Tech Innovations
Battle Apps
Capt. Jonathan Springer, a 31-year-old US soldier has spent thousands of dollars inventing an iPhone app that allows soldiers to map, plot and photograph battlefield markers and send information to other units. It’s not the only military-inspired app available – Bulletflight and iSnipe are two others that help marksmen calculate bullet trajectory depending on altitude [...]
NGO’s ‘Fess Up to Failure
Engineers Without Borders Canada have done what many NGOs have failed to do and that is admit that help given to developing countries isn’t always helpful. In some cases a solution to a perceived problem just brings more problems. But no-one will admit it in case people stop donating their money to charity to help [...]
The Creation Project
Sim City creator Will Wright is working with Albie Hecht, ex-head of Spike and Nickelodeon to create a crowd sourced TV series called The Creation Project. The idea is that the public will submit storyline ideas via the “StoryMaker Engine”, which allows people to create storyboards. The best ideas will then be put to the [...]
Movies that Move You (and the Storyline)
Jake Bickerton has tracked down the next big thing in movies after 3D: Emo-vie. This is an interactive movie experience in which the audience’s emotional reaction to a movie is tracked during key scenes and dialogue and the film’s storyline changes in response. Read more in Televisual Magazine.
What Does an Army March On? Its Stomach…
The New York Times has published a list of the various army rations fed to the troops of different countries – and which have various barter values between the soldiers keen to give their tastebuds a break from the monotony of home-grown (or at least packed) food rations. Aussies are issued with Vegemite and the [...]
Gaming for Health Rewards
Bayer has introduced a new blood glucose monitor plugs into a Nintendo DS and allows diabetic kids to play games and win points as they keep up to date with their blood glucose testing. The Didget meter helps kids manage a lifelong disease by rewarding them for building consistent testing habits and meeting personalized blood [...]
iPad Reaches the Generations Other Computers Cannot
A 100-year-old woman misses her birthday party because she is engrossed in her new iPad (and her first computer):
London Underground Live
Matthew Somerville created an API that tracked the location of London Underground trains in real time, but it was soon shut down due to overwhelming demand. You can see a video of how it worked here.
Pigeon Blog
PigeonBlog is a charmingly method of charting air pollution. Researchers tagged city-dwelling homing pigeons with GPS enabled air pollution sensors to send pollution information to an online map where they tracked a bird’s flight and showed pollution data on a graph.
Employee Tracking
DirectLife has a personal fitness programme that monitors your daily activity via a monitor and uploads the information to a personal web page where you can track your goals and results. You can also sign up for the services of a fitness coach who will provide advice and encouragement. But what sets this apart from [...]
