Sharp Thinking

Recenty Sharpie has released an ad campaign that has allowed passers-by a chance to very publicly take part in an act of “vandalism”. These interactive billboards allow a viewer to pick colors and leave their mark all over cities’ ads, sort of taking the opinion: “Its going to happen anyway, why not facilitate it.”


There are a couple reasons why something like this is/can be so successful, especially in the techno-savvy world we are living in:

One, it allows any ordinary person to feed their inner-desire to vandalize. Honestly, we all know it feels great to do something risky and get away with it. It’s human nature.

Secondly, and more smartly, Sharpie has caught on to this “touch-screen” lifestyle everyone is starting to live. With iPhones and Blackberrys offering the Internet and so many other apps literally at the consumers’ fingertips, touch screens and interactivity have become commonplace. Therefore the interface / framework is more familiar to the average viewer and usability becomes almost natural.

This expands Sharpie’s audience as well as changing advertising and guerrilla type campaigns for competitors, both in the permanent marker business as well as those just competing for the attention of the daily commuter on the city streets.

Source: the cool hunter
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Sony Hana-Akari Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Sony's Hana-Akari (HANAAKARI) lamp prototype uses dye-sensitized solar cells to turn light into energy. Big breakthrough is not only dye-sensitized cells are cheaper than conventional solar cells, they can also be dyed in different colors and shades.
Sony expects to develop the lamp further so it can also power other small devices attached to it. If you take a look at the image above, you can see a small fan connected to a panel to demonstrate this ability. Slated for a 2009 release, SONY has announced that they have ‘big plans’ for the technology.

Source:http://www.gizmodo.com/

http://www.goodcleantech.com/

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“Never Get Wet” Wonder of Nanotech Fabric

Researchers from the University of Zurich have developed a new fabric that never gets wet. The fabric can be submerged in water for two months and still remain dry to the touch. The secret to this incredible water resistance is the layer of silicone nanofilaments, which are highly chemically hydrophobic. The spiky structure of the 40-nanometre-wide filaments strengthens that effect, to create a coating that prevents water droplets from soaking through the coating to the polyester fibres underneath.
A similar combination of water-repelling substances and tiny nanostructures is responsible for many natural examples of extreme water resistance, such as the surface of Lotus leaves.
Not only could the fabric create a self-cleaning clothing; according to preliminary experiments, it reduces drag in water by 20%. (hint Michael Phelps)

Source:
www.gizmodo.com
www.newscientist.com

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ILoveSketch..

ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo.

Can this be the next evolution in 3d software? Developed by lads at the University of Toronto. As described by them: “A 3D curve sketching system that captures some of the affordances of pen and paper for professional designers, allowing them to iterate directly on concept 3D curve models. The system coherently integrates existing techniques of sketch-based interaction with a number of novel and enhanced features. Novel contributions of the system include automatic view rotation to improve curve sketchability, an axis widget for sketch surface selection, and implicitly inferred changes between sketching techniques. We also improve on a number of existing ideas such as a virtual sketchbook, simplified 2D and 3D view navigation, multi-stroke NURBS curve creation, and a cohesive gesture vocabulary.”Click the above video to see the most user intuitive way of skeching in 3d.
http://www.ilovesketch.com/

www.dgp.toronto.edu/~shbae

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