Design - SlashGear

‘design’ Stories

DARPA XC2V crowd-sourced combat vehicle is complete and awesome

Shane McGlaun, Jun 27th 2011 Discuss [0]

Crowd-sourcing for a design is nothing new. It's done for all sorts of things. Typically those things have nothing to do with the military though. It often takes years and years simply to get a design approved by the military and then takes more years to get a functional prototype and it can take a decade or more before a fully functional prototype is in the field and production version rolls off the line. DARPA wanted to find a new military ground vehicle and decided to test a new method to get it. Read The Full Story

10,000-year clock to be built inside West Texas mountain range

Shane McGlaun, Jun 21st 2011 Discuss [1]

This clock under construction inside a series of caves made inside a mountain in the West Texas Sierra Diablo mountain range proves that things really are bigger in Texas. The clock is designed to keep time for the next ten thousand years. It won't be complete for many years to come, but when it is finished, it will be so awesome. The clock is apparently being designed so that the small hand moves only once per year, the larger hand moves once per century, and the thing will ring in the millennium with a special chime. Read The Full Story

Epic Hot Wheels racetrack was four years in the making

Shane McGlaun, Jun 20th 2011 Discuss [5]

My son has been collecting Hot Wheels cars since he was two. He was always too busy rolling them around and crashing them into each other and walls to put the cars into his mouth. I bet today he has about 5,000 cars scattered around the house and outside in various bins and boxes. It worked out good for me since the cars are cheap and getting him one or two each week didn’t affect the budget as a video game habit would. We have also spent countless hours over the years playing with Hot Wheels tracks that were never as cool once put together as they seemed in the box. Read The Full Story

Aussie diwheel is perfect for Professor X’s nemesis Professor Triangle

Shane McGlaun, Jun 13th 2011 Discuss [1]

This contraption is called a diwheel and they have been around for a long time. This particular diwheel has a new wrinkle in its design that cars have today with stability control. The diwheel reminds me of something that one of the X-Men would ride around in. Both of the large wheels are on the same axel and the very cool vehicle comes from students at the University of Adelaide in Australia. The idea is that this diwheel might be the perfect vehicle for travel inside cities in the future. Read The Full Story

Robot jugglers are cooler than creepy clowns

Shane McGlaun, Jun 1st 2011 Discuss [0]

Robots can do all sorts of things today that are very impressive. I am partial to the video of the industrial robots I posted up last month that showed the bots having a lightsaber duel. I can have a fake lightsaber battle, but I can’t juggle at all. A couple juggling robots have turned up on video and they are really cool and take completely different tracks to juggle the balls. Read The Full Story

Bridge shredder concept works with any trash can and looks cool too

Shane McGlaun, May 26th 2011 Discuss [1]

I have a shredder in my office to gobble up all the pre-approved credit card offers and other crap that comes in the mail I don't want to just throw away. I used to just rip them in half and toss them away until someone I know had a thief get one of those ripped in half forms still manage to get a card in their name. The problem with my shredder is that it's bulky and gets in my way. I have a trashcan already and a shredder that would just work with it would be ideal. Read The Full Story

Dieter Rams: Apple designs are “a compliment” [Video]

Chris Davies, May 26th 2011 Discuss [0]

Famed designer Dieter Rams has described how, rather than being offended by the oft-commented similarity in themes between Apple's hardware design and his own work, he takes it as a compliment that Jonathan Ives and the rest of the Apple team follow the same core tenets as he did. Speaking to Co.Design, Rams - whose uncomplicated and exceedingly elegant designs still managed to look fresh and modern, despite dating back several decades in some cases - recalled being approached while at a party by an indignant Philippe Starck claiming "Apple is copying you!" Read The Full Story

Exhibit at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin gets people drunk

Shane McGlaun, May 26th 2011 Discuss [0]

I've been to a few museums in my day and generally, they end up being boring paces where you can't touch anything. In Germany when you visit a museum that has contemporary art not only can you touch some of the stuff, you can get wasted on some of the exhibits. The pic you see below is the before shot of an exhibit that was on display at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. If you can’t quite make out what those blue cubes are, I'll give you a hint. Read The Full Story

Inception chair makes my head hurt

Shane McGlaun, May 18th 2011 Discuss [0]

I've seen the flick inception a couple times now and each time I watch it I figure out a little bit more of the plot of the film. The first time I saw it the movie was weird, but the visuals were really cool. A RISD student named Vivian Chiu has designed a chair that she calls the Inception Chair, one look at the thing and you know why. It reminds me of nesting dolls too, the design is very cool and I hope Chiu got an A for the project. Read The Full Story

Concept wristwatch gets power from wind

Shane McGlaun, May 16th 2011 Discuss [0]

I really like concept products and I enjoy checking out weird watches too. The last strange wristwatch that I talked about was the Azimuth SP-1 that looked like an old WWI tank. That watch was real and was something that you could buy right then if you were so inclined. A new watch today has turned up that is a concept, but has a very cool feature for keeping it powered. Most of the high-end watches have to be wound to keep time. Read The Full Story

Tiny apartment in Spain has all you need

Shane McGlaun, May 12th 2011 Discuss [8]

The first apartment my wife and I had after getting married was tiny. It only had about 450 square feet of space, but it was cheap which was the big concern at the time. A man in Barcelona, Spain has an apartment that makes that tiny place I started out it seem downright huge. The apartment belongs to Christian Schallert and it is a mere 258 square feet. To be able to live in such a small space everything hides away so you can actually move. Read The Full Story

SchultzeWORKS unveils Luna Robot concept

Shane McGlaun, May 11th 2011 Discuss [1]

Many people are like me and think it would be cool to have a robot in the house if that robot could actually do things that are useful. I don't just want a toy robot that is going to cost thousands of dollars, I want a robot that can clean up or mow the yard. I don't think the tech is here yet for that, but we are getting closer every day. A new concept robot has turned up called the Luna. Luna is a very tall robot and has little arms and even a digital face. Read The Full Story