Pranav Mistry of MIT demoes the new Sixth Sense wearable computer system taking us both one step closer to the Minority Report and one step beyond…

Read more on cnet..

Or watch the video below. (via Playfool) My favorite part is checking out product specs in the store, this type of functionality has unlimited potential.

Understanding collaboration through the lens of Itay Talgam and a collection of the worlds foremost conductors.

The best event I attended last year was the Picnic Conference 08′ in Amsterdam. Filled with interesting people and invaluable insights. Now they finally put the presentations from the main hall up on Vimeo, and I recommend most of them :o) – Thanks to Putting People First for “finding them”.

I’ve picked out Itay Talgam’s presentation on Conducting Creativity as my favorite, not necessarily because it contains a lot of relevant technical stuff or hands out project experiences. It doesn’t, Itay’s focuses on putting great conductors into context under the goal of teaching his listeners about creative collaboration.

This ads to the content on this blog, because.. carrying on the theme from some of the previous posts; in order to see solutions we need to understand humans, and the interaction between them.

This would have to go without saying when we’re trying to figure out the drivers and incentives for collaboration, community and participation. And is essential in order to understand what this would mean to your company and the amount of control one protects or releases to the public.

The talk creates a beautiful and valuable perspective, touching on a range of different features related to collaboration and creativity. And… it was the only presentation I can remember that got an almost never ending standing ovation!

Here is a selection of three quotes by Itam, or him quoting others, all found in the presentation:

“It’s not only about personal style, this is a part of it, and I think an interesting part. but it’s about creating a certain set of culture that enables certain modes of collaboration between people”

“Without order nothing can exist, without chaos nothing can grow”

“The worst damage I can do to my organization is to give them a very clear indication. Why? Because that creates a one on one relations between me and the players. Which makes the ignore the ensemble and work directly with me”

Have a look at Picinic’s Vimeopage for more videos from Picnic 08′.

Itay Talgam at PICNIC08: Conducting Creativity from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.

Augmented Reality is, as with everything else, already here. An ad for the MINI Convertible 09, on the back of the Auto Bild magazine, demonstrates the opportunities. Found on the Augmented Reality Blog, for everyone interested in AR – this is a blog to watch.

Personally I do agree with others who present the opportunities with AR as far outgrowing the example show above. Combine it with a mobile, camera, GPS and a compass and it gets even grander:

But it’s all brand and category related, and I can definitely see the “Mini” application implemented in a range of environments and contexts where it will prove for great edutainment and “commutainment” and most definitely value for customers.

(Commutainment = communication+entertainment, Microsoft Terminology I just learned :o)

For a lot of brands, from cars, to travel, to FMCG, the Mini should be inspiring in and of itself:

“Real space is a new interface to the Internet.” The Sekai Camera “ups” it one more notch.

As the name of the app suggests, Sekai Camera is a camera application that overlays meta-information on top of a live ‘camera’ view of the world. As you point your the device around (in this case an iPhone), meta-information about various stuff including products, places, and notes from your mates can pop-up on your viewfinder.

Read more on Rubbishcorp, via Nitmesh.

In a promo for globologos.com, Julien Vallèe designs a 2D/3D computer graphics video which is a real inspiration to the possibilities within augmented gaming.

Video via Courtcircuits.

Timo Arnalls’ presentation The Web in the World, includes a lot of examples relevant to The Internet of Things, Augmented reality and Branded Utility. I found some nice thoughts, articulations and and examples in his slideshow on Slideshare.

Also have a look at his thoughts on Tangible Interactions and Ambient Out.

Via Putting People First: Timo Arnall on design directions for physical interfaces.

Watching Tomas ALB’s presentation on the augmented reality projects their doing at his company metaio really set of some interesting sparks regarding the possibilities this brings.

Just to kick something of to those who haven’t seen a lot of it yet, here are some augmented reality highlights from Youtube.

From the Augmented Reality Blog.

And finally a look into the future: