Countdown of Awesome: 99% inspiration without the cigar

Mid-July has yielded some gleaming gems including mug shot recognition to unlock your phone from Google and a social shame fridge lock from Brazil to deter salad dodgers. But alas, just not quite enough unbridled awesomeness to warrant that most prestigious accolade of being crowned Number 1.

Number 5) Real world Monopoly takes over Chicago streets
Nestling in at number 5 this week we have a life-sized Monopoly board game around the streets of Chicago from a group of artists called Bored. Sidewalk blocks are painted to mirror the various properties in the classic game board (renamed for Chicago streets), while various features of the game such as Chance and Community Chest Cards, six-sided dice, and Houses and Hotels dot the city.

Via PSFK

Number 4) Virtual fridge lock
Meta Real in Brazil was faced with the significant challenge of preventing their salad dodging clients from succumbing to midnight fridge raids. JWT Sao Paulo’s solution was genius – stick a magnetic fridge ‘lock’ on it which alerts their Facebook friends of their attempts to late night trough.

Number 3) Reimagining everything
In a superb piece of futurology jousting, Wolf Onlins has responded to Mary Meeker’s (aka the Queen of the Internet) re-imagination trends by creating their own creative set of Then, Now, Next predictions.

Number 2) Google: Blink to unlock
Whilst being a fortnight late on this is admittedly an eternity for a blog about cool stuff, Google’s new Face Unlock has to be impressive enough to squeeze in at number 2 despite the belatedness. It uses advanced facial recognition technology to analyse the structure of your face and unlocks only when it recognises you. Whilst this was available in Ice Cream Sandwich (the previous Android 4.0 OS) it was as about as safe as securing your front door with a paperclip, given anyone holding up a picture of your mug shot could simply unlock it. But now with Jelly Bean (the new Android 4.1 OS) the clever tech additionally requires you to blink to unlock it, which unless you’re capable of producing Harry Potter style moving pictures, has to be a little more secure.

Via PSFK

Number 2) Goodyear: ‘Control Freak’ Live Test Drives
In shared Number 2 spot this week is a clever stunt from Goodyear to promote their new Eagle F1 Asymmetric All-Season tyres. Apparently unsuspecting tyre punters are taken for a Gymkhana 5 style test drive to demonstrate their grip. It’s a smart piece of branded content and has 190k views at the time of writing after just a couple of weeks. But seems just a little too scripted in places, hence the reluctance to award the illustrious Number 1 spot, which of course Ken Block’s totally awesome Gymkhana 5 Urban Playground received last week.