CollectiveLab

Ideas List: Urban Break-Up

About 6 years ago I was toying with the idea of start a clothing-line that would follow the relatively new (at the time) style of camouflage called "Break-Ups," which take a quasi-photographic representation of a forest-type.  I was obsessed with them and had Mossy-Oak Breakup pattern on nearly everything I could get my hands on; hoodie, gloves, full ghillie suit, duct tape, etc.

My spin was we'd apply this pattern-making graphic approach to the communities/landscapes of urban environments.  Create an 8-mile Break-Up (Eminem), Queensbridge Break-Up (Nas), Marcy Projects Break-Up (Jay-Z).  Then get deeper with it, make a Marcy Project Hallway Break-Up, or a Marcy Stairwell Break-Up.

Further, an Interior/Exterior Bentley Arnage Break-Up, with a reversible jacket/trackpants.  Or, more cheaply, an Escalade Break-Up. 

Was thinkin these would be debuted in videos and initially kept extremely exclusive, limited edition versions for particular artists and the neighborhoods they came up in.  And I'd tell people about this and they'd say I should do it and ultimately I'd just shrug, more happy just to tell the story.  Making sniper-gear for urban youth is probably not the game I want to get into.

 

Ideas List: High Five Machine

I'm thinkin I need a rubberized suction-cup desk-mounted hand to slap when I've done something worthy of a high-five, like when I've composed a great E-Mail.  Possibly mounted to the door-frame so I could really haul off on it.  Possible audio component, ie., I record a positive phrase into the thing so that when I slap it, it hollers somethin super upbeat back at me.

I created the above years ago.  Note the rear-view, tensile properties afforded by paper-clip and cardboard-engineered assemblage.  Yeah okay it didn't work so well.

Was thinkin of posting this notion to AliBaba and see if I can get some cats in China to make a proto.  Eh.

Ideas List: Hip Hop + Children's Books

The notion is simple and I've got to believe it's been done or being done or basically in the works.

There are certain hip hop artists who combine amazing flow with a ridiculously personable, accessible voice.  We should deploy these cats to read children’s books for a whole slew of ages.  From Goodnight Moon to The Velveteen Rabbit to James and the Giant Peach.  Obviously they'd crush any Shel Silverstien or Dr. Seuss.

Man what I'd give to hear these books read by Posdnuos, Pete Rock, Grand Pubah, Chubb Rock, MF Doom, Eminem, Ludacris.  And, needless to say, this wouldn't be a bad thing for the kids either.  

Ideas List: PDA + College

This notion came about when the Handspring devices were all the rage, sometime in 2000 I believe.

We figured it could be sold as an inexpensive add-on to the purchase of your college computer, the sorta thing your parents buy when you start school, and would plug into an as-yet-unheard-of university extranet.  Some features that we were excited about:

1. A tabbed / layered calendar feature, so you could see your coursework in a seperate but overlapping view from your other activities
2. The ability to download the course catalogue and play around with how various courses would fit into your calendar
3. The ability for professors and libraries to "beam" you reading material, or at least a link which you would follow once you plugged into a desktop.
4. Mapping features that would be particularly helpful for new students
5. Ability for local services to advertise within the application 
6. Updating of the application done through a work-study program in the Computer Sciences department
7. Potentially building the system in conjunction with my alma mater

A buddy of mine made a rough prototype of a couple screens - we reviewed it once at Spring Lounge, and decided not to pursue the idea, partially because we believed that the Palm platform was losing favor.  And partially because we generally made a lot of questionable decisions at Spring Lounge.

Ideas List: Video Game + QR

Some arcade versions of Buck Hunter have internet connectivity and a loyalty-card swipe which allow players to keep track of their records and their standing against other players.  

They could accomplish the same thing using 2-D barcodes / image-recognition software - accessed by a players cell phone camera and then posted online.  This way players could update and track their scores on non-internet enabled arcade games.

Ideally - and Buck Hunter doesn't feature this - your cell phone could unlock bonus stages.  Furthermore, in any scenario where the arcade is internet-enabled your friends could assist you to unlock stages and bonus stages.  Rather than a lengthy log-in / authentication sequence via the arcade's interface, a player's phone is the simplest way to access your social graph.  Just like friends can cheer you on from Facebook using Nike+, friends on Facebook could impact your gameplay as you churn through the Serengeti capping off endangered animals - something I once enjoyed quite a bit.

I'm not sure when Arcade games will start to integrate with smartphones, but it's about time they level up.

Ideas List: Tanning Shower

What if I just wanted a little color, and I admitted it, just like that.  Is that alright?

I'd like a shower that has some tanning-booth lamps installed inside of it.  For the 5 - 7 minutes I spend in the shower every morning maybe I've got a nice warm glow going, and hell, I look a little less like I'm about to spend the next 10 hours in front of the green-glow of a computor monitor.

Okay, if not for me - there's got to be a market out there somewhere for this sort of idiocy.  Who's in?

 

Ideas List: Kinect and Ikea

I want to hold up various elements from my Ikea box, have a gesture-reading device like Kinect see it, and have the TV walk me through interactive instructions on how to put together my new bed.  Don't know what this random piece is or where it goes?  Hold it up, and a rotate-able 3D schematic shows me exactly where it fits into the finished bed, with a link to the step where that piece is used.

First thing one would do is start a little venture that would transcribe the entire Ikea PDF catalogue into interactive 3D models.  Who's in?