Tag: Design

Last year a 7.6 earthquake hit Japan's Noto Peninsula, generating a 37-foot tsunami. Hundreds of aftershocks, nearly a thousand mudslides and rampant fires ripped through the region, damaging or destroying over 200,000 structures. Nearly 700 people died, a further 1,400 were injured, and thousands across the region were cut off, locked in place due to unusable roads. Elderly and rural residents had it the worst.A week after the quake, a quadrotor drone buzzed over impassable terrain, eventually reaching an evacuation center where residents were sheltering. The drone was carrying medication that they needed and had no other way of receiving.

In Mark Bowden's book "Black Hawk Down," he notes that young soldiers repeatedly describe the shocking surreality of combat as "like being in a movie." As the book covers events that occurred in 1993, these soldiers have no other frame of reference.The soldier of today grew up in a very different world, and in future, will surely describe combat as "like being in a video game." Particularly now that this EagleEye, an AI-powered helmet system developed by defense technology company Anduril, has been created.

This concept demonstrates how primitive materials can become a source of endless imagination and cultural commentary where art, design, and sustainability meet.

The paradigm with kitchens is that you wash ingredients in the sink, do prep on the counter, then do cleanup in the sink. Japanese company Toyo Kitchen Style proposes an entirely different workflow with their Zero Flow sink. "We believe a truly user-friendly kitchen is one with short cooking paths," the company says, which explains their design.The sink is enormous, at 76cm (30") square. In addition to its sheer size, the sink's key innovation is its

This ExoBoot was created by Dephy, a robotics company spun off from the MIT Media Lab. Originally developed for (and currently being tested by) the U.S. military, the ExoBoot is a powered ankle exoskeleton that lowers the metabolic energy required to walk. Soldiers can march further without requiring extra calories.Dephy has also expanded into the civilian sector, running trials with rehabilitation clinics and mobility research groups. Older adults and people with disabilities are the target market.

Editor's Note: This essay is part of a new series exploring how AI is transforming the way physical products are imagined, designed, and built. Hardware is the New Salt will spotlight several thinkers and makers at the intersection of AI and product design and their insights into this dynamic technology ecosystem. This series is supported by Enzzo, who offers an AI-first product development platform created to support the next generation of builders.

Within the Nike Sport Research Lab is a new division: The Mind Science Department, whose purpose is "deepening Nike's understanding of the mind-body connection." This division employs actual neuroscientists who use both brain and body imaging to "study the nervous system, brain activity and cognition of athletes in motion — leading to unique insights informing a completely new category of products and services to help athletes better prepare, train, compete and recover." Their studies have yielded the Nike Mind, a line of footwear with foam spheres on the bottom.

Panero & Zelnik's "Human Dimension & Interior Space" is the bible for anthropometrical design matters. However, there's nothing in the book's 320 pages about butts (just hips). It's possible that some design researcher will complete what Panero & Zelnik left out, a comprehensive measurement database of human asses, but technology means they won't have to. Personomic, the German company that makes

For certain tradespeople, there's a need to accurately throw a rope over a great distance. Arborists use this Big Shot Throw Weight Launcher, an oversized slingshot, to get a rope over branches:Contractors and roofers use the tool to fire rope over a house, for instance if they need to hoist a tarp up there:The Big Shot has a range of about 100 fee

People get grossed out by toilet-related matters, but the fact is, there's usable data in every bowl. "The bathroom stands as an untapped hub of vital health data and information," writes Kohler. "Every day, we flush away insights that could help us better understand our bodies and our health."The company's new initiative, Kohler Health, is releasing this Dekoda device. It's basically a toilet-mounted (downward-facing) camera that images your poops, then analyzes them using machine-learning algorithms.