What is a ‘smart home’ supposed to look like these days? How is the sudden increase of smart products on the market going to shape the future of home living both from aesthetic and convenience standpoints? NYC-based trend research company PSFK set out to create an interactive smart home experience for the urban environment that…
It’s products like Sensorial Stimuli Tableware from Jinhyun Jeon that spark new conversations about re-interpreting the purpose and potential of everyday product designs. Does an office stapler really have to be hard and rectangular? Does a coffee mug really have to be cylindrical? For her MA thesis about the relationship of food and the senses,…
Slipping a chunky headset on your noggin and diving into a digital reality was a wonderfully inviting development in years gone past. Virtual Reality (VR) was a technology that went the way of badly marketed viewing devices and gaming platforms that eventually turned into large mechanized boxes at malls and theme parks–boxes you and your…
The garage. Such a lonely place to sift through drawers of resistors and unsorted hardware. Look into that glaring flood light illuminating your workbench and dream that dream, once again, of starting your very own hackerspace. Adafruit has posted a great guide on How to Start a Hackerspace created by Eric Michaud who, as you…
It seems like only a couple days ago SolidSmack was reporting on Cody Wilson and his move to ‘revolutionize’ 3D Printing with DEFCAD.com. Well, the resilient 3D printing poster boy for 3D printed firearms is back in the news again after having recently received his Type 7 Federal Firearms License granting him the ability to…
When you saw it moved from the main Google toolbar, you knew it was inevitable. Google has announced that it is officially powering down Google Reader. But don’t worry, if you’re not aware of them already, you have options, options that actually make the feed consuming/organizing experience much better than Google Reader.
The concept of Designing for the Other 90% has been coming up more frequently in recent years…especially with the ease of putting your product out there and funding through crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter. However the challenge for raising these funds has usually been centered around creating a product that will not only be effective for…
Previously, explaining the concept of 3D printing to those at dinner parties who are perhaps two steps behind with technology may have involved awkwardly moving your hands around the air to mimic a print head squirting out fresh ABS juice. Perhaps you can save those skillz for another time and just pass along this perfect…
On par with the recent trend of 3D head scanning and printing, Shibuya’s FabCafe in Tokyo is offering a new service for those needing to get more personal than your typical box-of-chocolates-fare this Valentine’s Day by allowing new makers to scan their lovely mugs to be used as molds for chocolate delectables. Who knew my…
Well, the dust has finally settled from all the excitement in Orlando this year as thousands flocked to the fifteenth annual SolidWorks World at the Dolphin Hotel at Walt Disney World. Between the amazing guest speakers (Art Thompson, Technical Project Director for Red Bull Stratos for example) and exciting announcements (Mechanical Conceptual, Augmented Reality eDrawings),…
3D Printing has been lauded as the next way to bring jobs back to America and the rest of the West by the Economist and other intellectual luminaries like Glenn Beck (cough cough). CAD-to-Print technologies combined with geographic proximity to the buyer has been summed up as the solution to what some call “the China…
You know that saying? One man’s washing machine drum is another man’s retro-modern firepit? Yeah, that one. Turns out it’s not just some socio-economic statement to make you feel guilty about tossing that washer in a gully. With $10 and an angle grinder, Sarah and Joe at House and Fig used their home improving pursuits…
3Dlt.com, a sort of stock photo-like site for 3D printing templates has created a marketplace for professional designers, students, companies, and consumers–however their mission is rooted in crowdsourcing solutions for solving some of the ‘world’s biggest problems’. Their current initiative? An Innovation Challenge using 3D Printing to improve gun safety with the finalists winning a…
The Replicator 2 has been screaming around the 3D printing industry’s racetrack as a go-to solution for both professionals and consumer hobbyists alike. MakerBot has capitalized on profiling the MakerBot users who are using their Replicator 2’s to do something outside of the box and have found success in doing so. Here’s an inspiring story…
Having been open for a month, Keen Footwear’s Keen Garage in Portland, OR has seen nothing but glowing reviews from business leaders, architects, designers, environmentalists, and customers. Featuring everything from reclaimed barn doors to repurposed oil barrels upcycled into [comfy!] chairs, the retail environment is the penultimate museum of inspiration for repurposing…with purpose.
Releasing later this year, renowned interaction design guru Dan Saffer’s latest book Microinteractions is bound to spark some new thinking patterns for physical and digital good designers…and we have your passport to the pre-release excerpt here.
Barely coming off the heels of the OpenRov open-source underwater robot project he developed at TechShop, David Lang has since marketed himself as an ‘(unexpected maker) Maker’ to help ease those with weak knees into the Maker Movement. After losing his desk job, he decided that he would do something other than stare at the…
Introduced in 1985, the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) became nearly as desirable as a Farrah Fawcett poster for every teenage boy on planet earth. Over the following few years, the NES revolutionized the video game industry—selling over 60 million units (!!!) and brought Mario, Zelda, and of course, Duck Hunt to living rooms everywhere.…
While you may or may not necessarily be a fan of his show, Glenn Beck welcomed a MakerBot Replicator 2 on his show recently and proclaimed the device “The latest, greatest technology…Jobs will come back to America.” Conservative radio isn’t necessarily known for insights on radical technology…but Glenn seems to be a 3D printing believer.
On a good day, the creative thinking meter embedded in my chest will register between 6 and 9.7. More often than not, distractions knock that down to an average of 4.2. It may be, however, that my meter needs an adjustment. An article at 99u explains how Ap Dijksterhuis and a team from the Nijmegen…
While most of us may have picked up a ‘101 things to (fill in the blank) before you die’ book at some point or another, none of those books have had the charismatic charm of an ‘Experience Passport’. Designed by Communication Designer Alex Egner, the Passport offers the design undergrad students at the University of…
In this brand spankin’ new mini-series we’ll be interviewing kickass individuals who lined up their targets successfully to launch their Kickstarter projects. In this first edition of the series, we’ll talk with Patrick Triato, Design Lead at Portland, Oregon-based Carbon Audio. Carbon Audio launched their Zooka Soundbar on Kickstarter and have since placed their product…
Starting as a thesis project at Parsons in NYC, Evan Roth collaborated with four NYC based graffiti writers (HELL, AVONE, JESUS SAVES, and KATSU) to further understand the motion of graffiti. Eight years later, Roth is capturing that data and producing it in 3D printed, chrome-plated ABS bliss.
Imagine an interactive air screen that puts an image/video/CAD model into the air. Now imagine that image stays totally penetrable for physical objects and is powered by a multi-touch optical system that is controlled by your gestures, sans gloves, controllers, and gadgets. Now stop imagining…its real and it’s here.
Depending on your ability to understand Japanese, this recent ten-minute segment on 3D Printing from the Japanese TV Show NHK El Mundo is a rather fun way of seeing some 3D print industry folks a la Bill Murray in Lost in Translation style. The show managed to snag some prominent guests including the Founders of…
James George and Jonathan Minard aren’t your average documentary filmmakers. Currently fellows at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University (try saying that with a mouth full of peanut butter), the two have used their media arts backgrounds to create a stunning interactive documentary that asks: “What does it feel like to…
As new iPhones and gadgets roll out, it’s easy to forget that there is a market out there that needs design in ways beyond what most people can fathom. From war zones to areas devastated by natural disasters among others, how can we as designers, engineers, and makers apply ourselves to look beyond our own…
As a designer, engineer, or maker, how will you be able to keep pace in an industry that is consistently being disrupted by “New Faces” and creating entire businesses literally overnight? As products come to market faster than ever before, what is the best strategy towards placing yourself in an ever-increasingly competitive creative global economy?…
It seems as though even less than a year ago, ‘The Cloud’ was still a buzzword for most people–particularly mainstream consumers. With the addition of services such as Netflix, Spotify, Box, and others, we have began to use the cloud without even thinking about it. As innovators, how do we harness the power of the…
You know it, I know it, everybody knows it: The democratization of technology is changing everything from the way we design to how we design it. The self-manufacturing mindset is driving innovation while redefining DIY in ways we’ve never seen before. It seems as though the Maker subculture is growing exponentially and everybody is calling…
If you’re looking to inspire the Kid Maker(s) in your life, we’ve done the maker-appropriate gift giving research for you. Everything in our Gift Guide for Kid Makers is bound to have the junior designer or engineer in your life destined for greatness. Lifesavers storybooks are so yesterday.
The Season of Giving is in full swing–and there’s still time to get your shopping or wish list done. Perhaps you have no idea what to get your design buddies, or even ask for yourself? For those who are lost in the world of gift giving and want some inspiration for the perfect gift, refer…
Ever wonder what 750 Engineers do to break up the monotony of designing the world’s most successful and innovative line of fans, vacuum cleaners and hand dryers? Battling each other in a design challenge is one way. You may remember the article we had about Jude Pullen and Cardboard Modelling. He works for Dyson and…
Once every 10,000 years or so, you think back on life. Frolicking in new civilizations, rise and fall of governments, the best pie recipe conjured by humans… Then without a second thought to the present, thoughts turn to the next 10,000 years. What do you do? If you’re The Long Now Foundation you build a…
As automobile design becomes more prevalent in the mainstream, Disney is moving forward towards recreating an optimistic view of futuristic transportation and how these ideas are fostered. Set to open at Disney World December 6th, the new Test Track attraction gives new meaning to ‘Tomorrowland’ by letting kids (and their parents) design and test the…
GigaOM RoadMap examines how product design, user interfaces, and the underlying frameworks will evolve over the next several years to advance and humanize connected technology. The event was held yesterday, Monday November 5th in San Francisco and featured a wealth of insight from some of the leading designers and thinkers today.
Rumors have abounded about whether or not Makerbot is going to release the documentation for their latest machine, as they have with the Replicator and the Thing-o-matic. Open-Source is Bre’s middle name. Tangibot threw a wrench into Makerbot’s narrative to be the biggest hardware company in the Open Source world. Lucky for them, the combination…
While watching the tweets from SEU 2012, Mark Burhop tweeted from a seminar on 3D Printing, “All this new #3Dprinting technology needs designs – “Great day to be a CAD person!” #seu12. But is it?
After pulling a little April Fool’s prank about “3D Printing your Pets” , The Economist returned to true form with a feature piece analyzing the future of manufacturing, discussing at length advances in capital and informational technologies. It’s a stellar read – if you have time, definitely read the entire piece. Here is the key takeaway.
Just when you thought 3D Systems was getting big and scary, the unexpected/expected happens. In an all-stock transaction, the merger of Israel-based Objet into Minnesota-based Stratasys, leaves the new entity with a $1.4 billion dollar equity value and a bigger slice of the market share.
I admit it, I was completely enamoured with the Human Birdwings Video. If you haven’t seen it, this is a video of Floris Kaayk (AKA Jarno Smeets, or as I like to call him, Harvey Birdman) strapping on a convincing-looking set of wings and taking off. Turns out it was fake and proves an uncomfortable reality…
This is what I would truly call ‘a 3D movie.’ This ‘3Drehkino’ is a series of 3D printed figures of a man walking. An LED is triggered by each passing figure in his appropriate pose, illuminating it and giving us the illusion of motion. Tobias Krawutschke designs all kinds of Zoetropes (which you can see here),…
A little dose of inspiration for your Monday. Can a spark be part of another spark? It most certainly can, especially when it comes to small fires, curiosity and that little thing called ‘an idea.’
The office of tomorrow! Is fabulous. It has everything you need. It’s clean, tidy, looks like a basement and best of all, it’s run by machines. That’s just what the vision of the future automated office was way back in ’69. The BBC show Tomorrow’s World takes you there through they observant eyes of James…
Ah, the project scope. The crucial document many of us follow as a guideline while we’re designing or engineering the next greatest thing. Its entire existence is to keep the focus by describing in detail the new product’s soon to be features, costs, and milestone dates. Love them or hate them, many of us couldn’t…
You’ll need more than a forklift to get your jaw off the floor once you find out the details of the upcoming Apocalypse. Yes, it involves robots. OBVIOUSLY. Yes, it involves sharp cutting tools. LESS OBVIOUS, but… yeah. And yes, it even involves 3D CAD…and bikes, and… Go NOW!
If you’ve been anywhere besides knitting doilies, mulching a garden or knee deep in clam-chowder, you’ve likely heard, seen or felt the social repercussions of Google’s new network site, Google+. It’s more than a site though. It’s an extension of your Google profile (if you have one) and a supplement, or in some cases, a…
This week, a deep, thought-provoking poll that really matters. One that paws like a toothless rat against the marshmallowy film of time. Everybody knows drawing revisions are better represented as… what? Letters or numbers? How about letters and numbers? Should we even have a choice? Should 14 year old standards been thrown out with the…
Like you’ve got a screaming mouthful of peanut butter… or like you’re screaming with a mouthful of peanut butter. Either way, there’s little anyone can do except stare with gaping eyes when you’re crashing into walls, coughing up half-chewed peanut butter. If you think about it though, there are the benefits that go along with…
Cubicles. Do I need to say anything else or can I just start screaming? They’re the bane of the working world. However, they organize people, their paper and all their stuffed animals rather efficiently. They come in a variety of sizes and configurations ensuring you’ll always be separated from your co-workers just enough to make…