“We are still living in a world where information is trapped in a few of our objects,” says Haladjian, co-founder of Violet. “We stare into our screens, which are like goldfish bowls full of information swimming around, but unable to escape.”

It’s called “The Internet of Things” — at least for now. It refers to an imminent world where physical objects and beings, as well as virtual data and environments, all live and interact with each other in the same space and time. In short, everything is interconnected.

“If we can imagine it, there’s a good chance it can be programmed,” wrote Vint Cerf, the original Internet evangelist, on the official Google blog.

“The Internet of the future will be suffused with software, information, data archives, and populated with devices, appliances, and people who are interacting with and through this rich fabric.”

At the nodes of this all-encompassing web of objects is RFID (Radio Frequency Identity) technology, which allows things to be “read” by an NFC (Near Field Communication) scanner, bar-code-style, as well as to store information about themselves and their relationship with their environment, over time.

The reason why RFID is often called next-generation bar code is that the technology is more accurate, scanners can read more objects with less directional contact, and smaller chips can contain a larger quantity of information.

Bruce Sterling, one of the pioneers of cyberpunk literature in the 1980s and an active sci-fi guru, neologized the term “spime” in 2004 to refer to any object that can define itself in terms of both space and time, i.e. using GPS to locate itself and RFID to trace its own history.

Here are some highlights of the ever-evolving RFID technology…

• Pachube is a service that enables people to tag and share real time environmental data from objects, devices and spaces around the world. The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual.  Pachube functions like a virtual switchboard using EEML (Extended Environments Markup Language) to link buildings to architecture software to installations to artists’ laptops to weather sensors to Second Life and beyond, all in real time.  Pachube currently connects some 150 input and output feeds, including a Geiger counter measuring radiation in Japan, a ship in the Pacific, air quality in Beijing, Tower Bridge in London, and the location of an iPhone as it moves around the world.
• Violet launched the best-selling Nabaztag, a screenless, WiFi-enabled bunny, born again with voice-recognition and RFID-awareness in 2007. Interfacing the node between virtual data and the sensory world, Nabaztag fetches information from the Internet, flashes lights on its nose and tummy, rotates its ears, sniffs RFID chips, speaks 36 languages and understands five.
• Chumby Industries launched the soft leather-cased Chumby, an alarm-clock-inspired device equipped with a motion sensor and dominated by a touch screen
• One of the most fascinating pre-incarnations of the Internet of Things is Boredomresearch’s RealSnailMail, in which e-mail messages interrupt their regularly scheduled path at the speed of fiber optics to be delivered across a 50-centimeter enclosure via RFID-equipped carrier snails.

Read Full Article via CNN >>

The convergence of entertainment, communications, and computing in cars just took a big step forward with Futuremark’s Audi in-car UI demonstrated at NVISION.

“Hey Kitt, where’s Fry’s? I need to upgrade the 1GB Nvidia card in my Audi!”

Some companies are better at building the future of user interfaces than others. Nissan recognized this and hired Polyphony Digital, the Gran Turismo team, for the GT-R in-car screens. The Futuremark dashboard concept takes it one step further. The system is a full, live dashboard environment all shown in 3D graphics. From the gauge cluster to the GPS screen, the entire thing can all change on the fly thanks to OpenGL graphics. The possibilities are literally endless with this type of a display. I can think of some immediate benefits from a usability and user experience perspective…

• The entire dashboard UI could be localized on-the-fly. Say your wife is Japanese and you are German, no problem.  The entire dashboard text could switch.  Language and mph or km/h could also be set and switched on the fly.
• The GPS could be displayed full screen, behind the wheel, instead of the gauges. If the driver is lost, they’re going to want to focus on directions.  Don’t bother with a typical nav in the center console or an even a tiny portable unit, switch the entire dash to be the GPS.
• The UI could be reconfigured on the fly to meet the specific needs of the driver at that time. Say the driver knows he’s on the highway for several hours, the speedometer could zoom to just the range (55-70mph) to allow the driver to focus on that particular speed range.  Say the driver needs to focus on just the RPM’s like on a racetrack, the entire UI could redraw into one giant RPM gauge with clear redline and upshifting lights.  The speedometer is unimportant at this time and would not be displayed.  A lap timer could also be the focus.  Or better yet, say the driver wants to see realtime telemetry data from the shocks and springs like a Forza or Gran Turismo playback.  No problem.
• Add in wireless data access (WIMAX, WIFI, 3G, or EDGE) and the possibilties are even more endless. Ala Dash, realtime traffic, Google or Yahoo! local maps, local companies, ratings, realtime gas prices etc. can all be displayed and accessed on the full dashboard rather than the tiny Dash.
• GPS should have full access to the real vehicle data…speed, RPM, engine temps, fuel, mpg, etc. The GPS could now notify the driver when fuel level is low before the driver starts that 50 mile stretch of highway.  Based on the location, the GPS could notify the driver when the speedlimit on particular road changes.  The GPS could notify the driver of approaching speed cameras, display them in a picture, and tell the driver how much to slow down.
• OpenGL based graphics would allow for some amazing visualizations and allow outstanding GPS mapping capability. Think Gran Turismo or Forza2 real time telemetry.

Futuremark Announces Groundbreaking Automotive Demo for Audi at NVISION

San Jose, California – Aug. 25th, 2008 – Futuremark, creators of the industry standard benchmarking software for graphics performance for OpenGL ES and DirectX APIs, has created a demonstration for Audi’s In-Car Graphics System future concept to be shown for the first time at NVISION in San Jose. It delivers a fully rendered car dashboard and all instruments shown in a 3D view, including 3D navigation using stunning and realistic effects and viewsas well as a 3D car infotainment system with vehicle info and cool 3D environmental controls rendered in real-time for on-road Automotive usage.

“We are delighted to work with Audi due to their professional expertise in the car industry,” said Petri Talala, Vice President and General Manager of the Handheld and Embedded Group at Futuremark Oy., “Audi is a leader in this field with sophisticated, real-time rendered and high quality content available for future infotainment systems, and being able to have our graphics engine experts and artists contribute to this effort is very special for Futuremark.”

In-Car graphics systems are evolving rapidly with an increasing amount of digital instrumentation used inside of automotive designs. Khronos APIs such as OpenGL and OpenGL ES will be widely adopted for rendering backend of digital instrumentation. With this new automotive demo, Futuremark is showing the flexibility of both its OpenGL ES engines and its art pipelines that were used to deliver this project on an entirely new platform to Audi’s delight. The Engines and Pipeline Tools used to create the demo are all available for licensing directly from Futuremark. Also offered are custom demo services for Automotive companies who want to show off tomorrows User Interface and Digital 3D designs for Automobiles today. Futuremark’s has an upcoming automotive benchmark that is in development which will utilize real-world use cases such as car dashboard, info-system, and navigation workloads based on OpenGL ES 1.x and ES 2.0.

For more information on having Futuremark create your Automotive vision or for more information concerning Futuremark’s Mobile and Embedded products, in Europe and Asia, contact Petri Talala. In North America contact Oliver Baltuch at the contact information below.

About Futuremark Corporation Futuremark Corporation serves the mobile industry with professional application performance analysis tools and workloads. Our world renowned product portfolio includes 3DMark®Mobile for OpenGL ES 1.x and OpenGL ES 2.0, VGMark™ for OpenVG 1.x, and SPMark™ for Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux and mobile Java. In addition, we license digital content creation tool chain middleware to 3D application developers, chip vendors and handset manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.futuremark.com

This is the wikipedia entry for “Usability” analyzed by Wordle. Wordle is the slickest tag cloud generator that I’ve experimented with.  From their site…

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

Designing the Future of Business

Design — more than quality, technology or top-down strategy — is the one factor that can make long-term profits for a company. - Inspired by Marty Neumeier, Business Week

“Design is the engine that can transform a company into a powerhouse of nonstop innovation,” writes Neumeier of Business Week. “Until now, companies have used design as a beauty station for identities and communications, or as the last stop in a product launch. Never has it been used for its potential to create rule-bending innovation across the board. Meanwhile, the public is developing a healthy appetite for all things design.”

Neumeier believes that for brands to thrive, things must change. He cites a 2007 survey by Kelton Research showing that when 7 out of 10 Americans remembered the last product that they just had to have, it was because of its design rather than any other factor.

As consumers are offered more and more choices, and the limitations imposed by mass production are overcome, they are increasingly incorporating an emphasis on design into their buying decisions. “Design drives innovation, innovation powers brand, brand builds loyalty, and loyalty sustains profits. If you want long-term profits, don’t start with technology—start with design,” he advises.

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Time’s “The Design 100″

Good design is everywhere these days. Great design—the objects, places and ideas that fuse functionality and aesthetics and then push the boundaries a step further to capture the imagination—is more elusive. Take a look at the standouts.