New

ziplocked flatpack chair

zipit is a unique “do it yourself” chair by viktormatic based on a kit of wood modules, cardboard seat and backrest cushions, to be easily built up and disassembled only with zip ties connections.

“A new undefined human personality needs in my mind objects that own a variable adjusting and transformable character. thereby i developed this kit based chair whose connections are fixed with adjustable zip-ties. because of these uneasy connections, this chair tends to be loose and wobbly, but this is part of “a new way of sitting” idea.”


Viktormatic’s “new way of sitting” may be read as experimental and uncomfortable, but this is an interesting idea to rethink the materials and processes used to assemble and fasten furniture/objects together. It is also great to see the aesthetic is not compromised by the concept (especially if the ergonomics are).

I also like his 15mb of fame, with a nod to Warhol via MySpace…

Inspiration you can sit on

Click on Images for links but includes Khai Liew, Flexible Love, Brikolör, Michael Brussein, and unnamed designer with a great work desk to keep the blood flowing on a cold friday in the Southern Hemisphere…..

23 ways to use a laser-cutter

Just wanted to direct Ponoko readers to a great collection of 23 incredible laser-cutting projects at the Instructables site. No matter what it is you want to do, chances are there is a laser-cut solution.

Love machines more than people? Exponentially increase your circle of friends by building these “autonomous, self-assembling robots“.

Miss your family while on summer vacation? Say hello to those back home with an etched acrylic postcard.

Want your nails to stand-out from all those other airbrushed and bejeweled fools? Get them laser-etched!

The Whittle Chair by Karen Ryan

So I imagine an overcast afternoon sitting at the kitchen table, staring idly into the middle distance when slowly the chair before you comes into focus. You get to thinking it’s ok I guess, but a little, boring. You get to thinking, what if I, you know, shave a little off here and a little off there it would be kinda nice.


Karen Ryan set her pen knife to work to produce the Whittle Chair. Customizing her kitchenchair in an afternoon while watching an old Bette Davis movie.
he whittle chairs naivety is intentional as the process is left to be intuitive and unplanned.
The original chair is made naked revealing a different physical and emotional state, one of fragility and imperfections. This is first in a series of whittle pieces.

Looking forward to seeing the next whittle piece.

all images © By Karen Ryan
via Dezeen

coactlab posted a photo:

Ever wanted to access your 3D models on your iPhone, take a photograph of your surroundings, then place the 3D model in the photo? No, well at least now the option is on the horizon.


CEO Lynn Wilson spoke at #DSDEVCON09 and previewed an interesting new app for the iPhone that starts to integrate 3D Cad into the iPhone.

3DVIA Sure it is not the most creative application but this along with iTracer is at least a foot in the iPhone 3D door. I can see it’s use as a sales tool, if you were say an interior designer visiting a clients space and you wanted to show them how a piece of furniture would look in a given setting then you could give them a visual and I assume then email it to them (or mms on 3.0). I can not really see how anyone would really want to model on the iPhone anyway as it would be kinda awkward (very) and slow..

If you want to see a video of the app in action check out this post on youtube, and if you are interested in iTracer it is now available via iTunes Store.

iTracer is a 3D modeling and rendering application for the iPhone. With it you can build full 3D scenes and render images. The rendered images can then be saved to your Photos Library for later use by other applications. The multi-touch interface allows view scaling and panning at any time with simple pinch gestures. Translate, rotate and scale objects with simple touch movements that snap to an adaptative grid. Includes a full material editor with diffuse and specular components, opacity, refraction, reflection and self illumination. Shadows are cast from multiple lights and support transparent objects. Use procedural objects like spheres and boxes for infinite precision and faster rendering. Also supports generic triangle meshes with per-vertex normals. The included modeling interface allows you to create custom 3D meshes using extrusion and revolution surfaces. A full feature 2D curve editor makes it easy to create 2D shapes and fine tune its vertices by moving, adding and deleting vertices as needed.

via 3D Perspectives and SolidSmack via Develop 3D via Google

coactlab posted a photo:

[knuckles904] was able to use the new Wii MotionPlus with an Arduino. Nintendo has released the WM+ in order to detect the motion of the controller better. The Wiimote only detects acceleration, whereas the WM+ detects rotation along 3 axes. The Arduino communicates with it over I2C, the same protocol that is used with the Nunchuk. To connect the two devices, he used jumper wires, but breakout boards are also available. He was able to create some example code with help from wiibrew.org. When paired with a Nunchuk, which contains a 3-axis accelerometer, you can have a 6 degrees-of-freedom IMU for under $40, perfect for controlling your robots or logging data.

[via adafruit]

Update: New Images From Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland! (via Tor.com)

• Karoli said: cannot wait. I will go to the theater for this one. (Those who know me know what an amazing thing it is to get me into a theater)
• Promethean said: This looks great!

Remember those awesome Fashion Surgical Masks to protect yourself against Swine Flu? Designer Irina Blok is at it again with her project entitled Funemployed. She’s still unemployed and looking for a job as an Art Director (if I was hiring Art Directors, I’d grab her in a second), so she decided to print her resume (and anyone who asks) on a t-shirt, and produce a series of awesome buttons like “Laid Off, Funemployed, Got Job? I Buy Caviar With Food Stamps– and many more after the jump for $2.00 each. All advertising her search for a job. Good luck Irina!

The electronic sensor pack of tomorrow - TODAY. The Adafruit SENSOR PACK 900 - An assortment of the most common sensors used in electronics. 9 sensors and 3 additional components to interface with the ‘analog world’. We have some tutorials here, to get you started.

Includes:

• Sharp distance sensor with cable - for sensing distance
• Force sensitive resistor - for sensing pressure/force
• Temperature sensor - for measuring from -40 to over +125 degrees C
• Thermistor - another method of sensing temperature
• Hall effect sensor - for sensing a magnet
• Magnet - for use with the hall effect
• Piezo - can be used as a buzzer or a knock sensor
• Ball tilt sensor - for sensing orientation
• Photo cell sensor - for sensing light
• IR sensor - for sensing infrared light pulsing at 38KHz
• IR LED - for use with the IR sensor

Available now in the Adafruit store.

“John Hodgman did a hilarious roast of President Barack Obama at the 2009 Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner, making fun of him being the first nerd president of the US.”

Awesome roast! Watch Hodgman’s speech above, and Obama’s after the jump.

via laughingsquid

Photo credit goes to lightlanebike

Back in January we ran a post on a design concept called the Light Lane, which creates a lane of light behind you wherever you ride.  Back then it was just a concept created for a design competition to promote bicycle commuting.  The concept didn’t win the competition, however due to overwhelming response a working prototype has been built to show just how useful it can be to cyclists.  According to lightlanebike:

A proof-of-concept prototype was built to determine the technical feasibility of the idea.  Preliminary contextual research shows its performance in real world situations is best when lighting conditions are at their worst, improving safety in the most critical situations.

See video below of the prototype in action!

The Light Lane clips onto your whip right below the saddle, runs off of rechargeable batteries, and uses high visibility lasers to create the ‘lane’.  

Design credit goes to lightlanebike

For more information on the Light Lane, visit lightlanebike.com

Light Lane Update

Kinda related posts

• Bike Lane Wherever You Go (5)
• Portland, OR Gets Separated Bike Lanes (7)
• Five Solutions To Fight Bicycle Theft (0)
• Cateye Light for . . . Just About Anything (4)
• Bike Rush Hour in Portland, OR (2)

Wintercheck Factory is a new company that aims to remain an independent entity while keeping the price of their products relatively affordable. In order to do this, they've decided to forego traditional retail outlets and explore alternative methods like roaming showrooms, selling from truck beds and online retail. The furniture comes flat-packed for shipping, but manages to avoid the folded/notched/perforated look that's become so popular, opting for colorful volumes and skinny legs instead.

The site also includes cute videos of product prototyping, manufacturing and use. Very nice -- we're looking forward to seeing more from these guys!

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Chameleon: Changes! from OdysseyBMX.com on Vimeo.