The idea was simple; Launch a QR code, one of the most innovative technologies of the XXI century, made by Portuguese cobblestones, one of the most ancient Portuguese traditions.
From the fusion between technology and historical traditions a new and innovative way was born to promote Portugal abroad and to provide relevant cultural content for tourists visiting Chiado.
How many cameras can we find on Curiosity rover, the wall-e like robot that is actually rooming around the surface of Mars? Let's find out.
The rover's mast features seven cameras: the Remote Micro Imager, part of the Chemistry and Camera suite; four black-and-white Navigation Cameras (two on the left and two on the right) and two color Mast Cameras (Mastcams). The left Mastcam has a 34-millimeter lens and the right Mastcam has a 100-millimeter lens.
There is one camera on the end of a robotic arm that is stowed in this graphic; it is called the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).
There are nine cameras hard-mounted to the rover: two pairs of black-and-white Hazard Avoidance Cameras in the front, another two pair mounted to the rear of the rover, (dashed arrows in the graphic) and the color Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), for a grand total of seveteen cameras.
Despite this unbelieveble ammount of hardware, it' absolutely not easy to output such an ultra-resolution, smooth-motion, detail-enhanced, color-corrected, interpolated from the original 4 frames per second to 30 frames per second footage. This video took fours weeks in the production, and plays real-time at the speed that Curiosity descended to the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012. If we think about it, it's the first proper sci-fi movie from the red planet. 20th Century Fox better start bewarin of Nasa entertainment.
If the concept of augmented reality always freaked you out and Google Project Glass is already freaking you out, than you should avoid to watch the following futuristic short by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo or you will probably freak out.
It's so sad that the discovery of the Higgs boson, one of the biggest leap forward for science in the last one hundred years, has been just an usual line among breaking news. If nobody thinks that is something to discuss about, we do. Let them talk about Paris Hilton starting her dj career.
The Higgs boson is one of the final puzzle pieces required for a complete understanding of the standard model of physics—the so-far successful theory that explains how fundamental particles interact with the elementary forces of nature.
The so-called God particle was proposed in the 1960s by Peter Higgs to explain why some particles, such as quarks—building blocks of protons, among other things—and electrons have mass, while others, such as the light-carrying photon particle, do not.
Higgs's idea was that the universe is bathed in an invisible field similar to a magnetic field. Every particle feels this field—now known as the Higgs field—but to varying degrees.
If a particle can move through this field with little or no interaction, there will be no drag, and that particle will have little or no mass. Alternatively, if a particle interacts significantly with the Higgs field, it will have a higher mass.
The idea of the Higgs field requires the acceptance of a related particle: the Higgs boson.
According to the standard model, if the Higgs field didn't exist, the universe would be a very different place, said SLAC's Peskin, who isn't involved in the LHC experiments. "It would be very difficult to form atoms," Peskin said. "So our orderly world, where matter is made of atoms, and electrons form chemical bonds—we wouldn't have that if we did not have the Higgs field."
In other words: no galaxies, no stars, no planets, no life on Earth.
And no fucking Paris Hilton djing.
A small company named Google today made a big time rumor official: Project Glass is on its way to our society, which is as cool for its pure hi-tech aspect, as scary for many others.
Mankind prepare to be like space insectoids: a big organized and interconnected collective under total control of the hive mind.
"We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.
A group of us from Google[x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment. We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do."
The classic post-impressionist painting by Vincent Van Gogh "Starry Night" underwent a digital transformation, thanks to Petro Vrellis, a Greek digital artist and electrical engineer, using the open source C++ openFrameworks. In this new, interactive version, you’ll see swirling patterns of color set in constant motion.
This is a pretty amazing way to rediscover an already incredible painting. We’d love to see more classic works of art updated in this fashion – then put into an iPad app for all of us to enjoy.
Do you want to relive the fast-action excitement of all your arcade favorites, like Asteroids, Centipede, and Missile Command?
Simply connect your iPad to Atari Arcade, download the Atari's Greatest Hits app for Duo, and you're ready to share the fun with family and friends anywhere! With its joystick and buttons, the Atari Arcade—Duo Powered is exactly the way arcade games were meant to be played!
Moog introduce its latest creation, the Animoog. It's the first groundbreaking professional anisotropic synth engine designed for iPads. It's just making me think about getting my wallet off my pocket and run to the nearest Apple store.
Jamie Lidell is such an inspired producer, and iMaschine is such an amazing music app for iPhone/iPad. It's "nothing else" than the brand new portable version of Maschine, a real successful software by Native Instruments.
Here's the result of the collision between the two of them: an exclusive version of "A Little Bit More" from the album Multiply (2005, Warp) made up while relaxing in bed. The entire performance was done live in one take, with nothing pre-recorded, and no post-production edits made to the song.
The Coolpix AW100 is the new ragged water-proof/shock-proof/freeze-proof digital camera by Nikon. With 5x Zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens, GPS + e-Compass, a new Action Control for easily adjusting settings when wearing gloves and a 16-MP CMOS sensor to record action photos and Full HD (1080p) movies, this tiny tank is one of the hottest products coming up this year from the japanese brand.
It comes in five different colours, including a badass camouflage version which only a real man should handle.
We already knew Razer is one hell of a company, no wonder to see their two new devices already becoming cult objects.
The Razer Blade is a 17” gaming laptop that delivers incredible performance and a revolutionary user interface in a sleek, portable form factor. It features a fast Intel® Core™ i7 processor and a high performance NVIDIA GeForce® graphics processor designed in a lightweight aluminum chassis. The revolutionary Switchblade User Interface, found next to a full-size keyboard, was designed from the ground up to enhance gaming experiences and provide more control at the gamer’s fingertips. It features 10 adaptive tactile keys and a multi-touch LCD panel that can also display in-game information. And at just 0.88 inches thin and only weighing 6.97lbs, the Razer Blade is the world’s first true gaming laptop.
Tech Specs: 2.8GHz Intel® Core™ i7 2640M Processor 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory 17.3" LED Backlit Display (1920x1080) NVIDIA GeForce® GT 555M with NVIDIA® Optimus™ Technology 2GB Dedicated GDDR5 Video Memory Built-in HD Webcam Integrated 60Wh Battery 320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD Wireless Network 802.11 b/g/n Compatible 16.81" (Width) x 10.9" (Depth) x 0.88" (Height); 6.97lbs (Weight)
The Razer Switchblade is a breakthrough portable gaming device design that allows gamers to play on the go without giving up the precision and control ordinarily possible on a desktop gaming system. The Razer™ Switchblade incorporates an ultra-sensitive multi-touch screen with a innovative tactile dynamic keyboard that adapts and changes on the fly with the games being played.
Tech Specs: Intel Atom processor Windows 7 inside MINI HDMI, USB3.0, Standard Headphone and Mic ports Wifi and 3G comunication enabled 172mm x 115mm x 25 mm
Since some really inspired apps are getting released the augmented reality thing is getting more and more fascinating. The Augmented Reality Cinema one, which is going to hit the market in the next weeks, makes you see the original movie scenes comes to life as you get to the real locations where they were shot.
This video shows a selection of films you could see in London, what films would you like to see in AR? What would be your ultimate ARCinema city?
An amazing infographic dissecting the nature and ramifications of Stuxnet, the first weapon made entirely out of code. This was produced for Australian TV program HungryBeast on Australia's ABC1
Forget traditional magicians. Techno-Illusionist Marco Tempest brought the art of visual deception to the next level, blending new digital technologies -such as projection mapping and augmented reality- and magic to bring audiences a glimpse of the future before technology gets there.
In his latest trick he uses three iPods touch. Pure poetry.
In a time where land-line phones are a dying breed, the concept of an old rotary phone is kind of poetic. That's must be what the designers at Sagemcom thought when they came up with this ultra stylish tribute to the iconic Bell's model, witch casually got named "Sixty".
This oldschool boy is a DECT cordless phone, with a touch dial and a white-on-black LCD dot-matrix screen for Caller ID, time and speed dial info. It even has a 150 number phonebook built in, a digital answering machine, and it offers a speakerphone mode too. But it's the vintage factor that counts here, so what really hooks me up is that it makes those old clicky sounds when you press the buttons, while little led dots around the dial simulate the spin.
Using cutting edge 3D Projection Vodafone brings you The Evolution of Mobile.
This is the first small-scale projection mapping installation using a hand-held camera. From the Motorola brick through to the first text message and colour screen to GPS and Android. The question is, what's next?
Here's the challenge: how good are you at scanning the oceanic depths of Google Earth in search for sunken ship?
At first, i though this was an annoying sort of interactive promotion Sony made for the new Vaio serie. Well, actually that's Project Shiphunt is. But it's also much more than this. If you're not too used to Google Earth, or if you never gave it a try, this is the right moment to install the plugin on your browsers and experience the amazing sansation of holding the world in your hand.
The god of head tracking Johnny Lee now has two disciples overseas by the names of Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay.
Following the path shown by their spiritual guide, they achieved the head tracking nirvana just by using the front facing camera of an iPad (or iPhone) in order to create a glasses-free monocular 3D display, as the messiah did a few centuries ago with the holy wiimote in his hand. Thy will be done.
