Human Programming

If you’ve always liked the idea of showering in a disco, you might like the idea of the LED Color Changing Shower Head from Chinavision. This specially designed custom shower head is just like a regular shower head, except that it has LEDs that light up according to the temperature of the water flowing. For temperatures below 90°F it turns green, for temperatures 91 to 105°F it turns blue and 107 to 113°F will make it turn red. Anything above 114°F will cause the shower head to flash, alerting you about the danger of potentially scalding yourself with water that’s too hot. To power the LEDs, it relies on an internal generator that’s powered by the flow of water coming from the hose. These fancy shower heads are available here for $13 each.

LED shower heads let you know how hot the water is, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : iPad 2 Review, HTC Thunderbolt Review,

Design Behavior is tracking some interesting ideas about self-shaping (designing your environment for future behaviour change, roughly). I really liked this recent photograph of a switch that encourages time-limited use of lighting.

Link: A self shaping light switch interface (designbehavior.com)

Related:

• Groundbreaking game controller designs
• Designing space for creativity
• Addictive behaviour encouraged by phones

 Share on Twitter | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Josh wanted to wander the streets of Chicago on his bike while ensuring he was heading in the general direction of his destination. He therefore created the MapBag, a LilyPad Arduino-based “proprioceptive augmentation device.” Here’s how it works:

The MapBag contains a small microcontroller, a GPS chipset, and a series of 8 vibration motors sewn into the bag. The microcontroller constantly evaluates the wearer’s current heading and the location of magnetic North, or the relative location of a user-defined waypoint (such as home). The microcontroller informs the wearer of compass information through the vibration motors, basically allowing you to read a compass with your body.

After using the MapBag for a few weeks, the slight pulses used to convey heading information have become second nature. Most importantly, I no longer find myself using street signs or depending on landmarks to discern my position in the city’s grid.

[via Hack A Day]

AUSTIN, USA – Ever had a great mobile phone idea? Maybe a great idea for an app? Maybe something that could even improve the world? …Wanted to share the idea with others? Others who my share the same idea? Then share that idea with people who can make your idea happen? If that’s a big fat yes, which probably is if you’re a reader of this blog, then you should check out Nokia’s all new IdeasProject, launched here at SXSW.

IdeasProject is a web-based, innovation community where application ethusiasts (consumers, developers, anyone) can join, share and collaboratively create applications for mobile platforms. Participants can create or respond to innovation “challenges” and work together to solve the challenges. First launched in English, it will soon be in Spanish, Chinese, and Finnish.

The first challenge is called “Apps That Change the World”. This challenge asks the community to share their ideas for ways to use mobile applications to make a positive change in the world. Based on the best ideas shared, Nokia will produce a free appplication that will be distributed on the Ovi Store.

Have a look around, it’s a gorgeous new site. See if anyone’s ideas resonate with you, or create an idea of your own!

So what’s an idea you’ve had burning on your mind?

People Like Pastoral Scenes

Walk into any hotel, house, office building, museum, art gallery, or any place where there are paintings or photographs hanging on the wall, and chances are that you will see a pastoral landscape.

Looking for protection, food, and water – According to Denis Dutton, a philosopher and the author of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution, this is because of evolution and the Pleistocene era. (see Dutton’s TED talk: http://bit.ly/cIj9uo). Dutton says that this typical landscape scene includes hills, water, trees (that are good for hiding in if a predator comes by), birds and animals, and a path moving through the scene. This is an ideal landscape for humans (protection, water, food).

Beauty helps us survive — Dutton’s theory about beauty is that we have evolved to feel a need for certain types of beauty in our life, and that this pull towards things such as these landscapes has helped us to survive as a species.  He notes that all cultures value artwork that has these scenes, even people who have never lived in a geographical location that looks like this.

Pastoral scenes promote healing – Roger Ulrich (1984) found that patients whose hospital window overlooked scenes of nature had shorter stays in the hospital, and needed less pain medication compared to patients whose rooms looked onto a brick wall.

What do you think? Are we “programmed” to like scenes that represent our best survival? Is our definition of beauty based on places to live where we have the best chance of survival?

And if you want to read the research:

Ulrich, R.S. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science, 224, 420-421.

Check out this Lego Like light; yes, the Facebook Lego Like Light. Using Aduino, redpepper was able light up their Lego Light anytime someone liked their Facebook page. It was all made possible when Facebook opened up their Graph API, allowing developers to grab Like data. Just a few simple scripts and a few wires, and the Like Light came alive.

[via nowhereelse.fr]

When the Earth itself betrays us, the technological world can step in to save us. PopSci’s gallery of Earthquake Rescue Robots, from snakelike debris crawlers to the breath-sensing Quince, is an eerie glimpse into the pragmatic reality of mechanically-aided human survival.