It took five years, but a reader–specifically Flickr user Tom Arthur–finally figured out the secret feature we designed into the magazine, oh very much definitely on purpose, back in 2005: It’s sized to fit perfectly inside a classic NES case. Tom is now the only reader able to equip the Soldering Iron of 1000 Truths. Congrats! [Thanks, Tom!]
Probably not all doors should offer previews, all the time, but this is undeniably wonderful. As it is, the knob offers bi-directional viewing; I wonder if you could half-silver one side and make it one-way? Johnny Strategy at Spoon & Tomago writes:
In conjunction with Design Tide Tokyo, architect Hideyuki Nakayama – a protégé of Toyo Ito -　has teamed up with UNION, a manufacturer of door handles and levers, to create a glass globe doorknob. As you approach the doorknob you catch a glimpse of what appears to be another world, waiting for you to enter and join, but in fact is a reflection of the room on the other side of the door.
[via Gizmodo]
The OpenKinect windfall keeps rolling in. The folks over at Willow Garage look like they’ve been having a blast developing an improvised teleoperation system and generally riffing on all the wonderful possibilities inspired by the Microsoft Kinect controller and OpenKinect driver.
OK, almost no moving parts. Practically no moving parts.
I never expected to be able to appreciate my cheap Wal-Mart coffee maker for anything other than its price tag Once again, Bill Hammack has managed to amaze me with some little marvel of engineering design I take for granted nearly every day. Thanks, Bill, as always. Keep ’em coming!
We’ve seen some pretty interesting touchscreen hacks over the past couple of years, but this one definitely stands out for it’s unique surface. A group of Finnish hackers from Nokia substituted the standard opaque white screen used in most rear projection touchscreens with one made of blocks of ice.
Clever concept design from Israeli designers Studio Ve: Keeps all your pushpins together in the same place, and keeps the sharp ends covered. [via NOTCOT]
I’ve got to build one of these. I usually leave out gobs of food in a couple of bowls expecting my cat to exercise his free will, but this seems like so much more fun. Usually it’s the cat that’s playing the games. And who isn’t interested in Arduino, Android, and 3D printed parts? It’s like some perverse Internet-connected feline vending machine, but instead of some elaborate scheme involving payment gateways and QR codes, it relies on toxoplasmosis-induced mind control. Who’s the robot now?
