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helsinki defines the future of city info (60.23435742267943 , 24.906005859375) Most city centers have booths or offices where you can get information on local events.

In Helsinki, they've gone one better by creating an interactive City Wall; a touch screen where people can find and play with information and can also send in images for others to see.



Most of the recent attention has been on touch screens for personal use with the iPhone or Microsoft’s Surface Computing initiative, Helsinki’s City Wall is a glimpse of the future of civic information design and signage.

This is the type of screen we will soon be seeing in our airports, train stations and city centers.It will transform information that’s historically been one dimensional, static and often out of date into a responsive, interactive and collaborative nervous system.

Via Lost at E Minor



Posted by Ed Cotton We are fast moving into a world where "touch" becomes the "way" we control our devices and our computers. Much like Tom Cruise in the movie, The Minority Report, we will use our hands and fingers to manipulate data, just like this video shows.



Apple's iPhone is going to be the first mass manifestation of the technology.



However, there soon will be a time when every flat surface becomes an intelligent, networked touch screen. A space that's will know what exactly what's being placed upon it and one that allows interaction.

Of course, Microsoft is behind this..

The Redmond based giant has been talking to Starwood and T-Mobile about bringing this technology to retail stores and hotels.

Not to be forogtten from the story is the incredible advertising opportunity this technology could offer. Imagine placing a glass of wine down on the touch screen at a bar, it would know what wine you were drinking and could offer you relevant food items to compliment it or another glass of wine at a slightly lower price. Yep, the jobs that humans are supposed to do, but computers might just do more efficiently.

Going back to the Minority Report, the video below shows how this technology is going to radically impact the way we work.




Maker Faire is all about the fringes of the DIY culture, the hackers and inventors that make the cool things possible, but there was a splattering of commercialism around the Faire.  

Google promoting Sketchup, Yahoo invited hackers to play and the biggest presence of all Microsoft, who, in typical style, took over a whole hall and invited people to play, see and experiment with everything from virtual maps to gaming.

Sitting on the boundaries between the world of hackers and commerce was Open Moko, a platform designed to solve the lack of openness in mobile software.

The purpose is to solve this problem identified by the founder Sean Moss-Putlz

“I can never upgrade or customize my phone. I have to buy a new one every few months if I want some new (software) feature to work.”

It’s complicated and dense, but that’s the idea, it’s a phone for geeks, not just the cool dudes who want the iPhone, it’s for those who want to tinke and play.

Build it, the geeks will take it and make it better.

Interestingly, this isn’t just a geek pipedream, Sean has backers, FIC, a Taiwanese handset maker.

The first Open Moco handset will be launched in the summer.

Yes, it has a touch-screen.

A more detailed explanation of Sean’s thinking can be found here.


Bus shelter out of home board with touch screen technology. Being used by Nokia to promote the N95. Via Textually.