Dorothy & things that made last week

Dorothy

Dorothy by iStrategy Labs is a really interesting use of haptic for discrete navigation information. Glanceable interfaces are important for smartphone devices and wearables to work in the next world. Haptics allow this to be taken to the next level, encouraging glances only when needed, or not at all in some circumstances. Technology mediated behaviour would become much more fluid, indistinguishable from a human with no technology, but perfect contextual knowledge.

A very simple example of this would be the Jæger-LeCoultre Memovox alarm watch from 1950, that relied on a mechanical self-winding (automatic) watch movement.

Kovert Designs

Kovert Designs seem to be taking a similar approach with their jewellery; as does Casio with their BlueTooth G-shocks. BlueTooth LE (low energy) dramatically changes how the technology can be used, making wearables to wireless tags a much more practical proposition.

William Gibson

I am really looking forward to William Gibson’s new book and this interview with American magazine Mother Jones shows that he has not lost his edge in telling truths from the future. The scope of his   William Gibson: The Future Will View Us “As a Joke” | Mother Jones

Porter Tokyo collaboration with Isaora

Porter’s collaboration with Isaora are always interesting, but I have really fallen for the Filo pack, with its digital smoke print. Porter Tokyo have built the bag out of Cordura to create the kind of burley design you’d expect from more tactical vendors. The digital smoke pattern is ideal for urban living including hiding the grime of everyday commutes. Unfortunately I can’t justify buying it because I have a perfectly good Mystery Ranch bag.

Physical interface design

I really like this physical interface designed for use on iPads. The pictures under glass interface has its limitations which this design draws attention to.

This design takes the best of software and physical design and melds them together. Of course, how this can be commercialised is another matter of finding the killer application.