Optigami

http://www.rksdesign.com/index.php?page=gc/gallery10

(…) a collapsible eyeglass and self-encasing system

Foldable Glasses= Opti-gami! Actually all glasses I know are foldable, but these “concept glasses” do something better: they fold in the middle in a way so that the arms encase the lenses, thus protecting them from scratches. One could perhaps argue that as a result the arms themselves are perhaps too big, but the solution is clever and convenient. The whole RKS site is worth a visit: they design all sorts of cool products for others, they make some of the best-looking guitars I have ever seen, plus they have coined the term “psycho-aestetics“, in their own words

(…)a proprietary design methodology in which a product’s design creates a promise of physical and emotional benefits to the user as well as guides us to address the product’s key attributes and consumer desires.

… a design that makes you feel better, powerful… that path can only lead to making electric guitars, obviously! XD

Bringing Molecular Structures to the Real World

http://chem.sci.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp/v7n1/nagao/

modelling the structure by means of up-to-date 3 dimensional molding method offers an effective teaching aid.

(Freely “rearranged” from the babelfish translation of the page above.)

I highly recommend that you take a look at this article even if you don’t know japanese, since its pictures (scroll down a bit) beautifully illustrate several techniques currently used to make real objects from 3D models. In this case the subjects are molecular structures: these techniques not only bring them to a human scale but also to the human world, thus helping scientists twice. Furthermore, some of the machines used, like the Roland mdx scanner and milling machine, are getting cheap and easy to use enough that in a near future they may become as common as photocopiers!

All that is to know about… Swickis!

(or almost) XD

http://www.eurekster.com

A search engine that learns from your community’s search behavior.

In a nutshell, a Swicki is a search engine which gets gradually biased by the community that uses it -which explains the wiki wicki side of the word. I´ve spent a few days now using it, so what comes next is a report on my own experience on how to Continue reading All that is to know about… Swickis!

As big as it gets

http://www.deepskyfrontier.com/

(…)9 quadrillion pixels wide by 9 quadrillion pixels tall.

A metaphor within a metaphor, this site makes one rethink the concept of vastness. In other words, we can tinker with the otherwise utterly unattainable immensities of the cosmos in our desktops, just because the designer (very intelligent designer, yep), has put them in a context that we can easily grasp. Try to scroll the page with the arrow keys: it will take you more lives than you can count to reach the end. Now grab the scroll bar with the mouse and get to the end in seconds, fast as if you crossed a wormhole (a mousehole, perhaps?). Incredible, isn’t it? All in all this is a marvelous site to visit: stand on its center and watch through the eons, and beyond!

ps. by the way, whatever you do, don’t hit the print page button 😉

Related Article: Small… but playful

The UFO camera

http://www.casadopinhole.net/ovni_eng.htm

This new version of the Ovnipan adds several new features: a improved transport system makes the camera even more pleasurable to use(…) The round design has been retained without changes, harmonizing perfectly with the panoramic function of the camera.

The ovnipan is a panoramic pinhole c the best looking panoramic pinhole camera I have seen so far. It surely looks like a UFO, or a futuristic house; in any case, the design is beautiful in its simplicity and, even better, it works! Here you can find several examples of images taken with the camera, a collection of surreal, yet vivid panoramas. The designers have also devised a special attachment, a rubber band which works as a “second-level” shutter, thus allowing the photographer to make collages. Great!

Related Article: Don´t be tarugo- throw your SatuGO!

Related Article: Throw the camera!

The Optimus keyboard

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/

Every key of the Optimus keyboard is a stand-alone display showing exactly what it is controlling at this very moment.

Designed by russian Levedeb Studio, the Optimus Keyboard will make use of cutting edge technology to redefine the peripheral’s functionality.

As we know, a computer keyboard is bound to whatever was printed on the keys when manufactured. This is something we usually don’t pay much attention to, unless we Continue reading The Optimus keyboard

The Vostok Suitcase Synth

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~concuss/concussor/vostok.htm

a powerful amount of modular synthesiser power into one small suitcase.

The Vostok is a sort of modular analog synthesizer with a cover that doubles as a suitcase: add a handful of solar cells and you’ll have the companion of choice to make noises on the field for synthesizer lovers and nans alike. The synthesizer is certainly appealing and promises endless hours of modular patching or EMS pinning, plus tons of weird cool sounds. Drawbacks? maybe the price, £1499 -modular synthesizers tend to be expensive. Also, an article in the sound-on-sound magazine pointed out some other issues, especially the behaviour of the digital oscillator, but the last version has replaced it with an analog one. This said, the Vostok looks superb as a portable semi-modular synth and I would take it everywhere, except airports: it wouldn’t be easy to convince the person behind the scanner that that thing actually is a music instrument (let me show you -I just have to switch it on, connect this pin, and it’ll make awesome sounds! the bass is so powerful, it can blow… the speakers I mean…).

ps. I have just found another modular-in-a-box (second thumbnail from the left). It’s not as sexy, but the case looks much more reliable.

Throw your SatuGO!

http://www.satugo.com/

Simply throw SatuGO into the motive to catch the moment, where it hits you get a picture, or take air photos by activating the timer before throwing (it)(…) SatuGO is based on a simple wish to be able to take more fun and edgy pictures where the photographer is part of the action.

Camera tossing is a technique for taking pictures by throwing a camera in mid- air; it is fun and quite addictive, but it can be quite risky too, especially for newcomers: -“I failed to catch the camera, and it almost broke!”, a reader told me yesterday. Even though there´s many of us who have at least one old digital camera that we can afford to break, not every cheapo webcam has a built-in timer, which limits very much the scope of results you can obtain. In this way, I certainly can’t but Continue reading Throw your SatuGO!

Animal Farm

I like Pink Floyd very much. They have handed down to Rock music history not only a fistful of memorable albums (the indisputable “Dark Side Of The Moon“, “Wish You Were Here”, the visionary “Ummagumma”, a less known gem titled “Meddle”, etc), but also a worldwide influential style due to their music, lyrics, performances… Very few times has a band been so unanimously acclaimed by public and critics.

But that symbolism which Waters and Gilmour liked so much (I think) has three great exponents: “The wall” album, the song “Wish you were here” and my favourite album, “Animals”. All of them full of that nonconformity (sometimes naïve nonconformity, but never unnecessary). Continue reading Animal Farm