Neon Art Gives New Meaning to An Illuminating Idea
→ by David Porter on April 16th, 2014
New Generation of Defence Mannequins Give Britain a Cutting Edge
→ by David Porter on April 15th, 2014
Mannequins now mean more than dressed dummies in defence circles
New Generation of Defence Mannequins Give Britain a Cutting Edge
An update on MBF Blogs reports about robotics and related matters. BBC News reported (5 April 2014) that ‘a robot mannequin is to test Armed Forces’ protective suits.
In another example of a British company leading the field in technology applications, a robotic mannequin has been developed that can ‘run, kneel, sit and even mimic the movement of a soldier’ has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence, who described it as ‘unique to the UK.’
Read more…
Paying By Phone: Is There Anything That Can’t Be Done on a Phone Now?
→ by David Porter on April 14th, 2014
Will Paym Be Another Step on the Road to End of Actual Money?
Paying By Phone: Is There Anything That Can’t Be Done on a Phone Now?
Extravagant claims are frequently made about the uses to which smartphones are now being put. But the ones about using them for everyday payments look set to be proved right.
The British Bakers’ Association reckon the number of phone banking transactions doubled to approaching 6m per day last year.
The UK payments Council predicts that the new Paym (pronounced pay ‘em) will be used more than a billion times in the next four to five years as the system enabled to link up every bank account in the country with a phone number gets going. Read more…
Good Quality Art in the Streets Would Be Better Than Tailored Adverts
→ by David Porter on April 9th, 2014
If Ads Were Replaced With Classical Artworks, the World Would Be a Beautiful Place
appeared on The Huffington Post (17 February 2014)
The situation is described: ‘Aside from littered streets, impenetrable crowds and overpriced everything, one of the major pitfalls of living in a major urban metropolis is the endless barrage of advertisements. Whether driving down Sunset Boulevard or pushing your way through Times Square, your eyes will undoubtedly be bombarded by flashing letters, scantily clad women and fast food that invariably looks far worse in real life.’
French artist Etienne Lavie imagined what it would be like in a Paris free of overbearing commercial ads. He shot the street scenes and the paintings separately and then merged them to make these lovely what if….? images.
This may seem like a good idea, gently using art to improve the urban visual landscape. But to see something that is just bizarre check out the idea to wrap the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building (2716 feet and 160 storeys) in a giant fabric sock made of reflective material – in the name of art!
One of the more pleasing ideas that caught my eye as it swirled round the web, was replacing public adverts, hoardings/billboards and so on, with copies of some really wonderful classical art works.
The Internet Is Outdated, So Welcome to the Outernet
→ by David Porter on April 8th, 2014
Could satellites soon bring the internet to the whole world and for free?
The Internet Is Outdated, So Welcome to the Outernet
While everybody is getting excited about wearables as the latest techno-wizardry, or even smart clothes they are focussing on those areas of kit because they think the progress of the basic internet is now settled.
It’s like electricity. It’s here to stay and will not change much now.
They should look at the Outernet, then, because that actually could be the next big, big evolution.