Moxie Interactive Daily Trends

Off The Cuff

• Tactile Display Allows You To ‘Feel’ Both Light and Shadow
  At Siggraph 2010, a new tactile display is being shown off which allows the user to feel light and shadow. Called Touch Light Through the Leaves, the device consists of a camera which detects light. The device uses 85 vibration units that have motors to process the light and shadow information into sensations.

• Booyah Utilizes Facebook Places for Standalone App
  Booyah has unveiled a new game that is the first standalone app to utilize the recently launched Facebook Places API and Facebook Search. “In InCrowd, players create their own customizable avatar, socialize, meet new friends and track popularity when they check-in to their favorite real-life places using their iPhone or iPod touch,” the company explains. “InCrowd players gain popularity when others respond using a series of in-game actions, such as hi fives, fist bumps, winks, or posting about a venue.”

• Facebook To Sell Credits Gift Cards At Target
  Want to purchase gift cards to use on your favorite Facebook games? Soon enough you’ll be able to do just that at Target based on a new report from Reuters. According to the report, “Facebook Credits will be available in Target stores beginning September 5 in increments of $15, $25 and $50.” This is part of the company’s continued push to expand their Credits platform, a service which has become increasingly integrated with the largest applications on Facebook.

Hollywood

• DoubleTwist Screencast: It’s iTunes for Android
  DoubleTwist combines a music player with complete library control that integrates with iTunes on the desktop. When an Android phone is connected to the computer it acts as an extension of the system, featuring full syncing of music, photos and movies. In place of the iTunes Music Store, doubleTwist is fully integrated with the Amazon MP3 store for shopping, and also is integrated with the Android Market to download apps.

• Propellerheads’ Gigantic Outdoor Drum Machine
  Propellerhead’s outdoor drum machine that was taken out “in the wild” at night in Stockholm, Sweden, for people to play with! The team at Propellerhead created the world’s largest drum machine, which looks like a platform, but when players step on the various squares different drum beats ensue. The execution also featured digital signage on the wall in front of the platform to allow the surrounding crowd to be able to better see what is actually happening on the platform drum set.

• Michael Jackson Is Nokia’s Most-Downloaded Musician
  According to data collected by Nokia’s Ovi music store, Michael Jackson has surpassed Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga and a horde of the world’s most popular recording artists to achieve this title. Some speculate Jackson’s death last year and tributes surrounding what would have been the singer’s 52nd birthday this week to a surge in sales. In a release, musicologist Geoff Roberts noted Jackson’s perennial popularity, saying, “Michael Jackson has always been a pop music legend. But the anniversary of his death and upcoming birthday celebrations seem to have revived Jackson fever as fans rediscover his songs, making him the most popular solo artist of all time.”

Kids

• Robot Companions to Befriend Sick Kids at European Hospital
  The ALIZ-E project is a European Commission-funded venture aimed at producing robots that can forge “longer-term constructive bonds” with people in a hospital setting. Grouping academic and commercial partners, it kicked off six months ago and will run for four and a half years. It’s essentially an artificial intelligence effort. Aldebaran Robotics’ Nao humanoids, used in RoboCup and research centers around the world, will be interacting with and helping kids at the Hospital San Rafaelle in Milan. The children are about 8 years old, and have recently been diagnosed with diabetes. The patients will be learning about diabetes and how to manage it during their hospitalization.

• Is Value-Added Teacher Data Flawed?
  Amidst the imbroglio kicked up by The Los Angeles Times series of articles on teacher effectiveness data comes the findings of a research paper authored by several prominent education experts and published by the non-partisan Economics Policy Institute. Its finding: It would be “unwise” to consider student improvement (or the opposite) in standardized tests as up to 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation, as some states are proposing to do.