I got my hands on these fabuliciously cool soft magnets by GELTEC. When someone talks to you about magnets, you think about hard pieces of metal, but thees little suckers are as soft as gummi bears. Once you get these in your hands, it’s hard to let go…
check them out.GELTEC
If you want some fun in the office, get an Air Zooka. This is one of the most surprising little science toys you’ll get out there. This lil bucket hurls an invisible ball of air at any target. If your good, you can pin point targets at up to 20 feet and really surprise people. It feels like a ghost punching you. Its the best $15 you’ll ever spend. ZeroToys also has a few other little gadget toys that are fun. Check them out!Air Zooka
Daniel Rozins Wooden Mirror magically reflects your own pixelated image back to you by programming wooden chips to angel at different levels based on the amount of light you are reflecting. This is one of those “physical pixelation” projects that I like sooooo much. I had the chance to interact with it and it’s uber-tastic. In fact, it’s actually hard to tell what the image is since your so close to it, but the lovely part is the nostalgic flickering of wooden panels playing an orchestrated tune based on your movements. Sounds like those train old school train ticker panels.
Watch the videos at the below links or after the jump.
Loftcube is a pretty sweet project done by Werner Aisslinger. The idea behind the Loftcube is a portable customized living space that stations on top of roofdecks with unbelievable views. There are a bunch of really beautiful elements within this space that are worth checking out. (personally I liked the bathroom section) The site has a pretty nice presentation along with some chill happening music.loftcube
Pixelating images has been a trend for some time now, but physically pixelating an object is somewhat new, besides all those pixel bots or lego brick objects. Anyhow, perhaps it’s just me and I’m behind in this trend… I love this watch, even though its not available for purchase yet.
Have you ever been tucked into your sleeping bag while camping, then had the need to get out, but didnt want to lose the warmth of the bag? Well, the Selk Bag is a great little “Why didnt I think of that” design that allows you to be a walking sleeping bag comfortably. Be fun to spot a clan of people walking around in these.Selk Bag
Sapphire is an uberliciously new liquid designed to fight fires, without killing the electronics. It’s high tension structure beads off of any surface pretty much making it a dry liquid . You can sink your laptop in a pool of this liquid and type away with no worries. I’d love to have a big pool of this stuff, go swimming in it with my cloths on, walk out, let it all bead off in a few seconds, and continue on with the same cloths….anyhow, I’m still trying to get my hands on this stuff, but apparently you have to be affiliated with the fire department to order it.
Popular Science Article
ABC Good Morning America, dunking a laptop in a tank of it.
Chit Chat is a scruptiously delicious and whimsical project by Steven Blyth and Matty Sallin. Each seat in a restaurant is connected to a microphone and projector. The Microphone takes your voice as infomation to display words such as “blah blah , BLAH, ba blah, la la.” The size, speed, color, and words are based on your conversation with the person next to you. Basically, your voice becomes the ambient environment in the space surrounding you in a non-obtrusive manor. HOW SWEEEEET is this project. It’s like living in a comic book but living in reality at the same time. yeahyea! Watch the videos.chit chat
The “All season shirt” concept is uber delicioulsy cool and geeky in some designer way. It’s one shirt that functions both as long and short sleeve on the same shirt. Feeling hot, no worries, just tuck your arms in like a turtle, rotate your shirt a few degrees, and extend your arms back out the short sleeves. Whala! Now the long sleeves are just ornamental designs dangling off your chest. HOW COOL!!!!
Bytrico has a bunch of other cool shirts as well. If your in Tokyo, ya gotsta stop by and check them out. They are a little pricy, but I dont know anywhere else that you can find unique shirts like these.Go shop!
If you like designer stores, check out MOSS in soho NYC. MOSS is a vendor for handselected designs throughout the world and they also have a gallery space for more experimental work. I go down there every time I visit nyc. It has an array of housewares, furnitures, pieces, some books, accessories, and random other inspiring objects.Moss Online
Hyper Sonic Sound, HSS, are uber cool directional speakers invented by Woody Norris. What are they, well, basically, if I stuck a flashlight in front of the speaker, only people within the lights cone would be able to hear what I was broadcasting. It’s the strangest feeling. First you hear it, then you dont . The other wow factor is you cant tell which direction the sound is coming from. I don’t quite understand how it works, but I’ve had the chance to play with and have never seen or heard anything like it. When someone points the speaker at you, it sounds like there’s a speaker inside of you, playing through your lungs or sum something. It’s mad weird!!!!! but uber cooool!
There’s another invention like it called the audiospotlight done by a MIT graduate. Anyhow, I’m not sure what the future of sound is, but this is for sure one revolutionary step for it.Hyper Sonic Speakers
Audio Spotlight (holosonic)
The TED Conference(Technology, Entertainment, Design) is perhaps the most unbelievable gathering of mind-provoking, astonishing, inspirational, diverse, and life changing conferences I have ever been to. I could rant on for pages about it, but check out their webpage and look at the speakers list and imagine if all the attendees were just as amazzzzing. Only about 1000 people are invited each year. I’ve been extremely fortunate to work for and attend the conference since 2003. The TED conference is a mind-boggling experience taken place in Monterey CA each year.TED conference
Ze Frank (The guy presenting above)