Alot of people still dont know what SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act)/PIPA (Protect IP Act). You will see most of your favorite sites “censored” or shut down today. Watch this 4 min video to find out why and sign the petition at the bottom, which will take 2 mins.
“When ideas are blocked, information deleted, conversations stifled and people constrained in their choices, the Internet is diminished for all of us.. There isn’t an economic Internet and a social Internet and a political Internet. There’s just the Internet.”
- Hillary Clinton (United States Secretary of State)
“It contains provisions that will chill innovation. It contains provisions that will tinker with the fundamental fabric of the internet. It gives private corporations the power to censor. And best of all, it bypasses due legal process to do much of it.”
- James Allworth (Harvard Business School)
This commercial caught my eye because thus far,I had yet to see Microsoft promote the Kinect like I thought they should-as more than just a gaming device-until now.
For almost two years I’ve been watching the progression of Microsoft’s Kinect device. Its a console add-on that allows you to play games without the use of a controller-at all. It started life as competition to Nintendo’s Wii motion system which revolutionized the gaming industry with incredibly accurate controller sticks that you fling in the air to get your character to move around. When the Kinect initially was launched I thought it was a really cool product, but nothing i wanted to play games with. Watching the demo videos immediately called to mind the now famous scene from Minority Report in which Tom Cruise controls his computer by waving his hands in the air while wearing special gloves. Being a self-proclaimed “futurist” I thought that this would not only be really cool but also an efficient way to use the Kinect around the home, but on release Microsoft was mum on any plans to use it outside of the Xbox at all. I told myself I wouldn’t get one until I saw more real world applications for the device, as I enjoy gaming with fun motion sticks or sensors, I still would rather my hardcore gaming be done with the standard controller (for now).
But over the past year, we’ve seen a flood of people-university classes, companies, and homebrew hackers- all develop really, really,really cool applications for the Kinect. From long distance fondling, to controlling robots. And due to the overwhelming response from the hacker/programmer community Microsoft has already announced that they will have major Kinect integration with the new Windows 8 OS, and a smaller PC version of the Kinect for desktops that can read lips.
For me the beauty of the Kinect lies not in the idea that it’s a simple peripheral to play games with, but that i believe it heralds a very imminent future in which we will significantly change the way we interact with not just PC’s, but with hundreds of objects we use everyday. Imagine getting into your car with a mini Kinect built into the dash, so every time you (as the driver) turn your head, all mirrors turn as well to give you optimal viewing around the entire car eliminating blind spots. Or walking into your house and the built in Kinect on the wall follows you around the room turning on & off lights with the wave of a hand, activating your tv by voice, automatically playing your last movie where you left off at and adjusting the AC on command. Or being able to shop online while standing in front of your monitor, with the clothes imposed on you digitally & in 3 Dimensions as they move in real time showing you every angle and crease as you spin around. Retailers could use it for facial recognition access to registers.
These are just a few commercial ideas for ease of life; it’s so cheap &accessiblethat there are thousands of applications possible for various industries like medicine, architecture, engineering, etc as long as MS gets the tech in the hands & minds of the people that could benefit from them. Given that Windows is the biggest operating system on the planet , it’s just a matter of Microsoft showcasing the brightest, most useful applications & some creative advertising before the population accepts the Kinect as an everyday input device like the keyboard, mouse and trackpad. This is what excites me the most. Pc’s have already changed our world tremendously since their inception, and changing the way we use and interact with them & the information they provide is the next step in a smarter, more advanced (not to mention much cooler) world. Lets just keep some safeguards in place to prevent HAL from rearing his ugly head lens.
-S.DeBose
Trend culture blog CoolHunter toured the Bentley factory in Crew, England and made a short doc. They found out all sorts of interesting info that you may not have known, like because of the custom nature of the brand, it takes Bentley 3 months to make each vehicle (vs 18 hrs for a company like GM). Also they dont even make vehicles for stock so every one you see on the floor has already been sold! Its a pretty cool video on arguably one of the coolest uber-luxury brands out there. Check it out.
-S.DeBose
I Love Vogue for many reasons, the covers being one of them. I find them Creative, colorful, beautiful. Here’s two of my faves from a couple of international issues this summer:
Vogue Italia/June 2011/ft. Tara Lynn,Candice Huffine,&Robyn Lawley shot by Mario Testino
Vogue Paris/June 2011/ ft. Isabelli Fontana shot by Mert & Marcus
-S.DeBose
January 18, 2012
kirincollection
