Technology

February 11, 2016

Video: The Year of Magical Furniture

When we cover interesting compact spaces on this site, we usually list their usable area, expressed in square feet or meters. We are pretty hardwired to draw a correlation between a space’s area and functionality. Even when we take pains to list the functionality first, it’s always couched in the “wow, you can do that in a small space?” But what if we decoupled space and functionality altogether? You see, listing area is a conventional approach to understanding space. It’s something easy to wrap our heads around and measure with a stick. But area often misrepresents the gestalt–i.e. the sum total of architecture, furniture, embedded technology and the other UX elements that can help a space transcend its physical dimensions. This talk by Hasier Larrea places special emphasis on the role of furniture to determine how a space performs.

His thesis is that architecture has barely changed in the last 2K years. We keep making static spaces, single function rooms filled with “space killers”–things like beds that lay waste to a space’s functionality the moment after they’re used. He proposes that we augment spaces with transforming elements–ones that are effortless and magical–to create spaces that are alive around the clock.

Larrea knows a thing or two about this subject. The MIT Media Lab alum was part of that school’s CityHome project, which created a high tech furniture module that endow small spaces with tons of functionality. He is now the CEO of MorphLab, a startup that is out to make robotic, open API furniture modules to kill the space killers that not only doom a space’s action potential, but also create a dearth of affordable housing in cities across the globe. He and his team are trying to create a future where our homes and other spaces magically change form to meet our needs.

January 19, 2016

Will Virtual Rooms One Day Replace Real Ones?

Coming from a classical physics perspective, reality “exists” in a material sense. Our perception of a chair is a function of its materiality: we perceive the chair because it has mass and volume and form in time and space. But coming from a theoretical physics perspective, the chair has a relation with our perception of it, and some would argue that the chair may not even exist without our perception of it. Even if the chair does exist without our perception, it is not useful without that perception. If we cannot see and touch a chair, for all intents and purposes, it does not exist. Now, let’s say we could do away with materiality altogether. What if we could go straight to perception? More to the point, what if virtual reality technology could manufacture perceptions of objects and spaces–visually, auditorily, tactilely–without going through the nasty process of constructing them?

We have explored a couple different ideas in virtual spaces in the past. Bernardo Schorr’s Mixed Reality Living Space was a small box with projector screen walls that showed myriad interior possibilities. A little more earthbound was CoeLux, which created a virtual window that was actually a sophisticated electric light that replicated the effects of natural light on human perception. And we just came across the Solo Theatre from Japan, whose somewhat crude cardboard box structure belies the far reaching implications of what defines “space.”

Solo Theatre is a box that’s thrown over your head (pictured at top). A slot in the front has space for an iPhone, making it, in effect, a private viewing room. The Solo Theatre is, according to the Economist, a reaction to the diminishing size of Japanese homes. They write:

The average Japanese apartment has dwindled from 70 to 60 square metres over the past decade, so that people are even more on top of each other…Japanese must don a public mask for their hierarchy-bound, open-plan offices, and a second face for their families. Turning to small, private boxes at home is their way of searching for a “third space.”

In theory, if someone had one of these boxes on her head, she could: A. make a private screening room in the smallest of spaces; B. if living in a shared space, the box could make a statement as clear about the desire for privacy as sitting behind a locked door would; C. look pretty funny (at least in today’s world).

Google Cardboard had a similar concept, though its handheld design seem more cut out for occasional viewing versus full on escape. The upcoming Oculus Rift VR system will surely bring with it numerous possibilities in virtual space construction.

The promise–and maybe nightmare–of all these technologies is that we can create the perception of amazing realities without the resource intensive process of constructing them. We could have the perception of being in Versailles living in a tiny house (though we might bump into walls). In the more immediate future, something like the Solo Theatre, which creates an immersive VR room, without a single 2×4 or panel of sheetrock.

December 17, 2015December 17, 2015

The Internet of Homes

It’s not news to say that tech is affecting nearly every facet of our existences: how we consume and deliver information, how we communicate, how we get around, how we use and share goods and on and on. The term “internet of things” goes even further, speaking to how one day everything in our lives will someday be tech-enabled and connected to the intelligence of the web via sensors, learning how we live, responding to our commands, collecting and delivering data, all in the name of making our lives more comfortable and efficient. The Intel corporation recently released their Smart Tiny House to serve as vision of how our homes might fit into this equation. The 210 sq ft home is packed with a variety of systems meant to both improve the quality of life for residents, but also tap into the greater intelligence of cloud systems.

Tech greets you at the door with their True Key system, a fingerprint and facial recognition based security system that lets you in the door as well as providing security for all the home’s systems. Most of the house can be controlled via a tablet or voice command. Lights can be dimmed and colors changed. Shades can be drawn. Some appliances can be turned on and off. There are leak sensors placed in trouble spots (under sinks, near showers, etc) that will notify you if there’s a leak. You can find the alert on the tablet and even book a plumber all in one fell swoop. I suspect the idea is to bring this type of system to every aspect of the house: a sensor will tell you if your roof springs a leak, if your dishwasher breaks, etc. At this point, Intel is dealing with leaks.

Intel is trying to position themselves as the brain of the smart home. They say this:

Intel creates the processors and other computing technology that serve as the brain powering a myriad of devices. Increasingly, as the home moves from connected to smart, this technology will enable a new breed of consumer electronic devices – everyday things such as lightbulbs, thermostats, smoke detectors, electrical outlets and cameras – to become connected and smart. These tiny brains inside “things” throughout the home will compute and produce data at the device level for real-time intelligence. Intel-based gateways connect the home’s smart devices, providing advanced analytics and storage, allowing the home, people and devices to work together in an intuitive, intelligent fashion. Cloud connectivity, advanced device management and built-in security will connect consumers to a variety of new services, features and cost savings.

It’s still early days for this type of tech and there are several different connectivity “smart home” protocols. But a colleague of mine noted that in the early days of telephones, there were hundreds of rival telephone companies and little interoperability. Eventually, things get sorted out. Intel is trying to address some of these interoperability issues. They have created their “Smart Home Development Acceleration Platform,” and claim they were able to enable interoperability with between three distinct lighting solutions: Philips Hue, Cree and Osram. This augers well for creating interoperability for scores of systems: wearables connecting to HVAC systems connecting to mobile devices and so on.

Frankly, the benefits of the tech on display in the Intel’s tiny house are underwhelming. But again, the house represent a start. They say in a press release, “The home is an experimental showcase that will evolve over the next 12 to 18 months as Intel explores the opportunities, experiences and tensions of creating a smart home.”

One thing that is definitely cool is that Intel chose a tiny house as the vessel for the house of the future. The motivation may have had more to do with the relative ease of working with a small space versus a large one. But tech is also making it possible to live with less in numerous ways such as the digitization of physical media and giving us access to shared goods. If you are really trying to make your home “smart,” few things are as smart as small: downsizing has the ability to reduce our spatial and carbon footprints, simplify our lives and save a buck or two.

Via Gizmag

December 16, 2015September 26, 2016

5 Ways to Get Email Monkey Off Back and Put Him in a Cage

A recent article in Business Insider tells the tale of brothers John and Bert Jacobs, founders of the $100M “Life Is Good” t-shirt company. The brothers felt like they were being completely devoured by email. They write in their book “Life is Good,” “The time we spent daily just shoveling out our email inboxes was daunting. And we were going to bed at night feeling guilty and inadequate because we couldn’t get ahead. The more emails we sent out, the more flowed back in.” In a radical move, the two men ditched email…sorta. They actually delegated all of their email correspondences to other people in their organization. This act allowed them to step up their creative game and focus on high level business decisions rather than getting bogged down in putting out many small fires.

So I know what you’re thinking, because it’s what I’m thinking too: “Awesome! Two CEOs give their underlings all of their annoying, distracting emails. Good for them! I bet life is good. But I do not have any underlings. I am the underling and I can’t deal with my own email. Thanks for sharing.”

While most of us are likely not CEOs, the Jacobs’ experience can still be instructive. And though we might not be able to outsource our email responsibilities, we can, in all probability, find ways to liberate ourselves from asphyxiation by email (and for many of us, texts as well). Here are a five strategies that don’t include auto-responders:

Stop checking your email the first thing in the morning! For most of us, the morning is the best time to map out our day (if we don’t do it the day before). By checking email first thing in the morning, we start our days in reactive mode, playing whack-a-mole with our myriad responsibilities. By delaying our initial email check, we have space to create our day and decide how we want it to go. Don’t worry, all the fires in our inboxes will still be smouldering when we’re done planning. But chances are, the house will not burn down if we give ourselves 15-30 minutes to figure out what we want to do with the day first.
Things can wait. I learned this concept from Tim Ferriss, who says there are few real emergencies, so we should create certain times to deal with email (aka “batching” email). Think about it. Most of us check our email all the time because we believe something important might be in one of the emails. But is this true? While many emails present things that need to be handled, often those things can be handled in their right time, which, in all probability, is not when the email comes in. Let’s say we’re writing something–a blog post, for example–and our boss asks us to send him a file. Unless that boss is boarding a plane in five minutes, he can, in all probability, wait. No one is going to die. Deals won’t fall through. It is probably a better idea to finish what we’re doing then send the file when ready. Studies actually show that multitasking makes us less productive and stupider. That’s right, when we bounce from thing to thing–writing a proposal to emailing to paying bills and so forth–we bring fewer IQ points to each one of those tasks than we would if we did each one from beginning to end.
Slow the hell down. Have you ever emailed with someone who always responds to emails immediately? Or, worse yet, are you that person? Then one day, that person delays. One minute, two minutes, two hours…nothing. What the hell? Did I do something wrong? Here’s the deal: nothing’s wrong. She probably getting something to eat or do one of the million other things people do in the course of their day. The real problem is setting up an expectation of instantaneous responses. Along the lines of points #1 and #2, sometimes it’s not the right time to respond. It’s okay to respond when it works unless it’s an emergency…and it’s almost never an emergency.
Turn off push notifications on your phone. This is one I don’t practice, but boy does it make sense. Those insidious banners, rings and buzzes on our phone are begging to take us out of the moment and task at hand. Screw em. They can wait. What we’re doing–even if we’re doing nothing–is probably more important.
Create safe spaces from email and texts. At the dinner table, during weekends, in bed–create places and times when you cannot be reached any way other than phone. It’s vital we ensure our days include times when we cannot be reached. I don’t know about you, but anyone who would relay important information has my phone number. So if someone important really needs to relay important information, he or she will call.

If you have other strategies, please share in comments section (i.e. don’t email me ;-).

August 19, 2015

Can Tech Combat Tech Addiction?

There is a new software system called Phylter developed by a group of scientists at Tufts University. Phylter is meant as an accompaniment to wearable tech, which poses the risk of non-stop notifications of texts, emails, twitter updates and the like. The software uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy to monitor brain activity, which detects whether you’re deep in thought. The system restricts notifications accordingly–if you’re deep in thought, it’ll cut off notifications; if you’re not deep in thought, it’ll send away. As said in New Scientist, you could use the excuse, “SORRY I missed your call. My brain said I was busy.”

It’s a nifty and logical idea, one that is meant to fight the scourge of multitasking. PSFK reported that a study found multitaskers “reported twice the anxiety, committed twice the number of errors, and required up to 25% longer time on a primary task when interruptions arrived during rather than in-between tasks.” As has been said, “Multitasking is the act of screwing up multiple things at once.”

But will Phylter work toward stopping our technology-aided multitasking tailspins? Speaking more broadly, can any technology effectively limit our use of technology?

My experience is no. I have tried to block out sites or web access using the Self Control and Freedom apps. I have tried RescueTime, which monitors web activity, thereby cultivating awareness of my multitasking ways. All of these systems yield the same initial enthusiasm and burst of focus, followed by a cessation of use and/or ignorance of results.

To me, using these apps feel like going on a diet where I’m always resisting the urge to do things that compromise my health and happiness. But if there’s a bag of chips in the house during my diet, I tend to eat them. Likewise, if I want to be distracted and there’s the means to do it, I am going to.

In general, the best way for me to avoid technology is by not having it–either leaving it at home (which, frankly, usually happens by accident), being fully engaged at some event or being out of cell/wifi range. The other method–the one that works most consistently and is most feasible given my professional tech dependence–is not starting down the multitasking path at the beginning of the day. Just as it’s easier for me to eat no chips than it is to eat one, it’s easier for me to never indulge multitasking than it is to reign it in.

But that’s just me. What do you think? Can certain technologies effectively combat the multitasking that other technologies often incite? Have they for you? Let us know in our comments section.

June 29, 2015June 29, 2015

iOS Enabled Enlightenment

Many years ago, I spent a couple months hanging out in the Sinai Desert and scuba diving in the Red Sea. On my first dives, I would rapidly burn through all of my oxygen, often forcing my group to ascend prematurely. But eventually, by focusing on staying relaxed and taking long, slow, deep breaths, I started using a fraction of the oxygen I did on the initial dives, allowing me to stay down longer and enjoy the scenery better. What I learned is that conscious thoughts have a profound effect on unconscious behavior such as breathing. Beyond extending dives, maintaining steady, relaxed breathing is one of the cornerstones of being happy and healthy. Until now, having direct feedback to your respiratory behavior largely meant sitting still in meditation or carrying around scuba gear–both impractical for their own reasons. Now a wearable tech company called Spire is offering an iOS-enabled device that keeps track of your breath and reminds you to chill the heck out.

Spire is a little transmitter that clips to your waistband. It sends signals to your iOS device via a Bluetooth signal. Your breath is monitored and tracked on the device. Push notifications alert you if your breath is shallow or irregular, a good indicator that you’re tense and stressed out. That’s about it.

Spire has a great appeal for me. For years, I was a regular meditator, hitting my meditation mat like clockwork for 15 minutes every morning and evening. The motivation behind my practice was that when I brought consciousness to unconscious behavior through my breath, I could (and did) have a greater capacity to stay cool through life’s inevitable trials. You see, fear, anxiety and other unpleasant emotions are not conscious. No one chooses to be scared or anxious–these things are unconscious reactions to various stimuli, stimuli that is often rooted in some past trauma, not the present moment. These unpleasant reactions are almost invariably coupled with shallow breathing. Returning to regular, deep breathing helps bring both body and mind back to the present, not some incident that happened when you were a freshman in high school.

While it’d be nice if we could all just take the time to regularly meditate, many of our lives are not set up that way (my two young boys are super unsupportive of my mediation practice). Spire holds the promise of bringing a level of meditative practice to everything we do…assuming our phones are charged. A Spire puck costs $150. Visit their website for more info.

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

The Land without Cell Service

To most, the idea of being without mobile tech is unthinkable. How will people reach me? What if I’m running late and need to text someone to hold on? How will people know what I ate for lunch if I can’t Instagram it? While the global geography of places without cell service and wifi access continues to shrink, there is one American city where cell and wifi signals are nonexistent. Green Bank WV is a tiny town (pop 143) located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about one and half hours drive from nowhere. It is the home of the Green Bank Telescope, the world’s largest radio telescope which listens to sounds in outer space and collects data from the solar system. Because of its need for a very hushed environment, the telescope is surrounded by a National Radio Free Zone, a 13K sq mile electromagnetic signal free zone. In the zone, there is a ban on cell service, wifi, radio and even microwave ovens.

Journalist and self-professed “modern day technology junkie” Dan Lieberman spent one week in Green Bank and shared his experience on Fusion.net. Predictably, he had a hard time being without access to instant communication and information. Over the course of his trip, he made list of survival tips for living in world without mobile tech, things such as getting information from real people, not being late for appointments and using a real map.

While initially things were rough going, he had this to say about the end of the trip:

I had finally broken my habit of reaching for my cell phone every chance I got. It took the entire week to realize that being freed from my tech addiction was a good thing. I was listening to people we interviewed, really listening, instead of having one eye on my phone for texts and emails. I was present.

It should be noted that Green Bank, and other places in the Radio Free Zone, are not offline by any stretch. Ethernet and coaxial cables go a long way to keeping people opening new tabs and channel surfing. However, I suspect the instances of people walking and texting down the street are few and far between.

The ability to reach anyone and find out about anything at any time via mobile tech and wifi-enabled devices is indubitably an amazing thing. And every now and again we have an important communication to make or piece of information to obtain. But more often than not the communication and information is not that important. It’s certainly not important enough to justify the approximately 150 times a day the average cellphone user checks his or her phone. It’s stuff that can wait. And it’s stuff that is unlikely to be more important than what’s in front of us, whether that’s a friend, a streetscape or a book. In his 2009 TED talk, Renny Gleeson summed it up well. He said, “When you’re standing with someone, and you’re on your mobile device, effectively what you’re saying to them is, ‘You are not as important as, literally, almost anything that could come to me through this device.’”

Read Dan’s full account here. And today, try putting down your device every now and again. Whoever it is you want to communicate with, whatever it is that you want to know, chances are it can wait.

June 2, 2015June 2, 2015

Reclaim the Your Life From Tech with this Pepper Grinder

It’s becoming harder to ignore the fact that pervasive technology use is having a corrosive effect on our ability to connect with other humans. Current research bears this out. One study found that the presence of a cell phone, even when not used, affected a subject’s ability to connect on a deep level and find empathy for others. Another study by the University of Maryland found that people who used a cellphone, even for a short period, were less likely to engage in behavior intended to benefit another person or society as a whole. And lest it seem like the problem is one rooted in youth culture, a Boston Medical Center study looked at parents and other caregivers cell phone use; they found that 40 out of the 55 parents and other caregivers observed used their phones during meals, resulting in children that were more likely to act out–and the extremity of the child’s acting out was in direct proportion to the level of the caregiver’s absorption with the phone.

The hijacking of mealtime by tech is something pasta sauce maker Dolmio wants to combat with their Pepper Hacker. It’s a full functioning pepper grinder with a tech-disrupting secret. When the grinder is twisted, it shuts down all wifi, cell phone and cable signals, forcing people off their computers, tablets, phones and TVs, leaving them naked with their un-augmented selves.

Dolmio made a pretty hilarious video of the grinder in action. It shows hidden camera footage taken from houses where the grinder is used. The families had predictable fallouts: tantrums and tablets were thrown, cable connections were checked and rechecked. But, alas, the world did not end. And once the initial withdrawal passed, the video showed families laughing and enjoying each other’s company.

It’s not clear whether the Pepper Hacker is real or just a bit of brand-enhancing vaporware. The idea was the brainchild of advertising giant BBDO, however in an article in the Australian marketing journal mUmBRELLA, a BBDO representative said that prototypes were made and that the tech is legit (supposedly, the above diagram proves it). Still, there is zero indication as to whether it will ever be available. Even if it were available, I suspect some tech-savvy tot would trash it in short order. Also, call me pessimistic, but I think it might take weeks, not minutes before families start getting along after tech has been taken out of the picture.

Vaporware or not, the video and the ad campaign effectively highlight the need for the establishment of sacred, tech-free times. Times when our immediate environment and the characters present take precedence over whatever can be seen on a small LCD screen.

May 29, 2015September 21, 2016

Slow TV Taking World by Very Slow Moving Storm

Few words sum up the current pace of modern life like the word “fast.” From processor speed to 0-60 mph automotive times to Amazon Prime package delivery, everything seems to move a lot faster than it did 10 or 20 years ago. Many would argue that it’s too fast. Everything comes at us so fast we are losing the capacity to enjoy anything. One response to this speed is the appropriately named Slow Movement, which “aims to address the issue of ‘time poverty’ through making connections.” The logic follows that it’s easier, for example, to connect with a landscape walking at 4 mph than in an airplane travelling 500 mph. The slow movement includes slow food, travel, money, travel and more. And now you can add another unlikely slowpoke: slow TV.

One example of slow TV comes from Iceland. Their national public broadcaster RUV recently aired a 24 hour marathon of live lambing, celebrating, however slowly, traditional Icelandic farm life.

Iceland was heavily influenced by Norwegian television, which in the last several years has shown programs featuring wood burning and people knitting, both at 12 hour stretches, as well as a 134 hour, narration-free sea cruise from Bergen to Kirkenes. If you have 7:15 hrs to fill, check out the above silent train ride from Bergen Line traveling to Oslo.

In the age where there’s an assumption that faster is better, it’s nice to see there are still bastions of tranquility and purposeful languor.

April 13, 2015

Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There

For all the wonders the Information Age has afforded us, it has also provided us with infinite possibilities for constant activity and distraction. Whatever gaps of inactivity that might have existed in days before pre-internet (and particularly pre mobile tech)–waiting in line, riding the train, even taking a poop–are, for many of us, now filled with web-surfing, Facebook/Twitter checking, game playing, etc. We will do anything but do nothing and be alone with ourselves. This condition of constant activity–as well as a possible remedy–is the theme of this TED talk by Nick Seaver.

Seaver explains how we’ve become a culture obsessed with distraction and doing, doing, doing–a culture so focused on changing the outside world that we’ve lost track on how to change ourselves. In the interest of the latter pursuit, Seaver and his wife spent 18 months of near-total silent retreat as part of the Samatha Project. As guinea pigs for studying the long term effects of meditation, they would spend 10-12 hours daily in silent meditation, letting, as Seaver said, the snow in the snow-globe in their minds settle down. The physiological effects of the silence were then monitored by scientists in order to get real data about how meditation affects the body and mind.

Seaver has many positive things to say about his experience in particular and meditation in general. I’d recommend watching the talk. But some of it can be summed up by a quote he gives by psychologist Victor Frankl, who said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” If we are to believe Frankl’s contention and yet continue to fill all of those spaces with flurries of distraction, forever reacting automatically rather than responding intentionally, our growth will be stunted, our freedom limited. On the other hand, if we give time to and permit those spaces, if we start to cultivate the art of doing nothing, we might be less likely of being enslaved by whatever random stimulus enters our mental newsfeed, we might start choosing how we want to live our lives. Seaver recommends ten minutes a day of silent meditation (1% of our waking hours) to regain those spaces, to start changing the world by changing ourselves.