Printed Food is an edible material that provides a way to convey the nutritious elements of food to consumers in an extremely compact, visually appealing, and information-rich manner. Developed by Chef Homaro Cantu, Printed Food has a number of possible applications, including the delivery of nutritional supplements and ingestible pharmaceuticals, as well as for promotional and advertising uses.
he manufacturing process of Printed Food allows for the incorporation of text and images, such as the food ingredients, directly on digestible food. Instructions for usage, references, and storage information may also be included. Chef Cantu even “serves” a dinner menu as Printed Food. Printed Food’s stability, compact nature, and innovative communication capability make it an ideal food source for people in extreme environments, such as outer space or countries with severely limited resources. [Contact:
Homaro Cantu Designs, Chicago, IL.]
Labels: 11, food, interfacial, paper
The roof has historically focused on one primary function: keeping out the elements. New technologies, as present in Light-Emitting Roof Tiles, allow the integration of additional functions within roof surfaces. Manufactured by Lambert Kamps, the transparent roof tiles are integrated light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and designed to display text, pictures, and other graphical content in multiple colors. Information may also be animated, such as with an illuminated news trailer. Light-Emitting Roof Tiles also come with their own self-supporting solar-photovoltaic power system. [Contact:
Lambert Kamps, Groningen, The Netherlands.]
Labels: 07, interfacial, light, roof, tile
The BioHarness system uses patented smart-fabric technology in a diagnostic tool that measures heart rate and respiratory performance. Because the harness is textile based, it provides increased performance and comfort over traditional equipment. The device is small enough that it does not encumber or change the behavior of the monitored subject, and it can either log a week's worth of activity or provide real-time analysis over its built-in radio link.
The BioHarness software offers an array of real-time and trend-analysis tools. These options allow a coach or medical professional to monitor a subject's performance remotely between sessions. The software tools wirelessly connect to the harness and provide real time graphical display, wireless transmission to 100 m, and detailed records for comparisons and further analysis. [Contact:
Zephyr Technology, Auckland, NZ.]
Labels: 11, analysis, fabric, interfacial
3D Systems's stereolithography process creates three-dimensional objects using a laser to cure sequential layers of material to form shapes that have been modeled in digital environments. Accura Bluestone is an engineered nanocomposite designed specifically for this process.
Accura Bluestone is an exceptionally rigid, thermally resistant material, making it suitable for scaled automotive and aerospace wind-tunnel applications. Bluestone has also been used in the design verification of lighting components, as well as the production of jigs and fixtures for complex assembly operations. [Contact:
3D Systems Corporation, Rock Hill, SC.]
Labels: 06, interfacial, plastic, stereolithography
3D Display Cube is a true spatial display unit that utilizes one thousand individually controllable LEDs to create three-dimensional forms and animations. The display cube, with its creative use of LED technology, can be used for retail or public display, signage applications, home display, or advertising.
James Clar conceived of 3D Display Cube as a reaction to the limitations of current display technologies. Televisions and computer monitors, for example, can only deliver two-dimensional information because their display surface is flat. In contrast, 3D Display Cube uses a spatial array of LED pixels, which in aggregate create true spatial images and animations.
3D Display Cube's technology is backed by one issued utility patent and two pending utility patents. Upon purchase, the buyer may select up to five one-minute animations to be preloaded onto the device for immediate use upon delivery. A serial cable is also included, allowing users to design and upload their own animations and content to the cube. [Contact:
James Clar & Associates, Bartlett, TN.]
Labels: 26, display, interfacial, light, product
Backlight Images are three-dimensional solid-surface topographies created from digital images. Developed and manufactured by the R. D. Wing Company, the Backlight Image process transforms user-provided images into reliefs within the surface of 1/4-inch-thick, translucent DuPont Corian. The images are first converted to grayscale mode with 256 shades, and each shade effectively becomes a different height of contour.
Unlike other digitally fabricated products that utilize the relief surface as the viewing surface, Backlight Images are sculpted from the reverse side. Only when light is transmitted from behind does the image emerge through the material.
Backlight Images may be created from photographs, logos, or other graphic content. Once images are produced, they can be thermoformed to create sculptural objects and curved surfaces. Backlight Images may also be colored using theatrical studio film and can match Kodak PMS or Pantone designated colors. [Contact:
Backlight Images, Kirkland, WA.]
Labels: 06, digital, interfacial, process, solid surface
While touch-sensitive screens commonly work for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.
Developed by Jefferson Han at New York University, Multi-Touch Interaction offers a wide variety of application scenarios and interaction modalities that utilize multi-touch input information. These go far beyond the "poking" actions you get with a typical touch screen, or the gross gesturing found in video-based interactive interfaces.
Multi-Touch Interaction is force-sensitive, and provides unprecedented resolution and scalability, allowing the creation of sophisticated multi-point widgets for applications large enough to accommodate both hands and multiple users. [via New York University; suggested by David Duffus and Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Copenhagen.]
Labels: 10, interaction, interfacial, screen, video
Voiceprints is an experiment in the translation of audio information to visual imagery. Artist Pierre Proske records a person's voice into a microphone, analyzes the audio file for frequency content, loops the sample, and then generates a variety of textile patterns arranged according to the individual's vocal frequency imprint.
The basic acoustic unit in human speech is called a phoneme. The visual equivalent is called a "viseme," a basic speech unit in the visual domain. Interested in the audio to visual translation, Proske developed software that describes sound using basic visual units to represent recorded frequencies.
Proske reminds us that the use of computing in textile design is nothing new. Woven textiles actually form part of computing history, through Joseph Marie Jacquard's automated patterned textile weaving machine in 1804 which led to the use of punch cards in computing devices. [via Pierre Proske; suggested by Clayton Whitman, Seattle.]
Labels: 12, audio, fabric, interfacial, translation
While new high-performance, light-transmitting materials such as aerogel and light-transmitting concrete compel us to question the nature of solidity, a new technology developed by the University of Tokyo seeks to make matter disappear altogether.
Scientists at the Tachi Laboratory have developed Optical Camouflage, which utilizes a collection of devices working in concert to render a subject invisible. Although more encumbering and complicated than Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, this system has essentially the same goal.
Optical Camouflage requires the use of clothing – in this case, a hooded jacket – made with a retro-reflective material, which is comprised by thousands of small beads that reflect light precisely according to the angle of incidence. A digital video camera placed behind the person wearing the cloak captures the scene that the individual would otherwise obstruct, and sends the data to a computer for processing. A sophisticated program calculates the appropriate distance and viewing angle, and then transmits the scene via projector using a combiner, or a half-silvered mirror with an optical hole, which allows a witness to perceive a realistic merger of the projected scene with the background – thus rendering the cloak-wearer invisible.
Potential applications of this technology include a process called mutual telexistence, in which real-time video of two or more distance-separated individuals is projected onto surrogate robotic participants via sophisticated communications technology, as well as various methods of removing tool-based optical obstructions, such as vehicles that allow pilots and drivers to see more of their exterior environment than is visible through windows, tools that allow doctors to witness an operation through their hands, or projectors that provide exterior views in windowless rooms. [via the Tachi Laboratory, University of Tokyo.]
Labels: 10, clothing, interfacial, invisibility, projection
Printed Food is an edible material that provides a way to convey the nutritious elements of food to consumers in an extremely compact, visually appealing, and information-rich manner. Developed by Chef Homaro Cantu, Printed Food has a number of possible applications, including the delivery of nutritional supplements and ingestible pharmaceuticals, as well as for promotional and advertising uses.
