200 Years In 4 Minutes

Posted by on Feb 22, 2011 in Design, GD2, Popular | 12 comments
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The inimitable Hans Rosling presents stats using augmented reality animation. The Joy of Stats depicts the history of 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers – all in just four minutes — and debunks many of our common associations with the developing world in the process.

  • Man Ee

    pretty neat indeed

  • Kusumoto

    He sounds like he would be a really good teacher. Too bad not all lectures can be that cool..

    • kate.nigro

      Seriously! Maybe someday… some of my teacher friends at private schools have been talking about using the Kinect technology in the classroom.

  • kenneth

    This guy is has awesome presentation skills. He figured out how to solidify the laser beam! Everybody should also watch the TED Talk. It’s a really interesting way to visualize data, and does a far better job than the usual methods.

  • Winniekuo

    It is interesting that everyone can understand 200 years history through 4mins. The lighting graphic is really helpful and attractive. When we can really use this technology like Minority Report in our real life? 5 years maybe?

  • Kalee Abella

    It is much more interesting to see visual graphics while hearing a lecture about topics that can easily be boring.. I wish all history classes were like this!

  • benjamindu

    i totally respect this guy and the data he presents makes me optimistic. this statistical visualization tool is also pretty neat. but tools like this make it easy for presenters to distort data to work in their favor. graphs and charts look good, but are at the whim of the subjectivity of the people who put them together.

    • Nathan

      Hey Ben (and David), I wonder how our Modern Western Outlook teacher would react to this presentation.

      I can already see his face cringing upon hearing the word “progress”.

  • http://christinerode.com Christine Røde

    That’s an incredible way of showing an immense amount of information. Seeing as there is so much focus on the global discrepancy in quality of life these days, it is comforting to gain some perspective on the issue. We’ve all come far from where we were in 1810, and although there’s still a long way left to go for all countries to be at the same level, we’re moving in a positive direction!

  • kate.nigro

    Infographics of the future! The chart (and presentation) were not only cool, but exceptionally easy to understand. Rosling’s explanation of the fairly complex historical trend (200 countries with varying population scales in one graph?) was clear and thoroughly enhanced by the graphic. I’m with you, Winnie. I’m ready for Minority Report technology in our daily lives. I’m ready for digitally composed design to be a dance! (I’m not necessarily ready for the police to be hooked up to the brains of psychics and arrest me for a murder they say I will commit…)

    • kenneth

      Speaking of Minority Report, have you used Apple products lately…? Shit blows my mind!

  • benjamindu

    check out the source of this at http://www.gapminder.org/
    tons more content to amaze you