Valentines Day Cards from Patent Illustrations
Steve Hoefner takes a different approach to Valentines Day cards: For a maker Valentine’s Day is no Halloween. Or even Christmas. In fact on the list of holidays makers get excited over Valentine’s Day is near last, right between Leif Erikson Day and Flag day. And while those are all fine traditions, bu they rarely...
Peepoo
This is the coolest product I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a very inexpensive plastic bag that is basically a disposable toilet. Here’s the genius part: Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces....
How to Harvest Heat in a Home
Six sources of heat you probably didn’t know you had can help with your electric bill and maybe even help you burn less wood (if you’re fortunate enough to have a wood-burning stove). Step 3 is clever: Run your dishwasher during the early evening (rather than after everyone has gone to bed). Some heat will...
Scientists Make Fuel from CO2 Emissions and Sunlight
Scientists Make Fuel from CO2 Emissions and Sunlight : Gas 2.0. The device is called the Counter-Rotating-Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator or the CR5 for short. I think we’ll stick to that shorter title for now. This method of forced-photosynthesis was initially designed for creating cheap abundant hydrogen fuel. “In the short term we see this as...
Frustration Free Packaging Certification from Amazon
A year ago Amazon announced Frustration Free Packaging; no more impossible-to-open-without-slicing-your-hand-open blister packs or pain-in-the-ass steel wire ties. Now they’re stepping it up with a certification, encouraging manufacturers to follow suit. Amen to that, Amazon.
First Augmented Reality App on iPhone: Yelp!
I’ve been avoiding iPhone deliberately. It’s just too easy. However, with all of the talk of augmented reality lately, I had to post this: EASTER EGG: Yelp Is the iPhone’s First Augmented Reality App.
Nearest Tube – Augmented Reality for iPhone
It was only a matter of time before augmented reality apps started showing up on the iTunes app store. Nearest Tube from acrossair displays information on London Tube station locations over a live view from the camera. Check out the video:
Realtime Data Overlay
Augmented reality is old news in academic circles, but a new application called Layar may well the tipping point, bringing really useful information to the mobile-device-carrying masses. The app uses a mobile device’s built-in camera, magentometer, GPS, and data connection to determine where the user is at and what they are looking at. Then it...
Lego: The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection
Yet another for the I-wish-they-made-this-when-I-was-a-kid: {img: CNET}
Spherical Robot
Inventor/Mechanical genius Greg Schroll’s take on an all-terrain robot – put the robot inside of a big ball:
Design Business Review
If you’re a designer you need be checking out the Design Business Review. Designers are in the business of doing business; their clients rely on them to make smart, market-savvy decisions and yet there is no resource to provide the necessary knowledge to make these decisions wisely. DBR is simple, pragmatic advice on the business...
