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Happy New Year!
-- cmk
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December 2009 Archives
Stemming from a childhood fascination of a weather ball on the top of a bank building in Minneapolis, I am intrigued by Tomorrow's Weather, a double helix sculpture in Denmark comprised of over 60 molecular globes. What's interesting about this is that traditional weather balls--also known as weather beacons--are usually located on top of buildings or attached to towers. Tomorrow's Weather uses current technology to forecast upcoming elements just like a weather ball, while remaining affixed to the side of the building.
Weather beacons are found in cities from Sydney to Cincinnati, so have a look around to see if your city is included. Often a little poem is attached to the weather codes to make its information easy to memorize. I will never forget that "when the weather ball is red, warmer weather is ahead..."
For real weather fanatics, check out the ambient weather beacon, a home device that also forecasts the upcoming weather.
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When the 900-pound gorilla Microsoft announces, as they did a few days ago, a new experimental language for creating interactive data visualizations, people sit up and pay attention. This confirmation of the explosive growth of the field appeals to both programming novices and experts alike, cutting [out?] a wide swatch of potential customers.
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A preview is coming early next year, so most people can only speculate on its impact, but I think it is going to be huge. Patterned after Processing (another recent programming
language with rich data visualization techniques), this project from the Microsoft Computational Science Studio is meant to move beyond the usual bar, pie and line charts found so often in Powerpoint and other professional business presentations. Targeting the same audiences, the new language will include features such as maps, 3d shapes, animation features, interaction features, volumetric renderers, transparent colors and a rich library of rendering techniques--as stated in their press materials. The new application doesn't sound like something "people who aren't experts in programming" would want to use.
While personally this all sounds exciting to a geek like me, I can't help but feel that Microsoft saw the success of the new language and ecosystem started by Ben Fry and Casey Reas (Processing), and simply copied the concepts and capabilities and packaged it in a Windows-only, watered-down legally-oppressive "prototype."
Combining open innovation and sustainability into one program, NYC BigApps is a competition (unfortunately already closed) to create an application focused on delivering honest and useful information to NYC residents.
The city asks that its wealth of talented developers design an application using at least one data source from the City of New York Data Mine, which includes a vast amount of issues spanning Special Waste Drop-off Sites to Library Events, in order to make the city government more accessible to all of its citizens.
While the submissions deadline has already passed, you can still take part by suggesting an app you would like to see created or submitting a data set you would like to see added the Data Mine list. And the best way to become involved is by voting, which will be open to the public shortly. Until then have a look at the NYC BigApps application gallery.
The city asks that its wealth of talented developers design an application using at least one data source from the City of New York Data Mine, which includes a vast amount of issues spanning Special Waste Drop-off Sites to Library Events, in order to make the city government more accessible to all of its citizens.
While the submissions deadline has already passed, you can still take part by suggesting an app you would like to see created or submitting a data set you would like to see added the Data Mine list. And the best way to become involved is by voting, which will be open to the public shortly. Until then have a look at the NYC BigApps application gallery.
As we are knee deep in decade-review media chatter about the death of the TV ad, I decided to think about other forms of advertising pronounced dead in the past, billboards.
One of the oldest forms of advertising, the billboard first gained traction in the late 1800s. The popularity of the Model T in 1908 drove billboards to become common as roadside advertising and in 1925, the Burma-Shave billboards start populating US highways, cementing outdoor as an important channel for consumer messages.
Over the years, the billboards were the playground of advertising creatives and continue to push the limits of the format. In the 1920's, billboards became reactive and changed their content in realtime with giant thermometers, changing their display with the ambient temperature. What follows is a brief natural history of the reactive and interactive billboard in recent times.
October 2003
Coke launches a 99-foot wide interactive billboard in Picadilly Circus recognizing and responding both to the weather and people waving to it from below (above left).
May 2004
Stellar interactive firm R/GA creates a billboard for Yahoo!'s automotive web site allowing pedestrians to play a video game on a 23-story billboard via mobile phones (above right).
July 2004
Ogilvy launches an SMS-reactive billboard for the Ford Fiesta in Belgium, the first of its kind in Europe (above left).
February 2005
Amex Belgium launches a billboard in which users can upload a photo to a website that in turn displays it on the billboard where a live webcam photographs the billboard and emails it back to the user (above right).
May 2005
Nike ID uses a 23-story Times Square billboard for users to design shoes via mobile phones and see results in real time. The one-minute design session also sends emails and discounts to the designer, er, customer (at right).
Nike ID uses a 23-story Times Square billboard for users to design shoes via mobile phones and see results in real time. The one-minute design session also sends emails and discounts to the designer, er, customer (at right).
February 2006
Disney Interactive has an 57-story tall reactive billboard featuring imagery of the Himalayas. The billboard blinks the eyes of a yeti upon receiving SMS sent to it.
January 2007
Mini Cooper USA launches in Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco. After the Mini drivers answer some basic information about themselves, Mini USA sends them a special key fob identifiying them to the billboards they pass by, delivering a personal message based on the information provided.
June 2007
One of my absolute favorites is the BBC America billboards shown above. They were placed in New York where viewers sent SMS messages to answer polls and updated the billboard in real-time.
One of my absolute favorites is the BBC America billboards shown above. They were placed in New York where viewers sent SMS messages to answer polls and updated the billboard in real-time.
July 2007
Adobe uses a billboard that reacts to the motion of the person standing in front of it. The system, which uses a simple webcam with complicated processing code behind it is a joy to look at and fun to interact with.
Adobe uses a billboard that reacts to the motion of the person standing in front of it. The system, which uses a simple webcam with complicated processing code behind it is a joy to look at and fun to interact with.
Australian billboard sneezes on people.
January 2009
October 2008
A billboard in New Zealand by ddb tests earphone levels from the National Foundation for the Deaf.
A billboard in New Zealand by ddb tests earphone levels from the National Foundation for the Deaf.
January 2009
Sharpie creates gorgeous interactive billboards.
Feb 2009
Cadbury Splat the Egg interactive bus shelter ad allows waiting passengers to pass the time by playing a video game.
March 2009
In a Rotterdam bus stop, health club chain Fitness First converts the bench into a digital scale with the readout on the shelter wall (at right).
July 2009
Caldwell Banker creates a live 150-foot billboard that responds to text messages with Zip codes by displaying the highest, median and lowest price properties in that zip code within seconds.
Caldwell Banker creates a live 150-foot billboard that responds to text messages with Zip codes by displaying the highest, median and lowest price properties in that zip code within seconds.
July 2009
In Korea Nikon does what looks like a truly amazing job with an interactive billboard that simulates paparazzi to launch their D700 camera (at right).
Sept 2009
I hate to end with a billboard fail, but who can resist laughing at the twitter-enabled billboard below...Happy New Year!
Continue reading Reactive and Interactive Digital Billboards.
Just a few days ago, I wrote about Annie Leonard's brilliant video about consumption, The Story of Stuff. Today she released a new story, The Story of Cap and Trade, timed to coincide with the two-week Copenhagen Climate Conference. As the press materials state, if "you have heard about cap & trade, but aren't sure how it works (or who it benefits), this film is for you."
Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff is easily one of the best videos I have seen all year. This 20-minute masterpiece about sustainable living on this planet has been viewed by over 7 million people in the last year, so perhaps you have seen it. If not, you really should. 
Intrigued by questions about where all the stuff around her came from--and almost more importantly where it ends up--this former Greenpeace employee uses a cheerful tone and clever animations to convey important viewpoints about a serious subject.
As The New York Times points out, educators have embraced the short film as a way to supplement printed textbooks and add a more modern viewpoint. I don't blame them, given how the youth are embracing the notions of sustainability.
