Carver Surf Rack’s small block rack holds your surfboard to the side of your bicycle, without getting in the way of your pedals. It utilizes an unbreakable clamping system, machined in Loveland, Colorado. For those who bike to the beach, all the rack……
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As each season brings a new booze fad or renaissance, gin remains a summer cocktail classic. Frederico Avila from the Lower East Side’s Bar Belly agrees, and has shared some of his recipes for super-fresh gin drinks this season. From his take on the……
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The virtual world is indistinguishable from reality in the devices of Finnish company Varjo, which has demonstrated a mixed-reality headset with human-eye resolution.
Varjo‘s headset delivers ultra-high-resolution graphics and video through its Bionic Display — a screen that mimics the workings of the human eye by prioritising the quality of image where the wearer is focusing.
Varjo first revealed the technology in its virtual-reality headset in late 2017 and has now demonstrated a mixed-reality add-on that the company says will be available in early 2019.
This device mixes virtual reality with a real-time cinema-quality video stream captured by cameras on the headset, allowing users to interact with both the world in front of them and the virtual world at the same time.
“We have reached a significant milestone for Varjo’s immersive computing platform where real and digital worlds become one,” said Varjo CEO and founder Urho Konttori.
“Our patented human-eye resolution hardware and software transform mixed reality from a curiosity into a revolutionary professional tool.”
The concept of mixed reality is similar to augmented reality, where virtual objects and information are overlaid on vision of the physical world. In mixed reality, those virtual objects respond to the real world and the actions of the user.
Helsinki-based Varjo was founded in 2016 and took 18 months to develop its Bionic Display prototype. The device offers a workaround for resolution problems with current VR headsets, where users see a pixelated image as the graphics are stretched across a wide field of view.
It would take an immense amount of processing power to render the whole field of view with a high enough density of pixels that the virtual world appears crystal clear to the human eye, without lagging.
Varjo sidesteps this requirement by using multiple displays. Only the area that is in the wearer’s direct line of sight has the most high-resolution display, with the headset using eye-tracking to adapt the screen configuration as the person looks up, down and side to side.
This mimics the natural workings of the human eye, where only the subject of our gaze is in focus and the peripheries are blurred. As such, users shouldn’t be disappointed by the lower-resolution display elsewhere in their field of view. Even text is readable through Varjo’s Bionic Display.
The technology is a major new tool for many professional industries, including architecture and design, where it offers the opportunity to visualise or directly design in 3D.
Varjo’s chief design officer Roope Rainisto told Dezeen that a key benefit from using the company’s technology would come from being able to communicate more clearly with clients, speeding up that part of the design process.
“Clients and stakeholders know what they want, but they’re not as good as designers in imagining from imperfect models — they need to see the work completely in order to give good feedback,” he said. “Our technology finally makes this possible.”
“With our Bionic Display technology and the performance of high-end computers you can see every nut and bolt of a model, or to view textures and surfaces in full detail and realism. It is the smallest details that are extremely important — how a given surface looks at a given date and time from a certain angle.”
Varjo’s VR headset is scheduled to launch at the end of this year, with the mixed-reality add-on coming in early 2019. The headset will compete against an increasingly crowded market of products like Oculus Rift, Microsoft HoloLens and HTC Vive.
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Royal College of Art graduate Will Fazackerley has created a range of experimental tableware designed to “spark delight and satisfy your search for edible pleasure”.
Called Nourish, the project features two products: a drinking vessel made for slurping soups and a pair of objects made for licking food.
The Design Innovations graduate wanted to design an alternative to traditional tableware – which he sees as restrictive – to promote playful ways to taste and enjoy food.
“Nourish is a pleasure-driven approach to eating interactions and the design of tableware. A series of experimental objects, designed for use at home, to encourage you to eat in ways that spark delight and satisfy your search for edible pleasure,” he said.
“We are driven to eat by two motivators: to maintain our energy balance and the anticipation of pleasure,” he continued.
“Nourish shifts this pleasure-giving from the food and onto the interactions and tools we use to eat, reducing our reliance on the food itself for comfort,” he explained.
The first item in the collection is the Slurp drinking vessel, which features a large rounded body with a small opening for liquid to be consumed.
Fazackerley based the design on research by Professor Charles Spence at the University of Oxford, which found cross-sensory experiences are most satisfying.
The product is intentionally heavy and has a has a rounded structure that does not sit flat on a table, which Fazackerley believes further encourages individuals to pick it up.
“Slurp is a drinking vessel perfect for soups, stews, ramen and teas with a focus on engaging all the senses and the giving of full and focused attention to the act of eating,” he explained.
“The large chamber with a small opening is inspired by whisky glasses and is designed to amplify the aromas within.”
“The gentle rise of steam invites you to drink, evoking feelings of warmth and cosiness, whilst the concentrated scent gives you an instant hit of satisfaction before the food touches your lips,” he continued.
Another piece in the collection is a pair of objects named Lick, which are made for foods such as mousses, ganache, risotto and ice cream. It features stone utensils with gently curved surfaces, inspired by the act of licking the plate at the end of a meal or the spoon from a mixing bowl.
“Lick is a pair of objects that work together to pursue absolute pleasure,” said Fazackerley. “Licking, whether it is your plate at the end of a meal or the spoon from a mixing bowl, is an inherently pleasurable act yet one that does not conform to western etiquette.”
“Lick is designed to actively encourage this behaviour in a particularly sensual manner – this is echoed in the organic, human-inspired form of the stone. It’s cheekily sexual by design, and suggests that pleasure must take a greater role in our approach to eating,” he explained.
“The intention is to break down the barriers of social expectation and give us permission to engage with our food in as pleasurable, delightful, and guilt-free way as possible.”
Nourish was on show at the Royal College of Art as part of their annual degree show. Other graduate projects include a set of tools that inform animals of potential human threats and a ceramic tea set made using fabric moulds.
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Artworks by Shepard Fairey, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Futura have been applied to the fibreglass shells of Modernica’s Case Study chairs.
The Californian brand’s Case Study chairs are based upon the original fibreglass design submitted by Charles and Ray Eames as an entry in The Museum of Modern Art’s International Design Competition in 1948.
Mounted on a black steel or walnut dowel base, the street artists’ custom shell designs have been launched in limited edition runs of 500 as part of a contemporary street art exhibition in LA called Beyond the Streets, which opened in May and runs until 26 August.
Fairey‘s chair, which was the first to be launched, features a monochrome collage of patterns that have become signature motifs in his work.
“My design is based on the collage foundation that can be found layered into all of my fine art, which uses a combination of patterns and motifs I’ve designed and found materials like old newspaper clippings,” Fairey told Dezeen.
“I created something that I feel finds a balance between a vision that’s uniquely mine and also a nod to what’s classically appealing in furniture design.”
He added: “I think that this design approach brings to the forefront aspects of my work that usually are more in the background and will appeal to my audience, but I think that also will appeal to an audience that’s not already familiar with my work.”
Similarly, graffiti artist ‘s custom shell features his trademark spray painted atomic pattern printed in black onto a white shell.
Futura said of his contribution: “Because I’ve never done a chair in the past, or furniture, it was about seeing what very recognisable design of mine, or pattern, could translate into this product and would look quite interesting and new.
“I wanted people to have something they could identify with me quite easily,” he added.
In collaboration with Artestar, which represents high-profile artists, photographers, designers, and creatives, the estates of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring each contributed two artworks from the American artists’ extensive portfolios.
The Beyond the Streets exhibit spans over 40,000 square feet and is comprised of paintings, photography, sculptures, and large scale installations by over 100 international graffiti and street artists.
Shepard Fairey and Futura 2000’s limited edition chairs are available from the Beyond the Streets gift shop only, while Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring’s are also available at Modernica.net.
The shells of Modernica‘s Case Study chairs are made in Los Angeles using a mixture of resin and glass fibres and pressed using the original machines and specialised equipment that were used to make the Eames’s fibreglass shells in the 1950s.
Modernica bought the press machines and equipment from US company Herman Miller – which has exclusive rights to the Eames name in the US – after it discontinued the use of fibreglass in 1989, opting instead to use recyclable polypropylene. It has since reintroduced a more sustainable fibreglass version.
Last year, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work was celebrated with an exhibtion at the Barbican. The show, called Basquiat: Boom for Real, was the first large-scale exhibition of the New York graffiti-artist-turned-painter’s work in the UK.
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Boeing has revealed a concept design for a hypersonic aircraft that could reach most locations in the world within one to three hours.
The American aerospace company showed a rendering of what the plane could look like at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Atlanta this week.
Boeing said the design was based on current research by company engineers, who are looking at passenger travel as one of many possible applications for the hypersonic technology they are developing.
Plane would fly at Mach 5
The technology would mean flying at Mach 5 (around 3,836 miles per hour). That’s much faster than the supersonic travel achieved by the Concorde, which flew at Mach 2. The speed of sound is Mach 1.
Boeing estimates that something like this concept could be operational in 20 to 30 years’ time, and would most likely be used for national security purposes first.
“We’re excited about the potential of hypersonic technology to connect the world faster than ever before,” said Kevin Bowcutt, Boeing’s senior technical fellow and chief scientist of hypersonics.
“Boeing is building upon a foundation of six decades of work designing, developing and flying experimental hypersonic vehicles, which makes us the right company to lead the effort in bringing this technology to market in the future.”
Aircraft to be built “when customers are ready”
The company clarified that it does not currently have plans to build hypersonic aircraft; rather, it is working on the enabling technology.
The research would position the company to make the aircraft “when customers and markets are ready to reap the benefits of hypersonic flight”.
“By looking decades ahead at what could be possible, we are smarter about what innovations and technologies we should be exploring now,” said a spokesperson for Boeing.
“Boeing’s expertise in designing, developing and testing game-changing concepts make us the ideal company to lead the charge for faster, more-efficient, customer-centric ways to connect the world.”
Supersonic flight returning
Boeing’s concept design features a thin, curved aircraft body that ends in a sharply pointed nose. It has a delta wing — the flat triangular silhouette familiar from Concorde planes.
Since those supersonic jets were grounded in 2003, there has been little visible progress in ultra-fast commercial air travel. That appears to be changing, with NASA putting a near-silent supersonic plane into production earlier this year and new company Boom testing its own passenger aircraft.
Virgin Galactic and SpaceX also have ambitions to adapt their rockets for earthly transportation. Elon Musk has claimed they would allow people to travel from “any city to any other city in under one hour”.
Boeing’s concept design will be on display at the Farnborough International Airshow, which is on from 16 to 22 July in the south of England.
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The latest edition of the animated movie parody series “How It Should Have Ended” humorously imagines some much more realistic alternate scenes and endings for the 2018 blockbuster Marvel superhero film, Avengers: Infinity War…(Read…)
Inspired by the act of tinkering, Naumann dismantled the R nineT in order to give his perspective a little breathing space. “I actually don’t have any fundamental inspiration. I dismantle the original parts and then come up with something starting from a blank canvas.” Called the ‘Giggerl’. The Giggerl boasts USD suspension, Modified wheel rims, Tank, panel, homemade seat bench, and hand-made exhaust. The body paint is a combination of black, grey, red, light and dark blue, all of which lend to the bike’s blatant sci-fi vibe. [ link ]..(Read…)
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