There’s normal lazy, and then there’s sit-on-a-chair-to-control-a-drone lazy. If piloting a simple rotor drone with a handheld controller seems too taxing for you, researchers from the Simon Fraser University in Canada have you covered with an office chair they’ve converted into a bonafide pressure-sensing drone controller. Flight Chair, as they are calling it, was created with the task of aiding people working on and in emergency situations. Whenever a big calamity like a fire, flash flood, or Black Friday shopping spree occurs, having an eye in the sky can help provide information regarding the situation. While any reasonable person would make use of a helicopter or drone with a handheld…

Get that stretch out of your system with this week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist. It’s fashioned up, ready to make you pull your shoulder blades back and knock out another week of meaningful work while you bob your head to the beat. Whether you’re in the shop milling aluminum, sketching the latest product prototypes or modeling up a 3D storm, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week on SolidSmack Radio we’ll fire things off with “Downtown Dancing” from YACHT before diving into atmospheric tracks from the David Bowie, Toro y Moi, the Pixies, and others before wrapping up with a live version of “Out of Control”…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight…

Ever thought of co-manufacturing your camera gear? “What did you just say?” You heard me right — Co-manufacturing. The innovative camera equipment company edelkrone is shakin’ up the manufacturing scene to team up with YOU. As the makers of camera sliders, dollies, heads, and accessories, they know all that camera gear can be a drain on the ol’ pocketbook. Enter ORTAK. ORTAK, is a new co-manufacturing approach from edelkrone where you 3D print the simple parts, they provide the machined parts, and you put it all together. The idea is that this allows you to snatch up quality, high-tech goodies at a fraction of the cost. How Does Co-Manufacturing Work?…

Here’s a history lesson for you: back in the 1820s, people used to sculpt pictures onto thin, translucent pieces of porcelain. By varying the cuts and placing a backlight behind the material, a clear image could be viewed. And thus “lithophanes” were born. But that was almost 200 years ago. Times they have a’changed and so has our technology. Instead of slaving away for days handcrafting a piece of fragile porcelain, today’s lithophanes are made from sturdy(ish) PLA filament plastic and can be crafted in hours using your handy ol’ 3D printer. Have a gander… Yep, just like the porcelain lithophanes of old, these 3D printed lithophanes are made possible…

One of the hardest things to make when sketching a blueprint, model, or drawing is the circle. How is it possible after years of doodles in school, practice in college, and use in work that drawing a flawless circular is so difficult? Outside the few who may be able to nail all 360 degrees, the rest of us resort to using stencils, compasses, and the bottoms of tin cans to guide our pencils. This tool may simplify that.   Iris is a drawing tool meant to help you draw your dream circle. Created by London-based design studio Maker’s Cabinet, the tool isn’t as cumbersome as a tin can or as…