In seeking to create a lighter and more puncture-resistant inner tube, bicycle tire company Schwalbe ditched butyl rubber, the go-to material. The company's material scientists discovered that TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) was not only lighter in weight than rubber, but offere … | Continue reading
Here's the Quickdraw Pro, a tape measure with a built-in mark-maker: As my eyes age, the main thing I prize in a tape measure is legibility of the tick marks. Beyond that I've begrudgingly accepted that modern tape measures are disposable, with the tapes prone to damage, or me | Continue reading
In 1973, Dutch filmmaker Samuel Meijering was reportedly "distracted while working on a film script by the clutter on his desk" and started sketching an object to hold errant items. We assume he was inspired by canvas tool rolls. He subsequently created mockups of his design in c … | Continue reading
At design school we used a hot wire to cut blue foam. Since then I've seen a lot of different ways to cut foam, but I'd never seen this one before. It appears to be a dual-wire CNC rig: If any of you can read the | Continue reading
This looks to be their most technologically-sophisticated vehicle to date | Continue reading
A Halloween-time "candy chute" has existed in New York City for years. Generous second-story resident Chris Baier, who presumably didn't want to prop the front door of the building open for safety reasons, nor have to buzz each kid in, installed this PVC rig in 2016: Same thing i … | Continue reading
For DIY'ers, threaded rod can be cut to length with a cheap hacksaw. A jigsaw, bandsaw or reciprocating saw will work too, if you don't mind the sparks. But the problem with all of these approaches is that you must thread the nut on first, as the saw damages the | Continue reading
The world waits with bated breath for November. I mean yeah, there's like some kind of political thing that month, but that's also when Sony's vaunted PlayStation 5 will be released. If you're lucky enough to get your hands on one, you're not supposed to take it apart. "Disassemb … | Continue reading
Ironically, they were beat by the Heat while seated with heat | Continue reading
The National Archive of Holland has a Flickr account, and one of the albums documents dozens of antique inventions from around the world. These run the gamut from ingenious to pretty nutty. Using bicycle tubes as swimming aids, Germany, 1925. A monowheel motorcycle that could rep … | Continue reading
This is a "holographic" display made of fan blades: Each blade contains hundreds of LEDs: Here's an explanation of how it works: And here's a demonstration model from HyperVSN, one of the larger players in the space, with each individual fan costing upwards of $3,000: | Continue reading
I feel for the product designers here. Imagine busting your ass on a project for months or years, and then it finally gets to market amidst a pandemic that obliterates the need for said object. I'm talking about Samsung's AirDresser, a dry cleaning machine designed for home use. … | Continue reading
It almost looks fun, until the tanks start rolling across it | Continue reading
Compression resin transfer molding means we'll start seeing carbon fiber in ordinary passenger cars | Continue reading
As amusement parks go, Japan's Yomiuriland was already concerned with the economy, even before the pandemic; the park features four "Good Job Attractions" that celebrate prominent Japanese industries (Car Factory, Food Factory, Fashion Factory and Stationery Factory). At the Car … | Continue reading
Why is this shaped like this? Let's talk about two things that used to not go together: Japan and butter. Like other East Asian cultures, butter was never a part of the traditional Japanese diet, and was actually treated with disgust when introduced by Europeans in the 19th centu … | Continue reading
The virtual design festival will feature over 500 "3D Viewing Rooms" | Continue reading
Why is this shaped like this? Let's talk about two things that used to not go together: Japan and butter. Like other East Asian cultures, butter was never a part of the traditional Japanese diet, and was actually treated with disgust when introduced by Europeans in the 19th centu … | Continue reading
If we weren't in the middle of a pandemic, I'd decry this product; but now it's easy to see why the Infinity Game Table is the latest Kickstarter smash. The Infinity is essentially table with an HD touchscreen for the tabletop. Developers Arcade1up have licensed a slew of | Continue reading
As amusement parks go, Japan's Yomiuriland was already concerned with the economy, even before the pandemic; the park features four "Good Job Attractions" that celebrate prominent Japanese industries (Car Factory, Food Factory, Fashion Factory and Stationery Factory). At the Car … | Continue reading
Maine-based Howe and Howe Technologies is a self-described fabricator of extreme vehicles; they're the folks behind that Ripsaw Super Tank thing you've seen in Mad Max: Fury Road or one of the Fast & Furious flicks. As it turns out, the Ripsaw's two little brothers with a more cl … | Continue reading
Netherlands-based Jennifer Townley is one of those both-sides-of-the-brain artists who is fascinated by science, specifically physics, engineering and math. Coupled with an interest in mechanical workings, this has spurred her to create some mesmerizing kinetic sculptures: Geomet … | Continue reading
The Imagination Factory's Sampling Blade is a clever piece of kit | Continue reading
What's in the back of your average graphic design studio? Books of those Pantone swatches--bor-ring. But go into the back room of any ID consultancy and you'll see one of these: For you ID students that haven't seen one yet, those aren't sets of game cartridges, but plastic | Continue reading
Here's a bit of subversive marketing: The forthcoming "John Bronco," a mockumentary covering the all-American (and completely fictitious) cowboy and race driver after whom Ford's iconic SUV was supposedly named. Some have said that if you were famous before the internet, you migh … | Continue reading
I'm currently building a Murphy Bed from a DIY hardware kit. This is the third I've built but the first in an enclosed cabinet, and all of the plywood pieces mean there's a lot of finishing required. I absolutely hate applying finish. For years MixWax's Fast-Drying Polyurethane h … | Continue reading
Pairs of the UltraBOOST DNA Loop will be given out for free | Continue reading
Up today: Carhartt work boots, and the insides ain't pretty | Continue reading
Razy2's Nano-Handel was designed for street commerce, but it has further potential | Continue reading
Their Integralis system has been added to a variety of their fixtures | Continue reading
Their Integralis system has been added to their line of light fixtures | Continue reading
Sold out at Home Depot, they're now going for $1,500 on eBay | Continue reading
Meetings likely fall into 1 of 3 categories—here's how to optimize them according to the goal | Continue reading
"I've always been fascinated by unusual clocks," writes Craig Colvin over at Hackaday. Colvin, no stranger to fabrication, has come up with a doozy of his won, called the Refrigerator Magnet Clock. Take a look: Alas, this wouldn't work if it was actually inside your refrigerator, … | Continue reading
I'm glad I don't have to regularly disassemble electronic components; it looks like a tedious task. But if you do, whether for work or hobby, here's a tool for you. The SS-02 Solder Sucker is made by Japan's Engineer Inc., the same company behind those wicked Neji-saurus screw ex … | Continue reading
"Neuroscience has demonstrated sleep is crucial for memory consolidation, creative insight generation, learning, emotion regulation and more," a research team at MIT Media Lab wrote a couple of years ago. "Yet there exist no reliable technological interfaces to sleep." With that … | Continue reading
Good product design can be seen in the transitions of an object, that is, the way the designer handles the areas where different surfaces or materials meet. This is particularly true when you've got hard surfaces meeting soft surfaces; look closely at office chairs, car seats or … | Continue reading
I wish I could see the original post to verify it and/or get better images, but it's locked up in a private group. In any case, this fellow that I'm guessing is from Portugal or Brazil had this post of his shared on Reddit: | Continue reading
Einride is a company based in Sweden, and last year they rolled this white vehicle out onto public roads for testing, drawing lots of eyeballs: That's the Pod, Einride's electric, fully autonomous delivery van. "Designed for the majority of freight applications," the Pod is ready … | Continue reading
A great work-from-home gig, responding to the idea of working from home | Continue reading
SAE International, a/k/a the Society of Automotive Engineers, has set the six standard levels of autonomous driving that auto manufacturers are meant to adhere to. And it's kind of a mess, as you'll see below. | Continue reading
A great work-from-home gig, responding to the idea of working from home | Continue reading
The Beogram 4000c Recreated Limited Edition was created by refurbishing old models | Continue reading
After observing that most Japanese households don't have the space to accommodate a domestic robot, the Toyota Research Institute came up with a novel solution: Why not station the robot overhead? Their resultant creation: "…a 'gantry robot' that would descend from an overhead fr … | Continue reading
Back when injection molding was the only game in town, model kits were produced within lattices called sprues, in reference to the runners of an injection mold. Producing a single mold that contained all of the parts was faster and more cost-effective than having individual molds … | Continue reading
The graphics wizards at NVIDIA have figured out how we can all have high image quality videoconferences even with crappy bandwidth. The standard method of videoconferencing uses a camera capturing pixels that must be transmitted over the connection. For every second we speak on c … | Continue reading
"A perfect 4D student has a sense of dissatisfaction with what I might call the 'formula of life'—someone who says there must be more." | Continue reading
"A perfect 4D student has sense of dissatisfaction with what I might call the 'formula of life'—someone who says there must be more." | Continue reading