Author Archives: Ana

Lord of the Rings

This ring is the lord of them all. It’s practically the Sauron of rings. By putting it on, you can write anything you want in the air, and all the machines and humans around you will obey. Well, maybe not the humans. But you get the idea.

The ring’s magical powers are due to the combo of Bluetooth, a touch sensor, a few motion sensors, LED, vibration motor and a connection with iPhone. It’s the iPhone that actually reads all that air-writing and executes commands.

While the mechanism can seem a bit clunky and unintuitive (writing in the air?), this idea is pretty much the future of invisible technology. Check out the Ring’s Kickstarter here.

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France in the air

Air France launched a new campaign. If you didn’t look closely enough, you’d mistake it for a luxury fashion editorials. Apparently, that was the idea. Or rather, the idea was to bring the magnificence and opulence of France-the-country to the air. The campaign was unleashed via Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter as well as via collaterals. Created by BETC.

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New Report: Seeing Returns - Building loyalty at hotels through digital customer experience

A new report on hospitality industry and ways to build loyalty via digital media is out. Have a look, it’s full of useful insights. By MDC Partners.

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How do you feel? Let your app tell you.

There is an ever increasing number of people who claim that technology is a deeply emotional endeavor. Just look at “Her:” humans are depicted as emotional-connection craving beings; in return, technology wanted nothing but independence from us. Interesting as it may be, there is a real happening in the next-gen apps that monitor our heart rate, facial expressions and warmth of our skin to understand whether we are happy, cranky or tired.

The so-called “emotional data layer” can indeed help our interactions. It can make them more personalized, effective or more fun. In other words, it can make an experience more seamless a.k.a usable. The ultimate role of emotions with technology is a better usability.

I like this thought.

Let me tell you a good STORY

Story is a concept store on Manhattan that updates its theme and products ever week. To add a do-good twist to the store, its founder, Rachel Shechtman, partnered with notorious social entrepreneurs, like TOMS and FEED Project, to create a brand new Good STORY. The Good STORY will run until June 1, and every item for purchase has a direct positive social impact. My takeaway: more brands, traditionally sustainable or not, should embrace the STORY idea. It’s all about the concept stores these days, anyway. Might as well do some good with it.

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iBeacon is the future of Easter Egg hunts

Faberge, the jeweler, is into elephants and their well being. For this reason the brand organized the massive Easter egg hunt in NYC this weekend. Faberge commissioned gigantic 275 egg sculptures from designers and artists and scattered them around the city, and on the The Big Egg Hunt website, designated a specific area where each of the eggs is to be discovered. The best part of the hunt is that eggs are not revealed on the map until at least 10 people check in to them, enabled by iBeacon technology. This may be the first time that iBeacon has left the confines of the retail stores and ventured into the outside world, and I love how Faberge is using it. If you are in New York City this weekend and if Easter Egg hunts are your thing, you should definitely join!

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Humanity, meet the Responsive Man

I really like this, for reasons none other than it being fun. With responsive design becoming a table stakes at this point, The Responsive Man was just begging to happen.

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Meet Moov, a fitness tracker and personal trainer combined

If you are on the wearable fitness devices market, and are still not bored by the sameness of Fitbit, Jawbone and Nike Fuel, this is a product for you. It’s called Moov, and it not only tracks your activity, but it gives you a real-time feedback to improve it, like any good trainer would. Like any good trainer, it’s also motivating, caring, interactive and personalized. Get yours here.

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Uniqlo’s flexibility is its go-to market strategy

Uniqlo has built its retail empire around the “Made for All” POV, meaning its products are such that anyone and everyone can wear them.

Now, being more sensitive to local economic and physical differences among its consumers in different regions and markets, Uniqlo revised its go-to-market strategy. Instead “everything fits everyone” thing, they are making larger-sized items for the US market and cheaper items for the economically disadvantages regions in China. This is quite a ballsy move for any retailer due to consequences that differences in sizing and quality can do to the brand, yet an incredibly intelligent one, as it makes the brand more resilient globally.

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Haptic sensations come to the screen near you

It can be a wonderful thing for blind people, but it is a sort of field day for the rest of us, too. Fujitsu’s next-gen touchscreens, unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, will allow us to feel haptic sensations from our screens. If we are watching a video of water, we would feel its slippery surface. If we are looking at the picture of rocks, we would be able to feel them, too.

The technology behind the haptic screen sounds pretty sci-fi today, but I am sure it will become run-of-the-mill in a few years. Fujitsu uses ultrasonic waves to vibrate the air at the very top of the screen, effectively turning air into a flexible, responsive surface giving off the impression of different textures. Pretty smart.

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