2 posts tagged “technology”
Motivational speaker is a title with bad connotations. That is, until you hear someone speak who moves you. And by move, I mean you palpably feel the center of your self, sitting inside your body, being pushed off its chair. And you are left empty of the words used to describe the person who moved you.
Amid recent thoughts of What makes a leader?, I was given a video of the Vice Chairman of the company I work for, NetApp. In the video, Mr. Tom Mendoza (no relation... shucks!) talks about how NetApp came through the bursting of the tech bubble in 2001 (big zoom-out level) and how each person with a little self-examination, self-accepting, and commitment to the self can set you on course (micro zoom-in personal level).
The presentation is entitled "The Power of Corporate Culture" (player embedded in the page), but don't let the big-business sound of it repel you. Neither that nor the motivational-speaker platform of it. Running time: 67 minutes.
Hosted at: Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University
Maybe this is what DJs will be spinning in 2012... I'll take a stab at explaining what a reacTable is, but I invite you to see the demo [Quicktime]. A reacTable is like a touch-sensitive lighted table, on which you place special device nodes of different shapes. Each node has a different function: one keeps time, one controls pitch, one controls frequency, etc. And through a very cool interface, you can create beats and music using the "controls" of: node choice, their relative positioning, their functions played against those of others, and (my favorite) hand-controlled "ranges." An example of the latter is like touching the table next to a node and drawing it away - a motion represented by a lighted circle increasing in size - resulting in an increase of the node's volume or influence. [reacTable on flickr].
It looks sorta easy to use (once you learn the which and how of each node), though complicated to explain verbally. Which is what a good interface should do.
I want to play with one! But it looks like I have to visit a lab of a Spanish university to touch it.
All these modern interfaces (see: iPhone), I just can't get enough!
I'm waiting for devices from Minority Report to get commercialized. Especially Tom Cruise's workstation, so I can get up off my lazy susan and stand up at work, while wearing a collarless leather jacket.
Smart interfaces - bring it on! (And bring down the price!)
