Category Archives: Motion

Touching The World Around You

A few weeks ago, we talked about Disney’s new touchscreen technology, which would allow a user to feel the objects onscreen via an electric current that fools the fingers into feeling bumps and textures. Now, Disney has made another leap in haptic interfaces, creating a system that would allow the user to feel the interface in midair.

Similar to an Xbox Kinect, this is a three dimensional interface that allows you to touch simulated objects in midair. Called “Aireal”, the developers state that the device provides “interactive tactile experiences in free air,” basically blowing concentrated ring of air in the direction of the user, basically using sound waves to create the sensation of haptic interaction.

This is an entirely new way of conceiving touch-based technology. Most interfaces use actual surface to hand or surface to body technology to utilize haptics. Midair interaction is a completely untested form of interface, and it will be fascinating to see what uses this technology could have in the future.

What Sparks Our Fire: New technologies are leading us closer and closer to a fully 3-D interactive experience.

Do you see the Aireal becoming an integrated part of systems in the future?

Branding, now arriving on baggage claim 3

japan-airportjapan-airport2The baggage claim at the airport is the last place anyone would expect branded works of art. This is exactly why tourism agencies in Japan have focused their latest efforts there. If you have traveled to the country recently, you might have noticed a number of themed pieces of art adorning the baggage claim carousels. This was no accident. Each piece of art was meant to promote the uniqueness of various regions within the country, focusing on culture and cuisine. This guerrilla advertising, assisted in branding each geographic region by transforming specific characteristics into visual symbols. For example, sea food pointed out the clean ocean waters near the Toyama Kitokito Airport, and the fruit represented Miyazaki’s diversity of distinct fruit.

What sparked our fire: Mundane locations used to brand and display unconventional works of art.

How would you tap into marketing potential at more unique markets like the airport?

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team

Full speed ahead

HyperloopPlanelon-musk-1Elon Musk is no stranger to innovation, he started Tesla Motors, a luxury electric car brand and Spacex, a rocket and space tech manufacturer. Mr. Musk’s latest “side project” is called Hyperloop, a solar powered aluminum pod transportation system that is said to travel up to 800 MPH. The ultimate goal is to transport passengers from San Francisco to LA in just under an hour and a half. Compared to alternatives such as air travel, Musk says the system ideally should be:

  • Safer
  • Faster
  • Lower cost
  • More convenient
  • Immune to weather
  • Sustainably self-powering
  • Resistant to Earthquakes
What sparked our fire: Radical, ultra high speed transportation.

 

Where is the first place you’d like to see high speed transportation in the US?

 

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team

Rolling into the digital age

As a part of the “Not Normal” campaign, MINI Cooper, has turned some of their cars into rolling billboards. Equipped with over 48,000 LED lights displaying digital content on the go, the MINI Art Beat campaign, focuses on the brand’s urban character to combine innovation, digital art, interactive design and live social media dialogues. Users are invited to collaborate in customizing the cars by uploading images, music, videos and other designs, through MINI’s Facebook app or Vine with the hashtag #MINIartbeat. Once the content is reviewed by MINI, it is played on the cars 3D screen.

What sparks our fire: Collaboration, entertainment, culture…not normal.

When is our next joyride?

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team

Sketching New York City

Brooklyn-based artist and professor, Willy Hartland, is raising money on the increasingly popular crowd-funding website, Kickstarter, in efforts to finish production on his short film. Entitled, New York City: An Animated Documentary, Hartland has spent the last several years sketching over a thousand portraits of The Big Apple. His drawings capture the urban lifestyle of New Yorker’s in subways, parks, bars or anywhere people rest long enough to be drawn.

What sparked his fire: Watching total strangers face everyday challenges and creatively capturing them in that moment.

Imagine a documentary using this method was created for all major cities, which would be your favorite?

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team