Computers & Mobile

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for digital gadgetry, open code, smart hacks, and more. Processing power to the people!

Minority Report-style web surfing with Kinect

Minority Report-style web surfing with Kinect

It’s amazing to see all the fantastic Kinect demos popping up everywhere. Just goes to show you that people will go out of their way to do fun things with a product if it’s truly innovative. Take, for instance, this demo from MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group who’ve created a Chrome browser extension, called DepthJS, that uses a gesture interface to control a standard web browser using a Microsoft Kinect controller. If you view the accompanying video I’m sure you’ll agree that the effect is strikingly similar to the touch-free UI from the movie Minority Report. I’m not sure if it’s the most efficient method to interface with a browser, but I think it has to be one of the coolest

Continue Reading Adam Flaherty
Glass lens doorknob gives preview of room beyond

Glass lens doorknob gives preview of room beyond

Probably not all doors should offer previews, all the time, but this is undeniably wonderful. As it is, the knob offers bi-directional viewing; I wonder if you could half-silver one side and make it one-way? Johnny Strategy at Spoon & Tomago writes:

In conjunction with Design Tide Tokyo, architect Hideyuki Nakayama – a protégé of Toyo Ito -　has teamed up with UNION, a manufacturer of door handles and levers, to create a glass globe doorknob. As you approach the doorknob you catch a glimpse of what appears to be another world, waiting for you to enter and join, but in fact is a reflection of the room on the other side of the door.

[via Gizmodo]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan6
Free downloadable Mentat training calendar for 2011

Free downloadable Mentat training calendar for 2011

A month ago, I blogged about Ron Doerfler’s beautiful Age of Graphical Computing calendar for 2010, lamenting the fact that it’d only appeared on my radar at the end of the year. Well, I’ve been keeping an eye peeled, and Ron just released his 2011 calendar. It’s not about graphical computing, but about what is perhaps an equally interesting mathematical curiosity: Techniques for doing fast mental math. And it looks to be just as beautiful.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan