Bionic Fingers

One of the best things about the advancement of technology is the advantages it provides to disabilities. These motorized fingers look to be one of those great benefits in the making. The company Touch Bionics has developed these – called “Prodigits”. Seems to be the first time an aid has been developed to replace individual fingers. I don’t know the first thing about how the control systems would need to work but these little fingers look very cleverly designed.

Paper Battery

Stanford University researcher Yi Cui has developed a battery that is made by depositing an ink containing carbon nanotubes & silver nanowires on paper. He has previously done battery research using plastics but recently he’s found that the chemicals adhere much better to paper. The resulting battery or supercapacitor can then be folded, bent, rolled, and still work through about 40,000 charge cycles – twice the effectiveness of your standard Lithium Ion batteries.

via designboom

Roger Arquer Birdland

Silly but nice all the same. These conceptual birdhouses are by Roger Arquer Studio.

via designboom

Vincent Fournier Space Photos

Saw these pics by Vincent Fournier when I was checking out the Las Vegas photographs on Iconology. They appear to be of Russian astronaut training facilities and they’re gorgeous. There’s more – of astronauts in forbidding landscapes here. Vincent’s website is here.

Neon Boneyard

Where do all the Las Vegas signs go? Here.

via notcot

Mars Rovers

Mars Sunset taken by Spirit Rover

I just have to acknowledge the amazing job that the Mars Exploration Rover project has done. Launched January 25, 2004, the Opportunity rover has operated for 2332 days – over 20 times its planned 90 day lifespan. It is still operating and sending back photos & data. Even the Spirit rover (launched June 3, 2003) which has been stuck in soft soil since May 2009 is still operational.

It’s hard enough to make things work on this planet – hats off to the design team!

Sugru Silicon Modelling Putty

I always like to have some epoxy putty on hand. It’s easy to use, hardens quickly and can be machined easily. It’s an awesome thing to have on hand. Unfortunately, it only comes in one color (gray) and you have to mix it by kneading two parts together. Unless you’re wearing rubber gloves this will leave a stinky residue on your hands which can get all over other parts if you are not careful.

Now it seems there is another option:

Sugru is a new product that is the lovechild of Play-Doh and epoxy putty. It is supposed to air-set and be dishwasher safe. Who & where it comes from is best taken from their website:

This is Jane. She’s from Ireland and she’s lovely. Jane was studying product design at when she had an idea: “I don’t want to buy new stuff all the time. I want to hack the stuff I already have so it works better for me.” So she phoned some clever materials scientists called Ian and Steve and together they invented an interesting new material for hacking things better. It’s called sugru and is a little bit brilliant.

If this stuff is as good as they say it is it could be a game changer (I wondered if it might be useful in aid packages to poor countries – how great to be able to fix your broken water bucket and not have to buy a new one!)

I haven’t tried it yet but I will let you know once I get my hands on some.

via wired

Xavier Lust Bench

Nicely done. The new Gun Metal bench by Belgian Xavier Lust creates strength with gentle bends in the surfaces.

via designboom

Happy Saturday

Even working on the weekends is rewarding with a view like this.

Wood Sports Car from Japan

hand-crafted in Japan to achieve speed! If you can read Japanese check it out here.

via designboom