Just as Smule's ocarina app yields the gentle sounds of a woodwind instrument by simply blowing into an iPhone, Squeal promises to emit theremin-esque noises from the iPad with easy fingerplay. Developed as a collaboration between Hong Kong musician/producer/composer Gaybird Leung and interactive designer Henry Chu, the musical app is a work-in-progress for Henry's ongoing experimental music project Digital Hug.
It's not uncommon for nature to inspire technology and innovative products. Airplanes were inspired by birds, Velcro by burrs and dog fur, bullet trains by owls and kingfishers, and gecko tape by... well, you can probably figure that one out. And one of the deadliest fish ever to swim the oceans has also influenced its share of merchandise; Sharks made humans faster in the water with Fastswim Suits, and now they've helped make one of the most rugged smartphone cases in the world—SharkEye's Ru...
As of right now, Guinness World Records claims that the highest human flight with a rocket belt is 152 feet, accomplished by Eric Scott in 2004. But they may need to update their records soon thanks to Martin Aircraft Company in New Zealand, whose Martin Jetpack finally showed the world it can fly—really fly.
The term glitch always seemed best suited for computer programs, video games and electronic equipment, where a slight irregularity in the device or system would create a temporary malfunction with annoying, sometimes even amazing unexpected results. Only the effect was never really considered artistic—until now.
In recent years, communication has become more intimate with the advent of applications like Skype and FaceTime, but what about the longing for actual physical contact? What if you could feel a loved one's hand, or even exchange a kiss? Impossible, right?
The war against machines is near, thanks to Cyberdyne... I mean... the German Aerospace Center. The DLR Hand Arm System is a terminator-like anthropomorphic appendage that functions just as a normal human hand and arm would. Only it's way more durable and can take a beating from not only a hammer, but a baseball bat. Possibly the next-gen soldier?
First, I have to apologize—this is really old news. But when it comes to Nele Azevedo's Minimum Monument project, it's well worth digging into the archives. It's one of the most amazing street art installations I've ever seen.
Being a Southern Californian, I typically miss out on the incredible springtime bloom of flowering trees in the East. But not this year. By some stroke of luck, I was in Boston early last week, and witnessed the most spectacular trees and foliage at their prime—lilac, magnolias, crabapples, dogwood, and many more.
The da Vinci robot has proven to be an endless source of amusement to surgeons everywhere; in Japan, it folds origami cranes, at the state of Washington's Swedish Medical Center, it flies paper airplanes and gives manicures. It's a battle of the hospitals—who can make their pricey pony perform the greatest trick?
As a kid, my favorite thing to do at the Natural History museum was a midday stop, when my family strolled past an antiquated looking vending machine in the museum's musty basement. The Mold-A-Rama machine was oddly shaped, George Jetson-esque, and spewed out made-to-order, brightly colored plastic dinosaurs. There was such joy in watching the liquid wax pour into the mold, and then eject a warm, custom toy—well worth the dollar or two demanded. A version of this tradition was recently elevat...
Here's a two-in-one "tutorial" for you today; how to fold a paper airplane, and how to execute a belated St. Patrick's Day manicure. Just follow along and do as the da Vinci does—our adroit instructor is a surgical robot, with a hefty price tag of approximately 1.3 million dollars, plus several hundred thousand dollars in annual maintenance fees. In truth, the da Vinci doesn't have the brain power to dictate the folding of a simple origami plane, nor does it know how to paint orange and green...
It's tough to figure out what a mummy would have looked like when he was alive; soft tissue of a human body decays, even in ice. But, Dutch brothers Adrie and Alfons Kennis took the challenge. Using techniques that belong to both science and art, they managed to reconstruct the face and body of Otzi the Iceman, a mummy who was found in the Italian Alps in 1991.
Well, maybe not a real invisibility cloak—sorry Harry Potter fans—but a team of scientists at MIT's SMART Centre are on their way to producing materials that mimic actual invisibility.
This is an amazing resource put together by the Monterey Bay Aquarium called "Seafood Watch". You can look up any type of seafood on their website, and they will tell you whether that seafood is good for your body and for the environment!
In the far away land of Japan, gold is out, glow-in-the-dark is in. LED "grills" were recently conceived of by two Japanese designers/hackers for a winter advertising event at clothing store Laforet Harajuku. The LED teeth attachments quickly became a hot item. Foreseeably, one of the two designers demonstrating the teeth in the video above is the familiar Daito Manabe (our favorite "self-electrocuting" mad hacker). Manabe's partner, Motoi Ishibashi, came up with the idea when "he saw a video...
A group of nano-scientists from the University of Glasgow have created the world's smallest Christmas card, measuring in at 200 micro-meters wide by 290 micro-meters tall. (BTW, a micro-metre is a millionth of a meter, and the width of a human hair is about 100 micro-meters.)
Want to be happy every day? here is some tips and techniques to help you keep the good mood using some Colors =).
WonderHowTo favorite NurdRage once again triggers the inner mad scientist in all of us (well, all of us WonderHowTo-ians at least). Below, watch what happens when steel wool- found in every common household Brillo Pad- is lit on fire.
In 1782, an English plumber named William Watts came up with a clever method for making shotgun ammo. Watts constructed a six story "shot tower", consisting of a series of perfectly lined up holes, drilled into all six floors of the structure. Watts then poured molten lead through a sieve from the top story, through the holes of each floor, finally landing on the bottom floor in a pool of water. The cushioned impact resulted in a perfectly formed bullet.
If you're not familiar with the animations of Jan Švankmajer, you're in for quite a trip. The Czech artist and filmmaker is known for his metaphorical, captivatingly surreal stop-motion and claymation films, and is God to many (including talents such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and the Brothers Quay).
Nearly all humans (admittedly childishly) admire the ability to emit uncannily musical armpit or hand farts, or even rarer- mouth fart motor engine aping. However, it is the rare occasion that a performer's gaseous-sounding melodic notes are indeed truly gaseous (meaning literally discharged from the butt-hole).
As Theo Gray of Gray Matter demonstrates below, contrary to what the ads may say, diamonds CAN expire. Especially when attacked with a blow torch and liquid nitrogen. Gray says:
Below, a selection of images from the Nikon International Small World Photomicrography Competition. The Big Picture reports:
Defined by Urban Dictionary, Nerdtastic: Something generally not cool, but to a nerd it's freakin' fantastic. Below, a collection of WonderHowTo's top 10 favorite, utterly nerdtastic Halloween costume tutorials. The clock's ticking, so if you don't have your costume yet, peruse below and get started!
Ever been Privacy Zuckered? Roach Moteled? Friend Spammed? If you've been on the net long, odds are you have — and worse! Fortunately, there's a new resource for keeping track of the web's worst design practices; it's called "Dark Patterns" and it aims to "name and shame" sites that employ "user interfaces that have been designed to trick users into doing things they wouldn't otherwise have done."
Think you're a music lover? Then arrange to offer up your remains as the final sacrifice to the Gods of Rock. A UK company called And Vinyly offers music fans an interesting post-death "alternative": have your ashes pressed into a vinyl recording of your favorite song, or opt for a personalized recording of your last will and testament.
Ok, so first Periodic Tables demonstrates how a McDonald's cheeseburger breaks down in your stomach during the digestion process. Everybody has hydrochloric acid in their stomach, so drop a burger in acid and you can see it happen before your eyes (minus the amino acids a human stomach would supply). Seems innocent enough. Here's what happened after 3.5 hours: NASTY. So my question is: does healthy food look the same? What would a pile of broccoli or granola look like? Probably just as nasty....
Sad story: a 50-year-old businessman recently lost his lover, and grief stricken, created a sex doll replica of the deceased woman. The 18-month-long painstaking process required dozens of photos to recreate an "exact" plastic copy of her face and body shape. £15,000 ($23,169) later, the clone was finished, complete with articulated joints, a titanium skeleton and lifelike skin.
For my sake, for your sake, for everyone's sake: I hope it never comes to this, but you never know. Dire times call for dire measures.
Androgynous. Stumpy. Creepy. The horror movie robot, created by the notorious Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, is projected to be available for around $8,000 later this year.
Nearly every kid wants a treehouse (as well as many grown-ups). Personally, it's one of my greatest unfulfilled desires.
Besides the great game play that made Starcraft great, there is also an equally excellent storyline that goes with it. This why Starcraft stands out so much from other strategy games. Anyone that played the original Starcraft probably still remembers the betrayal and Kerrigan's sad fate.
As a non-cat owner, catnip is a mystery to me. So, people essentially... drug... their cats? Weird. Google catnip, and you will find a whole slew of incredible images related to the topic...
So, apparently in our modernistic approach for child rearing "authenticity", it turns out there is a market for human breast milk. However, for a mother seeking the best for her child, it is impossible to know whether artificial milk or unidentified breast milk is healthier. The FDA certainly does not have the time or funds to step in.
This expression, mitakuye oyasin, comes from the language of the Lakota Sioux, a tribe among the Native Americans. It means "We are all related." It's uttered upon crossing the threshold into the Sweat Lodge, the small, low structure used by the Sioux for their sacred purification ritual, the Sweat. In Seido Karate we have a saying we utter upon entering the dojo and upon greeting others: Osu! Osu is an abbreviation of the expression Oshi shinobu osu, which means "maintain patience."
Not enough bible in your games? Damn right! Until we get Grand Theft Moses this is the next best thing. Think of this game as the Old Testament + Acid Trip + Jpop Male Idols. From the Producers of Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami. El Shaddai is a very unique looking game, very much looking forward to it.
It's like National Cellphone Day. Here are the details for the new iPhone 4, coming out later this month:
Paul Lung requires nothing but a 0.5 mm technical graphite pencil, plus one sheet of A2 paper to create a nearly perfectly hand drawn facsimile of a photograph. The 38-year-old graphic designer of Hong Kong spends up to 60 hours on each labor intensive drawing.
LEGO Technic builder Peer (Mahjqa) Kreuger has constructed the incredible Stilzkin Bridge Launcher, a vehicle modeled after real life ALVBs (Armoured vehicle-launched bridge).
New Mexico native Amelia Coulter grew up amongst the rich creative community and natural beauty of Santa Fe. After attending SUNY Purchase as a sculpture major, Amelia settled in Brooklyn and decided to merge her love of patterns, architecture and design with her passion for food. Thus SUGARBUILT was born. Amelia seeks out the best ingredients available to create wonderful and unusual recipes. Starting with the basics of a tasty sugar cookie dough and royal icing, she transforms the classic c...
