A wheelchair from two bikes

http://www.intelligentmobility.org/

sqare foot gardening

The words "square foot garden" have earned buzzworthy status. Lately, we've been hearing them everywhere, and are thinking of putting the idea into practice at our apartment.
Square foot gardening, invented by Mel Bartholomew (of Austin!), is a highly efficient gardening method that produces a bigger harvest than conventional row or container gardening. Instead of traditional raised beds, square foot gardening utilizes a 4x4-foot box divided with a grid system. Because of the grid system, and the idea of planting a specific number of plants in each grid (to create a smaller grid), the risk of overcrowding is null. Tom Stilson

Embrio One-Wheel Concept

There are actually quite a few one wheeled motorcycle concepts, but this one was particularly interesting to me...

"This hydrogen fuel cell powered, gyroscopically balanced, one-wheeled recreational and commuting vehicle provides an extraordinary vision of the kind of personal transport we could be using 20 years from now.

The design brief for Bombadier EMBRIO Concept was to "create highly innovative, functional and exciting products to exceed people's recreational needs" and find the "next thing" in recreational vehicles. The result is a futuristic and minimalistic one-wheeler that is as about far away as you can get from the conventional image of a uni-cycle - a mode of transport normally associated with circuses and street parades.

Balancing Act

The riding position will be similar to a motorcycle with a complex series of sensors and gyroscopes balancing passengers on the single wheel. The rider activates a trigger on the left handlebar to accelerate and turns are made by shifting body-weight rather than actually steering.

When the EMBRIO concept is at rest in "stand-by configuration", the front wheels deploy to the ground like landing gear on a plane to increase longitudinal stability. The landing gear retracts when the vehicle speed reaches 20 km/h but even without the landing gear, the EMBRIO would be stable when motionless because of the gyroscope.

The EMBRIO concept's main power source is a hydrogen fuel cell and additional advanced technologies including a high-performance braking system, active suspension, night vision, a digitally encoded key and robotic assistance would be incorporated into the design.

The Concept is constructed from lightweight materials including Polypropylene, Santoprene, nylon (injection moulding), aluminum (stamping, die casting and robotic assembly), magnesium (casting) and the use of fuel cell technology and recycling of aluminum and polyethylene is designed to make the Bombardier EMBRIO an eco-friendly design throughout its life cycle.

The Bombardier EMBRIO concept is one of several concepts proposed by Canadian based Bombardier Recreational Products and it received the Gold Award at the 2003 Annual Design Awards (Industrial Design Society of America & Business Week Magazine).

Dimensions and weight

48.75" x 27.5" x 47.5" 360 lb

124 cm x 70 cm x 120 cm 164 kg

Content Links

www.recreation.bombardier.com

Bombadier Recreational Products site"

Posted by: Barry Dunn

Denver Auto Show

Denver Auto Show
Date: April 1 - 5
Admission: $10

more info.
http://www.paragonexpo.com/399.html

Urban Jungle Car

Auto Design
Urban Jungle Car
Markus Speck, in collaboration with BMW Group, Munich
The Urban Jungle Car is an entirely new vehicle concept, which was designed as an answer to the new requirements of modern and future mobility, where a car will be more than simply a car. For this reason, the proposed concept does not reflect an automobile in the classical sense, but rather presents itself as a crossover between a city coupe and a sidecar.


Emerson Archer

WheelchairX

BETTER THAN WHEELS
"Better Than Wheels" ponders potential wheelchair alternatives on the horizon and beyond. These ponderances are not limited to alternative devices that could replace wheelchairs, but may also include selected topics relevant to curative objectives.

Kanagawa Institute of Technology's Wearable Power Assist Suit, Cyberdyne's HAL, and Berkeley Robotics Laboratory's BLEEX have already demonstrated that a powered exoskeleton is a feasible, future possibility for some otherwise wheelchair-bound people.

There are few other designs on this page, take a look.

Emerson Archer

Forget implants: the breast enlarging ringtone

Should I believe this? -_-

"So Hideto Tomabechi, one of the guys who helped deprogram members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan, has started selling a ringtone that he says will make your breasts grow larger just by listening to it, something which should make it very popular with the ladies (guys, you're gonna want to carry some earplugs just in case). Fortunately there are customer testimonials in case you were worried about this thing being legit or not, and Tomabechi says it's really simple, that he just uses sounds that "make the brain and body move unconsciously. It's a technique involving subliminal effects," that's like "positive brainwashing." If getting all busty through a ringtone isn't your bag, he also ringtones on the way that'll improve your memory, make you more attractive to the opposite sex, cure baldness, and help you give up smoking. Ringtones, man, ringtones."

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/24/forget-implants-the-breast-enlarging-ringtone/
By: Ted Shin
mp3 source: http://www.noiseaddicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/breast-enlargement-ringtone.mp3

Toyota Winglet

Japanese motor company Toyota introduced a new indoor Segway, "Winglet".

Posted by Ted

Cajun Crawler

Crawling Segway...Cool!! :)
It is also based on Dynamic Stabilization, but cooler.

Posted by Ted

gizmag

October 25, 2005 Toyota debuted its i-swing mobility concept at the Tokyo Show today, arousing massive public interest. Toyota's i-swing is a new personal mobility vehicle in the same vein as the personal mobility models (such as the PM , i-unit and I-foot ) Toyota has exhibited previously but one that takes the concept several steps further, with the capability of operating in a similar manner to the Segway in two wheeled mode at walking pace on a footpath so it takes up little space, or transform to a three-wheeled mode for road speeds. In addition to the joystick control, the i-swing can be controlled by body weight movements with a feeling reportedly like turning as if on snow skis. The i-swing concept proposes using Artificial Intelligence to enable it to learn the habits and preferences of users.

Emerson

3-Wheeler

Tri, Tri Again for Aptera 3-Wheeler Loan From Feds

Aptera Motors is building an electric car that goes 100 miles on a charge, draws power from an ordinary electrical outlet, and should be in driveways by the end of the year. But the federal government won't consider lending the California startup any money to build the car for one reason.

It has three wheels.

Rep. Brian Bilbray wants to change that. The California congressman is pushing legislation that would give Aptera and other companies making three-wheelers a shot at billions in federal loans to encourage the development of electric cars. The "Innovative Vehicle Act" would expand the loan program's definition of a car to include vehicles with three wheels.

"I'm trying to get rid of antiquated regulations that stand in the way of innovation," Bilbray (R-California) told Wired.com. "We should not only allow this kind of innovation, we should encourage it."

The issue goes to the question of what constitutes an automobile as the Department of Energy prepares to hand out $25 billion to hasten the production of EVs and other high-efficiency automobiles. The Big Three and startups like Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive are among the 75 companies lined up for a piece of the pie, but Aptera's application was tossed aside because its funky electric car, the 2e, doesn't have four wheels.

"It offers a lot more room than a [Mazda] Miata and crash protection better than some small cars, but because of an arbitrary designation made ages ago by some bureaucrat, it's not considered a car," Bilbray said.

"It's an arbitrary exclusion," agreed Daryl Siry, a green-tech analyst with Peppercom. "There's no reason a three-wheeler should be subjected to de facto exclusion."

Return of the 3 wheeler!!!!

-Branden

Powersaving "Powerhog"

The powerhog meters wattage used by a device and shows children exactly how much power they are using in clear, terms they can relate to. Tom Stilson

Geekologie

May 7 2007 EnergyPod makes napping futuristic
MORE: chairs , furniture , gadgets , luxury

If you don't mind looking like a total idiot at work, the EnergyPod is a great little place to do your napping. There's a visor to keep out external sound and keep in internal ones, such as snoring or loud screaming or whatever other sounds you might make in your sleep. There's also an built-in sound system which plays music loaded on an internal memory card. It costs about $8,000, so you'll have to decide for yourself just how important having a chair shaped like a spaceship is to you. Personally, I'm okay napping on the floor. Or on the subway. Or on the floor of the subway. It's all good, baby.

Skim throught there are some pretty cool ideas and designs,

Emerson Archer

Dyson Airblade

This design is a few years old, but i saw it in San Francisco a few weeks ago and had never seen it before: new to me. . . .

"James Dyson, billionaire inventor of expensive vacuum cleaners, has time on his hands to worry about bathroom bacteria, so he created the Dyson Airblade, a supercharged hand dryer that pumps room-temperature air through a tiny slot at 400mph. Dyson claims the device uses a "windshield-wiper" effect, drying both hands in 10 seconds. Since it doesn't use any hot air, he says it uses 83% less energy. Must be noisy, though. To go on sale in the UK next month, Dyson's reverse vacuum cleaner for hand drying will cost 549 (around $1027), and will also be available for lease.
This might be a great device for those of us who really don't want to touch anything in a public bathroom, and don't much like standing around for 30 seconds at a noisy hot air blower waiting for the hands to dry. – Charlie White"

Posted by: Barry Dunn

Gallium Nitride LED

Cambridge University researchers have developed a $3 LED-based lightbulb that is 12 times more efficient than regular tungsten light bulbs, three times more than low energy ones. It lights up instantly, lasting for 100,000 hours,
The cheap lightbulb could cost the energy bill in any house by as much as three quarters. In fact, if everyone replaced their current light bulbs, the proportion of lighting in electricity consumption would go down from 20 to 5 percent worldwide.
They also avoid using any toxic materials, like lead: The new LEDs use gallium nitride, which until now was too expensive to obtain because it had to be grown on sapphire wafers, which brought the cost of the lightbulbs to $28 each.
The new method, developed by Cambridge University-based Centre for Gallium Nitride, uses silicon wafers, bringing the cost down to $3 each. And if you think this is a thing of the future, think again: Prototypes are already being produced and the light bulbs may reach the market in a mere two years. [Daily Mail]

Posted by: Barry Dunn

Bunny shorts

This is really off topic but I thought they were really funny. 30 second reenactments of movies.

Emerson

Cargo Scooter

I dont know why but Scooters interest me lately. This one is neat because you can actually take things with you.

Regards,
Kevin

Home Chare

For the disabled person, or the person who’s name is Homer Simpson, certain solutions for everyday living are lacking. In a home that has stairs and a bed (most homes have these!), the wheelchair, patient lifter, uppers, downers, go-arounders, are just not enough on their own. Mr. Christen Halter just may have a combo machine for the win.
Mr. Christen Halter, designer of the Home Chare, shares the following:
The Home Chare enables three different adjustment positions – lying, sitting and standing. In lying position it is adjusted to the same level as a sick bed. The attendant pulls the lying patient on to the Home Chare. The device is then adjusted in to sitting position which replaces a wheelchair. The attendant doesn’t have to lift up the patient.
Affordable? Probably not until they become standardized, at which point it’s going to be a whole lot easier for disabled folks, (or whoever else feels the need!,) to get around the house and whatnot.
Complete self-reliance for people who once needed assistance to simply get out of bed!
How possible?
Designer: Christen Halter

posted by Caitlin

A "New Wood Species" Arrived

Accoya Wood considers itself a "new wood species" with properties that match those of the best tropical hardwoods, yet it eliminates the need for logging in our precious rainforests.

How? Accoya is able to process soft, fast-growing pine into long lasting durable wood with a non-toxic treatment. Their technology is based on wood acetylation that reduces the ability of the wood to adsorb water is greatly reduced, rendering the wood more dimensionally stable and, because it is no longer digestible, extremely durable.

Designer Michael Jantzen is already a big fan and used Accoya's wood to realize this M-Velope (photo), an interactive structure that can be turned into various spaces. With durable wood like this surely more fans and designs will follow!

-Branden

Robots Tend a Garden

On the long run, the robot should execute the following task in response to the status of the plants:

-watering

-weeding

-estimating plant status (number of fruits, maturity, size)

-cleaning (removing dead leaves)

During the class of 2008, the students achieved autonomous navigation to pots, inverse kinematics for watering and approaching known fruit locations, visual servoing to red fruits, recognition of green and red fruit using boosting, and networking between plants and robots using wireless mesh networks.

Posted by Tom Stilson

20 tips to survive the recession!

Yankdesign.com has posted 20 tips for designers to survive the recession. Since all of us are in school we aren't really wondering how to protect our design job, yet!!! But he wrote about some good interviewing and portfolio tips to help you land a job!! 

Check it out at:

http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/03/03/20-tips-to-beat-the-recession/

Rachel Kennedy

The rowchair is a compact rowing wheelchair, designed to climb steep hills on rough terrain, and to cover large distances with minimal effort, yet to be easily manoeuvered indoors. The chair as pictured here was designed and built by Steve Langton, a musical instrument maker from Queensland Australia. Further refinements have since been made by an MIT team consisting of Steve together with Joel Sadler and Rae Langton.

Close up of the drive mechanism. Ratcheting bicycle freewheels prevent rollback when taking the Rowchair up steep hills. Since this picture was taken a netural gear has been added, actuated by depressing the main levers. This disengages the drive mechanism, and so converts the rowchair into what is in effect a standard wheelchair that can be wheeled forwards or backwards, allowing easy manoeuverability in confined spaces.

Posted by: Ian Swoboda