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design
Hide the Gamer Within (if you must)
Sep 8th
Fifty percent of gamers are between the ages of 18 and 49, with 32 being the average age of a gamer. This means that gamers aren’t just pimply, anti-social teenagers, but adults with professional lives and families. So for those times, when those games and consoles need to be put away and hidden from view, there’s the Arcane table from Surface Tensions. It looks like a coffee table, but has a pull-out arcade controls and and optional built-in media center PC. The table comes with a 26-inch LDC screen and over 100 licensed games from Taito, Midway and Atari. The computer inside also has Windows 7 and stereo 30-watt speakers, so its capable of playing music and movies as well. It’s also priced at over $5000, and that’s without the full PC media center and just the vintage games. It’s an extra thousand to get the PC. Images of the table after the break
Boxes Going Green? All Over The Place?
Sep 8th
Oh well, it was Lifebox, then UPS and now Ebay. Ebay is now giving out in its green boxes. But hang on – this one’s a little different. Ebay is not going to ship your stuff in it but is just going to give the box to you. The box has space for you to write where its from and a message to a person you are handing it to. The concept is that you will use the box to give someone something and in turn that someone uses it to give someone else, something else. Confused yet? Yeah, I can understand. Ebay’s Skype buyout was as confusing. But now the good part – if each of the 100,000 (only??) boxes being “given away” is reused 5 times Ebay estimates that we will save about 4000 trees, 2.4 million gallons of water and conserve enough energy to power 49 homes. Nice thought but the lucky few who get these boxes better use it at least 5 times! Images after the break.
Simple Design That Saves Lives
Sep 7th
This design would win any safety design contest hands down. The “safety plug”rides on the success of “simplicity”. Yes – the same factor the iPhone succeeded on. The design simply covers up the naked power points on a plug to make something safe even more safer. Designed keeping child safety in mind i think this is one of the best designs I have come across. Images after the break.
Next Gen 3D Printers Print Stuff Out Of Glass
Sep 7th
3-D printers aren’t new, but what they could print next it what’s worth talking about. Rapid prototypers could now manufacture products made of glass, sand, stone, and clay instead of the usual resin or plastic. This could help inventors churn out their ideas faster and artists and architects create things that weren’t previously possible for them. Most of these printers aren’t yet available to the general public, but require a special order with a specific company.
Talk about a renewable energy source
Sep 7th
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created miniscule solar cells that have the ability to repair themselves. These cells are just billionths of a meter across but could be able to extend their own lifetime.
Human Feces + Design = Prosperity
Sep 5th
This is one of those ideas that we wonder why it was not thought of before. A simple concept that can change the face of life as we know in developing nations like India and Bangladesh is what we want to write about today. The problem we are trying to solve is a difficult one – toilets. A country where more than 50% of the population does not have access to a sanitary system makes life a little odd to imagine. As the designer of the concept make shift toilet describes it – human dignity is what powers as humans. Lack of a sanitary system means lack of human dignity. Progress in such a situation is very difficult ordeal.
The concept places a portable toilet system at home which has a removable waste tank. Basically, you crap into the tank, take it to the nearest bio digesting facility and get a clean tank to take back home. The feces then powers a bio gas generator that extracts methane gas out of it and converts the slurry into usable fertilizers. This simple concept breaks away any need for water lines or a sanitary system to keep the place free from filth. We hope this works well! Images of the concept and videos after the break.
Are you in the Kno?
Sep 5th
IPads are all the rage right now, but a giant double-screened tablet could replace the IPad, and textbooks. The Kno will feature two connected 14.1 inch 1440 x 900 anti-glare touchscreens connected via a flexible hinge and weigh just 5.5 pounds (slightly less than the average laptop weight of six pounds). The Kno is geared toward students, where digital learning technology is slow to catch on and to be useful in the classroom. The company (also called Kno, and is short for Knowledge Now) found that even though typical textbooks aren’t engaging, simple things like the ability to see two large pages at once, highlight text, or leave sticky notes on important passages, were all really tough to do with electronic readers. As a 2010 college graduate, the troubles are understood. I downloaded a book to my e-reader to save money, but it was difficult to find the correct page while everyone else had numbers on the corners of their books.
Anyway, the Kno will have 16GB of onboard storage and battery life is said to last about six to eight hours. The device is currently going through student beta testing, and a price has yet to be announced. The company is also still looking for people to be part of the Advisory Panel and to help determine the future of the Kno. Images after the break
That’s one way to get the message out
Sep 5th
British graffiti artist and political activist Banksy has created an anti-BP statement where you’d least expect one, both ordinarily and for Banksy. A coin-operated Dolphin kiddie ride adorned with a fishing net jumps over a leaking BP oil barrel in Brighton, England. Two girls seen in a video riding the dolphin don’t pay any attention to the subliminal messaging, even as someone who seems to be their mother snaps a photo of them and the dolphin on her cell phone. Perhaps that’s the point, to make people take a second look when there seems to be something weird with the dolphin. Banksy (who’s true identity is still unknown) has been known for environmental commentary through his art, but this veers from his traditional style of urban graffiti. Images and video after the break
It’s Liquid Wood
Sep 3rd
Another plastic replacement that’s 100 percent organic, Arboform is a German invention that has the mobility and durability of plastic with naturalness of wood. It is produced after combining lignin, a discarded element of regular wood with natural resins, flax and fiber and decomposes into water and carbon dioxide. Images after the break
The World’s First Sustainable City
Sep 2nd
Masdar, United Arab Emirates. It’s scheduled to be completed by 2016, but the city will be the first zero carbon, zero waste city powered entirely by renewable energy sources. Located 10.5 miles from Abu Dhabi, Masdar will be completed in seven phases and will include a plaza, a five-star hotel, a convention center, an entertainment complex and retail facilities. Images after the break
A Battery That Fits A Socket Of Any Shape Or Size
Sep 2nd
Tired of searching the right-sized battery between your lamp and your remote control? Well, instead of searching you may now just shape-shift! The A to D Battery, a single nickel hydroxide battery wrapped in memory foam that you can simply squish right into whatever is that needs a new battery. The best part, it’s rechargeable. But there are still a couple issues that need to be worked out, like heat melting the foam or the foam expanding so much that the battery pops out of its slot. Nonetheless, the possibility the A to D battery poses in terms of convenience is still quite appealing. Pictures after the break
A Garden of Bricks? Startup Makes “Garden Grown” Bricks
Sep 2nd
The winner of the 2010 Next Generation contest from Metropolis Magazine is a brick that is grown rather than baked or fired. The process starts with sand, which is then printed with a layer of bacteria, calcium chloride, and urea. Microbes in the sand react with that mixture, forming a glue that binds the sand together. The finished product is as strong as marble and world-wide carbon emissions could be reduced by “at least” 800 million tons a year if this process were streamlined and the bricks were mass produced. Over 1.2 trillion bricks are manufactured every year. Images after the break
Old Red Goes Green
Sep 1st
With the environmental movement, why not improve the old building materials instead of making entire new ones? Introducing the save water brick from designer Jin-young Yoon that has built-in grooves meant to funnel water for gardening or long-term underground storage. Made from recycled plastic and decomposed leaves, the save water brick has the grooves on one side and looks like a normal brick on the other. So those self-conscious environmentalists can still blend in while sticking to eco-friendly principles. Images after the break.
At least your kids won’t eat these crayons
Aug 31st
Someone has created educational chemistry crayons, which are labeled with the actual chemical used to give each one its hue. If Crayola picks this up, at least parents don’t have to worry about kids eating the crayons, like what happened when the scented ones were introduced with smells like “orange,” “banana” and “grape.”
Straight lines without that dang ruler
Aug 31st
Korean product designer giha woo has made a device that attaches to a pen to aid in drawing straight lines without the use of a ruler. The device helps a ballpoint roll in one direction, preventing lines from winding. It also comes with a measurement indicator so users can draw lines at an exact length. Pictures of the device after the break.
