David Pescovitz: As part of an animal escape drill at a Tokyo zoo, workers surrounded an "orangutan" with nets and also practiced knocking it out with faux tranquilizer darts. Click the link for the full Reuters shot.
Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

Strap this optical mouse made by Logisys onto your index finger and use the 800 dpi laser on any media (except reflective glass surfaces) to easily control the cursor. The desk, keyboard, wall, even your own clothes will work as a functioning surface. Even more convenient, the scroll wheel and left and right buttons are easily usable with your thumb to scroll and click through your applications. The next step is losing the USB cable it uses to connect and going wireless.

Pick it up from Xoxide or visit Logisys to find a different online retailer selling the finger mouse for around $20.

Filed under: Robots

We're still chuckling about Asimo's sad little tumble last year, but Anybots' breakthrough dynamically balancing biped robot, Dexter, is no laughing matter. While he's sans arms for now, the 135-pound, 5'10" robot is being celebrated for the sole fact that he isn't pre-programmed and can support his own strut -- and supposedly, he'll soon be able to run. Dexter's partner in crime is Monty, a two-wheeled, two-armed bot with one fully articulated, 18-motor gripper hand. Driven by compressed air and controlled remotely by a human operator, both of these humanoid robots were developed with the intent to be of assistance in various household and industrial tasks.

[Via Slashdot]

Read - Anybots' Dexter and Monty humanoid robots
Read - Video of Dexter taking shoves from Monty

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Robots will extend the life of the human being. Once we make this Earth unhospitable for us as we are, we will see a human-machine merger, and those without technology will die out while the fittest will survive. LR IV

The kids with cameras is cool, but I have a conspiracy theory as to the map of the globe below. As you know, there is no orientation in viewing the globe from space, so why is it that the world map always is always presented with the Western nations on top, and every other nation on the bottom? As they say, the victors always write history, so I would contend that the colonial powers of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries who created this map deliberately chose to orient the map with their nations on top of every other. LR IV

Police said the two oils, “Maya With Doll” and “Portrait of Jacqueline,” are estimated to be worth about $66 million.

Fine art should learn a lesson from street art; nothing is permanent, embrace change, what is here today may not be here tomorow, even the work of Picasso...LR IV

AP - Call them the odd couples. A pair of month-old Sumatran tiger twins have become inseparable playmates with a set of young orangutans, an unthinkable match in their natural jungle habitat in Indonesia's tropical rainforests.

An orgy of cuteness. --PL

Big House / Disclosure

BIG HOUSE / DISCLOSURE a 200-hour long house song with the voices of Chicago-area Citizens :: WHEN: March 1st- 8th :: WHERE: Northwestern Univ. Campus – Kresge Hall and online :: CONTACTS: office[at]blacknetart.com (blacknetart.com) & w-leopold[at]northwestern.edu, 847-491-4890 (Northwestern Office of University Relations)

Big House / Disclosure was constructed using audio interviews conducted by Northwestern University students with Chicago-area citizens about slavery and the city’s slavery era ordinance. Mixing these interviews with elements of Chicago house music, the artists created a multi-channel sound installation. The project includes 200 video clips of live art and musical performances viewable from the website. Musical events in the sound installation are triggered by custom-designed software tracking the real-time rise and fall stock prices of several corporations that have admitted to profiting from slavery.

Keith Obadike received a BA in Visual Art from North Carolina Central University and an MFA in Sound Design from Yale University. Mendi Obadike received a BA in English from Spelman College and a Ph.D. in Literature from Duke University. They have received a Rockefeller New Media Art Fellowship and commissions from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Whitechapel Gallery of London, Electronic Arts Intermix, and The New York African Film Festival. Their Internet opera, The Sour Thunder, was commissioned by Yale University, broadcast in its’ entirety in (104.5 fm) Berlin, and released by Bridge Records in 2004. In 2005 they launched Four Electric Ghosts, an opera produced by Toni Morrison’s Atelier at Princeton University, and in 2006 they performed a live sound art transmission from the Amory Art Show in New York commissioned by the Franklin Furnace. Big House / Disclosure has been generously supported by a Pick-Laudati Award from Northwestern University.

According to NMA, CNN is set to re-launch its CNN mobile service this week and has secured car company Lexus as its first advertiser on the platform.

"It will feature a searchable 14-day news archive with over 2,000 stories, as well as a news SMS alert service covering categories like business, weather, entertainment and lifestyle.

The service, which first launched in 1999, will be available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America to all handsets by entering CNNmobile.com".

The top 11 underground transit systems in the world. The London Tube is #1, NYC is #7, Hong Kong is #10. (via rob) (link)

A documentary called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” has become the latest flashpoint in the bitter campus debate over the Middle East.

The excellent Matta-Clark retrospective at the Whitney Museum recalls this charismatic Pied Piper of experimentalism from the frontier days of SoHo.

Over the last decade, the portion of corporate philanthropy dedicated to the arts has dropped by more than half, according to the Giving USA Foundation.

Apparently, this is the blogosphere. Pretty, intit?

There is a great set of pages from The World of Science, published by Golden Books in 1954 over on Modern Mechanix. Th is fellow is soldering [Read this article] [Comment on this article]

I realize the above image could make some people feel physically sick, but I've personally acquired both these most difficult of tastes, and I'm licking my lips at the prospect of a collaboration.

You'll probably know about Guinness, but for those of you who aren't familiar with Marmite, it's a nutritious, vegan-friendly, British foodstuff originally made from the yeast left over by the beer-brewing process. Usually, it's spread thinly on toast, and for those who like it, it has a salty, almost meaty flavor. For those who don't, the flavor is more akin to that of earwax.

In time for St. Patrick's Day, Guinness yeast extract will be used to make a special spread, limited to 300,000 jars. It's available today 19 February 2007 for around £2.49 from supermarkets in the UK.

via The Sunday Times

Convincing the taxpaying public that the Moon is worthy of a human return requires far more evocative scenarios than those that have been have been used so far to promote NASA's Vision for Space Exploration.

Thanks to the lovely Rosanna for all the reBlogging goodness and we'd like to welcome Leon Reid IV, artist and participant in Eyebeam's OPEN CITY: Tools for Public Action opening this Thursday March 1.

Leon Reid IV was born in Richmond, VA in1979 and raised in Cincinnati, OH. In 2002 Leon received a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY which was followed by expatriate studies London, England M.F.A. Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design.

The street work of Leon Reid IV (a.k.a. Darius Jones, a.k.a. Verbs) spanned a decade from the years1995-2005. His oeuvre is characterized by two distinct phases of output. As Verbs (’95-’00), Leon found entry into the graffiti community, proliferating his moniker by way of traditional tags, throw-ups and straight-letters. Leon’s transformation to Darius Jones (’00-’05) produced street works which were more accessible to public appreciation; kissing street furniture and tongue and cheek street signage. The employment of construction work disguise developed by Leon and childhood friend Andre Hyland (a.k.a. Buddy Lembeck) as a means of street installation is the uniting thread between both phases of his work. For more on Leon's work visit http://www.leonthe4th.com/.

Take it away Leon!

For years, WK Interact's massive and strikingly beautiful black and white murals on an abandoned gas station on Lafayette street were a fixture of lower Manhattan. Not just for people who were following the street art scene, but to everyone who saw them. In many ways WK's work on Lafayette Street defined the neighborhood. But then, about 18 months ago, all of the work was destroyed when bulldozers took down the gas station to make way for a hamburger joint.

But this week, we're able to return to Lafayette Street as WK discovered that one of the people filming him that morning has posted some of the footage on Youtube. You can watch it below...

David Pescovitz: Architect-turned-photographer Kazuhiko Kawahara (AKA Palla), from Osaka, Japan, takes simple architectural photographs and then digitally mirrors, rotates, cuts, pastes, darkens, lightens, and combines them into stunning new images. From a PingMag interview with Palla:

By making it symmetrical I confront the natural with the mechanical, the artificial. Architecture in itself is made entirely by people to be used and controlled by people. It is artificial. However, when people come and gather, it becomes like a city, a living organism and the situation transforms into something more natural. My works contain both those artificial and natural components. I’m attracted by the dynamism of the change from a simple form to a complicated organism.

Link to Pallalink site, Link to PingMag interview (via Neatorama)

[Image: Inside the riveted curvature and infinite throughways of Ontario's subterranean generating station, as photographed by Vanishing Point, about whom I hope to post more soon. While you're there, by the way, don't miss the so-called Depths of Salvation. Meanwhile, see BLDGBLOG's own take on urban knot theory, then join our tour of London Topological].

Filed under: Culture, Retro

We've seen him as post-it notes and stage plays, but now Mario has been showcased on college campuses as a large collage of shoveled snow. Bridge nine forum poster buzz, a student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and some friends spent a night creating Raccoon Mario outside of his dorms. In his words, "when you have about 1500 feet of string, 3 hours, 4 inches of snow, and 7 kids ... and nothing better to do ... "

The design was made via gridding the image in advance, with one person overseeing the grid and coordinating where to scoop out the snow. Mad respect for buzz and his friends.

[Thanks, generica]



[Update 1: we made the incorrect implication that string was involved in anything other than gridding. Corrected description and headline.]

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After hitting the Armory, Scope and Pulse art fairs, Team CH has put together a selection of artworks from the major shows taking place in NYC this weekend. The Armory show seemed bigger and better than ever this year, consolidated into the lower level of Pier 94 for a more accessible layout. Scope's new digs in tents at Lincoln center lent the affair a more polished feel without losing the madcap performative edge of previous years. Pulse assembled a great lineup of smaller galleries.

Occupying its own booth at the Armory Germaine Kruip's mechanized sculpture "Counter Composition" (pictured above right) sets simple geometric shapes in motion for a mesmerizing effect. The rotating pieces endlessly disrupt and reform into a diamond shape and the reflective stainless steel surface throws slivers of light onto walls, floors and viewers.—Josh Rubin

Glenn Kaino's installation (left) "Learn to win or you will take losing for granted," presented by The Project Gallery is an eye catching 7 3/4' x 7 3/4' chess board made of wood and wood crates. Playing with the classic theme of good vs. evil, the pieces are cast bronze depicting different hand gestures with both negative or positive connotations, depending on which "team" you are on. Click on image for a detailed view.—Tim Yu

The first piece I saw walking into the Armory remains one of my favorites. Giusseppe Gabellone at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris exhibited a vertical structure made of cut mirrors affixed to a wooden structure (above right, click for detail). Untitled, the work measures 102"x62"x62." Looking at the structure transforms and divides the space offering a kaleidoscope-like view while maintaining an aggressive stance.—TY

From a series called "Sneak Like a Panther," Nina Braun's knit and felt sneakers (pictured above left), exhibited at Scope with Helium Cowboy, are hard to resist. Emulating various brands—from Nike to Etnies—the shoes look goofy and lopsided in their new form. —Ami Kealoha

Of the many porcelain and hard clay sculptures at this year's Armory, one of our favorites is this porcelain piece by Chinese artists Liu Jianhua presented by Arario Gallery from Seoul, South Korea. The well-dressed ladies recline in such natural and relaxed positions—yet they are headless. Adding to the mystery of the piece, it's presented on an antique oriental plate.—TY

Zadok Ben-David's stainless steel sculptures, called "Autumn Reflections," are finely detailed representations of trees and their shadows in miniature—each tree is about 4" tall. Shown with Seoul's Janet Oh Gallery at Scope, each tree is an elegant construction made from a single piece of metal.—AK

Hyper-real and tiny (this piece, pictured above left, measures just 6"x4"), Mike Bayne's oil paintings depict mundane portraits of American domestic architecture, most often the single-family home. —Jonah Samson

My favorite piece in the Armory, Daniel Zeller's meticulously rendered works (pictured, above right) reference topographical maps, satellite images and undefined organic forms. The resulting otherworldly landscapes are far, far better seen in person. —JR

Cory Doctorow:
Matthew Gale's prizewinning design for a jacket for people who sleep on public transit is exactly what I need. The jacket has a high, rigid collar that can be raised to keep your head upright while you snooze, like a cervical collar for spinal injuries. I spend a lot of time trying to sleep in airport lounges, planes, etc, and something like this would be a godsend. I'd buy it in a second. Link (via Gizmodo)

Chockstone has a homemade rock climbing wall you can install in your home --

The "Woodie", or home climbing wall is a project many a climber has dreamed into existence. Late night sketches on the back of drink coasters, and avid discussions of angles, holds, size, location, and so on, has lead to many a half-hearted construction. Usually a serious attempt is only made when opportunity knocks. In my case this was gaining a friend who is a builder. He took my hastily compiled sketches, and jumble of timber and produced the result (pictured right), within a single afternoon.

My "gym" is actually a cave, being a free standing cube (approximately 3 metres tall, and wide) with a roof and an inclined rear wall. The rear wall gets the most use because its steep gradient provides a tougher workout. The whole thing is just big enough to enjoy a free flowing bouldering session rather than being reduced to merely exercising the same moves over and over.

Rock Climbing Tech Tips: Building A Home Wall - [via] Link.

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The Bulgarian Identity in Europe

Upgrade! Sofia :: Place: Main Hall, Goethe Institute Sofia, 1 Budapest Street :: Date: TODAY at 19:00.

After two months of absence Upgrade Sofia returns with a new kind of event. This time we have Veronika Tzekova doing a presentation on the topic "Identity Jamming" and the guest artist from Germany Wolfgang Kemptner presenting the project "Wet Interviews 2". Both presentations are united by one topic - Bulgaria and Europe. These presentations will be used as a tool to form a discussion about the Bulgarian identity in Europe, one hot topic right now. Are we part of the Europe? Nothing has changed, but things aren't quite the same after Bulgaria entered the European Union in January 2007. How does that affect our personalities and changes our point of view, even on a artistic level? Are we Europeans really?

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Wander past this ill-dubbed Google store and you'll find yourself puzzled as to why you can't locate that sweet Google lava lamp you wanted as a finishing touch to your bedroom decor. The impostor, a textile shop in Istanbul, Turkey, went so far as to transplant Google's exact logo to their storefront exterior -- why, exactly, is beyond us. "Hey guys check it out! A real-life Google store -- let's grab some frisbees and socks that say Google on 'em...huh? It's all fabrics in here? Wait, this houndstooth linen is to die for. Three yards, please." Doubtful.

[Thanks, Kirf]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Here's a fantastic collection of paper sculptures from artist Jen Stark --

Jen Stark - [via] Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Alejandro Tamayo is an artist-engineer and a teacher working in the intersections of design, art and new technologies in a country that is often seen as the land of wild cartels, football, the terribly boring Fernando Botero (i'm quoting you here, Alejandro!): Colombia. I discovered his work by chance. He had emailed me to say that he wished i'd cover more of the Latin American art scene. That's something i'd love to do but i wouldn't know where to look for information about what's going on up there (although i read Spanish). Then i realized that the best way to start was to ask a few questions to Alejandro about the lab he's currently directing in Bogota.

The v*i*d*a lab, part of the Aesthetics Department at the Javeriana University, is focusing on the development of new design products and ideas. Guided by a reflexion on life itself, the course proposes to engage with organic (biological) and "post-organic" (electronic, digital) visions, trying to identify new relationships and interrogations that could be translated into the realization of concrete projects.

I had a look at their website and blogs (old one, new one and another one!) and found their work amazingly good.

Just a few v*i*d*a lab projects i discovered and liked:

Prótesis para árboles en peligro (Prosthesis for endangered trees) takes into account a worrying fact: Bogotá is ranked among the most polluted (article in Spanish) cities in the word. This pollution is affecting not only its population of about 7 million people but also threatening the life span of the city's tiny percentage of trees (0.25 trees/habitant, same as Brooklin!), especially those located along congested avenues.

Prótesis para árboles en peligro, by students Juan Mojica, Alberto Sánchez, is a project that calls the attention of city dwellers by confronting them with a tree that waters and shakes itself in a desperate effort to get rid of the pollution that falls into its leaves (video 1 and 2).

The system uses a 12v battery and a timing circuit that controls the two mentioned actions: the shaking of branches and the watering of the leaves. "For making the branches to shake themselves we hacked a second hand Xbox control and extracted its DC Motor with the excentric mass that creates the vibration," explains Alejandro Tamayo. "For making the tree to water its leaves we used a 12 volts fish tank pump and a couple bottles of water."


Prototype and prosthesis circuit

As part of the first Dorkbot Bogotá a working prototype was installed for a whole day in a tree located on Carrera Séptima, one of the most congested avenues of the city. The project is seeking support from the city in order to be fully implemented.

Other favorite projects:

Kit experimental de cocina (Experimental kit for Kitchen), by students: Adriana Cabrera, Iván Salazar, explores the questions: Can we hear the death of our meal while we prepare it? Can our kitchen ustensils obtain energy from them?

The kit is composed of a “sensitive” knife that screams (video) when cutting vegetables, fruits and other food; a set of containers each one with copper and zinc electrodes that can be plugged together to generate energy from different fruit juices; LEDS with different colors that can be easily connected to test the amount of energy obtained and a handbook with proposed experiments.

The Ducha para cantantes (Shower for singers), created by students Adriana Garcés and Jose Avila, is an interactive shower that reacts to tonal levels and voice frequencies. The louder you sing (up to a point) and the longer you do it, the more water you receive. When you stop singing for a while (this lapse of time can be selected by the user) the shower closes itself completely.

It is perfect for taking a shower with your love one and to start singing together under the water. The kit comes with a curtain that allows you to paste your favorites songs.

How did you come to create the V*I*D*A workshops and courses?

It all started about two and a half years ago when I was asked by the Aesthetics Department from Javeriana University to propose a new digital curriculum for design students. Back then I proposed a one and a half year program composed of three modules, having V*I*D*A at the end. Now each program is independent and none is a prerequisite to the other. The Beta version of V*I*D*A began in June 2005, and the corrected version in January 2006, however, it is an on-going process and I expect that we won't ever have a final version.

I move by intuition, and I don’t know exactly where I’m driving the ship, but i try to maintain the general direction of the course: V*I*D*A emphasizes experimentation and reflection with physical and ubiquitous computing rather screen based works, while encouraging a critical, poetical and playful approach to technology.

Who are your students? What is their background? Do they have to be geeks and experts in electronics hacking to apply?

V*I*D*A is open in the 7th semester. Design students (and any other students from related disciplines who desire to choose it as an elective) can enter the program without having an idea of electronics or computing programming. From the first day we start playing with breadboards, sensors and electronic components, at the end of the 6 months program all students have acquired the basics to confidently build simple circuits and even to use and program a microcontroller.

VIDA belongs to the department of aesthetics. Does it mean that there is some pressure to create some "beautifully designed" projects? Or do you think that a good design is part of the VIDA projects anyway?

I think the Department is more concerned with the philosophical aspects of the projects, the motivations behind them, and the questions they raise.

Your workshop on visible/invisible was, just like any of your courses, extremely playful. However there was also a critical approach to the subject (hidden, toxic electromagnetic fields and their impact on the human body for example). How optimistic are you about technology?

I’m rather optimistic in the short term, but quite suspicious in the long term, especially when I remember that our most common technologies, including the Internet, have been the result of military purposes.

We began our past program of V*I*D*A with two questions: the first one
What is life? (the usual question we pose at the beginning, and also at the end of the program) and the second one How to survive a nuclear disaster? This former question motivated students to reflect critically about technology and also inspired them to start developing ideas for possible contra-technologies.

And where are its dark sides?

Carl Sagan suggested that technological civilizations tended to destroy themselves rather quickly, and that perhaps, it has been in fact the case of many extraterrestrial civilizations.

Recent course on Digital Media led by Alejandro Tamayo

You like to make opposite meet: living/non-living; visible/invisible, toys/kitchen appliances. VIDA in particular engages with the living and the non-living. Can you tell us a few words about these concepts? How can they meet? What does an artistic approach bring to the research on living and non-living?

These questions sprang all kinds of bolts and nuts in my head. Here is my attempt for the least messy answers:

With the advances of science and technology, our traditional definitions and concepts are being put into question. What is life? What it means to be human? What it means for a machine to be alive? And eventually, where does the natural end and where does the artificial start? I like to confront students with these questions; and by the exploration of opposites (living/non-living for example) I encourage them to question the solidity of limits. Limits are fuzzy and intriguing, i think they offer a lot of opportunities from a design/artistic perspective.

In particular we are concerned with the shaping of everyday life but we find inspiration from scientific and technological developments, which usually take place in laboratories and specialized centers way detached from everyday life and not concerned with their cultural implications. In a certain way, VIDA is at the union of opposites and therefore encourages the blurring of solid categories and limits.

How can these opposite aspects meet?

From oriental religious philosophies like Hinduism, Taoism or Budhism we have learned that everything is in constant transformation, opposites meet eventually because they are complementary. Remember for example the Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang that represents the “two primal opposing but complementary forces found in all things in the universe”, part of yin is in yang and vice versa. Also, from Hindu mythology, the cosmic dance of Shiva represents the rhythmic process of life and death, the union of opposites.

Eventually everything is connected.

Abstract Picture

What does an artistic approach bring to the research on living and non-living (in comparison with scientific research)?

This is also a very good question. I believe artists can bring new research processes that are highly subjective and not constrained by predefined scientific goals. But also a critical distance, humor, and in general a cultural perspective that is essential in helping to close the gap between new scientific discoveries and technologies and the everyday life.

In one of the emails we exchanged you told me that the Columbian art scene has more to offer than Botero. Could you name us some Colombian artists who deserve to receive more attention from us?

I find the works of Maria Fernanda Cardozo (who lives in Australia), Elias Heim, José Alejandro Restrepo and Oscar Muñoz, to site just a few, particularly critical and inspiring, but there is also a growing number of younger artists doing very interesting things. In the conflux of art/design and digital technologies I’d rather site a few events and festivals that can give you a wider picture: Festival Internacional de la imagen in Manizales, El día del Robot (couldn’t find their official site, but this blog offers a few words about it), Bogotrax and the coming Pixalazo and Selvatorium in June.

Something a bit unrelated before i forget. Who designed your websites? They are really beautiful.

Ha ha, Thank you! I do all the design work and most of the photographs.

Muchisimas gracias Alejandro.

Régine over at we-make-money-not-art reports on Swedish design duo Unsworn currently previewing their new Ophonine Pophorn sofware at the Ophonines at Museo de Artes at Universidad Nacional in Bogotá, Columbia.

The Ophonine software enables mobile users to turn their mobile phone into different musical instruments, record and play sound loops with a simple press of a button.

"The mobile is not just a phone – it’s a powerful and very portable multimedia computer. By downloading a piece of software to your phone everyone could be walking around with a set of musical instruments in their pocket!” says Unsworn representative Erik Sandelin.

Watch demo

You have the power to change. Urban Revision is looking for revolutionary ideas you have pondered to completely revise the way we live in urban communities. Could you win one of three $2000 awards or 7 honorable mentions and influence the future of urban development with your vision of how:

I really do. It is a sofa where "to lower unit cost and maximize shipping efficiency, we designed Oi to break apart and interlock like tetris blocks. A complete sofa including arms, base and table ships in a 30"cube. 135 sofas fit in a standard shipping container." Flexible and can be reconstructed in any number of ways, and easy to get up tight stairs in small spaces. Designed by Winnipeg's Cocoon , who should be able to put together a website that works. ::ilikeoi found at ::IDS

I am just a complete sap for flatpack; if it slides under a door I am sold. After all, good flatpack designs use materials efficiently, can be shipped inexpensively, and require a lot of creativity on the part of the designer make them 3D without looking like 1970's IKEA. Alex Suvajac blends laser cutting with old fashioned sewing. The wood is hand stained and finished before having the zippers sewn directly onto the wood- simply connect the zippers from the three identical flat pieces and "watch your Suvi Lamp come into form....like a spring flower ready to bloom....ever changing, opening and closing to your liking." empty website and missed opportunity at ::Alexsuvajac found at ::IDS

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

When you've already got self-assembling robots and Li-ion batteries, you might as well tackle 3D printouts next, right? Apparently that's the mantra being used by physicists in Israel who have purportedly invented a monomer solution that, when heated over 33 degrees Celsius, would bend and form into the object depicted, theoretically turning a flat, 2D photo into a three-dimensional rendition. Eran Sharon and colleagues from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem applied N-isopropylacrylamide to the surface of a prototype "disc," and "created a range of structures varying in complexity, from slightly wavy crisp-like objects to those that look like a sombrero." Interestingly, a scientist not directly involved with the study commented that the discovery could actually be used to craft printers that could pop out 3D printouts when heat was added, which would surely keep kids occupied (and your ink cartridges bone dry) for weeks on end. As expected, there weren't many details hinting that this novel idea would be headed for the commercial realm anytime soon, but considering all the other 3D paraphernalia already out, we can't imagine this taking too long to follow suit.

[Via Slashdot]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time