Good Thinking
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First integrated touch screen for digital signage
April 28, 2005 ActiveLight will launch a 40 inch touch screen LCD integrated touch screen at the Digital Retailing Expo in Chicago on May 18, 2005. Designed for use in digital signage installations, the TActive is well suited for a variety of industries, including retail, financial, airport and restaurant applications. The TActive supports multiple video inputs, features 1280 x 768 high resolution and high quality video performance, and offers a 170-degree or better viewing angle. With the appropriate software the display can be used in both portrait and landscape modes, and allows the whole screen or just parts to be touch sensitive. (read more...)
The Corporation DVD House Party - the new Tupperware
Good Company Communications, the grassroots organizer behind the hit film The Corporation has come up with a novel DVD House Party Campaign that coincides with the long-awaited release of The Corporation DVD. The controversial and insightful film, THE CORPORATION raised some interesting questions about the future of a world dominated by companies that would be classified legally insane if they were humans, yet are afforded all the same protections and rights as humans. It’s hard not to see the film and wonder, “what do we do now?” Now there is an answer. Beginning immediately people across the World will be partying with a purpose: to strategize solutions and activate a public confronted by an increasingly corporation-dominated world. You can take part too! Prospective party hosts and guests can go via www.TheCorporation.com or directly to www.HelloCoolWorld.com to locate or register a party in their area. The beauty of the house party model is that it’s fun, easy to organize and effective in making a difference - all from the comfort of your living room. (read more...)
Interactive floors and walls
April 13, 2005 Lightspace Corporation of Massachusetts has a very interesting technology that enables any floor or wall to be built as a massive touch-interactive video screen. The cutting edge interactive technology is a natural for nightclubs and has application in many industries including Family Entertainment Centres, Theme Parks, Fashion Shows, Special Events, Stage Lighting & Sound, Health Clubs and Architectural Lighting & Design. The patent pending Lightspace technology creatively engages and interacts with people to immerse them in a new experience of interactive visual and audio effects enhancing their overall enjoyment as they dance, play, workout and generally have fun. Check out the videos inside to get a real understanding of what it can do. (read more...)
Durable Mars Rovers Sent Into Third Overtime Period
NASA has approved another 18 months of operations for Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars rovers that have already surprised engineers and scientists by continuing active exploration for more than 14 months. The rovers have already completed 11 months of extensions on top of their successful three-month prime missions. "We now have to make long-term plans for the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while," said Jim Erickson, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (read more...)
SuperFast Pizza proves that competition improves the breed
Competition improves the breed – of this there is no doubt. If you think your industry has been turned upside down by technology in the last decade, spare a thought for the food industry. A century ago, food was still largely prepared from first principle. Then came gas and electric ovens and the refrigerator, each new technology indelibly leaving its mark on the way we prepare and consume our daily sustenance. In the immediate post-war era a new affluence and mobility catalysed the fast food industry and subsequently the home delivery of food and the microwave oven have wrought further havoc to human grazing habits. Now the bar for home delivery is bring raised even further – SuperFast Pizza has put the ovens inside the trucks, cutting delivery times from 30+ minutes to less than 15 minutes and more importantly, cutting oven to mouth times to those equivalent at a restaurant. No more soggy pizza! (read more...)
P2P money - cheaper lending and borrowing without banks!
April 2, 2005 Disintermediation is a term you’ll no doubt have heard and will certainly be hearing a lot more in the future. It means “to remove the middle man”, and it’s something the internet is incredibly good at. With close to a billion people connecting to the internet in the last decade, and computer-mediated anything just a few minutes of Googling away, radical new ideas can promulgate very quickly. And here’s one you’re gonna love … think of it as P2P money. Zopa hooks up creditworthy people who want to borrow money with people who are happy to lend it to them. And because there's no middleman (e.g. bank), the borrower just pays a 1% exchange fee upfront. Without the greed and inefficiency of a financial institutuion, both borrower and lender get a better deal than they would otherwise. (read more...)
New machine scans the body and ensures a perfect fit for clothes in 10 seconds
March 27, 2005 The Intellifit System is an ingenious new invention that could revolutionise the global clothing market. Intellifit is a body scanning solution that uses radio waves to safely and accurately capture consumer measurements directly through clothing within ten seconds and gives the consumer a print-out of their exact body measurements. The Levi's brand is currently testing the Intellifit electronic body scanner in five of its major US stores. When a fully-clothed person steps into the cylindrical glass booth, the system scans the person and prints out recommended sizes and styles of Levi's jeans cross referenced with his or her measurements. (read more...)
12th International Conference on Thinking
July 2005 will see a gathering of some of the most esteemed and respected thinkers of our time for a conference that celebrates and embraces the humble concept of thinking. Not just a series of lectures or talks, the 12th International Conference on Thinking (ICOT) will offer participants the chance to learn, reflect, discuss and be actively involved in thinking through new possibilities for the future. The conference will be held in Melbourne, Australia from July 4-8, 2005. ICOT brings some of the most brilliant minds from all parts of the planet to discuss a range of topics and issues under the umbrella of this year's theme; "Celebrate the Past - Window to the Future" (read more...)
Fogscreen: projecting images in the air
March 21, 2005 Finnish company FogScreen has begun volume production of its unique walk-through projection screen. The FogScreen Inia screen projects high-quality images onto a thin laminar air flow of water vapour. The FogScreen feels dry and cool to the touch and accordingly creates an effect of the computer generated images floating in thin air and can hence be used in the development of special effects displays and airborne advertising media, walk-through or drive-through posters and is expected to be used as a high impact advertising medium in malls, airports and mass audience events. There have already been enquiries from Hollywood production companies and "we expect the creative possibilities will inspire those in entertainment," said Nancy Gretzinger of Fogscreen's US distributor Imagex. "Beyond that, we are also looking at point-of-sale advertising, corporate lobbies, and other areas that could benefit from the innovative communication," she said. A recent innovation added to the package is interactivity, making it possible to draw in the air using an array of visual effects such as fiery characters or fireworks. (read more...)
Intel Science Talent Search Winners
March 19, 2005 The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) is America's oldest and most prestigious high school science competition and as Intel CEO Craig Barrett said when awarding the prizes, "we look forward each year to uncovering new scientific and mathematical talent, and each year we're rewarded with an outstanding array of students whose ability to explore, imagine and discover absolutely amazes us." Amazing? You bet! Read on to find out just how amazing you have to be to score a finalist position (read more...)
MediaBin Presentation WorkBench for PowerPoint
March 16, 2005 The Powerpoint presentation continues to proliferate and control the day of many middle and upper management corporate employees. So much so that Gizmag is departing from tradition (we don't usually do software) and flagging the arrival of a very useful Digital Asset Management Solution that might prevent a few of our loyal readers from drowning in a sea of PowerPoint presentations! Using WorkBench a user can now drop all their digital assets (video, photos, ads, logos etc) to their own "WorkBench" from a central digital repository and create their own versions using templates. The Powerpoints are sent by email links, not originals. (read more...)
Klever Shopping cart begins roll-out
Feb. 23, 2005 Klever Marketing has begun licensing its technologies for electronic display and messaging devices mounted on the handles of supermarket shopping carts, the penultimate step in bringing its KleverKart shopping carts to market. The KleverKart features a built-in wireless computer that shoppers can use as a self-service assistant to scan items to check the price, a store directory to easily locate the item, automatically generated shopping lists based on individual consumer's prior history (via a loyalty card), seasonal promotions, electronic coupons, recipes (so you don't get home without all the ingredients) and you can even follow news and local weather. (read more...)
The RinG-Pen ergonomic ball point pen
February 17, 2005 Pens were created by the ancient Arabians in the Middle East towards the end of the slushee era before even paper had been invented. Thousands of years have since passed, and every great mind in recorded history has held one, yet most pen-related innovation has concentrated on the tip of the pen: fountain pens from Waterman, ball point pen from Laslo Biro, rollers from Japan. During the last century there have been approximately 150 patents granted connected with pens and improving the writing process. The shape of the holder though has remained the same, looking kind of familiar ... like the stick it was derived from. Until now that is, cos now there's the ergonomically-designed RinGPen. (read more...)
Product Placement in Advertising
February 16, 2005 Nobody is surprised anymore that movies and TV programs seek payment for allowing brands to make appearances in programs. Just as journalistic war reporting has become ‘embedded’ with the military, so too has brand advertising become ‘embedded’ with the mass media. When the current movie “Sideways” eulogized pinot noir wine, USA sales of it for January (2005) shot up 22%. After release of the movie “About Schmidt” in 2002 starring Jack Nicholson, child sponsorships for aid agency ‘Plan International’ quadrupled. (Nicholson played a retiree whose world is falling apart and by sponsoring a young Tanzanian boy, Ndugu, he finds something to live for.) While ‘Plan International’ did not pay to be in the film, it illustrates the potency of product placement! Is it any wonder that brands and companies are prepared to pay to get into the movies? (read more...)
Ingenious solution adds printed text to Braille and tactile graphic documents
February 9, 2005 A new printing attachment for Braille printers promises a new world for the sight-impaired and those who share their lives, enabling Braille documents to be shared with sighted colleagues, teachers, friends and family. The PIA prints the corresponding ink characters above or alongside the Braille embossing and allows for images to be embossed and printed. Anything that appears on the computer screen can quickly be made into a raised, printed image on paper with software translation of text to Braille in Microsoft Word and Excel. (read more...)
Olfactory marketing for one of the world's most famous landmarks
February 6, 2005 One of the more interesting developments at the Eiffel Tower in recent times has been the installation of an ice skating rink on the first level of what was once the world's tallest building in an effort to "bring Parisians back to the Eiffel Tower." In yet another case of the French recognising the importance of olfactory marketing, famous Swiss-based flavours and fragrance supplier, Givaudan was asked to develop a special scent to create "flavoured" ice for the rink. A "Vanille Givree" flavour (iced vanilla) was specifically created for the occasion, to recall the warmth of holiday cookies associated with cold winter weather and the world famous Parisian landmark now has a distinctive trademark smell to match its unique visuals. (read more...)
New search engine listens to what people want
January 25, 2005 A significant new player in the Australian search engine market is zooming up the charts using popularity as the key factor in its algorithm to calculate search result rankings. The remarkable success of Ansearch in a very short time on the market indicates that users are finding the sites they want using the popularity-based rankings. According to Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, Ansearch is showing strong market share stability after increasing by approximately 2000% in the Australian search engine space over the last two months. (read more...)
A compelling proposal for a Better Calendar and time system
December 23, 2004 We've standardised global measurement of weight, temperature and distance in recent times. With globalisation accelerating and global trade efficiencies to consider, perhaps it's time to reconsider the way the world measures time? A new calendar and time system being proposed by Professor Richard Conn Henry of Johns Hopkins University would have "profound economic and practical benefits" according to Henry. He is proposing the worldwide adoption of a 24-hour universal time scale, synchronising the date and time worldwide, streamlining international business and exchange. (read more...)
Escape tip redesigns seatbelts for extra safety
December 13, 2004 In a world where technology is racing forward, a basic engineering fix is improving seatbelt design and saving lives into the bargain. The Escape Tip Vehicle Safety System is a system of safety devices integrated on to the male ends of seatbelt buckles which allows people who are trapped in vehicles to facilitate their own escape by breaking a side window and exiting through the opening, when, and only when, they are ready. (read more...)
Finally... a barbeque and ice box all in one
November 24, 2004 The Fire and Ice Grill2Go barbeque and ice box from Salton is an all in one combo that fulfils the dream of many a male in weekend mode. The bbq featured a detachable "Grill to Go" hotplate with stainless steel burner, a 38L Cooler with heat-resistant lid, a rust resistant aluminsed steel body and even a built in bottle opener. The Fire and Ice is lightweight at 30 kg and easily transportable. The step on pedal mechanism elevates and unfolds the barbeque from the bottom icebox in one easy step, and the Grill2Go cooking top, with a 2,000 sq. cm griddle cooking surface can be removed for use as a table top grill. (read more...)
New service helps retrieve lost valuables
November 23, 2004 An innovative new service from Australian company Postbak offers a convenient way for people to do the right thing and return lost items. Postbak works by labelling your goods with marked security stickers that offer a reward for the return of the lost article and provide a 1-800 freecall number and website where the find can be reported. The item which is then picked up by courier for next-day delivery to its owner. (read more...)
Karrysafe fashion accessories help combat crime!
A range of urban fashion accessories with built-in crime resistance features has been released by UK company Karrysafe. The range of bags and fashion accessories have been specifically designed to protect their owners from street crime, concealing objects like mobile phones and other valuables and incorporating anti-slash materials and personal alarms. (read more...)
Soyuz space parachutes recycled into designer bags
November 8, 2004 What do you do when you find a Soyuz parachute from a mission to the space station? If you're Everquest Design Inc. of Canada, you transform them into unique, designer bags and sell them on eBay! Everquest Design specialise in unique, limited edition bags with authentic parachutes from Space Station missions, America's Cup sails, Mount Everest Expeditions and more. The Soyuz bags are a simple, unique "piece of adventure" all the way from outer space to your shoulder. (read more...)
New Marketing Medium Turns Cans Into Ads
November 2, 2004 Ambient media continues to invade every available niche left in our lives. This week it’s the top of your drink can, as a new can-top 5 layer plastic label made its debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, with cans of Coca-Cola sporting the new ADVERCAN labels. America alone consumes 260 billion cans per year, so ADVERCAN has developed what it claims is the world's first Can Top Media Campaign. Five years in development, the six-layer plastic ADVERCAN label serves as both an advertising medium and a "Cleancap" designed to keep the can top clean from the bottling plant to the store shelf. (read more...)
Scentstories offers memory ehancement
October 29, 2004 Memory has long been known to be associative in nature with a strong intuitive relationship between scents and memories. We can instantly be taken back to a time and place in our lives when we are confronted with a familiar smell - that one sensory stimulus in the here-and-now can bring back a flood of images, emotions and thoughts. (read more...)
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