We've all seen our share of TED Talks, and when the camera pans over the audience, most people are paying attention; maybe one or two have their heads down and are presumably texting something. But how do you ensure every pair of eyes in the house is totally riveted on your project? What object, technology or idea could designer Markus Fischer possibly demonstrate such mastery of that the audience is roused into a standing ovation at just three minutes into his talk?

Well, here it is:

I hate the imperial measurement system, and can confidently say that anyone who doesn't recognize the superiority of metric is a freaking idiot. How nice it must be for you Aussies, Germans and Koreans to drill an 8mm hole, realize you need it a smidgen bigger, and yell down the ladder for a 9mm bit. Versus us Yankees drilling a 7/32 hole, then having to do an equation in your head to calculate if you need a 3/16 or a 1/4.

For the non-mathematically-gifted like me, dividing things with fractions is the worst. For example, when doing DIY projects you often have to calculate the midpoint of a particular piece—whether it's wood, fabric or metal—and I'd be constantly scrawling equations onto the piece of wood I was working and having to sand the marks off afterwards. That is, until I learned this simple tip to easily find the exact midpoint without having to divide fractions.

Let's say I want to find the midpoint of the board above. We take a tape measure to it...

...and see it's 17-something. That's all you're looking for, ignore the finer gradations.

Then we take note of the nearest even number, whether higher or lower than the actual measurement. In this case the nearest even number is 18.

Speaking of eyeballing, Matthias Wandel took a break from woodworking long enough to create The Eyeballing Game. It's a simple, in-browser test of visual acuity that rates both your eyeballing accuracy and your speed.

Anyone from carpenters to designers to architects—basically anyone who deals with creating lines for a living—ought give it a go. Warning: A subset of you are going to find it extremely addictive and/or become hellbent on improving your score. (I thought I was pretty good, but I'm consistently getting in the 4.- range. I also discovered that I rock at determining a dead-accurate right angle and suck at parallelograms, as I keep subconsciously trying to turn them into planes with accurate two-point perspective.)

Play it here.

Those of you enrolled in transportation design programs probably dream of designing swoopy cars. It's a select few of you that are interested in trucks, even though it is trucks that have brought everything—your Wacom tablet, the bag you carry to school, the clothes on your back—to the store where you bought it. The importance of trucks in our product-driven society cannot be understated, yet we rarely hear about their design, or the design teams behind them.

Thankfully, rectifying that is this video from Volvo, where Design Director Rikard Orell and his team tell you about the design thinking—style vs. functionality, heart vs. brain—that went into their new FH cab-over:

We're glad we didn't have to put this list together: Argentinian architect Andrea Stinga and creative director Federico Gonzalez compiled a list called The ABC of Architects, "an alphabetical list of the most important architects with their best known building." They then distilled those buildings into simplified graphics and animated it into a video:

The video was done for fun and isn't meant to be a completely comprehensive list. "A lot of [architects] have been left out with grief because we only need one for each letter," write Stinga and Gonzalez, "and we [made] an effort to [include a multitude of] nationalities."

In broad strokes, mankind's woodworking abilities have gone from 1) hand tools, to 2) power tools to 3) CNC machinery. And although the power tools step was a quantum leap from hand tools, it still requires you physically touch the material quite a bit, guiding and steadying it while performing your operations; with CNC, you only contact it when you're loading and unloading it into the machine. There is a materials disconnect with CNC, as you're not physically guiding the cuts, and you don't even have to be in the room when it's happening.

Which is why I found this human-computer-interaction concept from Germany's Hasso Plattner Institut so interesting. Called "Interactive Lasercutting," the researchers use a self-rigged lasercutter called the Constructable, and require the user to be present during the cutting. Rather than drawing up a CAD file, converting it into a tool path, loading the machine and taking lunch, the user is meant to stand over the machine and instigate each cut, or series of cuts, by "drawing" on the wood with a laser pointer. The machine then translates your sloppy strokes into precise cuts, something like handwriting recognition turning your chicken scratch into typography. Observe:

Hopefully you're able to disregard the clunky interface—all those styluses represent different types of cuts—and weird editing, and just focus on the concept: Do you think this has merit? For single-object production, could this actually be more efficient than doing the CAD/toolpath dance? I suspect not, but there's something I like about being able to stand over the material and manipulate it in real time.

Thoughts?

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Sartre's maxim that "Hell is other people" never becomes more obvious than when you drive through Manhattan. The cabdrivers are more interested in the conversations they're having on their Bluetooth headphones than on driving. Other drivers are texting when the light turns green. Delivery truck drivers stop to say theoretically flattering things to women who have the audacity to walk past wearing a skirt. Drivers with Jersey plates do this absurd thing where when stopped, they leave at least a car-length-and-a-half between them and the car in front of them, which results in box-blocking behind them. Then there are the spraypainted-white bicycles everywhere, left as memorials that a cyclist was killed by a car at that particular spot.

Something I have wanted for years is for this city, or hell any city, to incorporate automated driving. I know the technology exists. Ten years ago they talked about it for highways and they called the concept "platooning." Here's how it would work in the city:

You don't touch the wheel, or the gas, brakes and horn, at all. You don't control the car. Because you're an idiot. And your time would be better spent letting your Facebook friends know what you ate for lunch. Also, computers are smart. So the city is covered in sensors and transmitters, as is your car, and the cars of all the idiots around you. All of the cars know where all of the pedestrians, animals, other vehicles, and cyclists are at all times.

So the car drives itself. There's not as much sudden stopping-and-starting, because the computer knows how to flow and route a bunch of random bits around smoothly, providing something like flow. Boxes never get blocked. Pedestrians and cyclists never get hit. If the cyclist is in the left lane and needs to make a right turn, he hits a transmitter on his bike, and the cars around him make way because guess what, cyclists have the right of way since they're not filling the air with carbon monoxide and because they rarely kill motorists or pedestrians. And furthermore, if you're in a car at a red light with no crossing traffic or people, then there is no red light, your car moves because it can. So you don't sit there for 30 seconds filling the air with more unnecessary carbon monoxide.

The technology exists. But yes, I know, there will be no uptake in New York City anytime in the near future, because we are not smart enough to work out the kinks and convince idiots that this is the way to go.

Sigh.

In design school you've got Crit Day, which is something like a military barracks inspection but with a lot of design terminology thrown around and at least one student crying in the hallway. Everyone's work is hanging on the walls and everyone's models, the paint still fresh, are sitting on tables. The only thing that adds to the already palpable tension is your professor's choice of guest critics, typically his or her peers from the ID world: Are they famous? Is it an honor to be judged by them? Will they be brutal, kind, insightful?

Imagine a Crit Day where your professor opened the door and in walked... Jonathan Ive. I know, probably not going to happen. But last Saturday three lucky children, participating in a design competition for the British children's show Blue Peter, got to experience Sir Ive sounding off on their submissions.

Ive himself had watched the show as a child—around since 1958, Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's program—and he recounts seeing an early example of product reuse on the show that left an impression on him. And in addition to receiving an honorary Blue Peter badge from host Barney Harwood, Ive came with a gift of his own: A CNC-milled aluminum verion of the badge—possibly whipped up at Apple HQ?

To our British readers who have seen the show: Is that the Blue Peter studio that they're filming it in? For a second I thought it might actually be Apple HQ, loaded up as it is with all of that digital manufacturing machinery, but the floor at least appears different than the shot we got to see in Objectified.

As if my robophobia wasn't acute enough, now I have to expand it into a new category.

An Italian company called Almax manufactures the EyeSee Mannequin, which is equipped with a camera behind one eye. Meant to be placed in a window display or inside the store, the EyeSee checks you out to see what you're checking out, and tries to figure out what demographic you belong to.

This special camera installed inside the mannequin's head analyzes the facial features of people passing through the front and provides statistical and contextual information useful to the development of targeted marketing strategies. The embedded software can also provide other data such as the number of people passing in front of a window at certain times of the day.

...[The system can] make it possible to "observe" who is attracted by your windows and reveal important details about your customers: Age range, gender, race, number of people and time spent.

While this doesn't have any practical application in the world of actual industrial design, where the name of the game is precision, there's no denying this thing is neat: The 3Doodler is a pen that lets you "sketch" in three dimensions, something like a 3D-printer stripped of everything except the printing head.

Invented by Boston-based toy & robotics company WobbleWorks in the Artisans Asylum hackerspace, the 3Doodler uses ABS, which cools quickly enough that strands are able to support themselves (up to a point). Check it out:

(By the way if you're thinking of getting one of these for your kid, be aware that the business end gets at least as nasty-hot as a hot glue gun: The metal tip can get up to 270 degrees Celsius.)

At press time the project had been successfully funded on Kickstarter several times over, at $138,000 over a $30,000 target with more than a month left to pledge.

Tonight! Core77's Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club enthusiastically presents Kenny McElroy, Lockpick Extraordinaire!

Tonight's talk starts at 6 at the Hand-Eye Supply store in Portland, OR. Come early and check out our space or check in with us online for the live broadcast!

Kenny McElroy
"Introduction to Picking Locks"
Hand-Eye Supply
23 NW 4th Ave
Portland, OR, 97209
Tuesday, February 19th, 6PM PST

Kenny McElroy is a computer security geek with interests in circus arts, mechanical engineering, dancing, electronics engineering and pie. The pursuit of figuring out how stuff works, especially security related stuff, tickles his fancy. After a year of hosting multiple monthly meetings with guided tutorials on various aspects of opening locks without their corresponding keys or codes, Kenny is ready to show you some fun tricks, challenge your dexterity and answer your questions.

The workshop starts with a basic introduction to pin-tumbler locks. Practice locks and picks will be provided so you can try out everything we talk about yourself. With the progressively pinned locks, it is easy to start out at level 1 and work your way up to a lock very much like the one you probably have on your door at home. Just how much security does that thing provide anyway? Find out for yourself, first hand.

While people are having fun testing their new skills on the provided practice locks, questions about slightly more advanced topics are welcome. Want to see a demo of a bump-key? Or how to decode a combination lock? Can you escape a pair of handcuffs? We will have lots of the most common locks and some of the easiest, non-destructive methods for opening them. Are the practice locks falling open too easily for you? Beat our challenge locks and you will win fun prizes!

Artist: lunchbreath
More: View all cartoons

Ivan Mworozi delivers the winning pitch for E-Ride, a new mobile rideshare program being developed at Mara LaunchPad. Image courtesy Mara.

It's a busy, buzzing weekend at Mara LaunchPad. Nigel Ball, the director of Mara, is circulating amongst the crowd, as are a half dozen mentors, including myself. It's a scene that would be familiar to any tech observer in New York or San Francisco... but this isn't either city. In fact, it's not even in North America: The first weekend-long Mara Business Hackathon has just begun in Kampala, Uganda.

Mara LaunchPad, operating under the social business Mara Foundation, is one of Kampala's premiere business incubators. Along with other tech-oriented spaces like Hive Colab and the Outbox Hub, Mara offers office space, mentorship and even venture capital to new startups in Uganda. Many of these businesses often focus on new technologies.

Mentors Evelyn Namara and Daniel Stern advise during the busy hackathon. Image by the author.

What made this hackathon different from many of the popular tech events in Kampala was its focus on building a business. Yes, a prototype and good design were key, but what was more important was that teams developed a solid business model and financials—not an easy feat at all, given the dire need for reliable data in the country.

"In 48 hours our idea matured in away that would [normally] have taken us weeks or months," noted Ivan Mworozi. "The access to experts from various fields was invaluable." Indeed, Mworozi cited the mentorship as key. He delivered the hackathon's winning pitch for E-ride, a new service he and four others will be developing to facilitate transportation in the traffic-clogged city.

Observing that an informal system of car sharing already exists, they wanted to streamline that method using mobile technologies: "Lot of cars and trucks were moving around practically empty because they had no way of know[ing] that we were looking for them."

Second place for the hackathon went to MyProperty, a new service being built by Daniel Olel and team. Just as E-Ride addressed an existing problem and practice and streamlined it, MyProperty aims to connect buyers and sellers of properties around Uganda. As Olel, noted, many middle class Ugandans rely on brokers. Anyone looking for an apartment in New York knows how pricey middlemen can be, and Olel's goal is to use MyProperty to cut out the middleman and build trust among buyers and sellers (quite similar to RentHackr, which I reviewed last year).

While not all of our readers can relate to the American tradition of tailgating, where we gather in stadium parking lots prior to sporting events and hold barbecues out of the back of our trucks, most of you can relate to loading up a car with a lot of gear, as when you're moving. Anything square and boxy is easy to stack and pack; weirdly-shaped things with rounded tops, like barbecue grills, are a nightmare.

Industrial designer Eddie Licitra's Traverse concept solves the tailgating issue handily. It's a flat-fold propane-fired grill with a slim breakdown shape that makes it easy to tuck into a trunk.

That would've been good enough for us, but Licitra's gone a step further and also turned the Traverse into a handy way to get all that BBQ paraphernalia out of the house and into the car: It doubles as a handtruck.

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A social media savvy, fun loving, swiss army knife type of digital designer is going to have a blast in this job.

Just like the Michael Kors brand, this job is anything but average. They're looking for someone who not only owns their design, UI and usability skills like a boss, they can navigate, design for and create content for all the major social media platforms out there. Success in this role requires a broad range of skills and knowledge that all add up to a complete and thoughtfully produced high-quality web experience.

If you are up for the challenge, throw your hat in the ring today.

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As of today, there are only four weeks left to enter the Core77 Design Awards—we've even integrated a handy countdown clock into the Core77 homepage so you don't forget that time is winding down...

Of course, that's still plenty of time for you to put together a kickass entry, and we've got awesome news for those of you who are entering the Consumer Products and/or Equipment categories: We're pleased to announce the final two jury captains for the 2013 Core77 Design Awards program, and we think you'll share our excitement in welcoming these two design luminaries, as well as the 15 others we've already announced—all in one place!

Hit the jump to see all of the previously-announced jury captains!

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Who said you can't play at work and still get paid? This is your opportunity to take your imagination to Miami, FL and bring your wonderful ideas to life at Premium Toys, Corp.

Not only do you have impressive design and illustration skills, plus a good working knowledge of the toy industry, you can't wait to transform your cool ideas into amazing toys, whether they are promotional or impulse-driven.

This fantastic chance to have a lot of fun in a fast-past, super creative environment is as close as the link below. Yes, that link right there!

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"You can say that 'form follows function' has been abused as an excuse for shitty design and absolutely boring, inhuman architecture." So says frogdesign founder Hartmut Esslinger, a man who clearly does not mince words. Esslinger's Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change book was finally released over the weekend, and there's an attendant teaser video where Esslinger shares five lessons (occasionally delivered with colorful language ) learned on the job:

This is the first article in a series examining the potential of resilient design to improve the way the world works. Join designers, brand strategists, architects, futurists, experts and entrepreneurs at Compostmodern13 to delve more deeply into strategies of sustainablity and design.

When I began my journey to understand global overfishing, I knew that it was a sprawling and complex tangle of intertwining problems touching the spheres of policy, commerce, environment and livelihood. Now, almost five years in, I see its complexity through the stories of people I've met who live in that tangle: The New England fisherman whose house was firebombed when he dared to embrace policy reform. The shark researcher who once used a tag he'd put on a shark's fin to record its migration pattern to then hunt the poacher who finned the shark and kept the device as a souvenir. The old Chinese fish farmer who, in a trick to trump Pavlov, proudly rang a bell to bring hundreds of tilapia called by its vibration to the surface of a pond to feed.

Each of the players in this system has an incredibly personal stake in how we humans choose to rethink the way we hunt, eat and protect fish. Given that 1 billion people in the world rely on fish as their primary protein, and that 85 percent of the world's fisheries are currently harvested at or beyond their limits, the cost of failing is unthinkable.

When we were first asked by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation to uncover new market-driven solutions to encouraging responsible fish harvesting, we did not set out to find one solution for all players. But because we intended to design for a system, we couldn't look for solutions for just one player or user. We had to find openings—stuck points—that once resolved, might prove the giving knot to unwind the tangle. We had to figure out how to design for many.

At every stage of our work—through four distinct project teams, three sponsoring organizations and multiple iterations—we made some right calls and some mistakes. Here's a brief look at some of the insights we gleaned along that path.

Who's the user?

Our process included two components: 1) pattern recognition to identify which problems in the system received ample attention from existing strategies and which were unaddressed, and 2) a "design thinking" process that included sending teams of anthropologists into the field to observe.

The first phase of that process identified the middle of the seafood supply chain as a ripe area to explore; most solutions targeted fishermen or retailers at either end of the supply chain, leaving processors and distributors out of the conversation. The next phase was initially puzzling. Given a target as broad as the middle of a global supply chain, what should we observe? Who was our user? What did we need to see to guide our design? We thrashed about for a bit and sought guidance from some of the most experienced practitioners in the design world. They counseled our team to, "go with your gut."

Since I have the gut of a trained journalist, my instincts told me to go where the conflict was. I offered to my co-lead in the project that the front line of our problem seemed to be transactions—whenever fish traded hands. What did those conversations and negotiations look like? What unspoken context shaped those outcomes? We ultimately dispatched teams of anthropologists to eight sites in four countries, looking for examples of distributors and processors buying and selling fish?