The Future of Traffic Lights?

I can only assume that the reason we have been stuck with the same archaic traffic lights is one of tedious government regulation, rather than any love of the age-old design. I think as long as red means stop, they could pretty much rearrange the things however they want. If anything, I think that drivers tend to zone out and miss overly standardized signs. Art Lebedev Studios has come up with what seems like a big departure from the norm, but it really very simple and sensible. They have made the stop lights square. No more wasted space around those little circles. Perhaps we are best off keeping it simple. I’m guessing the next step is LCD signs complete with advertising while you wait for your light to turn green. You know how city government gets with this kind of new revenue source.

 

Wood Punk

What era came before the Flintstones? If Sci-Fi had a steampunkesque genre pre-dating the stone age, this guy would be its king. Michael Rea, a sculptor from Chicago, made this suit in honor of Stephen Hawking out of wood, ropes, and pink foam. Why pink? because it’s cheap. He sets himself a hundred dollar wood budget each month for his projects. American ingenuity at its best. There is nothing like breaking out the power tools and lumber to build yourself a giant mech suit in the garage. Click on the image to check out his work along with an informal interview with the artist.

Let Me Google That for You

One of the problems associated with geekdom, or even general competence, is that people expect you to fix things for them, answer obscure questions, and show them how to do various simple tasks. Most of the time if I have a problem, I do what any other geek with the resourcefulness of a squirrel would do; I consult google. It isn’t hard. It isn’t any more time consuming than asking someone else, because then they are just going to have to google it for you. Coferifous has heard our call and come to our rescue with his new service let me google that for you. The next time someone asks you a question they should really go find the answer to themselves, don’t tell them to ‘RTFM‘, outsource your snark to letmegooglethatforyou. Such a simple service they offer, yet the need was so great for their services that they have gotten over a million hits in their first 48 hours of existence.

Walking Plants

The enterprising individuals over at The Play Coalition (I’ll get you a link if one comes back into existence) have created a monster. This little palm now has legs, so that it can follow that sunbeam that moves across your living room floor each morning. In my house it would also need to learn to run away from my cat and go grab itself a glass of water when it gets thirsty. Unfortunately, by the time it gets that smart, I imagine I’d find it going through my fridge looking for beer and pizza. Click the image to see PlantBot in motion.

Reverse Graffiti

Slow Prototyping with Bees

Rapid prototypers are falling in price, but are still expensive to use, and the field of swarm robotics continues to work on making better bots with more useful emergent behavior, but today, the hardest working hives on the planet are still organic. Tomas Libertiny made a form for his hive in the shape of a vase and then let the bees do the rest. It took 40,000 of the little ladies a week to make the vase. The materials are free, as the bees gather them themselves, and even better, they work for queen and country. I was spoke with a beekeeper this morning who has been working on something similar, and others have made use of the concept in the past, inclding Garnett Puett, who twenty years ago apparently put a queen bee in a life sized cast of his wife and let them sculpt a work known as Apiscaryatid, but I have yet to see a picture. Hilary Berseth has some wonderful slow prototyping work that can be seen here. 

I think it would also be fun to use a lost wax process to cast the final product in a more permanent material. Next thing you know, the Danish will be using slow prototyping termites to make their clogs.

Shadow Sculpting

At first glance, this work of art by Tim Noble and Sue Webster looks like just another nondescript stack of stuff someone is trying to pass off as modern art. The magic happens when the spotlights are turned on.

 

 

When the light is set to hit at just the right angle, the sculpture casts a silhouette in shadow; a self portrait of the artists.

 

 

 

It is an interesting question as to where exactly the art resides in these pieces. There is a sort of gestalt psychology at work here, wherein the wall, the sculpture, and the light are all uninteresting and rather unpleasant in themselves, but together make one of the most thought compelling art techniques I’ve seen. This pile of rubbish, entitled Dirty White Trash [With Gulls], illustrates the extreme versatility of the medium. If you have stuff, and a light source, chances are you have the materials. My expectation is that the artists likely traced each others shadows on the wall and then just started piling up stuff until their outline was obscured by shadow. Other artists and even commercials have used variations of the medium, and I’m surprised it hasn’t become more popular. It might be a fun way to send someone a covert message. I think I might have to find a way to make use of this next Halloween

Surface Tension Robots

Robots are getting so light that they can be made to stand on the surface of water without breaking the surface tension. There is a big difference between something that floats in the water and something that just stands on top of it without getting wet. Most of the creators reference water skaters as their inspiration, but I have yet to see a skater bot kick for propulsion. There are some claims, but I say video or it didn’t happen. All of these seem to use vibration to chatter along on the surface. Here are some pretty good photos, and passable videos.

There are a few bots with accompanying info and some video here.

A very different and easy to make at home design here, with video.

I’m tempted to build one of these. It shouldn’t take much more than some thin wire, a cellphone vibrator, and a button cell to make a basic version.

Update: Here is another one that uses an electrical charge to destabilize the surface tension and cause propulsion. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I’m glad someone got around to building it. I’m a little surprised the top speed is as low as it is. If you want to easily test the concept, put a little soap on one edge of something that will sit on the surface of water, like a little scrap of paper. It will move rapidly in the direction opposite the soap as the surface tension is destroyed. This robot has the benefit of not permanently reducing tension or befouling the water. (via bb gadgets)

The Egg Cuber

Just think of how much more efficiently you could store your eggs if they were square! All neatly stacked. No more eggs rolling off of your plate, and they fit perfectly on a triscuit. Amaze your friends with tales of your new genetically engineered chicken. all this for a mere three dollars.

To use it, just hard boil your eggs and remove the shells. While they are still warm, drop one in the (preferably chilled) cuber and screw down the lid until the egg becomes square. Unscrew the lid and push up on the base plate to remove your now cubetacular egg. Repeat until you have a nice stack of eggs.

Wind Powered Machines, the Strandbeesten

When it comes to artists and inventors, Theo Jansen is my unrivaled favorite. Theo would probably object to me putting his work into the perfection category, since he sees better than anyone the endless adjustments and innovations tomorrow will bring for his creations, but I think they qualify. When we look around us, we tend to consider ourselves the most evolved creatures on the planet, because we are intelligent, and we are in control, but in the eyes of evolution, that is simply not the case. There are animals on this planet that have gone nearly unchanged for tens of millions of years, not because they are inferior, but because they have reached a point where they are perfectly evolved to survive in their respective environments. Theo Jansen creates creatures out of tubes and air hoses, check valves and plastic bottles, and then sets them loose on the beach, where they are powered by the wind. The Strandbeesten walk, run, hunker down, and avoid danger, all with a brain made of coke bottles.

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