Pre-Ramble:  Ho-ho-ho … Lest your sunny disposition be waning in the hustle of the holidays, consider this very cool mechanism — the Fuhlometer.

Literally translated, “feel-o-meter,” this 16-foot-wide illuminated emoticon uses face-recognition software to analyze the expressions of people in a specific area to capture a general mood — a smile, frown, or something inbetween – which then beams from the giant neon face.

The revealing surveillance device was created by three Berlin-based artists and most recently installed on a lighthouse in the Bavarian village of Lindau (shown at right).

The Take-Away:  ”You better watch out, … you better not cry, … you better not pout, … I’m tellin’ you why … ” … the Fuhlometer could be coming to a town near you –

Happiness is contagious — let your good vibes shine out into the Universe! 

Pre-Ramble:  Great.  Now, in addition to generating a constant stream of insightful and entertaining content for my website, winging it with witty banter on Twitter, and logging in with the latest professional brag-tag on Linked-In, I now have to present the perfect and enviable timeline of my life on the “new and improved” Facebook.

No pressure there. 

Let me tell you – this new form of electronic exposure is ten times worse than, say, the old scrapbooking days where simple snap-shots were magically spun into gold, … all tricked out with sticker themes, color schemes, matching boarders and plastic page protectors.  Gals used to pack all their photo gear, a hot-dish and a box of wine into rolling duffels and shuffle over to someone’s house once a month for “craft night.”  If you didn’t completely and creatively document entire decades of precious family memories over the course of the evening, it was fine. No one was checking your work.

I’m not making fun here – I was just never that organized or industrious to dominate in scrapbooking.  It’s no coincidence that my online photo file looks exactly like the hundreds of warped Kodak envelopes that are still stuffed into two ratty moving boxes in the back of our cedar closet. (I almost wish the moths would get in there and organize that mess for me.)  Thank goodness online photo filing systems provide a dated and alphabetized inventory list … If only I could remember when stuff happened and what cleverly mundane name I saved it under … ( … “that trip” … ).

Plaid skirt and knee sox.  The one thing I came to count on with the “old Facebook” was the very lack of choice that they have now “fixed.”  Like school uniforms, there was only one font, there was only one size and orientation for photos, and there were only a few simple maneuvers to master.  You typed in your quippy comment … attached a lame photo or two … and Bam.  Done.

But now — Shoot.  If I’m going to be anywhere near competitive in the realm of this ”new Facebook” forum,  I am seriously going to have to hire an in-house staff … agent, archivist, photo stylist and a couple of full-time tech support people.  I can see it now … my personal paparazzi standing by to capture every Timeline-worthy event.  Of course, there will have to be redo’s on suboptimal momentous occasions … “Oh honey, could we relight those candles? The ambient fill was all wrong … “ …. Or, “Could we re-release those doves? My lens cap was still on … ”

Back in the good old Facebook days (way last year), we used to be able to get by on our wits and a prayer.  Now the damn thing has news stories, moving parts and sound tracks.  What’s next? … “Click here for mood lighting and the scent of freshly baked bread?”

The Take-Away:  Now, instead of concealing the hapless disorder of my life from a few close family and friends (DON’T GO IN THAT CEDAR CLOSET!!!), … I am now obliged to fabricate my perfect life in a timely and orderly fashion, or risk being exposed to the ridicule of potentially millions of complete strangers. … Yipes.  I’m not ready for my close-up, Mr. Zuckerberg!

Post-Note:  It might just be a coincidence, but when you look for the correct spelling for Zuckerberg on Google, the first words to come up for longer than you’d expect are variations on the word “zucchini.”

Pre:Ramble:  “All right Mr. De Mille, I’m ready for my close-up … ” … I’m pretty sure that even Norma Desmond wouldn’t be caught camera-ready for this gig – shots taken by mounting small inexpensive cameras to nearly anything – helmets, hang-glider wings, surfboards, dirt bikes, etc. 

Created by a company called GoPro, these water-tight digital cameras are about the size of a deck of cards and weigh just six ounces.  ”Hero Cameras” as they are called, start at $260 for a version that shoots high-quality, high-definition video.  GoPro’s founder and CEO, surfer Nick Woodman, describes the product’s appeal … 

“A big part of the [product's] appeal is that people can pivot the cameras to be aimed at themselves while they’re surfing or doing some other activity and easily share them on Facebook or YouTube … a huge enabler for that type of ego satisfaction.”

I’m sure the images taken from such unique perspectives are amazing. In still shots of Mr. Woodman riding the surf in a challenging, splashy, outdoor environment, the sense of immediacy is nearly disorienting.   (Actually, the placement of the camera in one of the photos makes Woodman’s palm and big toe look disproportionally large … an effect which is likely less apparent when the whole intrepid scene is in motion.)

Holy Monkey-Cam – David Letterman is probably a big GoPro customer … using the versatile units for his snarky hidden camera bits.  And speaking of bits, GoPro cameras have also been popular with wildlife photographers.  The rugged design and comparatively low cost have made them the go-to technology for getting “bite-shots” — scenes from inside the mouths of fierce critters like seals, sharks, polar bears and alligators. 

The GoPro line was initially sold in surf shops, motorcycle stores and sporting goods outlets … Soon they’ll be available at a Best Buy near you!

The Take-Away:  Great! I’m sure I can find some novel household uses for my very own GoPro camera … maybe I can clip it to a random sock in the laundry hamper and see where it ends up. 

Pre-Ramble:  I love hearing stuff about kids who are crazy good at science. Yesterday’s NY Times   Magazine (Sunday, 2/27) featured ”Youth.”  Two of them, Matt Fernandez and Akash Krishnan, friends from Portland, Oregon, had built a computer program that can recognize “feelings” in human speech patterns for their high school science fair.

In a nut-shell, the very cool algorithum that they came up with determines emotion in spoken words by measuring 57 different aspects of an audio signal as compared to a signal that has been pre-defined as a specific emotion - such as ”fear, anger, joy and sadness.” 

“Computers have become very good at parsing an audio signal into specific words and identifying their meaning. But spoken language is more than just semantics… it’s far from clear what elements in an audio signal indicate happiness or anger as a quality of voice. Trying to figure that out quickly consumed them. Matt stayed up late reading research papers, ignoring his other homework … Akash was up until 3 a.m. many nights reading and programming… The research paper they submitted for the [science fair] was 30 pages of code and 60 pages of writing to explain it.”

Matt and Akash ended up taking first place at the science fair; went on to represent their school at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose; entered the Siemens Competition (one of two premier science competitions in the country); won the team grand prize at the national competition in Washington; and their program has been linked to practical applications such as a way to help autistic children recognize emotional cues in speech, and to provide emotion recognition capabilities for cell phones and other interactive devices. 

Nice going, boys!! …

But, I digress … The work of these gifted young scientists harkens me back to reflect upon the efforts of another young scientist … less brilliant perhaps, but toiling away nonetheless in her Environmental Living 101 class at the University of Michigan in the late 1970′s. 

As you can imagine, in this nearly pre-historic time, there were no computers … no internet … really no “technology” to speak of, unless you want to count calculators (ha!).  We were practically using the stone and chisel.

The scientific challenge was to create a “parabolic reflector” (an umbrella lined with aluminum foil, poked upside-down into the grass to catch the sunlight) which would harness solar power in amounts strong and focused enough to cook a standard cupcake.  (I blame my parents for the selection of this particular research topic, as I was never allowed to have an Easy Bake Oven … Curiously, years later, when faced with this scenario with my own young daughters, I forbade them from owning or consuming the disgusting packets of chemicals that foamed together under the heat of a light bulb as well.)

The archived project notations are sketchy, however, as I recall, the strength of the sunlight in early April in the northern Midwest left much to be desired, (not even a boost of global warming to help it along).  Due to either the ravages of radiant temperatures in the precisely calculated “hot spot” of the reflector, or simply drying out in the air, the cupcake (chocolate) ended up being barely edible. 

The Take-Away:  My point here, is that there are lots of curious, talented kids out there just waiting for an opportunity to explore some odd notion that crosses their mind.  Matt and Akash were obsessed in their quest to get to the bottom of the emotion recognition challenge … Every kid, even the ones who aren’t pre-inclined to math and science geekiness, has to be wondering about something?  Whether their inquiry results in a patent-worthy method of digital emotion recognition or a petrified cupcake, we, as a society, need to foster both the curiosity and the opportunity for kids to engage in exploration of ideas. 

Post-Note: I want more of my tax dollars to go into the “curiosity and opportunity”/education bucket and less to go into the “get involved in another foreign war” bucket.

Pre-Ramble:  “User Error” is currently at the top of my list of most hated words in the English language. In this era of ubiquitous technology, every man, woman and child has seen themselves in deep technological waters at one point or another.

Seriously — remember the first time you tried to ease the needle down on that glossy, twirling  Bobby Sherman album? Or, the first time you tried to slide a cassette into that slot in the dashboard? … Fast-forward to the thumb-tied act of sending your first text-message. There is definitely a learning curve on adapting to new technologies … only now, there are just so many more ways that you can screw up.

Opportunities to commit technical errors are all around us. ”User-interface” is what happens when you or I try to make our tech gadgets work. Legions of technology designers and developers are currently making careers out of building technological hardware and software that is “user-friendly.” User-friendly is code for anticipating the random stupidness of the average technology consumer. 

People who design and develop technology products are thinking about functional requirements … stuff like:

• navigation (how will the user move through a webpage or action?)
• content (do the words/concepts make sense?)
• visual clarity (can the user tell how this works just by looking at it?)
• how many clicks it takes to do something
• transaction time (how many seconds does it take to download/accomplish something)
• processing limitations (how much band-width is required to support the expression of the information or activity?)
• the integirty of the data  (is the user going to mistakenly enter a letter into the spaces where their phone number should be?)

Well, so – anyone who has read this blog for any period of time knows that I am something of a newbie when it comes to technology (just ask my website guy … ). At some point, I will share with you the depths of my tech-unsavviness, however, trust me when I tell you that when your computer prompts you to “update this” or “synch-up that” it’s a good idea to JUST DO THAT, rather than deleting it, relegating it to the “I’ll do that later” pile, or thinking that someone else will take care of it … (that “someone” is you).

Incoming … Code Red!  Why set yourself up for the humiliation of standing at the Genius Bar with an unresponsive phone only to have Tim the Tech Associate (shown above right) politely, but patronizingly ask if you’ve been updating your software and synching up with iTunes? (Lest you think that Tim’s left hand is casually resting on the counter, note that he is actually reaching for the security button as he sees me approach the tech support area.)

The Take-Away: I’m thinking that an informed, proactive, can-do approach to technology is a stance well worth taking and one that can be applied to other areas of our lives as well. We all know about brushing and flossing, diet and exercise, sunblock, bike helmets, a good night’s sleep and strategic hand-washing … I understand that multi-tasking is now on the skill-set-non-grata list, however, it wouldn’t hurt to floss a little while we’re waiting for the iPhone to synch up.

Pre-Ramble: If there are two things that deserve our attention as we head into 2010, it’s neuroscience and cake mix. I’m talking about recent scientific breakthroughs as they relate to middle-aged mind power and the astounding news that General Mills’ Betty Crocker has 50,000 fans on Facebook.

Brain science first — According to NY Times health editor Barbara Strauch, many long held views around the decline of the aging human brain have been reconsidered.  The propensity to forget names and be easily distracted from tasks has now been reframed to suggest that … (what was I talking about? … )

“… What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished, but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons.” 

I’ll own that I have gotten more squirrely with age, but I’m pretty sure my neurons are more rumpled than folded.  New research claims that brains, with just a little strategic maintenance, continue to develop through and well beyond middle age.  The trick is to “keep brain connections in good shape and to grow more of them.” Probably easier said than done. Apparently, every moment that passes unawares is an opportunity lost toward building and maintaining precious neural pathways. It’s a wonder more of us aren’t wandering the halls of the care center with drool on our cardigans.

It seems that, as adults, we have developed a series of well-worn pathways among the connectors/synapses in our brains. Dr. Kathleen Taylor, professor at St. Mary’s College of California suggests that these synapses should be “jiggled a bit” by confronting people, situations and ideas that are contrary to one’s usual fare.  We need to ”crack the cognitive egg and scramble it up” in order to create what Jack Mezirow, professor emeritus at Columbia Teachers College, calls a “disorienting dilemma” … a situation or phenomenon that causes one to “critically reflect on the assumptions they’ve acquired.” 

Snappy synapses – Well, if that’s the way this works, I must have the healthiest neural pathways in the Universe. Since the dawn of the digital age, I have been subjected to a daily assortment of “disorienting dilemmas” … word processing, email, instant messaging, texting, skyping, podcasts, paypal, google groups … and the barrage of confounding technological developments doesn’t show any signs of letting up. Social media of every ilk is clamoring for attention … Facebook, LinkedIn, … apps for this and apps for that … and the scariest thing with the cutest name – Twitter. Everybody is going on about how Twitter is revolutionizing the world, and if a guy wants to even try to keep up with society they should start sending uber-witty Tweets to a whole bunch of people ASAP. 

If she can do it …  Cut to Golden Valley, Minnesota where traditional marketing methods at the Betty Crocker test kitchens have given way to aggressive forays into the land of social media. Forget bake-offs and box tops … old-school Betty Crocker has a thriving Facebook page and an iPhone app that lets users check recipes and kibitz with top chef experts. 

… Betty Crocker!?!  No stagnant synapses there!  The perky gal in the apron has been operating on the cutting edge of technology since 1926 when her radio debut signaled the nation’s first cooking show. (The broadcast featured thirteen different actresses working from radio stations across the country and ran for twenty-four years.)

The Take-Away:  Heck! If she can do it, … I can do it!  Betty is keeping her synapses sharp by staying on top of new media trends. We can all take a page out of her book on that!

Post-Note:  Ok, so even though I am clinging to the outer edges of the technological footprint that God intended for me, maybe it wouldn’t kill me to tweak my tech-neurons a little bit more.  Setting up a Twitter account is probably pretty straightforward. I’m even thinking that crafting messages made up of no more than 140 characters could be considered fun …  … I guess the real dilemma is convincing myself that:

a) I have the time and inclination to stop what I’m doing several times a day to send out a pithy communique; and

b) I have the kind of noteworthy swagger that merits mass communication.  (Who besides Ashton Kutcher does really?) 

Am I ready to be tethered to a constant technology-based duty that is fraught with outside expectations?  (I will be the first to admit that I hid, sabotaged or otherwise destroyed my kids’ Tamagotchi nano-pets back in the mid-90′s.)  … Hmmmm …… maybe I’ll just have another piece of super-moist chocolate cake and ponder that.

Pre-Ramble:  I almost want to hide under my bed for a couple of days until this all blows over, or at least until a third event happens to take the curse off.  I’m talking about crashes. 

First there was the “give-us-a-reality-show-couple” who crashed the state dinner at the White House last Tuesday night.  And then there was the curious case of Tiger Woods crashing his SUV into a tree at 2:30 in the morning … (… and his wife Elin broke into the vehicle with a golf club? … Really??)

I know what you’re thinking here. If history serves, the third crash should be coming any minute now, and it’s more than likely to be my computer. As you may recall, I have had the unfortunate distinction of having my computer crash twice in a two year period. (Surely, you could hear the kvetching and screaming from there … )

First, it was a faulty “reader arm” (!) … The second time, … I forget what the reason was (more like, I am blocking the trauma from conscious memory) … But I clearly remember that it wasn’t pretty, and I still have the dead hard drive right here on my desk to remind me to count my blessings (and back up my data) every day. 

The Take-Away: Just a gentle holiday reminder to back up your data, … and while you’re at it, buckle up your seat belt, eat all your vegetables, and don’t forget to floss. 

Post-Note: I’m not really superstitious, but if you don’t hear from me for the next 6 months, you’ll know what happened.  … ( … You don’t suppose that keeping the fried hard drive court-side brings bad Karma to my chi, do you?)

Pre-Ramble:  The following post was recently written (by me, as a contributing editor) for the PUSH Institute.  Founded by visionary Cecily Sommers, PUSH is an organization that monitors under-the-radar technologies, markets, people, and ideas that are pushing the future in new directions, and divines their implications for business, government, and nonprofit sectors in the years ahead … all to foster and promote “strategic foresight.” (And who couldn’t use a little of that?)  Check out PUSH at the link above!

So, here is the post.  It’s about the role of typography in the modern marketplace … (this kind of thing is really fascinating to us “designer types” … )

________________________________________

I was blown away the first time my accountant used the “f” word.  Since when does a bean counter talk bold face and italics?

B.C. (before computers) the word “font” was exclusive to graphic design.  Basically, unless you were a card carrying “creative,” you never had meaningful access to the secret society of typography. (Afterall, there are rules about this stuff … when typography falls into the wrong hands, all kinds of illegible things can happen.)

Anyone who has practiced the fine art of graphic design prior to the main-stream presence of word processing knows what I’m talking about. If I start waxing on about “keylining” or the living hell of “type spec-ing” you have my permission to slap my wrists with your pica ruler (google it). Let’s just say that, like nearly every aspect of our modern way of life, the design field, and specifically the manipulation of typography, has been literally transformed by technology.

In his classic tome, Designing with Type (1971), James Craig reveals the back story on all things typography — symbolic pictographs, ideographs, and early alphabets like Phoenician, Greek and Roman. Craig discusses the anatomy of a letter and common font terminology like: uppercase, lowercase, x-height, ascender, descender, counter, serif, san serif, boldface, italic, condensed, extended, leading, point size, punctuation marks, and the beloved “ampersand” … &.

When it comes to specific fonts, Craig has his favorites and goes into great depth on five classics that he believes provide a “standard by which to judge/evaluate all typefaces” — Garamond, Baskerville, Bodoni, Century Expanded, and Helvetica. I’m guessing that he would look askance at some of the fonts I’ve uncovered in my research here.

I’d invite Prof. Craig to contrast the Bodoni cap “S,” for example, with a cap “S” configuration designed by Estonian font designers, Vladimir and Maksim Loginov, made out of biscuit dough (biscuit alphabet shown above right). The brothers Loginov specialize in developing “unique, untraditional fonts.”  From the myraid samples offered on their website, I’d say they have exceeded this expectation.

The Take-Away: If you’re still thinking that nothing could be more pedestrian than font design, fasten your seatbelts and take a look at the iQ Font project by Pierre Smeets and Damian Aresta. I’d bet large sums of money that the genesis of this idea occurred in a dorm room somewhere.

iQ font – When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.

Pre-Ramble:  Look out! As of yesterday afternoon, I am the proud owner and captain of my very own iPhone 3GS.  That’s right, mild-mannered, tech-challenged me is packing “the fastest most powerful iPhone yet”…  … featuring up to 32 gigabytes of storage, voice control, video recording, cut and paste functions, and a bunch of other cool stuff that I don’t even understand. 

Apparently, I now carry the technological equivalent of NASA, a Swiss army knife, and a concierge right here in my purse.  This multi-functional object works as a cell phone, text-messaging center, email access, Internet hook-up, gaming arcade, jukebox, restaurant guide, movie camera (and editing table), calendar, to-do list, directional compass, GPS unit, and ”virtual” coin flipper… it even has a backyard bird guide!  How on earth did I get through a day without this thing?   

As is the case with most every product released by Apple, the iPhone 3GS is as close to design perfection as you can get. Its sleek, curved styling and clean simple functionality are a wonder to behold, and the crisp, brightly lit icon buttons communicate so well that even the most tech-unworthy among us can summon up the intuitive gumption to grasp their meaning. 

Apple has elevated the shopping experience around its products to an art form.  The classy glass entryway and underground orientation of its premiere NYC location (shown above) evoke I.M. Pei’s Louvre Museum in Paris. Even at our local mall here in Minnesota, the Apple store has a unique and exciting atmosphere. You walk into the stark, but bustling, white, bleached-wood gallery/playground environment and are immediately greeted by the first tier of the Apple staff hierarchy, a chipper team of ”associates” in orange t-shirts. Once the assessment has been made as to the objective of your visit, you are upgraded to an associate in a blue t-shirt. (Our’s was named Drew.)

The tech-wizard will see you now … The guys (and gals) in the blue shirts (the tech-hip equivalent of a starched white lab coat), are young, friendly, laid-back and highly knowledgeable around all things tech. Techiness reeks out of their  pores. They have official ID badges on lanyards; two-way transmission ear buds; and wifi, pocket-rocket cash registers strapped to their belts. These combination brand evangelist, nurse practitioner, tech-wizards, flawlessly walk you through the pertinent points of their presentation, citing competitive advantages and nifty features, and emitting invisible rays of wisdom so deep they must be all but able to divine your most hidden thoughts. The overarching vibe we got from Drew was, ”you’re safe, you’re in good hands, it’s cool, and it’s all good.”

So, you decide on the couple of options available on the unit — amount of memory (16 or 32 gigabytes … apparently both are beyond a TON of storage capacity … my sales associate confided that even he, in all his uber-techiness, had trouble filling up the 16GB unit) and color (black or white … black seemed the way to go), and then you head over to the accessories wall … some particulars:

• While the unit comes with a charging cable and headset, you need some way to recharge it on the road.  The Griffin “PowerJolt” seems to fit the bill (we’ll see … my newbie phone still has it’s original charge). 
• An anti-glare film protector is also a must, to ward off 99% of the scratches, dust, dirt, smudges and fingerprints that could mar your pristine and inherently fragile touch screen. Comes in a two-pack.
• You also definitely want a cover – something grippy and bouncy, so when you drop the thing, it has some kind of chance at survival. My daughters recommend the “incase” brand slider case … pliable enough to hug the phone, but firm enough to retain it’s shape (some of the cases made out of the more “rubbery” materials will actually stretch out over time, becoming baggy and flopping off the edge of the phone … not good — too easy to bobble the unit).

So, there you are. A few clicks on the remote cash register, the grand swipe of the credit card, and you’re good to go!  I hope this has been a useful and informative play-by-play on the iPhone 3GS purchase process. Stay tuned for future posts on user-interface pointers, foibles, etc. …

The Take-Away: By far, the best part about the whole iPhone 3GS scenario was the tech-envy incited by my new toy in my beloved teenage children. I swear, I was floating a few gigameters off the floor as we left the mall, while my daughter trudged along, shaking her head all, “Mom, you have no idea how much stuff that thing can do …” as though I were some 95-year-old granny crawling out of the parking lot in a spanking new Maserati Granturismo S.  

… SO, WE’RE EVEN — beauty is wasted on youth, and cutting-edge technology is wasted on us old farts!

Post-Note:  Thanks Drew — great job – I’m off to leap tall buildings! … And, as I mentioned on the sales floor, should I have any little questions or issues, I’ll be sure to text you.

Pre-Ramble: So, let’s see if that link-to-the-email relay mechanism really works … (and if you’re just joining us, I added a new feature to the site that can send a note to your email when I post a new blog. To sign up, just enter your email address into the field in the upper left-hand corner where it says “Enter your email address” … ). 

Theoretically, if you entered your email address into that little block area after my earlier test posting, a note that I just posted this blog entry should pop into your email. Or, if you entered you email address just now, a note will pop into your email the next time I post something.

Phew – this high-tech stuff is complicated! (My kids are currently rolling on the floor laughing at my attempt to describe something so simple that they can do it in their sleep.)

The Take-Away: Well, enough admin housekeeping — stay tuned for my next actual blog … something insightful, informative and/or entertaining … blah … blah.  In the meanwhile, it would really be helpful if you could send me a quick note through the “responses” function below to let me know whether the email feed worked for you or not.