Sand Glass traffic light uses LEDs to intuitively prompt stop, ready & go states

Design, Images, , , , ,

The fact that this concept took this long to come up with is a bit sad.  And the other fact that it hasn’t been installed in busy roads is even worse.  Try to wrap your head around the Sand Glass traffic light designed by Thanva Tivawong.  Its design is inspired by the hour glass, the physical object and the famous Windows “wait” mouse icon.  Implementing the hour glass concept into the traffic light is genius, really.  Brightly lit LED pixels change color (red, yellow, green) to designate wait, ready, and go, respectively–we’re used to that already.  When it acts like an hour glass, drivers can get a more precise sense of almost exactly when the traffic light will change states.  The designer also included a countdown timer; the yellow state will read “3, 2, 1” when its about to change color to green and prompt the driver to “go” or change to red and prompt “stop”.  This is a concept that needs to become a reality!  We like having a sense of progress status, don’t we?  Look in the gallery below for more conceptual visuals.

[Via YankoDesign; Engadget]

Fluid Dress

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The Fluid Dress was designed by Minneapolis artist Charlie Bucket.  This highly inventive and unconventional piece of garment was constructed with 600 feet of knitted tubing.  In order to keep the juices flowing, the wearer must strap on a rather hefty backpack contraption; the backpack houses a pump that pushes the neon-enhanced fluid into the dress’ tubing.  Bucket acknowledges that the Fluid Dress is a “ridiculous clothing experiment”, but it nevertheless makes for intriguing wearable art.  Head over to his Flickr page to see some construction images.

[Via CasualProfanity; BoingBoing]

Social Network Sneakers

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Check out these “social network sneakers” designed by Gerry Mckay for Adidas.  These are purely conceptual sneaker designs for now.  If people start demanding these be produced for consumption, Adidas can give the go ahead to make it happen.  Though various blogs are hatin’ on the very idea of a sneaker based on a social networking website, I happen to find the designs extremely attractive.

Mckay’s idea is to merge the classic Adidas Superstar sneaker (which celebrated 35 years in 2006) with Twitter and Facebook branding.  The Twitter Superstar features the recognizable light blue color scheme and Twitter ‘bird’ logo as a “visual element.”  The Facebook Superstar is inspired by Facebook’s dark blue on white color scheme and it features the Facebook type logo at the heel of the shoe and on the tongue beneath the Adidas logo.  On the inside wall of the shoe two Facebook slogans read: Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you” & “Making the world open and connected”.

Take a closer look at the Superstar sneaker designs in the gallery below.  Sure, socially-inclined sneakers sound lame but these designs are simple, smart, and definitely appealing.

[Via Behance, here & here; BuzzFeed; Gizmodo]

Glass globe doorknob: neat idea, voyeuristically destructive

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In collaboration with UNION, a manufacturer of door handles and levers, architect Hideyuki Nakayama designed this glass globe doorknob.  Nakayama’s Room in a Glass Globe lets you “catch a glimpse of what appears to be another world, waiting for you to enter and join, but in fact is a reflection of the room on the other side of the door.”  I love the whole idea of peering into another dream-like world, but in reality this poetic doorknob is unfortunately introduces a major violation of privacy.

[Via MocoLoco; Gizmodo]

Fluorescent chandelier makes a cylindrical beauty

Design, Images, , , , , ,

Take a gander at this beautifully designed chandelier at Usher Hall, an art house located in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The chandelier was designed and developed by Speirs + Major, and their aim was “to design an integrated
approach to light, carefully concealing equipment and retaining the architectural integrity of the building.”  They succeeded in that goal with flying colors.  The contemporary chandelier is comprised of fluorescent tubes encased in 45 feet of acrylic cylinders and its core structure makes cable routing and maintenance a simple task.  A single shaft of light that forms the central axis of a spiral staircase; flip through the images in the gallery below and be amazed by its architectural ingenious.

[Via DesignBoom; Gizmodo]

Fireplace/HDTV combo is a winner

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Much like Helex’s I-Vision, firespace designer Safretti has beautifully integrated a fireplace with a flat-screen LCD HDTV.  The eco-friendly “Double Vision” setup includes an ethanol fireplace and can be installed with a 37-inch or 47-inch TV.  The mirrored design would fit right into any contemporary, modern home.  Creator Jan des Bouvrie says, “This specific design is a beautiful symbiosis between two products, each of which strengthens the other with force.”  Look in the gallery below for additional shots.

[Via Trendir; Safretti]

Is this multitouch curved display the wave of the future?

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The BendDesk, a research projected created by members of the Media Computing Group, is an attempt to converge digital and physical workspaces into one desk.  The concept desk features a curved multitouch display and supports up to ten touch points.  The display can bring up digital content like documents, photos, or videos.  And thanks to its ergonomically impressive design, the digital desk doubles as a physical desk; it can easily support a laptop, paperwork, pens and pencils on the horizontal surface.  For now the BendDesk is merely an in-house concept project, so don’t expect to see something like finding a place in your room any time soon.  The best we can do is watch it in all its futuristic glory in video demonstration form above.

[Via Engadget; MediaComputingGroup]

Virtual Autopsy Table now available for physicians everywhere

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Today medical technology company Sectra formally unveiled the Virtual Autopsy Table, which is now called the Sectra Visualization Table.  It was previewed and detailed last October.

With Sectra Visualization Table, a 46-inch medical multi-touch display, multiple users can interact collaboratively with the real-size 3D images generated by CT and MRI scanners to gain deeper understanding and insight into the functions and processes inside the body. They can, for example, visualize different kinds of tissues and cut through sections with a virtual knife.

According to Engadget the table is now available “to the masses”.  For more information on the awesome tech, head over to Sectra’s website.  There you’ll find a new video demonstration.  Full PR after the break.

[Via Engadget] Continue reading Virtual Autopsy Table now available for physicians everywhere →

Watch The Exorcist’s Linda Blair whip her hair back and forth in this unlikely mashup

Hilarity, Music, Video, , , , , , ,

Who knew the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist would come in so much handy 37 years after its theatrical release?  Watch Linda Blair perform Willow’s smash hit!

And on a related note, in case you missed it, check out Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Fallon as Neil Young perform a unique rendition of the catchy song after the break. Continue reading Watch The Exorcist’s Linda Blair whip her hair back and forth in this unlikely mashup →

Hot dog champ Kobayashi eats 16 bananas in 60 seconds to honor Donkey Kong

EXPERIENCE, Video, , , , ,

You might know him as the six-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champion, but Takeru Kobayashi caught a new kind of attention this month when he agreed to eat as many bananas as he can in one minute to celebrate the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii.  The pre-release (marketing) stunt took place in Toronto and you can watch Kobayashi do his thing in the banana eating challenge video embedded above.  It’s on like Donkey Kong!  Oh wait–can I say that?

[Via Kotaku]

The Lonely Island become ROKK Vodka ‘Creative Directors’; watch their first ad here

Hilarity, Video, , , , , ,

The Lonely Island–aka The Dudes, aka SNL’s Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer–were recently appointed “Creative Directors” for Swedish imported ROKK Vodka.  Apparently they will be “responsible for the brand’s consumer engagement, which includes creating digital material to market the brand and help introduce ROKK, the premium priced, freeze filtered vodka.”  Says head Dude Andy Samberg: “Most people ask us to just make videos, but Diageo asked us to be Creative Directors, which sounded fancier. Anyone who’s seen our videos knows we’re fancy guys, so we said yes. And they also gave us a bunch of ROKK Vodka, which we enjoy drinking with our mouths.”

Watch the group’s first “ROKK video short” above.  Additional content is expected to hit the ‘Net soon.  Full PR after the break.

[Via PRNewswire] Continue reading The Lonely Island become ROKK Vodka ‘Creative Directors’; watch their first ad here →

James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host Oscars

Movies, News, Television, , , , , , , ,

Today it was announced that actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway will serve as co-hosts of the 83rd Academy Awards.  They follow last year’s hosting duo Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.  Says Oscar telecast producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer: “James Franco and Anne Hathaway personify the next generation of Hollywood icons— fresh, exciting and multi-talented. We hope to create an Oscar broadcast that will both showcase their incredible talents and entertain the world on February 27. We are completely thrilled that James and Anne will be joining forces with our brilliant creative team to do just that.”

Injecting some fresh, young blood into the prestigious award show is a nice way to switch things up, but will Franco and Hathaway’s comedic experience (or lack thereof) prove to be entertaining enough to draw in viewers?  At 32 and 28 years old, respectively, Franco and Hathaway have only dabbled in comedic roles.  Franco is best know for his role as Harry Osborn in the Spider-Man films, but he also has Pineapple Express under his belt; and there’s this. Hathaway’s career hit its stride when she starred in The Princess Diaries and she recently shined as SNL host last weekend.  When you think about it these two might just make a hilarious Oscar duo, or it might all go up in flames. What’s interesting is the Franco is a likely contender for Best Actor for his work in the critically acclaimed film 127 Hours and Hathaway has a shot at a Best Actress nom for Love and Other Drugs.  It’ll be fun to see how they handle that situation if it arises.

The Oscars air February 27, 2011 on ABC.

[Via Deadline]