Cool Hunting
CDs and DVDs not only look alike, but also feel alike. Imagine not being able to see the words "CD" or "DVD" printed on the disc. How would you know what it was? You wouldn't! To help blind consumers, Japan's Mitsubishi Kagaku Media has released CD-R with braille on the disc's surface. Each CD holds 700MB of data, and they are packaged 10 discs to a box. To create the braille characters, two layers of Mitsubishi Kagaku-developed high viscosity ink were used. The discs are also covered in a special gloss to make them more tactile. Japan in general shows great consideration towards its blind citizens, going as far as to place special paths with raised bumps on sidewalks and train platforms for them to use as a guide and to outfit crosswalks with beeping noises to indicate when it is safe to cross. Just another example.
by Brian Ashcraft
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Do you like to leave your current favorite CDs out for easy playback and quick visual reference? The Disc Hub lets you have a more controlled mess and less damage to your discs by gently holding them in neoprene lined slots. Alex de Rouvray designed this handy hub while still a student at Stanford-- now he's manufacturing and selling them. He even got a...
Branislav Kropilak's portrayals of modern technology and industry are far too alluring to be considered dystopian. And yet, if one were to seek a literary correlate to his photography, one might readily find the work of J.G. Ballard a suitable mirror. Achingly beautiful and hauntingly perfect in their composition, Kropilak's digital depictions of airplane landings, lobbies, parking garages, billboards, and factories question the psychological...
by Passa ChattraTake a cursory look at BigDog and you might think you're watching an agile, newly-discovered species of deer. On closer inspection, you'll realize the animal is in fact a robot that mimics the movement of several animals both real and imaginary. Designed by the engineers at Boston Dynamics and funded by DARPA, BigDog can carry loads up to 340 pounds over rough...
Pulse is a live visualization project by Berlin-based artist Markus Kison. It's based around a shapeshifting, heart-like object that reacts to the emotions expressed by the authors of private weblogs on blogger.com. A program aggregates words in blogs' text and scans for synonyms that correlate with the emotional concepts in Robert Plutchik's three-dimensional circumplex model describing the psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. The more one...
After using Sharp's combination air purifier/humidifier, the Plasmacluster, for a couple months now, we're fans (no pun intended). While it's a little on the larger side for a tiny Manhattan apartment, with a true HEPA filter, a state-of-the-art ionization system and some choice extra features, we think it's worth it.Using technology that automatically senses the air quality and adjusts fans, humidification and the degree...
One problem that comes with the internet's high level of data fluidity is how to keep your most private information private. Black Box Innovations attempts to ameliorate the issue with the Tâke Personal Pocket Safe. What appears to be an average flash drive is loaded with unique software to help organize all of your personal records. It includes fields for everything from your credit...
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