Life powered life supporting..

Project “Life support” by Revital Cohen. The concept is to utilize transgenic animal to help the continuing patients. For the details please refer to the project link above. Let’s take away the technical problems, but the reasons of why doing this really in good faith..

1. The poorer patients can overcome the unaffordable instrument upkeep cost.

2. Like the pedigreed greyhound case, the animal can keep their life after its career.

3. The animal/pet can be the patient soul-mate in day ‘n night. This may be a strong cure with psychological power.

Whatever it is going to be happened soon or not, this is a really good idea to elaborate with. Especially such a human-animal win-win condition. So, I put it into “giant leap for human” category.

Touch Pad for desktop..

news n pics via Engadget

Gosh!! Apple made it, the most possible alternative way to gear up  desktop computer with touch screen!! For why and how, I dun have apple official news here, but try out my past post, 10/GUI, it will let you know why you just cant multi touch with your 28″ iMac !!

Urban Chickens, via Good Magazine..

It’s glad to see this “burgeoning movement” thought it is abit fancy in Hong Kong.. But there is one point, I dun think I will slaughter them myself while we have spent joyful moments with them.. There are words form Lisa.S, at her South Africa wedding ceremony, she went to watch the livestock get killed for the food in the ceremony. her words are roughly about “This is the first time I’ve seen this, it is somehow sanguinary but it is really happened, and we have to face it…”

And she raised a bright point in nowadays food supply chain. Especially the people next to you who are yelling about an animal get killed is bloody cruelly, or shouting Jap go hell after watching The Cove.. You dun see, mean not it is not happening.. “一切不曾發生, 直到它被報導”

If you think feed for kill is normal, then killing is a part of it for sure.. So, face it or support the humanity slaughter at least..

Navilights by Julian Kohn..

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This is a proposal project – Navilights by Julian Kohn from a Denmark design school DESIGN SKOLEN KOLDING , for the Shanghai World Expo.

A clever design which merged infography n road indicator. For sure I real love the on-ground indicator with tasty infography, esp the pink+red line, with the river~ But for those blues on the sample, it seems down-used the concept, I will use progressive saturation colour to indicate the sub-zones

In my mind, I think the illuminated tube indicator is not necessary to be THAT china, with bamboo, seems not that match with the asphalt. And i think it is not tall enough, I may use hanger-truck(吊雞車) or sth more decent to hang larger tubes from the air. Ai, yea, then will need to adjust the viewing angle..

Also, I got a question about the bike tube, it is fabulous for sure which can indicate the distance with a “natural” sense – the shorter the light, the closer the destination. However, it seems didnt tell how to set the target,  and it may need a zoning code for each site. And it will be the best if it can display where you are hanging around..

Please check out their other great project, here is my selection:

hirzberger events – digital wallpaper

Finally i know this technique is called Geometry Mapping. This can create an illusion to make the projection in 3D, I have first seen in cubic cascade surface.. They did too, facade projection, but the rendering images are abit low-fi..

iab web ad

Getting know how’s V(isual)J(okey) cooperate with multi-touch panel, as I say, this control is what it should be~~

Infography traffic lamp..

Count down in the graphical way, kick out the boring numerical and make street cooler ~

By yankodesign

Free Rental House – brainstorm

 

“Select Families to Live Rent-Free in an Australian Smart House”

I saw the title of this post on Good Magazine (when will my issues arrive…?), and came up with a fantasy totally not related to the article.. It is about if there will have some free/cheap rental apartment for the people who can manage and produce energy inside the apartment..

Let me talk about some reference, there is a project (sorry~ I forgot the name, this is a reference without reference) about redistribute the power produced by the windmill, solar panel in each household. According to my power plant visit in school, the electricity are normally sent to the house when they are needed, only in but no out, and the excess electricity will keep flowing around until its gone (consumed by the network resistance or whatever just gone and cant be use)..

Keep this concept and think about nowadays household (house-hold, not flat-hold or apartment-hold) are mostly equipped with solar panel or windmill (I’m talking about generator powered by wind power but not the Holland one for wheat).. And there will have the same power waste problem as the power plant while the sun and wind wont stop (when you dun need it…)

So, back to the project, there will be a network in between the community. A windmill can power a bulb, ten of mills can power a charismas tree (dun ask me stupid question about they drink water…).. The idea is here, when a household dun need the power while its still generating, the excess electricity will flow into the community network and looking for another household which need them to power their TV or water pump.. If you zoom out from this community, the electricity needed from this community will be decreased, thus the power plant need less fuel to produce less power, easy right~?

Okay, this is a brilliant idea form the scientist, and with my garage idea, it is similar/copy from their idea.. If there is an apartment with more than enough solar panels, mills covered, also equipped with hundred of power generating gadgets inside the house, like the Flush Generator, Rocking Horse Generator, Dance Floor Generator… …, so so so, in commercial way, customer scarify the household quality (outlook, set equipment…) to gain the rental refund from the landlord, isn’t it great~? Of course there is still a long way to go for the ultra high efficiency power generator, but they are moving fast!!~~

10/GUI, computer controlling interface..

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I’m always interested into the neo-interaction stuffs which change to old communication way, whatever it maybe faster, easier, smarter.. It is always exciting to change the way of think by change of action-reaction/interaction/interface.. From hand, logic gate, command, and mouse we’ve used for a decade (I still remember that my first computer 286, dun have mouse~)..

However, I used to think that the mouse device is quite a regress of Human Being Sensation.. The keyboard can “write” your saying, single layer, word by word.. Or just like what I’m speaking while typing this article.. Although it is a bit delayed, but it is still the way we used to do so, or I can say the natural way.. Nevertheless, as the video also mentioned, “mouse” is a single point which limited our action in 1 click, 1 way, 1 spot.. This is not what can only to be done even for my Cat, at least she can use both hand to paw the sand..

Of cos the old computer may not power enough to support the calculation of “2 mouses”.. But today while we’re having fun with multi-touch on the iphone, it is the time to expect a new way of interaction/control/interface..  There are some consumer products has been released on the market, iphone, HP Touch Smart(still havent take a try!!), Windows Table, and some more I didn’t know..

From the Video, it raised the shortcoming of touch screen nowadays, which is your palm will block your sight.. Also, as my mum said on me while I proposed to buy her a touch screen computer (i think it will be easier for her to handle the drug ‘n drag action with her human-born-sense instead of the artificial mouse in a very “illogic way” to finish the tasks), she said the forearm will get tire easily why using the vertical touch screen.. Meanwhile, the horizontal touch screen will hurt your neck.. The way 10/GUI did is a really great exit, with a touch pad on the keyboard area to maintain the comfortable angle..

Anyway, 10/GUI is still a concept, and it is foreseeable can do better in the short future.. I’m really exciting while the interface is going to an unknown zone with endless possibilities and “the best ever” imagination ‘n engineering.. I dun feel happy while I’m stupid enough to not be one of person who “push” the world, but I’m real satisfy to witness this step~

What I’m want to say at last is, while there is going to be a brand new aspect, we can imagine/witness the ways you’ve never though about before while those made grand changes in human living.. The multi-touch, probably since iphone, creating differ commands with pre-designed finger’s track.. For sure is a real great idea even more than Human used to do(i mean million of revolution).. But how about we think more about the way of sharing, the way of data handling/internal interaction, the way of controlling, the other way of interface… … It gotta be a better tomorrow, how amazing ~~

10/GUI official site, here

360 Green ~

Oh, aside of Vertical Green, there is another great idea which i will call it 360 green, but it takes quite alot of energy to operate, i dun know if the fiber glass and mirror can help !! This is called Cylindrical Hydroponic Designs by OmegaGarden.. This is based on the concept of Urban farming like as Vertical Green Farm Project, to increase the green product within the urban area..

However, the carbon footprint of this machine seems a bit high (esp. the watering mechanism..) (I know this project is not env. aimed)

Windows innovation..

Freshly discovered this old idea fold n’ drop for windows (you can see the window 2000/95 in the demo video~) But it is a really great idea, and dun know why it havent appear in nowadays windows… I dun think Vista that “switch between windows” is better.. Anyway, this is just applying real physical world into the virtual, like as the touch-interface, love it ~

Concrete Tulou

I didn’t aware in my first glimpse on this picture.. But was really exciting after watch closer.. It is a real modern Tulou which has already been built and is being occupied.. 萬匯樓 is a project of an Shenzhen based Architecture firm called urbanus. This project is aimed to provide proper residential place for the low-income(below 1500/mth) citizen..

287 units, 39m square per unit with 1 living room, 2 bedroom,  1 bathroom, and a tiny kitchen can be rented in 750 yuan per month.. The project expect the people share the room in 2-4 which can lower the rental to around 200 yuan per head.. There are no extra security and management  fee asked for the residential.. The cleaning  job is done by the people living there with a 8yuan/hr offer.. This is cool, but really let see the mostly selfish PRCese..

The building itself is a community, there are shops, internet room, restaurants, playroom, tennis couch, and even small inn for the friends visiting from far.. I really love this stuff, it satisfy the poor, it extended the tradition and it has done very well in creating a complete community.. I think this is a really good reference case for solving the poorer living problem..