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Monday 4 July 2016

TASTY TECH EYE CANDY OF THE WEEK XCII


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Tasty Tech Eye Candy of the Week (July 3)
By Tracy Staedter,
Seeker, 3 July 2016.

Squishy wheels, slippery surfaces and a scary mask round out this week's gallery.

1. Björk’s 3D-Printed Mask

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Icelandic singer Björk, known for her avant garde approach to art, debuted a custom, 3D-printed mask during a performance in Tokyo this past week. Rottlace, as the mask is called, was made by a team at MIT’s Mediated Matter lab and Stratasys, led by professor Neri Oxman. The scientists used 3-D scans of Björk’s bone and tissue to create the final design.

2. Dancing Zoetrope

Credit: Ying Chai Su via YouTube

Media artist Akinori Goto has given the zoetrope, a 19th-century toy, a design upgrade. These cylindrical toys had images painted on the inside wall of the drum and would create the illusion of an animation when spun around. Goto’s zoetrope is a 3D-printed version made of wire that creates the illusion of a woman dancing. It won the Runner-up Grand Prix and the Audience Award at this year’s Spiral Independent Creators Festival.

3. Fold-Up Catamaran

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The FOSCAT32 is an energy-efficient catamaran with lightweight folding hulls. Designed by Hakan Gürsu of Designnobis, it can switch from solar to wind as a power source.

4. Climate Research Centre in Greenland

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Danish architects Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter has revealed their design for the Icefjord Centre, a climate research and visitor centre to be located in Ilulissat, Greenland, 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The building will house scientists studying the Ilulissat Icefjord, a 250,000 year-old glacier. Visitors can observe the glacier from the rooftop platform, which leads down to a walking trail.

5. Glass Slide Opens in Los Angeles

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The US Bank Tower in Los Angeles officially opened its Skyslide, a 46-foot-long glass slide that connects the 70th and 69th floors. For a fee starting at US$19, visitors can slide down through the transparent structure, which offers a view of the city below.

6. BMW’s MINI Vision NEXT 100

Credit: MINI UK

BMW’s MINI Vision NEXT 100 concept car envisions a future where people share cars that respond to individual drivers with personal greetings as well as customized controls and colours. See how it works here.

7. Vektor Car

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This concept vehicle, Vektor, was designed by Pakistan-based Bilal Majeed as a method of transportation for those living on the edges of cities. It’s a single-person car half the size of a standard vehicle and could be a way for those at the end of a train line to cover the last mile home.

8. Particle Animation

Credit: David McLeod via Vimeo

Colourflow is a vibrant animation from Australian digital artist David McLeod. It captures the collective motion of a murmuration or a school of fish evading a predator. The animated particles move as if contained within an invisible sphere. Watch it here.

9. Squishy-Wheeled Robot

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This little all-terrain robot is a softy. It has silicone-based wheels that flex over rough terrain and a soft motor that provides torque without straining engine parts. [Video]

10. Slippery Surface

Credit: OhioStateExperts via YouTube

By embedding nanoparticles of silica into plastic, scientists at Ohio State University have found a way to make surfaces super slippery. Whatever liquid goo is contained inside - be it shampoo, ketchup, mayo, or oil - slides out completely without any clinging or waste.

Top image: BMW MINI Vision NEXT 100. Credit: BMW.

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

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