In keeping with the tenuous theme of last week, we have 5 more Olympic medal placing and world-crushingly awesome things to share, including LED T-shirts, the latest in 3D printing and the Harry Potter wizardry future of print.
Number 5) Ballentines & Cutecircuit: T-shirt OS
Stretching the Olympic analogy as far as possible, in zinc medal position we have T-Shirt OS, the first wearable, sharable, and most importantly, programmable T-shirt. It can be called up by an iOS app to display pretty much anything you can think of – a super smart way of bringing to life Ballentine’s ‘Leave an impression’ brand promise from Jim Stump and Work Club in the UK.
Via @jimstump
Number 4) MakerBot Replicator 3D printer
Looking longingly up at the podium from 4th and copper medal position is The MakerBot Replicator. Not just any printer; not just any 3D printer either, no this is one that prints out full sized stuff at your whim. Regular readers (yes that's both of you) will be aware of the fixation this blog has with ‘additive printing’, so the fact that you can now buy a proper one for just $2k on places likes MakerShed is ridiculously awesome.
Via @helenium
Number 3) 3D printer creates magic arms for 2 year old
So what you can do with your 3D printer then? Here’s a beautiful and somewhat tear-jerking answer that fully earns its bronze positioning.
Number 2) Mars Rover Twitter handle – Humanising the Robot
What had hundreds of people chanting ‘Science’ in Times Square this week? You guessed it – the amazing landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover. A fascinating part of its communications was the ‘humanised’ tweeting from the robot itself. According to Space.com the voice Curiosity is “the combined effort of three women, led by NASA's social media manager Veronica McGregor... who work as a "hivemind" to communicate on behalf of the rover. All three refer to Curiosity as ‘she’.” What a beautiful use of social media.
Via @andyjhood
Number 1) Aurasma – the ultimate in AR experiences
I know what you’re thinking – more AR? Yeah, whatever. Been there, done that. Think again…
This week’s lofty Number 1 and fully merited gold medal position is an incredible new augmented reality app that can seamlessly animate the world as seen through a smartphone. This blog mockingly pointed out a couple of weeks ago that Harry Potter style wizardry moving pictures would of course never be possible. Oh how wrong I was. Check this out. Just awesome.
Via @diSapia