
So the modern human wakes up to a double-shot espresso (with saccharine instead of sugar – reduced calories, you know), coupled with this mind-awakening shower, takes a Prozac with breakfast to feel charged up, head up to office, more lattes and coffees to remain perky, and finally comes back home, uses aroma-therapeutic bath lotions to wind down and relax, listens to slow jazz in ambient-controlled lighting and temperature, does yoga and meditate to give the mind a peaceful serenity, before popping a sleeping pill to slumber in magnetic mattresses that improves the body energy field. Next morning, the cycle repeats.
