Web Design Staffordshire

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As some of you may know I am Managing Director of inLIFE Design, providing Web Design and Digital Marketing Solutions from our Staffordshire based office in Burntwood.

inLIFE Design was founded in 2009 by myself, previously I worked as in house web designer for a number of firms including Phones 4 u, Staffordshire University and VIBE audio. I loved my job at VIBE which involved creating the website from the ground up, including a facebook page which when we created it had 1 like and now has over 10,000. They were a great team of people and we got to visit all the car shows throughout the year and also have great works night out with the guys from MaxPower (now not existant) and FastCat magazine. Although as much as I enjoyed the job, it was always my long term ambition to form a Digital Marketing Agency that could provide the knowledge and skills of an in house as web designer to businesses at an affordable price. After leaving full time at VIBE we now still continue to design and develop for VIBE audio’s web presence today through inLIFE Design.

inLIFE Design first started off in a small attic office hired from a friend who had a shop front IT firm called TechCare. We soon expanded taking on a larger office downstairs and then when TechCare moved to larger premises we took on the building. This not only gave us more space for expansion but also gave us something no other web design or digital marketing agency in Staffordshire has.. a shop front!

We didn’t really need a shop front presence  being business to business based and originally took it on for the space and as a great advertising location. As the inLIFE web design office is based at Swan Island in Burntwood, Staffordshire,  a popular driving route from Lichfield to Cannock. We then found however that a number of local business were coming in through the door for web design and marketing solutions.

We hear from customers often that they can’t get hold of their web guy or that they have no idea where their website is hosted… the list goes on and on. The one thing we now find a web design shop front office gives inLIFE is a trust worthy and reliable presence, something distinctly lacking in web design companies in Staffordshire. Customers are confident they can come in and talk to us for good honest advise whenever they need it. If and when we move to larger premis in the future I am determined to keep this premiss, making our office an open and accessible place where customers can always visit.

From the start of the business I was joined by Chris Smith as full time web design & developer. At the time Chris had just come out of college struggling to find a job but is now a key part of the business and the plans I have for it’s future. We also have 2 part time additional employees and taking on another intern shortly.

So if you are looking for web design in staffordshire take a look at our website, give us a call or just pop in the office for a chat! We are always happy to help local business even if it’s just free advise as to the next best step to take with your online marketing. We also provide a free website review and SEO audit if you already have a website that you think isn’t performing as well as it should be. If your serious about your business and a quality online presence then we would love to hear from you

Staffordshire is by no means our limit thought, we have provided web design and marketing solutions for companies all over the UK and abroad from Scotland, Manchester and London to as far afield as the Algarve, Canada and California. We have worked on projects for councils, schools, channel 4 TV shows an blue chip companies, as well as local florists and air dressers. We provide the same level of quality and affordable services whether our client be big or small.

We’d love to have a chat with you today about what the web can do for your business. www.inlifedesign.co.uk

So, I’m gonna start running!

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I was recently offered the chance to enter the world renown tough guy competition by a friend of the founder!

The sound of smashing through ice, electric fences, barbed wire, mud, sweat and blood appealed to the adventurer in me and I’d like to think I have the mental will power required. However, there was then mention of the 8 mile run which starts off the course. My initial reaction to this was to abort the idea, everything else was fine but screw running! I have always said if you ever see me running then you should run too.. as something’s probably chasing me!

So I was about to drop the whole concept and order a pizza. It was a nice idea but I just can’t run. It has become increasingly evident my personal fitness has considerably dropped over the past few years whilst my weight has headed in a more vertical direction. Since attending university and concentrating on my career my brain has expanded but sadly my gut has grown with it.

Anyone who knows anything about achieving something will tell you the key is to set your goals! So I have now made it my goal to do the god forsaken tough guy challenge, run and all! So this is the start of my log that will cover progress over the next 10 months. Hopefully.

So.. running. My first step was to seek advise, I spoke to people I know who have done a number marathons. I also read the starter guides available on runnerworld.com – both we’re very helpful and had matching advise.

I continued my procrastination by downloading and playing with the runkeeper app as well as purchasing an expensive pair of running shoes. Then one windy day last week I got in from a hard days work, collapsed on the couch… then stood up again, donned my fancy sneakers and ran.

I felt like Forrest Gump, nothing could stop me I was off.. then I stopped. My feet were killing and I was knackered. I was following a starter run 1 minute / walk 1.30 minute plan from the app and runners world, I didn’t even get half way through and it killed me. So I walked home, my shins were wrecking and I was fubar. But it was a start.

Since then I talked myself into heading out twice more this week and made it all the way through the 30 minute (2 mile) course of running / walking.

Honest! You can view my progress here http://runkeeper.com/user/dlwhitehouse/ (there are previous activities on there but this is when I used the app a while a go to track where we was walking to the dog)

Today I headed out in the rain and for the first time can say I actually may have possibly maybe started to somewhat enjoy it!

To be continued.

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The first web Revolution

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They say when your in the middle of an event, you don’t realise what a key part it will play in the future. I’m guessing when my Grandad was in the Navy in world war II they bared no thought about how in years to come kids would be learning about it in history.

Although not on the same scale as world war II, but just as world changing, I believe we are in the middle of one of these times. The internet has had its first technological revolution, with facebook twitter and youtube playing an integral part in freeing Egypt from the corrupt reign of Mubarak. I remember speaking to a taxi driver in Egypt only a few months before everything kicked off, he was telling me all about the countries corruption and how he did not know what would be happening in the next election. Little did I think then that the very entity I work on, spend every day on, and pays my wages.. the internet, would be the very thing to help free them a few months later.

From my previous blogs such as ‘rise of the honest open internet‘ it’s clear I have high hopes for the way the net will change humanity, and its still young. Yet I feel we are slap bang in the middle of the of the first step to change .

Following the events in Egypt one couple even named their daughter ‘Facebook’. Now Libya have risen up with the same power of the people through the use of the internet, currently in the midst of a similar protest against their corrupt leader Gaddafi.

Gaddaffi has even made his own poor attempt at convincing the public by faking films of supporters cheering for him and claiming those against him have been forced drugs and alcohol. Through TV media this may have worked but with the power of social media and a public voice this is has just made him look even more stupid.

This is a great time to be in, and I have a feeling the Internet still has a few tricks up it’s sleeve for the future of the human race.

History of the UK’s first Modified Car club.. and me

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Before Facebook. Before Youtube. Before any other online modified car club. There was Streetrace.co.uk

11 years ago I was playing around with web development for just a bit of fun.. (now a full time job) something for us to show the world what we were doing to our cars and the laugh we were having along the way.

Back in 1999 the internet was only a luxury for less than half the UK population, we were using dial up modems to access it on Pentium computers with 32gig of memory. My phone was a Phillips Savvy.. a tiny screen with polyphonic ringtones and a sticky out areal, and if you turned the phone off when sending a text or directly after a call you could get free credit! Technology was being born.

Websites were all pixelated, framed table based static nasty looking sites, most of which hosted free on sites like geocities. When submitting a URL to yahoo you had to choose what category your site fell in and they had a manual team of people who would approve the URL.

I made a random website called chinknet after my nickname..  this then was later changed into bluefiesta.com named after my first car, a blue fiesta that I worked the entire 6 weeks of my college holidays just to buy a front bumper for (still used by mc rally in their advertising for the bumper today)

In 2001 bluefiesta.com was hosting images of me and a local bunch of mates messing around in our cars, images from car shows we were going to as well as just general info about how we were modifying them. The site had a guestbook that was quickly getting filled up, with more and more taking to this new ‘internet’ it was one of the only places for local cruising information around.

The site was then expanded through my then partner in web crime ‘Wez’ who started the site blackescort.com about his car the black escort (I think the site now has another meaning) we linked the 2 sites and were getting a large number of hits locally from people just checking out what we were doing, and looking for images of their cars from cruises.

We then got planning to expand the sites into a single entity for all modified car enthusiasts, cruisers and modifiers alike to come to one place. We sat down to work out the areas of the site such as general chat, performance, ice, newbie’s (a structure which was then copied by car clubs that came after us.. and then by those that came after them.. and is still apparent across a large number of forums today)

As part of my University course I then transformed the website into Streetrace.co.uk. A brand name chosen not to be about racing on the streets, more just as a brand name (back then cruise-myarea.co.uk wasn’t even thought of yet) . To start with we used a free Yabb forum software which was buggy, as forum software was a relatively new thing still. We input the structure we had planned into the forum and it grew to over 300 members within months (back then before facebook and smartphones.. this was a lot!) We then decided to sell sponsorship advertising on the site and used the money along with our own to buy a better less buggy forum software, the best available. The site was re-skinned and custom developed to form the base of Streetrace.co.uk as it is known today.

After that in 2003 facebook and myspace came into development, but were still not even heard of! So Streetrace.co.uk was the only place for the UK to come and read about everything car modified related, including show images from all the old shows like Weston wheels, modifying guides, games and more. The only other forums out at the time were all cruise based ones, and a number of which we became friendly with including the then 2 biggest Midlands Cruise sites Kroozmidz and cruisemidlands. More and more cruise based forums were popping up using free or cheap forum software. But non had the whole package like Streetrace including full show coverage, membership, cruises, meets and more. Non yet.

By late 2003 Maxpower had made us their best car club and we were invited to Max Live and their after party hosting the likes of Jordan and ‘Jamie Shaw’ (before he was made z-list famous by UK Pimp my Ride).

A couple of years on the site was ever expanding with new galleries, online garage, membership packs with keyrings, attending all shows. At this time more clubs similar to Streetrace were popping up, and amongst all this we were getting a large number of offers from people who wanted to become admin or owners! Some of which we turned down who then went on to create other well known car clubs today , and  then some even seen us as rivals (although it’s nice to know we inspired). As sole owner of the club I then decided to sit down and select 4 main admin who were best for the job, then sold shares so were we then all part owner of the club. This is a tradition that has continued until today with shares changing hands but never any more than 5 owners allowed. Leading up to todays current owners Tony, Wez, Stu and myself (although not now managed and ran by us)

We carried on hitting all the biggest and best car shows including hot import nights London with Tim westwood in 2005, we had countless magazine features, press coverage,  parties & even a music single.  We Teamed up with DJ Cutloose who became our music icon at shows.. again the first club to even have its own DJ! Along the way we unknowingly influenced a large number of other modified car clubs that sprang up with the same idea.. some spawning directly from members of Streetrace.. and even some spawning from those! Plus others popping up all around the UK in general. We went from being the only generic modified car club being at shows in 2002 (amongst vw clubs, mondeo clubs, seat clubs etc) to being one of thousands of generic modified car clubs and cruise sites by 2006.

Being the first however we were then the biggest, hitting a peak at USC Show 2007 & USC show 2008 in which we were given a concrete pitch, took the truck dance stage and DJ’s and told by the organised of we got any bigger we would need to pay for a trade area as we had more attention than the dance stage!

Not only was this a peak for Streetrace.co.uk, it was a peak for the Modified car Scene in general. After this the shows started to die down with less attendance. We celebrated our ten year anniversary in style hiring out a bar on broad street Birmingham with all staff arriving in a pimped out fire engine and attendance from max power and Fastcar.. the very people who were inviting us to their parties when it all began.

Over the time we also did a number of large scale evens like running yearly nurburgring trips, a meet at the ace cafe, as well as being the first club to team up with police in promoting safer driving by taking racing to the track instead of on the roads. As well as raising money for road safety charities in a joint effort with police that even made the papers. On top of a personal thank you from Inspector Matt Derrick “It has been a pleasure to work with you and thank you for your efforts in bringing the Police and Car Cruising fraternity closer together. I am confident that in years to come there are many people who will benefit greatly from our and particularly your work and effort in the relationship and hopefully many people who otherwise might not have been with us will never realise that you saved their lives. Strong stuff I know but those are the kind of consequences we are dealing with.”

A year on the modified car scene was still in a reluctant decline, the police started an all out campaign against modifiers. With a few idiots doing burnouts etc thus tarring the rest of us with the same brush…  as the scene grew the car enthusiast quickly became a public enemy. Also with the increase in clubs the magazines were continuously being brown nosed by certain clubs as this was the only way they could get noticed, to their own destruction. The rise of the internet set to be killing print media also brought down car magazines sales. Back in 1999 only available to a few the internet seamlessly overnight became part of everyday life accessible by the majority of the UK population with the increase in smart phones and home computing. Back then to see images of a show or cruise you had to buy the magazine (or look on streetrace.co.uk of course) now the images are on facebook and most forums before even getting home.

In Mid 2010 Streetrace.co.uk was awarded the most honorary of Max Powers awards.. ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Scene’. Shortly after this I personally left the scene due to my time being taken up by business, family and something a bit more global. With admin being passed hands to a great bunch of guys (previously Staff on there) who now continue to ruin the site as strong as ever.

Then in late 2010 due to a number of the aforementioned factors and ever decreasing sales MaxPower Magazine was unfortunately dropped by its publisher. The very magazine that influenced us in starting up back in the day. All a fitting end within months of Streetrace receiving its award and me leaving the scene.

The Club continues today now ran by an enthusiastic bunch of individuals with as much love for the scene as we all had back in 1999. The Club also continues to grow and outlive a number of other clubs that still come and go within the lifespan of Streetrace.

The End of MAX POWER Magazine.

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Streetrace wins outstanding contribution to the scene awardI received an official email today at 3:28 pm that Max Power magazine was no more.

Suspended by its publisher Bauer media this sees the end of a much loved yet ever changing era for all modified car enthusiasts.

Working  in the scene at VIBE audio and being involved for over ten years this came as a shock, but not an unexpected one. In fact it is what I predicted 8 months ago (almost to the day) in my blog post ‘Fall of the Magazine’ . The ‘unnamed’ magazine mentioned in the article bares no second guessing.

Most car enthusiasts like myself  have grown up alongside Max Power since it first hit the shelves in 1994. I personally have fond memories of bright yellow Max Power stickers on my wardrobe door and always the mag I’d buy at the airport when heading on holiday. All up until my driving days in 1998 and then further influencing my creation of the UK’s first (and now biggest) modified car club. A club that ran for over ten years spawning many other car clubs that followed, and still ran today handed down by myself to the next generation of motoring enthusiasts. Since the clubs creation it too has grown alongside the magazine, with countless features from winning ‘best car club’ back in 2003 up until this very year where max power awarded the club ‘most outstanding contribution to the scene’.

The reason of its demise could be put on many things, personally I think its a mix of what I predicted in my aforementioned blog article, on top of the mags recent fascination with ‘candy floss rich kids’ cars, that the majority of motoring enthusiasts dont care (for apart from the small division of ‘clicks’) mixed with the crack down on motoring from the police and government, increase of fuel and road tax prices and the ability for the public to post news instantly on the net, often before the magazines have even got wind. There is no doubt times are changing.

The question now is what does this hold for its competitors, as without competition it can either mean great gain, or great loss. The closest competitor FAST CAR have recently been more switched on with what the public want (rather than the small clicks) on top of having a higher reading percentage.. but im sure changes and discussions will be taking place as we speak. I am a good friend with their team through my job (who im sure are reading this now after remarking on my last blog 8 months ago lol.. hey guys) as I was with the Max Power team too.

The official announcement was signed off with the following

‘It is our intention to keep the Max Power brand alive in the future with a series of “one shots” and special issues and some possible exciting new adventures.  Keep your eyes peeled for future new projects and we will endeavour to keep you updated with all the latest news from the Max Power brand.’

So who’s to say its not the end of the end, and going from the last meeting we had with the guys I can see a more mobile / net based media coming from it. Although it will never be the same.

So here’s to all those past and present who have grown up with the timeless magazine as I have, the print may not be on paper.. but it’s legend will certainly live on.

New Theory of Fraternization – Where electrons go.

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I am currently seeking a physics mathematician to help me out with this. If you think you can help… contact me –>

Introduction
Let me just start off by saying, I’m not a physicist. Although I do follow and practice theoretical physics in my own time on a basic level. I do follow science papers and new scientist. Much like Einstein in his early years, I have the ideas.. just not capable of working out the math to back it up. So if some of my wording appears in layman’s terms please bare with me

Prologue

Starting with the basics, we know electrons move in a wave pattern, jumping in and out of what we perceive as reality. We don’t know where they go when they disappear, only that they reappear again thus creating the ‘wave like’ pattern. Proven in the double slit experiment. The key point to hold in mind here is (as ever is the interesting point of the double slit experiment) that when observed rather than behaving in a wave pattern they go back to behaving regular, how we would expect. The simple act of observing changes how the electrons behave. As we know things don’t just tend to disappear to nowhere, energy cannot be destroyed and everything must go somewhere, hence why so far this has supported the theory of multiple universes and other such theory’s. Also causing some physicists to suggest we create our own reality. So nothing ‘exists’ until we look at it thus then when we turn away it turns back into wave of possibilities.
My theory is a simple one, and at first probably seems nonsense until delving deeper.

The Theory of fraternization

This theory states that when the electrons disappear they do not move to an alternate reality, or simply ‘disappear’, nor do they travel to any form of parallel universe (in fact I set about to disprove multiple universes entirely). The electrons simply move to another life forms reality. A life form being a specific individual, plant, animal or any living energy. The reality from one’s life has then a direct effect an an-others reality, thus an electron moves between all ‘individuals’ realities respectively.
We already know the results of the ‘butterfly effect’ when our realities react with each other it has an on-going effect. When measuring a process such as this in practical physics it can be a laborious task but easily proven… for example a guys wife leaves him in the morning, he’s in a bad mood at work at the bank and doesn’t offer a loan to someone, their life is changed as a consequence and so on and so on.
But could this effect take place behind the scenes? For example… unknowingly step on an ant and its reality is suddenly changed and so is every other ants life that it would have met that day having a knock on effect to the whole colony, be it an important effect or not. Meanwhile you are blissfully unaware, how could that be measured? What changes this reality between one life force and another?
What building block forms this reaction of change? This has never been even asked or measured and this is where I propose the electrons movement come in. These are the building blocks of change, every action has a reaction.. electrons are the vehicle of this reaction through time thus creating the illusion of time itself, whether it be from across the room or across the planet, something is being affected by what we do.
Example: A man is sitting on a space station orbiting the earth, whilst back on earth his wife gets hit by a bus. The man doesn’t know it yet but his life HAS changed, the electrons respond to this change, if he’s sensitive he may feel something is wrong. The electrons have already began the domino effect of change throughout all other respective realities.
We’ve all heard the unexplained stories of how twins can communicate and know each other’s feelings across rooms and even continents, how people can have an unseen bond. The exchange of electrons taking responsibility as the building blocks of reality would explain this, being the mode of transport for not only consequence but feelings.
Now consider the theory of Schrodinger’s cat.. without looking inside the box we don’t know if the cat is dead or alive, but in the cats reality.. he knows. Replace the cat for a human and the argument of who knows what state the contents are in is answered… the poor bloke in the box! His reality is affected whether we know it or not, and that reality has to have a mode of transport. Electrons
This has enormous consequences in putting us, and life at the forefront of responsibility for creating the reality, but not only that in effecting one an-others. .
So if electrons jump between our reality this must mean they can only jump between the entire scope of realities that the creators of the original reality are aware of… a domino effect on a massive scale. For example if I break a window, electrons are not going to jump between my reality and that of an alien life form on another planet somewhere who has no clue of my existence and nor I of his.
They are held within the boundaries of the knowledge of their creators, although they are expandable and ever growing when they need to be, much like the universe itself. So are we creating the universe? Are there others already aware of this and that we are simply a reaction of their creation of whom we aren’t aware of, but they are of us. Anyway I digress.
The simple and what seems obvious explanation is that we are the creators of our own reality but from our actions and reactions as well as the combined reactions of every life form around us, and the mode of transport for these reactions is the jumping and transportation of electrons between each of our individual realities. Making us as humans one singular combined life force. Working together, much like all the bacteria, protein and living cells in our body to make us.. we are doing the same to make the world
It is also with noting how this can tie in with other recent popular theories such as noetics and the intention experiment. All of which could be calculated by this theory (or not calculated as the case may be given the calculations to workout an unseen butterfly effect would be enormous).
This would also explain why random event generators surge on the brink of something big happening, as if all the humans and life in the world are predicting it? Not predicting it… creating it! How group medication can change a city’s crime rate. Not change… but create!
The effects of change from an electron leap would be instant, and I mean instant… the exact same time in two different places, not bound by time itself.
Therefore this even has implications on time itself. If time is said not to be real, then how do we live through it and be bound by it day in day out. Again it is created by us, the knock on effect of election leaps and time being the very track along which these ‘vehicles of change’ travel. This may be one of the biggest implications of this theory of all, creating time and relativity itself as the domino’s fall.
The only way I can imagine testing this would be in an experiment somewhat similar to Schrodinger’s cat however where measurements can be taken from the inside. For example in a complete enclosed environment a reaction of X will have an effect on Y. For arguments sake X’s electrons are flagged as ‘red’ and Y’s are flagged as ‘blue’ measuring leading up to the reaction, during and following we check if any red electrons appear in Y and blue in X. Whether this is currently possible I am unsure.

As I said, the idea is solid and I have thought into it’s implications as far as can fathom, I just need some little ‘outside of the box’ thinking, and a lot of faith from a physics based mathematician to work on this with me.

Please contact me if you are interested on working the math into this, or may have enlightenment on ideas or theories i have mentioned that may have already been proven or disproved, anything that may help.

Thanks

Quantum biogs

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I’ve dedicated a new section of my site to future predictions, sounds a little weird I know.. but if the way I believe things are heading pan out, it may be a nice future reference ;)

So this category of future predictions is really here because of this first post.

The first prediction is that with the advancements of quantum computing, and I mean true quantum computing, or even biological, that it will be possible in the distant future for everything past and present to be precisely mapped, and all appear in the simplest of forms.

Much in the way that google maps now allows us to view over the entire globe and see into peoples back gardens and walk down their street from the other side of the globe. If we had said that to our ancestors a few hundred years ago they would have perceived us as gods.

In the future I believe quantum computing advancements will some day allow us to look back into the past at every single persons life in immaculate detail, especially throughout today’s world and onwards where everything is logged digitally from what we’ve bought at the supermarket, where we’ve been with the gps and every single thing we’ve typed, miss typed and posted on the web even to mapping our exact personalities and feelings with a build up of social interactions and ‘digital psychology’

This will allow people to map us, yes us, and the entire human population precisely. Allowing them to produce a quantum biography on anyone they may of found led an interesting life. No longer will history only remember those who logged their great lives with biased stories, or from what we can build up from ancient scripts and markings. Now every single person throughout time will have an entire bio available through a quick quantum computer search, and were already working on it every day. Every email you send, every text message, every facebook status or tweet!. It’s all building our quantum biography.

This will probably even become a new form of TV or pass time like big brother, delving into the lives a few who have lead a remarkable journey. Or even used in history lessons, making use of mapping everyones biogs together to work on questions like why the recession really happened, or even how we evolve.

Through quantum computing this would be a simple and quick search. Much like google map.

This will be another step forward into what I believe will become a ‘forced’ open and honest world thanks to echoing the web world.

So time will tell, and if someones reading this in my future quantum bio.. hi :) stay positive, and remember where it was wrote first.

Project IRIS (Smart Home) – First stages

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Im currently working on a bit of a sideline project I have dubbed as IRIS (inLIFE Reactional Inhabitant System).

IRIS is a Smart Home system built into my house that responds to voice commands, remote commands and other built in macros that can control everything from boiling the kettle at a certain time to dimming the lights to 50% and more. Similar to the smart home ‘SARAH‘ from the popular fiction TV show Eureka.

IRIS will be eventually hidden behind the scenes and pick up voice commands from anywhere in the house, as well as accessibale remotley via the iPAD, iPhone and iPod as remotes also. She can also be accessed via voice command using the iPhone as a wireless remote from the garden.

The video below is a quick guide to the development stages of IRIS so far and beta testing. IRIS is built with a compilation of a number of things including X10 Home Automation Kit, BVC Software, ActiveHomePro Software Dev Kit and Weather aloud. Future enhancements will include the use of Bluetooth detection and recognition.

I will post more video updates as IRIS development progresses. Here is the first sample..