A robot that provides a personal and meaningful human experience is set to become reality through Jibo, a 11 inch tall, 6 pound, swiveling circular robot. 😎 Friendly, helpful and intelligent, Jibo is the world’s first social robot for the family.
Here is a short demo video created for its crowdfunding campaign…
More infos on pre-ordering Jibo are available at www.myjibo.com.
Multi-touch media that uses highly engineered glass and companion technologies is the future. So Pizza Hut partnered with Chaotic Moon Studios in USA to create an interactive concept table that lets customers at retail outlets create and customize their pizzas on the spot. 😎
In September I had written about how a father of two had decided to re-write the Tooth Fairy experience for the 21st century. Now in this latest example of interactive 21st century fairytales, Eindhoven University of Technology has created TexTales, a new kind of smart textile that when combined with augmented reality can enhance the experience of reading a fairytale to your children at bedtime.
TexTales consists of a set of bed sheets that have images woven into the fabric. The images are recognized by a custom made software that displays 3D characters from a fairytale through a tablet or smartphone onto the textile. This allows parents to create personal stories with their kids before going to sleep or during a play time.
With the support from the Kickstarter community they want to develop TexTales further by creating a storyline and characters that actually matter. For more information visit their Kickstarter page here.
Shop windows, billboards, bus stops, car showrooms…don’t have to be passive experiences. In the below video, a prototype interactive digital display is seen adapting to whoever stands in front of it. 😎
The display is able to identify shoppers using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and instantly reacts to a set of personal data stored on the shoppers mobile device, such as shopping habits and preferences. Shoppers can also swipe through the personalised content, place items in a virtual shopping cart, and purchase straight from the display.
A phone only lasts a couple of years before it breaks or becomes obsolete. Although it’s often just one part that killed it, we throw everything away because it’s almost impossible to repair or upgrade.
Phoneblok is a phone that is made of detachable bloks. The bloks are connected to the base which locks everything together into a solid phone. If a blok breaks you can easily replace it; if it’s getting old just upgrade. 😎
So far Phonebloks is just an idea. But if enough people show interest in this idea, it is possible that someday this phone will become a reality.
For more infos on the project visit the Phoneblok website.
Coin is a startup that has built a prototype of a card that it claims can store all of your credit, debit and loyalty card information on one Coin card that can then be used to pay at any point of sale system.
To load the Coin card, one has to connect a dongle to the smartphone and swipe whatever credit, debit and loyalty cards that contain a stripe and are swipeable. Then to pay, one has to press a button on the front of the card and flip through the different card choices. The electronic display shows the card information so that you and the cashier know which card you’re using. 😎
Corning is the worlds leading high-tech glass manufacturer, who produces Gorilla Glass for hundreds of millions of smart phones. In March last year they had released “A day made of glass“…a futuristic look at glass technology.
Now they are back with an expanded vision for the future of glass technologies. This video continues the story of how highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world…
Hiriko is a folding car that has been in been in the making for the last 5 years. This first of its kind city car will be used for mobility services (car sharing) that will help reduce the congestion generated by automobiles in cities.
The folding car resembles a Smart Car and has the ability to fold itself into an upright space saving parking that appears to be out of a sic-fi novel! A working model of the Hiriko was recently unveiled in Brussels and should be commercially available in 2013.
At an estimated US$ 12500, the future of driving is here!
Got backseat boredom? DVD players and Game Boys are so five years ago, but a new concept in rear seat entertainment technology that uses the windows themselves could replace squirminess and snoozing with interactive scribbling, sweeping and pinching. 😎
General Motors Research and Development put up a challenge before researchers and students from the Future Lab at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel. Their task was to conceptualize new ways to help rear seat passengers, particularly children, have a richer experience on the road.
Here is the outcome even though GM has no immediate plans to put the smart glass technology into their vehicles…
Can you imagine playing a real-world version of Monopoly where ever you went, 24/7? Well, a bunch of students decided to do just that and created the below concept video.
The mashup of Foursquare and Monopoly has come out so well that I would not be surprised if Hasbro decided to buy the rights and develop the concept for real world gaming! In fact brands could also join in by creating virtual rewards that are redeemable for real world objects. 😎
