1. WEEKLY INNOVATION REPORT FEBRUARY
2012 • 10
Urbanflow: The Real-time Connected City Flexible, Wearable Batteries Just For Fun: OK Go & Chevy Team Up
Urbanflow is an information system Scientists from the Polytechnic OK Go teamed up with Chevrolet to
designed to make cities more School of Montreal have designed a create their latest music video and
navigable for both locals and new type of battery that can be promote the new Chevy Sonic. The
tourists. By providing layers of data, woven into clothing. The batteries band set up a driving track lined
users can find information such as are made by sandwiching an with a mix of 1000s of homemade
available parking, roadwork electrode between a lithium-ion and standard instruments. The car
locations, air quality levels, traffic cathode (the substance used for was also equipped with a set of
and more. Urbanflow also most batteries) and an anode, and pneumatic arms that were used to
crowdsources information, which then heating and stretching them play the instruments as the lead
allows users to report on into a thread-like substance. The singer, a professionally trained
occurrences like vandalism or broken possibilities for its use are endless, driver, navigated the course. Pieces
street lights. The creators state that such as smart clothing that can emit of the video were then used in the
their goal is to make people more distress signals or defibrillate Chevrolet Sonic Super Bowl ad in
How would you crowdsource aware of their environment and individuals. order to appeal to their target
? ? ?
How would you re-imagine the How would you push the
information to improve your
surroundings. use of a tried and true boundaries of the standard music market of young males.
city using technology? video to promote a new product?
product?
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iPhone Powered AR Laser Tag Super Bowl XLVI: Largest Social TV Event Emotion Recognizing Computers
The new NERF® Lazer Tag guns take Last weekend’s Super Bowl was the Researchers from MIT have created
advantage of augmented reality (AR) largest social TV event to date. It a piece of software called Affectiva
technology to allow users to play generated an amazing 12.2 million that can recognize a range of human
against virtual enemies. The guns social comments, as opposed to just emotions by comparing facial
feature a slot for users to insert 1.8 million comments last year. expressions. The technology is
their iPhone or iPod Touch to power That’s a 6.8X growth year over year. already being implemented and was
the gun. They then fire up the While Honda’s “Matthew’s Day Off” used by Volkswagen last year to
companion app which displays AR ad was the most popular in terms of gauge reactions to their Darth Vader
enemies for solo play. The views, H&M’s “Bodywear for H&M” Super Bowl ad. Affectiva will be
companion app is also used to keep ad, featuring David Beckham, had easy for the general consumer to
up with scores on a global more comments than any other ad. use, as they will simply opt in to the
leaderboard, initiate games, and The Super Bowl also broke the service when presented with ads
unlock extra gear and game types to Twitter record of 12,233 tweets per online. Their webcams will then
enhance gameplay. How would you use social second. How would you use emotion monitor their facial expressions and
? How would you integrate
mobile devices with toys? ? media to enhance a live
viewing experience?
? monitoring technology to gain
greater insight into perceptions
reactions.
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Friday, February 10, 2012