pencil crayon jewelry

Maria Christina Bellucci’s colored pencil jewelry is awesome!

from designboom

Motif Cubes

I like wood, I like games, I like colors, I like clever.
Motif Cubes – what’s not to like here?

via swissmiss

Big Rabbit’s Bad Mood

Okay – enough of inventions developed for a messy world.

This book looks super awesome.

nuff said.

via swissmiss

NASA’s Chemical Sniffing Iphone app

What’s with all the good inventions lately? Either now is just a really productive time for good ideas or they are always happening and I don’t pay attention (most likely).

In any case this is another cool one and could be groundbreaking. NASA put together this prototype chemical sensor that can detect small amounts of chemicals like methane, ammonia, and chlorine gas. It uses a silicon chip that has 16 nanosensors and can transmit any data on detected chemicals through the iphone’s networking capabilities.

This innovation was developed in part by Jing Li, a NASA physical scientist, as part of the US Dept of Homeland Security’s Cell-All program. She has developed “nose” technology in several arenas, but this one might be the most wide-ranging.

via Inhabitat

Fun Theory Award

Now this is a great concept for finding ways to change people’s behavior. The “not-fun” theory goes says that people are too lazy to do what is in their best interest. But the fun theory posits that a person will do something that is good for them if they will have more fun doing it. Such as turning a bottle recycling machine into an arcade game. Or this public staircase that was outfitted to play music like the keys of a piano – watch the neighboring escalator get lonely!

Got any ideas?  Submit by December 15! (and win €2500!)

Bomb Proof Wallpaper

Who says the military is all bad? Berry Plastics worked together with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to develop this mesh wallpaper which can withstand bombs, wrecking balls and presumably much more.

Good news for military bases, but is probably too expensive in your standard war-torn country, though….

via Inhabitat

Bokode – the next Barcode?

There are just a few technologies for tracking object-tagged items: Barcode and RFID are at the top of the list. Each has its strengths & weaknesses but the biggest problem is that they can only be scanned at close range. (Note that some long-distance RFID solutions exist such as those used for car toll systems like EZ-Pass but these are expensive and require large, self-powered tags)

Some new work coming out of MIT’s Media Lab may change this. Called Bokode, the system uses the Bokeh optical effect which maps how rays entering an out-of-focus camera lens will converge onto the camera’s sensor.

To see the details, you’ll have to watch the attached video, but in essense the “tag” consists of an LED with an encoded optical pattern and a small cheap lens. An out-of-focus camera will see the data on the tag’s pattern, whether it is a digital code, an image, text or whatever. What’s more, the camera can also determine the angle of the object by doing some tricky optical calculations (which I don’t understand yet).

The tech is still in the development stage, but there is a development WIKI to exchange information among those interested in working more with it. Give it a read – looks like really fun stuff!

LED Dress

This is a really nice wearable LED dress designed & prototyped by Cutecircuit in the UK. Really impressive work. According to Ecouterre there are 24,000 LEDs that each measure 2×2 millimeters. Add 4 layers of silk and a few thousand Swarovski crystals and you’ve got something really gorgeous. If you want to see it in person, it is on permanant display at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago.

via Inhabitat

New Bacteria to find Land Mines

According to Edinburgh University scientists, a new strain of bacteria (produced using a technique called BioBricking) can be sprayed onto local affected areas or air dropped over entire fields of mines. Within a few hours the bacteria strain begins to glow green wherever traces of explosive chemicals are present.

Pretty amazing.

BBC via Inhabitat

New York map cut

Love these hand-cut maps by Charlotte, NC-based artist Karen O’Leary’s Studio K.

If you look closely you can see the person holding the map from behind – Wilsonbuilt’s studio is about where their right eyebrow is…