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Fluorescent dressing glows to detect infections

Add / Remove There’s a huge demand for engineering materials that detect dangerous substances invisible to the naked eye, such as these gloves that change color in the presence of hazardous substances. Similarly, researchers at the University of Bath have been developing a material to detect potentially deadly bacteria on open wounds. Using a hydrogel containing fluorescent dye, the prototype wound-dressing glows in the presence of bacterial ‘biofilms’ — a state bacteria exist in that’s difficult for drugs to penetrate. Treating open wounds can be complicated by the presence of certain bacteria, which can lead to infections, prolonging treatment and making the situation potentially fatal. These infections can currently only be detected after they’ve taken hold, so standard medical practice requires removing and replacing the dressing, leading to patient distress. This new solution is capable of detecting a number of infectious bacterial species, and organisms normally present on human skin don’t trigger the color change. Whilst a long way from the clinical trial stage, the wound dressing shows that early detection of invisible infections is possible. Could the glowing appearance of this solution be a hit with children? Website: www.pubs.acs.org Contact: a.t.a.jenkins@bath.ac.uk The post Fluorescent dressing glows to detect infections appeared first on Springwise .

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Fluorescent dressing glows to detect infections

New smartphone battery lasts 10h with 5 minutes charging

Add / Remove With the growing ubiquity of smart tech, the fear of a dying battery will soon be a thing of the past. Prieto’s redesign of the traditional rechargeable lithium ion batteries used in smartphones and laptops is promising revolutionary battery power. Traditional lithium batteries are one-directional, with current flowing from the negative cathode to the positive anode, requiring them to be placed in the correct orientation. The method is inefficient and the bulk of batteries restricts the shape of the tech they’re powering, as well as causing environmental damage due to the toxic acids used to coat the anode. Prieto’s battery is three dimensional so that current can flow with multi-directionality, producing 10 hours of battery life with five minutes charging. It can be moulded into any shape, so that for the first time, batteries can be designed to fit the product, rather than the other way around. Prieto’s patent-pending design doesn’t require the use of toxic acids — the anode is instead coated with a electrolyte polymer capable of self-healing — and they claim it will be cheap and scalable. Prieto are currently seeking investors for their batteries, having already secured a partnership with Intel for computing devices. What products can be created using this new battery design? Website: www.prietobattery.com Contact: inquiries@PrietoBattery.com The post New smartphone battery lasts 10h with 5 minutes charging appeared first on Springwise .

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An unmanned restaurant where guests cook for themselves

Add / Remove Pushing the idea of the ‘restaurant’ to its absolute limit, Foodsy is a new DIY Amsterdam eatery that does away with staff altogether. Instead, patrons cook, serve and even pay themselves using the food, equipment and instructions provided. Foodsy was created by chef Edwin Sander, and will open in a temporary location this week. Guests will be provided with a menu of recipe cards that they can use to cook for themselves easily in under 20 minutes — diners simply use the raw ingredients, or in some cases pre-prepared soups or stews. There are also instructions for how to tap a beer and the best setting to make their own coffee. Once they have eaten, guests simply pay for their meal using an iPad app. Because there is no staff, most of the meals are significantly cheaper than they would be elsewhere. Of course the unmanned restaurant experience is very unlikely to replace the pleasure of being waited on, but the concept could definitely thrive in busy areas where the trade of casual lunches are prevalent. We have already seen a pop-up restaurant that serves only food cooked by individuals in their homes. How else could eating out be adapted to suit different locations? Website: www.foodsy.amsterdam Contact: info@foodsy.amsterdam The post An unmanned restaurant where guests cook for themselves appeared first on Springwise .

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An unmanned restaurant where guests cook for themselves

Invisible 3D barcodes prevent counterfeiting

Add / Remove Counterfeiting is believed to cost companies trillions in annual profit and is a source of public health concern. We’ve covered an edible barcode to combat counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry, and now researchers at the University of Bradford have developed an undetectable 3D barcode designed to mould into a variety of products. Developed with Sofmat and SME UK , the barcodes use a series of pins to create 3D patterns moulded onto a small plastic surface. By varying the heights and spaces between pins, millions of unique configurations can be produced. The barcodes are virtually invisible to human eyes and touch, ensuring that products can only be verified by a laser scanner and preventing copycatting. Barcodes can be built into or stamped on to products, making successful tampering very near impossible. Phil Harrison, Sofmat Director, explains: “For the first time the same technology and coding can be used on bulk packaging, individual packaging and on the actual product, making it much harder to create and ship fake products.” In industries such as pharmaceuticals and electronics where counterfeiting is a major safety concern, making hard-to-fake materials protects people as well as profits. Can the technology be used in other counterfeit prone consumer goods? Website: www.sofmat.com Contact: phil@sofmat.co.uk The post Invisible 3D barcodes prevent counterfeiting appeared first on Springwise .

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Invisible 3D barcodes prevent counterfeiting

Tool personalizes automated outreach emails

Add / Remove Cold emails — outreach messages sent by companies to prospective clients — inevitably end up reading like they were composed by a machine rather than a person, which makes them much more alienating to the reader. Now, Woodpecker is a tool designed to help companies streamline their cold emailing, while also retaining a personal touch. To begin, users import their contact list and provide an initial opening messaging. The tool then adapts the message for each email, personalizing it to the recipient. Users can monitor their email campaign, seeing how many messages have been delivered, opened and replied to. They can also line up different follow-up emails for those who reply and those who don’t, automating that process too. Woodpecker is one of a number of marketing tools that enable automation to be more personalized. What other time-consuming tasks could be managed in such a way? Website: www.woodpecker.co Contact: hello@woodpecker.co The post Tool personalizes automated outreach emails appeared first on Springwise .

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Tool personalizes automated outreach emails

Physical button can be programmed to request anything

Add / Remove Last year, we wrote about the Bttn button, which was a physical, internet-connected button that can be configured for uses such as turning devices off for nighttime or sending a quick message to loved ones. We then saw the Amazon Dash Button enable consumers to make repeated purchases of households goods without even visiting the digital store. Inspired by this, on-demand service app ALICE has partnered with Bttn to enable hotel guests to call for room service at a push of a physical button. The ALICE app contains any hotel service a guest would want — many users already log into the app when visiting partnering hotels, as it will notify specific staff of their requests. Hotel management can also monitor guest requests and employee responses from the app to improve their services. With new partner Bttn, ALICE’s service is further simplified, allowing frequently requested services to be made available at the push of a physical button. Bttn can also create branded buttons, programmable to execute specific tasks without the use of smartphones. For example, guests can request for housekeeping, or call a cab, and front desk will be notified. ALICE’s hospitality management app is already streamlining the industry’s services, and now guests won’t even need to use their phones to make simple requests. Where else would physical, connected buttons be useful? Website: www.aliceapp.com Contact: lola.feiger@aliceapp.com The post Physical button can be programmed to request anything appeared first on Springwise .

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Jaasta: Is This E-Ink Keyboard (Finally) The End For Time-Honored Design Tradition?

There’s a certain respect afforded to the rare designer who has reached the highest levels of keyboard shortcuttery—a masterfulness attained only when the self and the software (be it CAD or Adobe) become one. Whilst effortless key stroke knowledge of a chosen tool can be achieved through years of dedicated daily practice—young devotees required to spend many consecutive days and nights in intimate communion with their keyboards in pursuit of perfection—only true touch typing demi-gods can commit multiple program key combinations to memory, laying down one set and picking up another in the time it takes to switch between screen. This ancient art and time-honored tradition (handed down across generations for millennia decades) could, however, be about to fade into insignificance. Jaasta is a promising customisable E-Ink auxiliary keyboard soon to run the gauntlet of a crowdfunding campaign. Whilst customizable keyboards are really nothing new (see ’05 , ’09 and ’13 ) this challenge to QWERTY conformity— simple and use-case driven in it’s vision; enabled by rapid developments in E-Ink technology—could be the most convincing yet. (more…)

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Jaasta: Is This E-Ink Keyboard (Finally) The End For Time-Honored Design Tradition?

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

Autodesk University 2014: The Future of Making Is Here

Local Motors ‘ Strati, the world’s first 3D printed car. Last week, Las Vegas played host to Autodesk University, Autodesk’s annual gathering—part conference, part continuing education—for 9, 000 professional designers, engineers and animators. Below is a summary of some of the big ideas and themes that will be shaping the conversation around making in 2015. It’s alive! Design is a living process that lives past the moment of creation—a key theme for this year’s Autodesk University . From featured speakers and workshop presenters to the company’s CTO and CEO, the message was clear: we are moving swiftly past the Internet of Things, where devices interact with us, toward a broader, more complex and, ultimately, more valuable Community of Things, where products interact with each other and respond collaboratively to the environments in which they exist. Jeff Kowalski, Chief Technology Officer and SVP, Autodesk Hardware is hot, hot, hot. Three elements in the design process and manufacturing are supporting the innovation that will drive this evolution—an evolution that’s not just on the way, it’s already here. First, the advancement of 3D printing, micro-molding, capital and funding options means that production is more flexible and robust than ever before. Second, demand is continuing to grow from “a few sizes fit all” to individual customization (see Normal’s custom-fit ear buds after the jump). And finally, our attitudes towards products are changing. For a variety of reasons—sustainability, cost, our own hyper-individualized mentalities and even our desire to create better communities—we are starting to expect that products will be responsive, change and get better over time. (more…)

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Autodesk University 2014: The Future of Making Is Here