var-img – Page 2 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Insane $2 Million Naturalistic Feature-Packed Swimming Pool

Animal Planet calls Anthony Archer-Willis “the best in the world for what he does—designing and delivering the ultimate swimming experience.” That’s why they gave Archer-Willis, a British landscape architect with a specialization in swimming pool and water garden design, his own show. In ” The Poolmaster , ” he designs dream swimming pools for a handful of lucky clients. While the TV show will reveal Archer-Willis’ own creations, in the following video he shows you his appreciation for another pool designer’s work. An unnamed family in Utah commissioned this absolutely insane, mammoth $2-million-dollar swimming pool, which was designed to look all-natural. With five waterfalls, a grotto, a waterslide, hidden passageways, an integrated indoor kitchen/bathroom/showering facility, a scuba diving practice area and more, this is not the average swimming pool that most of us Americans will be hitting up this holiday weekend. Watch and be amazed: (more…)

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Insane $2 Million Naturalistic Feature-Packed Swimming Pool

A Great Product Idea Undone by Human Factors: The NoMix Toilet

When it comes to recycling, pee and poo oughtn’t mix. We think of them as the same thing—human waste—but in fact they are not mixed within the body and shouldn’t be mixed afterwards, though we often do so out of convenience and the design of modern toilets. The reason they shouldn’t mix is because urine is rich in nitrogen and phosphorous while feces are carbonaceous. Separated, these can be valuable resources, but combined they become a useless sludge that needs to undergo laborious and energy-intensive processing before anything can be reclaimed. And we are literally flushing resources down the toilet. As an article in the farmer’s information website A Growing Culture points out, it would be better if we could easily extract nitrogen and phosphorous from separated urine rather than taking it out of the Earth: Modern agriculture gets the nitrogen it needs from ammonia-producing plants that utilize fossil fuels such as natural gas, LPG or petroleum naphtha as a source of hydrogen. This energy-intensive process dumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it consumes a finite hydrocarbon resource, and it is not sustainable. Modern agriculture gets the phosphorous it needs from phosphorous-bearing rocks. But these reserves are rapidly dwindling and increasingly contaminated with pollutants such as cadmium. In as little as 25 years apatite reserves may no longer be economically exploitable and massive world-wide starvation is predicted to follow. If we are serious about achieving sustainability in this regard, our first, and perhaps most important duty, lies in not mixing urine with feces. Enter the NoMix toilet, developed in Sweden in the 1990s. The NoMix’s bowl is designed in such a way that the urine is collected in the front, the feces in the back, and both are whisked away through separate plumbing, with the latter being disposed of in the conventional manner and the former recycled. While that raises new infrastructural challenges, the concept was interesting enough for EAWAG, a Swiss aquatic research institute, to intensively explore the NoMix’s feasibility in research trials. Running from 2000 to 2006, that project was called Novaquatis , and during their seven years of testing, Eawag shrewdly realized that “An innovation for private bathrooms can only be widely implemented if it is accepted by the public”: For this reason, all Swiss NoMix pilot projects were accompanied by sociological studies. 1750 people were surveyed – and their attitudes towards urine source separation are highly favourable. Despite a number of deficiencies, the NoMix toilet is well accepted, especially in public buildings. Things looked even better by 2010, when CNET reported that “Of the 2, 700 people surveyed in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark, 80 percent say they support the idea behind the technology, and between 75 and 85 percent report that the design, hygiene, smell, and seat comfort of the NoMix toilets equal that of conventional ones.” (more…)

Sit Happens: Noonee’s So-Called ‘Chairless Chair’ Offers Wearable Seating Solution

Some are calling it an invisible chair while others are going with bionic pants —semantics, perhaps, but considering that the chair is a canonical example of industrial design, it’s worth examining the distinction when it comes to Noonee ‘s “Chairless Chair.” “Based on robotic principles of Bio-Inspired Legged Locomotion and Actuation, ” the exoskeletal assistive device consists of a pair of mechatronic struts that run the length of the user’s leg, with attachment points across the thighs and at the heels of the user’s shoes. Hinged at the knee to allow for normal movement—viz. walking and running—while a battery-powered variable damper system can be engaged to direct body weight from the knees to the heels of one’s feet. Of course, the Chairless Chair is intended not for us deskbound office peons but for environments in which workers must stand for extended periods, if not entire 8-hour shifts. As the story goes, 29-year-old Keith Gunura was inspired by his experience working in a packaging factory in the U.K.; now, a decade later, he is the CEO and founder of Zurich-based company. CNN, which duly notes the precedent of the one-legged Swiss milking stool, sums up these workplace health concerns (as does the Noonee website ): Physical strain, repetitive movements and poor posture can lead to conditions called Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which are now one of the leading causes of lost workday injury and illness. In 2011, MSDs accounted for 33 percent of all worker injuries and illnesses in the U.S. with over 378, 000 cases, according to data from the United States Department of Labor. In Europe, over 40 million workers are affected by MSDs attributable to their job, according to a study entitled Fit For Work Europe and conducted across 23 European countries. Gunura demo’ing the Chairless Chair (more…)

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Sit Happens: Noonee’s So-Called ‘Chairless Chair’ Offers Wearable Seating Solution

Wrap Your Head Around This One: Potentially Immortal Bacteria That Eat Electricity and Could Become Living Batteries

One of the stranger (and little known) facts of nature is that our living cells are electric, or can carry electricity. Every thought, feeling and movement we have comes from an electric spark. And we find this in complicated beings like us, as well as in the most basic forms of bacteria. But there is something that bacteria can do that no other living thing on Earth can: Consume pure electricity for their own energy. Sounds Frankensteinian but it’s real. Scientists have been luring all sorts of bacteria deep in rocks and mud with electric juice. And they’ve found that these creatures are eating and then excreting electrons. Now this isn’t all that crazy, considering that, as I mentioned, we are made of electric pulses. And this process is fueled by food (specifically ATP, the molecule that provides storage for energy.) Electrons can and are taken from every food we eat, and they are carried by molecules throughout our bodies—this is a necessary process for life. The difference and extraordinary thing about bacteria is that they don’t need the “food” middleman. They consume pure electricity! Just like our (non-living) laptop plugged into the wall. (Think of this next time we consider how far removed we think we are from robotic devices.) But what are the practical implications for innovative designers? Scientists have been able to grow all kinds of what they are calling “electricity breathers” in areas where you might not find other life forms. Researchers are saying this opens up a previously unknown biosphere. A biosphere of very useful, self-powered helpers. (more…)

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Wrap Your Head Around This One: Potentially Immortal Bacteria That Eat Electricity and Could Become Living Batteries

Dungeons, Dragons & Design: Geek Chic’s Gorgeous Gaming Tables

David Roentgen’s transforming gaming table is the most amazing piece of furniture I’ve ever seen. It’s also from the 18th Century. But here in the 21st, a company called Geek Chic is making modern-day gaming tables. Their stuff is beautiful, and as the company’s name suggests, the products are aimed at the Dungeons-and-Dragons roleplaying game crowd. Their top-of-the-line model is called the Sultan , and no, it ain’t a table for eating on. The center surface is what the company calls the Game Vault, where the Gamemaster lays out the unspoilt fantasyland devoid of your landlord, boss, spouse and parents. The sides feature integrated flip-out trays and drawers within, as well as little pull-out shelves to hold your dice and/or a cup of magic potion. (more…)

The TSA Wants You– To Design a Solution to Our Collective Airport Security Woes (For a Chance to Win to $5K of Prize Money)

The airport security line is the kind of universally despised ordeal that extraterrestrials, should they exist, would dread; even a seasoned traveler will bristle at the thought of the rigmarole of boarding pass / I.D., uncooperative scanners, doffing footwear, unwieldy bins, more scanners. Not to belabor the point, but it’s a mildly demeaning nuisance at best. What are you going to do about it? Well, it turns out that the TSA wants to know—they recently announced an Ideation Challenge soliciting proposals for expediting the process, specifically for TSA Pre✓ passengers but ostensibly for us plebs as well. “America’s Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model” may not roll off the tongue, but, hey, that’s what we’re up against (…and, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, this is what the TSA is up against ). TSA is looking for the Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model to apply a scientific and simulation modeling approach to meet the dynamic security screening environment. The new queue design should include, but not limited to the following queue lanes: · TSA Pre✓ · Standard · Premier Passengers (1st class, business class, frequent fliers, etc.) · Employee and Flight Crews · PWD (wheelchair access) The Challenge is to provide a simulation modeling concept that can form the basis to plan, develop requirements, and design a queue appropriately. The concept will be used to develop a model to be applied in decision analysis and to take in considerations of site specific requirements, peak and non-peak hours, flight schedules and TSA staffing schedules. Solvers are expected to provide the concept and provide evidence that it works as described in the requirements. As in the MTA’s 2012 ” App Quest ” competition, the Transportation Security Authority is offering a total of $15, 000 as, um, Innocentive . (I know it’s a portmanteau of ‘innovation’ and ‘incentive, ‘ but I can’t help but read it as ‘innocent’—see also Rapiscan ; cf. Dr. Tobias Funke’s business cards .) (more…)

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The TSA Wants You– To Design a Solution to Our Collective Airport Security Woes (For a Chance to Win to $5K of Prize Money)

Onboard Storage Design: Why Vikings Never Fought For Overhead Bin Space

Vikings loved to brawl, with both their enemies and with each other. Viking sagas are filled with tales of even longstanding friends happy to settle disagreements with steel. But as they piled onto their longships to go pillaging, their boarding process was a good deal more civilized than the melee that is modern air travel. For one thing, their storage was one-to-one; when 30 Vikings got onto a ship, there were 30 places to store things. That’s because they carried their seating on board with them, and their seating doubled as their storage. Prior to boarding, the decks of a ship were bare. Each Viking plunked his chest down at his own rowing position. Enough Viking chests have been found, and replicas made, that we can take a look at their design. It’s both intelligent and purposeful. The first thing you notice is that the tops were rounded to shed water, and perhaps to provide a modicum of comfort. (more…)

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Onboard Storage Design: Why Vikings Never Fought For Overhead Bin Space

Big-Ass Screen: LG’s Envy-Inducing 34" Monster Monitor

Images via Robbie Khan / PetaPixel While I’d previously caught wind of LG’s new 34″ monitor , the company’s hero shots showed little more than a rectangle covered in Photoshopped fake screens and devoid of local scale. But I just came across photographer Robbie Khan’s write-up on his , and seeing it with actual work on it drives home how gi-normous this thing is. Like many of us creatives Khan spends long stretches in front of a monitor, and the 34UM95’s 21:9 aspect ration and 3440×1440 resolution would go to good use in his work editing panoramic photos. LG’s product copy points out that they’ve included a “Screen Splitter” feature (both Windows and Mac compatible) that automatically tiles out four screens with a single click… (more…)

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Big-Ass Screen: LG’s Envy-Inducing 34" Monster Monitor

Core77 Design Awards Spotlight: Personal EKSO, an Exoskeleton Designed to Replace the Wheelchair

Although the perennial buzz around 3D printing has yet to materialize into a proper industrial revolution, the increasingly powerful technology has gained some traction in the medical world, where customizability and on-site availability trump the constraints of cost and scale. It may come as no surprise, then, that one of the 2014 Core77 Design Awards honorees that caught our eye was developed by a previous winner, whose work we’d covered as far back as 2010, before the the inaugural awards program. This time around, Scott Summit took Professional Runner Up in the Social Impact category with the EKSO personal exoskeleton , a mecha-like medical device at the intersection of robotics, rehabilitation and digital fabrication. As a replacement for a wheelchair, the device has the potential to revolutionize mobility for paraplegic individuals. Summit shares credit with Gustavo Fricke, 3D Systems and Ekso Bionics, all of whom worked together to print parts that connect a person to their robot as naturally and respectively as possible. “This is an unusual design effort on every front, ” designer Scott Summit says. “We had challenges with the technical details, since these are massive files, and almost entirely organic, but very precise. It’s also very tricky to scan a paralyzed person, and expect the data to be exactly as desired. We found that even the slightest detail could lead to dangerous bruising.” All of that considered, the prototypes have been met with a great response. The test pilot loves it so much, she wants to use it all of the time. But like many of these things go, the team has to wait until the design is FDA certified to be worn daily. (more…)

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Core77 Design Awards Spotlight: Personal EKSO, an Exoskeleton Designed to Replace the Wheelchair

More Anamorphosis: Bernard Pras’ Amazing 3D Trompe L’Oeils

I hate to write this, but “You’ll never believe what happens next!” Speaking of anamorphosis , check out French artist Bernard Pras’ nutty room-sized sculpture below. Pras practices the cylinder-free variant of anamorphosis, and the results have to be seen to be believed: (more…)