Not bad, eh? Oddly satisfying. I love the little ‘click’ noises too.
The filmmaker Timo Arnall has done some other really nice videos that feature RFID as part of everyday life, including Skål and Sniff, as well as other pieces of interest in the ‘craft meets technology’ space. You might like to see his portfolio.
In the video, an Oyster card triggers the sequence. I found one designer’s cool idea for personalised images that appear when you pass through a gate:
1. Design an image
2. Scan your card
3. See your image
This idea came from Lee Washington, and I’m right behind you, Lee.
RFID has so much potential yet to be explored, this being one small example of how Near-Field Communication can add in some way to our lives.
I’m planning another piece on RFID tags and their future which will be ready soon, so look out for it!
Just a quick one that any lover of Photoshop will enjoy, from the mad-skills team over at Chop Shop T-Shirts. I love how ‘Silver Age‘ these characters look:
Sometimes, those Photoshop filters really do feel like superheroes to me.
What’s your favourite tool? And if it was a superhero, what would it’s power be?
Oh hell yeah. The trailer for the new Tron film is out and looking great:
The premise is that Kevin Flynn is still trapped in Tron 25 years after the events of the first film, and remains captive in a world that has grown more advanced and more dangerous. His tech-savvy hacker son has tracked him down at last and enters Tron to release him. Gladiatorial-style battles and cunning technological traps will stand in his way blah blah blah…
Let’s be straight here: the story is not what matters. It’s all about how visually gorgeous this cyber-universe will look, how cool the high-concept designs will be, and how awesome it will be to see this in full 3D at the IMAX. It’s success will inevitably give rise to toys and merchandise that will allow a new horde of young fans to feel part of the Tron universe. Let’s also not forget the great opportunities in Gaming, both console-based and MMORPG, and all that entails.
I’m most excited about the impact such a highly stylised film will have on other cultural forms, such as interior design and fashion, and predict that Tron’s bold iconography will pervade creative communities for some time after its release.
But I’m especially looking forward to this film because of the Daft Punk soundtrack. They’ve announced 24 new tracks which I’m sure will be a perfect fit with the new Tron universe, followed by a World Tour. Roll on, 2010…
Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous. [7]
Astro Boy will be landing on our screens in October this year, it’s been confirmed.
For those who don’t know, ‘Astro Boy’ is an anime sci-fi series set in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. It’s main character is a powerful robot called Astro Boy (Astro for short), who was created by a great scientist called Doctor Tenma following the death of his son Tobio.
Despite looking identical to Tobio, Tenma soon realized that the little android could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or easily express human feelings. Indeed, in one set of comic panels, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers. I’m a bit like that sometimes…
Astro is gifted with awesome robot powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions. Astro has fought crime, evil, and injustice across five decades of great comic and television series. Most of his enemies are robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story includes a battle involving Astro and other robots. Cool huh?
In advance of Astro Boy’s Autumn 2009 cinematic release, let’s take a trip through the many ages of Astro Boy…
1960′s
Astro Boy was the first Anime to be exported to the West.
Check out this intro to his first TV series, dubbed from Japanese:
1980′s
Here’s the Astro that most of us will recognise.
He’s been in this colour form for the longest (excepting his past in comics):
Modern Day
Finally, the trailer for his upcoming movie, which I’m pretty excited about.
I’m predicting a new wave of popularity and cool merchandise from this:
Astro is a cultural icon in my eyes, and for me is the strongest symbol of a Japanese media form being highly attractive to a Western eye, together with Hello Kitty. Who’s with me? Would love to hear some thoughts.
Colour Picker is an innovative design of a concept pen that can scan colours from anything around and instantly use the colour for drawing:
After placing the pen against an object, the user just presses the scan button. The colour is being detected by the colour sensor and the RGB cartridge of the pen mixes the required inks to create the target colour:
This superb device will help people to observe the changing colours of nature. With colour picker, all range of artists will be able to create a more sensorial and visual insight of their surrounding nature’s colours:
