>> increasingly expressed not on video displays but in
>> objects that fit more naturally into our lives.

um… yeah, glowing egg-orbs fit very 'naturally' into my life.


Lewis LaCook wrote:
> New Technology Uses 'Glanceable' Objects
> Fri Apr 16, 4:42 PM ET Add Technology - AP to My
> Yahoo!
>
>
> By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, Associated Press Writer
>
> It looks like a size-XXXL chicken egg and glows in
> colors that change and waver in intensity as it tracks
> qualitative shifts in financial data from the
> Internet. But the white plastic Orb was designed to be
> far more than a barometer of the Dow Jones Industrial
> average, it's programmed out-of-the-box function.
>
>
> AP Photo
>
>
>
> Adherents see the glowing $150 device as pioneering a
> movement where data generated by computers will be
> increasingly expressed not on video displays but in
> objects that fit more naturally into our lives.
>
>
> Ambient Devices of Cambridge, Mass. began selling the
> Orb a year ago. If the Dow average is up for the day,
> it glows green. On a down day, the Orb reddens. The
> colors' intensity reflects the extent of the swing;
> yellow means the market is stable.
>
>
> Provided with that basic information, an Orb owner can
> decide whether to go online for more detail.
>
>
> Ambient users have programmed Orbs for a remarkable
> array of tasks: tracking job openings in Atlanta,
> measuring the flow of visitors to a Boston-based
> interactive design agency's Web site, gauging energy
> use in a New York City apartment, tracking eBay
> auctions, notifying someone when a particular person
> is online or a certain number of e-mails have filled
> their inbox.
>
>
> "When you think about the magic of the Orb, it's a
> thermometer for the rest of your life," said author
> Seth Godin, who writes on business and social trends.
> Godin hopes to program his Orb to track sales of his
> books on Amazon.com to save time and "increase my
> peace of mind."
>
>
> The Orb's power lies in how can reflect the ease with
> which humans process basic visual information.
>
>
> "It's based on our brain's natural ability to process
> many streams of information in parallel," said David
> Rose, the president of Ambient Devices, which says it
> has sold about 20,000 to date. "Our perceptual system
> is great at multiprocessing hundreds of peripheral
> cues every second. We do it without even trying.
> Today's computer interfaces completely ignore this."
>
>
> Rose envisions Orbs and related products being
> scattered throughout people's offices, homes and cars,
> "dedicated to information they care about."
>
>
> The idea behind Orb came out of the Massachusetts
> Institute of Technology (news - web sites)'s Media
> Lab, where "Tangible Bits" research led by Professor
> Hiroshi Ishii aims to replace computers' graphical
> user interface with tangible representations of the
> data they produce

On 17 Apr 2004, at 10:07, Pall Thayer wrote:

>>> increasingly expressed not on video displays but in
>>> objects that fit more naturally into our lives.
>
> um… yeah, glowing egg-orbs fit very 'naturally' into my life.

You clearly don't own enough Mathmos products. :-)

- Rob.

Well, at least now I know what Mathmos products are. I like the Bubble.
I think I'd prefer a Bubble over an egg-orb. Visual stimulation without
having to extract some kind of meaning from it.

Rob Myers wrote:

> On 17 Apr 2004, at 10:07, Pall Thayer wrote:
>
>>>> increasingly expressed not on video displays but in
>>>> objects that fit more naturally into our lives.
>>
>>
>> um… yeah, glowing egg-orbs fit very 'naturally' into my life.
>
>
> You clearly don't own enough Mathmos products. :-)
>
> - Rob.
>
> +
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–
_________________________________

Pall Thayer
artist/teacher
http://www.this.is/pallit
http://130.208.220.190/
http://130.208.220.190/nuharm/
http://130.208.220.190/panse/
_________________________________

On 17 Apr 2004, at 11:58, Pall Thayer wrote:

> Well, at least now I know what Mathmos products are. I like the Bubble.

Bubble's lovely.

> I think I'd prefer a Bubble over an egg-orb. Visual stimulation
> without having to extract some kind of meaning from it.

I think you've got something important there. We *need* relaxation, we
*need* to get away from information. Cramming information in to
decoration and every environmental cue is just adding to the overload.

- Rob.