Hasta La Ideas

News: designer Janne Kyttanen has created a range of 3D-printed shoes for women that can be made at home overnight to be worn the next day.

Kyttanen, creative director at printing giant 3D Systems, has created four different styles of wedge shoes that can be made using 3D Systems’ CubeX printer.

Consumers can download the free digital files for the shoes, select the size they require and print them in a colour of their choice.

The project is intended to attract new audiences to 3D printing, which has tended to be dominated by products aimed at men.

“I don’t know what it is with women and shoes, but I like it,” said Kyttanen, in a press release straight out of Mad Men. “I would like it even better if my girlfriend could wear a different pair every single day. Today this is a reality. Women can print this first collection of shoes overnight and wake up every morning to a new pair.”

Each shoe takes upwards of six or seven hours to print, meaning a pair could be produced overnight, assuming two shoes could be printed simultaneously on one printer.

The digital files contain data for sizes 35 to 40 and customers can choose between the Macedonia style, which is riddled with holes, the Facet style, Leaf style and plain vanilla Classic style. Further size and customisation options will be added in future.

Kyttanen, founder of Amsterdam design studio Freedom of Creation and a pioneer of designing for 3D printers, told Dezeen last year that his goal was to create products that consumers could print at home as an alternative to going shopping. “Why go buy something when you could just make your own things?” he said.

“Janne is taking the convenience of online shopping to a whole new level,” says 3D Systems. “There is no longer a need to spend hours in department stores looking for the perfect shoes to match that party dress. And if you want to get in the fashion design game yourself Janne has created the Class Shoes as a basic file you can add your own style to.”

Kyttanen is also working on 3D printed food. “Food is the next frontier,” he told us earlier this year. “One day we will be able to 3D-print a hamburger.”

Read more about 3D printing in our Print Shift magazine.

The post Cubify launches free-to-download shoes
you can “print overnight” appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the UK government wants to ban drivers from using Google’s augmented reality eyewear ahead of the 2014 release, amid safety concerns.

According to a report published by Stuff magazine, the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) is concerned that wearing Google’s Glass headset whilst driving would be a dangerous distraction.

The government department responsible for the British transport system told the gadget magazine that it has taken pre-emptive steps to ban drivers from using the device.

“We are aware of the impending rollout of Google Glass and are in discussion with the Police to ensure that individuals do not use this technology while driving,” a DfT spokesperson told the magazine.

Should the law be approved, drivers caught using the glasses – which allow users to send and receive messages, take pictures and search the web hands-free – could incur a £60 fixed penalty notice and three points on their driver’s license, the same as for using a mobile phone.

“It is important that drivers give their full attention to the road when they are behind the wheel,” the Department of Transport spokesperson said. “A range of offences and penalties already exist to tackle those drivers who do not pay proper attention to the road including careless driving, which will become a fixed penalty offence later this year.”

The UK government banned drivers from using hand-held mobile phones in 2003, and has convicted millions of people since it was introduced.

Earlier this year, Google unveiled a video preview of what it will be like to wear the voice-controlled headset.

See all our stories about Google »
See more wearable technology features »
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The post UK Government set to ban Google Glass
for drivers appeared first on Dezeen.

The Feeling Mouse, designed specifically for the hearing impaired, appeals to the user’s tactile senses to emphasize the all-important “click” that’s crucial in operating the device. When the user presses down on the mouse, raised bumps slightly protrude through designated holes where the user’s fingers rest to signal the “click.” It’s a simple solution, but incredibly useful for those missing out on this subtle queue.

Designer: Si Hun Lee

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Feel the Click was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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News: a research team in Zürich has created a flock of helicopter robots that can detect each others’ positions and join together to create a larger flying machine.

The Distributed Flight Array (DFA) has been developed by a team of researchers at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC) at ETH Zürich university in Switzerland.

Each robot has a 3D-printed hexagonal plastic chassis with magnets fixed to the sides of the frame and a single propeller fitted in the middle.

Independently, the honeycomb-shaped robots fly in an erratic and uncontrolled way. However, the robots are able to detect each other, link to form a bigger craft and then fly in a controlled manner as a single unit. The task of keeping the multi-propeller system in flight is distributed across the network of vehicles.

Each independent module exchanges information with the others and uses sensors to determine how much thrust it needs for the array to take off and maintain flight.

“The Distributed Flight Array is a flying platform consisting of multiple autonomous single propeller vehicles that are able to drive, dock with their peers and fly in a coordinated fashion,” explains the IDSC. “Once in flight the array hovers for a few minutes, then falls back to the ground, only to repeat the cycle again.”

Watch a video of the DFA system in action here:

“If the array’s levelled flight is disturbed, each vehicle individually determines the amount of thrust required to correct for the disturbance based on its position in the array and the array’s motion,” IDSC said.

The project has been developed for two reasons, Maximilian Kriegleder from the IDSC told Dezeen: as a research platform for distributed control and estimation, and as an artistic installation that could illustrate such control of robots to members of the public.

“The platform currently flies with either joystick input from an user or input from an external sensor system such as GPS. We are trying to close this gap and make the system completely self-contained and autonomous so that no external input is needed,” Kriegleder told Dezeen.

Although the project was not designed for a specific purpose, Kriegleder suggests that the technology could be used for transportation systems. “The developed algorithms apply to any real systems that needs to be scalable and distributed,” Kriegleder told Dezeen. “One specific example could be a scalable mass transportation system, where one only adds so many modules that a certain payload could be lifted.”

The DFA project was launched in 2008 as a postgraduate class at ETH Zürich university and is being continued by Dr. Raymond Oung as his PhD project.

Here’s a film showing the concept behind the flying system:

Photographs are by Dr. Raymond Oung.

Other flying machines we’re featured on Dezeen include a tiny robotic insect the size of a small coin that hovers in the air like a fly and a human-powered helicopter that won a 33-year-old aviation prize, after hovering for 64 seconds and reaching an altitude of 3.3 metres.

Read more stories about 3D printing »
See more robots features »

The post Researchers develop 3D-printed
drones capable of self-assembly appeared first on Dezeen.

Cumulus is a stylish headphone designed for autistic adults, where the headband goes round the neck and it has a galvanic skin sensor. This sensor helps determine the rise of temperature or heart rate via vibrations and better understand the mental conditioning of the autistic adult, at that given moment. The way the headphones wrap around the user’s ears also provides a sense of comfort and security.

The Cumulus has three modes: Sound Cancellation, Directional Microphone and Music. By covering the ears, the Sound Cancellation gets activated and provides absolute silence; by simply putting a hand at the back of the ear will activate Directional Microphone, which can isolate speech from background noise; and simply swiping the panel will activate Music. A sophisticated and handy aid for those who need it!

Designer: Diamond Ho

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Stylish Headphones for Autistic Adults was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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