Hairy Displays

When it comes to displays you’ve got LCDs, LEDs, and OLEDs; now make way for Hairy-Ds.

Electronics giant Philips has filed a patent for an as-yet-unnamed “display fabric” that operates by controlling hairs. Each pixel is made of fabric of a certain color, and embedded with hairs of a different color. When the hairs lay flat, all you see is their color; apply an electrostatic charge and the hairs stand up, revealing the color of the fabric beneath.

The initial applications are forecasted to be clothing with changeable displays on them, as there doesn’t seem to be any use in having furry flatpanels. So we can continue to clean our laptop screens with electrostatic rags rather than, say, Pantene Pro-V.

[Via Oh Gizmo]

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Originally from core77.com's design blog
reBlogged by michael on Apr 24, 2007, 11:06AM

Satis-fying Design

Japanese toilet manufacturer Inax has just released their 2007 Satis Asteo Washlet toilet, which is a good example of how toilet design seems to be taken more seriously in Japan than elsewhere.

Some features:

A) The toilet has an SD card, pre-loaded with Bach, Chopin and Mendelsohn. Once you show up to take care of business, a sensor activates the tunes, either to relax you or to prevent houseguests in your thin-walled Japanese apartment from hearing anything other than Bach, Chopin or Mendelsohn.

B) The smoothly-designed exterior of the basin is easy to clean, absent of the dust- and grime-collecting nooks and crannies present in many Western toilets.

C) Another sensor figures out whether you’re going to need the seat up or down (crikey, would love to know how this one works) and motorizes it into the appropriate position. After you leave, it automatically places the seat in the down position if it was up, preventing countless marital spats.

D) A nightlight in the bowl helps guide you during those 2am emergencies, though this feature may not be so desirable if you’ve had too much tequila and are making that other use of the toilet.

The (somewhat poorly Google-translated) webpage is here.

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Originally from core77.com's design blog
reBlogged by michael on Apr 24, 2007, 11:49AM

Jan Chipchase – Future Perfect Where’s The Phone

This essay presents data from a series of Nokia street surveys conducted between 2003 and 2006 that explored where people carry their mobile phones and why. The first study in this series, conducted in Helsinki during the summer of 2003, was designed to understand the extent to which people noticed incoming communication. Since then the study has evolved to encompass the carrying location of other objects, collect a visual snapshot of mobile phones and their ‘owner’s’ and has since been run in eleven countries across four continents.

Benjamin Edwards: Works, Projects, Archive

A very interesting visualization project — Benjamin Edwards maps the “world according to Wal*Mart”. A cartogram that depicts where the retail giant’s products (and revenues) come from. While you may not be surprised that the bulk of products come from China, I was astonished more by who was absent from this equation. Japan is non-existent, Korea is very, very small, and most South and Central American countries have almost no presence.

Are you the one?

The Presets are something else. Seriously. Their dizzying take on electro-pop is almost too cool for school but retains enough kitsch and retro throwback to carry it over the line. This particular track has that detached 80s feel about it — grainy visuals, audio precision and Stewart Copeland-like dance moves. Very fine indeed.

Originally from Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more by Zolton
reBlogged by michael on Apr 18, 2007, 6:12AM

Are you the one?

The Presets are something else. Seriously. Their dizzying take on electro-pop is almost too cool for school but retains enough kitsch and retro throwback to carry it over the line. This particular track has that detached 80s feel about it — grainy visuals, audio precision and Stewart Copeland-like dance moves. Very fine indeed.

Originally from Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more by Zolton
reBlogged by michael on Apr 18, 2007, 6:12AM

Are you the one?

The Presets are something else. Seriously. Their dizzying take on electro-pop is almost too cool for school but retains enough kitsch and retro throwback to carry it over the line. This particular track has that detached 80s feel about it — grainy visuals, audio precision and Stewart Copeland-like dance moves. Very fine indeed.

Originally from Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more by Zolton
reBlogged by michael on Apr 18, 2007, 6:12AM

Are you the one?

The Presets are something else. Seriously. Their dizzying take on electro-pop is almost too cool for school but retains enough kitsch and retro throwback to carry it over the line. This particular track has that detached 80s feel about it — grainy visuals, audio precision and Stewart Copeland-like dance moves. Very fine indeed.

Originally from Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more by Zolton
reBlogged by michael on Apr 18, 2007, 6:12AM

Are you the one?

The Presets are something else. Seriously. Their dizzying take on electro-pop is almost too cool for school but retains enough kitsch and retro throwback to carry it over the line. This particular track has that detached 80s feel about it — grainy visuals, audio precision and Stewart Copeland-like dance moves. Very fine indeed.

Originally from Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more by Zolton
reBlogged by michael on Apr 18, 2007, 6:12AM

Are you the one?

The Presets are something else. Seriously. Their dizzying take on electro-pop is almost too cool for school but retains enough kitsch and retro throwback to carry it over the line. This particular track has that detached 80s feel about it — grainy visuals, audio precision and Stewart Copeland-like dance moves. Very fine indeed.

Originally from Lost At E Minor: Music, illustration, art, photography and more by Zolton
reBlogged by michael on Apr 18, 2007, 6:12AM