Hasta La Ideas The Adventures of Star Wars Figurines in Nature Archives

Sep 28

Ford’s New Door Protector System

Posted in: Uncategorized

Several times I’ve driven Mini Coopers through ZipCar, and one feature that takes getting used to is the “whoosh-click” noise that happens a millisecond after you close the door. That rather unique noise belongs to a BMW engineering feature whereby once the door is completely closed, the window shoots up a fraction of an inch and into the rubber seal, firmly sealing the cabin to minimize wind noise. The second you pull the door handle open, of course, the window scoots back down, slightly and imperceptibly, so the door can be opened without incident.

Ford has devised a door mechanism that is similar in action, if quite different in purpose. Their new Door Protector System features a protective rubber flap that pops out of the edge of the door when it’s opened, providing protection should you run the end of the door into something; once you pull the door closed it automatically retracts.

I love this idea, as will anyone that’s ever owned a car that’s been dinged up in a parking lot. The rub is that the system protects the cars around you from dings—but who’s going to protect your car? In any case, if you have the opportunity to park next to a new Ford Focus starting in January 2012, do it. That’s the first model that will get DPS, so you can be assured you’ll return to find your car ding-free, at least on the Focus side.

(more…)

Sep 28

Autodesk Cloud is Here

Posted in: Uncategorized

Autodesk is not new to the cloud concept—their Buzzsaw software-as-a-service has been hooked up for over a decade—and on Tuesday they announced Autodesk Cloud, officially bringing together over a dozen web-based capabilities that customers can now use to interact with their documents via web browser or mobile device. Customers can also share their designs with anyone through the cloud, even those who aren’t running Autodesk software.

Subscribers stand to gain the most, as Autodesk Cloud will throw in 3GB of storage and a bunch of exclusive services for them:

Designers, engineers and digital artists [will now have access to] sophisticated new capabilities, such as high-performance 3D visual communication, simulation and collaboration that were once limited to organizations with privileged access to expensive, high-end supercomputing centers.
These exclusive services include:
– Autodesk Cloud rendering. Customers with an Autodesk Subscription to the Premium or Ultimate editions of Autodesk Design Suite or Autodesk Building Design Suite will have access to powerful rendering capabilities, helping them better visualize designs, increase the number of renderings they can create and reduce hardware investments.
– Autodesk Inventor optimization. Customers with Subscription to the Premium or Ultimate editions of Autodesk Product Design Suites will gain an intuitive cloud-based simulation tool, enabling them to test multiple design options in the cloud, and to create more sustainable designs and higher-quality products while reducing material, transportation and energy costs.
– Autodesk Revit Conceptual Energy Analysis. Customers with Subscription to Autodesk Revit Architecture or Autodesk Revit MEP software, or select suites containing these products, can extend design beyond the desktop with powerful cloud-based energy analysis capabilities, helping them to quickly gain insight into the energy consumption and building energy costs of early design concepts from within the design application.
– Autodesk Green Building Studio web-based energy analysis software. Customers with Subscription to Autodesk Building Design Suite and other select products have access to this cloud-based service that can help designers, architects, engineers and building energy analysts perform faster, more accurate energy analysis of multiple building design iterations, optimize energy efficiency and work toward carbon neutrality earlier in the design process.
– Autodesk Buzzsaw software as a service (SaaS). Customers with Subscription to Autodesk Vault Collaboration AEC software now have access to cloud-based document, data and design management solutions for architecture, engineering and construction firms and owner-operators, helping them centralize and securely exchange project information and enhance team collaboration.

Lamborghini Aventador Supercar

Posted in: Aventador, supercar

Après la présentation en images, voici une nouvelle série de photographie mettant en scène le modèle de la Lamborghini Aventador Supercar et de la Lamborghini Murcielago. Un travail du photographe Jordan Shiraki présentant la puissance et les allures aérodynamique des véhicules.

Previously on Fubiz

Sep 27

NYPD: Solving the Impossible

Posted in: Uncategorized

A really fascinating video from 60 Minutes on the NYPD’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau is making the blog rounds today. As fascinated as I am by all the Orwellian or futuristic technologies—including the supercomputer that can track suspicious packages—I’m more interested by the NYPD’s attempts to solve what is seemingly an impossible problem: how to protect the 8 million citizens of New York City from any kind of terrorist attack.

Obviously there is some very serious systems thinking going on here, tackling the problem both as a unified whole and as miniature systems within the bigger picture. For instance, there are very different approaches to a nuclear threat (the segment on handheld and boat radiological detectors) and to a threat from recent immigrants (the segment on the cricket league). Each threat could potentially murder many New Yorkers, yet instead of going after the issue of a potential terrorist attack with one approach, many diverse ones are employed instead. And, for once, the “security theater” actually seems to be effectively deployed as opposed to anything the TSA has come up with—just ask Bruce Schneier.

Watch the video and let us know what you think!

(more…)

Sep 23

Inside GM’s Rapid Prototyping Labs

Posted in: Uncategorized

These videos are about twice as long as they need to be in terms of conveying the relevant data, but these looks inside General Motors’ Rapid Prototyping Labs are worth a gander. Anyone who’s worked in an ID firm where you had to e-mail the CADs out to the modelshop and sit on your hands for two days can’t help but feel envious at seeing their onsite stereolithography and selective laser sintering machines.

The editors have blurred out some of what’s on the designers’ monitors and some of the larger physical parts, as GM has apparently worked out a proprietary method for joining RP parts together, like when they need to produce something too big for the machine and have to bang it out in sections. Still, you at least get a good look at the process:

(more…)

Sep 23

Tech Firm to Build Real-Life Sim City for Infrastructure Testing

Posted in: Uncategorized

An international technology development firm called Pegasus Global Holdings has announced they’ll build an entire city, which may occupy up to 20 square miles in the New Mexico desert, that will have everything a city does—except actual people living there. It will be known as The Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation, and will be constructed purely to conduct infrastructure experiments that would be too disruptive to pull off in an actual city.

The Center will resemble a mid-sized American city, including urban canyons, suburban neighborhoods, rural communities and distant localities. It will offer the only of its kind opportunity to replicate the real-world challenges of upgrading existing city infrastructure to that of a 21st Century smart city, operating within a green economy.
…The Center will allow private companies, not for profits, educational institutions and government agencies to test in a unique facility with real world infrastructure, allowing them to better understand the cost and potential limitations of new technologies prior to introduction.”

(more…)

Sep 22

Blumen Light

Posted in: blumen, eco

Voici la collection Blumen qui propose des luminaires alliant nature et sobriété. Un design épuré à partir de matières premières naturelles et exemptes de produits chimiques. Une fabrication des lampes à la main, en série limitée. Plus d’images dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

Sep 21

C-Loop Camera Strap Mount

Posted in: Uncategorized

A simple solution to convert any camera strap in to an over-the-shoulder, quick-draw carrier

CustomSLR’s C-Loop camera mount converts a traditional neck strap into an over-the-shoulder sling for greater freedom of movement. The unobtrusive swivel design reduces tangling and is compatible with almost any camera strap, a great attachment for any photographer on the go.

To keep the C-Loop both lightweight and strong, it is precision machined from aerospace grade aluminum. This process allows for smooth rounded edges ensuring minimal wear and tear on your favorite strap. The neoprene bottom washer creates a near perfect seal when securing to the camera, a crucial touch for added peace of mind while your camera swings freely when not in use.

Although the C-Loop isn’t the first of its kind—Black Rapid and Sun Sniper both make a similar fully integrated mount and strap solution—it offers a simple sling solution to work with any strap you like. The C-Loop sells for $40 online through Custom SLR.

Sep 20

Slow Tech

Posted in: digitalmedia

Designer Hugo Eccles unveils four smart ways to ensure social downtime in a London Design Week group show

While many designers are working hard to develop new applications that would foster more streamlined social networking, the group behind the London exhibit Slow Tech are intelligently conceptualizing how to take time off. Created by Wallpaper Magazine editor Henrietta Thompson and Protein, the group show “encourages people to take time off from their little shiny screens,” explains participant Hugo Eccles.

Working with designer Afshin Mehin, Eccles’ eponymous design office created four concepts that “jam the communication channels.” Starting with a friendly egg timer-styled device, Eccles explains the Social Timer is “the kind of thing your mum would use.” Intentionally using iconic forms throughout the project to help illustrate the point, Eccles and Mehin envisioned the Social Timer as a tabletop object that would disable a particular type of communication for a shorter amount of time, such as a family dinner. The timers also have Facebook and Twitter symbols on the top like salt and pepper shakers, as a subtle reminder of their purpose.

Functioning as an activist, the Social Bomb forces everyone to take a break by covertly cutting off all forms of technology. The bomb works best in places like the cinema, a wedding or other group setting where the social addict refuses to be polite by shutting off their device.

According to Eccles, the “most representative” concept the duo developed is the wall-mounted Social Thermostat. The variable device could be used in different rooms in the house, allowing the living room to be more socially warm while the bedroom stays socially cold. LED lights along the top of the unit display the room’s social temperature.

The Social Sentinel is undoubtedly a favorite among bosses. The device’s intensity is pre-set before it is mounted on a ceiling, keeping employees from tampering with it. A “watchful eye” lets people know when it is active, cutting them off from Twitter or Facebook during office hours.

The four Hugoeccles®designoffice concepts are on view along with the products from nine other designers, including Héctor Serrano, Samuel Wilkinson and Nic Roope, during London Design Week. Check them out at the Kiwi & Pom-designed Protein pop-up space 18 Hewett Street.

Sep 20

Citroen Taranis

Posted in: peter norris, taranis

Une superbe proposition de concept-car intitulé “Citroën Taranis”, par le designer Peter Norris. Un véhicule 2 places futuriste propulsé par des moteurs électriques, situés dans chaque roue. Ce véhicule non conventionnel est prévu pour une utilisation dans le rallye Paris-Dakar.