Are ya looking for some cool interactive ambient light projects? If so, link yourself over to UnitedVisualArtists. They have a some great project using light and interactive sensors. Some are a bit trippy, but a few are breathtaking. Make sure to watch their project video clips. I’ll list a few of my favorites:Victoria and Albert Museum
Interactive Installation
Massive Attack
Fashion Show
Here’s a slick jacket by IDIOM. Then again, I’m a sucker for products with an “apple affect”. In the design world, the “apple affect” is where the outside is one color, but the insides a burst of another. There are tons of great products with this design element. I’ll list a few:
There are two incredible developments in the interactive tables arena, the muti-touch table by Jef Han and the touch table by >Applied Minds. So, whats next?… A freakin dynamic 3D version of one!!! Yes, like the one in the X-men movie. Xenotran has developed a Dynamic Sand Table (DST) that can produce accurate topographic models in under 3 minutes. It’s basically a table with a bunch of needles that retract or extrude upwards to represent the projected terrain. Watching this table work is awesome!Touch Table (has video clips)
Multi-Touch Table
Xenotran Table w/videos
Touch-Table /3D table demoat EG (a must watch!)
Here’s a fun product. Your pull the string, and the shaker starts shaking!! Just pull, turn upside-down, and the bits flicker out. You can always shake it yourself, but why shake when it can shake itself.PerpetualKid
A nice slideshow on materials and manufacturing methods used in products by industrial designer Arik Levy.
Geocities was bought for 3.6 billion dollars in 1999 by Yahoo. Facebook, one of the newer trendy social networks, is apparently trying to sell themselves for 2 billion now. The founders of Facebook are Harvard undergrad dropouts. The number of American millionaires is at a record high of about 9 million Millionaires. Are all of these social networks worth this much? Myspace, Orkut, Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, etc?
Sure makes me wonder when I’m going to make my million. Check out those links, figure out a better network, and go make a billion.
John Huber has a fascinating method in creating a pretty slick ring from a half-dollar coin using a hammer. The tools are simple, the process is easy, and the end product is plain cool!
via Make
John Huber (picture process)
The 2005 Solar Decathlon competition has an amazing assortment of incredible designs based on sustainable energy-efficient living. The competition introduces a variety of innovative methods to use solar energy and high-tech materials. If you dig deep into some of the submissions, you’ll be blown away by the student concepts. I recently saw a special on TV about this competition and became hooked. They recently announced the roundup of schools invited to compete in 2007.
“AOL has released their Cityguide for New York with a list of “The 2006 City’s Best,” some of which are a surprise and others which were not so surprising. Stone Park Cafe in Park Slope took Cityguide’s top restaurant honor, beating out big names like Daniel, Le Bernardin, Per Se, and Masa.”
Yummmm.. I’m due for a nyc trip.
“The Accouphene tuxedo is decorated with 13 soft speakers, embroidered in the shape of a coil with highly conductive yarns. By pulsing energy through the coils and running a magnet, embedded in the sleeve of Accouphene, over the coils, sounds are generated. Accouphene creates a 3D sonic environment around the human body that can be activated and modulated through movement of the hands and the twisting and compression of the cloth.”
Accouphene is a project by Vincent Leclerc, Joey Berzowska & the XS Labs Squirrels. (photos by Vincent)
“Babble, from Sonare, is the industry’s first sound management system designed to provide patented voice privacy without wallsâ„¢. Babble is the only voice privacy device currently on the market that offers true confidentiality for any office, open workspace or cubicle.”SonareTechnologies
Video Example
Applied Minds– Firm that worked on it.
Sounds been a hot topic in the past few years. Pictured right are “Glas Platz”, glass speakers, an elegant solution to those large ugly looking speakers. This technology also works by using the SoundBug, which is a device you slap onto to any hard surface, and whala, that surface projects sounds. Below are a few more sound based inventions I’ve come across. Enjoy!
SoundBug -surface speaker device
Feonic Tech products– a bunch of sound concepts
Glas Platz -glass speakers
HyperSonicSound(HSS) -directed sound
AudioSpotlight -directed sound
Herman Miller Babble -White noise for your cubicle
