Jets and Jetman

Amazing video of Yves "Fusion-man" Rossi flying with jets...



CNN featured him as well:



While I've became a big fan of the man back in September 2008: Fusion-man

P.S. Here is also an awesome interview with Yves Rossy at TED:

Window Shopping Reinvented

This great idea gives a whole new meaning to window shopping!



Shared by Meg who keeps a great blog of her misadventures.

Time Treasure

"Time Treasure: They have returned" is a location based augmented reality game that overlays game characters over objects in the real world. This awesome idea along with augmented reality applications like Layar and SixthSense, demonstrates the great potential of augmented reality applications.

Jedi Mind

This amazing technology, developed by Jedi Mind, Inc., allows the user to interact with the computer and other machines through the power of the mind!



The technology involves the use of a wireless headset, which detects brainwaves on both the conscious and non-conscious level. This revolutionary neural processing technology makes it possible for computers to interact directly with the human brain.

Surely enough George Lucas has sued 'Jedi Mind' for $5 million for alleged trademark infringement.

Saw Guillaume watching this video in Le Monde's article "Pour George Lucas, la guerre des clones aura bien lieu", so kudos to him for reading it regularly.

Liquid Mountaineering

Liquid Mountaineering is a new sport which is attempting to achieve what man has tried to do for centuries: walk on water. Or to be more precise: running on water. We are developing the sport from scratch. By accident we found out that with the right water repellent equipment you can run across bodies of water, just like a stone skimming the surface.



See also:

• Liquid Mountaineering's Blog
• Liquid Mountaineering's YouTube channel

Thanks to Veena for sharing!

Sixth Sense Technology

SixthSense (also known as WUW: Wear Ur World) is yet another amazing technology that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. The idea has been conceived by Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT Media Lab and has already won an astonishing amount of awards as well as amazing attention through press coverage. In simple words, the Sixth Sense is a mini-projector coupled with a camera and a cellphone, which acts as the computer and your connection to the Cloud - all the information stored on the web.



Information is often confined to paper or computer screens. SixthSense (also known as WUW: Wear Ur World) frees data from these confines and releases it into the world, seamlessly integrating information and reality. With the miniaturization of computing devices we are always connected to the digital world, but there is no link between our interactions with these digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. SixthSense bridges this gap by augmenting the physical world with digital information. It brings intangible information into the tangible world. Using a projector and camera worn as a pendant around the neck, SixthSense sees what you see and visually augments surfaces or objects with which you interact. It projects information onto any surface or object, and allows users to interact with the information through natural hand gestures, arm movements, or with the object itself. SixthSense makes the entire world your computer.



Cudos to Josh Chan for sharing this with me!

Yellow Bird

Yellow Bird is a really far-fetched name for such an awesome technology, but you'll certainly get it once you see their knowhow. Meanwhile, just imaging Google Street View in video - that's what yellowBird^® is!



Yellow birds don't have wings but they fly to make you experience a 3D reality

See also:

• Company's Website
• TechCrunch: If You Could See Google Street View In Video, It Would Look Like YellowBird

Layar - World's First Mobile Augmented Reality Browser

Simply AMAZING idea! Layar allows you to see what is around you by displaying realtime digital information on top of reality through the camera of your of your mobile phone.



See also:

• Layar's website
• CNN: New phone apps seek to 'augment' reality

Fusion-Man

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, September 26, 2008 Yves "Fusion-man" Rossi has won his bet: the bird-man crossed the English channel on his reactive wing. He landed in Dover at 13:19 (London time, BST)

Press service, Yves Rossy



Madame, Monsieur,

Aujourd'hui 26 Septembre 2008, Yves "FusionMan" Rossy a réussi son pari: l'homme-oiseau a traversé la Manche avec son aile à réaction.

Il a atterri à Douvres à 13:19 (heure de Londres, BST).

Service de presse Yves Rossy



Yves Rossy is a Swiss pilot, inventor and aviation enthusiast. He is both the first person to build and the first person successfully to fly a jet engine-powered wing strapped to the back. The flight occurred in November 2006 in Bex, lasting nearly six minutes. While work with jet packs to propel humans dates back as far as World War II, his is the first one to have wings.



Source: http://www.jet-man.com/

The first electronic cover for a magazine

This is one of only 100,000 issues of Esquire to feature the new E-Ink cover, the first use of such technology for magazine covers...

Newton Virus

In the beginning were harmless computer viruses. Viruses born out of the wit of early computer adopters, viruses whose sole purpose was to surprise and amuse. A non-destructive form of artificial life.

We wanted to revive this golden era, and went on to create our first computer virus. We chose to do it for mac as the platform is still a virgin territory ;-)



Spice up your colleagues' day with our Newton Virus, the first virus to introduce gravity to your laptop, causing the desktop icons to fall down as if subject to the gravitational pull from the real world.

Newton Virus comes on a USB key for manual infection. Simply plug the key into a computer and the virus will automatically copy itself on the hard drive.

The virus will then hit at random, but only once. It will not replicate itself, mail itself to your friends or destroy any of your files, but instead provides you with moments of blissful surprise and magic.

Credits:
Concept & Design: Troika
Programming: Mauritius Seeger - Dr Mo

Source: Newton Virus by Troika

Head Tracking

Using the infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space. By Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University.



For more information and software visit http://johnnylee.net/

Motionposter

WOW! This is an incredibly creative and innovative idea for advertising! A definite must-see! Posters with consequitive frames of a movie are hanged out next to each other on the wall of the underground's tube. When metropolitain train passes them by, they form a marvellous video sequence!



Here is how it works: Motionposter

Virtual Barbershop

This is the most amazing piece of audio I've ever heard in my lifetime! You've got to listen to it with your headphones. Please, DO NOT USE SPEAKERS, USE HEADPHONES, or you will ruin the sound illusion. This file has also been published at Metacafe, so if it doesn't play here, visit the link and don't forget to vote for it!

DOWNLOAD Virtual Barbershop in MP3

Now get your hair dried:

DOWNLOAD Virtual Hairdryer in MP3

And listen to sexy Italian girl whispering on your ears:

DOWNLOAD Sexy Voice in MP3

The technique used to create these audio is called Binaural recording. It turned out that Pearl Jam recorded a whole album using this technique, which they obviously called "Binaural". There are quite a few binaural recordings on the Internet, none of them however seems to come close in the effect of the masterpiece presented here. Here are some of them:

• Holophonic Sounds at Amazon
• The Binaural Source
• Binaural recordings

Source: Virtual Barbershop

P.S. If you enjoyed this piece of audio as much as I did, please vote for it at Metacafe. Thanks!