An odd mix of stuff

Are you a bit postmodern, or do you belong in the Bauhaus? Watch six short videos then take the test to discover your design alter-ego.

Natural disasters can happen anywhere with little or no warning. When they do, they threaten community water sources and jeopardize public health by destroying vital pipelines or existing sanitation systems allowing the introduction of contaminants into the drinking water supply. One of the most immediate concerns post-disaster is providing a supply of clean, safe hydration to survivors to help prevent the occurrence and spread of waterborne diseases.

"Water is one of the first things that a victim of a natural disaster has to have to survive," says Nathan Jones, vice president of government and institutional sales at HTI. "Many of the deaths that occur from natural disasters don't happen because of the disaster itself, but what happens later—the waterborne disease that sweeps through the population."

Commuting on buses and trains, even crossing the road, people in South East Asia are transfixed by their smartphone screens, and increasingly their fingers are typing at top speed on their chat app of choice.

Eerie Photos Of Abandoned Airplane Wrecks From Around The World - DesignTAXI.com

What are the greatest global threats to the future of humanity? An international team from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute is investigating the biggest dangers.

And they argue in a research paper, Existential Risk as a Global Priority, that international policymakers must pay serious attention to the reality of species-obliterating risks.

Last year there were more academic papers published on snowboarding than human extinction.

The Swedish-born director of the institute, Nick Bostrom, says the stakes couldn't be higher. If we get it wrong, this could be humanity's final century.

Partnered with Stratasys, Dassault Systèmes and Sculpteo, Designer Tom Dixon has launched the first open design competition based on a modular concept at MOST in Milan during Design Week.

Japanese boffins at Fujitsu have been showing off new user-interface technology which uses advanced image processing to effectively digitise physical content, allowing users to manipulate it like they would with a touchscreen interface.

The system consists of a camera and projector so that a user can select a piece of physical content – for example a section of text or image in a book – by dragging their finger across it, and it will then be scanned and projected digitally back onto the table top.

It can then be manipulated just like digital content on a touchscreen computing device.

Although the system uses a standard projector and web cam, its powerful image processing software is able to accurately map and then detect a user’s finger as it travels across a physical object, at speeds of 300 mm per second, Fujitsu said.

You'll be staring at this for hours! Pop Chart Lab has created a monster print charting 179 games console controllers.

The chart, which is available as a 27x39in print, shows how gaming input has evolved from simple knobs to directional pads to touch screens over seven decades of gaming.

Magnetic putty is just like any other putty in that you can handle it, sculpt it, and squeeze it in a fist as you visualize your enemies. But place it anywhere near a strong magnetic field and it will SPONTANEOUSLY ANIMATE and move to consume anything magnetic in its path like a voracious mutated slug. In fact the putty won’t stop moving until the object has been equally engulfed on all sides. PBS Digital Studios and Shanks FX used the putty in parts of their recent film short SCI-FLY, and just posted this extended cut of special effects shots that explore its heinous capabilities. To be fair, these clips are sped up quite a bit as the actual motion of the putty consuming other objects is only faintly perceptible in real time. Want to experiment with magnetic putty yourself? Get it here.

An object is no longer something you merely consume. It's something you create. Famed industrial designer Yves Behar explains why this shift is a revolution in the making.

Design wants to be free, to paraphrase Stewart Brand. And when I say “free,” I’m talking about the broadest sense of the word—meaning both low-cost and liberated. We’re not there yet, but that moment isn’t far off. What will liberate design? Our tools, for one; they are increasingly cheap, powerful, and available to all. Design no longer signifies high priests at their drafting tables but rather you and me at our computers: 3-D printers are the new inkjets, and the age of desktop publishing is fast becoming the age of desktop manufacturing. Haven’t yet printed your own toys, household staples, and replacement parts? You will soon. And even if you’re not remotely interested in making stuff yourself, you’re probably still quick to appreciate that there’s something really cool about skyscrapers that go up in two weeks or the glass that protects your iPhone.

Tools are liberating design, but so are people. We have become participants on social platforms that allow us to collaborate and customize and create, and in the process we’ve become expert collaborators, customizers, and creators—whether that means sharing gorgeously distressed photos on Instagram or uploading a 3-D design for a Warhammer soldier on Thingiverse, the MakerBot community site.

BionicOpter – Lightweight design with intelligent kinematics

With the BionicOpter, Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.[video]

In addition to control of the shared flapping frequency and twisting of the individual wings, each of the four wings also features an amplitude controller. The tilt of the wings determines the direction of thrust. Amplitude control allows the intensity of the thrust to be regulated. When combined, the remote-controlled dragonfly can assume almost any position in space.

After years of conflict, it can be difficult to imagine the people of Mogadishu enjoying a nightlife.

Thanks to improved security and street lighting, the Somali capital has been transformed from a war-zone to a place where people can venture out without fear.

Anne Soy shows the city's nightlife for the first time in 20 years.

Scientists in the US take a step forward in their ability to mimic the sense of touch, developing highly touch-sensitive transistors.

The sensors, which are described in Science magazine, could also help give robots a more adaptive sense of touch.

Using bundles of vertical zinc oxide nanowires, the researchers built arrays consisting of about 8,000 transistors.

Each of the transistors can independently produce an electronic signal when placed under mechanical strain.

The touch-sensitive transistors - dubbed taxels - have a sensitivity comparable to that of a human fingertip.

Wallace & Gromit creator Aardman Animations has joined forces with English actor, writer, and TV presenter Stephen Fry to produce an animated short about the fruitless quest of the last dodo to find another of its kind.

A British man who spent four years designing and building an enormous diesel-powered hexapod robot admits it has no purpose

'Interactive' fabric that can change shape and colour has been developed at a Canadian university

The project - dubbed Karma Chameleon - involves weaving electronic fabric into clothes in a way that allows the storage of energy from the body.

Uses for the technology include a dress that "changes itself", and a shirt which can charge a phone.

Thousands flocked to social media to 'investigate' the Boston bombings - but they found the wrong man. Should such efforts be stopped?

It seemed like a great thing to fight for,” entrepreneur David Hieatt says of bringing manufacturing back to the small town of Cardigan, Wales.

This clever bit of marketing grew out of the belief that emotions are attached to our favorite objects: “We have the Luddite desire to make a long-lasting quality product. We also have a geeky desire to use the Internet to share stories of products that impact our lives. History Tag is a way to document memories so that they last as long as the product we’re making.”

Using the story of Cardigan as its springboard, Hiut Denim hopes to build its brand around its customers’ stories. Hieatt recognizes that the story of reviving Cardigan is a sentimental one. “Great business is not built on sentiment alone. We have to make a great product too. So that’s where craftsmanship, skill, and quality materials come in.” With 40,000 hours of training under their belts, Hiut’s grand masters certainly deliver a great product. Whether consumers can generate demand through History Tag remains to be seen.

The world's first building powered by algae has been unveiled at the International Building Exhibition in Hamburg by engineering firm Arup.

The “bioreactor façade” has been mounted as a kind of “second skin” onto the sun-facing sides of the BIQ building. The panels — which are more like tanks — contain algae that grows in the direct sunlight. It can then be harvested and turned into a biofuel-like pulp that is burned in a generator at the heart of the building.

The algae feeds on carbon dioxide and nutrients that are supplied via a water pump, and further energy is also harvested by solar panels, with energy stored for later use in 80m deep boreholes filled with brine.

The whole building is intended to be completely self-sufficient. As pleasant side effect is that the algae panels — each just over 8′ by 2′ in size, with a total surface area of 2152 square feet — also provide shade for the building’s occupants.

The building was completed on March 22, but won’t be put into full operation until April 25.

In just five years, Gorilla Glass has gone from a material to an aesthetic—a seamless partition that separates our physical selves from the digital incarnations we carry in our pockets. We touch the outer layer and our body closes the circuit between an electrode beneath the screen and its neighbor, transforming motion into data. It’s now featured on more than 750 products and 33 brands worldwide, including notebooks, tablets, smartphones, and TVs. If you regularly touch, swipe, or caress a gadget, chances are you’ve interacted with Gorilla.

Innovations in automated driving have led to speculation that blind people may be able to take to the wheel. But do they want to drive?

This time last year, Google released a video showing a blind man driving a car. He was seen going to a local drive-through restaurant near his home in San Jose, California, and later collecting dry cleaning without any difficulty.

Steve Mahan, the driver, heads the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center and hadn't been in the driver's seat of a car since giving up his licence eight years earlier after losing 95% of his sight. On this occasion, the only action he performed was to press a start button. He couldn't control the car independently, but the video showed an intent to make driving more accessible and safe for everyone.