These light-up three inch heels come from the mind of Nicholas Kirkwood, made for design team Rodarte. They were shown off at this year’s NY Fashion Week. Whenever tech is embedded into fashion, that’s always a good thing, no? Addtional shots in the gallery below, and a video of the heels in action after the break.
[Via Gizmodo; FashioningTech]
The Porsche 918 Spyder Concept is the most handsome hybrid vehicle I have ever laid my eyes on. Set to replace the aging Carrera GT, the 918 Spyder Concept is powered by a 3.4-liter V-8 engine and a hybrid drive system that can crank out 500-horses (9200 rpm) while maintaining a 78-mpg efficiency. Surprisingly the hybrid system does not affect this car’s superspeed; it can go 0-62 in 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 198mph. It’s being previewed at this year’s Geneva Motor Show and likely won’t hit the production lines until a year or two. Style and speed with an interior painted bright green. Now that’s what I call good economical sense. Can’t wait to see the price tag, though.
[Via MotorAuthority; Engadget]
Sketch-a-move is a concept for a toy car that allows you to explore the unique relationships between small surface doodles and actual physical movements. If you draw a circle on the top of the toy car, it will move in a circle. If you draw a complicated spiral, the car will move in a spiral.
This is so friggin’ neat! Toys of the future…maybe?
[Via Vimeo]
This epic chandelier of the ages is designed by expert glass artisan Robert Kaindl. And it should come with a warning: Do not stand directly underneath the chandelier unless you want to die. But don’t you love the design?
[Via Design-Milk; Gizmodo]
The Nissyoku lamp is inspired by the solar eclipse. It’s powered by hybrid capacitors that allow it to keep glowing without maintenence for up to ten years. What makes this LED lamp so neat is that it can take on different shapes thanks to rotating panels fixed with magnets. It’s designed to be either suspended from a ceiling or placed on a surface to illuminate a room. It reminds me of the Sony Rolly. Check out the gallery below for alternative shapes.
[Via igendesign; TheDesignBlog; Gizmodo]
“This Too Shall Pass” is the second single off OK Go’s third studio album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. And the music video for it is INSANE. The entire video was shot in one take and it features the most intricate Rube Goldberg sequence you will ever see. You know what the Rube Goldberg sequence is–you just never heard the name before. Named for an inventor of the same name, the word “Rube Goldberg” is an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means. In the case of this video, an OK Go band member drives a toy truck into a line of dominos (at the beginning) to result in the four band members getting sprayed in the face by paint (at the end). A simple action reaches a reaction through a complex process. Get it? Now watch this video a couple times and try to fathom how truly insane it is.
So how’d they manage to do it? OK Go teamed up with creative engineers Synn Labs and built the elaborate contraption in a warehouse in LA. It took a 55-60 person team about a month and a half to construct, with much attention to detail. Though the video was shot with a single camera in one unbroken continuous shot, it took over two days to shoot because they couldn’t get it to work perfectly until about 60 shots had failed. They brought the concept of ‘trial and error’ to a whole new level. And it was important for OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash that this whole thing be done without computer manipulation: “Computers can do any of this. But the whole point is that we’re doing it, like it’s homemade, it’s real things knocking into each other and falling over. It’s a celebration of actual root level physics. Screw computers.” Interested in more behind-the-scenes scoop? There’s a bunch of videos waiting after the break…
[Via Wired]
500 tiny compasses + rare earth magnets + a glass tabletop = coaster magic.
Instructables shows you step-by-step how it’s made, if you’re so inclined.
[Via Instructables; Gizmodo]
From Japanese company Minebea comes Cool Leaf, a mirrored, highly reflective, and button-less design made for various input devices. Following in the footsteps of the Cleankeys keyboard, the Cool Leaf keyboard features a completely flat surface, making the process of cleaning and dusting it too easy. A special film is incorporated on top of the input surface and recognizes your fingers when you go to press its “non-physical”buttons. Back lights are also there to help guide the touch experience. Minebea plans on bring the technology to market sometime in future, when these designs belong! Check out the gallery below to see Cool Leaf resting atop a remote control and a calculator.
[Via CrunchGear; Engadget]
The Sleeved Blanket by Andrea Ayala Closa.
Why, you ask? Because it’s really, really annoying to have cold arms when reading in bed.
[Via Happiness in bed; Likecool]
Curious Displays, designed by Julia Yu Tsao, is a way-off-into-the-future conceptual idea. Like way into the future. Basically, hundreds of tiny blocks scatter your surroundings and bunch together to form various things. For example, the blocks can come together to form a screen of sorts to watch a movie, or they can collectively shape into an arrow and point to the location of your missing keys. Tsao describes the project as such:
The project explores our relationship with devices and technology by examining the multi-dimensionality of communication and the complexity of social behavior and interaction. In its essence, the project functions as a piece of design fiction, considering the fluctuating nature of our present engagement with media technology and providing futurist imaginings of other ways of being. ..
Curious Displays is a product proposal for a new platform for display technology. Instead of a fixed form factor screen, the display surface is instead broken up into hundreds of ½ inch display blocks. Each block operates independently as a self-contained unit, and has full mobility, allowing movement across any physical surface. The blocks operate independently of one another, but are aware of the position and role relative to the rest of the system. With this awareness, the blocks are able to coordinate with the other blocks to reconfigure their positioning to form larger display surfaces and forms depending on purpose and function. In this way, the blocks become a physical embodiment of digital media, and act as a vehicle for the physical manifestation of what typically exists only in the virtual space of the screen.
It’s all a little too far out there for my tastes, but an interesting topic to undertake nonetheless.
[Via CuriousDisplays; Vimeo; BoingBoing; Gizmodo]
