Issue 215 | 14 June 2014

What Next?

H(onda)2o

With the world’s water crisis continuing to worsen and air pollution levels on the rise, Honda have a great new idea that aims to tackle both issues simultaneously. The automotive manufacturer’s new vehicle, FCX Clarity, runs on compressed hydrogen as apposed to diesel or petrol, and therefore produces no harmful emissions. The emissions it does produce however, take the form of pure water. Honda claims the water is so pure it is drinkable. So naturally, Honda Australia have produced their own water brand, h2o, which they are distributing for free in cinemas around the country.

It’s a great idea and worth a closer look!

Video of the week

First Moon Party

Avid tampon deliverers, Hello Flo, first came to our attention with their viral spot Camp Gyno last year.  It was universally heralded as the greatest tampon ad in the history of all tampon ads – and rightly so. It comes as no surprise, then, that their second effort is just as awesome/hilarious/slightly uncomfortable as the last. It’s racked up over 18.5 millions views in JUST ONE WEEK.

TV Ratings

QLD lose their winning streak

All People National – Free to Air Station Audience
 State of Origin Round 2: NSW vs QLD – Wed Network 9  2,578,000
 State of Origin Round 2: Prematch – Wed Network 9  1,692,000
 The Voice Kids – Sun Network 9  1,646,000
 House Rules – Sun Network 7  1,542,000
 House Rules – Tues Network 7  1,484,000
 House Rules – Mon Network 7  1,473,000
 Seven News – Sun Network 7  1,378,000
 Nine News – Mon Network 9  1,369,000
 The Voice – Mon Network 9  1,344,000
 Seven News – Mon Network 7  1,335,000

3D selfies

MegaFaces brought to life the selfie on a scale and fashion never seen before.  This innovative installation piece has just won the 2014 Cannes Lions Innovation Grand Prix, a well-deserved award for a seriously awesome idea. Visitors to the pavilion in Sochi, during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, could have their faces transformed on a huge kinetic sculpture, on a facade conceived by Asif Khan and engineered by iart. Passersby could have their faces 3D scanned then rendered into huge moving sculptures.  The 3D images are controlled/created by cylinders that move independently of each other and each represent a single pixel on the “screen”.

Website of the week

Cannes Lions get Happy

After winning multiple awards in Cannes cyber division, including the Grand Prix, it’s hard to not go back and relive the amazingness that is Pharrell’s 24HOURSOFHAPPY. The 24-hour music video turned interactive website is so much fun you can literally get lost for hours. A well deserved winner, enjoy!

London bus stop gets the Lego treatment

Commuters on London’s Regent Street were treated to a unique experience last Friday, finding that their usual bus stop was replaced by a structure of 100,000 Lego blocks. While some could be fooled into thinking it was the work of street artist Banksy, this metropolitan marvel was a collaboration between Transport for London, Lego and Trueform, a design and manufacturing company that specializes in public transport hardware.

The bus stop, which took a fortnight to build, was constructed entirely from the beloved bricks, with only the maps being attached using spray adhesive. It was created to celebrate what Transport for London has dubbed “The Year of the Bus”. This year marks several anniversaries for this famed London icon, including the 200th anniversary of mass transit in London and the 60th anniversary of the Routemaster.

The fully-functioning bus stop will remain until July 15th.

App of the week

Beautiful me

Beautiful Me is an excellent new mobile app that can scan your personal images to help create a profile of your skin and reveal your true skin tone, as well as show you how your skin has changed over time. Once activated, the app will automatically download up to 500 Facebook photos and select about a hundred high quality pictures from the group for analysis. After detecting skin and facial features (like skin tone and under tones) it then utilizes a deep neural network and multi-level statistical analysis to examine the user’s skin and features, before giving you all the information you need to correctly care for your skin and select the perfect make-up to compliment your complexion. Basically, this app allows you to have your own personal dermatologist and beautician right at your fingertips at all times.  Take a closer look in the video.

Did you catch last week’s issue of What Next? Or would you like to browse our previous issues?

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