Design posts

Flip phones were hot in the first half of the millennium. If you weren’t a stuffy business type with a Blackberry or Palm, you probably carried a flip phone. Then, the iPhone came and changed our world. Smart phones took over. The flip phone died. It’s back. Sort of. With three flexible AMOLED touchscreens, a smart triangular design, and sporting a custom Android interface, this artistic and functional design by Kristian Ulrich Larsen gives us a glimpse of how the smart phone generation can be flipped again. …

The application is intellectual, but the results are truly stunning. Christopher Warnow has demonstrated a technique of procedurally painting light onto a scene by using a projector, distance sensor, and long-exposure camera. What you get is something that looks very cool and futuristic. It works by utilizing the distance sensor to change the image that is being projected on the fly, and that, in turn, is rendered visible by the camera. It is almost exactly like a holographic animation that is captured with the long-exposed camera. At least, that is how I think it works. Regardless, the end…

Not content to robotically emulate any and all members of the animal kingdom, humanity has turned to another branch of the Tree of Life for inspiration: that of plants. Japanese artist Akira Nakayasu has developed plant (no, really, it’s just called ‘plant’), an interactive robotic installation that does little but look beautiful. Then again, what else would a plant-bot do? The installation is designed to resemble grass blowing in the wind, and reacts to nearby objects – for instance, a human hand. 169 shape memory alloy actuators control 169 artificial leaves, which bend and sway independently,…

The concept of flavour just got turned on its ear as engineering students in Japan have developed TagCandy, a device which augments the flavour of whatever candy is inserted into it. Stick a regular lollipop into the handset, choose a flavour (Crunchy apple? Fizzy soda? …Fireworks?), and suck away. The vibrating speaker on the device sends pulses that conduct through your teeth as you eat the candy, emulating the vibration patterns that the chosen flavour would emit. How they discovered what it’s like to bite down on fireworks, you probably don’t want to know. Either way, it’s a totally wicked…

Surely you remember the giant 1:1 Gundam Japan erected in 2009. Built by Bandai, the monolithic robot has stood watch ovef Tokyo and spawned many imitators in the last year and a bit. Some of you probably take a sort of ‘so-what’ attitude here. That’s understandable: Gundams are practically space-faring robot ninjas in the show, and this guy can barely turn his head. So what indeed, right? Well, check out this time-lapse video, directed by ‘darwinfish105′, which is a beautiful testament to the epic stoicism of the statue….

Antennagate sure was a mess, wasn’t it? Maybe ‘mess’ is the wrong word. All things considered, it was pretty tidy mess, and even included sweet pictures of Apple’s underground antenna testing crypts. Was it the biggest case of mass hysteria the tech world has ever seen? Could’ve been – but either way, according to this new patent, it seems Apple isn’t taking any chances. The patent details a new design that would apparently render the Apple logo itself as a functional antenna in both iOS and Mac devices – a move that could more or less end any to all interference by our fat, sausagey fingers. How well…

There is a bit of a conundrum going on in the creative professional community. The problem? The Internet is seemingly cheapening the efforts of high-profile designers, programmers, and other similar jobs on the Web. It’s a global issue, and it is likely only to get worse! What really sparked this controversy is another recent controversy that surrounded the historic and memorable GAP logo. The company had decided to change its brand and identity with a refresh of its logo. But it was a disaster and nothing more. The logo failed to impress anyone, and even I was shocked at how poorly it was executed….

Those ancient Greeks think they’re so great, developing an astonishingly-accurate mechanism for predicting astrological events over 2000 years ago. Whatever – the Antikythera Mechanism isn’t all that. It doesn’t even have any touchscreens. Well, we’ll show them what trivial bullspit their Antikythera Mechanism really is by building one out of nothing but Lego! That oughtta knock those Zeus-worshipping souvlaki eaters down a peg….

Out of the big box marked ‘stuff that will blow your mind today’ busts John Kestner’s Tableau. Tableau is a night stand with a wire coming out of it. And boy, if it didn’t make me flip my lid. It isn’t the design of the stand that incited all this lid-flipping action – I’m more of an IKEA guy – but its function. Tableau is the most ingeniously-disguised Twitter client you ain’t never seen. Barring right now, that is. A hidden printer/scanner resides within Tableau’s drawer, connecting to your Twitter account and quietly printing and depositing photographs for you to discover. As well, any photographs…

Y’know how experts are always forecasting that we’ll soon be using our phones for everything, including ePayments and eTicketing and sutff? Well hold onto your hat, because the future is now. In sticker form. KSW Microtec AG, a manufacturer of RFID components for credit cards and such, has developed an RFID sticker for your phone that functions as an alternative to your traditional wallet full of cards. The sticker acts in lieu of your credit or debit card and is apparently affixed ‘securely’ to your phone, in order to meet credit card companies’ authentication standards. What ‘securely’ means…