If you haven't seen this video yet, take a look. It is a great example of interactive TV at the gas station pump! Pumpcast News is a segment featured on Jay Leno's Tonight Show that catches people by surprise at the gas pump as they try to ignore the TV blaring away.
In the following video clip, Pumpcast news anchor Jack Rafferty offers free gas if the customer, Will Sims, will sing karaoke. Will sings "Living on a Prayer", by Bon Jovi, with all of his heart and soul. Later, his wife, Monifa, joins in and belts out Sweet Dreams, by the Eurythmics.
I especially liked Will's "living on a free tank of gas" improvisation at about 2:28.
I don't think this segment was staged, but even if it was, the interactive TV is a great concept. It certainly engaged the customers. Who knows? Would you purchase one brand of gas over another if you knew you'd have a random chance to get a free tank of gas and 15 minutes of fame? RELATED Will and Monifa Sims were invited to sing on The Tonight Show:
I've been looking over my enormous archive of links and resources for this blog and thought I'd share some of the things that I planned on posting, but never did. I have small collection of resources from organizations that provide support for young women who are preparing for careers in computing and related technological fields.
The Dot Diva website is part of the New Image for Computing (NIC) initiative, a joint effort between the Association for Computing (ACM), Sandhandle Workshops/SandBlast! DBG, and WGBH. According to promotional information, "Dot Diva's mission is to create an exciting and positive image of computing for high school girls. Our nationwide survey revealed that not only do the majority of girls think of computing as "boring" and "hard," but they believe it fails to deliver two crucial benefits: "working with others" and "making a difference in other people's lives." Our ultimate goal is to transform this negative perception."
In the following video, two young women apply for jobs working at a mostly-male video game company. They both are hired and the viewer is presented with some interesting characters and interactions. The video makes light fun of all sorts of people in order to convey some important messages:
Info from the Image of Computing website: Taskforce Director, Jill Ross, Image of Computing Task Force Co-Chair, Rick Rashid, Sr. VP Research, Microsoft Co-Chair, Dr. James Foley, Georgia Institute of Technology and Past Board Chair, CRA Microsoft Corporation,www.microsoft.com Hewlett Packard,www.hp.com Intel Corporation,www.intel.com CRA, Computing Research Association,www.cra.org ACM, Association of Computing Machinery,www.acm.org SIAM, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics,www.siam.org IEEE-CS,www.computer.org/portal/site/ieeecs USENIX,www.usenix.org NCWIT National Center for Women in Information Technology,www.ncwit.org ATLAS Institute,www.colorado.edu/ATLAS/ Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence,www.aaai.org
After my recent post about graduate research opportunities at the Intel Collaborative Research Institute on Sustainable, Connected Cities, I came across additional information about the project. The following is quoted from Charles Sheridan's 5/24/12 post, Announcing the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Cities:
"We aim to create new, cross cutting inter-disciplinary “Systems of Systems” Cities research methodology to understand key city challenges and technology opportunities."
Charlie Sheridan is the principal investigator of the ICRI Sustainable Connected Cities project, described in more detail in the following video:
Some of the questions the Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Cities plans to investigate, as outlined by Sheridan (below), are ones that probably need to be articulated for the general public, not just techies. By taking an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to research, this might just happen.
"How can technology “sustain sustainable behaviours”?"
"How can technology enable ubiquitous integrated services?"
"How do we protect privacy, security and disconnection in a city of a billion sensors?"
"Who pays? Who repairs? Who Profits?"
"How can you design and evaluate connected and sustainable services and user-centred information for diverse needs of city dwellers?"
"How do you engage city communities to participate in developing technological innovations that will improve their environment, transport systems and local services?"
My favorite:
"What novel interfaces and interactions are required to encourage participation of citizens, business and government?"
This is a serious, large-scale endeavor. I planned on wrapping up this post with a few pictures from my vast archive of examples of technology "out-and-about", but in doing so, came across a few photos that demonstrate, in a slightly humorous way, why this research effort is important:
Let's throw up a large-screen display to make the recycling process at the food court less complicated!
Let's stick these kiosks and displays over there and watch what doesn't happen!
Let's throw up everything on this display and see if it makes sense to the mom with a toddler in tow!
Let's get great-grandma (my mom) and the toddler (my grandson) together for some Internet-connected HDTV DVR DVD family viewing experience!
Let's just give toddlers iPads and see what happens!
(This little one gets to "play" with an iPad just once a week.)
I see endless possibilities here for the future of our cities!
Every little flower I planted yesterday came with a QR code. Are these biodegradable or recyclable?
I quickly learned that garden dirt and QR codes don't mix. It was much easier to read the informational text about my vincas on my iPhone, but I wasn't sure about exposing my iPhone to all the dirt, water, and beating sun. FYI: Gardening: QR Codes can be a Gardener's Best Friend
T-shirt slogan:
"This was supposed to be future: Where is my jetpack?"
Arparna Rao: High-tech art (with a sense of humor)
Aparna Rao is an artist from Bangalore, India, who creates interactive installations supported by electro-mechanical systems. She collaborates with artist Soren Pors.
RELATED Pors & Rao website - a delightful interactive website highlighting the works of Arpana Rao and Soren Pors. Below are pictures of some of the duo's work, along with links to the Vadehra Art Gallery, where the works can be viewed online:
My nephew shared a link to a post about the IBM Muppet Show on the Technologizer blog, so I followed the link and decided the topic was worthy of a quick post.
Cookie Monster and a Fully Computerized Coffee Machine "A computerized coffee machine is a great boon to mankind"
A look at a promo for old IBM technology, produced by Jim Henson. "IBM can help you with the time it takes to do the paperwork" "Machines Should Work, People Should Think."
MUPPET MEETING FILM PROMO
Kermit the Frog on the topic of successful selling, for IBM:
