Sketchpad: Browser-based sketching

Probably best known for his Heatwave radiator produced by Droog, Dutch designer Joris Laarman opened his first solo show in the US last night at Friedman Benda. Titled ‘Joris Laarman Lab’, the show spans work from the last 5 years and has enough mirror-polished surfaces to rival Ron Arad’s ‘Guarded Thoughts’ shown in the same gallery just over a year ago.

Laarman’s beautifully engineered furniture is displayed on stainless tables with cad-like grid patterns etched into them, set against life sized sketches and notes scrawled directly onto the walls. A swooping trail of over sized paper planes reaches out like a massive tentacle leading visitors through a world of mathematics, mad science and tech-noir perfection.

Highlights amongst the work included; ‘Leaf Table’, a resin table top with an embedded steel vein pattern, ‘Asimov Chair’ a fully functional futuristic rapid-prototyping concept, and an impressive 5.6 meter high glass and concrete tower ‘In Case of a Thousand Books’.

Click through for more photos of the work and the opening.

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I do a lot of walking, mostly because of little Betsy here and her adopted brother. I aim for two to three hours a day of urban perambulation, which has destroyed not only my schedule but also my sneakers; I go through running shoes like nobody’s business.

I was still willing to live with this current pair even after I wore most of the treads off, but now that the sole has cracked in the middle and worn off completely at the heel (leading the little Nike Shox absorbers to make an annoying clicking sound), it’s time for a replacement. In a few minutes I’m headed out to the 21 Mercer store to see if I can snag a pair of these, which are only being sold for one day:

But what to do with the old pair? I donate all of my old clothes to the Salvation Army, but kicks that aren’t any good to me aren’t gonna be good for a homeless person either, as they probably walk as much if not more than I do. And I don’t just wanna throw ‘em out.

Following up a web tip, I learned that Nike recycles sneakers, and not just some of the sneaker: They separate each one into three parts–the fabric upper, the foam in the midsole, and the rubber from the outsoles–and turn that into a whole new material that they call Nike Grind.

* Nike Grind Rubber, made from the shoe’s outsole, is used in track surfaces, interlocking gym flooring tiles, playground surfacing and even new Nike products…. It’s also used in trim items like buttons and zipper pulls.

* Nike Grind Foam, made from the shoe’s midsole, is used as a cushion for outdoor basketball and tennis courts, as well as futsal (indoor soccer) fields.

* Nike Grind Fiber, made from the shoe’s fabric upper, is used in the creation of cushioning pads for facilities like indoor synthetic courts and wood courts.

This video shows the process in action in Tempe, Arizona:

Learn more about the process here.

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Phil Terrone writes in with a great weekend project:

Hardware hacker “Ladyada” has released an open source retro arcade style table tennis for two clock called the MONOCHRON. According to MONCHRON project page they “wanted to make a clock that was ultra-hackable, from adding a separate battery-backed RTC to designing the enclosure so you could program the clock once its assembled.” It includes a ATmega328 processor (with’Arduino’ stk500 bootloader for easy hacking). It’s completely open source hardware, all firmware, layout and CAD files are yours to mess with.

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Unsurprisingly, the capacitive-touch interface will be jumping, like a virus, from computing devices to home appliances. To that end Samsung has teamed up with California-based Synaptics to incorporate the latter company’s capacitive touch controls into the former company’s new Hauzen Zero air conditioner.

If you’ve never heard of Synaptics before, here’s a look at some of their touch interfaces, demo’d here on a cell phone:

LG Arena KM900 with ClearPad from Synaptics, Inc. on Vimeo.

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In-wall USB charging is here–well, almost–with the Truepower U-Socket, which is currently awaiting UL Approval and should be available within months. The $19.95 socket can be self-installed if you’ve got a little know-how; an installation video will be “available shortly” so you can decide if you’re up to it or not.

One thing I don’t understand is that the product description says

…The USB ports only draw power when something is physically connected to the port. We didn’t want a vampire port that continually sucks and wastes power when not in use so this was one of the features on the top of our priority list during the design phase.

Isn’t that true of regular plugs as well, that they only draw power if something is connected to it? I have a hard time believing that even my plugless outlets are leaking power. Please let me know in the comments if I’m misinformed.

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Whoa–if you thought those “Photoshop before/after” websites were eye-opening, wait until you see Stargate Studios’ demo reel, which shows you just how pervasive green-screened video effects are in the things we watch:

via boing boing

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Who knew? The Vancouver 2010 Olympic medals, designed by Omer Arbel and Corrine Hunt, were cast from metals recovered from discarded computer motherboards! Check it out:

via motherboard tv and fast company

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Unlike Sports Illustrated’s poorly-presented e-magazine demo, Wired’s looks like the real deal. People have been promising us interactive magazines ever since the advent of the CD-ROM, but now it looks like we’re finally getting it: The combination of a useable tablet and Wired’s intelligently-designed layout seems prepared to deliver a truly fantastic multimedia magazine experience.

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MIT designer and researcher Marcelo Coelho, whose work focuses on “the intersection of human-computer interaction, materials science and design,” is working on something akin to RP for food. Behold his Digital Gastronomy Machines, which are like meal-manufacturing devices:

The Digital Fabricator is a personal, three-dimensional printer for food, which works by storing, precisely mixing, depositing and cooking layers of ingredients. Its cooking process starts with an array of food canisters, which refrigerate and store a user’s favorite ingredients. These are piped into a mixer and extruder head that can accurately deposit elaborate food combinations with sub-millimeter precision. While the deposition takes place, the food is heated or cooled by the Fabricator’s chamber or the heating and cooling tubes located on the printing head. This fabrication process not only allows for the creation of flavors and textures that would be completely unimaginable through other cooking techniques, but, through a touch-screen interface and web connectivity, also allows users to have ultimate control over the origin, quality, nutritional value and taste of every meal.

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The UK’s Industrial Design Consultancy has developed a new motorcycle helmet with somewhat gruesome-sounding biomimetic influences: The outer shell of the helmet mimics the action of skin stretched over a skull, which is to say, the outer layer can move and stretch across the surface of the harder inner layer upon impact. Why?

Managing director of IDC, Stephen Knowles, explains, “Traditionally, motorcycle helmets have been rigid in design. We needed to introduce a dynamic element of movement to dramatically reduce the rotational impact which often causes life-threatening injuries. On impact, the outer membrane is able to stretch and slide over the main helmet shell to prevent these dangerous rotational forces being transmitted to the head and brain.

…The revolutionary product design required careful selection of materials. A strong synthetic sits on top of the gel-like lubricant to form a protective layer across the surface of the helmet. State-of -the-art vacuum casting was used to create prototypes and the materials tested for resistance and strength. The chosen synthetic stretched up to eight times its original length.

Called the SuperSkin, the helmet may not look like much in the photo above, but the outer membrane can apparently be painted in patterns and designs as well as a regular helmet casing. Lazer Helmets will begin selling the SuperSkin this summer.

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