Curls all the way

Sensors turn skin into gadget control pad with 'SKINPUT'

Imagine if your iPhone was the size of a small watch?  It would be impossible to navigate without decent sized keys and icons.  But what if you could project the screen onto your hand, and then type directly onto it?  The size of our fingers is limiting how small devices can become.  But with a new system called 'Skinput', a sensor around your arm teamed with a minute projector can literally turn your hand into a touch sensitive screen.  At the moment the sensor is a bit bulky and unattractive but we are not far away from playing music and making phone calls on our hands.  Watch this video and read accompanying article to see how it works.

Scientists Use 3D Printer to Create First “Printed” Human Vein

Scientists working on the Organovo NovoGen printer recently created the first "printed" human vein.  This technology could replace other toxic and carbon-heavy medicinal practices like using artificial body parts in the human body.

The printer is meant to be used in regenerative medicine.  Instead of borrowing body parts from someone else - or yourself - the printer will just make a new part for you.  The printer is loaded with cartridges of "bio-ink" a substance that acts as a kind of scaffolding for the cells to retain their shape.  A sophisticated computer is linked to the printed that is pre-programmed with the 3D blueprint of whatever is being made. The computer instructs the printer to lay down two dimensional layers of bio ink and cells that eventually form into the 3D body part. article taken from www.inhabitat.com

Click here to listen to a conversation about how the device works with the man who developed the prototype, Gabor Forgacs.

Alice in Wonderland..the original

Ouroboros by Ben Newman

Ben Newman talks us through the making of his new comic in this interview.

Cristina Guitian

Cristina's exhibition 'Portraits of my Life as a Bird' opens in London this evening.  CHeck out her website here.

We should all have a family portrait like this

Found here

by adam hayes

Olympic Dread

The Olympics are invariably used as a testing ground for new security technologies, and London 2012 will be no exception.  Britain is by far the world leader in CCTV with 4.2 million cameras, more than the rest of Europe put together, and is planning a huge increase in surveillance measures for the Olympics, specifically with the use of drones.

Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been used in Iraq and Afganistan, and were originally developed as warfare, but have been slowly creeping their way into the UK, and will be commonplace in 2012, after the successful trial at the Olympic Welcome celebrations.

AirRobot UK produces them, and says this on their site:

"The AR100B can fly silently through the air or hover while transmitting live images to the operator at the ground station. The silent operation and size of the platform allows aerial surveillance to be carried out in built up residential urban areas as well as rural locations without causing any disturbances. The unit can also 'perch and stare' from a solid platform allowing the operator to capture hours of footage from an out of view vantage point."

IKEAART

 

Berlin-based artist Nathan Baker uses the ready-to-assemble pieces of IKEA’s basic Stefan chair as the building blocks for faux-modernist or -minimalist sculptural forms, which he documents in photographs. Baker is interested in how creativity is limited by available resources, and the possibility of emulating sculptures using mass-produced components that are supposed to be the skeleton of a simple, functional object.

Found here

out-of-the-box PR

Museum of Small Things M.O.S.T.

Selfridges London host the M.O.S.T from this Friday for 1 month in their dedicated exhibition space called the Ultralounge.  

The Museum of Small Things will inspire visitors to open wide their eyes and to slowly look, and then look again, at the world they inhabit. M.O.S.T. will house priceless gems too subtle to compete with the show-stopping technology of the modern world. Modest masterpieces under-valued in cultures where biggest is better and mega, if achievable, is best, will be centre-stage. The variety on display in this museum will dynamically demonstrate how the lines between all forms of visual expression have become blurred. Exhibits range across images, objects, moving pictures, ideas, detritus and treasures.

Don't miss it!

Check the M.O.S.T. blog for updates

Just the beginning?

Not long left to see the current Photographers' Gallery Bookshop exhibition Polaroid Project showing until the end of January. 

The last instant film manufactured by Polaroid was produced in 2008, with an expiry date of October 2009. To mark its passing national newspaper The Observer gave eight leading contemporary photographers Polaroid film and cameras for a day - Harry Borden (bottom image), Nan Goldin, Tom Hunter, Mary McCartney, Martin Parr, Rankin, Lord Snowdon and Sam Taylor-Wood (top image).

However, The Impossible Project – a group of dedicated Polaroid enthusiasts – plan to manufacture new Polaroid format film in early 2010. As a result, Polaroid will begin to manufacture its instant cameras again. Yipee!

ps. iPhone app Camera Bag has some great filters including a Polaroid one to comfort you while you wait for more film.

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

 

There must be millions of people all over the world 

who never get any love letters… 

I could be their leader.  

 Charlie Brown

Turn your desk into a touch screen

Light Touch™ is an interactive projector that instantly transforms any flat surface into a touch screen. It frees multimedia content from the confines of the small screen, allowing users to interact with that content just as they do on their hand held devices – using multi-touch technology.  Interesting?  Read more.