YAB » idea

From weblog to geolog: virtual wall maps

alx — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:31:16 +0000

How to get a virtual world wall map similar to those you can find in most of students flat? with small pins on it to celebrate reminders of excellent moments abroad?

Using google map, it’s possible to add this pins (markers) on the map, and it’s possible to add lines between these markers, so everything is there to implement basic functionnalities.

Once the basics are done, the next steps could be more interesting: how wirtual maps can extend the experience?

Add a slider to navigate thought time, David’s idea with his students about extending google maps with history layers (see google market sliders);
Have the possibility to add future markers, so your friends - or other people - can see your plans for coming weeks. Serious privacy issues, but all the tracklog concept lay on these issues;
Creating a multi-layer map with friends or other people on it, there we are really near a Global Surveillance concept;
Color change on path, depending on the transport - plane, foot, bicycle, … - or relate to the time slider with a nice gradient.

Interesting links around the same idea:

BEAM Robotics: electronic art life

alx — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:08:27 +0000

From Wikipedia:

The word “beam” in BEAM robotics is an acronym for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics. This is a term that refers to a style of robotics that primarily uses simple analog circuits instead of a microprocessor in order to produce an unusually simple design (in comparison to traditional mobile robots) that trades flexibility for robustness and efficiency in performing the task for which it was designed. Exceptions to the convention of using only analog electronics do exist and these are often colloquially referred to as “mutants“.

Interesting links:

2007 prediction: Social Audio

alx — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:03:56 +0000

Never to late to make a prediction about the coming year. In last 2 years, we had a lot of social websites, exploding with Friendster a long time ago, and getting multimedia recently (relatively) with photo – Flickr – and video – YouTube and DailyMotion, where is the social audio? Some websites get it right, like Last.fm or Pandora, but there is still a place for someone else.

The Virgin Suicide experiment

For a few months, or probably a few year, I always wanted to virtualize a scene from The Virgin Suicide movie. In this scene, friends are phoning using music lyrics to make the conversation, with really great soundtracks. The idea I have is to do the same using mp3 and a kind of music chat room.

This morning, we tried to experiment with Sylvain it using CampFire from 37Signals as a music chat room and putting mp3 files inside this room. Well, this didn’t really work, as mp3 handling was really not working, and it was probably too easy to communicate directly to the other personn, not respecting the basic concept rule of speaking only with soundtrack.

A new idea for social audio

But a nice idea came from experiment: would it be possible to have a kind of audio social network? It would be like all these widgets for MySpace, or Pandora intelligent player, it’ll more be like a kind of radio where your friends are putting music inside, and you can just listen to your friend selection. A group interaction could create a kind of music timetable, with special music sessions at a certain hour, music getting random at the other time of the day.

I won’t implement this idea, it’s really a big job to do and it would need few months of dedicated time, but it’s really expected to work if nicely done.