Home Theater in Montauk New York by Pentagram Architects
Pentagram Architects partner James Biber has designed this home theater in Montauk New York, taking inspiration from Radio City Music Hall and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The home theater, which takes up 350 square feet in a 1,500-square-foot basement, had to have soundproofing and dimmable lights, and the client wanted seating on the floor.
The theater has a series of round arches, which house 600 five-watt dimmer-controlled light bulbs that provide a soft ambient light for when you need to find that elusive remote control. And as in the Music Hall, the lights are positioned to glow away from the viewers – because we all hate to have lights in our eyes when watching the big screen.
Contact Lenses with Circuits for Superhuman Vision
Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.
The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer’s vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens. There are a number of possible uses for virtual displays.
Macheads: The Movie
When I was 12, I used to collect pictures of Apple Computers that I had found in my dad’s computer magazines and keep them in a diary dedicated only to Apple products. When I was 14, I went to the Kid’s Computer Club, a place where computer science was teached to kids. Of course, they were exclusively using Apple computers. At home, we had only PCs because as my father kept telling me, “Macs are way too expensive for what they are — let me build you a PC with spare parts. I cried. But some years later, when I got my first student job, I used the paycheck to buy a Mac, and I never looked back. Yes, I always thought I was a bit crazy. But there are people that are more nuts than I am, and Macheads is a movie about them.
Umeda Sky Building the World’s Highest Escalator
Located in the Umeda district of Kita-ku in northern Osaka, the building was designed by Hiroshi Hara and was constructed by Takenaka Corporation. It consists of two 40-story towers that connect at their two uppermost stories, with bridges and an escalator crossing the wide atrium-like space in the center. The escalator ride is an event in itself as it feels like you are floating up into the sky.
Belkin RockStar Shares Your Music With Five Friends
Belkin has introduced its RockStar, a device that lets you attach headphones and MP3 players so you can mix and match your music with friends.
The six-port RockStar audio hub touts a single input-only socket alongside five other ports that can be toggled between input and output, essentially allowing certain DAPs to funnel different songs to different individuals.
MacBook Air the World’s Thinnest Notebook
Steve Jobs has launched the Macbook Air, an ultra-light 13.3” laptop that does not have an optical drive and might be the thinnest notebook on the market today.
The world’s thinnest notebooks’ starts at $1799 and comes with a 13.3 inch display (LED), a full keyboard, built-in 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, built-in iSight, and a multitouch trackpad that lets you use gestures to control a number of actions on the MacBook Air. Some other stats include:
* 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache
* 2GB of RAM
* 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive (with optional 64 gig solid state drive
* 1 USB 2.0 port
MPK Glowpaint
MPK Co produces glow-in-the-dark paint made by self-luminous micro particles called Litrospheres (non-toxic) that emit light continuously for 12 plus years (half-life point) without any exposure to a light or other energy (not effected by cold or heat). This extremely low cost material offers 24/7 light, which can be injection molded or added to paint. It is 5,000lb crush resistant, stable and constant light source (gives off no U.V. rays). It is designed to give off almost any color of light desired.
Sony Little TV Concept
Sony and Tokyo Fiber are taking a fresh look with this new “senseware” design. The outer skin covering the silicone body is composed of “Super-Knit” fabric. Wonderfully elastic, this material enables curvy contours with just one seam.
Pig Toy Retains Shape After Being Squashed
“Lokulokus, pigs made out of a gelatinous plastic material that could be squashed against the floor, be completely destroyed, and magically regain their original shape in seconds”.
Each of these squashy toys is priced at $3 each in Japan.
Live Cooking Table by pmg
It has a surface made of SCHOTT Ceran glass-ceramic panels which can be decorated individually with your choice of metallic prints. The control elements are hidden within the table: This is how the “Live Cooking Table” is able to keep its sleek aesthetic without cables or buttons and dials.
The Funky Forest by Emily Gobeille & Theodore Watson
Together with designer Emily Gobeille, Theodore Watson created the Funky Forest, an interactive ecosystem where people can grow their own tree with their bodies by posing in front of a huge canvas. The trees are watered by guiding a projected river on the floor. The health of the trees contributes to the overall health of the forest and the types of creatures that inhabit it. Made with open Frameworks.
QV Arctic Sanctuary, an interactive exhibition by ENESS
ENESS responds to climate change with an exploration into virtual chilliness and digital frostbite. Arctic Sanctuary is an exhibit of skewed illumination and interactive art – projection technology layered with playful elements.
Shigeru Ban’s Metal Shutter Houses
Shigeru Ban‘s Metal Shutter Houses are going up in west Chelsea. That’s the name for a condo with nine duplex apartments with jaw-dropping exterior features.
“The Metal Shutter Houses” have walls that lift up completely out of the way, as well as “perforated metal shutters that operate exactly like the rolling grates of the Chelsea galleries and Korean delis that inspired them.”
Yogis Are Now Hi-Tech
Designer Hui-Zong Chen has conceived of a yoga mat, made of an electronic paper screen that unfurls from a metal tube that is a stereo with cute little speakers housed at each end. It’s just a concept piece for the moment, but this could be the yoga mat of the future The tube the mat/screen scrolls out of would also house speakers, an MP3 player, and a memory-card reader.
Rolling Bridge by Thomas Heatherwick
Heatherwick Studio‘s Rolling Bridge is cunningly shaped and jointed to roll up so that boats can get into an inlet movable bridge, it is part of the Grand Union Canal office & retail development project at Paddington Basin, London.
Aperture by Frédéric Eyl and Gunnar Green
Aperture is a really cool project by Frédéric Eyl and Gunnar Green, of the University of the Arts Berlin. Basically it’s a giant reactive wall built of hundreds of photosensitive diaphragms.The variation of the opening diameters creates a variable opacity of the surface, this serves to create both dynamic imagery as well as offering new channels for communication and visibility between the inside and the outside of the facade.
“Mac or PC” Rap Video
At CubeMe, we love our Macs, but I have to admit we grew tired of those “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads. That was until we discovered the “Mac or PC” rap video, which made the geeks that we are pee our pants. Just watch the video and you’ll understand what we mean.
Surfboard with GPS and two-way radio
Realizing that surfers were way too cool for their own good, designer Marco Torres has designed a surfboard with the geek built in: GPS and radio.The idea is you can keep in touch with your surfing buddies via the two way radio and radio for help if you’re injured, and the GPS can help locate you in a rescue situation. It’s still a concept at this stage, but the only people who I can really see buying into this are the type of surfers whose aim is to drop as much money on their hobby as humanely possible, as GPS in a surfboard ain’t gonna come cheap.
