Sounds A Great Idea

As a lover of old school Soul and with my love of vinyl and tech, by the way my record boxes and old school stack system is still out in display in my living room. (My kids still aren't quite sure what it is).So when I came across this idea, I must admit I did break into a bit of a two step across my living room floor. By harnessing conductive printed onto the vinyl cover, when tapped you can play a percussion sound. The ink responds to touch, interrupting a circuit that connects to a sound system. Sounds a great idea.

North Face Instore Experience

"Never Stop Exploring." so says the campaign line from North Face, by putting this to the test, South Korean agency Innored came up with this very clever idea with this in-store experience. Unsuspecting customers at this pop-up North Face store were startled when the floor below them slowly began to disappear, and they were forced to grab on to the walls, which happened to have rock-climbing holds attached to them. Then, a perfect North Face item descends from the heavens, just out of their reach, and a 30-second timer appears. Lovely connected interactive story.

Creative but savvy too

Yes indeed many great creative minds are like this, it's not by choice it's just the way our brains are wired. But what sets creative people apart from great creatives? Great creative minds have a clear goal, almost to the point of obsession, if that is winning a pitch, reaching a new audience, inventing a new product, it takes will power and brain power to make it happen, great creative leaders know this.

An invention that has left me speechless

Sorry for the pun but this really did leave me speechless and here's why; the inventor is 16 years of age!! and here's what he did; Arsh Shah Dilbagi from India developed a micro controller which turns your breath into speech - now that is bloody amazing, here's how it works. Using a basic $25 Arduino microcontroller as the core of the device, a special microphone called MEMS Microphone converts the breathing pattern into electrical signals. This technology uses a pressure-sensitive diaphragm etched directly onto a silicon microchip, and an amplifying device to increase the sound of the user’s breath. The user gives distinguishable exhales that vary in length and intensity and this can then be translated using Morse code into speech or other commands. Microprocessors compute the electrical signals and convert them into speech, with the device currently offering 9 different voices.

“After testing the final design with myself and friends and family, I was able to arrange a meeting with the Head of Neurology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi and tested TALK (under supervision of doctor and in controlled environment) with a person suffering from SEM and Parkinson’s Disease,” Dilbagi explained. “The person was able to give two distinguishable signals using his breath and the device worked perfectly.” As I said earlier; speechless.

Visionary

Throughout my career I come across many business problems, it's my job to solve it, one question I always ask clients is; do you want to solve this problem for the short-term or long-term? Can you guess the vast responses to that simple question? #clue>> They comeback 6 months later, with some more problems that need solving. The plus side I suppose it keeps me in work.

Sticker Beacons - Welcome to Nearables

I came across a company called Estimote,with a great offering, not only is this very functional but the design is just delightful. I love this. Here's how it works; they are tiny adhesive beacons that can be attached to any surface to help unconnected objects interact with smartphones. Smart. Despite their thin shape, each Estimote sticker contains an accelerometer and temperature sensors, as well as a processor and bluetooth connector. If an item is picked up, extra information from the price or user reviews can be automatically pushed to the customer's phone. Estimote is calling its stickers 'nearables' (I like that. They provide similar benefits to wearables without having to be attached to the user, and offer more information about the immediate environment. The Estimote stickers Developer Preview Kit can now be pre-ordered from the company's website To me this is great concept where tech connects to a much greater experience, great connected thinking. A 'very good' sticker goes to Estimote, top of the class in tech for you matey.

Steve Jobs lost interview

Love this lost interview from Steve Jobs, very frank and open about how he set-up, raw genius with naivety around business - one thing that drove him was his pure love of tech and how things work, almost childlike. Well worth viewing.