Sony Data Tiles

by Ami Kealoha

Developed by Jun Rekimoto in the Interaction Laboratory of Sony's Computer Science Laboratory, these Sony Data Tiles use tagged, transparent tiles to present dynamic information when placed on a flat panel equipped with sensors. The system makes use of both physical and graphic user interfaces and can either be used independently or in complex configurations. To get a better sense of how they work, check out the video on DVBlog.

via Protein Forum

Leica C-LUX 1

by Ami Kealoha

Combining superior Leica optics and design with the latest in digital camera technology, the new Leica C-LUX 1 is a compact, attractive device loaded with features. Including 6 megapixels, an ultra short shutter delay, a 28mm lens, a 2.5-inch display, optical image stabilization, a high sensitivity setting up to 1600 ISO, and measuring a mere 5 x 10 cm, critics point out it's nearly identical to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01, but it's the obvious choice for Leica junkies and design snobs.

via Gizmodo

Also on Cool Hunting: Leica Digilux 2

Braille Playboy

by Ami Kealoha

Although its funding was cut off for a time in 1985, issues of Playboy printed in braille have been published by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped since 1970. No, it doesn't include the pictures (reinforcing the old joke about reading the magazine for the articles), but it still might be the world's only government-sponsored conceptual art project.

via MIT Advertising Lab

Honda Monkey Bike

by SummerSeventySix

My scooter-loving friends swear by the traditional Italian brands like Vespa, Aprilia and Lambretta, so they've been slightly disgusted that my head has been turned by the Japanese. First it was Honda's Zoomer (or Ruckus as it's also known) that impressed me with its pared-down Mad Max minimalism.

Their classic Monkey Bike, updated from top to bottom in shiny chrome, has won me over. A four-stroke 49cc engine will not make like a silver bullet cutting through the city traffic which suits me fine; astride the small and perfectly-formed limted edition you'll want to give everyone the chance to have a decent look, won't you?

Release details for the Monkey are sketchy, but Monkey Bike in the U.K. reckons it's getting ten in stock this month. They will sell for £2100.

Check out the original Monkey bike featured in Honda's brilliant Impossiible Dream ad by Ivan Zacharias (click on the Honda icon on the left).

Jill Greenberg: End Times

by Ami Kealoha

Many of the photographers represented by Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles are defining photography’s emergent stylistic tendencies. In two years, magazines will be filled with celebrity portraits aping Jill Greenberg’s techniques. It will take two years to purge the photos of screaming children from her upcoming exhibition, End Times, from your head.

The artist uses the wailing distress of the children as an allegory for the deepest fears of the human species as a whole and draws on the vocabulary of Christian millennialism, conspiracy theory culture and doomsday environmentalism to title the work. A redhead boy looking heavenward, his neck in a St. Sebastian pose is titled "nucular (sic)." (Pictured above.) A girl emerging from her weeping looks to heaven for either hope or retribution in "Unless." (Pictured after the jump.) Sometimes titles synch with the pose, other times meaning is more oblique. Not only are the images compelling but Greenberg burrows deep to extract difficult conversation about the current American moment.

Greenberg, a native of suburban Detroit, graduated from RISD in 1989 and called New York home until moving to Los Angeles in 2000. In 1995 she became known as The Manipulator for early adaptation of digital techniques in the world of art photography and was featured on RSUB's Blue Dot. Her work in "End Times" reflects the mood and style of her 2005 monkey portraits. In both series, the artist gives a plastic satin finish to subjects typically given naturalistic characterizations. Instead of the subject becoming more distant through this manner of representation, they are ultra-emotional and too close for comfort.

by Kris Irizarry

Tag Heuer Monaco Calibre 360 LS

by Ami Kealoha

This new concept TAG Heuer, recently introduced at Baselworld 2006, stands out for a couple of reasons—or a thousand. With dials that track 1/10th, 1/100th, and 1/1000th of a second simultaneously, the Monaco Calibre 360 LS (LS stands for Linear second) lends new meaning to Swiss precision and continues TAG Heuer's tradition of innovation. The nearly 150-year old company is the only watchmaker in the world to include such a feature and, what's more, the chronograph is entirely mechanical.

via Gizmodo