core77-join – Tech Today w/ Ken May

China’s 3D-Printed Housing on the Rise. Literally

Remember last year, when the Chinese engineering firm WinSun 3D printed a bunch of houses? It made the news because they printed them so quickly—ten structures in less than 24 hours. The structures themselves weren’t huge, just 200-square-meter, one-story bungalows. But now WinSun’s set their goals higher, literally. They’ve 3D printed the structures you see here, which include a freaking five-story apartment building and a 1, 100-square-meter (roughly 12, 000-square-foot) villa. To be clear, they didn’t print the structures out in one shot. As with the earlier 10-house batch, they printed out individual panels which were then knocked together by conventional construction workers, and in this case they didn’t even print on-site, but back at the factory. (more…)

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China’s 3D-Printed Housing on the Rise. Literally

Pforzheim Design Students and Hankook Tire Team Up for Futuristic Wheel Concepts

It’s time again for Hankook Tire’s biennial design school team-up, where they task ID students with developing futuristic tire concepts. Last time ’round they paired up with Cincinnati’s DAAP , and this year they’re at Germany’s University of Design, Engineering and Business in Pforzheim. And once again, not only did the students did not disappoint, but pulled off some real socks-knockers! The central trend is to stop looking at the tire as a rubber cladding for a wheel, and to think of it instead as something that works together with an actively transforming wheel to create some ker-azy functionality. Now maybe I’m biased because I know ID students were involved, but the following video showing the three winning concepts in action is more exciting than any action movie trailer you’ll see: (more…)

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Pforzheim Design Students and Hankook Tire Team Up for Futuristic Wheel Concepts

The Light Bandit Lets You Plug Sunlight Directly Into a No-Electricity Lamp

It seems absurd to be burning energy by using lightbulbs while the sun is shining, but buildings can only have so many windows, and sunlight can only penetrate so far. MIT’s Solar Bottle Bulb and Ross Lovegrove’s Sun Tunnel are two ways to get sunlight inside, but both solutions require piercing a roof for installation. This new system called the Light Bandit , in contrast, is a no-construction-required solution. And it’s brilliant: “Sunlight is the fuel that powers all life on Earth, yet our lifestyles block most of it out, ” the developers write. “Between work, school and home we spend most of our time indoors under artificial lighting that lacks important benefits of natural lighting. The Light Bandit changes that.” What’s fascinating is that the coating on the reflectors filters out UV and infrared, delivering only visible light; this means you won’t fade out the part of your couch that’s got a Light Bandit lamp over it. The Light Bandit Kickstarter is no foregone conclusion, by the way; these guys need help and publicity. At press time they’d clocked under six grand out of a $200, 000 target, and there’s just 21 days left to go. But we’ve seen less impressive projects hit higher targets in a shorter stretch of time, so we’re hoping this product becomes a reality. (more…)

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The Light Bandit Lets You Plug Sunlight Directly Into a No-Electricity Lamp

VetiGel: A Plant-Based Polymer That Stops Bleeding in Seconds

I once got stabbed in the head with a wooden knife. It was an accident that occurred during a martial arts training exercise. I’d heard that head wounds bleed badly, but as I waited for the taxi to take me to the hospital (an ambulance is not what you take in NYC if speed is a priority) I was shocked at the amount of blood that came out of my head. While head wounds are bad, severing a femoral or carotid artery is way worse in terms of blood loss. If you slice one of these open and can’t stop the bleeding, that’s basically the last selfie you’ll ever take. But now a tiny biotech company in Brooklyn can change that equation, having developed a product that stops bleeding, whether pinprick or grievous wound, almost instantly. Called VetiGel , the material is a plant-based polymer. It requires no training to use and can be loaded into an ordinary plastic syringe; rather than needing to learn how to prepare a field dressing, someone providing aid can simply aim and squirt it like toothpaste onto a brush. Watch how it works in this video: The leftover material, by the way, can be safely resorbed into the body or removed. As for why it’s called VetiGel, the material is first being marketed towards veterinarians, with approval for human use planned for further down the line. Should the product pass human trials and prove affordable enough to manufacture, it could be a real game changer: Simple syringes loaded up with the stuff and placed into every ambulance, soldier’s pack and first aid kit around the world could mean the difference between life and death for countless people, particularly those for whom a hospital is more than a cab ride away. (more…)

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VetiGel: A Plant-Based Polymer That Stops Bleeding in Seconds

Sitpack and Relax on This Pocketable, Pop-Out Chair-in-a-Tube

Hot on the heel-plate-attachment-points of Noonee’s “Chairless Chair, ” the team at Mono+Mono has launched the ” Sitpack ” on Kickstarter. The Copenhagen-based design consultancy has developed what they’re calling “the world’s most compact, foldable resting device, ” and they’re looking to bring the pocketable monopod to market via a crowdfunding campaign. Designed in keeping with the seven universal design principles, the form factor looks like something made by, say, Beats, but the device itself is actually entirely mechanical: The canister splits laterally into wings (which serve as the seat), revealing a telescoping leg that extends to up to 85cm (33in). We know it’s that time of year, but don’t try this with your kid’s lightsaber toy: Originally known as “Rest”—hence the references in the video—the “Sitpack” is essentially a further reduced version of portable camp stools or those canes with a built-in tripod-stool (both of which I came across in the USPTO archive, after a commenter tipped me off about the original ‘wearable chair’ ), as they indicate in a tabulated side-by-side comparison on their Kickstarter page. They’re available for the discounted price of kr175 DKK (about $30 USD); retail will be in the kr270 DKK ($46 USD) range—not bad, considering that they’re looking to manufacture it in Denmark; see more here . Process sketches & renders The Team (more…)

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Sitpack and Relax on This Pocketable, Pop-Out Chair-in-a-Tube

LumiLor Electroluminescent Coating Has Some Serious Untapped Potential

“Everything can be a lamp with LumiLor, ” writes Darskide Scientific, the company that developed it. LumiLor is a patented coating that glows when a current is applied to it. (And yes, it’s safe to touch, as it’s sealed and insulated.) The brilliance of the system is that since it’s water-based, you can load it up into any paintspraying system or airbrush and you’re off to the races. Here’s how the process is applied: (more…)

Flotspotting: Freddie Paul’s Beer Tree

For most of us consumers, beer is something we buy in bottles and cans, its creation process something of a mystery; we have a vague notion of grains and a fermentation process being involved. Home brewers more firmly understand the science, but much of their alchemy happens inside opaque stainless steel containers, with your average home brewing set-up hewing to the Walter White Meth Lab school of design. So for his final-year design project Freddie Paul , a Product Design student at London’s South Bank University, decided to make the home brewing process more transparent. Literally. Beer Tree is a gravity fed home brewing kit for brewing craft ales. It concentrates on the brewing process as something to be enjoyed and celebrated. The process can be completely visualised from start to finish, involving the user more than traditional kits to create a strong sense of satisfaction and pride over the final product. The video gives you a better sense of what the Beer Tree looks like in action: We’re digging Paul’s use of laser-etched graphics on the control panel, his use of materials and the overall form. One commenter on the video is more critical: “It looks impossible to clean and sanitize, your mash tun will lose so much heat, it looks like you can’t vorlauf” and more brewerspeak. Another commenter is more upbeat: “My close friends and I have all agreed. We would pay good money to own one of these. Seriously consider making a Kickstarter for manufacturing of this product. I would sign up to back you TODAY.” Paul, if you’re reading this: Given that you’ve graduated and we don’t see a current employer on your Coroflot profile, perhaps the crowdsourcing is worth a go? Check out Paul’s shots of the development process after the jump. (more…)

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Flotspotting: Freddie Paul’s Beer Tree

Tesla’s New Dual-Motor, AWD Car Has Autopilot That Reads Speed Limit Signs–and Automatically Sticks to the Limit

Yesterday Tesla Motors held a press event where they announced their new all-wheel-drive models, which hit the road in December. These being electric cars, rather than using a single motor to drive all four wheels, Tesla is simply dropping a second motor into the car; with one up front and one in back, there’s no need for a driveshaft in between and all of those pesky linkages. And these cars will go from 0-60 in an absurd 3.2 seconds, in case you need to smoke a Bugatti. “This car is nuts, ” Tesla skipper Elon Musk told the audience. “It’s like taking off from a carrier deck.” (See video below for the full carrier deck/ Battlestar Galactica -esque “launch sequence.”) Some optimists assumed that at last night’s event, Musk was going to pull the sheets off of a completely self-driving car. While that’s undoubtedly a ways off, the autopilot features announced last night for the new models indicate it’s not as far off in the future as you might think. Using a combination of radar, a camera and a dozen sensors, this is what Tesla’s new models can reportedly do: – The new system will move the car over a lane when the driver uses the turn signal. – The car reads speed-limit signs and adjusts the car to the speed on the sign. – Drivers will be able to get out of the car in their driveways and watch it park itself in the garage. When drivers are ready to leave, the car will able to drive itself up, with the car’s temperature and stereo system set to the driver’s preferences. “It will come to you wherever you are, ” Musk says. “It will slowly make its way to you.” I’m not sure why you’d choose to get out of your car in the driveway rather than in the garage—most architects are thoughtful enough to put a door between the garage and the house—but then again, perhaps Musk is targeting the super-rich owners who live in manses apart from the stables. (more…)

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Tesla’s New Dual-Motor, AWD Car Has Autopilot That Reads Speed Limit Signs–and Automatically Sticks to the Limit

Radinn’s Electric Powered Wakeboard Lets You Go Surfing Without the Waves

With the goal of “revolutionizing the watersport industry, ” Swedish company Radinn has released their first product: an electric powered wakeboard . The carbon fiber craft carries onboard lithium batteries and is controlled via a wireless handheld remote, allowing the rider to cruise at up to 30 miles per hour. The coolest thing about having a self-propelled board is that it frees the rider from the beach. With an EPW one could navigate rivers, lakes, public fountains in Stockholm… Want. The 64-pound board’s batteries can provide 30 minutes of runtime. Currently in its final testing stages, it’s expected to go on sale next year. And no, it won’t be cheap, but if you’ve got twenty grand to throw around, you could do a lot worse. (more…)

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Radinn’s Electric Powered Wakeboard Lets You Go Surfing Without the Waves

This is How You Roll and Transport a 19-Foot Picasso That’s Never Been Moved Before

With all of the culture available to NYers, it might have been easy to miss the massive Picasso original that’s been hanging in what is now the Four Seasons restaurant (in the Seagram Building) on Park Avenue since 1959. That being said, there are plenty of locals and tourists alike who wait hours to have the chance to see one of the area’s many hidden art gems. “Le Tricorne”—a depiction of a bullfighting scene—is a 19’ × 20’ canvas, originally painted in 1919 and used as a stage curtain for the Ballets Russes. At the time, his wife Olga was a ballerina in the troupe. The real question here is, why is it being moved at all? It turns out that Aby J. Rosen, owner of the Seagram Building, doesn’t want the piece up in the space anymore and wants more room for “other art”—I’d be interested to know what he will find worthy of replacing a Picasso. This didn’t really present much of an issue, considering that Rosen doesn’t even own the piece. That honor goes to the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The handlers in charge of moving the piece had no idea as to how or what was keeping the art attached to the wall, making for an adventurous and relatively risky removal process. The New York Times recently put together a fantastic look at how “Le Tricorne” was analyzed and moved from the area: (more…)

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This is How You Roll and Transport a 19-Foot Picasso That’s Never Been Moved Before