I often wonder about the days when augmented reality will really take hold. We’ll all be walking around in our own bubble-world, digital projections glancing our every sight. Three-dimensional advertisements beamed directly into our skull-plates, transmissions of Twitter updates taking hold in our field of vision. Well, Keiichi Matsuda has created a couple of videos that picture this world in such gorgeous detail that I’ve sat here slack-jawed watching them both several times.

Hit the jump for both of the videos, as well as more information on the maestro behind them.

Details on Keiichi Matsuda, via io9:

Keiichi Matsuda creates incredible short films that depict an augmented reality city where synthetic information clouds are grafted onto brick’n'mortar material spaces.

The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape, more and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by the digital information that we collect, consume and organise; an immersive interface may become as much part of the world we inhabit as the buildings around us.

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology defined by its ability to overlay physical space with information. It is part of a paradigm shift that succeeds Virtual Reality; instead of disembodied occupation of virtual worlds, the physical and virtual are seen together as a contiguous, layered and dynamic whole. It may lead to a world where media is indistinguishable from ‘reality’. The spatial organisation of data has important implications for architecture, as we re-evaluate the city as an immersive human-computer interface

For the majority of us geeks who live in both the nostalgic past but also the wistful, non-existent future, these videos are gorgeous. Tip of the ole cap.

Oh shit! The future is about to arrive, and none of us are fucking ready! As it is scientifically known, Back to the Future provided a glimpse into the true future. I know we’ve been clamoring for it, and it has taken a while, but the first signs of its arrival is about to rear its head.

Self-tying sneakers. Fuck yes.

Deadspin:

The automatic lacing system provides a set of straps that can be automatically opened and closed to switch between a loosened and tightened position of the upper. The article further includes an automatic ankle cinching system that is configured to automatically adjust an ankle portion of the upper.

Welcome to the fucking future. It’s deliciously swank in here.

This is the sort of machine that Pepsibones or I would dream up at the dinner table while our family was trying to eat. And then they’d all deride us, our girlfriends and our parents, calling us sickos and pre-vurts. Well guess what, naysaying family members! Someone else thought this up, and it’s awesome, and like, sort of real.

Boing Boing:

Seen here is an unusual example of excess G’s being harnessed for the good. The patent holders, George B. and Charlotte Blonsky, contend that the centrifuge could be a boon to “more civilized women,” who, they surmise, often lack the muscle strength needed to easily push out a baby. Centrifugal force would act as a sort of invisible midwife, lessening the muscular force required for birthing. Would it work, though? Could one create enough outward force on the baby to make a difference — without simultaneously making the mother lightheaded? I sent the patent to April Ronca, who used to research the effects of zero G on fetal growth and birth for NASA. “That is an interesting invention,” she replied.

…continued:

Note the elasticized “pocket-shaped newborn net” – lest the baby shoot out and bump its head with double-G force.

Scientists are fucking awesome! And someday I hope to come up with a device this cool.

Source: Pink Tentacle Via Boing Boing

As someone who is obsessed with the Cold War and Apocalyptic Wastelands, it is like this thing was fashioned for me. Behold! An animated map chronicling all 2,053 nuclear explosions that have occurred on the Blue Wonder that is our planet. Blue, you know, as long as we don’t done fuck up with one of these wunder-hammers. Hit the jump and behold in the beauty and terror of man and science.

Fuck the Kinect! This shit is the real deal here! You don’t need no karate kicks here! Waterloo Labs, through some sort of scientific witchcraft have designed a way for people to play Super Mario Bros. using only their eyes. Yeah, it involves a shitload of electrodes and other creepy shit, but still! Super Mario Bros.! With your eyes! Believe!

Hit the jump to check out the video.

Japan’s got a real-scale Gundam statue. Utterly ridiculous, word? Yeah man, but if it isn’t friggin’ awesome, I don’t know what is. Hit the jump to check out a time-lapse video of a day in the life of our boy Real-Scale Gundam.

In the future, I’ll be able to eat a burger that was cultured from the skin cells of cows, cross-spliced with that of a new born baby T-Rex with a splash of decaying dodo bird. But for now? For now I’ll have to satisfy myself with the notion that I can head over to Europe and eat cloned steak. Welcome to the fucking future!:

New Scientist:

Have cloned meat and dairy products found their way onto the shelves of shops in Europe? Yes, if you believe the Swiss government and the claims of an unnamed British dairy farmer who told The New York Times that he is selling milk from a cow bred from a clone.

&

Material from cloned animals and their offspring is likely to be on the European market already… It is known that imports already began being made some years ago. Once imported, genetic material from cloned animals can spread quickly throughout livestock in Europe, removing choice for farmers and consumers.

Oh Europe! You folks are truly the bees knees. I can’t be the only one who gets a nerdboner while contemplating eating something that is a clone, can I? I mean, I’m not lucky enough to be able to munch on the withering, jerky-esque skull of a clone like Boba Fett, but I’ll take this. Meet me in England!

Source: Boing Boing : Click to Enlarge

In a letter from 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, uncannily, predicts both GPS and satellite TV. Bravo, you amazing and forward-thinking son of a bitch.

I worry about the death of physical books. I do, because I like beating them to a pulp, carrying them around with me, writing in the marginalia. My worrying today was exacerbated:

via boingboing:

Amazon today released an announcement boasting that sales of the Kindle device have tripled since the unit price dropped from $259 to $189. And with that, a related piece of news. Founder Jeff Bezos: “While our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”

Sweet Jesus Christ. I simultaneously embrace and fear the forthcoming Intangible Apocalypse. I love the idea of collecting an entire library in a slab of plastic. But I also love physically flipping through books. I love the idea of electronically searching for a term at lightning speed. But I also love the smell of books, and writing in them. Actively engaging the text.

I’m torn.

In the end, I don’t think the decision is going to be left up to me.

via ohhaveyouseenthis:

French artist Nils Guadagnin made a hoverboard. You know, like the one in Back to the Future 2 and you totally wanted after you saw the movie. It was made for an art exhibit and levitates using an electromagnetic system and is stabilized by a laser.

Someone call up Marty McFly he doesn’t have to travel to the future anymore, hoverboards are fucking real! Awesome.

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