Railroad Probe by Regimantas Vegele

Regimantas Vegele designer from Vilnius, Lithuania has designed concept of device for inspection of flaws or levels of damage of all elements on the railroad. Device is using vision and laser inspection system together with ultrasonic transducers. Device sends data to system and all collected data are synchronized, GPS coordinates are attached to specific problem area on the track and operator can analyze and schedule maintenance for it. Watch illustrative video.

Images of development process:

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo to Lead World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 Committee

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has been appointed chairman of the committee tasked to support theWorld Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project. The appointment is the first accepted in Finland by the former president and CEO of Nokia Corporation after his term ended at Nokia.

The committee, consisting of 45 opinion leaders and specialists from various sectors of society, supports the management and board of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project, offering them broad-based social perspective.

"World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 is a unique opportunity with a broad social interface that already stems from the project's foundations," said Committee Chairman Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. "We are all committed to offering our expertise to support the project's decision making."

The committee was appointed by International Design Foundation, which is the management organization of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project, the project's owners, that is, the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Lahti, and the participating universities. The committee, which will convene three times a year, was established in December 2010. The committee's term will extend to spring 2013.

"The committee's first meeting in December was promising," said Tero Vahakyla, Chairman of the Board of International Design Foundation. "The meeting was marked by active participation, lively discussion and inspired commitment. The discussions especially focused on the cities' role in the project and the long-term effects of the World Design Capital year."

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentation-from the basics of "How to Draw a Line" to the complexities of color theory-provide a much-needed primer in architectural literacy, making concrete what too often is left nebulous or open-ended in the architecture curriculum.

Each lesson utilizes a two-page format, with a brief explanation and an illustration that can range from diagrammatic to whimsical.

The lesson on "How to Draw a Line" is illustrated by examples of good and bad lines; a lesson on the dangers of awkward floor level changes shows the television actor Dick Van Dyke in the midst of a pratfall; a discussion of the proportional differences between traditional and modern buildings features a drawing of a building split neatly in half between the two.

Written by an architect and instructor who remembers well the fog of his own student days, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School provides valuable guideposts for navigating the design studio and other classes in the architecture curriculum.

Architecture graduates-from young designers to experienced practitioners-will turn to the book as well, for inspiration and a guide back to basics when solving a complex design problem.

Bisynk Sink Reminds Us To Appreciate Our Easy Access to Safe and Clean Water

Living in a country where we have abundant water resources can sometimes make us forget to appreciate it. In other part of the world, human survival is threatened by the shortage of water. Some people in Africa have to walk 4 miles or more in order to have access to water. The weightof water they can carry on their heads is about the average airport luggage. Jang Wooseok, a Korean industrial designer, has designed Bisynk, a sink where user have to put some effort in order to get the water from it. He wants us to appreciate water even more because there are still more than 1 billion people that don’t have adequate access to safe water. The sink doesn’t have any lever but a bicycle pedal. The rule is simple, just work the pedal to get the water.

Designer : Jang Wooseok

TokyoFlash Kisai Console Watch

Tokyo Flash has unveiled Kisai Console as their latest concept to reality watch. Voted by fans, Kisai Console, originally called Bright Time, has been developed based on feedback and now it’s available for you to buy for $200. Using only high quality stainless steel, Console features 3 carefully drilled zones, each one fitted with a curved, smoked mineral crystal glass lens for the light to be clearly diffused within each segment to display the time. A single button touch will illuminate the 3 separate screens with vivid green lights.

The biggest screen displays 12 numbers that represent the hours, while the lower screen displays five minute intervals in clockwise direction, from bottom left. The last screen displays single minute from 1-4. You can read the original concept from their blog.

Designer : TokyoFlash [Buy Kisai Console $200]

NASA lộ 3 mẫu siêu máy bay thương mại

Cơ quan vũ trụ Mỹ (NASA) vừa hé lộ 3 mẫu siêu máy bay chở khách giành cho năm 2025. Mẫu siêu máy bay mới vừa được NASA tiết lộ trông giống như những cỗ máy bay khổng lồ trong phim khoa học viễn tưởng. Tuy nhiên, nhưng mẫu siêu máy bay thương mại này có thể trở thành hiện thực vào năm 2012. Mẫu siêu máy bay này được Boeing thiết kế theo đơn đặt hàng của NASA Sau khi hoàn thành 3 mẫu concept máy bay thế hệ mới vào cuối năm 2010, NASA đã thuê ba công ty hàng không lớn của Mỹ bao gồm Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman và Boeing làm đối tác phát triển mẫu mô hình và những mẫu mô hình này có thể được thử trong năm 2011. Bản thiết kế do Northrop Grumman thực hiện Theo tiết lộ của NASA, những máy bay chở khách thế hệ mới của họ sẽ là những siêu máy bay với vận tốc bằng 85% tốc độ của ánh sáng, có thể bay tối đa hơn 11.000 km không phải tiếp nhiên liệu. Những mẫu máy bay mới này cũng có sức chứa lớn hơn và khả năng tiết kiệm tối ưu hơn các thế hệ máy bay chở khách hiện nay. Lockheed Martin hướng tới mẫu máy bay tiết kiệm năng lượng Tuy nhiên, nhiều người vẫn tỏ ra hoài nghi về tính khả thi của những mẫu máy bay mới này. Bởi vì trong quá trình phát triển, sẽ có rất nhiều vấn đề nảy sinh mà không thể giải quyết được bằng công nghệ hiện nay. Những vấn đề này cũng đang là trở ngại lớn mà Boeing gặp phải khi phát triển 787 Dreamliner. Dưới đây là một số thiết kế máy bay dành cho tương lai được công bố trước đó: Solar Flapper của NASA Luigi Colani của Japan Airlines Personal Aircraft của NASA Icon A5 của Airbus

Theo Bee.net

University of Cincinnati Electric Bike Project

Ebike Studio - Summer 2010 from James Sloss on Vimeo.

How do you show a semester's worth of work? In a 2 minute time lapse of course. Check out the above video of a small team of 3rd year students from UC posted by James Sloss. The video focusses mainly on the prototyping phase of the project, but you can see a bunch more detail on the "Borough Bicycles One" >> HERE

You can also check out other classmates final models >> HERE