Grass Drawing Robot

Instead of having robots like the Roomba simply scurrying around our homes cleaning or performing other mundane tasks wouldn't it be nice if there were some that were expressive both in an aesthetic and socially conscious way.



"Grower is a small 'rover' vehicle which navigates around the periphery of a room. It hugs the room’s walls and responds to the carbon dioxide levels in the air by actually drawing varying heights of 'grass' on the walls in green ink....My machine’s grass growing is a dynamic, emergent behavior in which humans participate involuntarily. This behavior allows the Grower to ‘nest’ the space – meaning, make the space into one where you find evidence of natural, organic change."

Grower was created by artist Sabrina Raaf be sure to check out the rest of her work here.

Spacesuit Satellite

A Russian Orion spacesuit will be modified and launched from the International Space Station and become the first spacesuit satellite, the SuitSat-1. In an extraodinary display of ad-hoc design scientists equipped the spacesuit with three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power.



This projected was developed with NASA and the ISS by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) group and will involve the participation of students, scouts, teachers and ham radio operators around the world.

To listen to SuitSat-1, all you will need is a big antenna and a radio receiver that you can tune to 145.990 MHz FM. A police band scanner or a hand-talkie ham radio would work just fine.

Little Lizards with Radio Backpacks

I just couldn't get over the high cuteness factor of this photo, sure researchers have been radio tagging animals to study their behaviors for awhile but with little backpacks?



"Once caught, the lizards are tagged with tiny micro-chips and outfitted with transmitter-equipped backpacks that Mr. Hackler and his grandmother make from canvas scraps."

They are monitoring the Texas horned lizard population around the Tinker Air ForceBase in Oaklahoma where they hope to understand "the complexity of the lizards’ habitat, halt their steady decline, and find ways for man and reptile to coexist peacefully." Sounds good enough but look at what they are really trying to do:

"The knowledge they gain could prevent the Texas horned lizard from wandering onto the federal protection list. Currently the creature is state-listed as a “species of special concern” due to its dwindling numbers. If the species becomes federally listed, it could place environmental restrictions on the mission at Tinker. “Preventing the lizard from being federally listed helps the Air Force avoid more restrictions,” Mr. Moody said."

So they are basically hoping to prove that it is not endangered so that the Air Force can avoid those pesky environmental restrictions.

Low Cost Solar Powered Hearing Aid

This story has been making its way around the tech blogs and its a noble cause, far more sensitive to the needs of developing nations than say the $100 dollar laptop project.

The SolarAid is a hearing aid designed and built by Godisa Technologies, a Bostswana company founded to make hearing aids for the developing world. Godisa means "to do something that is helping others to grow"



"There are more than 200 million people in the world with some degree of hearing impairment ranging from difficulty in hearing in noisy places to total deafness. Even mild hearing loss interferes with language acquisition, schooling and earning a living."

The entire product, including solar charger and an extra pair of batteries, sells for less than $100 and should last for about 2-3 years. Godisa intends to make the design open source so that people can make their own.

Victimless Leather

This is from the Tissue Culture and Art Project, I think this might have been done awhile ago but certainly still relevant. Engineered tissues are on the rise and though we may not be that close to "growing clothing" particularly in the final form like a tailored jacket but other researchers have proposed growing animal parts individually instead of the harvesting method we use now. Check out this article Paper Says Edible Meat Can be Grown in a Lab on Industrial Scale I wonder what PETA's position is on all of this.

"Victimless Leather - A Prototype of Stitch-less Jacket grown in a Technoscientific "Body"

Humans, the naked/nude apes, have been covering their fragile bodies/skins to protect themselves from the external environment. This humble act for survival has developed into a complex social ritual which transformed the concept of a “Garment” into an evocative object that cannot be taken on its face value.

Garment became an expressive tool to project one's identity, social class, political stand and so on. Garments are humans' fabrication and can be explored as a tangible example of humans' treatment of the Other....The Victimless Leather is grown out of immortalised cell lines which cultured and form a living layer of tissue supported by a biodegradable polymer matrix in a form of miniature stich-less coat like shape. The Victimless Leather project concerns with growing living tissue into a leather like material."

World Webcam Map

I grabbed this from information aesthetics a great blog you should definatelt check out.



This is a brilliant idea and a beautifully constructed video by Pleix, a group of digital artists (graphic designers, 3d artists and musicians). Its a composite video of 1609 different webcams positioned around the world. Software called 'picksucker' saves an image from each camera every ten minutes, which is then placed on a geographical world map and becomes animated according to time.

Transformers

Here is a very cool video of a Transformer, well its a commercial for the Citroen, by Neill Blomkamp. Neil's work is simply a must see for any scifi addict so go to his site and check out Alive in Joberg and Tempbot.



The commercial gives me hope for some decent visuals in the proposed live-action film version of the Transformers TV animation, slated for a 2007 release. Michael Bay is the director, he also did The Island, so place your bets now on the outcome.

Super Hero Prosthetic Arm

I thought this was particularly important given the rise of amputations and limb loss with troops returning from Iraq. The philosophy is to focus on the design and aesthetic sensibilities of the prosthetic not just its functionality. This design was featured at ARS Electronica 2005 and also on Marek's Industrial Design site magu.



"Marek Gut is pioneering a completely new approach to the design of prosthetic arms. Instead of designing prostheses meant to outwardly resemble a human arm as closely as possible, he creates devices that function as an arm only in a technical sense. With its striking external appearance, the prosthesis becomes an accessory that can be worn with self-confidence instead of being a source of embarrassment. It comes outfitted with textile surfaces, the color and pattern of which can be varied. Just like the arms of comic book super heroes, high muscle definition gives the impression of invulnerability. The future owner can even order a customized color scheme or special applications for the prosthesis’ exterior."

Design by magu
Photos: Dietmar Tollerian

Malaysia car thieves steal finger

"Police in Malaysia are hunting for members of a violent gang who chopped off a car owner's finger to get round the vehicle's hi-tech security system.

The car, a Mercedes S-class, was protected by a fingerprint recognition system."

This is a story from awhile ago on the BBC but was the first I've heard of thieves actually doing this. Still think biometric identification for your ATM is a good idea?