The Discretion Barrier solves a problem common in many office environments—disruption by people talking on the phone. The simple design provides enough of a physical and acoustic barrier to offer privacy without isolation. The frame enables an additional layer of privacy with added functionality as a coatrack.
(via RIT students collaborate with Herman Miller to create designs to enhance collaboration.)
Might also be useful for personal video calls (e.g. Facetime) as well.
Vurb - a mobile first search app - is trying to define the shift from a search paradigm, which was built for desktop computing, to the “Age of Context” on mobile devices.
Using existing iBeacon (BLE) and smartphone technology, and drawing on the experience of simulated journeys with limited sight on the network, ustwo developed a location-tracking system that provided audio guidance via bone-conduction headphones. Refining and testing the product with the RLSB Youth Forum throughout the exercise led to real advances in understanding the challenges faced by young vision-impaired people, and the growing possibilities of an affordable tech solution. - RLSB
From MIT:
THAW is a novel interaction system that allows a collocated large display and small handheld devices to seamlessly work together. The smartphone acts both as a physical interface and as an additional graphics layer for near-surface interaction on a computer screen. Our system enables accurate position tracking of a smartphone placed on or over any screen by displaying a 2D color pattern that is captured using the smartphone’s back-facing camera. The proposed technique can be implemented on existing devices without the need for additional hardware.
