Popweekly: Digest for 02.08.10

Popweekly is a weekly report (at the beginning of the week instead of the end) which contains a digest of news, events, and issues of interest to Popwuping readers.

Computational couture: wearable digital technology fashion design

Mobile computing, handheld gaming, geolocation technologies and multimedia music players are intricately woven into the fabric of our culture, and now they are making their way into our clothes.

From miniaturized processors and embedded electronics, to luminous fabrics made from fiber optics and clothes that change color or have hemlines that rise and fall at the touch of a button. As we become increasingly inseparable from our cellphones, laptops, and mp3 players--interest in wearable computing is growing--and those at the forefront are getting mainstream media coverage. Fashion designers experimenting with and embracing connective threads are definitely being taken more seriously by the mainstream fashion industry and by digital culture creatives and marketers.

Latest Japanese phones not looking good

Japanese phones used to be years ahead of anything we had here in Europe and decades ahead of those in the US, but not any more. The latest US and European smartphones are super-slick devices with gorgeous user interfaces, while the latest Japanese phones are almost the exact opposite.

Global cell phone sales on the rise

Sales of cell phones around the world rebounded in the fourth quarter, indicating that the recession may be over for the beleaguered mobile handset market, according to figures compiled by market research firms.

Global handset shipments were up 10 percent to 324.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to 293.8 million phones during the same quarter a year ago, said Strategy Analytics. This is the first quarter of growth the industry has seen since the third quarter in 2008.

Urban sensing via mobile phones

Arup Australasia has published a three-part technical overview on its research blog of its 'urban sensing via mobile phones' project.

The research project, in collaboration with the UTS Centre for Real-Time Information Networks, explores technical approaches to sensing the presence of mobile phones in transit environments (bus, train, ferry etc.) as well as pedestrians, in order to provide real-time data on such activity, potentially informing urban planning and transport planning decisions. Such approaches might reveal how the city is being used, in real-time.

Can your cell phone tell if you're happy or overworked?

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think it can do that and more--separate the rich from the poor, the sick from the healthy, even the outgoing from the introverted. Sandy Pentland, director of MIT's Human Dynamics Research program, has focused his work on that unlikely task: using gadgets as simple as a cell phone to better understand the quirks and patterns of human behavior.
Pentland's experiments began with what he calls a "sociometer," a simple badge-like device that hangs from a subject's neck and records his or her movements, tone of voice, and location. With just those signals collected from large groups of subjects, Pentland says he was able to perform a kind of data analysis he calls "reality mining," finding patterns that reveal a surprising range of information--from how a population breaks down into groups, to which groups are most social and productive, to the personality traits of single individuals, all based on measuring tone of voice and body language.

Popweekly: Digest for 02.08.10

Popweekly is a weekly report (at the beginning of the week instead of the end) which contains a digest of news, events, and issues of interest to Popwuping readers.

Computational couture: wearable digital technology fashion design

Mobile computing, handheld gaming, geolocation technologies and multimedia music players are intricately woven into the fabric of our culture, and now they are making their way into our clothes. From miniaturized processors and embedded electronics, to luminous fabrics made from fiber optics and clothes that change color or have hemlines that rise and fall at the touch of a button. As we become increasingly inseparable from our cellphones, laptops, and mp3 players--interest in wearable computing is growing--and those at the forefront are getting mainstream media coverage. Fashion designers experimenting with and embracing connective threads are definitely being taken more seriously by the mainstream fashion industry and by digital culture creatives and marketers.

Latest Japanese phones not looking good

Japanese phones used to be years ahead of anything we had here in Europe and decades ahead of those in the US, but not any more. The latest US and European smartphones are super-slick devices with gorgeous user interfaces, while the latest Japanese phones are almost the exact opposite.

Global cell phone sales on the rise

Sales of cell phones around the world rebounded in the fourth quarter, indicating that the recession may be over for the beleaguered mobile handset market, according to figures compiled by market research firms. Global handset shipments were up 10 percent to 324.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to 293.8 million phones during the same quarter a year ago, said Strategy Analytics. This is the first quarter of growth the industry has seen since the third quarter in 2008.

Urban sensing via mobile phones

Arup Australasia has published a three-part technical overview on its research blog of its 'urban sensing via mobile phones' project. The research project, in collaboration with the UTS Centre for Real-Time Information Networks, explores technical approaches to sensing the presence of mobile phones in transit environments (bus, train, ferry etc.) as well as pedestrians, in order to provide real-time data on such activity, potentially informing urban planning and transport planning decisions. Such approaches might reveal how the city is being used, in real-time.

Can your cell phone tell if you're happy or overworked?

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think it can do that and more--separate the rich from the poor, the sick from the healthy, even the outgoing from the introverted. Sandy Pentland, director of MIT's Human Dynamics Research program, has focused his work on that unlikely task: using gadgets as simple as a cell phone to better understand the quirks and patterns of human behavior. Pentland's experiments began with what he calls a "sociometer," a simple badge-like device that hangs from a subject's neck and records his or her movements, tone of voice, and location. With just those signals collected from large groups of subjects, Pentland says he was able to perform a kind of data analysis he calls "reality mining," finding patterns that reveal a surprising range of information--from how a population breaks down into groups, to which groups are most social and productive, to the personality traits of single individuals, all based on measuring tone of voice and body language.