This TED Talk is from November 2009. It shows some of the awesome possibilities of augmented reality—way beyond that of Nearest Tube or Yelp’s Monocole.

In the talk, Mistry says SixthSense will be open-sourced. Five months later, it’s still vaporware.

At Free Art and Technology, via NOTCOT

Bridging the analog/digital gap is a worthwhile consideration in designing today’s products and experiences. There are definitely cost, availability, scalability, and ease issues associated with digital products, but the digitization of an analog experience often loses a key element of the story.

Poladroid is a fantastic cross-over from the analog space to the digital realm. Highly recommended and very fun to use.

This is application for Mac users that converts a digital image into a very good imitation of a Polaroid photograph. Not only does the application make the noise of a Polaroid taking a photo, but you even have to wait for the image to “develop.” It’s funny, because Polaroid is “instant” film which was supposed to be an improvement on celluloid film, but in the digital age, Polaroid has been replaced with truly instant photography and now the formerly-known-as-instant Polaroid process is relatively time-consuming.

But seriously, download this application. It’s great. If you use a PC, it is supposed to be available some time in November.

(Thanks to Wummer. Hey, your Phillies did alright.)

A friend of mine has a OLPC XO-1, so I finally had a chance to give the much-talked-about piece of equipment a test run. Challenging user interface and miserable keyboard layout… on the bright side, it is rugged, the mechanical aspects of the case and swiveling screen are great, and the $100 price point it fantastic. For its intended purpose of spreading the availability of information and education to children of developing countries, it’s a great start!

Drivers will be alerted to empty parking places either by displays on street signs, or by looking at maps on screens of their smartphones. They may even be able to pay for parking by cellphone, and add to the parking meter from their phones without returning to the car.

…and data from New York City traffic studies:

Not that New Yorkers need any reminders of their traffic problems, but a study released in June by Transportation Alternatives, a public transit advocacy group, reported that 28 percent to 45 percent of traffic on some streets in New York City is generated by people circling the blocks. The study also said that drivers searching for metered parking in just a 15-block area of Columbus Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side drove 366,000 miles a year.

I also like his calendar (concept?), which uses the controlled spread of an ink blot to depict the date. In the project statement, he describes how this calendar does not “signal” the passing of time, but gives a true sense of elapsed time by taking advantage of a slow physical process.

Here’s a YouTube demonstration of the technology and here’s the Dasher website, which offers a test drive of the program. (via GUUUI)

I recently watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It’s a film based on the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was the editor-in-chief of Elle. He had suffered a massive stroke in 1995 that left his mind in tact, but his body was completely paralyzed except for one eye and eyelid. Needless to say, he could not speak. Speech therapists devised a method of cycling through the alphabet, whose order was based on frequency of use and he would blink at the letter he wanted to use.

Dasher paired with eye tracking systems is a beautiful way for disabled people to communicate.

I guess we’ll find out pretty soon.

Eye-Fi makes a wireless SD card. That means you can snap a photo, put the camera near your computer, and have your images uploaded directly to Flickr or other photo sharing platform of choice. It won’t be long before you can have your image instantly and wirelessly transmitted to your iPhone and onward to the web.

The use of scale can also distract the intended purpose of a design.

The same design at an unrealistic scale reevaluates the concept. The highly utilitarian object has become essentially unusable in its original sense. This cup makes a better laundry bin (which is not to say that it isn’t amazing).

And just as white is the new brown is the new black, the never-ending journey of changing tastes brings the cheap object to a fine object to a fine-cheap object. MoMA sells crushed white ceramic party cups as shown below.

The broken object product design concept is epitomized by Jason Miller’s work. He is best known for his “Beautifully Broken” series of drinking glasses, Duct Tape Chair, and Scotch Magic broken mirror (under the “Projects” link on his site). The chair and mirror are on exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.