User Designer » nanotech

Programmable Origami, Self-Assembling Drones, Magnetic Fingernails, & Creative Ice Cream

Mike Bennett — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:39:39 +0000

Very neat video of a research prototype, which shows off programmable foldable self-reshaping “paper”. How long before we see it in children’s toys? Or your cup is made of it? Or your trousers? Or your display?

Add in a dash of flight and we move in the direction of flying autonomous robots that can self assemble into larger flying structures. Learn more and watch the videos. What would you use them for? How could they be fused with the programmable paper?

Hearing, tasting, smelling, seeing, feeling ain’t enough? Develop a new sense – develop magnetic fingernails and “feel” magnetic fields.

Ice cream, ice cream every kind of flavor you’ve never heard of, or never imagined! I must go along and try some – sounds yum.

MOY Car Design, Cracking Mass Customization & Physical Pixels

Mike Bennett — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:44:16 +0000

Me likes MOY – design and adapt the visual design of your car…in real-time! Probably a bit distracting but I suspect it could be useful for making your car visually pop-out in dangerous low-vision driving conditions? MOY is a design concept from Elvis Tomljenovic “The idea behind MOY concept is that everyone can design their own car on their own computer and then apply the design to the vehicle using wireless data transfer or share it with other people through web-site, forum, e-mail etc. To those who lack the necessary skills or time to create their own design, we offer the option of downloading ready made designs. The vehicles are interconnected, so the change is possible in motion. ”

Interesting article in MIT Sloan Management Review on Cracking the Code of Mass Customization. You can register for free to access it for free. The authors identify three required capabilities for mass customization companies. (found via Mass Customization & Open Innovation News)

Read Core77′s writeup Physical pixels: design for the not so near future on the Organic User Interfaces panel at CHI 09, which I previously mentioned. Is it a bit too futuristic? Psst, the answer is no – as long as futuristic innovations feedback into here and now innovations.

Research Into Malleable Materials And Design Gaining Traction

Mike Bennett — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:25:32 +0000

Excellent, HCI and Interaction Design research focused on a malleable and readily adaptable world is really beginning to gain traction. How long before it has its own conference?

There’s a bunch of very interesting workshops at CHI 2009, which will be on in Boston from April 4th to 9th. CFPs (Call for Participation) that caught my eye include:

Programming Reality: From Transitive Materials to Organic User Interfaces

DIY for CHI: Methods, Communities, and Values of Reuse and Customization

For a few papers related to Transitive Materials pop over here.

June 2008′s issue of Communications of the ACM was a special issue on Organic user interfaces. There’s some very interesting articles there. Bah, I think only ACM members (yep, I’m one) are able to get those articles?

Though the call is now closed there’s going to be a special issue of the Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing focused on Material Computing.

Fashionable Technology, Converging Humans, Lucy Illusion & Singing Tree

Mike Bennett — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:12:18 +0000

Fashionable Technology is a just released book on The interplay of electronic textiles and wearable technology, and fashion, design and science is a highly promising and topical subject. Offered here is a compact survey of the theory involved and an explanation of the role technology plays in a fabric or article of clothing. (found via architectradure)

Therein lies the future – as a follow-on to my post Metamatter: Self-Reshapable Materials check out Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science. CTIHP is a report sponsored by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Commerce (DOC), so its worth paying attention to. There’s also the follow-on Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations: Converging Technologies In Society.

Arthur Shaprio, vision scientist at Bucknell University, has setup a new blog featuring visual illusions with explanations of why they occur. I particularly like his Lucy in the Sky illusion.

Beautiful – The Singing, Ringing Tree.

Sensisphere, Synthetic Genome, Imagining Domestic Interiors & Genius?

Mike Bennett — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:23:12 +0000

Sensisphere is a multitouch hemispherical display that lets you drag, move, push and pull digitial things with your hands. Pop over to YouTube and see it in action.

Scientists have created an entire synthetic genome. Another important step towards making biological nanobot “machines”, which would be extremely useful as smart malleable materials.

Very very blog relevant and interesting Call For Papers: Imagining Domestic Interiors. This is one CFP I’ll definitely be working towards! Robots are set to play an increasing role in our everyday lives, particularly in our domestic interiors. Already, they have found their way into vacuum cleaners, sweepers, mops, and other automated service machines for the home. Looking beyond these largely predictable developments, advances in self-configurable and adaptive robots promise some radically new possibilities. Our furniture, for example, may be host to interconnected assemblies of robotic modules that can re-configure themselves to suit different purposes, events, or even moods. An adaptive home interior might also physically age with its occupants, conforming to their changing needs and operating to support their states of development and health. (rest…)

What Kind of Genius Are You? Slow burn or short fast bright bright bright.

This post is dedicated to Molly “Isn’t it only natural”.