Biking Gloves Are A Bright Idea for Bicyclists

If you ride a bike, then you know how hard it is to get the respect you deserve on the road. And if you drive a car, then you know how annoying it is when people on bikes wear all black and don’t signal. Here’s an idea that everyone can get behind: Night Biking Gloves. Designer and cyclist Irene Posch created these clever gloves with built-in LED arrows. Conductive fibers are knit into the fingertips and palm so the circuit closes when you make a fist, causing the LED arrow on the back to light up. As a bonus, the conductive fingertips also make the gloves touchscreen friendly.

I would love to make these into a kit for Technology Will Save Us either working with Posch or creating our own version!

Hacked Milan

Last week we were in Milan for design week, as part of the Hacked Lab: 

100 HOURS OF REBELLIOUS CREATIVITY.

HACKING - THE THRILL OF MODIFICATION AND
CUSTOMIZATION – WILL BE CELEBRATED HERE IN
BOMBASTIC STYLE. 

PEOPLE WERE INVITED TO COME, EXPLORE AND HACK.

WEDNESDAY 14:00-15:30 / 18:00-19:30

BUILD YOUR OWN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THE ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS THAT MAKE UP MOST OF THE TECHNOLOGY IN OUR LIVES. MAKE SOMETHING AUDIBLY CREATIVE - MAKE A LUMIPHONE!

www.technologywillsaveus.org

IMAGES GALLERYVIDEO DELLE PERFORMANCE

WEDNESDAY 10:00-11:30 / 16:00-17:30

MAKE YOUR OWN THIRSTY PLANT DETECTOR

A WATERED PLANT IS A HAPPY PLANT. MAKE YOUR OWN SENSOR AND ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT TO KEEP YOUR OWN GREENERY HAPPY BY RESPONDING QUICKLY TO ITS THIRSTY NEEDS.

www.technologywillsaveus.org

3D Chocolate Printer

3D printing has, for years, been touted by many in the tech world as the 'next big thing'. Now it takes on a new, tasty turn, with the development of the 3D chocolate printer: the 'Choc Creator 1'. Slightly missing the Easter munchies rush, makers Choc Edge (headed by Dr Liang Hao from the University of Exeter) are giving sweet lovers the ability to custom create their own 3D treats. The printer will initially begin retailing on Ebay for £2,500 - a price only those with a real sweet tooth can afford.

Dr Hao says the product is aimed at 'creative users who love to experience new technologies, exploit broad technical settings and boundaries' and describes the printer as incredibly easy to use . The machine uses standard 3D design files, which are then transferred via a USB cable from your computer. After that, 'you just need to melt some chocolate, fill a syringe that is stored in the printer, and get creative printing your chocolate.' Creating this technology, however, has proved challenging, with chocolate requiring precise heating and cooling cycles.

With chocolatiers such as Thorntons showing interest, a Choc Creator 1 could be coming to a store near you. And Dr Hao does not plan to stop his chocolate experiments there - the future could hold a chocolate-oriented website. He explains, "Chocolate has a lot of social purpose, so our intention is to develop a community and share the designs, ideas and experience about it."

Sweet! I want one!!

The Future in the Making

The future of design was the subject of an exhibition at Milan Design Fair last week, aptly called 'The Future in the Making'. Curated by Italian design magazine Domus and Audi, the exhibition was hosted in one of Milan's decadent mansions and explores, 'the revolution that is radically changing the face of design, opening up new perspectives with fresh ideas and a new generation of designers.'

The show featured designers incorporating innovative practice into their work, from new methods in production to the use of cutting edge technology. Award winning Dutch designer Dirk Vander Kooji, for example, showcased his 'Endless Robot' which relentlessly prints out chairs made of recycled fridge plastic, while nearby in the banqueting hall a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic (a cheap 3D printer) printed mini digital Nutella canapes.

Crowd-sourcing company Kickstarter was also championed in revolutionizing the production process by helping designers source funding from independent backers. One such crowd-funded project on show was the Printrbot by Brook Drumm, a desktop 3D printer that can be assembled in a matter of hours, while another, CineSkates Camera Sliders was so successful it exceeded its funding goal by 24 times.

The exhibition was an interesting mixture of advanced experimentation and production and highlighted what the future of design may look like. Check it out here.

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The Magic Cube

The Magic Cube is a recently developed product by Korean technology firm, Celluon. Selling itself as ‘the only keyboard that operates in total darkness’, The Magic Cube is a laser-projected keyboard that fits into your suit pocket – a head turning accessory for business meetings, on the train or just about anywhere.

Weighing in at the same size as a Zippo lighter, the product generates laser beams to create a fully functioning, touch sensitive keyboard. Celluon’s product is compatible with any Bluetooth operating device – you can now have a full-sized keyboard, on the go, for your iPhone, tablet or Smartphone, to name a few.

And the perks don’t stop there. The Magic Cube really does function as a ‘normal’ keyboard, right down to the real tapping sounds created when used. Celluon gives us a brief break down of the intelligence used - ‘A direction technology based on an optical recognition mechanism enables the user to tap on the projected key images.’ It also has a ‘Mouse Mode’ option – allowing you to use your fingers as a mouse, rather than typing when using a laptop.

With a battery that recharges using USB, the product lasts for up to 150 hours and, best of all, comes in a variety of colors.

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The Density of Light sees super-chromatic artist Gabriel Dawe make rainbows real

Gabriel Dawe’s latest Plexus site-specific installation sees the artist accumulate thousands of strands of sewing threads, solidifying space in a vibrant, tangible spectrum of colour. The absolute precision of its making allows the viewer to perceive it from all manner of angles with the effect being somewhere between “material and the immaterial.”

Through the materials he uses, the artist returns to his childhood frustration at his Mexican heritage, the threads, and more specifically embroidery, symbolising the purported machismo mentality, the cultural roles of the genders, and a “complicated network between ideas and people.” The overall effect is both sculpturally architectural and very, very beautiful.

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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.

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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.

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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.

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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.
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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.

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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.

  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.

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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.
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  Gabriel Dawe: Plexus 13 & Plexus 14 at Gallery Lot 10. Photographer Matthieu Kavyrchine.

The Density of Light will be on show at Gallery Lot 10 until June 9.

Berndnaut Smilde merges Art and Science

I love clouds and installations and art. This dude’s stuff is pretty rad.

That’s not photoshop; that’s an actual cloud hovering inside an actual room. Artist Berndnaut Smilde merges art and science to create small man-made clouds that exist — albeit for just a moment — indoors.

Smilde uses a fog machine to make the actual clouds, but also carefully regulates the humidity and temperature. Even so, these installations exists for a mere moment before dissipating inside the room. If you’re not there in the moment, then you only get to experience these brief scientific sculptures as photographs.

I found this months ago and forgot to post, but its juts so great and I know found a video to see the process in action.

Adafruit's IoT Printer

Got to get myself one of these!!

Noisy Jelly

French product designer Raphael Pluvinage and food designer Marianne Cauvard have invented a game that allows players to make sounds from jelly. The jellies are formed using gelatin, agar agar powder, water and food colouring - all placed in moulds of varying sizes and shapes. Once set, the jellies are placed on a game board that contains sensors. When the shapes are touched and manipulated, the sensors are triggered and will create different audio sounds. The noise produced is affected by the concentration of salt in the jellies, their shape and the contact pressure.

It’s a fun and appealing concept that will appeal to (and educate) both adults and children. The shapes encourage interaction and experimentation and allow users to explore the notion of sound through something tangible.

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The Poking Machine

The Facebook ‘poke’, one of the longest-standing features on the social network, is no longer just a virtual gesture.

Designers Jasper van Loenen and Bartholomäus Traubeck have created a device that when worn can give someone a physical poke. It consists of a custom-built box that receives signals from an Android phone connected to Facebook. When someone sends a poke on Facebook to a friend, the phone sends the information to the box, which in turn releases a small lever into the wearer. Ouch.

The project explores how social networking – a typically digital activity – can be re-imagined as a tangible experience, underlining how people could connect physically as well as online. It might also make some Facebook users think twice about hitting the ‘poke’ button in future...

Open IDEO launches StartUpPlan

StartUpPlan - The Startup Planner Platform

A web platform to help startups plan their build, marketing needs and attract talent/freelancers to help with various aspects.

StartUpPlan

StartUpPlan - A Startup Project Planning Platform

This is a collaborative tool and community where someone thinking of starting up a commercial or social enterprise is taken through a number of steps to define their goals and their needs.

They would then get a project homepage with plan laid out. They can add any request for resources, funding and help.

The community then can browse the projects and offer their services in return for equity or voluntarily.

All aspects of the Startup's progress is tracked on the platform and allows team members to collaborate remotely on code, design, strategy.

For example, for a social startup, someone could come up with a great idea and be looking for coders and designers to join that projects. As they attract community talent, these people can signup to cheer the project on or become fullly-fledged team members, uploading their work and sharing with eachother. Within the space of a few days, new startups could be designed and built.

How will your concept support web entrepreneurship?

Giving entrepreneurs all the tools in one easy place.

What kinds of resources will be needed to get this concept off the ground and scale it?

It's a new web startup! Who's in?

How could we get started?

Proof-of-concept prototype up soon.

Virtual Team:

Ben Hamley (http://www.openideo.com/profiles/hamley/) originally inspired me on this idea all the way back in Queensland last May, when we were at the Food Challenge workshop together.

Visit http://www.openideo.com/open/web-start-up/concepting/startupplan-the-startup-planner-platform/

Sugru in primary colours

Exciting news! As of today, our friends at Sugru have launched  Primary Colours. Over the last year or so they have had hundreds of emails asking for different colours, and the ability to mix a wider range of colours. So… they’ve been beavering away for ages to make it work. And now were happy to say they’ve cracked it!!

Finally for those of you who prefer a subtler more invisible hack, you’ll now be able to match almost any colour. And for all you colour lovers – the mixing possibilities have just exploded!

So happy hacking everyone!

We hope you love them as much as we do!