For those who love to be outdoors this is not a bad car, great design concept, looks nice (not that colour tho). I can imagine this Topos Sail Caddy Van being put to good use, nice size, with a bit of techno tweak, add in some sort of WiFi capability, video games, boomboxes at the back and when the sun comes out just climb aboard for some sunbathing (of course this is just my idea…). Except one problem VW, we don’t get enough sunshine here in the UK to be able to enjoy your fabulous car, but elsewhere, great!
The Caddy Topos Sail design concept, based on the smallest model in the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle van range, uses design cues from classic yachts and has its multi-functional roof covered with wooden decking surrounded by aluminium roof rails.
The wooden sun deck on the roof is accessed via four matching wooden and aluminium steps in the Caddy’s tailgate, and to complete the design theme there are wooden inserts along the side of the vehicle and in the rear bumper.
[via LikeCool]
Here’s an interesting find for today, the pictures which you can see below are the latest mobile phone concept designs from a collaboration between YAMAHA and the KDDI. These were featured at the KDDI designing studio in Harajuku, and the purpose were to demonstrate the possibility of a fusion between mobiles and musical instruments.
And from the source that I read (link below), these concepts haven’t just got a fancy look, they are working prototypes. The “Box to Play”, a cube shaped phone has to be my favourite, it’s got speakers and a touch pad. A camera is found in the middle of the touch pad, that’s pretty amazing and entertaining to have for a phone!
This is really recent stuff, from the current new series of Fifth Gear, Tiff Needell who is the only qualified scuba diver presenter had the once in a lifetime opportunity to test out the Rinspeed sQuba. It was previously announced back in February, but at that time, the only ones who had tested it were people from Rinspeed but now it’s finally opened up for other people to try it out.
Many attempts in the past have man tried to create something like this, so many concepts in the past and very few have succeeded, the sQuba is the only concept that has become a working reality. The prototype featured, drives on land, on water and under water! Costing as much as £750,000, it’s not something that anyone can buy nevertheless here’s the video, if you’re a fan of cars then you definitely will enjoy this!
The Holeder Earphone is designed by Yoonsang Kim. The idea behind it is that it has been created to not just fit in your ear for entertainment purposes but also to easily loop together or hook together as you can see in the pictures, placed around your neck when not in use so that it functions as a stylish necklace!
In the video below you will see it, a revolutionary solar island capable of floating out in the sea like a giant lily pad harnessing the suns rays for electrical gains. It’s been designed by Swiss inventor Thomas Hinderling, at the moment, a 5km wide, 20m high island prototype is currently being built in the UAE and is expected to generate hundreds of kilowatts of electricity at a price nearly five times cheaper than current electricity rates. If everything goes well, this might just be a concept that could become reality and full production of these islands could begin as soon as 2011. Watch this video…
[via Alternative Energy]
There is a process called the digital textile printing that allows designers to integrate solar cells into clothing or bags by printing fabric that matches the pattern of the solar panel and researchers of North Carolina State University are looking to exploit this idea into the possibility of charging your gadgets using this method in the future. You might argue that something like this is already available (ZegnaSport Jacket), but what we are talking about is actually having the solar cell technology incorporated into the fabric itself and not just having a solar ring wrapped around your neck.
At present there is no news on whether this will go into production of any kind, thus remain just an idea or concept, however the future of this does look bright as researchers have already demonstrated that this method does not cause any harm to those wearing it. The possibility of wearing a true ‘solar energy gadget charging jacket (please suggest a better name!)’ may not be too far away…
Geeks like us are always coming up with new ways to keep ourselves away from anywhere else in the house except at the desktop next to our beloved PC. Here we have another, rather extreme example that I wouldn’t have done, but someone did decide that they needed to cook while sitting at their PC. Their are also instructions published on how to do it over at Instructables (follow the link at the end of the post if you’re interested). The USB frying pan here in the picture, seems to cook rather well in the video, it does appear to take some time to heat up, I would say it looks rather dangerous and probably makes your room and computer all smelly and oily if you decided to fry something up? Might want to consider covering up the keyboard with a keyboard napkin if you want to keep things from getting all greasy!
Check out this video… Continue reading »
