bug labs did it! they are making electronic blocks that you can plug together to make any device you want. yesterday they finally released images of their products, which include a docking base, GPS unit, touch LCD screen, camera/webcam and motion detector – all tied together with an open SDK. although not yet available for […]
Category Archives: futurecraft
lego electronics
Also posted in customization, open objects, product design, tangible
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distressful
according to this report by the journal ‘environmental health practices,’ the practice of making cotton clothing is extremely damaging to society and the environment. globalization, consumerism and recycling have made it possible to produce massive amounts of clothing that end up largely unworn and sometimes redistributed to third-world countries after several trips around the globe. […]
Also posted in fabrication, livingbreathing, open objects
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stop&chop
i’ve been posting for a long time about open design, or the free dissemination of design knowledge. ponoko is a site that allows you to share designs for furniture cut out of sheet material like the plywood pepe baby’s chair (above). on the one hand, paying $120 for a tiny plywood chair seems expensive, on […]
Also posted in customization, fabrication, open objects, possessed products, product design
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snug-fab
mass customization is only slowly gaining ground in industries such as automobiles, and usually only with cosmetic choices like the color of seats. a number of shoe manufacturers have interfaces for customers to select colors and styles, but use standard forms that compromise fit. unfortunately not all countries have craftspeople cabable of custom shoe-making, in […]
Also posted in 3d, fabrication, marketing, product design
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light prophet
if art can predict culture, then design foreshadows technology – the ingo maurer retrospective at the cooper-hewitt is an astonishing exhibit. time and time again the genius better know for winged bulbs impresses with his use of technology for design. he was among the first to use low-voltage halogens hung from uninsulated cables suspended wall-to-wall […]
Also posted in product design, soft/glowing
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improvisation
open-source design promises a lot of invention but has trouble motivating a lot of people to contribute design work. but one kind of distributed design is flourishing: improvised explosive devices, which are the most effective tool against the american military in iraq. () one video demonstrates the user experience:
Also posted in customization, guerilla, open objects, possessed products
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paperCAD
papercraft is the most versatile personal fabrication system: all you need is a printer, scissors and glue. now there’s a CAD for papercraft called pepakura that unfolds any three-dimensional model, adds the tabs and prepares the pattern to be printed on an A4 sheet of paper. Using tyvek or felt you can even make durable, […]
Also posted in customization, fabrication, product design
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collaborative creation
i found peter b. meyer’s episodes of collective invention inspiring because he shows that in cases where technology has no clear application, sharing ideas is more valuable than keeping them secret. he bases this conclusion on some pretty weighty case studies: the invention of desktop computers, the spread of the bessemer steel process, and the […]
Also posted in blogogracy, conviviality, marketing, open objects, product design
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