Finally back home so service will resume as normal and i'll finally get to write down my notes from various events i've attended here and there. Starting with Colin Bulthaup's talk at NEXT2006 conference, in Copenhagen on December 1.

Bulthaup is co-founder of the high-tech enterprise Squid Labs, a multibranched company that develops breakthrough technologies and find solutions to unique engineering problems.

Squid Labs is an innovation foundry that aims to go beyond what the future could bring, they just build it. It started with some MIT students who loved the playful attitude they found at MIT, enjoyed the possibility to explore crazy ideas but were missing the output from the "real world". MIT was too academic. So when they launched Squid Lab, their aim was to keep the fun and the openness but be more driven by the real world.

Their "office" itself seeks to create an environment that fosters innovation. The space itself is a warhouse large enough to allow people to play around and feel welcome (they even have beds and a kitchen). They build a community with smart people coming and visiting. The way they function is very different from the corporate world, which is too secretive. People who work at Squid Labs enjoy some flexibility: they dedicate 33% of their time there on a particular project, 33% participating to other SL's projects and the rest of the time they can do whatever they want.

Squid Labs facility (image Wired)

SQUID Labs' projects:

The most talked-about one is the Smart Rope: a high-tech rope with integral sensing capability that monitors its own load and signals any weakness, sending the information to a handheld device well before it frays and gives way.

But there's also Magic Window, an augmented reality system that allows you to move a laptop around and overlay data on the real world; Solar Driveaway, a custom solar power system offering such extreme ruggedness that it can be used for driveways and sidewalks; and a swarm of tiny unmanned aerial vehicles that avoid one another.

Squid Lab has "split" into a handful of companies which keep using SL as a resource but are autonomous and driven to make one particular idea a success:

1 - Howtoons: educational cartoons to get children excited about technology and inspire them to build their own things. Book out in January-February. A website allows people from around the world (in particular developing countries) to access the information. They are working on translations in different languages.

2 - Instructables: a step-by-step guide to share the making of OS physical Objects. People can share with others what they've done, it can then be changed and improved. Every aspect of the production chain is open.

3 - Low Cost Eyeglasses: Because 500 M to 1 Bn people need but can't afford eyeglasses, SL designed and built patented lens molding technology that can produce any prescription lens in 5-10 minutes from a single mold surface. The idea is to give the technology to local entrepreneurs in order to make the idea more sustainable.

4 - POTENCO focuses on lack of power and infrastructure in developing countries. Billions of people don't have access to electrical power. In Africa, cell phone use is exploding but only a fraction of the population has access to electrical power so some people have to walk many miles to get to the center of a city and charge their device.

So SL looked at other forms of generating energy. Kerosene lighting? Can be very expensive, it provides poor lighting for reading and makes fumes.

Potenco is a portable, robust and ergonomic power generator: just pull a cord for a minute and it generates electric power for up to several hours. It can be used to power mobile phones, PDAs, lighting products, digital cameras, etc.

Compared to a crank, Potenco generates 5 times more power, it can be pulled 5 times longer before the user senses fatigue; it's quieter, lighter and more robust.

One minute of pulling gives 1 hour of light, 25 minutes of talk time on the phone, 230 minutes of iPod shuffle use, 45 minutes on the Nintendo DS. Millions of units will be distributed in the next few years.

Potenco has been selected as the power provider for the $100 Laptop (One Laptop per Child).

Curious? The MAKE team visited Squid Labs in Emeryville, CA.

Shigureden is a newly-opened museum in Arashiyama, Kyoto, which showcases the game and the estetics of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (Ogura Anthology of 100 Poems by 100 Poets - wikipedia). This museum is heavily influenced by Nintendo, in terms of funding, technology and ideas. Nintendo's advisor Hiroshi Yamauchi personally funded the construction of the museum, visotors use Nintendo DS-based location aware devices (called ShigureNavi), and the museum's interactive digital installations are supervised by Shigeru Miyamoto, who is also known as "the father of Mario Bros."

ShigureNavi is a kind of Nintendo DS without buttons - you can only change the sound volume. Instead, it is equipped with two sensor devices that receive signals from ceiling-mounted transmitters, thereby delivering location-relevant contents to visitors. The device can also be used to control objects shown in a huge high-res screen: an array of seventy 45-inch LCD monitors embedded in the museum floor. The monitor array shows an animated areal photo of Kyoto, giving visitors a feeling of "walking in the sky" - then the ShigureNavi device can be used as a sky-walk navigation system. For example, if you specify Nintendo headquarter using the ShigureNavi device, a big bird appears under your feet and guides your sky walk there. Visitors can also play sporty card games using the device and the floor-embedded monitor array.

There's also an installation that looks like an enlarged human-size Nintendo DS, which allows visitors to play card games with ancient historical characters (from perhaps the 13th century). In front of you are a horizontal touch-screen display for your interactive control and a vertical screen showing your opponent. Based on what I read and saw on MyCom PC Web, the museum seems very nicely designed and is attracting many elderly people as well.

via MyCom PC Web

The Connect to Art initiative by Nokia launches with a mobile exhibition featuring three Finnish artists, Stefan Lindfors, Osmo Rauhala and Kati Aberg. Each artist has created audiovisual works of art that use new media and mobile phones as an alternative channel for distributing art and as a unique environment for experiencing it.

According to Kati Åberg, "Mobile phones literally bring art into the palm of your hand, making the experience personal and entertaining. The works of art are close to you, genuinely within reach, right in your breast pocket next to your heart, and you alone can view them and own them."

Connect to Art will first be introduced in Finland. Starting with visual artists, the concept will later expand also into music. Connect to Art will later make its debut outside of Finland where artists from other countries will be joining in.

The works of art and associated mobile entertainment (wallpapers etc.) can be downloaded on your mobile (that's if your device is compatible) free of charge.

From Textually.
Press Release.

NEC will release this month laptops that use biodegradable plastic.

The plastic is made from materials derived from plants such as corn and is broken down into water and carbon dioxide by microbes. NEC says it aims by 2010 to make more than 10% of the plastic it uses in PCs biodegradable.

"The Chemical Home", a campaign by Greenpeace tested everyday products that frequently contain harmful chemicals. The organization had tested (and incriminated) a series of products among which a TV, shower curtains, toys, lipstcks, mobile phone... And toxic computers.

From Nikkei, via The Raw Feed.
Related entry: Samsung mobile phones are going green.
Magic bioplastic (by NEC too.)

Nokia has launched a push-to-talk consultancy service for the enterprise market.

In its service trial, PoC Enterprise Market Consultancy will allow both operators and businesses to test the services and workshops.

More in RCR wireless news.

British Telephone yesterday announced plans to provide the next generation of services through a "21st century network".

Complementing BT's expansion of broadband internet access, VoIP technology would be used across its network to carry both voice and data traffic.

The system will also propose new services such as TV-quality video and the integration of mobile phones with fixed lines. BT hopes that these services will compensate the decline in its core residential phone market caused by increased competition.

But if the new network will be cheaper to run, it could also put many jobs at risk.

Details in The Guardian.
Related entry: Wireless and Voice-over-WLAN phone service on one handset.