There has been an interesting experiment in lighting that originates from a 2d surface. Designer Jonas Samson has invented duel function wallpaper, which acts traditionally, as wallpaper, but also doubles up as light source. When the wallpaper is turned ‘off’ there is no indication the light is hidden inside. This is certainly a replacement for any mood lighting you have, it’s also space saving and innovative.

This wallpaper raises a couple of interesting points and crossovers into the realm of technology. First, is that presumably the wallpaper would be at least partially customisable allowing anyone to design their own light whilst also designing their own wallpaper. Personalisation has been a key feature of consumer electronics over the years, (a current example is HP’s The computer is personal again campaign) and this wallpaper has the potential to take the idea of personalisation through technology into new and very different area of our lives.

Secondly the driving force for much of technology at present is smaller and more convergent. The Viewty is a mobile phone, a multimedia player, a camera and a web browser to name but a few and this invention although not focused on traditional gadgetry, is very much part of that landscape.

Another revolutionary aspect of the Viewty is the possible ISO light sensitivity setting of 800. Whilst normal digital cameras regularly have an ISO 800 setting (and above) it is unusual for a camera phone to have such a high setting. Such a (relatively) high rating will allow you take better pictures in darkened conditions and addresses a common complaint with camera phones generally – that they don’t work well in low light. The Viewty also includes Smart Light technology ensuring better and brighter images indoors and at night.

The fun video shows the relative difference in light sensitivity between ISO settings by recreating Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night with 30,000 post-it notes. Keep your eye on the bottom right hand corner to see the ISO setting increase along with the light.

Comparisons with a standard digital camera have been excellent, Dial-a-Phone is certainly impressed with the Viewty’s capabilities, and you can see the results of our own low light test here.

Fancy getting a LG Viewty for free and having your bill paid? Shiny Media and LG have launched a Europe wide mobile blog project called City Clickers, which is of course open to UK residents.

The aim is to get mobile bloggers to capture the style and character of their city though its residents. They are looking for ten creative people who are willing to go out and photograph the people around them in the spirit of the army of street style bloggers such as The Sartorialist and Face Hunter. Those taking part will be issued with a Viewty to carry out the project, have their phone bill paid for two months and get some training so they can get the most out of the 5 MP camera.

More details including how to apply can be found here

Amazing how much influence design has in our expectations of what’s behind the packaging. It’s only when someone challenges those expectations that we realise how important design is.

Michael Young has designed a genre breaking whisky bottle for Japanese brand Nikka. It’s a far cry from what we would instinctively expect a whisky bottle to look like. The design of whisky bottles almost without fail emphasises the heritage of whisky making and you can always see the liquid in the bottle.

Young’s design by contrast has left no traditional element untouched, it’s black, contemporary and self-consciously different. It’s simplicity is most striking and at least initially you have no idea what’s in the bottle – you could even be forgiven for thinking it was vodka. So a bit risky perhaps but the cool factor is massive with this design and you can see it appealing to a new generation of whisky drinker.

The same is true for much of technological design – coming up with a simple but radical change in design can make all the difference.

The design of the London Olympic stadium has been revealed. It will be an 80,000 seat stadium of which 55,000 of those seats will be demountable making way for a 25,000 seat athletic stadium when the games have finished. This seems to be the focus of the design - creating a spectacular stadium for the event but very much taking into account the purpose of the stadium after the main event has finished.

A fairly revolutionary approach to stadium building, and a refreshing move away from the tendency with stadium building for each one to out do the next in terms of size and pomposity.

The overall design of stadium captures this idea of ‘legacy’ that the games organisers have been so keen to talk up in there never ending quest for ’sustainability.’ They’ve taken the softly softly approach with the design - the stadium will be shrouded in an unexciting sounding ‘fabric curtain’ and so far the pictures of the stadium have been bathed in a warm pink glow.

There’s obviously an agenda of doing it differently and opposing the kind of stadium design seen in the Beijing Olympic stadium with its astounding steel ‘birds nest’ structure. The problem is that whilst this is all very admirable the London stadium is a bit unremarkable. Which would you rather have as a legacy - a 25,000 seat open air athletic stadium or an 80,000 seat architectural behemoth?

The question is whether the promise of sustainability, and the insistence that the design reflects this, will really be enough to make it a truly great stadium?

I noticed that Time magazine has awarded its invention of year 2007 prize to the iPhone. It’s not my place to say whether it should or shouldn’t have been given that award by Time, as mentioned in previous posts we respect the iPhone tremendously.

No, what is perplexing is the reasons the Time journalist gives for the iPhone winning. He mentions as one of the reasons that the iPhone is ‘pretty’ and that ‘high tech-tech companies don’t take design seriously.’ As Gizmodo suggests, this is a comment that would annoy plenty of other mobile phone companies and indeed LG has always had one eye firmly on design with its products.

The Design Art TV is one such device and looks the way it does because of a dedicated team of designers in Milan, whilst also incorporates innovative technology such as Intelligent Eye. LG has a tradition of a good design with it’s products – after all the Prada was designed in conjunction with the fashion house and was one of first non PDA mobiles to incorporate a touch screen.

HP’s Blackbird gaming PC is an excellent example of innovation coming from ground breaking design and perfectly suits the target audience. The Phillips Aurea LCD is a TV that derives its good looks from the AmbiLight technology and clearly shows that technology companies hardly think of design as an after thought. There are many more.

I’m pretty sure most people could think of lots of examples where good design and technology go hand in hand

Stephen Fry (yes, that Stephen Fry), in his brand new “Dork Talk” column, gives the LG Viewty a bit of a whirl, and overall he’s impressed:

One neat feature: the screen can vibrate when touched, offering a kind of fingertip feedback that, once you’re used to it, improves the whole relationship. In the end, I suspect this phone will attract more females than males, but what’s wrong with that?

I came expecting to scoff, but sent it back (reluctantly) to the PR company that let me play with it rather impressed. This is no iPhone killer any more than the Prada was, but if you want a neat, cute, fun phone that leans in favour of photos and general media larkiness, you could do a lot worse.

We’re pleased that he likes it, though we’d also like to clear something up. Stephen says you can only input text onto the phone via a numeric phone keypad or handwriting recognition (which he doesn’t like). However, the phone also offers a full QWERTY keyboard which takes advantage of the large touchscreen - which you can either use with your fingers or the stylus provided. So if you are a text & email addict and want to type quickly, your needs are taken care of.

As I’ve said once or twice before, we’re really proud of the camera features on the new Viewty - but we thought it would be best to let the camera speak for itself. So here’s a nice outdoor shot demonstrating the Viewty’s capability, against a competitor’s dedicated 5MP camera:

Competitor camera

Viewty

As you can see, the blue in the sky comes out a lot clearer, and the midtones in the tree are a lot more distinct with the better contrast. The Viewty is also great in low-light conditions:

Competitor camera

Viewty

The colour is brighter, despite he gloomy conditions, and the lines more distinct.

On all four photos you can click through to view the originals to see more so you can see the whole photos for yourself, in case you’re thinking we’re being selective.

Over at Crave there is this fantastic pictorial history of the digital camera - from cameras that recorded onto analogue tape (like videos), to the first true digital handheld cameras, and then the advances in miniaturisation and storage which means we have cameraphones today. We’ve come a long way since this prototype from Kodak way back in 1975:

A really interesting story - but it misses once crucial detail. What was the first digital photograph of? It’s amazing that we have the world’s first ever photo still to hand from over 180 years ago, but not the first digital one from a mere 32…

One of the unique features the Viewty offers is 120 f/s video recording and this flipbook style animation neatly demonstrates it. The Viewty will record at 120 f/s and when played back at the standard 30 f/s the action appears in slow motion. You can see the difference between normal speed and 120 f/s slow motion playback in the video. This feature is great if your planning on recording sports, or indeed any kind of action shot and there have already been a few simple experiments that show what the camera is capable of.

There is clearly plenty of scope for your imagination with the slow motion play back and I think it’s one of, if not the standout feature on the Viewty.

Incidentally, does anyone know what the scene is after the bird and before the balloon? It’s a tricky one.