Archive for the 'Experimental' Category

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The Google advert will call you

Published on Wednesday, September 6, 2006 in Advertising, Experimental, Marketing, News, Travel, Trend and Web. 0 Comments

Part of my family live near Leeds, while my close family live in France. I was looking to compare prices for flights from Paris to Leeds and a little green thing caught my eye next to the results on Google.
My mum’s flight from Leeds to France a few weeks ago was just after the foiled terrorist attacks story and she complained how little passenger alert information she had found on the Jet2 site. So I thought I check their site to see if they had added anything…

First of all I thought Google had started putting company logos on ads but then I realised, it was an icon not a logo. So I hovered over it first but no title info appeared, then I clicked on it (PS: I added the red arrow to indicate what I’m talking about) :

google_tel_ad1.gif

When you click on the arrow a mini form appears where you can add your telephone number and Google (out of the kindness of their hearts) offer to put you in contact with Jet2 via telephone “for free” !

google_tel_ad2.gif

Wow, if it wasn’t past 12 o’clock at night I’d take them up on the offer just to give it a try !

Note also the fact that they suggest remembering your telephone number so that you don’t even have to type you number in next time they offer the same call-back service

This is certainly a post I’ll be tagging with the word ‘Trend’.

Captcha Brain Power

Published on Tuesday, September 5, 2006 in Design, Experimental, Thoughts, Trend and Web. 0 Comments

I just came across a very interesting Google Video from Google. Luis von Ahn, a Carnegie Mellon professor, discusses the Captcha concept used to stop automatic systems from filling in forms and how currently Spam companies are trying to get around it.
Captcha is used to describe a system that allows a computer to automatically generate random numbers and or letters and then obfuscate them in order to render reading them by a computer highly unlikely or impossible.

This was interesting for me since I had worked on a similar concept for stopping people from requesting lost passwords on Significant-Media.
The video below then goes on to explain how human computation i.e. people solving problems rather than computers can be useful. With the Captcha system for example, computers are not capable of providing correct answers.

Then the ESP Game is explained and the process for it is pretty amazing from a thought process point of view. Anyone who has to come up with new ideas in their company should find this part truly fascinating :

The part I found really impressive, in view of a successive set of procedures, was when von Ahn explains the different combinations of possible player modes, as well as anti-cheating mechanisms…

The guy seems like a great teacher as well, if the seminar is anything to go by !

Placed in context this image tagging system is what early users of flickr were used to when they add tags to their own photos and is now pretty common procedure. Flickr was bought by Yahoo and Google well may have found a novel way of catching up here, if you read between the lines…

Update : interesting article over at the washingtonpost.com concerning a way to ‘turn the tables’ on the phishing techniques using images from the banks

AJAX Write and Sketch and Tunes

Published on Thursday, August 24, 2006 in Experimental, Music, Web and Writing. 0 Comments

ajax writeWell I just came across this AJAX based Word Processor system called ajaxWrite that can actually read and write MS Word documents and several other formats. It is AJAX based so it just works directly in your browser, it’s really cool !

 
 

But I then realised that this was just the tip of the iceberg. There is a ajaxSketch that can read and write SVG type documents and it all just works seamlessly as you can see from the screenshots in your web browser.
ajax sketch

I then clicked on ajaxTunes and this “is a web-based music player that lets you play high-quality streaming music straight from the Internet on any computer” Not only that but it seems to link to remotely stored music. It’s amazing !! I am impressed !
Oh and the first song that appeared ‘Breathe Me’ by Sia is also a sing I really like so these guys got everything right first time with me, bravo !

But as these guys are really good they have actually got the system working so you can add the code to your pages so I’m going to give it a try. My page will not validate anymore but it was already giving me CSS errors anyway so here goes :
Listen to Sia’s ‘Breathe Me’ right now !

Update : It works in FireFox, IE and Opera. Sia’s singing to me from my blog, this is great :)

We Feel Fine

Published on Thursday, August 10, 2006 in Design, Experimental and Web. 1 Comment

Just came across this web site called We Feel Fine. Don’t know how long it’s been about (3 or 4 months I think) but it is nicely designed and pretty intriguing. The concept reminds me a bit of the NewsMap aggregator in Flash, however this is not in Flash and the layout is simple and very modern (IMHO).

As you can see all these feelings are floating around for you to pick from :

We Feel Fine Main

You can also refine the floaty feelings as you can see here :

We Feel Fine Settings

On some of these lovely floaty feelings, when you click on them, you get the sentence accompanied with a background image :

We Feel Fine Sentence

But you really must take a look it’s well worth the time, it’s a novel experience !

If you enjoyed Don’t click it you’ll like this

Brainwaves replacing the mouse

Published on Monday, July 24, 2006 in Design, Experimental, Society, Tech and Trend. 0 Comments

In a futuristic article, Fortune discusses the way research in to reading and interpreting brainwave activity, has lead to conclusive initial experiences that allow the brain to replace the mouse for basic functions.

Science Fiction Novels have often given us images of a future with voice controlled and complex computer systems providing valuable services and functions. Fewer have portrayed humans interfaced with computers via brainwave patterns alone. It is true that the thought of having to have a chip implanted in your brain to do so is a pretty scary thought. The idea that such an interface could be accessed by computers other than the one(s) intended, chills you to the bone. The mere notion of a virus capable of creating havoc with a human brain through such an interface is a nightmare.

But the advantages that can be gained, as well as less obtrusive methods that are appearing without the need for implants is fascinating:

Last year, Sony took out a patent on a game system that beams data directly into the mind without implants. It uses a pulsed ultrasonic signal that induces sensory experiences such as smells, sounds and images.

There are also far more useful examples in the article where quadriplegic patients can communicate via such systems and a chip that could be able to “process thoughts as fast as speech – 110 to 170 words per minute – by 2012″.
“Stu Wolf, one of the top scientists at Darpa”, describes the mind enabled systems like these : “network-enabled telepathy” which is disturbingly close to the storyline of the film ‘Matrix’.
Let’s hope that the top scientists and researchers alike provide us with safe and useful devices that will make our lives easier and secure.

A related article at the washingtonpost.com explains how “scientists at Stanford University hope to allow patients one day to complete actions without even having to think about the action itself.”

This obviously all sounds beneficial on the whole and far better than the reports that have been published about how cell phones affect the brain.

Don’t click it, no really, don’t click it

Published on Friday, July 21, 2006 in Design, Experimental, Society, Tech, Trend and Web. 0 Comments

After having recently posted about the joke-site “don’t press the red button” I was amused to discover an extremely serious experience/study over at www.dontclick.it. Yes Don’t Click It, spelled the geeky way, in a domain name way.

The site is not only an experience for the creators, it’s a real and novel experience for the visitors. When a trigger happy, sorry, clicker happy person comes across a site like this, it is pretty difficult to withhold the natural click instincts that have set in over the years.

As you can see here, there are little sequences that require the user to understand how to navigate the site without clicking. The sequences are very professional and well thought out. As they say in French ‘chapeau’ (I take my hat off to you !)…

Dont Click It Ex1

This screenshot shows how you may be asked to say whether you miss clicking :

Don't Click It Ex2

But it’s all a trick, and I got caught. They ask you whether you were frustrated, not being able to use the click. So you click to say yes, and, damn you get told off, because you previously were asked not to click ! Clever, clever, this is starting to remind me of the “don’t push the red button” joke (also in Flash) LOL ;) . Must be a Flash sense of humour thing !

Don't Click It Ex3

The site is really well designed, the idea is brilliant and the final product is superb. Now go take a look and let’s see how good you are :)

Go take a look at www.dontclick.it

Helping users in and out of your site

Published on Friday, March 31, 2006 in Design, Experimental and Tech. 0 Comments

With my recently launched voyages.net site, I spent a considerable amount of time working on the user experience both while users surf the site but also when they leave the site. I really dislike clicking on a link that turns out to a 404 error page and there is nothing to do about it. In this context I set about creating a system that used checking code from ‘server to server’ to make sure that the page is responding correctly and then if so send the user there.

Continue reading ‘Helping users in and out of your site’

Cool Expirimenal Game of Evolution : Flow

Published on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 in Design and Experimental. 0 Comments

Take a look at this experimental game from Jenova Chen that was done for thesis work and is a very interesting piece of work (In My Humble Opinion) :
Flow In Games

Once you have read how to play click on Play “flOw”

Bravo on the design and the concept !