Crave UK recently went for dinner at Inamo restaurant in London, where interactive touch-sensitive tables take your order. Each table has an overhead projector and a mouse trackpad, so your dining surface is effectively a PC monitor. You can customize your "tablecloth," play a video game against your companion, and order a taxi to get you home.
When you're ready to order, you can browse the menu, with each dish projected onto your place setting. When you've chosen, you can even see a live Webcam feed of your chef at work. The restaurant's founders say the concept evolved from the simple idea of "wouldn't it be cool if you could just hit a button and a waiter brought you another beer?" Watch our video for more.
(Via Crave UK)
Our pals over at Crave UK indulged their inner children with a trip to London Toy Fair trade show last week.
Luckily, they brought cameras along so they could share all the geeky goodness, including game action figures, Watchmen merchandise, and a couple of toys that scared the "living bejeebus" out of them.
Click on the gallery below for an excerpt of their very cheeky tour of the toy extravaganza. You'll understand why we've been trying so hard to get CNET to send us on vacation (or should we say holiday?) to the U.K. office.
London's Metropolitan Police have created this poster, which notes that "terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks," but fails to mention that regular people love to shoot photos too.
(Credit: London Metropolitan Police)Last month London's Metropolitan Police started a five week campaign of what they are calling "counter-terrorism advertising," which includes a poster that implores people to report photographers to the police if they "seem odd." This is very troubling to me, since I consider myself to be quite odd and my job entails shooting photos on a daily basis. Luckily, I don't live in London, but here in New York City we have a similar campaign that's been going on for more than five years and while they haven't gone as far as using posters to alienate photographers, the city's police do regularly harass photographers.
In fact, a couple of weeks ago, while out shooting with a couple of friends I was told by a police officer that I am not allowed to take a photo of a set of toll booths in Inwood Hill Park at the northern tip of Manhattan. They have even gone as far as placing no-photography signs on many structures, including those toll booths and most of the cities bridges, though I know of no law prohibiting such photography. Essentially, that makes those signs illegal, since it amounts to the city's attempt to infringe upon my rights as a citizen.
As you might imagine, London's recent campaign has ruffled quite a few feathers. I found out about it on the blog of a San Francisco photographer named Thomas Hawk and his post links to a post on BoingBoing and another on the blog of a UK-based photographer named Nick Potter. In response to their post, BoingBoing received a number of variations on the posters created by their readers.
While London's program has been called out by the photographic community, it also includes a poster asking Londoners to report "suspicious" people who have multiple cell phones and any house that "has unusual activity." While I recognize the value of tipsters helping the police combat crime, London's posters discriminate against large groups of people, reinforce bad stereotypes about photographers, and ironically chip away at the freedoms of that country's citizens in the name of fighting terrorists who President George W. Bush likes to say "hate our freedom."
The best place to transfer
(Credit: Dr. Werner Hennies/FMG)When you fly to Europe from the West Coast, your choice of nonstop flights is rather limited. Outside of cities such as London, Paris, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt, you're usually forced to fly to a large hub airport and then change planes if you want to travel to another city. Such was the case when I flew to Barcelona for the recent GSMA World Congress. Since there are no nonstop flights to Barcelona from San Francisco, I had to fly to Munich first and then catch another flight from there. And all I can say is, I'm glad I did.
Munich's Franz Josef Strauss Airport is a prime example of how to run a busy hub. It's spacious and sparkling clean, the staff is polite, the buildings and facilities are new and high-tech, and (this being Germany) everything is prompt and efficient. The hofbrau restaurants and observation deck don't hurt, either. Both on my journey to Barcelona and my journey home, my flights were on time, and I had no problems navigating the relatively mammoth Lufthansa terminal. And even though I had only about an hour to spare each way, I still was able to pass through passport control and security and arrive at the gate before boarding started. This is exactly how an airport should be run, and when compared with the other European hub airports that I've used, Munich is my favorite.
You could eat off the floor
(Credit: Dr. Werner Hennies/FMG)Frankfurt would be a close second to Munich. It, too, is well-run, but its sprawling terminal seems to involve more walking. I've never changed planes at Amsterdam Schiphol, so I'm going to leave it out of this comparison, but Munich is far better then both London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle. You could fill a book with complaints that have been written about Heathrow, but as long as I'm not changing planes, I have to admit that I have a perverse attraction to the place. Maybe it's just that I have a thing for yellow signs, but Heathrow can be so chaotic that it's almost comical. The last time I passed through Heathrow on the way to Copenhagen, I marveled as a very un-British group struggled to stay in a massive queue. A very harried employee tried to keep everyone in line, but she was in over her head. Then in the security area, an employee turned on a very old ceiling fan positioned above the X-ray machine. When he did so, the cloud of dust that rained down on my bag was so thick that it looked like it was snowing. Add in the threadbare carpets, the soiled seating, the delays, the antiquated equipment, and the utterly appalling Terminal 3, and you have a real mess on your hands. But then again, you see the entire world at Heathrow, and with such a wide variety of airlines and aircraft, it warms an aviation buff's heart. But like I said, if I'm forced to be a transfer passenger at Heathrow, then the place is a zoo. Maybe things will get better with the new Terminal 5.
On the other hand, I have only disdain for Paris' airport. It's dirty, cramped, and horribly designed with much too few directional signs. What's more, the terminals collapse without warning, and and the food is terribly unrepresentative of the city it serves. But what really gets me about Charles de Gaulle (the airport, not the man) is the unbelievably rude employees who seem to be really angry at life. Yes, I know that the whole "the French are rude" thing is a stereotype, but in this case it's one stereotype that's deserved. And from what I've read from other travelers, I'm not the only one who thinks so. My point is this: if you're going to take a job in an airport that bills itself as a European hub for world travelers, don't give me attitude if I can't ask for directions to my gate in French. That's just wrong.
But these are just my experiences. If you feel differently, or even if you agree, I'd love to hear why.
In theory, robots aren't designed to make mistakes. But a University College London (UCL) project team is hoping errors in how software "sees" optical illusions can make robots more like humans--mistakes and all.
Project leaders Dr. R. Beau Lotto and David Corney at the UCL institute of Ophthalmology say the study provides unprecedented insight into how the human eye can be fooled by lighting and shading. Instead of simulating the human brain, the software simulates learning patterns from past visual experiences.
(Credit:
Brown.edu)
The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology study recreated the vision errors using software that "learns" colors and shading based on thousands of images. After the software was trained to predict the shade of colors from those images, it was subjected to shade-based optical illusions.
The illusion in question involves viewing the same shade of color on two different backgrounds. The human eye often sees the color as darker when it's on a lighter background and lighter when it's on a darker background.
And just like the human eye, the program saw shades as lighter when they appeared on a dark background and darker when they appeared on a light background.
These errors can be helpful in simulating exactly how and what humans see, which paves the way for "smarter," mistake-making robots.
The research paper for the project is available here, and this NewScientist article has more details on the UCL research project.
(Credit:
twentyfour)
The coolest after-dark attractions just have to be across the pond, don't they? I'm drooling over screenshots of Twentyfour, which looks pretty darn awesome (though who knows what the crowd's like). With over a thousand LED color combinations available, this is one place where the decor won't get boring--and did I mention the walls are actually projection screens?
The video walls kind of remind me of the Nokia flagship store in Manhattan, but from what it sounds like, they're a lot more functional. Bar patrons can control, or even contribute their own scenery somehow--I should point out that this could get bad if alcohol's involved, you know, "You bloody wanker, why did you put the rainforest scene up there again?" Some of the projections are even interactive, responding in one way or another if you touch them or hold your drink up to them ("Ooh, the fish swim toward my martini!")
(Credit:
twentyfour)
Here's the part I like the most--lay a hand on the bar, and it'll alert the bartender that you need another drink. Those of us used to crowded urban nightspots where it can take a full ten minutes for the bartender to even notice your existence can attest to the gravity of this breakthrough.
More photos at Geeksugar.
(Credit:
Londonist)
Generally, when we hear about London nightclubs stateside, it's because Prince Harry was spotted dancing on a table in a sarong or because some flashy playboy racked up a ridiculous tab. This time, however, it's a little bit different. The Camden Town boite Koko has introduced a new high-tech system to keep tabs on partygoers who leave the club for smoke breaks. Upon leaving the establishment, their fingerprints are scanned; they're then allowed seven minutes to enjoy their cigs, and then afterward must re-enter by re-scanning. Makes the bouncer's job a whole lot easier, I'm sure.
Those Brits sure do come up with some innovative nightlife tech.
I'm not a smoker, but I'm familiar with the need to briefly leave a noisy nightclub in order to make a cell phone call and then attempt to regain access without waiting in line all over again, and I think fingerprint scanners show promise. Londonist thinks it's a tad "unnecessarily draconian," but if it replaces those impossible-to-wash-off hand stamps, I'll take it.
Nothing like walking into a Friday morning meeting with the remnants of a "21+ OPEN BAR THURSDAYS" streak on your hand. Let's just say it's not exactly the best way to express to your boss that you might be a little bit out of it that day.
(Credit:
Dom Perignon)
Larry Ellison aside, those Middle Eastern businessmen sure do put Silicon Valley to shame when it comes to extravagant displays of opulence. Typically, we don't get names to accompany the tales of pimped-out Airbus A380s and the like, but generally the price tags speak for themselves. My favorite new "oh my gosh, I can't believe how much cash that guy spent" story was covered in the British press earlier this week: a band of partiers, led by an anonymous Dubai cash cow, spent a total of $210,000 at the posh London nightclub Crystal last Saturday night. With tax and gratuities, the final bill was more like $218,000.
To put things into perspective, that's the equivalent of about 360 8GB iPhones.
According to representatives from the nightclub (where apparently Prince Harry likes to booze it up on occasion), the evening started off innocently enough. The party of 18 people started with a bottle of pinot grigio that cost a paltry $50, but ultimately went through absurd amounts of champagne and vodka that included a $20,000 bottle of Dom Perignon. Also included in the bill were six Cokes, 17 orders of Red Bull, and eight bottles of the luxury-brand Voss water.
ABC News reports that the tab was closed at 4:24 AM. In other news, the $2 bottles of wine at Trader Joe's still get a thumbs-up from me.
(Credit:
Luxurylaunches)
At long last, relief from public ridicule. You've been suffering in the embarrassment of having to tote around that low-end $350,000 Tulip Ego for months, but someone has finally come along with a portable computer worthy of your elevated station. (How on earth could you be expected to carry a laptop that costs less than your cell phone?)
A rather mysterious company named Luvaglio of London has supposedly created a $1 million laptop, which Luxurylaunches says is "believed to integrate real diamonds and other precious jewelry into the chassis of the system." But any facts have been far outweighed by speculation, much of which was sparked by the YouTube clip below that depicts the laptop emerging from its packaging.
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