Design

Giant wind-blown ball rolls around and detonates landmines

There are 110 million active landmines strewn across 64 countries around the world, according to the United Nations, leading to thousands of people being killed or maimed every year. Huge stretches of land are danger zones. Clearing those areas is a hazardous and delicate operation that puts people at great risk.

Afghanistan-born designer Massoud Hassani has come up with an unusual minesweeper that uses the wind to propel itself in a search for landmines. The Mine Kafon is made from bamboo and biodegradable plastics. The plastic feet push against the ground, triggering landmines with pressure.… Read more

Unlace: A colorful twist on cord detangling

I had the worst case of headphone cord tangle on Friday, and wouldn't you know it? Just as I had finished unwinding and unknotting, a co-worker showed up at my desk with two samples of the Unlace, a colorful and rubbery new twistable detangler that just kicked off a funding run on Kickstarter.

If I'd had these twisties sooner, I could have prevented my most recent cord conundrum, but oh well... I'm excited to have them around for future knotty situations.

Inspired by the look of a shoelace, the Unlace comes in two sizes -- a 5-incher for earbuds and similarly sized cords, and a 10-incher for power cords and other burly cables. The longer Unlace can even be configured into an impromptu smartphone stand. Both sizes come in eight colors: white, yellow, orange, pink, blue, green, silver, and black. … Read more

Forecast: Cloudy, with a chance of lightbulbs

What a beautiful sunny week we're having here in San Francisco! There's not a cloud in the sky -- not even a one made from 6,000 lightbulbs.

Calgary, Canada-based artist Caitlind r.c. Brown and collaborator Wayne Garrett created the large-scale interactive sculpture by covering a steel substructure with a cloud of burned-out incandescent bulbs collected from local households, businesses, museums, and eco stations.

The bulbs attach to pull strings that together look a bit like streaming rain. The cords allow viewers to control the illumination of the structure like lightning in the lightbulb cloud, which is lit from within by 250 compact fluorescent bulbs, pulling a total power of approximately 20 amps. … Read more

Indiegogo project looks to bring back the pager

Industrial designer Kotaro Shimogori has taken to crowdfunding site Indiegogo to raise funds for a Bluetooth-powered appliance that functions as a physical extension of your smartphone's notifications bar. But if you lived through the 1990s with me, you probably recognize Dr. Blinky for what it really is -- the resurrection of the pager with a 21st century spin.

In a nutshell, Dr. Blinky connects to an app on your Android phone (the iOS app is in progress) that you can configure to blink whenever you want to be notified of a new call, text, e-mail, or whatever. Dr. Blinky can also be set to blink in different patterns for different types of notifications. … Read more

A look back: 36 years of Apple products

A little over 36 years ago, Apple launched the Apple I, a hobbyist 1MHz computer often remembered for the classic picture of it housed in a humble wooden computer case with a carved "Apple Computer" logo.

Apple's designs slowly evolved from bulky plastic towers to rounded and colorful products, then solidified themselves in a place where ultrathin components and catchy colors co-exist.

In the below gallery by our friends at CBSNews.com highlighting Apple designs over the years, you may be able to spot when the collaboration between Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive really kicked off. … Read more

Leap over rivers with this trampoline bridge

Is there anything more blissful than escaping gravity's grip by jumping on a trampoline? What if you could do that while going from point A to point B?

Paris architecture firm AZC has come up with a crazy way to cross the Seine River -- huge inflatable trampolines. Just hop from bank to bank. … Read more

Buzzworthy: Houseflies can now tweet

Anyone out there speak fly? Because I'd really like to know what these houseflies were saying when they tweeted the following last week:

``F`CZHGF`CZHGF`XZHGFDS`XZHFDS`XZHFDS`ZFD`ZFD`ZHGFD`HGFD`HGFD`HGF` HGF`HGF`HF`HF`HF``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

The flies have joined the social-networking masses thanks to artist David Bowen, who created fly tweet, a device that sends tweets based on the activities of a colony of houseflies with too much time on their wings. The flies live and tweet inside an acrylic sphere that also contains a computer keyboard.

As the insects fly over the keyboard keys, their subtle movements trigger not-so-subtle tweets (really, flies, tweeting in all caps? Not cool).… Read more

Asus unveils wacky PadFone 2 hybrid device

If you thought the Galaxy Note 2 pushes design boundaries, take a gander at the new PadFone 2 from Asus. A thinner version of the first PadFone, this device also morphs from tablet and smartphone on the fly.

Now chances are the Asus PadFone 2 will never hit American shores since the original PadFone didn't either. Perhaps that's why Asus, longtime laptop builder and maker of Google's hot little Nexus 7 tablet, decided to unveil the PadFone 2 in Milan. Of course, it could also have selected the fashionable location as a savvy PR move to emphasize the device's futuristic design. … Read more

Need noise? Print a pair of headphones

Design firm Teague knows a thing or two about making things. After all, the company's design portfolio includes (among many other creations) the Polaroid camera, the Xbox, and even the UPS truck.

John Mabry, a senior industrial designer at Teague, believes we're entering an age where we can print out working consumer electronics instead of buying them from major corporations. Built around the concept that we live a "life in beta," Mabry freely offers plans for a working pair of headphones that anyone can print with a MakerBot Replicator 3D printer. … Read more

Flashing license plate frame counteracts red light cameras

Some people will go to great lengths to foil red light cameras. They may use darkened license plate covers, questionable spray-on photo blockers, or strategically placed layers of mud. All those methods are low tech, but there's a higher-tech option on the way.

The noPhoto is a microprocessor-controlled smart license plate. A sensor detects the flash from a red light camera or a consumer camera. It triggers a pair of flashes on the sides of the plate. Those flashes make the plate too bright for the camera to capture.

Besides combating red light cameras, the noPhoto may also find a niche in Hollywood by protecting the license plate numbers of celebrities with paparazzi on their tails. It would also save people who post pictures of their rides online from endless sessions of Photoshop license plate scrubbing.… Read more