This week’s cutting-edge innovation includes connected golf, drawable pizzas and the ability to tag the very world around you.
Number 5) Dear Assistant open source Twitter bot for Wolfram Alpha
First cab off the awesome rank this week is Dear Assistant, a Twitter bot that leverages Wolfram Alpha to answer any question you Tweet it. Any Tweet you send it is matched against the answer engine, and a Tweet sent back when it finds a match. It’s, of course, the same reference data that Siri uses and the instant social answers are pretty impressive.
Via The Next Web
Number 4) Meltdown – The first board game that melts
CEOlino in Germany have developed an evocative way of dramatising global warming to its younger readers by creating a board game that melts. In Meltdown, the aim is to guide your polar bar from the permanent ice flows to safety on the mainland. It’s a race against time, as the way leads across real, slowly melting ice floes, which children can make themselves with the accompanying mould, a bit of water and a freezer compartment. It’s a beautiful way to dramatising the concept.
Via Adverblog
Number 3) Paint your own pizza
The new project from Swedish artist Jonas Lund lets customers paint a picture of the pizza they’d like, and then receive its real-life likeness for actual consumption. A cunning algorithm determines how your artwork will cost in pizza toppings. Through a partnership with NYC’s Ray’s Pizza, the pizza is then delivered straight to your door.
Via Springwise
Number 2) Create your own AR overlay
Fresh out of SXSW is a brilliant app called MARS which allows users to tag real-world 3D objects and retrieve customised and tagged information about them through augmented reality. For instance, a school might use the company's technology to create an augmented reality overlay over buildings, allowing student to snap a picture of a building and instantly see where a classroom in located. The possibilities through the smart app are seemingly endless…
Via Mashable
Number 1) Game Golf
Number 1 this week is incredible piece of wearable technology innovation called Game Golf. It includes a GYG device and a set of club tags, one for each club in your bag. With this kit a bunch of different sensors dynamically track ‘pro-like’ golf stats enabling you to review just about every element of your game, compete against others and of course share your progress socially. Unsurprisingly, Game Golf has already beaten it’s $125k funding target, and there’s still a good 21 days to go.
Via indiegogo
That’s it for this week. As ever, if anything screamingly awesome has been missed out, let us know in the comments below. Or feel free to ping any recommendations for next week to @jamescfilmer.
James Filmer
Chief Innovation Officer
UM