September: Evolta robot race
Evolta
Panasonic has just announced its plans to compete the evolta robot in the 230 kilometer ironman triathlon. The race entails a 3.8-kilometer swim in open ocean, a 180.2 km bicycle segment through volcanic rocks, and a 42.2 kilometer run through central kona, each completed by a slightly modified version of the robot, which is powered by 3 rechargeable evolta batteries.
Family Matters by Noa Dotan
Family Matters is a family of toys for family therapy. Born from her love of toys and inspired by the need for 3D objects in the professional therapy environment, Family Matters is a series of relate-able objects for both therapists and patients. In designing the characters, Noa made sure that they were vague and abstract, but yet still were recognizable as animals. The colors are vibrant and neutral with different textures to help convey specific emotions.
Onedown
Onedown is a humane rat trap, working on the BOP toy principle, it creates a new visual association to the usual rat trap. The trap rests precariously in a horizontal position on a circular foot. Bait inside would lure the rat into the trap, a metal insert in the base coupled with the weight of the rat will tip the trap and bring it to a vertical position indicating that a rat has been trapped. Now you can bring it back to nature.
Lien
Lien is a redesign of the Taiwanese practice of burning joss paper to honor the deceased. It offers a zero-waste, all-inclusive package that fulfills the cultural needs of traditional, 49-day funerary rituals. The modern joss paper is produced by soaking furniture manufacturing byproducts in nitric acid – really unhealthy stuff. The belief reinforced by funeral homes and temples is, “The more you burn, the more you care.” This led to the idea of a zero-waste, all-inclusive package that limits excessive behavior . The idea of a burnt tea leaves are often used to enrich soil in traditional Chinese farming came as inspiration. The new joss paper uses tea leaves instead of heavy metal seals to give the paper symbolic monetary value. When burned, the ash becomes fertilizer, rich in potassium.
4th Amendment Wear
Now there’s a way to protest those intrusive TSA X-ray body scanners without saying a word. Underclothes printed with the 4th Amendment in Metallic Ink.
Super-Elastic Plastic
The plastic pictured is incredibly soft and stretches to about eight times its original size. It is a very durable material that stretches easily and can be injection molded to any shape. It has a remarkable combination of being incredibly elastic and easy to stretch, yet very difficult to rip.
Performance Load
The greater the effort to perform a task, the less likely that the task will be successfully completed.
Performance load is the degree of mental or physical activity needed to achieve a goal. If the performance load is high, the performance time increases and so does the number of mistakes. The chance to achieve the goal successfully decreases. Performance load works twofold: kinetic and cognitive.
Cognitive load
Cognitive load refers to the amount of mental activity: perception, memory, problem-solving. In the first computer users had such a range of commands to remember and type in a special way.
The number of commands to remember during the task is the cognitive load for the job. The introduction of graphical user interfaces helped users to perform using menus, without remembering commands. This drastic reduction of cognitive load has helped computers to grow into a mass product.
Kinetic load
This refers to the degree of physical activity needed to achieve the objective: the number of movements or the amount of force. In the past people had to telegraph for example letters, one at a time, transferring from onesequence of taps on a mechanical device. The number of taps to communicate a message is the kinetic load for that task. Samuel Morse developed the Morse code to reduce the kinetic load by giving the simplest codes to the letters most used.
Design Tips
Reduce the performance load in designs as much as possible. Reduce cognitive load by omitting redundant information displays, by chunking information, by providing memory aids. Reduce unnecessary tasks kinetic load reducing the total movement and energy required to reduce by automating tasks that are repeated.
Bluelarix works for Decathlon!
Bluelarix Designworks started to work for the French multinational Decathlon about one month ago.
The contents of the project is confidential, but very exiting. We will publish more information once the product gets into production. Read more about Decathlon /
Quickstart
Did you not work before with a design studio? Or do you like to try out our way of working, compared to your partner design office?
Then the Design Quickstart is an excellent project, offered to you for reduced rates. Read more about a quickstart project /
Turn-key product design
Do you want to realise a turn-key design project from plan to production? Do you need extra knowledge or capacity for your product development? We love to work with your team and take care of your concerns.
Our speed of product development and the possibility to develop both the product as the electronics and software are two reasons why companies work with us. Read more about turn-key product development /
Design News
Daylight
Impressed by the natural daylight Norwegian designer Daniel Rybakken explores the stimulating effects of daylight through the use of artificial lighting. Having studied carefully the principles of daylight designer has examined through intensive research the “signs” which natural lighting provide to the human mind.
Glocke
Glocke, inspired by the Korean Buddhist Bell, works on the principle of resonance and amplifies sound, spreading its outreach. So when you dock the MP3 player on this device, it amplifies the low sound using the glass cylinder and glossy plastic body to full effect. The LED lamps glow according to the volume of the music.
RedBlueCNC
Interesting attempt to minimize complex CNC machines to simple modular units that more people can comprehend, with Gerrit Rietveld as inspiration. This would allow people to experiment with different setups, they are no longer restrained by how the machine is designed by allowing them to redesign the machine quickly and easily.
Bones orthopedic cast
Pedro Nakazato has designed Bones orthopedic cast with sensors to capture the muscle activities around the fracture area and stimulate the full recovery time of the patient.