I'm always intrigued with different uses for technology outside of their traditional intended application. The latest cool offering comes from interactive collective YesYesNo.  This art studio strives to add engaging and artistic attributes to several forms of interactive media.

For their latest project they teamed up with Nike+ to complete their Nike Free Run+ 2 City Pack series. YesYesNo created software that tracked data using Nike+ from several runners. These runs were then displayed visually based on the runner's metrics including speed, acceleration, consistency, and style. After completing each run, the runner was able to get on the computer to add their choice of color and styles.

YesYesNo held a workshop for this event at Nike headquarters and participants got to keep a high-res printout of their run.

The resulting prints, while nothing reminiscent of van Gogh, are pretty cool and would be worthy of hanging up somewhere.

I'd love to try out my talents with YesYesNo's system just to see what out of shape looks like visually.

European automobile maker, Renault, used RFID cards to make the AutoRAI Trade Show in Amsterdam a little more interactive. This is probably the first application that I've seen where an RFID card is linked to a person's Facebook profile so that they could instantly 'Like' a car with the simple swipe of the card.

The process looks pretty simple in the video. People who attended the show were given a free RFID equipped card. While the attendees perused Renault's line of vehicles they could swipe the card at the special kiosk to post information about the car to Facebook account and with their friends.

This goes beyond using a QR code to drive someone to a Facebook page. The kiosk provides the attendee with information about the car and they don't have to do anything beyond a card swipe to link it on Facebook. On the other hand with QR the person would still have click to 'Like' the brand but that still doesn't share much with their friends.

Bringing the offline experience online is something that most brands are struggling with. I applaud Renault for their innovative use of RFID.

Pepsi's announcement about its Social Vending Machine has been generating some buzz this week. But upon closer inspection, I'm a little disappointed with it.

The touchscreen vending machine is meant to function like a typical machine where you buy various sodas (see video above) but it also allows people to gift a beverage to a friend. This requires sharing a friend's name and cell phone number. When a friend goes to the machine, they'd enter a code that was texted to their phone in order to redeem the gift.

While I love the idea of sharing, the concept has room for improvement:

One thing I really like about the machine is that you can also send a gift to a random stranger. Kind of a nice touch.

[Disclosure: Coca-Cola is a BFG client.]

MTLB points us to this humorous video that is sadly representative of what it's sometimes like to work in the world of marketing (or so we've heard). It also makes me want to write and produce a show called "Agency Life" based on the trials, tribulations, and absurdities that come part and parcel with working in advertising. Think "Mad Men" meets "The Office" with a little "Office Space" mixed in.

Seriously, someone call me. Let's make this happen. But, I digress.

The truth is, design by committee almost always sucks. It's the same principle as too many witches spoiling the brew, too many cooks in the kitchen making a mess, too many chiefs ... I think you get the picture. The source escapes me, but someone much smarter than I once said design by committee most often results in something that is acceptable to everyone but excites no one.

Getting more than one opinion is a good thing, just beware of the law of diminishing returns.

I don't know Mike or Karen, but I'm a little upset that I didn't get an invitation to their wedding. Because if I had, it would be the first time in my life I actually saved a wedding invitation. (Shh! Don't tell my siblings. Or my wife.)

For Mike and Karen's wedding invitation, Kelli Anderson designed an amazing record player made of paper. It plays a flexi disc featuring an original song sung by the bride and groom inviting guests to join them in celebration of their special day.

Check out Kelli's blog to learn a little more about her process.

Thanks, Joey!