By one estimate at least 15% of all drugs sold are counterfeit resulting in thousands of deaths. One reason Vardex Laser developed a technique to etch individual pills with 2-D bar codes in a process that takes “less than a millionth of a second” to mark a product in a process that is completely “clean […]
Category Archives: supply chain
tracking pills
Also posted in 2d, futurecraft, possessed products, product design, traceability
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carving cartoons
CraftVillageUK is a web portal for a community of soapstone carvers in Kenya designed to allow them to sell their intricate carvings directly to consumers worldwide. According to their website, the carvers earn four times as much per sculpture by selling through the web, and their earnings represent a significant increase in quality of life. […]
Also posted in 3d, art, conviviality, fabrication, futurecraft, marketing, traceability
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black tin
Glory is at it again with this amazing report on how tin metal is largely mined and exported against the law. Since the 18th Century tin has been mined and exported from the Indonesian island of Bangka, named after the word “wangka” meaning “tin.” Mining expanded until the 1990s when it was banned by the […]
Also posted in conviviality, environment, fabrication, materials, possessed products, traceability
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shill pill
Counterfeit medicine will amount to a $75 billion market in 2010, leaving death and disease in their wake, but it’s unclear whether Authentix‘s system for verifying pharmaceuticals are genuine is the right direction. Their method works by adding a chemical with a distinctive signature to the inactive ingredients – so that the suspect medication can […]
Also posted in human2.0, livingbreathing, surveillance, traceability
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designers = form-givers
The IDSA provides a suite of readings on ecodesign, including this 2003 survey on the ecological performance of electronic products (pdf), in which a survey of product designers sought to reveal the mechanisms for indluencing sustainable design in consumer electronics. This bar chart struck my eye because it represents exactly what needs to change in […]
Also posted in energy, environment, fabrication, marketing, materials, possessed products, product design
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design for durability
The OLPC has driven important innovations in open software, hardware, universal design and environmental sustainability in order to be cheap and durable enough for widespread use in developing countries. At this week’s unveiling of new designs for second-generation laptops, I spotted this interesting exhibit on the design touches that make the OLPC stand out in […]
Also posted in children, conviviality, customization, environment, fabrication, free & open, futurecraft, open objects, product design, universal design, upcycling
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public objects
‘Products of Service‘ are an alternative to cradle-to-grave life cycles where consumers only temporarily rent goods from manufacturers so that their valuable components can be directly re-used. In lieu of such enlightened manufacturing practices, a social network has been introduced where anyone can rent out their own possessions to reduce waste: Zilok is a Zipcar […]
Also posted in conviviality, energy, environment, futurecraft, marketing, open objects, product design, retail, traceability
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phone-maker
The brilliant Schulze & Webb have done it again with the Metal Phone, a completely recyclable cell phone enclosure developed for Nokia. The project is a complete cradle-to-cradle life cycle process: a cell phone encased in a lead alloy (ok, solder) can be disassembled and melted down to be re-cast into a new cell phone […]
Also posted in customization, energy, environment, fabrication, futurecraft, materials, open objects, product design, upcycling
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