Behavioral economists and psychologists have long been discussing the cognitive implications that naturally come with the abstraction of currencies. Cash is a more abstract form of exchanging value than physical barter/trade, and the credit card is an even more abstract form of exchange than cash. Generally speaking, the more abstract the exchange, the less cognitive impact it has on our long-term thinking and decision-making – often with negative results, as indicated by the rates of credit card debt in the US and elsewhere. As we move into virtual currencies where value is increasing exchanged via SMS, mouse click, or natural gesture motion, many design and cognitive thinkers are expressing their concern about the implications of these even more abstract methods of exchange.

The Proverbial Wallet series of concepts have these thoughts in mind, developed by a tangible interaction team at the MIT Media Lab. These concept wallets incorporate elements of physical and social feedback into the act of spending, bringing a level of cognitive impact back into the purchase process. Each gives a nod to the principles of at-a-glance information and immediate feedback, and their importance in giving people the tools to make better decisions. See below for the team’s description of these concepts:

Peacock: The wallet appears to grow and shrink using a servo to reflect the balance in your accounts. Your assets will be on display to attract potential mates.

Mother Bear: The wallet protects the money within it when you need to be thrifty with a shorted motor in the hinge that resists opening. It promotes saving to weather out financial winters.

Bumblebee: The wallet buzzes through a vibrator motor whenever your bank processes a transaction. This encourages a conscious connection between handing over your credit card and your hard-earned money being harvested from the bank, and alerts you to fraud when you get a buzz without making a purchase.

Schade, dass es nicht wirklich funktioniert.

Designer Filippo Cuttica’s ‘Go with the Flow’ is a conceptual email user interface that allows you to visualize and filter incoming emails via a real-world water container and valve system connected to a computer. The emails are divided into three categories by tags (work, family and friends) and are represented by colored water drops from 3 different tubes. Users can loosen the valve depending on the amount of communication they wish to receive from any of the three categories, thereby helping them efficiently manage their personal and work lives.

The wearable digital camera designed to take photos passively without intervention whilst being worn by the user.

Based on Microsoft SenseCam technology, Revue is a research tool aimed at medical researchers as an aid for people with memory loss.

Hurry Up!

Adam Harvey is currently writing his thesis at the ITP and his topic is Computer Vision Dazzle. He’s researching and developing privacy enhancing counter technology, to protect individual privacy for everyone. So here you can find some makeup patterns which make it impossible for the OpenCV library and it’s Haar cascade files, to detect a face. Fun times ahead!

About this image:

Images with a red square tested positive, a face was found
Images without a red square tested negative, no face was found
Images under the section “TEST PATTERNS” are made according to results of the Haar deconstruction
Images under “RANDOM PATTERNS” are random doodles made without the anti-face detection patterns in mind
Images underneath the “NO PATTERNS” heading are left untouched to show that the face detection works well on simple line drawings

found via @zachlieberman

Stunning presentation by Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell about game development and "Facebook Games".

What can the idea of gaming do to for your business, uhhh?

Nachtrag: Funktionierendes Video hier: http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/