Hasta La Ideas

Carl is a man in his fifties, who’s trying to lead a normal life in an unusual situation with ..(Read…)

If you equate cosmic superhero power with the right-now technology of Bluetooth, designer Hsu Wei-Che has the bike lock for you. Made specifically for short-term parking, this lock attaches to the spokes of your bicycle when you’re going to head into a convenience store (or whatever other short trip you’re on) and notifies you of movement via a fabulous green sensor ring. The power is yours!

Hsu Wei-Che wants to alleviate you of some of the stress that comes with worrying about your bike by making the process of locking it up not just easy, but entertaining as well. This product also works as a lamp when you’re not just using it for security, and the sensor ring you’ll be using will make you the belle of the ball at your local 7-11.

Designer: Hsu Wei-Che

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(Green Lantern channeled for bicycle security was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Locksit – Bicycle Security by Jack Godfrey Wood
2. When Riding A Bicycle Just Isn’t Green Enough
3. Rundle Lantern

Silly really is the best way to describe this adorable timepiece by designer Mathilde Ampe! The clever SoH (Second of Happiness) watch has two separate axis for hours and minutes that resemble a couple of googly eyes. The face was designed to be easily interchangeable, allowing users to personalize the look of their watch. As time ticks by, the expression changes from cross-eyed, to bored, to mischievous. Wear it long enough and you’ll soon associate the time of day with the looks your watch is giving you!

Designer: Mathilde Ampe

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Yanko Design Store – We are about more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the YD Store!
(Googly Eyed Watch was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Watch What You Do
2. Up and Up Watch
3. Should We Watch Out Or Not?

It’s been a minute since we saw the last badass compressed air-powered motorcycle, so seeing as digital designer / 3D modeler Pierrick Huart finally got around to uploading the Saline Airstream to his Coroflot portfolio this past September, it’s worth revisiting even a year and a half after its debut.

Back in March 2011, Technologic Vehicles reported that Huart was a member of one of seven teams of students from the International School of Design (ISD) in Valciennes, France, who submitted projects to a speedy brief from “Les Triplettes de Bonneville.” (As such, we’d be remiss not to credit fellow team members Vincent Montreuil, Julien Clément, Thomas Duhamel and Benedict Ponton.) Described as “crazy French DIYers,” the triplets selected the Saline Airstream design, when features an Alu-Magnesium chassis by Daniel Heurton and weighs in at only 102kg (224 lbs).

Meanwhile, Wes Siler of Hell for Leather explains the technology behind the engine far better than I could ever hope to:

Pneumatic engines using compressed air as their power source aren’t new. If you’ve used an impact wrench or other pneumatic workshop tool, then you’ve used a compressed air engine. The technology enjoys particular interest in France, where Victor Tatin conceived an airplane powered by it all the way back in 1879. That’s where Les Triplettes des Bonneville, the team that will run the Airstream and the makers of its engine come from.

The company making the engine is MDI, which is pushing the technology in low-speed, urban vehicles. Like electricity, compressed air is zero emissions (well, technically it’s emitting air…), but unlike electricity, fill ups don’t take hours. You can fill a compressed air tank from a compressor or storage unit in the same time it takes to fill up with gasoline. The downside is that power output and therefore performance are so far somewhat limited, something Les Triplettes are trying to address.

The function of a pneumatic piston engine of the kind employed here is incredibly simple. Air is stored in the Airstream’s three tanks at 3,626psi and fed into the engine at 363psi, where it expands, pushing the piston down. That pistons’s return path exhausts the air through a valve, just like in your gasoline-powered motorcycle.

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“I like owning a little bit of the media. Podcasting, blogging, Twitter, and now Just Sayin. The most important thing for me has always been artistic freedom. Some people say I’m a control freak. I can never argue with them. Art is no place for democracy. One of my favorite sayings is, “A camel is a horse designed by committee.” I told Karl [Pilkington] this and he said, ‘I’d ask the committee which one of them came up with the hump.’ Haha.”

-Comedian Ricky Gervais, in an interview with Cyndi Stivers that appears in the November/December issue of the Columbia Journalism Review

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