June 23, 2011
This sounds like it has some serious potential. Probably years before it makes it into a plane, but I'm looking forward to that. Here's all of the details from the site:
Why do we need D-DALUS?
Over recent months we have witnessed unprecedented global challenges that range from the oil platform disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, threats from global terrorism, Somali pirates, earthquakes in Haiti, New Zealand and Japan and the consequent nuclear disaster, and despotic regimes deploying aircraft and artillery against their own people. As each event unfolded, we seemed frustrated by the limitations of our conventional tools in trying to generate a swift and effective solution. How valuable it would be if we had an instant response fleet of aircraft that could provide intimate visual coverage of events, even pre-warning or tracking of such phenomena as tsunamis, oil slicks, small boats, radioactive leakages, arms traffic, the deployment of mines and IEDs etc. Where it is too dangerous for human presence, how ideal it would be if we could deploy a robotic platform that could fly through smoke and radiation, enter buildings, recover casualties or hazardous materials, hold and direct fire hoses or deliver lifesaving equipment.
Fixed wing drones certainly play their part. But those capable of large payloads are costly, require large launch and recovery platforms and are limited in their ability to dwell on target. They lack stealth, maneuverability, range and endurance. They cannot enter buildings.
Rotary wing drones can take off and land in a relatively small space. But they are challenged in bad weather, at long ranges, at high speed and in operating to and from lurching platforms such as vehicles in battle of boats in rough weather. The external rotors present a hazard and a strong signature. Those capable of large payloads are usually costly and complex to maintain.
Ideally we would love an aerial platform that can approach as gently and silently as a hot air balloon, can stay in the air like a humming-bird, can rotate in any direction like a football, can ‘glue down’ on the deck of a ship like a ‘tossed pancake’, can see in all directions like a crystal ball, can fly as fast as a jet, is as invisible as a 155mm shell and can be repaired by a local car mechanic.
Such an aircraft now appears within reach.
How D-DALUS works
At the heart of D-DALUS is a revolutionary propulsion system containing a number of patented inventions, including a friction free bearing at the points of high G force, and a system that keeps propulsion in dynamic equilibrium, thereby allowing the guidance system to quickly restore stability in flight.
The propulsion consists of 4 sets of contra-rotating disks, each set driven at the same rpm by a conventional aero-engine. The disks are surrounded by blades whose angle of attack can be altered by off-setting the axis of the rotating disks. As each blade can be given a different angle of attack, the resulting main thrust can be in any required direction in 360° around any axis. This allows the craft to launch vertically, remain in a fixed position in the air, travel in any direction, rotate in any direction, and thrust upwards thereby ‘gluing down’ on landing.
The current status of D-DALUS
D-DALUS is currently in prototype stage. Over recent weeks IAT21 have conducted extensive constrained flight tests in a specially prepared laboratory near Salzburg, including the transition from vertical to forward flight, and are now ready to move to an open test range for free flight tests. In trials to date D-DALUS has met the performance criteria placed upon it and appears to be scalable, becoming more efficient and less complex as it increases in size. It will therefore be ideally suited for applications that range from maritime search and rescue, through the carriage of freight, to operating alongside and within buildings during fires or, for example, nuclear accidents.
D-DALUS next steps
IAT21 have now formed a collaborative partnership with Cranfield in the UK to take the aircraft forward to full flight certification. IAT21 are now working on an up-scaled engine, the external hull shape and the integration of next generation guidance and control systems.
Once the aircraft is mature, IAT21 will explore sales as drones for maritime and land based operations, use in search and rescue, disaster reporting and assisting emergency services. IAT21 also plans service provision. In the longer term the designers have aspirations ultimately to develop a passenger version for use in public transport networks.
You can check it out HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design | Comments (0)
June 9, 2011
This is one of those things that would just be cool to have. Here's the details:
The Exuvius Collar Stay does more than just keep your collar in place. This indispensable gadget provides four more features that are extremely useful in your everyday life.
A built in bottle opener keeps the party flowing smoothly while opposing half-phillips and slot-tipped drivers can tighten even the loosest screw. A sharpened edge helps cut things loose so you can easily get rid of lose threads.
Be sure that this 100% titanium collar stay is the most useful tool you'll ever have.
A set of 2 are $30, and a set of four $50, but the set of 2 are all sold out at the moment. If you're interested, you can hit the Yanko Design site HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design | Comments (0)
June 8, 2011
Ok, so it seems that they only make the seating in this room, but regardless, this has to be the coolest theater room I've ever seen:
You can check out the seats, which are pretty awesome, and more pictures of several theaters, at the Elite site HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design | Comments (0)
April 18, 2011
I've always wanted a cool and unique house. Something that isn't like every other place you see. This is a lot more see through than I would want, but I like the interiors, and how the space is used.
The house is named Casa Mirante Do Horto (no idea what that means), and it was designed by Flavio Castro. The house is located in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The main purpose of the project was to maximize the living surface while creating flexible areas and a good indoor/outdoor connection.
It has a nice area on the roof to hang out, and a nice patio out back. As I mentioned, there's a lot of glass, so the back looks pretty open to the outside, though I'm sure you could put up some blinds. There's a two car garage on the lowest level, a nice dinning area, but the kitchen looks to be smaller than I would like.
You can check out a lot more pictures of the house at the Freshome site HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design,Furnishings | Comments (0)
April 6, 2011
I'm really interested to see how well this would work. It's a 14-inch dual screen laptop, meaning it doesn't have a physical keyboard. So at any point, you can have two touchscreen going at the same time, or a screen and a virtual touch keyboard.
There's also the Acer ring, to control media. Here's a few of the details:
It has a Core i5-processor with two 14-inch (1366×768) LED-backlit TFT Gorilla Glass LCDs, integrated Intel HD graphics, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, up to a 750GB hard drive, VGA and HDMI out, WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0, and all powered by Windows 7.
Acer Ring
Ready for an all-point multi-touch experience? Simply touch open the Acer Ring by placing five fingers on the screen and making a grab gesture and scroll effortlessly through your favourite applications and features.
Virtual Keyboard
Simply place both palms on the bottom screen and the virtual keyboard with a full-sized QWERTY layout, international language support and touchpad instantly appears, giving you the same experience of a traditional physical keyboard with the addition of predictive text input for natural-speed typing while avoiding mistakes.
SocialJogger
ICONIA puts your social life in one place with SocialJogger. Check updates from your Facebook®, YouTube® and Flickr® contacts in a single glance, using the dual screens to check posts and updates on the bottom display and the second display for exploring and viewing more content.
Gesture Editor
The built-in Gesture Editor is a simple and intuitive way to personalize your ICONIA, letting you set customized gestures to launch specific applications, open websites, view our desktop or even lock your computer.
It's scheduled to hit the shelves in April, and cost around $1200. Expensive, but understandable for the two touch screens, and it being the first one of it's kind. You can check out more about it over at the Acer site HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design,Electronics | Comments (0)
March 15, 2011
These are pretty cool looking keys. There's a number of different designs, either shaped or graphical. Here's a little bit about the company:
Both a unique brand and a technology company, Stat Key is for those who recognize and enjoy a higher aesthetic standard. It is dedicated to freedom in design and robust but beautiful mechanical execution. The result is atypical – striking, elegant, and personal. Stat Key is a group of individuals who found our lives reflected a joint dissatisfaction with the ordinary and are dedicated to sharing a higher level of creativity in personal product design. The Stat Key team members are industrial designers, engineers, and business people. All have entrepreneurial spirits. We want to share our passion, our tenacious rejection of the ordinary.
You can check out all of the keys at the Stat Key site HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design | Comments (0)
March 1, 2011
It's not the greatest site in the world, but the rings are pretty cool. They have everything from the traditional skull rings, to the more interesting ones, like the 300 mask pictured on the left.
The designer looks like is out of the UK, and I haven't delved into the web site enough to see if he ships internationally. If he does, and you're looking for something a little different, you should really check it out.
The rings look to cost in the $200 to $450 dollar range, and you can see all of the designs HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design | Comments (1)
February 2, 2011
Pretty simple idea. Take a bottle, cut it down, make it into a glass. Fantastic idea, and I"ll be buying some. Here's the details:
All BottleHood glassware is created from wine, liquor, and water bottles from local San Diego restaurants, bars and events.
BottleHood uses local craftspeople to turn the bottles into great looking glassware, sold by local retailers back into our community.
Bottlehood’s glassware has a significantly lower carbon footprint as compared to recycled or landfilled bottles. A glass bottle takes more than 4000 years to decompose in a landfill!
It's simple, BottleHood is good for our neighborhoods!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bottlehood
The bottles come in a large variety, start at about $10 a glass, so go check them out.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design,Glass | Comments (0)
January 31, 2011
I absolutely love this watch. It's easily taken the top spot on watches I want, and it's also now way up there on things I hope to have the money to buy soon.
They were nice enough to send me the press release about it, so I thought I would pass it along:
HD3 Slyde
A single case for a luxury watch with an infinity of components, movements and complications. Sounds unthinkable? Think again. This amazing concept of Time, born in the fertile mind of celebrated Swiss designer Jorg Hysek, has become reality: SLYDE. The perfect fusion between the latest design trends and cutting-edge electronic technology – revolutionizing our vision of Time at the dawn of the Third Millennium.
'A designer is only satisfied if he is ahead of his time.' That's the credo of Jorg Hysek, arguably the most famous designer in world watchmaking. After a string of hugely successful complicated timepieces – notably Black Pearl, designed by his close associate Fabrice Gonet, and now a collector's item – the founder of the independent HD3 brand continues to stand out from the world of traditional watchmaking.
SLYDE, his latest design, is sure to cause a sensation among luxury watch enthusiasts: traditional, rebellious, sporty, chic… tourbillon, movement… SLYDE unites all styles and types of watchmaking complication within a single, ultra-refined case, emblematic of HD3's avant-garde approach.
SLYDE is a luxurious, sophisticated object – complete with avant-garde technology taken from the worlds of home automation and multimedia – that makes it startlingly easy to surf through the world of prestige watchmaking.
It is a revolution in universal Time, whose only limits are… the boundaries of the imagination.
SAYING NO TO THE WATCHMAKING CRISIS
The HD3 workshops, tucked away in the village of Luins in the vineyards overlooking Lake Geneva, offer a perfect setting for creativity. It is here, for over five years now, that Jorg Hysek and his team of designers have been creating audacious timepieces that blend mechanical complexity and modern aesthetics. Two years ago, the crisis affecting the watch sector incited Jorg Hysek to call his company-model into question, and seek solutions to the global problems of supply and production in watchmaking techniques. No small task.
At the end of 2009, the supplier of movements to HD3 went bankrupt, inciting Jorg to adopt a totally new approach. He returned to a sketch from Christmas 2008, featuring a square case with a screen that modulates according to the time and the user's needs and wishes. Eighteen months later, SLYDE was born: a superb new-generation timepiece!
AN INNOVATIVE CONCEPT
SLYDE takes the underlying principle of the smartphone – the possibility to change applications by merely sliding a finger over a tactile screen – and adapts it to the world of 21st century watchmaking.
Jorg Hysek was inspired by the automobile world ('which influences our entire aesthetic approach') in crafting the watch's streamlined appearance. He came up with a de luxe timepiece perfect for modern, aesthetic, instantaneous time-reading.
The refined, no-frills square case has a tactile screen that moves vertically and horizontally. This revolutionary display means that, by simply sliding across the watch screen, the user can generate an unlimited variety of timepieces on the wrist – corresponding to any event, desire, or particular moment. Creating a range of 'different' watches within a single timepiece is made possible thanks to a range of top-quality virtual modules, all linked exclusively to the concept of time.
HIGH-DEFINITION TIME
These applications, created by HD3 and designed by Swiss electronic engineers, can be downloaded over the internet. SLYDE covers all forms of Time:
The Past, by inserting modules like the automatic count-down from private events, and the chance to personalize the watch by inserting photographs
The Present, with the immediate creation of watch interfaces providing aesthetic, made-to-measure time-reading
The Future, with an automatic countdown to future events as per the user's requirements
SLYDE is a veritable Swiss-made luxury watch, placing all the technological savoir-faire developed for its conception at the service of universal Time. There are no telephone applications, games, or other accessories among the customized modules. All that matters is apprehending Time, whether latent or real.
SLYDE watches are available with cases in black or grey titanium or in pink gold, in the purest tradition of Swiss watchmaking. Straps are in leather, printed alligator or rubber (5 colours). Every component of a SLYDE watch, complete with sapphire glass and water-resistant to a depth of 50m, derives from luxury watchmaking.
This high-definition watch nonetheless remains an affordable luxury: SLYDE is competitively priced at €4000 (download modules not included).
A NEW WATCHMAKING ERA
To make the most of this new-style watch, the owner can connect to Internet to recharge and download, enjoying personal access to customized modules. All the technology used by SLYDE is internationally patented.
SLYDE is intended for people with the highest standards, who are passionate about Time and its attendant technology. Like its creator, SLYDE aims to revolutionize our modes of communication and interactivity. 'We have retained the essence of what makes a watch tick: the ability to transmit emotion!' explains Jorg Hysek.
Emotion on your wrist. Fusing reality and virtual reality.
SLYDE, by HD3. A new watchmaking era has begun.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design,Watches | Comments (0)
January 28, 2011
I'm not sure this is worth $825, but if you had the cash, it might be interesting to have. Here's the details:
Virtually indestructible, the dunhill Biometroc Wallet will open only with touch of your fingerprint.
It can be linked via Bluetooth to the owner’s mobile phone – sounding an alarm if the two are separated by more than 5 metres! This provides a brilliant warning if either the phone or wallet is stolen or misplaced.
The exterior of the wallet is constructed from highly durable carbon fibre that will resist all but the most concerted effort to open it, while the interior features a luxurious leather credit card holder and a strong stainless steel money clip.
You can check it out at the Dunhill site HERE.
Posted by Ghostshark under Design | Comments (0)