You may know them for their cars, but Rolls-Royce is currently looking to the sky instead of just the roads. ACCEL – their new electric plane project which stands for “accelerating the electrification of flight” is a single seat, electricity-powered airplane that aims to reach a top speed of 300 mph. Made in collaboration with a number of partners including aviation company Electroflight and electric motor and motor controller producer YASA Limited, the ACCEL project is given full support by the UK government and is planned to take flight over Great Britain sometime in 2020. Powering this electric plane is an energy-dense battery pack with 6,000 cells. This provides the…
Here’s something you’ve never seen before: a barcode scanner being used as a musical instrument: Part of the Electronicos Fantasticos project which aims to reuse old consumer electronics by turning them into instruments, this “Barcoderess” may look like normal prison attire but is in fact a piece of clothing covered in a number of different barcodes. These barcodes do more than make it difficult to check out at the register, however. By scanning the codes using a barcode scanner connected directly to a high-powered speaker, you can create different notes. In the hands of a maestro (or a very bored cashier), these notes can be strung together to form some…
Do you remember being told off for burning ants and leaves with a magnifying glass when you were a kid? If so, congrats; your parents made sure you wouldn’t go blind from staring at focused sunlight for too long. Taking a page out of this timeless childhood pastime, artist and filmmaker Michael Papadakis of Sunscribes has magnified (see what I did there?) the sun’s rays using a number of lenses and mirrors to create some awe-inspiring etched art: “Heliography” (a term he coined himself) is more than just the finished product. Papadakis usually gets invited to events for major brands who inquire his unique form of art. It’s there on…
A jellyfiggle of small proportions galloped into the stableyard, shifting its gaze toward the pumphouse. We wouldn’t be able to use the blast hoses against its wily thorax flaps, but if we could trigger the flame retardant system, there may be a chance to protect us against its use of these links. Fernando Correa – There’s something refreshing about Fernando’s sketchy style with muted tones and blocky shading. Cars, weapons, characters and more. Ahhh. Santi – Lovely bunch of 3D art and visuals with a still life/product shot kind of focus created by Berlin-based artist, SDanti Zoraidez. Biodiversity Heritage Library – Diagrams, sketches, botanical, animal, and more. Over 150,000 illustrations…
What do you do after creating the most popular construction system on the planet? You create another system just in case anyone already has all 16414 sets released over the last 70 years. LEGO announced their new much-anticipated, thought-to-be canceled product, LEGO DOTS, this week. If you thought they exhausted the plastic-snapping possibilities, you’ll be delighted to learn the sets comprise a spectacular array of 2D tiles to blanket a baseplate attached to any wall, box, body, bed, bracelet, frame, art installation, or building exterior. LEGO DOTS taps into the arts and crafts space by using a 2D tile-based play concept that offers children a creative canvas for self-expression. Based on…
I’m looking at how a 3D print company provided colorful 3D prints for sale using commercial designs. We’ve all seen this many times, where a popular character from the movies, TV, games or other mass media has been somehow reproduced in 3D form and placed on sale. The question is whether this is done legally. Certainly, fans have incredible enthusiasm for characters and objects from their favorite media, but enthusiasm doesn’t mean they have the legal right to reproduce the designs. Nevertheless, there are countless examples of this happening. For example, I just did a search on Thingiverse, the most popular online repository for 3D printable models, and found there…