Korean Emart recently placed 3D QR code sculptures throughout the city of Seoul that could only be scanned between noon and 1 pm each day — consumers were given discounts at the store during those quiet shopping hours. (via In Seoul, retailer uses 3D QR codes and the sun to deliver discounts only during its quiet times | Springwise)
Smart phones, in short, have given users the impression that they move through communal spaces as if in private bubbles. “They feel that everywhere they are, they have their privacy,” Hatuka says. Smart phones have created, the researchers say, “portable private personal territories.”
French researchers have developed wallpaper that’s designed to trap Wi-Fi signals, without interfering with radio or cellphone signals. It uses conductive ink containing silver crystals to to block a Wi-Fi router’s operating frequencies: your router should work as expected, but the signal won’t travel beyond the wallpaper’s boundaries. While currently only a prototype, researchers at the Grenoble Institute of Technology hope to make the wallpaper commercially available early next year. (via Wi-Fi blocking wallpaper improves security without hampering cellphone coverage | The Verge)
Machine-readable children. (via Child ID Temporary Safety Tattoos to prevent lost kids :: SafetyTat)
“You may periodically hear what sounds to be birds in distress. These are recorded devices that help us reduce the actual bird population in the Terminal without harming the birds. We appreciate everyone’s understanding on this matter.”
Taken by wkbdyb at Detroit airport, via Instagram.
Twitter / @hackerfantastic: “MET Police sign encouraging users to join insecure access points and enable Bluetooth to get messages”
— BLDGBLOG
Girls Around Me is a standard geolocation based maps app, similar to any other app that attempts to alert you to things of interest in your immediate vicinity: whether it be parties, clubs, deals, or what have you. When you load it up, the first thing Girls Around Me does is figure out where you are and load up a Google Map centered around your location. […]
It’s when you push the radar button that Girls Around Me does what it says on the tin. I pressed the button for my friends. Immediately, Girls Around Me went into radar mode, and after just a few seconds, the map around us was filled with pictures of girls who were in the neighborhood.
This is the thing, though: even though Foursquare have now yanked the API key for this particular app, this is absolutely the inevitable consequence of publishing this information in the first place. We’re applying privacy expectations set when aggregation was high-effort and high-friction to a world in which it’s neither, and we’re doing it by assumption, rather than intent. (It’s the last bit that’s the problem.)
Paper posters that play music via printed circuits made with conductive ink have been unveiled.
The prototype “Listening Post” poster is a guide to bands performing locally.
The interactive poster plays a short clip of a band’s music when a thumbnail image is pressed. Tickets can also be booked via the poster.
Yes yes yes. That’s much more like it.
