Ambient Displays
The idea of ambient displays is slowing coming out in many different forms. On Metaefficient, for example, products that produce awareness of energy use throughout the house are the latest in energy-saving projects. WorldChanging.com is working on projects for products that would replace ordinary household items, like bathroom tile. Can this be the next trend in information-awareness? I think the AWARE Home at Tech should install some of these products or get into some of the research. There are some many applications and ideas for creating multi-purpose products that talk to each other. I know there are affordances of products out there that can give different feedback and responses for changing information, but blending them into the everyday and giving meaning to a new type of language that isn't harsh or doesn't impede on everyone else's lives, like cell phone rings and alerts, is a different goal to achieve.
Waking up to a traffic report on NPR is really annoying and I should change the station, but sometimes it is nice to know the Connector is backed-up. If there was a color code on my wall or a simple sound that triggered in my car when I embarked on my journey to work, I could think of a new plan for going to work. Accentus is doing this with musical tones and changes in trading markets for stock traders who have to watch market trends with numerous indicators. Their product give a series of tones that relate to certain markets and the rate or pattern of the sounds indicate the intensity and direction of the trend, if the market is going down or up. Investors have to keep track of indicators in many areas and this helps keep them on track.
These technologies are helping us generate a more efficient lifestyle while maximizing our input and output. I think it all boils down to the episode of the Simpsons when Homer gets on disability for being too fat and he works from home. His only task is to type "YES" or "NO" into his keyboard. At some point, he realizes that he can just type "Y" or "N", then he realizes that all his actions are "Y", so he gets a bobbing toy to click "Y" every few seconds. This results in almost blowing up the plant because the computer ask, "Would you like to shut down the plant?". Of course he is so fat at this point he can't even call the plant to warm them. I don't know what happens to the plant, but it's a funny take on technology and how we're trying to live more efficiently.
Waking up to a traffic report on NPR is really annoying and I should change the station, but sometimes it is nice to know the Connector is backed-up. If there was a color code on my wall or a simple sound that triggered in my car when I embarked on my journey to work, I could think of a new plan for going to work. Accentus is doing this with musical tones and changes in trading markets for stock traders who have to watch market trends with numerous indicators. Their product give a series of tones that relate to certain markets and the rate or pattern of the sounds indicate the intensity and direction of the trend, if the market is going down or up. Investors have to keep track of indicators in many areas and this helps keep them on track.
These technologies are helping us generate a more efficient lifestyle while maximizing our input and output. I think it all boils down to the episode of the Simpsons when Homer gets on disability for being too fat and he works from home. His only task is to type "YES" or "NO" into his keyboard. At some point, he realizes that he can just type "Y" or "N", then he realizes that all his actions are "Y", so he gets a bobbing toy to click "Y" every few seconds. This results in almost blowing up the plant because the computer ask, "Would you like to shut down the plant?". Of course he is so fat at this point he can't even call the plant to warm them. I don't know what happens to the plant, but it's a funny take on technology and how we're trying to live more efficiently.
