Irons are either streamline and sleek or compact and portable. A handful are retro but the Ironbag goes one further and borrows from a woman’s handbag. It’s not the latest Balenciaga but the curious bag-like shape ingeniously tucks everything into one fashionable unit. It’s up to you to decide whether or not it’s sexist. Irons, women’s handbags? Hmm…
Designer Tjeerd Veenhoven took a cue from his native Holland to create the iFan, an iPhone case with a built-in fan for charging. Pop the phone into the case for your bicycle commute to work and let the juice flow. The design is still in the beta phase:
[It takes] 6 hours to charge my phone, rather long I think...but it works. I can shave off many charging hours by redesigning the fan blades, making it more efficient in catching the wind while sun bathing at the beach, doing walking trips in the mountains or just holding it outside your car window while driving along....
While Veenhoven's been getting plenty of blog love highlighting the device, we looked into his blog and found plenty of other ID projects worth a gander. Check out the Operating Room of the Future project he mentored on and his Carbon Bike--made not from carbon fiber, but carbon wire drenched in epoxy resin--for starters.
The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt's recent Why Design Now conference held this past October brought together an optimistic collective of bright and ambitious designers whose efforts are shaping how we solve some of today's most challenging human and social problems. The dominant conference theme which openly questions design's relevance in a time of expanding global crisis, gave speakers and panelists the opportunity to share attempts and discoveries where design has made impacting difference through innovative approaches.
Check out these two featured videos from GE which summarize some of the inspiring work of those conference participants currently engaged in problems of health care and global energy. If you missed the event, they're definitely worth your time.
As an Industrial Design Associate Director, not only will you deliver the highest quality design solutions while respecting a project budget, you will guide a multi-disciplinary team to help realize a project's goals. You will work with some of the world's best known brands in categories such as housewares, consumer electronics, healthcare, and packaging - shaping their future strategy and implementing tactile solutions.
And if you are care about sustainability, responsible design, or gender and age issues, Smart Design can be your chance to leverage your passions into meaningful design solutions.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Sadly, folks, the most mind-blowing thing I saw at AU cannot be adequately conveyed through words or video (though I get paid to try). A company called Infinite Z was demonstrating their Z-Space display platform, a 24-inch monitor laid nearly flat on a table. You put on a special pair of glasses--no bulky headset, they're like a super-light pair of spectacles--and the display turns into a freaking holodeck.
3D objects appear to be perched on top of the screen. Using a light pen, you can grab objects, pick them up, flip them over with millimeter precision--it's like you have the object skewered on a long laser beam, and as quick as your hand turns over, the object turns over at the same speed. You can't see any rendering happening, it's like you're holding the real thing.
During my demo I was presented with a complicated piece of machinery, and using the light pen I was able to pull different parts off of it, flip them around and examine them from all angles. The detail was insane. For small or convoluted parts that don't lend themselves well to manipulation, they have a solution too: You use the light pen to pick up a tiny camera, the size of a Matchbox car, and you can then manipulate the free-floating camera inside, around or under your object. A screen pops up and shows you what the camera is seeing.
Infinite Z has doctored up a demo video (which we've intercut below) with the 3D elements faked in, but it is a poor substitute for seeing the real thing in action and does not at all do a good job of conveying the experience. Seen in person, this thing will absolutely blow your mind. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long--the guys at IZ are forecasting a release for 2011.
This post is part of the Inspiration series, made possible by Veer.com.
This article is the last in the Veer series and it's appropriate to wrap up our series of rather wordy articles with a counterpoint. So far the Veer series has engaged the verbal parts of the brain by talking about concepts accompanied by visual images. The neuroanatomy of visual processing, however, is far more complex. Simplifying somewhat, in most people the right hemisphere processes visuals, the left hemisphere uses words and hunts for reason. Even when your visual field feasts on the bounty of changing stimuli the world offers, the left hemisphere constantly tries to rationalize and verbalize what it sees. For creatives, rationalization is the enemy of inspiration, so perhaps some tools can be found in the world of science to aid in the process.
The corpus callosum connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows them to communicate with one another. To the human being in possession of the brain, however, consciousness is singular and even the notion of a split brain seems counterintuitive. In certain medical cases (mostly severe seizures) the corpus callosum is severed, resulting in two halves of the brain that fail to communicate. At the same time, the human eye is cross wired, such that the left eye connects to the right eye and vice versatile. For a normal brain, the data from both eyes is assimilated and dealt with as a whole, but to a patient who has undergone a corpus callosotomy, some really interesting complications ensue.
Michael Gazzinga and Roger Sperry of Caltech were the first to do split brain experiments and Sperry was ultimately awarded the Nobel Prize. One experiment they engaged in involved lateralizing a stimulus to the right hemisphere showing a command to the left eye exclusively. Amazingly, when the right hemisphere received a command like "laugh," the patient would chortle, but when asked why, the confused left hemisphere would confabulate an answer, such as "you guys are just too much." The same was true for visual images. When images were shown to the right brain and the left brain was given conflicting information, the left brain would provide a rationalization for its conflicting information. The responses were so strong and profound that the experimenters wondered whether this sort of thing was happening all of the time.
Since then, neuroscientists have done a great deal of work on memory and learning. We now know that the brain routinely fills in information gaps with, well, whatever you're already predisposed to think. People really do see what they expect to see. Much like a person attempting to wake from a dream, a person wishing to find inspiration in the world needs not only to keep their eyes open, but also to make sure that they constantly suppress the brain chatter that ever seeks to fill the unexpected with the banal.
This post is part of the Inspiration series, made possible byVeer.com.
To see more inspiring images for this article check outCore77's Inspired by Visuals Album on Veer.com and signup for 10 free credits to download your own inspirational images.
Chiếc xe đặc biệt này có bộ khung được chế tạo hoàn toàn bằng thép, thân xe được làm bằng chất liệu sợi thủy tinh đặc biệt, cùng đó là một động cơ V-twin lấy từ chiếc TLR1000 của Suzuki.
Chiếc độc nhất vô nhị Tron Lightcycle
Tron Lightcycle có thiết kế khá đặc biệt trông giống như một chiếc ô tô đồ chơi, với việc không có nan hoa, tay lái được đặt ở trong lòng bánh xe, thiết kế chỗ chỉ dành cho 1 người điều khiển và thậm chí xe có thể tự đứng vững mà không cần chân chống.
Chiếc xe có trọng lượng là 215kg, chiều dài 2,54m và rộng 0,58m. Việc điều khiển chiếc xe không hề dễ dàng và đặc biệt là khi vào cua.
Theo nhà sản xuất cho biết, Tron Lightcycle có giá khởi điểm 55.000 và sẽ chỉ có 4 phiên bản được ra mắt.
Sự phổ biến của hệ thống GPS giúp việc đi lại của con người ngày càng thuận tiện tuy nhiên, tại một số khu vực mù tín hiệu, hệ thống GPS rất khó khăn định vị chính xác mục tiêu. Đây luôn là vấn đề nan giải trong nghiên cứu của giới khoa học.
Từ trước đến nay, giới khoa học thường sử dụng đơn vị đo lường quán tính (IMU) để định vị khu vực mù tín hiệu GPS. | ||
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| Theo Vietnam+ |
I came across this beautiful quote about how Christmas is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas. Tis’ the season of giving they say. What do you plan to gift your loved ones with this year? Here’s a list I’ve complied of some thoughtful items, maybe something from it will strike a cord and bring you and yours Christmas cheer .
Jar Tile by Design Glut
Jar Tile is for the mess cat who can’t keep things in place and find them at the right time.
Price: $30
Newspaper Rain Bag by MEGAWING
Got something against umbrellas-ella, ella (sorry couldn’t resist)? The Newspaper Rain Bag changes it up and does it with style. Stay high and dry.
Price: $68
Hookeychain Magnet by MEGAWING
Hookeychain qualifies as a family gift, meant for everyone. A home needs a place for us to hang the keys and this magnetic beauty will keep you from yelling “where are my keys!” every morning.
Colors: Gold, Black & Silver
Price: $16
Reveal Watch – Red by Projects
Red is the flavor of this season. The Reveal Watch in red is perfect to show your loved one how much you care and wish they were on time.
Price: $100
This tri-fold sling bag can be the ideal gift for your husband. Our editor has one and turns heads with it. Honey, it’s very GQ.
Price: $ 175
Webble Active Footrest by NONOBJECT
Webble is a relevant and thoughtful gift for someone who sits for long hours. Keeps feet engaged and prevents fatigue. I hope my husband is reading this post!
Price: $149.95
Setgo System Large Bi-fold Wallet by Setgo
Wallets always make a perfect gift, no matter what the occasion. The Setgo System Large Bi-fold Wallet is great for someone who likes to carry their credit cards in style.
Price: $75
Wine Knot Wine Rack by Scott Henderson
The wine connoisseur of the family deserves the Wine Knot Wine Rack. This elegant design can hold up to seven of the finest spirits. Com’on, we all have a couple booze-hounds in the family. You know who you could get this for.
Price: $128
Brewing tea is an art form only the devout follow. Parents big tea drinkers? This is an elegant and practical gift – beautiful enough for them to leave out on display.
Price: Brushed: $199; Mirrored $249
Plush and comfortable, the Cloud chair is for your girl. A luxurious chair for her to sit back, relax and curl up with a good book. Warning, you might like it too much to give up.
Price: $949
