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This week was our wedding anniversary so I was in our local Saratoga Springs, NY Hallmark store looking for a card for my wife. While I was perusing their selection, I noticed a video display and was amazed to discover that Hallmark is embracing Augmented Reality.

Here’s a video posting from MommyReporter:

I first discovered AR last summer around this time and have been fascinated by its potential. Most people are still unaware of Augmented Reality but now that a mass appeal company like Hallmark is employing this technology, I expect to see a lot more market penetration for AR during the next 12 months.

Here’s a link for the Hallmark website:

http://bit.ly/86tjXH

Your thoughts?

Earlier this year, I showed you how augmented reality can be used as part of the clothes shopping experience. Now, YOUReality and metalio have created an Online Retail Visualization 3D tool to help you see how furniture, appliances, electronics or other accessories might look in your current living space.

And for your iPhone:

How soon do you think it will be before you start taking this type of technology for granted?

Have you ever been at a large event and become swept up with the crowd in the emotion of the moment? Have you found yourself choking up while watching someone cry on TV? Or have you suddenly found your mood lightening when someone enters the room in a happy mood?

Recent research has shown that the human brain contains something called “mirror neurons” . When we see or hear someone else experiencing an emotion , these “mirror neurons” cause us to experience that emotion, too.

I envy Robert Krulwich his ability to make science interesting.

Here’s my question. If your brain can’t tell the difference between whether YOUR body is doing something or instead you’re watching someone else do it, why would you put yourself through the stress of watching a horror movie?

Dr. Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma , believes that by understanding the concept of mirror neurons you can become more effective in communicating your ideas to others.

And here’s some animation which does a great job of explaining how “mirror neurons” were discovered.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts about this research.

If you’re looking for quality of life, new career opportunities and a place that’s stepping up to the challenge of change in the 21st century, consider New York State’s Tech Valley Region.

Saratoga is equidistant from Boston, New York City and Montreal. Winters aren’t too hard, summers aren’t too hot. If you like outdoor activities, you’ll like it here.

Learn more at www.saratogaedc.com

musicFIRST is at it again.

Yesterday, Dionne Warwick was in Washington trying to persuade Congress to pass the Performance Rights Act. According to Dionne, “This is a critical issue for not only those of us who have made music our careers, but for those who are trying to make a name for themselves in the business. Performers from every genre of music should be fairly compensated for their art. Thus far, radio is the only medium that fails to provide artists with fair compensation for the use of their music and we feel it is time for radio companies to join Satellite, Internet, and Cable music distributors in giving musical artists what they have worked so hard to earn.”

I’m sorry, Dionne but could we review your tax records for the past 45 years? I would suspect that a lot of money has flowed into your personal account primarily because of the FREE exposure and promotion you received from radio stations playing your songs in high rotations and on-air personalities reinforcing your brand by praising your talent. I’m sure that your contract with your record labels was designed more in their best interest than yours but that’s not radio’s fault. What all that FREE exposure on radio did for you, however, was increase audience awareness of your talent, increase your TV exposure, increase demand for your live performances and increase the fees you could demand for those performances. Seems to me that you profited nicely from all that FREE exposure.

And before someone posts the same lame comment about radio gets free use of our airwaves and we the people own the airwaves, it would be useful to remember that radio stations are granted short-term licenses to access those airwaves with the promise to operate in the public “interest, convenience and necessity”. Then, companies must invest millions of dollars in order to build their facilities, purchase the equipment, pay the electric bills (which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year), pay the personnel (on-air staff, engineers, support staff, sales people, management), pay a large
percentage of gross advertising revenues to music rights companies (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC) and pay local, state and federal taxes. If times are good and the station does a good job of serving its listeners, it can earn a nice profit. If times are tight, it can lose money even if it’s doing a good job of serving its audience. So, saying that radio gets “free” use of our airwaves is a bit misleading.

It amazes me that the artists who support musicFIRST’s efforts don’t understand that if the RIAA gets its way and forces radio to start paying for the right to play songs then fewer stations will choose to continue playing music and those stations that do continue to play music will become more selective about what they play. If a station is paying for songs, its budget will dictate that it choose the most cost-effective tunes which will be obvious hits by artists with established track records. Consequently, playlists will become even tighter. I’m not sure that’s the goal that the musicians supporting musicFIRST are trying to accomplish.

In January, I wrote about Pranav Mistry’s Sixth Sense. You can see the video from his TED presentation by scrolling down on this page to the entry titled “Ready To Have Your Reality Augmented?” Sixth Sense is very futuristic but you know that augmented reality is going mainstream when a company like GE starts using it in their presentations.

Check out this video by Steve Garfield:

Order Steve’s new book, “Get Seen:Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business” using the Amazon link on the left side of this page.

The recent Toyota recall raises the question of what you should do if you suddenly find your accelerator stuck. Taking 2 minutes to watch this video from Consumer Reports could save the life of someone you love (including you):

If you’ve ever enjoyed singing along with the Ronette’s “Be My Baby” or “Baby, I Love You”, Neil Diamond’s “Cherry, Cherry” or “Kentucky Woman”, the Dixie Cups’ “Chapel Of Love”, the Shangri-La’s “Leader Of The Pack”, Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, Tommy James & The Shondells’ “Hanky Panky”, the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me” or “Da Doo Ron Ron”, Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountains High”, the Raindrops “(He’s) The Kind Of Boy I Can’t Forget” or the Beach Boys’ “I Can Hear Music”, take a moment today to remember the woman who gave you that pleasure as co-writer all of those songs, Ellie Greenwich who died of a heart attack last Wednesday in New York at the age of 68.

Read more about this remarkable woman’s life:

http://tinyurl.com/lx9oun

http://tinyurl.com/l2r799

See pictures here:

http://tinyurl.com/EllieGreenwichpix