Posted on June 23rd, 2010 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Products, versus is vs, useful technology, more, not 24 hours, education.
Honda developed the Bodyweight Support Assist device to help support bodyweight to reduce the load on the user’s legs while walking, going up and down stairs and in a semi-crouching position, such as these associates demonstrate in Honda’s Saitama Factory in Japan.
Some of you may recall our piece on Honda’s Body Support Assist prototype last year. As a quick update to that story, those of you in the New York area will get a chance to see it in person as a part of the “Why Design Now?” exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Honda’s unique device lightens the load on the user’s legs and helps maintain a center of gravity via special mechanisms developed by the company. Walking, crouching, climbing stairs - all become easier with help from Body Support Assist. Needless to say, there are plenty of use cases for such a product, not the least of which would be helping people afflicted with mobility issues or leg problems. Honda has a promo video (included below) demonstrating how the device is worn and operated.
The exhibition will feature a variety of innovations and designs intended to have a positive impact on our world, spanning the fields of engineering, energy, and conservation to name a few. If you can’t make it to New York in person, stay tuned to Cooper Hewitt’s YouTube channel for updated videos clips featuring smart design.
‘Why Design Now?’ Event Details:
The show will run from May 14, 2010 to January 9, 2011 at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum on 2 East 91st Street, Manhattan. More information is available via their website, cooperhewitt.org.
Source: Honda
REMEMBER :Honda’s prototype walking assist devices to go on show in the US
With increasing numbers of post-war baby boomers beginning to face old age, devices assisting people remain mobile as they grow older will become big business. Honda, which started out making motorcycles, has anticipated the needs of an aging population and invested heavily in mobility robotics research. The company is planning to demonstrate its prototype walking assist devices as part of a technical exhibition at the 2009 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress, at Detroit’s Cobo Center, from April 20 to 23. Prior to the Detroit event, Honda plans to put the devices through their paces for media in New York.
Posted on June 23rd, 2010 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Technology, useful technology, not 24 hours, events.
Green Air Show in Paris to take a look at some of the eco-friendly aircraft currently available, as well those which may be just on the horizon.
Although representatives from the airship contingent were out in force at the event, electrically-powered planes and paragliders also put in a strong showing, along with some rather interesting ideas for tomorrow’s oil-free aircraft.
Although the almost regal presence of a couple of interconnected Concorde passenger jets dominated the exhibition hall which played host to this year’s Green Air Show at Le Bourget’s Musée de l’Air et l’Espace in Paris, they were not the main attraction. Spread around and underneath these mighty supersonic aircraft were the display booths of altogether gentler, kinder and much quieter technologies that are already in use today or hold the promise of providing our air transport needs for tomorrow.
Amongst the exhibitors preparing for the post-oil era were representatives from aircraft manufacturers and development concerns, sport and leisure interests, aerospace researchers, new material developers, independent inventors and visionary designers. Outside the main hall, organizers hosted the world’s first zero emission air show which saw a small number of electrically-powered aircraft brave the winds and cloud cover and triumphantly take to the skies.
A full list of attendees at the second Salon de l’Aviation Verte is available online and Gizmag will be detailing some of the exhibits in subsequent posts. But for now, here’s a sample of some of the technology on offer:
The e-FunFlyer from Adventure is an 85kg fully electric paraglide trike with a 15kW electric motor powered by a 60v battery which should give the pilot a good hour or so of mid-air fun. And if the short demonstration on the airfield was anything to by, fun is definitely the operative word!
A pedal-powered silver teardrop blimp, the Zeppy 3 from Stéphane Rousson is currently being prepared for a Toulon to Calvi crossing using a “Chien de mer” and the power of the wind.
On the subject of airships, the students from Projet Sol’r also attended the event and are now busy preparing for a crossing of the English Channel.
Although the news of an upcoming solar-powered two-seater from Eric Raymond was the focus for much discussion at the show, the huge wingspan of the solar-powered Sunseeker II still held sway over the exhibit and put in an inspiring performance up in the skies too.
If an eco-friendly version of the film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines were ever to be made, then the successful blend of old and new that is the electric Demoichelle from APEV would surely have a starring role. The aircraft was on display in the main hall and made a brief appearance in the skies above Le Bourget during the zero emission air show.
Also on the airfield but doing little more than sit very still for photo opportunities, the undoubted star of the show was the four motor electric Green Cri from EADS Innovation Works and Aero Composites.
Visions of possible green futures were provided courtesy of Projet Dirisoft and Octuri.
Of course, the Musée also showcases green air transport of old too - such as this model of Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier’s balloon and various winged craft, including mock ups of famous visions from Leonardo da Vinci.
More Information:
www.aviationmuseum.eu/World/Europe/France/Paris-Le_Bourget/Musee_de_l_air.htm
Posted on May 4th, 2010 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Products, Technology, useful technology, more, not 24 hours, Screens, 3 d, education, corporative, events, media, Markets.
MIT Technology Review names 10 technologies that will change the World
Here we are in the Information Age. Never before has the flow of ideas, innovation and new technologies been so strong, so much so that it’s hard to imagine what the world will be like in 10, 20 or 50 years time. So which of today’s fledgling technologies will have a fundamental impact on the way we live our lives in the future? MIT’s Technology Review has turned its attention to this question with the release of its annual list of 10 emerging technologies and it makes thought provoking reading.
Technology Review 2010 TR10 - technologies likely to change the world
Solar fuel. Joule Biotechnologies’ Noubar Afeyan has created genetically engineered microorganisms that can turn sunlight into ethanol or diesel — a feat that could allow biofuels to compete with fossil fuels on both cost and scale. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=563
Mobile 3-D. Recent box-office hits like Avatar and Up have added to the growing popularity of 3-D movies. Julien Flack of Dynamic Digital Depth is leading the charge to take 3-D mainstream not only on TVs, but also smart phones and mobile devices, through a technology that can convert existing 2-D content to 3-D on the fly. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=559
Dual action antibodies.Genentech’s Germaine Fuh has found a promising way to fight conditions like cancer and AIDs through dual-action antibodies that give patients two drugs for the price of one, offering the promise of drugs that work better and cost less. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=560
Real-time search. Amit Singhal is leading Google’s quest to mine social networks for up-to-the-second search results that offer the same relevance and quality of traditional Web searches. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=556
Light-trapping photovoltaics. By depositing nanoparticles of silver on the surface of a thin-film cell, Kylie Catchpole of the Australian National University has found a way to boost the cells’ efficiency — an advance that could help make solar power more competitive with fossil fuels. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=558
Engineered stem cells. James Thomson of Cellular Dynamics and the University of Wisconsin has potentially revolutionized the way we screen drugs and study disease by providing a way to make — in the test tube — any kind of cell from patients with different diseases. http://www.technologyreview.com/article/25152/
Social TV. People are already trying to combine their social networks with TV, using laptops and smart phones to comment on live events like the Oscars or the Olympics. MIT’s Marie-José Montpetit is working on social TV — a way to seamlessly combine the active experience of social networks with the more passive experience of traditional TV viewing. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=564
Green concrete. The production of cement is responsible for about 5 percent of global carbon emissions. Novacem’s Nikolaos Vlasopoulos has created a cement that is a carbon “sink” rather than a source. His innovation could greatly reduce the global carbon emissions that result from cement production. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=562
Implantable electronics. Tufts University’s Fiorenzo Omenetto is developing implantable electronic devices that can be used to deliver drugs, stimulate nerves, monitor biomarkers, and more. And once they’ve done their job, they almost completely dissolve away. More info here or http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=557
Cloud programming. At the University of California, Berkeley, Joseph Hellerstein is creating better software for building cloud applications, and this could herald a new wave of applications for social media analysis, enterprise computing, or sensor networks monitoring for earthquake warning signs. http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=561
More info on each of the 2010 TR10 (and previous years) is now online and will be featured in the May/June edition of Technology Review.
Posted on April 28th, 2010 by Marcela.
Categories: new, Technology, more, not 24 hours, education, critical decisions, Markets.
The idea of tailoring architecture to the requirements of a prison is by no means new - most famously the Panopticon design by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham has been the blueprint for many prisons since the late 1800s.
A new Vertical Prison concept is not as draconian in its ambitions with its aim of rehabilitating prisoners by allowing them to remain a part of society and allow them to contribute to it, while using height as a wall to separate them from it.
The Vertical Prison was designed by Malaysian architecture students Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, and Beh Ssi Cze, and took first place in eVolo Magazine’s annual Skyscraper Competition. Their project examines the possibility of creating a prison-city in the sky, where the inmates would live in a “free” and productive community with agricultural fields, factories and recycling plants that would be operated by the offenders as a way to give back to the community and support the host city below them.
Recognizing that many prisons are nothing more than a school for criminals, the prison design aims to rehabilitate inmates by invoking a sense of community. In allowing the prison to become a part of the community and form a symbiotic relationship with the it, the designers also believe that the social stigma of a prison would be softened resulting in greater acceptance of inmates and a better chance they will be given another opportunity upon re-entering society after their incarceration.
The Vertical Prison employs a modular design to maximize flexibility. A girder box structure is used to house a variety of different units and form a communal space. Inmates are housed in Cell Units that themselves can be customized with different “loopholes” or openings appropriate to the behavior or level of danger of the inmate. Depending on its location within a city the prison could include Agricultural Units to grow food for the city, Industrial Units to help in the recycling of industrial waste or Juvenile Units to scare kids straight.
Transport to and from the prison is via various pods that travel along the frames supporting the prison. Transport Pods are the primary transport vehicle and can also be used for daily surveillance. Heavy Lift Pods serve as vertical lift transport for delivering cargo to market or to transport other pods to the ground. Armored Riot Control Pods are armed with both lethal and non-lethal weapons as well as airdrop capabilities for keeping prisoners in check. Medevac Pods are equipped with airlift capabilities and paramedic equipment, while the Fire Rescue Pod also has air lift capabilities and fire-fighting apparatus.
Given the cost of such a system, not to mention the difficulty any city would face in trying to convince nearby residents a prison with no walls above their neighborhood is a good idea, it’s probably not likely we’ll see any Vertical Prisons appearing on city skylines anytime soon. But kudos to the designers for giving some serious thought into an equally serious problem.
Recidivism rates among prisoners suggest the system – in the US at least and the many countries with similar systems – is not working. In California, which has the highest recidivism rate in the US, seven out of ten prisoners return to prison within three years. That translates to a tremendous burden on the taxpayer. So if the new prison concept was found to be successful, ideas like it might not be as expensive in the long run as they first appear.
Posted on April 23rd, 2010 by Marcela.
Categories: not 24 hours, Screens, plasma flat panel, rear projection, events.
Canon Neoreal ‘prism liquid’ by Akihisa Hirata and Kyota Takahashi
japanese artist kyota takahashi and architect akihisa hirata collaborated on ‘prism liquid’,
canon’s neoreal installation at milan design week 2010.
‘prism liquid’
image © designboom
the space is structured as a polyhedron, which glows in various prism-like colors.
the lights flicker and move just as if water was flowing, changing their shape several times.
two opposite concepts - static and dynamic, concrete and abstract, input and output -
coexist in one world. the polyhedral screens are arranged in a sprial that is connected three-dimensionally,
in which a world of new images comes to life through the colorful lights created by takahashi
which are projected onto the larger-than-life construction (almost 6 m high, 8 m wide, 40 m deep)
by akihisa hirata. the technical details behind the installation are possible through canon digital
imaging technologies. the images which are seen have been taken with a digital single lens reflex
camera and are projected in many colors, through 21 projectors on several polyhedral screens.
image © designboom
the idea behind the installation originated from the projectors themselves.
a bunch of light beams generated by these machines as the capacity to give birth to an ‘invisible’
pyramid-shaped space. the images break up into small pieces of bright color, similar to that of a puzzle,
becoming abstract visions. the pieces come together, assembled three-dimensionally, like an origami
sculpture, enhanced by the digital imaging technology and primitive color variations and dynamic
movement of the lights and images.
image © designboom
image © designboom
‘I wanted to express the idea of ‘input to output’ as simply and directly as possible.
without using any computer graphics, elaborating the images, the brightness, and the projection method,
I decided to try and extract the maximum appeal a picture can have. then I tried to express -
in a single world - concepts such as 2D / 3D, concrete / abstract, static / dynamic -
which are usually difficult to capture because of their binomial characteristics. these images begin
with horizontal wide screens found at the back of the space. the images in this section are projected
simultaneously with five single-lens reflect cameras which have animation shooting functions;
using these images I managed to create a panoramic world of extremely realistic, vivid, digital images,
just like an ‘emakimon’ (picture scrolls). then I installed the vision scroller* and created the conditions
for those visiting the booth to taste the sense of interactivity and liveliness by themselves,
by experiencing the images on their own.’ - KT
image © designboom
the light emitted by projectors is usually projected onto flat screen screens in which we experience them
as two-dimensional images. but actually, there is a cone-shaped light generated by the projector
in which the screen blocks the light and what we really see is the reflection. a single cord connects
the entire place while creating a spiral. this thick cord made by polyhedral range blends into the territory
of the three-dimensional lights generated by the projectors. the cord runs throughout the space,
changing in size. sometimes it creates a 6 m high space, and sometimes it cascades across,
stretching over the floor, almost resembling fines or other climbing plants intertwining with the lights.
image © designboom
‘I wanted to create a space which seems to play with the mass and the three-dimensionality of the light,
and to make it possible to experience an almost physical blending with light. the mass of these lights
is materialized and vivid color are generated, making one feel as if it is radiating. (…)
tangling… come to think of it, the living world is full of peaceful, emergent, intermingled forms of life.
from micro-proteins to forests where various plants and animals co-exist. the architectures and the
spaces created by people should also be able to connect to the peace of this intermingled life.
blending our own bodies with the world should generate a new reality, a new experience which is
realistic and original at the same time.’ - AH
image © designboom
image © designboom
image © designboom
* a vision scroller is a live image creation device made by kyota takahashi,
through the installation of a camcorder under an acrylic board which is used as a canvas.
when materials such as sand and feathers are placed on the board, the camcorder takes a picture
and the projectors connected to the camcorder project the image in real time. the materials can be
moved sideways by rolling the board’s transparent roll film, and the images can be rotated
and moved by installing the camcorder on a table. a new version of the vision scroller
was made specifically for this installation.
project details:
projector: XEED WUX10, XEED SX80 mark II, LV 7585
camera: EOS 7D
camcorder: LEGRIA HF S21
concept and composition: kyota takahashi, reiko kawaguchi
camera work: kohei matsumura
sound design: toru yamanaka
imaging system: LUFTZUG.corp
sound system: cabasse
