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oobject: 'daily user-ranked gadget lists'
The Oobject Ceatec 2007 awards - vote for your favorite exhibit.Below is a roundup from this years Ceatec show, in Japan. The principal themes included gesture recognition technologies and interfaces, and super flat screens.Our favorite items were the NTT Wellness phone, which tells you if you have bad breath, and the 1limited sound projection system which allows 2 people to sit on a couch and hear completely different things. - 'What we have here is a failure to communicate'.

23 best gadgets at ceatec 2007

This list covers the period from 1920 when the Harding - Cox election results were first broadcast by radio, to the present day when presenters have to interact with a virtual reality zoo of giant, artless, real-time animated charts.The first live TV election broadcasts were produced in the 50s, employing professional sign writers would have to paint charts, live. Static and very basic sets were used well into the 70s, as can be seen from the spartan US military set in South Vietnam for the 1972 Nixon election.Despite the technology behind contemporary broadcast sets, they are all unimaginatively dull, with identical patriotic, red white and blue color schemes and similar color blends and soft shading. These are the TV equivalent of a hideous blue-white blend default Powerpoint template.

election broadcast technology through history

Comic book ads are the nadir of capitalism, where the ability to blatantly deceive through advertising is exacerbated by the fact the audience is young children. Here are some classics.

12 deceptive comic book ads

Gerry Anderson is a cult TV figure because he took the unfashionably low tech world of puppetry and applied it with such skill and design flair to science fiction subjects that the results were highly original and imaginative. From the late sixties to late seventies, Dinky Toys produced die cast model toys of some of the more memorable Anderson craft from Joe 90, Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, UFO and Space 1999. They are now highly collectible. Vote for your faves.

10 classic gerry anderson scifi toys

This may seem like an overly esoteric oobject, but there is something interesting about the shape of a hairdryer - an item designed largely as a female beauty product that is often shaped like a gun or looks like sticking your head in a jet engine. One of these is actually shaped like a gun. The most interesting ones I could find were the machine age chrome ones or some of the more bizarre soft bonnet versions.

vintage hairdryers

The view straight down from a bridge tower, a skyscraper creates a perspective which we looks surprising. Cars look like models and the base of something like the Eiffel tower looks tiny and distorted. That and the fact that these views are absolutely terrifying. Here are a dozen of our favorites.

12 dramatic views looking down

Prototypes of really small projectors built into cellphones have been in development for around 2 years and production versions are imminent. A projector is due to be built into the Blackberry Curve, an event which may bring the downfall of civilization as a million, dreary, artless, Powerpoint presentations escape the confines of meeting rooms.Rather than getting excited about matchbox sized Pico Projectors in cellphones, with dim displays, the larger, pocket-sized, Nano Projectors look more practical and interesting. These offer the possibility of some very interesting art installations, at the very least, and the potential to change indoor advertising and retail environments, entirely.This roundup includes component technology suppliers and product manufacturers and package design prototypes and concepts.

18 really tiny projectors

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buildings in converted silos

July 13th, 2009 link to (permalink)











Being tall and thin means that one of the common but nevertheless unusual uses of old silos is to house climbing walls. Old silo structures, from underground missile silos to towering grain stores are often interesting pieces of industrial archaeology and make unconventional architectural conversions.





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