.dots, Hugs, BITs, Bulbs
Who thought SMS would or even could be used as a control technology? Well, I guess it does make sense, its alphanumeric characters being blasted across microwave frequencies. Mark Argo of Mobjects has developed a couple of very innovative and cool apps for mobile phones. One is .dot.dot.dot using a JAVA app on the mobile, allows you to create pixel based animations and trigger them on a special display device through Bluetooth. The other is Hugms also using a JAVA app, this time creating a virtual visual hug based upon the length of characters you enter.
The Mobjects projects remind me of a similar product developed by the Yoshimoto Kogyo Co.Ltd. in Japan for Maywa Denki (a Japanese mod pop group styled after DEVO). Maywa Denki released a whole line of white plastic toys that were based on the pixel theme. One of which was the BITMAN, basically a small square device with a 64 pixel LED display that was connected to a small processor and sound chip, linked to potentiometers. By shaking in various directions, up and down, left to right, etc at various speeds, you are able to control the pixelated man walking, break dancing, flipping, etc. to a scratchy beatbox computer breakbeat.
Recently the VideoBulb was also released, a derivative of the BITMAN phenomenon, this one plugs into the RCA Video input of any TV or monitor and creates the same 64 pixel based animations on your screen, based upon audio sensors.
View: .dot.dot.dot Information
View: Hugms Information
View: Maywa Denki Website
Buy: BITMAN Shop
Buy: VideoBulb Shop