Monthly Archives: October 2013

L Is For The Way You Look At Me

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Love is the driving force behind most of the things people do on a daily basis. Love is an attribute almost unique to human beings, who are the only species to have marriages, write sappy love poems, and stay together for years. This is a removal from other animals who, for the most part are not monogamous, and don’t often write sonnets for each other.

The question is: what makes human beings so special, so unique, that they need to fall in love and get married? The answer, quite simply, is bad wiring.  According to neuroscientist David Linden, the neurons that make up our brains are very similar to the original neurons that occurred in the first living beings, and are now seen in similar forms in jellyfish and coral. We make up for this by having large brains with a great deal of gray matter, which makes up for our lower-performance neurons and helps us to be what Linden calls “clever us“, intelligent humans.

Since the size of the brain is related to how intelligent the being is, it is necessary that the mature human have a large brain, about 500 billion neurons, 1200 cubic centimeters of matter. A human baby will have about 400 cc’s of gray matter in their brain, and even a brain a third the size of maturity is a struggles to be born. This is why human beings have a much longer adolescence than other mammals, to allow the brain to be fully developed, ending at age 20.

In pre-modern, hunter-gatherer society, it was necessary that the adolescent human be protected and kept alive so that it could reach adulthood. This quite simply could not be done with a single parent at that time. Helping a child to survive for 20 years could only be accomplished by both parents being present. Therefore, marriage-like arrangements sprang up in nearly every culture, with both parents understanding that it was their joint responsibility to raise a child together.

This is the neurological reason we fall in love and write ukelele songs for each other. We do it because our brains are wired like jellyfish and take 20 years to boot up.

What Starts Our Fire: Love, and the biological needs that drive our progress as a species.

Do you think that love as a concept is weakened or strengthened because of it’s basis in survival?

Memento Morieris

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“This is your life, and it’s ending one second at a time.”

Kind of a depressing sentiment, but nevertheless true. The concept of the transience of life is what led Swedish publishing creative Fredrik Colting to create a watch that not only tells you the time but also counts down the time you have left. In essence, The Tikker is a countdown to the moment of your death. This hypothetical future date is based on your vital statistics, such as age, BMI, location, and activity, in essence comparing your vitals to the average life expectancy of someone in your demographic.

Rather than a macabre attempt to perpetually leave you sullen about the prospect of your impending death, the Tikker is meant to remind you of your mortality in the way that the phrase Carpe Diem reminds you to seize the day. When confronted by the reality of his grandfather’s death, Colting was struck by the transient nature of life and how easy it is to forget each moment is precious and should be lived to the fullest. According to Colting, “Life isn’t about having more time, it’s about appreciating the time you have.”

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What Sparks Our Fire: A lifetime isn’t forever, and it’s good to be reminded so we live life to the fullest each day.

Would you want this constant reminder strapped to your wrist?

Fire Power

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We’re always interested when new gadgets integrate modern technology with the most basic elements in innovative ways. The FlameStower Cell Phone Charger does just that. The proposed product is a recharger for your cutting edge modern technology that uses man’s first technological innovation.

The charger has a USB port, a water container, and a flat panel to place over the heating element. This is a thermoelectric process, where the temperature difference between the heated element and water sends electricity from the higher voltage heated component to the lower voltage cooler component. This electricity can charge small devices like phones and tablets via a USB port. The FlameStower team contends that using the device can heighten ones experience with nature, blending modern convenience with the more natural processes of nature.

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This multifunctional device can use any open flame, and provides a consistent, moderate charge off of the grid. This is, of course, not the first fire-based portable charger, but many of the others, such as the BioLite, lack the inherent portability and space-saving folding design that comes standard with the FlameStower. For the camper who needs to save space and keep his devices charged, it’s a very portable solution. The Kickstarter Campaign is well on its way to tripling its original goal of $15,000, with plenty of time left. This is obviously a very attractive offering, and based on the response, demand for this product will be very high.

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What Sparks Our Fire: Making the use of technology feasible when off the grid.

Will you take the FlameStower on your next camping trip?

 

Help Spark for Change

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Every year, nearly 1 million students will not graduate. Every 26 seconds a student drops out of school. Let’s “spark” a change together.

Canopy is taking a major step in igniting hope for kids who deserve an opportunity to win, to succeed, to grow! Our inaugural S.P.A.R.K. is intended to support, inspire and motivate our youth, through a panel discussion of top entrepreneurs and CEOs in their respective industries (i.e., entertainment, sports, marketing, beauty), who will discuss how they became successful, and provide insights for our youth to guide them towards a successful career path.

The event will raise funds to award scholarships to young students through the following youth focused, non-profit organization, Wishbone. S.P.A.R.K. will take place on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 from 5:00-8:00pm at the Art Directors Club.

Canopy’s goal is to encourage other industry professionals to help close the achievement gap and bring quality after school and summer programs to low income students.

What to help spark a change? Head to www.SparkforChange.org now to purchase tickets or donate to this amazing cause.

Thanks in advance!

Touch the World In Front of You

By their very nature, touch phone screens are flat, glossy surfaces that transfer visual and audio signals to your brain. This is what they’re meant to do, and for the most part they do it well. But can they be improved upon? The minds at the company behind Mickey Mouse and the multiplane camera are working to do just that.

Haptic interface is the transmission of touch information from a screen to a user’s hand. Disney is working on a flat touchscreen technology that will allow the user to feel the shape and texture of objects displayed on the screen. Officially known as “tactile rendering of 3D features”, the process is complicated, but essentially boils down to the premise that small electronic pulses can trick fingers into perceiving different textures and bumps of objects shown on the flat screen.

This, in and of itself, is not new information, but the implied applications of this technology are staggering when one considers how common touchscreens have become in today. “Touch interaction has become the standard for smartphones, tablets and even desktop computers, so designing algorithms that can convert the visual content into believable tactile sensations has immense potential for enriching the user experience,” according to Interaction Group director, Ivan Poupyrev.

Disney also believes that textured screens hold great potential for disabled users. Their demonstration video shows real-time impressions, where a camera attached to the screen captures an image and the user is able to feel it. This holds potential for creating accessible technology for blind individuals to help raise awareness of their surroundings in a physical way. This technology, while not yet available, leads one to consider the staggering implications of this technology.

What Sparks Our Fire: Adding haptic interaction to visual and audio takes us one step closer to a full, immersive user experience.

What industries do you think will adopt this new technology first?