Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

{Update: It’s great to see an entry like the one I came across on Kim Pallister’s blog yesterday (Link). I’d learned about Build-A-Bear Workshop sometime last Summer iirc [Note: as I thought… on Raph Koster’s blog - Link], and my thoughts then were very much the same as what he details in his post, and pretty much follow the kinds of things I’ve been discussing here in other entries.

Continue reading "Converging Toys, Part II (*Updated*)" »

Posted by Futurelab at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

Continue reading "Converging Toys, Part II" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Guy Kawasaki

One of the challenges that geeks, inventors, hobbyists, hackers, burners, and artists who are trying to change the world face is finding a place to do their work. Ideally, it would have lots of equipment, supplies, and other geeks. Until the last year, they would have to set up their own workshop or beg for space at a machine shop. Now they can go and hang out at TechShop in Menlo Park, California.

Continue reading "TechShop: Geek Heaven" »

Posted by Futurelab at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: C. Sven Johnson

Having already done the virtual reality and Industrial Design round-ups, I’m finishing off with this collection of links which - in some way or another - have something to do with cross-reality ideas/concepts and rapid manufacturing. Well, at least they come kinda close (in my mind).

Continue reading "Transreality/Rapid Manufacturing Round" »

Posted by Futurelab at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: C. Sven Johnson

While reading something yesterday concerning marketing in virtual worlds I resisted the urge to comment. Last night and again early this morning, I further resisted the temptation to post something here regarding what I’d read. And I’m now resisting the urge to slip something in. I won’t.

Continue reading "Personal Entry: Pre-Alpha" »

Posted by Futurelab at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Ilya Vedrashko

Don't know much about it, but it looks like this walking humanoid vending machine is a mascot of a Coke's campaign in Japan. There are a couple of videos on YouTube (here's one). Apparently, the robot is cast in a superhero role, too.  (via Japan Probe)

Continue reading "Walking Vending Machine Mascot " »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: C. Sven Johnson

There’s an article in The New York Times, “An Amputee Sprinter: Is He Disabled or Too-Abled?” (Link), that feels a little like a tipping point for a much larger issue. While the article is about “techno-doping” (a new term for me) and the new, more capable prosthetics, it doesn’t take much to start wondering where a level playing field ends and human augmentation begins.

Continue reading "Issues of Augmentation" »

Posted by Futurelab at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: C. Sven Johnson

I read the following in Neil Gershenfeld’s book Fab and thought it worth posting here:

Etienne found that the most difficult technical lesson to teach was imagination. He could see the possibilities lurking within technological junk, but he had a hard time conveying to students how to put the pieces back together short of actually doing it himself. This problem inspired Etienne to turn to the same kind of three-dimensional CAD software that Frank Gehry and Larry Sass were using. He taught his students how to make a virtual version of their studio, freeing them to assemble simulated parts.

Continue reading "The Most Difficult Technical Lesson" »

Posted by Futurelab at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: C. Sven Johnson

There are a series of posts over on Architectradure - “Wearable Robotic” (Link), “A Living Sculpture” (Link), and “Inspiring book : the Prosthetic Impulse” (Link) - that I’m finding fascinating. They’re generally concerned with the topic of prosthetics but also touch on issues of identity (one of my current favorites) and human augmentation (reminding me a little of the “wearable stomach” shown in the recent Sterling/Klinker GoogleTech video - Link).

Continue reading "Architectradure on Prosthetics {*Update*}" »

Posted by Futurelab at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

By: Ilya Vedrashko

E-ink, 3D printers, disintegrator, mindwipes, replicators, human memory downloads, reputation trading, 3D fax, video wallpaper, virtual reality windows.

Click image to enlarge.

Continue reading "Future: Innovation Timeline 2050" »

Posted by Futurelab at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

Exactly a year ago this blog went "live" and we just wanted to thank everyone who's been part of making it something much more successful than we ever thought it would be.  Today, we've got about 25,000 regular readers, over 1,400 posts, and more importantly, our base of daily feedburner subscribers keeps growing by the week (currently at 2,500).

Continue reading "Happy Birthday Futurelab Blog" »

Posted by Futurelab at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Karl Long

The decision Nintendo made to innovate around the control of video games and bow out of the 3d arms race continues to pay dividend, generating interest, and encouraging creativity.

Continue reading "Wiibot - Controlling a Robot Arm With A Wiimote" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

As I compiled the most read posts on this blog, I couldn't shake the feeling that "there was a lot of great stuff missing". That's why I decided to do the "old media" thing and make a selfish editorial selection of what I thought were the twenty strongest thoughts expressed on this blog since its inception (one per contributor). 

Continue reading "The 21 Strongest Thoughts for 2006" »

Posted by Futurelab at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

We've been a bit quiet over the past few days because of a busy week at the Marketing 3 conference in the Netherlands, yet to make up, we wanted to bring you a few early Christmas presents in the form of key videos from the conference.

Continue reading "Must Watch video: Shopping 2016" »

Posted by Futurelab at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Roger Dooley

FUTUREHYPE: The Myths of Technology Change, by Bob Seidensticker, is to Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near as antimatter is to matter. Put them next to each other on your bookshelf, and your house might be leveled as they combine with a gigantic release of energy.

Continue reading "Book Review: Future Hype - The Myths of Technology Change" »

Posted by Futurelab at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Roger Dooley

Neuroscientists are constantly looking for better ways to measure brain activity, and Harvard researchers have achieved a breakthrough that should significantly advance the state of the art. MIT’s Technology Review, in Nanowires Listen In on Neurons, describes the development of silicon nanowires that are so small that they can be used to measure activity at many places on the same neuron:

Continue reading "Nanowires To Monitor Neurons" »

Posted by Futurelab at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Dick Stroud 

Ballbot is a narrow, 5-foot-(1.5-meter)-tall robot and is being developed at Carnegie Mellon University by Professor Ralph Hollis. He says that Ballbot represents pioneering work in the emerging field of ''human-centered robotics”.

Continue reading "Ballbot - Get My Breakfast" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Roger Dooley

Wouldn’t it be exciting if you could control a machine with your thoughts? Without surgery or electrodes stuck to your scalp, and without a lengthy learning/training process? Well, that possibility is detailed in ATR, Honda Develop New Brain-Machine Interface at PhysOrg.com.

Continue reading "No-Contact Brain-Machine Interface" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: David Armano

Complete with a host of Human  facial expressions and the ability to respond to questions—The Repliee Q2  combines artificial intelligence with robotics.

Original Post: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2006/05/female_android.html

Posted by Futurelab at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Ilya Vedrashko

"Korea has developed its own android capable of facial expressions on its humanoid face, the second such machine to be developed after one from Japan. The name combines the first human name found in the Bible, Eve, with the "r" in robot.

Continue reading "Korea Unveils Own Android" »

Posted by Futurelab at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend