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Okay, so we have "body" + "medicine" + "business" + "manufacturing". Implantable mini-generators? Forget Procter & Gamble gadgetizing consumables - the real money is in gadgetizing our bodies. Maybe Ray Kurzweil is on to something - never say die.
Popular Science makes mention of Volvo's new Penta IPS propeller in their What's New article. There are some interesting advantages to their new "puller" design including more efficient hydrodynamics and dramatically improved steering. Nice surprise from a company most of us probably only associate with automobiles. Someone give James Bond a ring, Volvo probably has a secret submarine-car in the works too. Posted by: csven | Comments (0)
Looking to fill new design studios sprouting up in Michigan and southern California, automakers are offering designers fresh out of school annual starting salaries of up to $80,000, plus signing bonuses of $6,000 to $10,000. The packages are 20 percent richer than those awarded just five years ago.(via Agenda) Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)
"Looking for a ceramic with a smooth texture? Or need a matt fire-resistant plastic?" The materials search engine at www.materialexplorer.com should be able to provide you with some answers.
At the International Construction Fair (last week, the
If you're a render fiend and using HDRI technology to light your scenes, then the libraries that Dosch Design provide could be worth a look. They have just released two new HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) collections, which are optimized for industrial design, technical visualization and animation.
Dosch HDRI: Industrial Reflections has 60 high-quality HDRI environments which support the appearance of metal, glass, car paint and any other industrial surface, while DOSCH HDRI: Radiant Skies contains 113 HDR images of computer generated skies for spectacular reflection and lighting effects.
The high res HDR images are provided in the most widely used formats: Spherical Map (Latitude-Longitude), Light-Probe (Angular Map), Vertical-Cross and Horizontal-Cross. And each HDR image is provided in the two industry standards .HDR and .EXR.
The products are compatible with Windows and MAC computers and are priced at 119.00 USD / 99.00 EUR, each.
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Meanwhile, over on Yahoo! Finance, a news blurb proclaimed "Funcom and Massive Inc. to Implement Revolutionary Game Ad Deal". Imagine a game filled with these kinds of NPC's (non-player characters) giving a whole new meaning to the term "viral marketing". Or in-game billboards that actually cause a player to do a double-take which triggers a torrent of spam. Did someone say targeted advertising?
Now I've been following both artificial-virtual life and in-game advertising for a while. And had an interest in the possibilities before Gibson gave away the ending to All Tomorrow's Parties in his preceeding book, Idoru. I won't spoil the books for those who haven't read them, but the third element in this sordid love triangle is rapid-prototyping technology (another big thing with me). Somewhere out there I just know there's a news article about some RP breakthrough. So don't wait! Order your own Vivienne today! We'll destroy our species yet. (Me? no worries - my heart belongs to Ananova).
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Although it happened four months ago, not everyone has seen everything from the Tokyo Designers Block. Here is a nice Flickr slideshow showing some of the action. This comes from Jonah Keegan, an American living in Japan who maintains a great blog. Thanks to alert reader Pat Wang for the tip. Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Cool, but James Bond wouldn't be caught dead with this, would he? (From Circuits section today.) Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
A single peeled grape, still on its stem, dipped in unsweetened peanut butter and bread crumbs: the breakdown of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich to its essence. Chef Grant Achatz, formerly from the French Laundry, documented the concept development, prototypes, new methods of eating, and brand identity for his new restaurant, Alinea. Design process permeates everything! Posted by: Ko | Comments (0)
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I can't remember if I have ever had such a visceral reaction from a design. Unsettling and cute at the same time. Damn.
Designed by Raffaele Iannello for Viceversa. (via)
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There are all kinds of remarks to make here, of course, but one thing's clear: this is design. [MUG]. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
One of my favorite sites (obviously), MIT's Technology Review, has an article on "The Ascent of the Robotic Attack Jet". But don't let the "robotic" part fool you - it's really quite alot about the software, hardware and interaction design necessary for a person to remotely control those nasty little buggers. I'd posted this on the Core forum, but it didn't seem to be of interest to anyone. I'm feeling a little like Kyle Reese being interrogated by the police in The Terminator - no one will listen. "You can't stop it!" Don't say you weren't warned.
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Stuffed Robot makes video game controller pillows for the aching neck of people who stay up all night playing video games (via).
One to add to the already wild spectrum of gamepad designs.
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Key step in process: wash dung and boil for 5 hours
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This is a nice transposition of materials and physics...and all for fun. And ya, wear a helmet out there! Overview here, pics here. [via hackaday]. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
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For this year's Surface Design Show, a 3-day event in London about innovations in the field of surface material and design, The Design laboratory will present The Sensory Gateway, an installation that challenges our considerations of the built environment.
This responsive environment will react to touch and heat, triggering an array of applied technologies: elumin8's weaved luminescent sheets will form sensory envelopes and paths that react to movement and sound; "Toile de Hackney", Carole Collet's intelligent textile, responds to movement; translucent skins for buildings, developed by Vector-Foiltec, reacts like the human body to light, temperature and pressure; Abet Laminati's digitally printed sheets; Eleksen 's textiles map gestures and trigger spatial reactions and IFF fragrances will be impregnated into surfaces, dispersing throughout the installation perfumed nodes that are sensitive to movement and touch.
Motorola has announced the creation of a dedicated 3G mobile phone design centre in Basingstoke. The company's mobile devices business will be deploying existing employees to the centre as well as creating new engineering and product development jobs.The launch of the design centre, planned for the summer of 2005, will enable Motorola to continue its innovation and technology leadership in the handset market and will position engineering resources ideally to support customers and consumers across Europe and worldwide.
Roles to be recruited for include software, hardware, RF and test development engineers as well as technical account managers, programme and project managers. Motorola will also be attracting and developing graduate talent in the organisation. Motorola is showing ongoing commitment to the development and innovation of handsets in the UK and Europe following the success of Motorola's 3G portfolio and ground breaking handsets such as the RAZR V3. Motorola is also taking advantage of the good supply of talented people in the UK to fill these knowledge-based job opportunities.
For all the details, visit -- www.mototalent.com/
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ART-VPS has issued a press release detailing how provider of photorealistic images for the automotive industry, Latcha & Associates, has shelled out for eight of it's RenderDrive systems that will be used by Latcha to speed 3D rendering for automotive marketing materials.
"Latcha is using our rendering systems to create images of vehicles under development that are indistinguishable from photographs of an actual product," says Brian Tyler, CEO of ART VPS. "Automotive companies and the agencies that serve them are discovering that our tools can dramatically reduce their costs and increase their efficiency in creating compelling marketing images."
If you haven't come across ART-VPS and their RenderDrive products before, each RD5000 contains 36 AR350 processors, each of which handles ray-tracing calculations. Meaning that you can render ridicolously high-resolution, high-detail scenes in a very, very, very quick time (from hours to mere minutes). And these guys now have a grand totoal of 288 of the little buggers.
ART-VPS also does a very impressive PCI-based device (called Pure) that plugs into a spare slot in your workstation and offers similar benefits if you're a render-maniac
Posted by: al dean | Comments (0)"Virtually any mammalian jaw in the wild that you look at will be a perfect occlusion�a very nice Hollywood-style dentition," said Peter Lucas, the author of Dental Functional Morphology and a visiting professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "But when it comes to humans, the ideal occlusion [the way teeth fit together] is virtually never seen. It's really the only body part that regularly needs attention and surgery."
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Error: "Christo and Jeanne-Claude are mysterious about their work."
NO. Christo and Jeanne-Claude constantly lecture and answer questions from the audience, in museums, colleges, universities and schools all over the world. It is probable that no other artists lecture as much as they do.
Error: "Mr. Christo"
NO: Christo is his first name and the only one he uses. Jeanne-Claude also uses her first name. However, their son Cyril uses Christo's first name as his legal last name: Cyril Christo, born May 11, 1960, is a published poet.
The ClayTools system v1.0 supports 3DS Max releases 6 and 7 and will retail for US$2,795. For more information head over to the SensAble website.
Posted by: csven | Comments (0)Maya Complete is still priced at US$1,999; Maya Unlimited is still US$6,999. The software is available for Windows, IRIX, Linux and Mac OS X platforms but this will be the last upgrade release for IRIX. Go to the Alias website for more details.
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From the Maxon website comes word of an update to CINEMA 4D Release 9. "Over 50 new features and many more enhancements are packed into the R9.1 update with the focus on data exchange, n-gons, the interface and the material system." Download the update (or just take a look at the features if you're looking for a new app) on www.maxon.net.
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Ahh... It's starting to warm up a little and you know what that means: Bike Season starts again... Wheee! If you're into the cutting edge of bicycle design and materials, you may get into this story from Design News. It talks about some of the innovations in design and materials that helped Lance snag his sixth Tour this past year. He's just announced that he's going for Lucky Number Seven... Sweet.
This article also led me to a few other articles on Design-Engine.com (check them out here and here). And, if you want to design your own bike (just for fun), try out the online BikeCAD by Bicycle Forest.
Ride On!
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The Cooper-Hewitt, the Smithsonian's design museum based in NYC, is looking to expand its digs so it can play on the same level as the Guggenheims and MoMAs of the world.
Its proposing a $75 million dollar, three floor expansion under their gardens that would give it the space needed to stay open during installation of new exhibits, hold classes, and host shows from other cities that they have had to turn down because of lack of space. (Check out the NYT article.)
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Saying someone was living in their own world used to be a metaphor. More and more it's coming to mean something else. For some reason there's been a resurgence of online discussion about Augmented Reality and the MIT Technology Review site has a new article on it. I don't know about AR graveyards though. I was really hoping for something more along the lines of "ARQuake" (maybe a multiplayer version with tasers....).
This all goes hand-in-hand with the big tech news for the past few days: Demo. Yahoo News has a short article (probably temporary too) on a few of the hyped technologies at the Demo conference that maybe makes this augmented reality stuff more relevant: Intellifit body scanning, Novint Falcon haptics, MDA 3D modeling. This is all sounding very cyberspacey. But instead of re-reading Snow Crash, go rent Videodrome. Confusion may be the order of the day. Long live the new flesh!
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Not sure which Scott Henderson this is, but check out this very cool DIY. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
read on
[via MeFi]
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File this in the Interactive Design folder. Wired News dishes out the dirt on British designer Brendan Walker's efforts to measure excitement. His "Thrill Measuring Device" appears to have obvious benefits for the videogame industry. Although if he thinks Doom3 is exciting, we're all going to need custom calibrations. Next stop: the sweaty skin industry - or better yet, the Royal College of Art where Brendan is a research fellow. That place sounds like fun.
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"Slowly pass your hand horizontally through the air above the Airswitch to turn it on or off. Slowly raise and lower your hand above Airswitch to brighten or dim." [via]
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They're everywhere. New movies. New military programs. Even the slug community is talking about them. But some of the most fun and inspiring are still those designed for distant planets. And here are a couple of articles that might be interesting for the design community.
New Scientist has been carrying this article on a "Spherical Robot". Looks like a millipede (rolly-polly) to me. I expect it to unwrap and skitter away. Maybe I should watch the video to see if it does.
Nature.com is carrying a different article on the "Scorpian Robot". This one looks more like a spider, but at least they're in the same family (I think). Unlike the cute round one, this one reminds me of something from a low-budget sci-fi/horror flick. Cool. I can hardly wait to see these two fighting on tv.
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That's a 21" monitor/tablet for a mere $2,500. Too bad I only get to use these things at IDSA conference demos. Via.
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Formally known as "elasto-plastic" deformation, anyone who has tried to fold/break their old credit card has run into what the article calls "the point of 'non-recoverable deformation' at which it becomes seriously weakened." Their first efforts are apparently going into creating fishing line an angler could inspect under UV light. The hope is they'll soon be able to create a material that can be visually inspected in normal light, for use in such things as tamper-resistent packaging. In the meantime, fishermen will be opening up a new can of.... PVO.... on fish everywhere. But will they stop tugging on tangled lines even if they can see it isn't helping?
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I just picked up two key announcements on the Rapid Prototping specialist, Objet Geometries web-site (www.2objet.com). Firstly, the company has received medical standards certifications for use of its FullCure resin materials in a number of medical applications.
- USP Class VI plastics designation for surface and implant devices
- ISO10993 for delayed type hypersensitivity
- ISO10993 for acute dermal irritation and corrosion
The press release also states that "In addition, FullCure models are easily sterilized using Glutaraldehyde, Ethylene Oxide gas (ETO), or Plasma sterilization techniques." While presumably, this doesn't mean they can yet be directly implanted during surgery, they can be used in such clean environments...
The second announcement details new FullCure resins over and above the 700 series introduced with the Eden range of product. According to a seperate press release, the new Vero FullCure800 series features "opaque colors and improved mechanical properties, while the new Tango resins "introduce an elastic model material that feels like final flexible materials." In specifics, the new Vero FullCure800 has been developed in a number of colours and each provides specific characteristics.
These two new ranges of resins build on the work already done with the FullCure720 transparent general-purpose resin. And if you're an existing Objet user, you'll be glad to know that they all use the FullCure705 support resin. I'm also assuming that the range of resins is available on both the Eden models (the 330 and 260).
Posted by: al dean | Comments (0)
I've spent some time with the guys that developed CosmicBlobs. There are two perspectives at play here. Firstly, SolidWorks' parent company, Dassault Systemes (developers of Catia, Enovia etc), have a corporate goal of '3D everywhere.' In the first instance (in the cases of SolidWorks and Catia) that's getting 3D CAD data out of the design and engineering departments into sales, manufacturing, production, servicing etc. They have also extended this to the consumer realm with CosmicBlobs, aimed at the youth market (which is massive). The other perspective is that this is straight from the research labs within the group's technical team. CosmicBlobs represents a brand new 3D modelling technology that one day, might or might not be integrated into SolidWorks and perhaps other Dassault products.
One thing that hits me is that kids today spend a massive amount of time in front of a screen or TV. If this is a digital PlayDoh product, why not just give them some PlayDoh for some physical interaction. Much the same goes for the software games that Lego developed and sold. That said its fifty bucks, allows you to create some cool forms and shapes and even includes automated bi-pedal animation (which is really cool). Shame there's no export functions.
If you want a hint of how the next generation digital product development tools might work (albeit without the chemistry lab interface), it's worth a look.
Posted by: al dean | Comments (0)
The Economist has an excellent article discussing "green buildings". For anyone who caught the popular television show Numb3rs last night ("Structural Corruption"), the article makes clear the developer's jealous, vengeful office mistress was screwing him a third way - by cutting costs during construction, the building wouldn't just collapse, it would cost him more money to maintain over the life of the building. Hell hath no fury....
For industrial designers (and anyone who didn't watch that show) the article mentions some interesting things like computer-controlled blinds, LED exit signs, weather sensors and motion detectors. For software geeks there's mention of Autodesk's increased role in providing evaluation tools. There's also mention of some free software called DOE-2 which might be useful for some of you.
And if you just like pretty pictures, the article includes this pic of "the Gherkin".
Funky.
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Knitting is in again. From London to Tasmania. (photo from Supernaturale)
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The images from Hans Hagen's beautiful and haunting "A Small World�Impossible Shoots" fall somewhere between mirrorball conversion algorithms, new planet formation theory, and Judy Chicago's Dinner Party. You decide. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
School superintendents struck a deal with a local maker of the technology last year to test the system to track attendance and weed out trespassers."
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)Lots of articles and reviews on line also.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)Lots of articles and reviews on line also.
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I thought this was a great idea - so I posted an old image of mine in the discussion forums. Add your Old School skillz to that thread.
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"The tablecloth draws attention to the flow of objects over a surface in the home by signalling how long things have been left upon it. If an object is left on the table for a while, a glowing halo forms beneath it that grows slowly over time, until the object is moved. This object raises issues about the desirability of using technology to emphasise existing behaviour." [via Wicked Problems] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
For those that spend too much time watching the Discovery Channel and have an unhealthy obsession with TiG welding, it's good to know that the Tuteuls from American Chopper have finally moved (albeit just a touch) into the 21st century. After appearing at the SolidWorks World user conference in Orlando last week and unveiling a new custom bike, the company has announced that Orange County Choppers is using SolidWorks to design the exhaust pipes, daring wheels, and other key features that make its "street machines unique."
"I'm an artist, not an engineer or a programmer," said Jason Pohl, designer at Orange County Choppers. "I usually just throw lines on paper to knock out a good concept for the part I am working on. SolidWorks was so easy to learn that in no time, I could put my sketch ideas into 3D models that I can perfect before machining begins. I am now sculpting my ideas rather than just sketching them."
It might not be strictly be industrial design, but these bikes are cool (however sketchly they seem to be built). And the idea of Paul Snr slamming a workstation through the window is too good to resist.
3D printer specialist, Z Corporation has launched the Spectrum Z510 3D Printing System, which it reckons is the first high-definition color 3D printer on the market. Z Corp are well known for being the first to introduce colour printing of 3D object a few years back, but in addition to providing high-fidelity, 24-bit color system, the new machine supports 600 X 540 dpi print-head resolution (which means higher quality, finer detailed parts) and much large build sizes (254 mm X 356 mm X 203 mm, 10 in. X 14 in. X 8 in).
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[link via dezain] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
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Brondell takes on a formidable design-and-marketing challenge - getting Americans to change their product interactions in the bathroom.
You walk into your bathroom and sit down on your Swash contoured and comfortably heated toilet seat. When finished, you simply press a button for a posterior or feminine wash and you are met with a warm, aerated water spray. You can dry yourself with the warm air dryer or pat-dry with a small amount of toilet paper. You leave your bathroom shower-fresh as the gentle-closing lid slowly lowers behind you. Swash-like products are providing over 20 million men, women, and children around the world a healthier, more hygienic lifestyle. The bidet is recognized for its superior cleansing qualities accomplished by using water rather than irritating, ineffective dry toilet paper.
No doubt it's comfortable, perhaps pleasurable, more hygienic and whatever other benefits you can imagine. And hey, the Japanese all use it (or a similar product). But something is badly missing in order to get this marketplace to use it. As their CEO says ''Once someone experiences one of our warm toilet seats and the warm-water bidet, there's no going back to the cold porcelain toilet." (article here)
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i don't but y'all, but i love machined goodies especially for an i-pod.
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Tons of great pics from the 2005 Cologne Furniture Fair at Designboom Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
BONUS/THIS JUST IN: The guys are doing a presentation at dorkbot.bln during transmediale next Monday.
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Happy (posthumous) birthday to one of the greatest voices for the human spirit of the 20th century.
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Assisting Mr. Cantu with what he calls his ' 'Star Wars' stuff' is DeepLabs, a small Chicago product-development and design consultancy. Mr. Cantu meets weekly with the crew of aerospace and mechanical engineers, programmers and product designers at DeepLabs for brainstorming sessions. Ryan Alexander, an industrial graphic designer at DeepLabs, said he and his colleagues at the company, which has designed more conventional products for Motorola and Home Depot, are enthusiastic about Mr. Cantu: "We don't say no," he said.
The NYTimes has an interesting piece today on Lego, intellectual property, and competitors like Mega Bloks and Best-Lock. Of note: Lego's redirecting their IP team away from patents (theirs ran out in 1978) and over to trademarks. Bonus tidbit: "Lego did not develop the idea of plastic blocks that lock together with small knobs. The blocks were invented and then patented in 1939 in England by Harry Fisher Page, who went on to found Kiddicraft, an early maker of plastic toys." Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
MIT organized last week a four day collaborative workshop that culminated in the installation of a bubble making art piece on their campus. Video of this massive bubble-generator.
Via Simplicity.
...here come the accessories, starting with the MiniTower and the MiniSkirt. [via Engadget] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
I first saw this smoke detector a couple months back at DWR's Chicago show. It's one of those things that you want to kick yourself for not redesigning first. Architectural Devices' version recesses into your wall or ceiling and is held in place by 2 magnets, making it easy to maintain. The company's name leads me to believe that we will be seeing more than just this one product in the future.
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