Design

Were you one of those kids who saw the silhouette of creatures in the clouds? You might enjoy director Patrick Jean's "Motorville," in which a California city, loosely based on Los Angeles, comes alive and treks across the world in search of oil.

Why oil? Jean says the city needs "oil in order to feed its body, made of streets, highways, and freeways." The director originally created the video for a television channel in the U.S., but the unnamed network supposedly declined the piece after seeing it, so Jean put it on Vimeo instead. … Read more

TOKYO--The crowd lining the end of Tokyo Station's platform 22 is four people deep.

They're jostling for position with their cameras -- trainspotters, parents, and children alike -- to get a shot of Japan's latest bullet train: the Series E6 Shinkansen, known as the Super Komachi.

They all bought tickets for the privilege of entering this part of the sprawling terminal that serves 380,000 passengers daily, and operator JR East has to deploy extra security guards to keep them a safe distance from the glistening new locomotive.

With services to northern Japan on the Akita Shinkansen Line, the Super Komachi debuted earlier this month as one of Japan's fastest commercial trains.

It has been traveling at 300 kph (186 mph) and will eventually run at 320 kph (198.8 mph), also the new operational speed of the Series E5 Hayabusa, among the world's fastest along with France's TGV. … Read more

With 3D printing growing ever more powerful, it's really only a matter of time before a 3D-printed house arrives. So far, we've seen Dutch firm Universe Architecture announce its 3D-printed Landscape House, modeled after a Mobius strip. London firm Softkill pooh-poohed Universe's design, since it will use poured concrete in 3D-printed molds, and presented its own spiderweb-Skeletor ProtoHouse.

Not to mention the European Space Agency's plans to 3D-print a moon base, a sort of extraterrestrial abode for astronauts.

Now another Dutch firm has stepped up to the plate. DUS Architects has announced that it will make … Read more

There are endless options for battery backup devices for your smartphone. There are battery cases, battery packs, solar chargers, and hand-crank devices. But they all have a common enemy: bulk. You have to find the space in your pocket or purse to keep them with you. This is where the Fuel phone charger comes in. It's as easy to carry as your car keys.

Fuel is shaped like a little red gas canister. Inside the aluminum housing is a 220 milliAmp hour battery. It's just over an inch high and half an inch thick, leading its creator Devotec Industries to claim it as the world's smallest cell phone charger. Fuel isn't going to fully recharge your battery, but it will give you an extra 20 to 30 minutes of talk time when you need it most.… Read more

Hotels can be a hassle. You have to read reviews, check booking sites, arrange transportation, and sometimes deal with noisy neighbors. If you got a Hotello instead, you could just pop open your hotel room wherever you felt like it and settle in for some quality work or nap time.

Hotello is a concept portable hotel room and working space created by architect Antonio Scarponi and artist Robert de Luca for Swiss design group Das Konzept. The whole thing packs down into a red trunk with wheels on the bottom, so you could conceivably carry it with you, though it would have to go into checked baggage on a plane, and you'd probably have to cough up a lot of extra luggage fees.… Read more

A dancer takes the stage, melts to the ground, and then rises as a silhouette bathed in a downpour of digital light. This isn't a hallucination, but rather Apparition, an interactive light show by Austrian media artist Klaus Obermaier.

Built in collaboration with the Ars Electronica Futurelab, the Apparition project turns a dancer and his or her stage into a kinetic dance experience that overloads the senses. As the dancer flourishes, a camera-based motion tracking system monitors the subject's speed, direction, and intensity of movement.… Read more

Some people are pros at navigating the New York City subway system. Blindfold them, spin them around, set them loose, and they'll still get to their destination on time.

Others need a little assistance, and those people are about to get a high-tech helping hand thanks to a collaboration between the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Control Group, a technology and design agency.

The Control Group is going big by unleashing a herd of 47-inch touch-screen kiosks across some of the busiest subway stations in the city. Millions of riders each day will have the chance to see and interact with the screens. The interactive machines will replace the old-school maps currently in use.… Read more

Ever wonder what the iPhone would look like with a dash of color? Dutch industrial designer Martin Hajek created a series of stunning images that visualize a colorful budget iPhone with rounded corners.

Hajek -- who originally created the images for Dutch Web site iPhoneClub -- based his vision of the budget iPhone on consistent rumors that Apple could debut a colorful low-end version of the smartphone (with a mixture of fiberglass and plastic casing) alongside the expected iPhone 5S reveal this summer.… Read more

Dutch designer Scott van Haastrecht has come up with an innovative way to spice up his mornings. His invention, the Image Toaster, searches Google Images and proceeds to toast the day's latest images on bread at at 6x6 pixels.

Meant as a school project for a Creative Technology course, the Image Toaster is currently still a prototype and needs to be tethered to a computer to work. The creator explains that his final product will work on Wi-Fi and only needs a power cord to function. … Read more