Shonzilla, a pattern-seeking animal

Tue Jun 9

Apple App Wall

Today at Apple’s WWDC event in San Francisco, Apple had a bunch of Cinema Display monitors mounted together on a wall showing what looked to be some sort of pulsating canvas. But a closer look revealed that it was actually a huge collection of icons for many of the apps available in the App Store, arranged by color. Apparently, when someone purchased one, that app’s icon would pulsate, creating the effect.

While it wasn’t quite real-time, nor was it entirely representative of all the more than 50,000 apps in the App Store, the visualization was pretty damn cool. Prettier than the Google Holodeck and it gave off less heat. Not surprisingly, onlookers were mesmerized by the pulsating apps.

[via parislemon and TechCrunch]

Tue Jun 2

levelHead

Wow, what a mindblowing use of augmented reality!

levelHead is an augmented reality spatial memory game (wicked title, isn’t it?).

What is levelHead?

Here’s the explanation what levelHead is from the web site:

levelHead uses a hand-held solid-plastic cube as its only interface. On-screen it appears each face of the cube contains a little room, each of which are logically connected by doors.

In one of these rooms is a character. By tilting the cube the player directs this character from room to room in an effort to find the exit.

Some doors lead nowhere and will send the character back to the room they started in, a trick designed to challenge the player’s spatial memory. Which doors belong to which rooms?

There are three cubes (levels) in total, each of which are connected by a single door. Players have the goal of moving the character from room to room, cube to cube in an attempt to find the final exit door of all three cubes. If this door is found the character will appear to leave the cube, walk across the table surface and vanish.. The game then begins again.

About this video

As yet unseen footage of the first stable version of levelHead, an augmented-reality spatial-memory game by Julian Oliver. Warning! This is a spoiler for the first 3 cubes: the easy Red Cube, the tricky Green Cube and the ridiculously difficult Orange Cube

levelHead has been designed and created by Julian Oliver who seems to be working with his SelectParks team on several interesting projects connecting art and technology in really creative ways.

C++ source code has been released under GPL license and is available online for everyone who wants to play this game and is brave enough to build it.

[via Vlado Hadzinski]

Mon Feb 16

“Fed up with seeing friends getting clipped by cars, the designers at Altitude combined two things we love — bikes and lasers — to create an instant bike lane and make nighttime cycling a whole lot safer.

Their bike-mounted gadget, called LightLane, beams two bright red lines and the universal symbol for cyclist on the pavement, neatly delineating a bike lane to remind motorists to yield a little space. It should make everyone feel a little more comfort on the road.”

Read more about interesting and potentially life-saving bike gadget over at: LightLane’s Lasers Make an Instant Bike Lane | Autopia from Wired.com. [via Wired Autopia and mel-o Tumblr]

Fri Oct 24

DIY Lamborghini Countach

Man Builds Lamborghini Countach In Basement, Has To Dig It Out When Complete - Geekologie

“100% hand crafted Countach out of aluminum and a space tube frame. All aluminum body formed on a wooden buck using an English wheel. My own design space frame with Corvette hubs and custom A-arms. Mated to a ZF-25 5 speed. S.S. 180 degree headers GT40 design “bundle of snakes” Boss 351 bored stroked to 377 515hp 48 IDA Webbers. One off TransAm BBS rim shells to my own center section wheels. Custom brake package to fit 16” wheels. Fuel cell, twin aluminum sprint car (Howe) radiators. All aluminum interior with leather dash, Momo seats and 5 point harness, on board halon fire bottle. quick release steering wheel. Low to the ground at 2700 lbs. 100% body correct by using a real Countach to measure from. Over 10 years in the making.”

This is freaking awesome!

Fri Aug 8

DO NOT MISS out on the opening of the Beijing Olympics 2008 - it’s going to be ri-di-ci-lous!

Here’s the fireworks rehearsal for the opening ceremony. Notice that olympic circles show up several times at one point.

[via linphilip18]