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Monday 12 October 2015

TASTY TECH EYE CANDY OF THE WEEK LXVI


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Tasty Tech Eye Candy of the Week (Oct. 11)
By Tracy Staedter,
Discovery News, 11 October 2015.

A swimming suit that cleans up ocean pollution, a waterless sink and an indestructible drone round out this week's gallery.

1. Collision-Tolerant Drone

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Swiss drone company Flyability wanted to demonstrate the durability of their drones, so they adorned them with LEDs lights and flew them around a forest at night. In the videos, the drones, encased in in a protective cage, bounce off trees and each other in a delicate dance.


2. Concept Car

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Later this month at the Tokyo Motor Show, Toyota plans to unveil its new concept car, the FCV Plus. The futuristic design and roomy interior are indicators of what's under the hood: a hydrogen fuel cell stack positioned far forward, between the front wheels, and four, in-wheel electric motors designed for power. [Download press information]


3. Nearly Waterless Sink

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The Robo-Washer could change hand washing as we know it. It washes and disinfects hands using only one cup of water - no soap - that the system disinfects and recycles after each use. Even NASA has expressed interest in installing a Robo-Washer on the International Space Station.


4. Airbus Patent

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This week Airbus got a lot of flack for a patent it filed. The patent, called "Passenger Seat Arrangement For A Vehicle,” shows passengers in a plane stacked one on top of the other in a way that makes use of the wasted upper lobe of the aircraft fuselage. Efficient use of space? Or just one more example of the hell that flying has become?


5. Cardboard Car

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To celebrate the fine work of their master craftsmen, Lexus asked five designers and modellers to work with UK-based LaserCut Works and Scales and Models to build a scale model of their IS sport sedan from laser-cut cardboard. The Origami Car is made from 1,700 sheets of cardboard, each 10 millimetres wide, assembled by hand over a steel and aluminium frame.


6. Sponge Suit

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The more polluted the oceans become, the less interested people are in swimming in them - unless, of course, swimming in them helps clean the water. The Sponge Suit prototype is 3D-printed from a super-hydrophobic carbon-based material that sucks up 25 times its weight. The suit is designed to capture pollution and keep it away from a person's skin. After use, the suit can be heated to a high temperature to release the pollutants and then worn again.


7. Nap Desk

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For those of us who work from home, the ability to take a 20-minute power nap in the middle in the day surely makes our office-worker friends jealous. But designer Athanasia Leivaditou doesn't think cubicle rats should be left out. He designed a desk that converts into a sleeping pod - perfect for that post-Powerpoint presentation exhaustion.


8. City Car

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Bike sharing is really taking off in cities around the world. In London, where more than 50 percent of the emissions come from vehicles, researchers at Coventry University want to take the sharing economy one step farther. They've developed the City Commuter Vehicle, a four-wheeled quadricycle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell that could help the city reduce emissions 60 percent by 2025. With a top speed of 50 miles per hour and a range of 100 miles, it's aimed directly at a quarter of the population that commutes 6 to 12 miles per day.


9. World's Largest 3D-Printed Structure

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Here at Discovery News' World Headquarters, we've given in to the world of 3-D printing. It's simply everywhere and there's no escaping it - no matter how hard you try. In Beijing, China, a pavilion called Vulcan was just awarded the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest 3D-printed structure. The white, latticed structure was created by Laboratory for Creative Design and unveiled at Beijing Design Week 2015.


10. 3-D Printed Midsole

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Adidas partnered with 3D-printing company Materialise, to create the Futurecraft, a shoe with flexible, breathable soles composed of latticed material. The shoe is still a prototype, but the idea is that runners could visit a store, get a 3-D model of their foot and a customized shoe that fits their footprint.


Top image: Rendering of City Commuter Vehicle. Credit: Peter Eite/Behance.

[Source: Discovery News. Edited. Top image and some links added.]

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