Erwin van Lun's Mensmerk.nl

This year in the Netherlands the growth in the number of chatbots, automated chat friends on websites or in Live Messenger, has tripled. Chatbots.org, an ErwinVanLun.com and Mensmerk.nl initiative, has announced this morning via a press release. These statistics have been gathered by analysis and questioning of all Dutch chatbot suppliers. In the future we will more often have contact with, for example, companies, via chatbots. Here follows the full press release.

This screen shows a womans face that, in this instance, responds to a man. She reacts to the position of the mans face but also to his fingers: for example she closes her eyes if he strokes her eyelids. Her mouth also responds. She leaves if you stroke her nose, but returns with flowers.

Humans think in images and concepts but not in written language. Very rarely does someone see something literally written in their thoughts. We dream in 'happenings'. Now that the virtual world has come into existence it is possible that in the long term (think 2050) a world will come into existence where 'reading' and 'writing' has evolved into a hobby. Something that people needed to do in the past but that's now just fun to learn, just like making clogs, crocheting or milking cows.

At TravellersTV.com everything revolves arround video content based on holiday destinations. You see the continents on a click-able Google map. Once you have clicked a video over the continent begins. Then you can zoom in on a destionation and you will find related video chanels (in total there are 1200 destinations and 20 lifestyle tv channels). The videos often include supplementary text. In addition you find a buttons by every destination for more information over accommodation, food and drink, attractions, events, activities, transport and shoppig. You can rate, tag and comment on everything and you can also send the information on to others. But... it's still a beta version, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't, the content is far from complete but it is still well worth a look. A good concept with a lot of possibilities for good business models in the future...

In Japan the Loch Ness monster has been brought to life with the help of water and holographic effects. This has been realized for Sony as promotion for the film The Water Horse. The monster regularly comes to life giving passers by the fright of their lives.

House specialist Immospy, known in the Netherlands as miljoenhuizen.nl, is now available in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. By focusing on Europe (instead of individual countries) almost 4 million houses for sale are made available.

Via a widget, a tiny piece of software, the Rijksmuseum places a new art object on the sites of its users each day: every day a new art object, on users websites, on their profiles on social networking sites, or (as we have done here) on a their blogs. At the moment of posting there was an image of a painting of a man with angels wings, tomorrow there will be something else.

Twelve supermarkets will be using Vision Tracking technology from May. The consumer will wear a pair of glasses with a built in camera which registers everything that is looked at and the reaction it produces. The information gathered is to be coupled with the turn over figures.

Rabobank's brand agent Yvette (Dutch) can now also be found at the virtual bank branch in the girly game GoSupermodel. The first day that the virtual bank branch was open she received 1.545 mails and 8.342 chat sessions were started with her. The branch itself was visited 14.453 times.

Playboy has created a version of Playboy.com for the iPhone, iPlayboy contains, amongst other things, Playboy radio, videos, tips for going out and of course the Playboy photos. Have you always wanted to know the difference between a Bunny, a Playmate and a Centerfold? The website offers an ‘Ask Hef' function that will give you the answer to this and much more. The site was launched with the choosing of ‘Miss Mobile Playboy'.

Via Amazon TextBuy the buying hungry consumer can directly order whatever catches their eye in a shop, on the street or in a bar. Users send a text message with the name, description, barcode or ISBN number of the product. If Amazon is selling similar items then you will be sent a message with the results. The consumer can immediately buy one of the products or ask for a wider selection of products.

Two researchers have developed an Android application called Enkin that combines virtual maps with reality. This application couples Google maps with real time images from a telephone camera and show which object you are looking at and how far away itis. You will never get lost looking for your hotel again.

Dutch broadcaster KRO has developed a music player that takes account of your mood. You select your mood in the circle and the music starts to play. It's also possible to determine your mood by taking a psychological test. The player can be added to a consumers profile on the Dutch social networking site Hyves as a widget.

Coffee retailer Starbucks has introduced MyStarbucksIdea, a user generated discussion forum about products and service. Registered users can share their ideas about new products and can vote on others ideas too, ensuring that it is clear which suggestions are best. The ideas that are implemented can be followed via the site.

The ANWB is letting it's members vote for it's new logo. Members enter their membership number and are then able to vote. The ANWB is a Dutch association that provides, amongst other services, breakdown help to it's members.