198: 8th October 2021 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-blank-wall-can-show-how-many-people-are-in-a-room-and-what-theyre-doing/ A Blank Wall Can Show How Many People Are in a Room and What They’re Doing As she entered the shopping centre it was like a different world. The temperature was just right, the music just so, the New Normal routes optimised just for her, but it was the lighting … [Read more…]
https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ypp8/leaked-documents-amazon-astro-surveillance-robot-tracking Leaked Documents Show How Amazon’s Astro Robot Tracks Everything You Do I’m sorry to disturb you, but, it is my job after all. I’m here to “provide peace of mind”, your sentry in the home, making sure there are no intruders, nothing to disturb you and your family. On my patrol I noticed something … [Read more…]
https://www.engadget.com/apple-music-dynamic-head-tracking-155139219.html Dynamic head tracking is now available in Apple Music Their eyes darted around. From side to side: watching for obstructions or taking in the view, the traffic, that passer by, that pigeon. Some had it down to a fine art. Peripheral vision became a new skill. But they all walked awkwardly, stiff, their heads … [Read more…]
https://interestingengineering.com/infrared-radiation-from-our-hands-could-be-the-future-of-encryption?utm_source=tldrnewsletter She looked at her hand, at the shelf. She remembered The During, when she’d feared to touch things, obsessively reaching for the hand sanitiser in her bag. It had been normal not to touch, to not run her fingers along the shelf as she chose, through the rack as she browsed as she’d done … [Read more…]
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/7/21553998/netflix-linear-channel-france-streaming-cable-tv He didn’t get headaches any more. He slept better. The doctor said the wearable was posting data “in the right zone”. He felt better, calmer. They reminded him of the glasses he’d worn as a kid to help with his dyslexia. Tinted a cool John Lennon colour, they’d helped stop the words buzzing. These … [Read more…]
https://www.engadget.com/amazon-dash-smart-shelf-20-dollar-scale-reorder-products-163254718.html When people came round, she always made sure she showed it off. Her favourite room. “It’s like something from a movie,” they’d say, “so retro”. She’d even bought a wheeled ladder that slid silently along the stacks. She’d ostentatiously climb it and move along a little to pull one out to show off the … [Read more…]
https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/15/21518182/google-new-hum-to-search-feature-identify-song-machine-learning It was liminal. On the edge of consciousness, the tip of his tongue. It must have been something he saw or heard yesterday and now it was like a nagging loose tooth he couldn’t help worrying. He couldn’t do anything about it until his break, he told himself, his work devices were locked until … [Read more…]
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/shoppers-adapting-miss-retail/ The doors opened and she felt the familiar rush, the endless possibilities of a teen spending Saturdays hanging out, mixed with the adult feeling she could remake her world again with just a bit of spending. It was partly looking in different shops and displays – the retail gaze, shopophilia. But it was also … [Read more…]
https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/09/22/amazon-launches-luxury-store-will-luxury-brands-buy-it We’ve spent a long time being exclusive. We’re careful not to say anything about ‘The Public’, but they know and we know, we’re different. Well we all knew. Now? It was bad enough when management embraced ‘social media’ – the very name! I bit my tongue. Then they ignored the real shows and spent … [Read more…]
https://newatlas.com/wearables/soft-artificial-muscles-haptic-feedback-glove/ Lucy ran her hands through her wardrobe, caressing old outfits with memories woven into the textures. It wasn’t that she was going out. Lucy never went out. No-one went ‘out’. “Out” was The Before. Then shops were a treasure trove of possibilities: colours and shapes, but above all feel. Silk, satin, cashmere… even the … [Read more…]