Un article qui nous fait penser à nos sociétés “on-demand”: Axa veut faire payer l’assuré comme il roule. Dans Challenges! Article du 11-10-2007 par Eric Tréguier. (Merci Mehdi!)

Le principe est simple : la boîte reliée à un GPS transmet régulièrement à l’assureur, via le mobile du client, des statistiques sur l’utilisation du véhicule. La compagnie adapte ensuite la facture. Vous roulez beaucoup et en pleine nuit sur de petites routes ? Vous paierez plus cher que si vous laissez votre voiture au garage ou si vous ne l’utilisez que le midi, du lundi au vendredi. Tout sera détaillé dans votre facture.

Check this fantastic “bahnhof markt” video until the end… a beautiful example of mobility, un clin d’oeil aux frères Lumière, et un beau ballet. Thanks to Sidsel for the info.

bahnhof markt

Screenshot from the CarLoft® website. An take on our society of storage place… for the rich. Thanks Uli! Any chance to have a version for Smart owners?

Just finished a study on social networking with findings corroborating some mentionned by the BBC article: Social networks ‘lure music fans’… Sociality and the practice of everyday spaces have changed to an on-demand, tailored consumption of people objects and things. And this happens 24/7! As the world being “flat”… many companies outsource to Asia because Asia is actually awake when the West sleeps! Couldn’t we think of Asia outsourcing to the States because of the same reason? We don’t need to be THERE for things to happen. That is a neo-nomadic way of life!

I am now moving on reading/writing about Applied Business Research and find a compelling way to convey the exciting and (business) value of pattern recognition… And still working with Cati on Touch·Sensitive!

I figured that it might be very difficult for you reader to make sense of all the bits and pieces of information, from art to technology. But think about the blog as a convergence of disciplines… As I often say and write, and thank you to Deleuze and Guattari for their inspiring thinking, what gives matter to things is not only the parts, but also the assemblages, what is in-between…

Good news for the HomeTEL or for other applications… Check this out: Paper Four, a touch sensitive printed surface…

Pix from website.

I am late with the news… Here is the BBC article: Talking Paper Made by Scientists. (just realized I cropped the image the same way :)

I am always amazed by the need we have… to print photographs! Isn’t a digital file easier to carry? Well I guess in our consumerist society, I can just trash it and reprint it at will (poor planet!). I guess with that gadget, the sony portable printer_comes with a handy handle_ one can create instant postcards… just need to purchase a 2D code stamp from your cell phone, or even from the machine! via coolest gadjets.

Millegomme creates objects from used tires! I especially like their installations for nomadic children:

We intend to use building materials that can be found on location, in their habitats and neighborhood, or recycle the materials that we assess will be needed for the building. We are preparing an architectural plan which would envisage an ideology of “living dream house”, but still confined to materials that are residual and harmless to health. The children should be as involved as possible in the applications once the structure is built and the various workshops will facilitate this. The playground should be a result of many different artistic inputs, that is, we intend to invite outside collaborators to help us with the actual design. We are preparing a preliminary base design, with the help of an architect, but we will leave it open for a remake, considering that local participants would want to give an input to this building .
We were using tires, wood, metal, glass as the basic construction materials, and added color, sound and movement application to the basic form. The playground was not only a static physical entity, but a base for workshops, which is its second function.

There is maybe a thin relation to neo-nomads: finding solutions to spacial appropriation. I am curious however about how mobilities influence the creation of objects or how many objects derive from the waste of our world of mobilities.

Via cascoland. Thank you Jo.

Chase did it again! (She was a Loeb fellow when I was a DDes candidate at Harvard Graduate School of Design… I am a fan!!!) She is a founder of Zipcar. With GoLoco, her new startup, she goes greener, also “to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel” while using social networking! Read the article in Newsweek, Baby, You Can Drive My Car_Via Web by Steven Levy. Excerpts:

Her idea was to let drivers and riders use the Web to turn solitary rides into shared ones, saving fuel and cutting costs. She’d also build a business by taking a cut of the fees that passengers on the site would pay drivers to share the costs. When brainstorming the company, she saw three obstacles to her goal: A fear of strangers. The difficulty of finding rides. And a feeling that the effort really isn’t worth it.

That last concern, she asserts, is no longer valid—awakened by the threat of climate crisis, lots of people are now eager to win greenie points.

[…] When you sign up for GoLoco, you submit a picture and share information about yourself from sites like Facebook and Flickr, as well as a list of groups you belong to. You speak into your computer mic to describe your favorite breakfast so that potential ride-sharers can hear your voice. You also indicate what other Olo’s you trust enough to ride with, so that others can see if you know people in common. Also, as you use GoLoco, drivers or passengers who accompany you will write reviews of your behavior, eBay style.

St Louis. I find a copy of my bill on the hotel’s interactive television system…

Thanks to Rudy’s 3GSM intensive wrap-up post, I discover radius, a rollable display… just after I post: origami PC :) I still believe in my ’soft wear’, my blanket-computer!

Polymer Vision says:

From a technology perspective, ‘mobility’ is no longer new. The world is already ‘mobile’. What is changing is the breadth and depth of that mobility, and in particular the volume and speed of data being distributed into this worldwide mobile community. The demand for data “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” and the hunger of mobile users to be constantly InTouch, InFormed and InControl is changing the underlying mechanics of the mobile industry. Mobile TV, Mobile Internet and Mobile Advertising are rapidly evolving over the already available mobile content. Instant, ubiquitous availability of personally selected mobile content is the order of the day.
Most of the technologies required to enable this next mobile generation are evolving as quickly as the opportunities themselves. While these include 3G & mobile broadband communication networks, high-density memory modules and powerful low power IC’s, one key factor remains unsolved. That is the subsequent consumer demand for larger displays in smaller, more powerful, “pocket” devices. This of course is an impossible task for today’s display technologies based on glass substrates.
Solving this problem is what Polymer Vision is all about, and why our Mission is quite simply to put rollable displays into every mobile device.

How do you make a rollable display?