Archive for June, 2008

You have got to see this: The Brazilian Medici Effect Blog has been launched. Sometimes they will translate our stories into Portuguese but we will also see original efeito medici posts. Unfortunately my understanding of Portuguese is limited but it looks great and we love the fact that The Medici Effect is spreading.

/Kristian Ribberström

Earlier we have seen how advanced technology from NASA and several other sources were used to give Speedo’s LZR Racer swimsuit extraordinary qualities. Considering the outstanding performance of the product it is not surprising that this thinking spreads to other sports. Right now, for instance, there is a cool experiment (Swedish) going on with cross-country skis in Sweden. An interesting difference is that while Speedo’s swimsuit was developed at a deliberate intersection where they harnessed the skills of experts from diverse fields this idea is more coincidental. And it did didn’t come from the sport people.

When some technicians who work with the Swedish combat aircraft Gripen heard that Norwegian skiers had successfully used sandpaper instead of ski wax to prepare cross country skis they got an idea. To make the colour attach well to the surface of the airplane they use an advanced technique where they blast it with minuscule plastic balls. That way they achieve pretty much the same effect as with sandpaper but with much more precision. Basically, they realized that they could do the same thing as the Norwegians – only better. Naturally, they didn’t contact them to tell them this – the Norwegians are annoyingly good as it is. Instead they approached their countryman Oskar Svärd who is one of the top long distance skiers in the world.

The precision with which they can use this technique makes it possible to adjust the surface for different temperatures and snow qualities. They have now made several pairs of skis for Svärd. He has tested them and is really pleased with the result. He will use them this winter and if he is successful it might change the sport as well as attitudes to the Gripen project in Sweden. It is ridiculously advanced and expensive and heavily criticized. But if it can help Svärd beat the Norwegians at cross-country skiing…

/Kristian Ribberström

Well, since it is Youtube week here on The Medici Effect Blog I want to share a video with robots inspired by animals.

The possibilities at this intersection of biology and technology seem limitless and I have written several posts based on bionics earlier. I have a strong feeling that the engineers creating these things are having a very good time and that they regard nature as an endless source of challenges.

/Kristian Ribberström

When Frans was in Singapore recently he was interviewed by Channel NewsAsia. It is a good interview and for anyone who is not so familiar with The Medici Effect it is a very good eight minute introduction. Enjoy!

/Kristian Ribberström

One of the first examples in The Medici Effect of the innovative power of intersectional teams is a ground breaking experiment that was conducted at Brown University in 2002; a team of researchers "eavesdropped” signals in a monkey’s brain so that it could control a cursor on a computer screen with its mind. They succeeded because the researchers behind the project came from a number of different scientific fields and this was the result of a deliberate effort to create an intersection of disciplines.

Now a team of scientists at the University of Pittsburgh has taken this one step further – their monkey eats with a multi-jointed brain-controlled prosthetic limb.

And again the breakthrough is a made at an intersection of disciplines: the researchers that were needed to make this possible represent neurobiology, bioengineering, cognition, regenerative medicine, robotics, physical medicine and rehabilitation. (I feel sorry for the monkey though…)

/Kristian Ribberström

Bertrand Gondouin in a Metro article (Swedish) when he recently presented his electronic jacket at a virtual reality conference in Stockholm. His aim is to explore how computers may be used without the traditional tools – for experimental and artistic purposes. He has used electronic textiles in the jacket (which looks like a perfectly normal jacket) and he controls the computer by waving his arms. With his movements he can navigate through a 3D environment projected on the wall.

Gondouin is a designer in interactive visuals who really exploits the innovative power of intersections of different disciplines. This is how he describes it himself:

“My work combines three disciplines: art direction, software engineering and live performance. This scope of activities enables me to deliver responsive, environmental graphics in real-time, which creates uniquely immersive experiences.”

At this intersection he seems to have a lot of fun and apparently barriers don’t exist to this visionary thinker. Considering what he has achieved it is amazing that he has no background in technology but he certainly brings new perspectives into this field since he is educated in art and has been working with live television. Check this crazy video from his first experiments with the jacket where he controls sound with arm movements or this earlier post which also includes electronic textiles.

/Kristian Ribberström

When I saw Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers back in 2002 I was amazed, like everybody else, by the digitally animated creature Gollum. The filmmakers had achieved something extraordinary and I realized there and then that I would never again be surprised the possibilities of motion-capture technique. But I was wrong. The designers at Front make everybody surprised with their innovative design method. They make freehand sketches in the air and record the strokes with motion-capture technology. The information is then digitized into 3D models.

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One of the main ideas in The Medici Effect is that if you apply existing concepts in fields where they haven’t been used before it dramatically increases your chances of being innovative. The Front design team is a very good example of that. When they placed themselves at the intersection of 3D animation and furniture design and applied motion-capture where it doesn’t “belong” it gave them originality as well as attention. Arguably, it would take some rather advanced technical breakthrough to revolutionize the way motion-capture is used for 3D animation in films or computer games but all they had to do at Front was to use the technique in a new way.

Naturally, this is not their only design method but all their work is characterized by the same open-mindedness that enables them to break down the associative barriers between fields. When I assumed that I would never again be surprised by the possibilities of motion-capture it was because I didn’t see beyond those barriers.

/Kristian Ribberström