According to developers Niloy J. Mitra and Mark Pauly, Shadow Art is a tool to create abstract sculptures that can cast three different shadows, depending on the angle they are oriented against the a light source. These sculptures can be built in the physical world with any material, not only Lego, as well as used in 3D rendering programs to achieve the same effect. [Shadow Art via bldgblog]

For those that just can't be bothered to glance at a map or screen in order to figure out where to walk, Pull-Navi is perfect because it takes advantage of reflex:

The ear navigator, called Pull-Navi, has six helmet-mounted motors to pull the wearer's ears forward, backward, left, right, up and down. The designers say people follow its lead almost instinctively - pull left and they turn that way; pulling both ears forward or backward at the same time makes them speed up or slow down; and tugging up or down heads them up or down stairs.

Does this vaguely remind anyone else of how horses are guided? [Japan Times]

Image from KIDK

By "unwrapping" or flattening a 3D image, the program simplifies the editing process, making it possible to add artifacts and other special effects with greater ease. The project is only in the research phase at the moment, but the long term goal would undoubtedly be to slap a UI on there and deliver it to a mustache hungry public. Hit the link for a videos and documentation on the Unwrap Mosaic technology. [Unwrap Mosaics]

The game in the video above requires each player to try to hit a projected target on the court with the Bouncing Star. As a player picks up the ball and begins to throw it on the court, the accelerometer in the ball acknowledges motion and transforms the ball's color. Using infrared, the ball can interact with the digital court; when the ball touches down or races by, the court can display a motion graphic or some other cool visual reaction.

Because of the low light in the video above, the intensity of the ball's interaction with the display was not well documented, but the idea of a ball wirelessly interacting with a digital court is pure genius. If the same principles of this Bouncing Star could be integrated into all sports using balls, we would have some amazing games to play and to watch. In Tron, the crazy Frisbee game was just a program inside of a computer, but this Tron-like tech—designed by engineers at Japan's University of Electro-Communications—could soon happen in real life. You hearing this, Nintendo? [Bouncing Star at SIGGRAPH]

The same system can be turned into a dueling game: you and your worst enemy put on shirts with barcodes or distinct images on the front and back. At 10 paces, you both draw your digital Elphs and start snapping. He who snaps the most shots of the other guy's sensitive areas—or maybe a iconic flag your enemy was meant to protect—wins. (I assume the tally happens later on, because even with cameraphones, there'd surely be an annoying lag as Spellbinder performed shot-by-shot analysis.)

The freakiest application is a photo-database version of GPS, where you take a picture of, say, the Chrysler Building, and Spellbinder tells you, or your Facebook amigos, where you are.

Since it was just announced at Siggraph in San Diego this week, we don't have any particulars on if, how or when ordinary folks will get to use it, but we've got our fingers crossed. [BBC News]

While we always thought you didn't need electronics to play games by touching each other, but in the interest of technological innovation, such things have been invented. With this far-fetched flight of fancy, there are two controllers involved: one mounted in a bra that you see in the picture here, and the other in a pair of boxer shorts. Of course the bra was intended for the women and the boxer shorts for the men, but being the pervs that we are, we figure they might be interchangeable according to which type of game you're playing. Each one has six sensors on board, some of them placed in much more intimate spots than others, and all controlling various parts of games.

The solar bikini is making an encore appearance from last year, and this year it has 1"x 4" photovoltaic film strips sewn together, pumping out 5 volts of juice into a (of course) female USB connection. We're not seeing a lot of difference between this one and last year's, but we do like this model a lot better, although we'd like to see a lot more of her. But this year there's also a solar speedo for guys in the show, and it's reported to have really, really voluminous surface area to soak up lots of energy. Real he-man stuff. [Siggraph Unravel]

Apple isn't the only event happening today, you know. SIGGRAPH (a conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques) is happening in San Diego as well, and there's some pretty neat stuff being shown off there. This Haptic Glove, for example, transmits the feeling of holding an object in your hand from afar.

Imagine shaking hands with someone from across the country, feeling not only the texture of their hand but also the warmth of it. Wondering how soft that sweater is you're thinking of purchasing online? Feel it before you buy it. Sure, it's kind of an esoteric technology, and it's still about 10 years away from being fully realized, but it's a pretty cool glimpse at what engineers are currently toiling over. [SIGGRAPH 07 via The Raw Feed]

Another use for the technology would be to watermark video and filmed content, so when pirates try to videotape movies by sneaking a camcorder into the theater, there could be a big bunch of funky-looking text all over it. Enabling this is a clever trick using a patented invisible light projector developed by Logie and Dickie. More Kameraflage clothing will be demonstrated at the ACM SIGGRAPH Unravel fashion show on August 6 in San Diego. [Kameraflage]

Although it's just a design concept so far, it's yet another advance in the march toward total teledildonics, which we've been relentlessly tracking for you for a while now. Check out the pics of this babe getting hugged all over:

This isn't the first we've seen of this concept. A year ago, someone thought of this idea of hugs-over-SMS using some sort of weird handheld device, but that just resulted in a text message on the other side. Now the touchy-feely extends to a shirt that actually tries to hug you. Where will it go next? – Charlie White

Product Page [Cute Circuit, via uber review]

This is a pretty smart idea, but isn't pepper spray still a bit easier to carry around and operate? It seems like too many things could go wrong with the IPV clothing. I guess it just depends if the clothing can determine whether something is physical abuse or an accidental fall, etc. This project will be on display at the SIGGRAPH Fashion Show next week in Boston. – Travis Hudson

Intimate Partner Violence Clothing [WMMNA]