Tagged: fun

soundbottle

Sound Bottle – an art project that remixes the sounds around us

There are sounds around us all the time, so what if you could record those sounds and mix them up into a song? That’s what Jun Fujiwara was thinking when he created Sound Bottle. He is a student at the Tama Art University and received the Naoki Sakai Prize at the Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Awards last year.

soundbottle
Sound Bottle

The device uses an Arduino controller for the sound recording and crunching. The recording software will create a remix that will playback every time the bottle is uncorked. Each time it’s recorked, the Sound Bottle resets and a new remix can be created. If you want to pause the remix, give the bottle a shake.

Here is his synopsis of his work:

This is a music medium that can reproduce a recorded voice as music. It makes a database of sound sources that is managed and used as formal and automatic repetitions, and forms a music medium of the day. I felt something missing in the habitual use of music reproduction media, so I thought to create an interactive music medium that changes. By using everyday voices as sources of music, the sounds that are heard all the time every day carry infinite possibilities and help us reaffirm the enjoyment of music. I hope people can experience their own music.

You can see the Sound Bottle in action in the video below. It is a pretty nifty little project if you ask me. I especially like that you have to uncork the bottle to play back the created music.

@maniac13

Interactive Orange Insights

Unboxing the Makey Makey – Or how to make an Orange interactive

As soon as it was announced we wanted to get our hands on it, so Iain pre-ordered it, waited, waited a bit more, saw other people lucky enough to get it before us play around with it, got jealous, waited a little more and then it finally arrived.

MaKey MaKey
MaKey MaKey

So you are probably asking yourself, what is it. When you look at their website here, the explanation is quick:

MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet.

Basically you can take any objects (as long as they are conductive), clamp them to the MaKey MaKey board and make them do things. It was invented for anybody who loves tinkering around, wants to create anything in between art and engineering.

So what else is in the box?

MaKey MaKey Box Open
MaKey MaKey Box Open

not much, but definitely enough to get started on a little project

MaKey MaKey items
MaKey MaKey items

And within minutes the idea was born, a few old coins were found under the couch cushions and in the back of drawers and an orange was “stolen” from the fruit box.

All of it stuffed into a cardboard box and we had our first project – the interactive Orange

Interactive Orange
Interactive Orange

 

Interactive Orange Insights
Interactive Orange Insights

When you touch a coin and hold the orange, you make a connection, and MaKey MaKey sends the computer a keyboard message. The computer just thinks MaKey MaKey is a regular keyboard (or mouse). We just build a little flash movie that makes a sound and changes the picture when a certain key is pressed.

see it in action:

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There are already plenty of pretty cool projects out there, so check them out and we make sure we keep you updated with ours as well.

@maniac13

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Asteroids 2.0 – now an MMO

Remember the days when you were sitting in front of your CRT TV playing with your Atari 2600 playing Asteroids by yourself? I do.

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Now that is all in the past as the new version of Asteroids here is a massively multiplayer online (mmo) game and instead of chasing asteroids you shoot other players from all over the world.

It’s a relatively simple arcade-style game in which you attempt to rack up as high a score as possible before running out of lives, and you can sign in with Twitter to put a name to your score.

@maniac13

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Fuel your gaming addiction while getting fit

Being a gamer myself there is always that point where I could go and do exercise or I could finish that next level and then usually I end up not going to the gym.

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Now there is a solution for my first world problem. BitGym has created a control system for playing iOS games while you are on your favourite exercise equipment. Right now it is a racer (that looks a lot like Outrun) and you control the cars steering with you head and your acceleration is based on your exercise rate.

Check out the video:

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nifty little tool, but I am not sure if the movements you have to do to get through the game are good for your posture Smile

@maniac13

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The case of the missing O – a Google online puzzle

I love puzzles, I have a drawer full of those metal nails that are stuck together and you have to find a way to take them apart, and I love online puzzle games.

So today I came across The Google Puzzle. Not sure how long it has been up, but I only saw it today.

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So I pressed the Get it back button and wasted spend a good hour on solving the 5 puzzles to get it back.

It is a Chrome experiment, written in HTML and it has some really quirky stuff in it.

 

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if you get stuck there is the friendly Hint button – thank god for that one.

so if you are into puzzles, make sure you give it a go

@maniac13

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The case of the missing O – a Google online puzzle

I love puzzles, I have a drawer full of those metal nails that are stuck together and you have to find a way to take them apart, and I love online puzzle games.

So today I came across The Google Puzzle. Not sure how long it has been up, but I only saw it today.

image

 

So I pressed the Get it back button and wasted spend a good hour on solving the 5 puzzles to get it back.

It is a Chrome experiment, written in HTML and it has some really quirky stuff in it.

 

image

 

if you get stuck there is the friendly Hint button – thank god for that one.

so if you are into puzzles, make sure you give it a go

@maniac13

Want to work at Amnesia Razorfish?

Do you breathe all things PR? Have a passion for all things social media? Want to join a team that is kicking goals (and plays Foosball every Friday afternoon)?

We’re looking for a smart cookie to come onboard as our Digital PR Exec. With fantastic clients, great projects and a fun team, how could you not want to apply? You can find the full job ad here.

And for a bit of fun, the social team made this to entice you:

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Email us: jobs.sydney@amnesia.com.au

~ Karalee Evans, Social Strategy Manager xx

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Google Chrome vs Lightning, Sound and flying potato

Sounds weird – well it is.

Google is showcasing that its browser can take on some really fast things and compete with them.

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they are using their latest beta of Chrome and check its speed of loading/rendering web pages against a flying potato, sound waves and lightning.

check out the video after the break

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