recent-design – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Hasenkopf’s ‘Frescata’ Material-Processing Technology Yields Beautiful and Unique Surfaces

One of the cooler materials we saw at Holz-Handwerk wasn’t really a material at all, but a process. German industrial manufacturer Hasenkopf’s booth drew a steady stream of visitors all reaching out to touch the weird-looking totems, like the one above, that they had on display; I eagerly checked the product tag to find it was nothing more than Corian. So what gives? Hasenkopf was showing off their bag of new material-processing tricks called Frescata , whereby they hit Corian, Parapan, and even wood with four different bits in a five-axis CNC mill to create the intricate patterns you see here. (more…)

More here:
Hasenkopf’s ‘Frescata’ Material-Processing Technology Yields Beautiful and Unique Surfaces

IBM to Invest $100m in User Experience Consulting, Hire 1,000 Employees across Ten Interactive Experience Labs Worldwide

Long before the likes of Facebook and Flickr co-opted the color, the original Big Blue had established itself as a giant in a different era in tech. A perennial fixture of “most valuable brands” lists, IBM is pleased to announce that will be committing over $100 million to “globally expanding its consulting services capability to help clients with experience design and engagement.” The Armonk, NY-based company is capitalizing on its strength in the Big Data with plans to open IBM Interactive Experience labs in Bangalore, Beijing, Groningen, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo. In short, IBM is making a major foray data-driven service design, a nod to a broader definition of product as experience or interaction (a.k.a. the shift from physical to digital, hardware to software, etc.). Shannon Miller, a Global Strategy Leader at IBM Interactive Experience, shared more details on their vision for what the future holds both for IBM, its clients and the end user. Core77: We’ve witnessed the rise of service design (i.e. experience design) as a discipline in its own right, what makes this a good time for IBM to make this major investment in this area? Shannon Miller: We have seen growing client demand in the marketplace around experience design capabilities and the front office transformation—and this market only continues to grow as consumers continuously look for the next best experience. IBM is the only company that can bring research, creative and design skills together with data experts and a traditional consultancy to solve our clients’ biggest problems. We see this demand globally and wanted to expand our reach to create centers around the world where we can collaborate and co-create with clients to develop innovative solutions. To what degree is this data-centric approach to experience design an extension of the company’s long history in the computer industry, and to what degree is a new frontier for IBM’s strengths? Technology is becoming ingrained into the DNA of every business and personal interaction, especially in today’s customer-centric world, and IBM is helping clients understand their customers as individuals through the use of Big Data. While this certainly is an extension of IBM’s 100-plus-year history and commitment to design, IBM researchers within IBM Interactive Experience invented unique algorithms that conduct the analysis for new capabilities—Intelligent Customer Profiles, Influence Analysis and Customer Identity Resolution. These join an existing portfolio of data-driven capabilities including Life Event Detection, Behavioral Pricing and Psycholinguistic Analytics . IBM Interactive Experience is an industry first—a management consultancy and systems integration company combined with a digital agency powered by data and research. IBM Interactive Experience drives insights from data—including information on individual decisions, choices, preferences and attitudes—to transform the customer experience. (more…)

Visit link:
IBM to Invest $100m in User Experience Consulting, Hire 1,000 Employees across Ten Interactive Experience Labs Worldwide

A Simple Trick for Getting 3D-Looking Results from Moving 2D Images

Watching movies in 3D is fun, if you can stand the splitting headache those headsets give you. For now they’re the moviemakers’ way of tricking your eyes into feeding your brain a false sense of depth perception, but a bunch of GIF-happy blogosphere denizens have discovered a more low-tech way to do that: By adding two vertical white stripes to your moving image. Presumably they needn’t be two perfectly vertical stripes, nor is it important that they be precisely white so much as in sharp contrast to the predominant tone of the image. But by adding a visually static element that interrupts, and becomes interrupted by, a moving object, our brains are fooled into perceiving depth. (more…)

Continue reading here:
A Simple Trick for Getting 3D-Looking Results from Moving 2D Images

Nike to Release Marty McFly’s Back to the Future 2 MAGs–With Power Lace Feature!

In 2011 Nike released the Nike MAGs , based on the design of the kicks Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future 2. Supply of the limited-edition sneakers were constrained to boost value, as proceeds were sent to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, netting some $6 million. While the production MAGs looked like what McFly wore in the movie, they lacked the cool self-lacing feature dreamt up by an imaginative designer (possibly the movie’s Costume Designer Joanna Johnston, Production Designer Rick Carter or Art Director Margie Stone McShirley). However, the sneakerhead corner of the blogosphere is currently abuzz with fresh news: Nike designer Tinker Hatfield was quoted at a recent event on whether the MAGs would be re-released for 2015, the year that McFly wore the kicks in the movie. Here’s the one sentence of Hatfield’s making the rounds: “Are we gonna see power laces in 2015? To that, I say YES!” If Hatfield’s true to his word, by next year we may be seeing real-life versions of this scene: Via Sole Collector (more…)

More:
Nike to Release Marty McFly’s Back to the Future 2 MAGs–With Power Lace Feature!

Amos Chapple’s Photographs of the Coldest Town on Earth

Globetrotting photographer Amos Chapple has shot in sixty countries, eventually working his way up to be named Cathay Pacific’s Travel Photographer of the Year for ’09. More recently, New Zealand native Chapple recently photographed a region with weather very opposite from that of his home country: Oymyakon, Russia, where the average winter temperature is negative-58 Fahrenheit (negative-50 Celsius). As Chapple told Weather.com , “occasionally my saliva would freeze into needles that would prick my lips, ” and “focusing the lens would sometimes be as challenging as opening a pickle jar.” Viewing these photos officially means you can never complain about being cold ever again. The temperature is so brutal that Oymyakon residents’ lives are structured around surviving it, with inconveniences aplenty. For example: No wearing eyeglasses outdoors, unless you want them to stick to your skin. Even worse, there’s no indoor plumbing. It’s impossible to keep underground pipes from not freezing, so guess where you’ll go when you need to use the bathroom: Then there’s the gas situation: When you stop your car, to run into a store for instance, you cannot turn the car off, or it won’t start again. So everyone leaves their cars running (except at night, when they’re parked in heated garages)… (more…)

See the original article here:
Amos Chapple’s Photographs of the Coldest Town on Earth

Brilliant Transformational Transportation Design: The Track N Go Converts Your Truck Into a Tread-Equipped, Snow-Going Beast in Under 15 Minutes

Even though I live in America, I never saw as many monster trucks anywhere in the ‘States as I did in Reyjkavik. For drivers who need to navigate the Icelandic hinterlands, owning a pickup truck converted to drive man-height tires is more practical concern than pissing contest. Sure, they looked silly and inconvenient in the city, but it was a trade-off everyone was apparently fine with. So I wonder if the Track N Go would gain any traction in Iceland. This has to be the coolest off-road conversion I’ve ever seen, because it’s completely reversible and only takes fifteen minutes. Check out how it drives: Before we get to how they put them on, the following video, narrated in French, gives you a good look at an individual Track N Go (and gives you a sense of how heavy it is): (more…)

The Onewheel: A Self-Balancing Electric Monowheel Skateboard

Inspired by the hoverboard Michael J. Fox cruises around on in Back to the Future Part II , ex-IDEO’er Kyle Doerksen created the Onewheel. A self-balancing electric monowheel skateboard, the Onewheel seemingly replicates the feeling of riding around on a hoverboard (if not the form factor), and even a novice can purportedly pick up how to ride one in less than a minute; in addition to the self-balancing feature, riders can accelerate by leaning forward and slow down by leaning back, as with a Segway. The 25-pound device will do 12 m.p.h., with a range of four to six miles. Charging the lithium battery takes from 20 minutes to two hours, depending on what type of charger you use. And the monowheel design means that maintenance is a lot simpler than it would be for a bicycle: “There’s literally only one moving part—the wheel, ” writes Doerksen. “No gears, belts or chains to maintain.” And yes, the Onewheel is real, not just a concept; Doerksen and his team have it up on Kickstarter , where it’s already tripled its $100, 000 goal. Check out the video: (more…)

Tools for Carrying Sheet Goods: The Gorilla Gripper and the Handle On Demand

Moving sheet goods is a huge pain in the neck, particularly for shorter guys like me with a wingspan that leaves something to be desired. But even for you bigger folk, there’s nothing ergonomic about toting a 4×8 sheet around your shop or the jobsite. The Gorilla Gripper is a cleverly-designed handle that allows you to lift and carry sheet goods using your back and legs, while preserving your fingers and toes. There are tons of YouTube videos showing the thing, but I like the following low-res one the best because it shows the actual applications in the field: I don’t think I’d have the balls to try hoisting it up a ladder, like the guy did in the video, but I’d try everything else they showed. (more…)

Be the Change You Wish to See: Design for the US Mint

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” -President Wacom, November 5, 1855 If you’ve ever dreamed of making your art available to millions of indifferent people in the form of a cold, hard choking hazard, we’ve got good news. The US Mint and the National Endowment for the Arts are teaming up for a wham-bam coin-design slam, and they want you to apply . They’re looking for professional artists with several years of artistic training and a portfolio that shows mastery of symbolism and complex subjects. Digital skills required. Up to 20 artists will be given year-long contracts to make commissioned demonstration designs. The designs produced will be considered for use on circulated coins and national medals of honor and/or importance. If chosen, the designs are rewarded with additional ca$h money and the offer of longer term contracts. The first application deadline is January 10th, so don’t put off for the next year what you can do while avoiding your relatives during the holidays. If you’re a US citizen with a passion for coinage or obscure types of fame, put that wolf painting on the back burner and apply for your chance to design a national icon . You too could creatively serve the country by carving a bas-relief turkey butt in plastilene. (more…)

Continue Reading:
Be the Change You Wish to See: Design for the US Mint

Checking In with Via Motors: Yep, Those Full-Sized Electric Pick-Up Trucks are On the Way

Following yesterday’s popular discussion on Americans and trucks , we got to wondering: Whatever happened to Via Motors ? To refresh your memory, back in January we brought you the story of an American company taking fresh-off-the-assembly-line trucks from Detroit and turning them into E-REVs (Extended Range Electric Vehicles): Powerful yet environmentally-friendly 100-m.p.g. beasts of burden. The company estimated delivery of the first models by mid-2013, but that vague date period has decidedly come and gone. We looked into it mostly afraid to find they’d gone belly-up, but were pleased to find they’re alive and well, and still leaping hurdles on their way to production. Vehicles have to be crash-tested to meet American safety regulations, and even though the trucks Via aims to produce are existing models that have already been crash-tested by their original manufacturer (General Motors), re-rigging them with electric motors requires a whole new crash test. So last month they smashed up a bunch of their cargo van models—and passed with flying colors. “The engineering work done to integrate the VIA’s electric technology has been exceptional and the vehicles have exceeded our expectations in all tests that were performed, ” says Alan Perriton, president of VIA Motors. “We are now moving on to complete certification and begin mass production.” To that end, just weeks ago Via brought their factory online in Mexico, near the GM factory that cranks out Silverados, one of the vehicles Via hacks up. Here’s a look at the facility: (more…)