Anyone who’s seen James Cameron’s Aliens cannot forget the images of 1.) Ripley in a cargo-loader exoskeleton, and 2.) Vasquez prowling the corridors with that body-mounted machine gun on the swing arm. That was back in 1986; now it’s 2013, and not only have these designs actually come to pass, but they’ve been combined. As we previously reported , Lockheed Martin licensed a company called Ekso Bionics’ technology to develop the HULC , or Human Universal Load Carrier. It’s got the power-assist legs and the body-supported gun mount: While Ekso Bionics is targeting the consumer market, enabling paraplegics to walk again, Lockheed has initially gone military. However, they’re reportedly creating a version of the HULC called the Mantis, for industrial applications. As Bloomberg News reports , The machines may follow a classic arc from Pentagon research project to fixture on an assembly line, similar to the development of lasers, said Paul Saffo, managing director of foresight at investment advisory firm Discern in San Francisco. “The medical devices get the most attention, the military funds it and the first mass application is industrial,” Saffo said in a telephone interview. [Mantis is aimed at] any industry in which workers must hold heavy equipment that can cause fatigue and back injuries…. Mantis has a mechanical extension for a wearer’s arm and absorbs the strain from hefting a grinder or sander, [Lockheed business development manager Keith] Maxwell said. Tests found productivity gains of more than 30 percent, he said, and wearers showed their Macarena footwork to demonstrate the suits’ flexibility. “It turns workers away from being a weightlifter and into a craftsman,” Maxwell said. I’m all for Construction Worker Exoskeletons—as long as the power tools are not integrated, but remain separate objects that you pick up. Because once they start replacing the user’s hands with built-in angle grinders and magazine-fed nail guns, we’re going to have a problem. Last year, I watched a construction worker fight a cabdriver in front of my building; the hack didn’t stand a chance. The last thing I want to see is an angry frame carpenter tramping off the jobsite in one of these things, ready to settle someone’s hash with his Forstner-bit fingers and chopsaw hands. (more…)
Tag: identidad-dise
A Beautiful Bicycle Made of Wood, Wheels and All
Remember the Thonet bicycle concept , and how we weren’t sure if the seat-tube-less design would be possible to execute in steambent wood? Seeing as there’s still no word on whether it will become a reality, Japanese design student Yojiro Oshima has done them one better with a prototype of his unconventional bicycle concept. For his degree project at Musahino Art University’s Craft & Industrial Design Department, he has designed and built a Y-Foil/Softride-style frame by hand (it wasn’t based on a chair per se, but I’m seeing a little Wegner myself). The designer recently sent the project to James Thomas of BicycleDesign.net , where Oshima notes : “This proposal is about the shape of the frame and the handle mainly which doesn’t concern what material it’s made out of. The maximum comfort can be put into practice by wood.” Thus, the frame concept also echoes that of the previously-seen (steel) Van Hulsteijn , which is currently in production. A visible seam Regarding the construction and other carpentry/bike nerd concerns, Oshima adds, It is all hand made. The down tube and seat tube are hollowed with plenty of thickness left not to disturb the surface when planed too much. As a result, it weights about 14kg in total. The thickness is uncertain though, I guess it’s about 6-12mm. It is bonded the half and half into one. I was also curious to learn that the trispoke-style wheels were originally known as “baton” wheels—the renderings of the Thonet concept has a set of HED’s top-of-the-line carbon fiber version—and that the clover-like construction is intended to “soften the ride.” Similarly, the cantilevered saddle intended for comfort, while the short stays speak to performance by “assuring the stiffness.” Check out the full-size images at BicycleDesign.net (more…)
Holy Cow: Christian von Koenigsegg Invents “Free Valve” Engine That Requires No Camshaft
Why won’t the internal combustion engine die? To oversimplify the issue, it’s partly because of its incumbency and partly because it’s very good at what it does. Environmentalists hate it because it’s dirty, and while some engineers pursue alternate energy forms, there are still plenty of smart people tweaking the internal combustion engine to make it less dirty, more efficient, and more powerful. One person in the latter category is Christian von Koenigsegg , the rather brilliant inventor behind the Swedish supercar skunkworks that bears his name. Anyone with a basic understanding of how engines work is bound to be impressed by von Koenigsegg’s latest breakthrough: He’s developed an engine with no cams. With a conventional engine, the valves are driven by cams that are necessarily egg-shaped, with each cam driving its attendant valve stem into its deepest extension at the pointiest part of the egg as the cam rotates on the camshaft. Simple physics dictate this be a gradual process; because of the egg shape the valve gradually opens, maxes out, and gradually closes. If a cam was shaped like an off-center square, for instance, the valve stem would break on the corners. With von Koenigsegg’s radical “Free Valve” engine design, the valves operate independently and electronically to depress/open, while a mechanical spring returns them to the closed position. This means the valves quickly slam open, allowing fuel to flood the combustion chamber, then quickly slam shut. Ditto for the exhaust valves. So fuel is not gradually seeping in and exhaust is not gradually seeping out—it’s going BAM in, BAM out. The benefits? The engine is much smaller, of course, requiring no camshaft or timing belt. On top of that they’re projecting 30% less fuel consumption, 30% more torque, 30% more horsepower, and a staggering 50% less emissions. In the video below, von Koenigsegg walks you through it: (more…)
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Holy Cow: Christian von Koenigsegg Invents “Free Valve” Engine That Requires No Camshaft
Lamborghini Succeeds in Creating World’s Most-Difficult-to-Wax Car
They said it couldn’t be done, but Lamborghini has pulled a design coup and successfully created the world’s most-difficult-to-wax car. A cleverly arranged array of fins, vents, humps, angles, and even dangerously sharp edges have been designed to stymie even the most dedicated lackey, who simply will not be able to apply Meguiar’s and wipe it back off in a reasonable amount of time. Mr. Miyagi’s car, this isn’t. That isn’t the only benefit conferred by the contorted shape: Should a cinderblock fall onto the car from above and damage the sheet metal, onlookers will likely not be able to tell where the damage occurred, saving the driver money on bodywork. Early chatter indicated these drawings were fake, but Jalopnik’s now fairly certain that the Lamborghini Veneno will debut at this week’s Geneva Motor Show. Priced at a reasonable $4.6 million, the Veneno should prove irresistible to young families who need to get around town in a safe, roomy way. And the exterior styling belies a sensible 6.5-liter V12 powerplant, whose 750 horsepower and 220 m.p.h. top speed should be more than enough to get you over to the inlaws in a comfortable manner. The Veneno will reportedly not come with a glovebox, but instead, a handbasket. Then you can take that handbasket, place the car inside of it, and you can bring it straight with you to Hell. (more…)
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Lamborghini Succeeds in Creating World’s Most-Difficult-to-Wax Car
The U.S. Army’s Mobile Digital Fabrication Lab
Politically speaking, the war in Afghanistan may be winding down; but technologically speaking, things are ramping up. Earlier this month a shipping container was quietly deployed to a remote outpost in Afghanistan. Kitted out by the U.S. Army’s Rapid Equipping Force, this particular shipping container is essentially a digital manufacturing lab in a box. Known as the ELM or Expeditionary Lab – Mobile, the unit contains a 3D printer and a CNC mill (as well as more conventional tools like a plasma cutter, welding gear, a circular saw, a router, a jigsaw and a reciprocating saw). Unsurprisingly, troops on the ground are not using the ELMs to print out heart-shaped gears ; rather, the point of the ELMs is to allow last-minute rapid prototyping upgrades to crucial pieces of equipment. As one example, soldiers discovered that the on-button for one standard-issue tactical flashlight had a raised button that could accidentally be pressed, unintentionally turning the flashlight on while the soldier was moving around. Best case scenario, the thing’s in a pocket, you don’t realize it’s on and the batteries drain down. Worst case scenario, the sudden illumination advertises your position to the enemy while you’re sneaking around in the dark. Under normal Army procurement procedures, designing, commissioning, manufacturing and distributing an updated design would take months or years. But with the ELMs, which come with two digital manufacturing technicians, a solution like this clip-on guard to shield the button can be quickly designed and printed. The ELM shipped earlier this month was actually the second; the first was sent to Afghanistan last summer. Following the concept’s success, a third ELM is in the works and will reportedly be deployed later this year. The following video on the ELMs isn’t terribly detailed, and features CG footage that doesn’t quite track with the narrative, but it’s all we’ve got: via 3ders (more…)
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The U.S. Army’s Mobile Digital Fabrication Lab
The PhoneJoy Play: A Gaming-Geek Device Makes a Larger Comment About the Shortcomings of Touchscreen Interface Design
Whether or not you’re interested in videogames, this device is kind of fascinating from an industrial design/interface design point of view. The PhoneJoy Play is essentially a portable input device with a slick mechanical design: The two holdable halves can spread sideways, connected by a telescoping mechanism. Your smartphone or mini-tablet can then be “docked” in the middle, and the variety of buttons and motion pads interact with your device wirelessly. (more…)
GrinOn Industries’ System for Providing Immediate Beer– By Filling Through the Bottom of the Cup
Many of us enjoy a beer after work (and some of you, during), but for the most part we’re not in a rush; we understand the tap dispenses beer at a set pace, and I almost like the anticipation that comes with watching the glass slowly fill with amber up to the top. In a sports stadium, however, you want beer NOW. You sneak away from your seat because they called a time-out and you think you can make it back before they take the ball out; otherwise you wait in an interminable line during halftime, wondering if the Miami fan behind you will ever shut his mouth, or if he’ll require your assistance. To beer people faster, an Indiana-based company called GrinOn Industries has invented the Bottoms Up Beer Draft Dispensing System . As the name suggests, the system’s innovation is to inject beer into a cup through the botttom , which greatly speeds the filling time—they’re claiming it’s nine times faster than a tap, and that one person can fill 44 pint cups in one minute—while leaving a decent head on the brew. Observe: (more…)
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GrinOn Industries’ System for Providing Immediate Beer– By Filling Through the Bottom of the Cup
Ani Surabhi’s Biomimetic ‘Kranium’ Corrugated Bicycle Helmet Is Stronger, Lighter Than Traditional EPS
We first saw Anirudha Surabhi ‘s “Kranium” bicycle helmet shortly after he presented his graduation project at the Royal College of Art. Two years and £20,000 (courtesy of a James Dyson grant) later, the “Kranium” will finally be available to savvy cyclists in Europe. Surabhi, who goes by Ani for short, essentially designed the helmet from scratch: “the revolutionary Kranium liner is based on the corrugated structure found in the woodpecker and it is this structure, which provides the right amount of crumple zone to absorb impact energy.” Expanded polystyrene (EPS) helmets are proven to protect your head only 20% of the time. The Kranium liner has proven to absorb 3 times the amount of impact energy during collision. At the same time, it is 15% lighter than Polystyrene helmets. EPS helmets are made from petroleum based products where are the Kranium liner is made from recycled paper. They have been tested at several test labs across the globe, including TUV in Germany and HPE in the UK. They have been developed for mass production and will be available in the market in December 2012. As Ani explains in the must-see video (below), the project originated in his final year at the Royal College of Art, when he had the misfortune of falling off his bike and cracking the helmet which he was wearing at the time. The rest, as they say, is history: Having suffered minor concussions, I decided to take this as a design challenge and create the safest helmet on the planet. Looking into nature, the woodpecker is one of the only animal which experiences the same kind of impact on a regular basis. In fact, it strikes the tree ten times a second and closes its eyes every time so that they don’t pop out, which means a monumental amount of energy that goes through its head. (more…)
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Ani Surabhi’s Biomimetic ‘Kranium’ Corrugated Bicycle Helmet Is Stronger, Lighter Than Traditional EPS
Autodesk University 2012: Zebra Imaging Demos Holographic Prints Via 123D Catch
Way back at AU 2009, Zebra Imaging’s holographic prints blew us (and you, judging by the hit counts) away. Here in 2012 they’re using Autodesk’s 123D Catch to capture footage for their jaw-dropping technology, like the nutty 3D family portrait you’ll see in this video: (more…)
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Autodesk University 2012: Zebra Imaging Demos Holographic Prints Via 123D Catch
Must-See Video: Real-Time English-to-Mandarin Speech Translation via Microsoft Research
As you might have noticed, we’ve had quite a bit of Asian design coverage lately (with a few more stories to come): between the second annual Beijing Design Week , a trip to Shanghai for Interior Lifestyle China and last week’s design events in Tokyo , we’re hoping to bring you the best of design from the Eastern Hemisphere this fall. Of course, I’ll be the first to admit that our coverage hasn’t been quite as quick as we’d like, largely due to the speed bump of the language barrier. At least two of your friendly Core77 Editors speak passable Mandarin, but when it comes to parsing large amounts of technical information, the process becomes significantly more labor-intensive than your average blogpost… which is precisely why I was interested to learn that Microsoft Research is on the case. In a recent talk in Tianjin, China, Chief Research Officer Rick Rashid (no relation to Karim) presented their latest breakthrough in speech recognition technology, a significant improvement from the 20–25% error of current software. Working with a team from the University of Toronto, Microsoft Research has “reduced the word error rate for speech by over 30% compared to previous methods. This means that rather than having one word in 4 or 5 incorrect, now the error rate is one word in 7 or 8.” An abridged transcript of the talk is available on the Microsoft Next blog if you want to follow along: In the late 1970s a group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University made a significant breakthrough in speech recognition using a technique called hidden Markov modeling which allowed them to use training data from many speakers to build statistical speech models that were much more robust. As a result, over the last 30 years speech systems have gotten better and better. In the last 10 years the combination of better methods, faster computers and the ability to process dramatically more data has led to many practical uses. Just over two years ago, researchers at Microsoft Research and the University of Toronto made another breakthrough. By using a technique called Deep Neural Networks, which is patterned after human brain behavior, researchers were able to train more discriminative and better speech recognizers than previous methods. Once Rashid has gotten the audience up to speed, he starts discussing how current technology is implemented in extant translation services (5:03). “It happens in two steps,” he explains. “The first takes my words and finds the Chinese equivalents, and while non-trivial, this is the easy part. The second reorders the words to be appropriate for Chinese, an important step for correct translation between languages.” Short though it may be, the talk is a slow build of relatively dry subject matter until Rashid gets to the topic at hand at 6:45: “Now the last step that I want to take is to be able to speak to you in Chinese.” But listening to him talk for those first seven-and-a-half minutes is exactly the point : the software has extrapolated Rashid’s voice from an hour-long speech sample, and it modulates the translated audio based on his English speech patterns . Thus, I recommend watching (or at least listening) to the video from the beginning to get a sense for Rashid’s inflection and timbre… but here’s the payoff: (more…)
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Must-See Video: Real-Time English-to-Mandarin Speech Translation via Microsoft Research