The Design blog |
- Axis Prosthetic Foot ensures full range of motion on all ‘axis’
- Photovoltaic fabric to make fashion more meaningful
- Accord noise cancelling device creates a space for private talks in public
- Jelly Bean, an interactive park that showers rain
- Paperloo, an eco chess set for passionate chess lovers
- Stunningly detailed Triport Spire AKA sci-fi space port made in Lego
- The LifeGun to extract, filter and bottle water at a low cost
- Angryman, a versatile stand to wrap your iPhone clutter
- Cool gadgets for smart geeks
- OOAK Deluxe Dock is simply steampunkalicious
| Axis Prosthetic Foot ensures full range of motion on all ‘axis’ Posted: 19 Mar 2012 06:38 AM PDT Shallu Sharma: We have all grown up listening to the quote "Cherish that which is within you and shut off that which is without," but this doesn't hold true all the time. We cannot shut off everything that we don't have as sometimes life isn't fair and it keeps us devoid of things without which life becomes a curse. Not having a body part is the one of the biggest challenges one might have to face but thanks to the latest technologies that has made prosthetic devices as common as other household objects.
 Axis - Prosthetic Foot Being amputated in the limbs may be a physical barrier but for the strong willed, it's just another reason to bounce back to life with greater thrust. Your form is as strong as your mind and with a little assistance from the outside the lag can be erased from the room. This is what the Axis Prosthetic Foot aims to accomplish. It's specially designed for the athletic amputees. Athletes are known for physical endurance and it's more conspicuous in case of amputee athletes. So to make up for the impairment and ensure development on all "axis", here's Axis Prosthetic Foot. Unlike other prosthetic feet that focus mainly on walking and running, Axis Prosthetic Foot enables you to have a full range of motion like a real ankle. Simulating real ankle motion its heel could be lifted as easily as a genuine one. It provides better balancing of joints, which is the most critical part and enables user to have a tight grip on snowboard, surfboard and skateboard etc. Now amputation shall be no reason to suppress the athlete in you and curb your athletic penchant. Source: Conform Studios
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| Photovoltaic fabric to make fashion more meaningful Posted: 19 Mar 2012 05:58 AM PDT Asmita Prasad: The concept Ever since Charles Fritts built the first photovoltaic cell in 1883, photovoltaic technology has been at the forefront of sustainable energy development movement. However, even after more than a century and half of development, PVs are still quite bulky, heavy, unappealing and generally low output. Thin film cells have recently made an appearance on the scene and have been used quite effectively to turn ordinary everyday fabrics into sunlight harvesting tools when used with organic polymers. This has resulted into developers and scientists investigating the possibility for someday manufacturing clothing that can be used to generate electricity on the go which can be used to keep everyday gadgets powered up.
 Solar Fabric
The Inspiration The use of thin film solar cells in outdoor gear and camping equipment like backpacks and tents has already been quite successfully demoed. Since the integration of PVs into fabric hasn't been found to have affected the functionality of either the fabric or the PV cell, the same idea could very well be applied to clothing. Even though a thin film organic polymer based photovoltaic around 8 percent as efficient as a traditional silicon-based solar panel which are around 25-35 percent efficient, solar clothing would be able to be used as the ultimate all-weather PV panel that would be effective as an alternative way of keeping gadgets charged on the move. What makes it so special? PVs in solar clothing are made from amorphous silicon which is less efficient than the crystalline silicon used in solar panels but whatever they lose in efficiency, they can make up for it in terms of coverage. A sail on a boat that is made using thin-film cells would be much more effective at collecting sunlight than a fixed solar panel installed at the roof of a boat or even at its sides. With a much greater surface area collecting sunlight while offering protection and flexibility as well, solar cloth can provide a great and functional alternative to fixed panel PVs. The thickness of a transparent protective coating can also be adjusted to suit each case since the fiber itself is transparent. What’s in it for me? What makes solar clothing such a fantastic and practical idea for an increasingly gadget dependent modern society is the fact that it offers folks the chance to keep common portable electronics such as cell phones and mp3 players charged when they are out and about and it isn't feasible for them to stay near an electrical outlet long enough to fully charge their phone. Related Trends 1. Solar surf shelter
 Solar surf shelter The Solar Surf Shelter is a great new way to ensure that you are doing your bit to preserve the very environment that you are looking to enjoy at a beach. The concept is created by designer Emma Harris ad looks to exploit the plentiful sun at seaside hangouts along the British coast. The shelter is created to not only withstand the gale-force winds that wreck outdoor structures in the region and comes with an aerodynamic design that helps the structure capture wind energy via a turbine that is fed via a tunnel at the back of the shelter. For days that are bright enough to sustain solar charging, the shelter's PV fabric covering helps it capture sufficient power to juice beach goers' cell phones, mp3 players and even tablet PCs. The sociable arena is also great for just lounging around with family and friends. 2. Gcell PV jacket
 Gcell PV jacket Created for use by professionals in combat, the Gcell PV Jacket is a great innovation that can help soldiers keep important and often life-saving equipment like GPS systems and other navigation and communication devices charged and ready for use. For long, soldiers have had to carry backup batteries and spare cells to ensure that their gadgets don't lose power in the middle of a critical mission. This PV jacket can thus prove to be tremendously advantageous bits of tech that can help soldiers lessen the weight of their backpack while ensuring them a continuous supply of clean power as well. The front of the jacket is wired to hold devices being charged while the flexible photovoltaic material spread across the clothing keeps the power flowing. A 650mAh Li-ion battery stores the 2W of power that the jacket generates and developers claim that the clothing is efficient enough to offer users clean charging equivalent to around 45 minutes of talk time on an average cell phone. 3. Zegna Sport Solar JKT
 Zegna Sport Jacket Created by Ermenegildo Zegna Holditalia SpA (Zegna), the Zegna Sport Solar JKT is made using special textile cables and polycrystalline silicon-based solar modules measuring 9×5.5 cm. these solar cells allow the jacket to power a 5-volt gadget using a USB connection that can change a cell phone fully in about 8 hours though it gives user enough juice to sustain it for half it battery life in around four hours. A 100g built-in battery stores power for later use and the jacket is created to flex and move with the user's body which means that would never have to feel uncomfortable wearing it and you don't have it worry about breaking some of the delicate wiring inside the jacket as well. 4. Irene
 Irene Developed for use by Swedish automaker SAAB Automobile, this two piece urban outfit called Irene may be something of publicity gimmick to popularize the use of solar clothing and clean power, but the set of blouse and pants does make a pretty bold fashion statement while charging your gadgets at the same time. The blouse in the set comes fitted with an illuminated info display that can connect to the metallic environmental sensors on the pants to provide a high tech fashionista on the go with all the necessary info that she needs. Thin film flexible Solar cells keep the display powered and shining though walking around looking like a billboard may warrant some cat calls from people on the street!
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| Accord noise cancelling device creates a space for private talks in public Posted: 19 Mar 2012 05:56 AM PDT Shallu Sharma: There’s always a flipside to every boon. Technology is one such boon. Technology has made communication possible even in the most remote nooks and corners of the globe. Trouble is however that it often becomes unfeasible to secure one such nook or corner for your personal self to ensure privacy and intimacy in your conversation. There's often a lot of noise and not to mention "unwanted attention" in public places that it steals away all pleasure or gravity from a personal telephonic conversation. However to put things in "accord," here's Accord which will ensure that your personal interests stay within personal limits.
 Accord noise cancelling device
Accord as the name suggests has been designed to reduce active noise to hush public conversation sounds. Designed by Betty Huang, the project was created as an entry for the Braun Prize Competition 2012. It is a portable and wearable device that quiets sound for private conservation at any place. It works by limiting sound waves to a small distance thereby, keeping your conversation personal by preventing others from listing to it. This device creates "anti-sound" by using interfering sound waves where sound waves of speech and inverted sound waves cancel out each other thereby, creating a silence zone.
Accord comes with an LED display bar that shows residual sound and omnidirectional microphone to lift up sound waves from the user. Electronic components are used to inverse the sound waves and speaker that projects interfering sound waves at the user to cancel the speech sound waves. Ear microphone maintains the accuracy of interfering waves by lifting up residual sound that does not cancel out. The device could be attached with the clip either on a watch or on a band. The back part of the device is held by suction and has a lever. The rear of front piece comes with a clip to attach it to the silicon strip between two halves. Back part of the device can fasten to walls and smooth surfaces and top portion can clip onto it. Both rear and front part can also be combined as a hand held object, giving people freedom to speak to their loved ones. [Cheers Betty]
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| Jelly Bean, an interactive park that showers rain Posted: 19 Mar 2012 05:54 AM PDT Grace Kikon: In order to better utilize a space of 9 acre site at the heart of the Seattle Center, the Urban Intervention invited designers to conceive a fresh vision of social, economic and environmental opportunities. This was clearly with a view of generating ideas for a new generation and towards applicable solutions for major urban sites around the world. The 9 acre site is originally where the Memorial Stadium stands and will soon be demolished. It is to make way for more public space, which holds whimsical ideas for a new cultural center and public place.
 Seattle Jelly Bean
The competition The competition was intended to seek out multidisciplinary design response from innovative designers that contributes to a global dialogue regarding public space utilization. The competition phased out in two parts, wherein three finalist teams will be chosen to receive $30,000 each to fully develop their ideas in the first phase. In the second phase, the Grand prize winner will be selected with a cash prize of $30,000, as well as seven projects selected for merit and commendation awards. The contestants were drawn from around the world with their creative and unique ideas, out of which the most outstanding were the giant bubble structures, ziplines and the floating jelly bean. The Praud architects represented by Dongwoo Yim and Rafael Luna with their Seattle Jelly Bean entry were chosen to compete the second phase. This will progress from April up till May for the final presentation.
The basic idea The site where the Memorial Stadium occupied will be given a new scale with surrounding blocks. A new scale pattern has been created for the site to bring it down to a more general human scale, by following access points from other public facilities within the site. In this case, the pattern for pedestrian passage becomes more accessible to allow more public to enjoy the park experience even without venturing inside. The passages will remain solid while courts which are designed as inversion passages will become void. The topography created will be different for each void and solid. The pedestrians and joggers will experience a different topography for the solid, whereas in the case of the void the topography will provide landscape fields and functions. Fusion of cultures In order to show how the park can absorb the already existing cultures such as the South Fountain Lawn and the International Fountain, new scale and circular patterns with multiple access points will be created around these. Hence the Jelly Bean design has become another way of fusing this cultural dialogue in design. Unique Jelly Bean design The Jelly Bean is basically a floating design that is bound to generate a lot of interaction between park visitors, who may otherwise be strangers and communities. The Jelly Bean is also a device that can control micro level climate and therefore, depends very much on the weather or as per public demand. This Jelly Bean is capable of creating various elemental changes like rain, sun shine and cloud or fog effect. The Jelly Bean has also been created to be used a projection screen at night to create a new way of urban activities. It can also be used as reflecting object during the day to enable people to see other parts of the city from inside the park. When the Jelly Bean design completes in May, the Seattle city center may well be poised for a new experience in urban living. Source: Praud
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| Paperloo, an eco chess set for passionate chess lovers Posted: 19 Mar 2012 05:12 AM PDT Mridul Jerath: Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation. Thinking on the same lines, designers all around the world have made many innovative things using cardboard craft. These designers have created things mostly from waste and recycled cardboard. Andrea Vecera, an Italian designer introduced a new chess set made up of corrugated cardboard that is eco friendly as well as durable. Christened as Paperloo, this innovative chess set has been designed for the Italian design portico Skitsch.
 Paperloo chess set
It is an eco chess set that is lightweight and can be easily taken to a place of your choice. It comprises of the chess board and chess pieces, both of which are made of corrugated cardboard, which is thick enough and thus increases the strength of the material. The portions are laser cut to make thirty two chess pieces that are interlocked. A flat surface is transformed into a stylish chess board. This product not only cuts down on the production cost as it is manually assembled but also makes minimum use of ink, only for checkering the board surface, nominal product explanation and instructions on the packaging. Apart from being a sustainable and portable product, it is a best way out for chess lovers, who can take this light chess board anywhere and enjoy their favorite game to the fullest, not only in constrains of the home but also in hotels, restaurants and parks. Design and sustainability are the predominant features of this eco friendly product, of which both the board and chess pieces are entirely made of microwave cardboard. Another appreciable characteristic is its durability, which has made it all the more impressive. Source: Domusweb
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| Stunningly detailed Triport Spire AKA sci-fi space port made in Lego Posted: 19 Mar 2012 04:35 AM PDT Asmita Prasad: Science fiction themed LEGO projects are a dime dozen but few are as impressive on a galactic scale as this incredibly detailed Triport Spire created by Rogue Bantha AKA Flickr user Tim Goddard. And just before you spend your precious office hours googling what a Triport Spire is, let us tell you that it is a sci-fi inspired space port (as in airport for spacecrafts) that can apparently serve as a hanger for several spacecrafts at a time. Built using only Lego pieces, the Spire features a working elevator, internal lighting running on a 9V battery that illuminate the hangers and even a whole fleet of tiny and detailed spaceships.
 Triport Spire
The best thing about this piece is that the creator has fine tuned every aspect of the design to make it look like anything but a Lego creation. Not only is the Spire a novel concept in terms of sci-fi inspired design, the project's amazing detailing is what keep its audiences engrossed for hours and the creation could very well pass for a prop created for a big budget movie set! The creator has not revealed how many pieces of Lego were used in the build and how many hours it took to create the piece (including the backgrounds) but we're sure those figures would only be half as astounding as the creation itself. Via: Technabob
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| The LifeGun to extract, filter and bottle water at a low cost Posted: 19 Mar 2012 03:31 AM PDT Jaspreet Kaur Walia: Guns have always been associated with destruction, but giving it an all new meaning is Kristin McGeorge. The designer has come up with a water filtration system that will be just perfect for developing countries facing shortage of clean water. Christened the LifeGun, it will not only serve clean water but will also help improve the life of millions of individuals all across the globe. The design is simple and will be a perfect for low income societies that cannot bare heavy expenses demanded by water purification and filtration systems.
 The LifeGun
Clean water is one reason that prevents the spread of diseases, in other words water-borne diseases. The easy to use design's internal filtration system comprises of a layer of ceramic shell, which is the reason behind sub micron water filtration. The ceramic layer makes sure that the count of cysts, bacteria, fine particulate material as well as turbidity comes down. Contaminants that get build up can be cleaned with the help of regular cleaning to prevent any kind of unhygienic conditions. Further, Volatile organic compounds are removed with the help of a carbon core that not only improves the taste but even the odor and color of water. After all this, the water is also treated externally that makes good use of natural sunlight. This makes sure that water contaminated by cholera causing bacteria gets treated with the help of SODIS treatments, bleach treatments and Aquatabs along with sunlight. The LifeGun will let a user extract, filter and bottle water directly from the source. The design features a piston styled pump that is operated manually. This pump lets the user draw water easily through a filter column. A PET bottle is fixed at the end of housing where the filtered water is channeled through a valve. PET bottles are found just everywhere and the designer has used it sensibly while coming up with the water filtration system. The LifeGun has a built-in universal fitment for these bottles, which can be used to collected clean water making sure that no additional container is required to store water. If you want to collect or pump water in a bucket rather than a bottle, then mount a threaded adapter to the valve instead of a bottle. The system comes sans any complications and with its simple approach can even be used by kids and elderly. The LifeGun is pretty useful and not only can it be used by people of developing nations, but also those who like going for camping and hiking where fetching clean water can prove to be a real task. It will definitely improve the quality of life and make sure water borne diseases are avoided at any cost. Via: Kristinmcgeorge
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| Angryman, a versatile stand to wrap your iPhone clutter Posted: 19 Mar 2012 03:26 AM PDT Shallu Sharma: No matter how much effort we put to keep our headphones untangled and organized, they always end up getting unorganized. We all must have experienced this irritating feeling once in a while and in an effort to get rid of it, Curve Creative, a Dublin based industrial design startup has come up with an innovative design to keep your headset tidy and iPhone standing while watching videos and movies. This all in one iPhone stand, cable tidy and cable shortener, christened as the Angryman would definitely help in making your iPhone's usability easy and comfortable.
 Angryman
You can simply wrap your earphones around the Angryman to keep them untangled and easy to trace and unwind them whenever required. You can attach this device to your key chain, which makes it perfect for keeping earphones when not in use. To use it as an iPhone stand you just need to attach it to the side of your iPhone that will support it at various angles and positions. You can keep it like an alarm clock by your bedside and watch movies at any easy angle. This simple yet effective design could be used with iPhone4/ iPhone4s and iPod classic. It's an ideal solution to fulfill your iPhone needs. Priced at $13.25 you can get the Angryman in a variety of colors. This small multipurpose device is ideal to add value to your charished gadgets. Source: Curve
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| Posted: 19 Mar 2012 02:48 AM PDT Gaurav Thakur: When young and smart, the insatiable thirst to accumulate gadgets that are different and distinguish themselves from the crowd is never ending. You’re always looking for something that goes one step ahead in doing things. Below we compile a list of 15 cool gadgets for smart geeks with a wide range of functions such as turning your smartphone into a medical assisting device or using a missile launcher toy operated from your iPhone to avenge your enemies at the office.
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| OOAK Deluxe Dock is simply steampunkalicious Posted: 19 Mar 2012 02:44 AM PDT Asmita Prasad: First steampunkers gave the industrial looking desktops a glam makeover for quite a while now though the new generation of computing, i.e., tablets and handheld computers haven't been reinvented for the followers of the genre. Until now, that is. The OOAK Deluxe Dock iPad/ iPhone/ iPod Dock brings the steampunk's brassy and wooden goodness to your favorite Apple devices in the best way possible. The dock comes with an adjustable wing arm style design that makes this sync and charging station an all-in-one dock for your i-devices.
 iPad - iPhone - iPod - OOAK Deluxe Dock
Picture Gallery  iPad,iPhone,iPod,OOAK Deluxe Dock Sync and Charging Station To full 360 degree rotatable adjustable arms of the dock are made fully in brass and can be easily swing up and down to customize the view for the user. This lets users use an iPad or an iPod/ iPhone like a desktop monitor when they add a mouse and a keyboard to the set. The gorgeous looking OOAK Deluxe Dock iPad/ iPhone/ iPod Dock can be constructed in a variety of natural woods and premium quality brass which gives the dock a classic steampunk look which goes well traditional decors and even flatters more formal, minimalistic office interiors. The solid hardwood used in the OOAK Deluxe Dock iPad/ iPhone/ iPod Dock is given a custom finish to make the handcrafted dock look very appealing indeed. The very limited edition dock can fit different case thicknesses with easy turning screws and adjustable arms without removing the cover of the case. The OOAK Deluxe Dock iPad / iPhone/ iPod Dock retails for $110 and can be ordered in a choice of woods as well as rusty metal and marble finishes. Via: Etsy
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