Designed by Stephane Pietroiusti, the Captiva Lamp can be used as an ambient lamp or a focused light for working. You just need to adjust the flexible neck to create a focused light, or point it upwards into the shade to diffuse the light. It is a cool concept that will hopefully hit the light of production.
[Yanko]
Not too long ago we reported about Michal Bonikowski’s Facebook smartphone concepts, and it looks like he’s been busy working on some new designs. While the previous phones looked a lot like HTC phones, these new designs look a lot more original, featuring some unique touches that make the phone stand out from the current crop of phones available right now. These phones will probably never be turned into real products, but it’s always interesting to see what people can come up with when they think of a “Facebook phone”. Hit the source link for more renders of the phone. What do you think of the design? Are you a fan?
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If you’re looking for ways to generate electricity using your water taps, Ryan Jongwoo Choi has got the answer for you. Called the ES Pipe Waterwheel, it is essentially a mini turbine that harnesses hydropower from regular water taps and converts it into energy for lighting up specially designed light bulbs. It is an intended solution for places with access to water but no electricity though I see it more as an emergency light source for places that frequently run into blackouts. I’m not sure how efficient this waterwheel is in practice, but it is a pretty cool, and environmental friendly idea. Let’s just hope that people don’t purposely leave their taps running for the sake of having free lights. Watch the video demonstration above.
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A few months ago we wrote about Microsoft’s high-performance touchscreen technology which managed to reduce the delay that users experience when using a touchscreen. While we got to see an impressive demonstration video, it wasn’t really explained how the technology worked. For those of you who are curious, you’re in luck. In a recently surfaced patent application that Microsoft filed for its technology, the details behind how it works have been revealed.
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Thanks to researchers at the University of Calgary, you no longer have to be ashamed of your gigantic thumbs. In fact, their Fat Thumb smartphone interface takes advantage of your opposable digit’s monstrous dimensions to let you fully interact with your device with just one hand. More »
Land-based tower wind turbines are pretty much the gold standard of wind power today. But the engineers from NASA are working on an ingenious alternative – airborne wind-power systems. NASA is focusing on two aspects of the technology – one is the set of turbines built into the kite, which generates electricity, and the other is the ground-based generator that is tethered to the kite and is powered by the kite’s reeling motion as it catches the wind. (more…)
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A group of researchers from the Light Technology Institute of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology will be working on a four-year project that aims to develop printable organic solar cells that are 10 percent more efficient. The researchers, headed by Dr. Alexander Colsmann, will reportedly use tandem architecture, which involves stacking up together two solar cells with complementary absorption characteristics to achieve better sunlight harvesting capabilities and more efficient energy conversion. (more…)
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If you’re tired of dragging your entire patio set into storage when the warm weather disappears come the fall, you’ll love this cleverly engineered piece of furniture that combines a chair, a lounger, and even a table, into a single piece. More »
When I was working on a prototype for an electronics project many years ago in college, I remember wishing that a kind of a stretchable wire had already been invented. Well, after many years, it looks like the technology is finally here. Researchers at the McCormick School of Engineering together with a team of U.S. scientists were able to develop a technology that will allow electronics to stretch nearly four times its size and length. How? The team reportedly created a highly porous three-dimensional structure using a polymer material that can stretch to three times its original size. Then, they placed a liquid metal called EGaIn inside the pores which allows electricity to flow consistently even when the material is excessively stretched.
“By combining a liquid metal in a porous polymer, we achieved 200 percent stretchability in a material that does not suffer from stretch. Once you achieve that technology, any electronic can behave like a rubber band,” environmental engineering and mechanical engineering professor Yonggang Huang said. Huang’s paper entitled “Three-dimensional Nanonetworks for Giant Stretchability in Dielectrics and Conductors” was recently published via Nature Communications last month. Right now, the challenge is the loss of conductivity in the stretchable electronics. Researchers are hoping that the technology will be applied to medical devices sometime in the future.
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If you’re tired of lining up in the office kitchen during lunchtime when it comes to using the microwave to heating up your food, the My Lunchbox could be a solution to the problem. Unfortunately not available at retailers yet, this concept device is a stylish-looking portable food warmer. Powered by either a USB port or wall socket, the My Lunchbox can let you heat up your food at your office desk. In addition to heating up your food, you can detach your food container from the warmer to turn it into a lunchbox which you can use to bring your food with you from home to the office in style. No word on when or if this product will ever become a reality, but we’re pretty sure some of you are hoping it does. Find out more at Yanko Design.
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