Carbon Fiber Car Panels

Carbon fiber as we know it is one of the most impressive materials in our toolkit. Its incredible lightness and strength has seen it take hold in everything from competitive cycling, to supercar design to cutting edge aircraft. But could it also play a role in energy storage? One team of scientists has been exploring the possibilities, and say that […]

Atmospheric Water Harvester The Winner

Two years ago, XPrize extended its list of pioneering technology competitions with a new contest aimed at the problem of global water security. After revealing the five finalists earlier in the year, the foundation has today announced the grand prize winner, which outshone almost 100 competitors with its superior ability to harvest fresh water from thin air. The Water Abundance […]

Travel App Books Trip Based On Photos

At some time, we’ve probably all seen a photo of some great-looking place and thought “If I knew where that was, I’d go there.” Well, the new Look&Book iOS/Android app can reportedly figure out where such photos were taken (within Europe, at least), and it proceeds to plan your flights. Designed via a partnership between British airline easyJet and mobile […]

Candle Ignites On Demand

Free-standing candles have a tendency to dribble melted wax all over the place, while candles contained within glass jars can be difficult to light once they’ve burned down. The Lumos offers an alternative, in that it’s a jar candle which you light simply by pressing a button. There are two parts to the Lumos Candle – a base that contains […]

Orwellian Smart Mirror

Mirror, mirror, show my reflection; and tell me how to fix my complexion. That’s the premise behind HiMirror’s HiMirror Classic: a smart-mirror with built-in camera designed to help beauty professionals hawk beauty products to credulous, self-conscious punters. But with the new HiMirror Mini Premium, the company’s cutting out the go-between so now agoraphobes worried about their looks won’t even need […]

Can Human Blinkers Help You Focus?

Panasonic‘s Future Life Factory is developing wearable blinkers, designed to limit your sense of sound and sight, and help you focus on what’s directly in front of you. The prototype device, called Wear Space, is designed to keep people distraction-free when working in busy spaces or open-plan offices by blocking them off from their immediate surroundings. It was created by Panasonic’s design studio […]

Intravenous Drips For Plants?

Riga Design and Art School graduate Keita Augstkalne has developed an indoor watering system to revive plants that have been neglected by their busy owners. Previewed at London Design Fair, the system resembles a hospital intravenous (IV) stand, which are commonly used to distribute fluids into the human body. Augstkalne, who studied product design at Riga Design and Art School, created the […]

Smart Textiles To Help Deliver Drugs

At the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) researchers are working on integrating therapeutic drugs into textiles that can release them into the skin as needed. The researchers envision pain medication to be administered as soon as the body severely during a sports injury, or an antibiotic can be released as soon as a wound forms on the […]

Transforming Sewage Pipes Into Stools

California-based designer Phan Thao Dang has created a series of corrugated furnitureobjects from pipes conventionally used to carry waste sewage. The Pipe Collection, which has been shortlisted for a Dezeen Award in furniture design, features a bench and a stool – both constructed from individual sewage pipes. It has a minimalist design, composed of pipes welded together to form hemispherical ridges. […]