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Muji's New Bluetooth Speaker Tugs at the Minimalist Heartstrings. And You Can Tug it Right Back

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In the quest to go ultra-minimal—they're practically channeling Braun—with their new wall-mounted Bluetooth speaker/radio Muji has made an interesting UI choice: The user pulls on the power cord (which doubles as a speaker cable) to turn the device on and off, like an old-school ceiling lamp.

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It seems a bit unusual particularly given that there are already playback control buttons on the top of the device...

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...but perhaps five was the magic number, and the anonymous Muji designer responsible could stomach no more.

In any case, it's got a 30-foot range and comes in at under $100. What's not clear is if they'll let this baby break out of the Japanese market.

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International Home + Housewares Show 2013: Pantone 2013 Color of the Year & 2014 Color Trends

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Following the announcement of emerald green as the 2013 Color of the Year, Pantone, the "global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries," recently released their home furnishings and interior design trend forecast for 2014. Our own Hipstomp, for one, is "less interested in seeing the colors themselves than in seeing how accurate their predictions turn out to be," speculating about whether it's a chicken-and-egg situation: "Is Pantone prescient, or do their declarations actually steer influential designers?"

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It's a valid question, but (to mix the metaphor, if not the hues) the color experts at Pantone aren't putting all of their eggs in one basket. Rather, they've prognosticated no fewer than 74 colors that will be hot in 2014, organized into nine different themes: Techno Color, Physicality, Sculpted Simplicity, Fluidity, Collage, Intimacy, Moda, Tribal Threads and Eccentricities. Given their opaque names, we were happy to have Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, explain a few of these trends.

You can check out the full PDF report (for free) here.

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Smartphone Competition Benefitting the Advancement of Interaction Design

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Now that the "Who owns the glass rectangle" smartphone wars are thankfully fading into the background of the news cycle, competition in interaction designs is coming to the forefront. Apple arguably kicked it off in '11 by integrating Siri, introducing voice control; as we saw yesterday, Google may push into backside touch; and now Samsung is introducing a host of different interaction designs with their latest model.

Unveiled last night, Samsung's new Galaxy S4 has "Smart Pause," which stops and starts videos depending on whether your eyes are looking at the screen (they are presumably tracked by the camera). "Smart Scroll" advances screen content when the user tilts the phone to one side or the other. "Air Gesture" allows users to manipulate the phone without actually touching it, but rather by hovering a finger over the screen, or using a broader gesture like a hand wave to advance photographs. (And it works while wearing gloves.) Lastly, "S Translator" enables you to speak one language into the phone, and have the phone speak back a translation into a different language.

While none of these features are a magic bullet that will instantly win the smartphone war, that's not the relevant point, to us. What we're glad of is that heated competition is producing a range of experimental ways that we can interact with devices. Apple's steady, measured development process is very different from Samsung's "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" approach, with Google somewhere in the middle, and we can't say which methodolody is superior; but either way it's an exciting time for interaction design, and it is the end user who stands to win from all of these companies duking it out.

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Inaki Aliste Lizarralde's Blueprints to TV Show Homes

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We all know TV programs are fake, but for New Yorkers, nothing drives that home more than the sight of the gargantuan Manhattan apartments depicted on shows like "Friends," "Seinfeld" or "How I Met Your Mother." And now, thanks to Inaki Aliste Lizarralde, you can see how absurdly spacious they look in plan view.

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Spain-based Lizarralde is an interior designer with an odd, if fascinating hobby: "In my free time I make detailed floorplans based [on] famous TV shows and movies."

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Lizarralde's not limited to NYC-based shows, nor particular genres or eras; alongside the pads of Carrie Bradshaw are Lucy & Ricky Ricardo's pre-war (amusingly done in black & white), Frasier's luxury digs in Seattle, the house from Up, and even the humble abode of the Simpsons, to name just a few.

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Lizarralde sells the illustrations on Etsy, each in a variety of scales—with attendantly higher or lower prices. That concept, at least, will strike a note of reality with city dwellers: You can have it bigger, but you'll have to shell out.

Via Doobybrain

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International Home + Housewares Show 2013: Sebastian Conran's Universal Expert for Kitchen and Home

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Making their Stateside debut at the International Home + Housewares Show, London-based Universal Expert had one of our favorite exhibition booths. The simple, open plan felt more like stumbling into a friend's kitchen rather than off the tradeshow floor. Sebastian Conran sat patiently at the end of the long farm table staged with stacking tableware, utensils and snacks, unbeknownst to most passerbys.

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Conran, who heads up the eponymous Sebastian Conran Associates design studio, launched Universal Expert this year and has plans to roll out in Australia, South Africa, Europe and America. A play on "Universal Export," the fictional import-export company of James Bond, the simple and functional objects also reference the design ethos of the brand name.

We call this ethos 'Universal Expert': Where 'Universal' reflects flexible use, affordability and aesthetic appeal and 'Expert' stands for quality and performance.

The collection currently has 150 products across categories: kitchenware, cookware, tableware, appliances, organizers and home furniture. The focus at the Home + Housewares Show was clearly on the kitchen.

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The nesting, ceramic measuring cups are beautiful enough to be left out on the counter instead of being stashed deep inside a drawer.

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Build the Extraordinary with Eventscape Inc. in Toronto, Canada

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Work for Foursquare!


wants a Conceptual Designer
in Toronto, Canada

This is your opportunity to push boundaries and explore new materials and technologies as a Conceptual Designer.

Eventscape, Inc. is looking for someone with outstanding conceptual design talents who wants to work with a very talented team and to collaborate with top designers worldwide. The ideal candidate is fuelled by creativity, passionate about design and brings with them a strong knowledge of materials and custom fabrication methods.

All you need to possess are the requirements and background details found on the following page.

Apply Now

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Acme Studios' Germ-Killing Hatch Pen

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Speaking of copper and zinc, those two metals can be combined to create brass. And the copper is kind enough to pass on its antimicrobial properties to the resultant alloy, effectively rendering it a passive disinfectant. That's why some hospitals have begun using copper-based alloys in their lightswitch covers and IV poles, things people touch all the time, in a bid to reduce the spread of viruses.

Brooklyn-based Karl Zahn is the latest designer to create a pen for Acme Studios, and he's chosen to go with an all-brass construction for their new Hatch pen. Healthcare professionals all have to use pens, and they might as well use one that actually kills germs.

As for us civilians, well, let's say you're at the Post Office sending a package, and you brought your own Bic because you don't like touching the germy one chained to the counter. That's always when some grizzled, coughing drifter next to you asks "Hey can I borrow your pen for a sec?" Option #1 is to be a jerk and say no; option #2 is to say "Sure—keep it" and walk away; and now you've got option #3, snag a Hatch. While it's true that brass can take one to two hours to kill bacteria, I'd lend the drifter my pen, then pull my pocket open and instruct him to place it back inside afterwards without touching me.

Seriously though, Zahn has made an interesting design choice that I dig: You can find other brass pens on the market, but as the Wall Street Journal reports, those pens are heavily coated with lacquer to stay shiny. Zahn spec'd out a thinner coat with a purposefully shorter lifespan. The Hatch's finish will therefore wear over time, sacrificing its shininess to let the exposed brass do its work. I like things designed to wear, and function over appearance gets my vote every time.

[Editor's Note: We saw Zahn's work as recently as the Housewares Show at the beginning of the month—he recently designed a utensil set for Teroforma—and he was one of a couple designers who exhibited at both our OPEN exhibition and 12×12 at New York Design Week last year.]

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The Rainrunner: A Portable Way to Stay Dry While Motorcycling in the Rain

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Last year, we caught wind of a company called Roof for Two that had a cool project under wraps, no pun intended: A portable, fold-flat, quickly-deployable rain shield for a motorcycle. We contacted them, but they couldn't send us video or images of it at the time, as they were in the midst of applying for both a design patent and a utility patent.

Well, the wait is over: The patents have been granted, and a demo video of what they're calling the RainRunner is ready.

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Would those of you with motorcycle experience use of these? While the concept looks cool to a non-biker like me, the company has been struggling; they're currently lights-out, due to problems acquiring seed funding. Your opinions could provide some useful insight.

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Writing and Research: A New Book from Steven Heller

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It says "for graphic designers" right on the cover, but don't let that segment you out—this book is a must for any kind of design practitioner. Filled with tons of practical advice and nurturing encouragement, you'll find yourself popping it open randomly for case studies, side bars, posters, illustrations... just plain inspiration. Here's a few paras from Heller:

Designers are routinely called upon to make words about the images and designs they create for clients. Writing and research skills area more necessary than ever before. From the basic business writing to critical writing. Writing about design is not just "trade" writing, but should be accessible to everyone with an interest in design.

Writing and Research for Graphic Designers is an introductory guide to various forms of research and writing—and how they explain visuals and can be visualized. It will address communication on various levels and to all audiences: Designers to Designers; Designers to Clients; Designers to the Design-literate; Designers to the Design-agnostic.

Exemplary excerpts from all these platforms and on all these themes, and parse the examples to show relative merits and demerits. It will be the first substantial handbook for those designers who write and those writers who design. It will include some case studies as well as interviews with writers, editors and researches on the process they go through.

The book features Core77-faves such as Alice Twemlow, Maria Popova, Rick Poynor, Ralph Caplan, Stefan Sagmeister and Stefan Bucher. (Core77's Allan Chochinov is in the mix as well.)

Go ahead and buy it now!

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Writing and Research: A New Book from Steven Heller

0
0

writing-and-research.png

It says "for graphic designers" right on the cover, but don't let that segment you out—this book is a must for any kind of design practitioner. Filled with tons of practical advice and nurturing encouragement, you'll find yourself popping it open randomly for case studies, side bars, posters, illustrations... just plain inspiration. Here's a few paras from Heller:

Designers are routinely called upon to make words about the images and designs they create for clients. Writing and research skills area more necessary than ever before. From the basic business writing to critical writing. Writing about design is not just "trade" writing, but should be accessible to everyone with an interest in design.

Writing and Research for Graphic Designers is an introductory guide to various forms of research and writing—and how they explain visuals and can be visualized. It will address communication on various levels and to all audiences: Designers to Designers; Designers to Clients; Designers to the Design-literate; Designers to the Design-agnostic.

Exemplary excerpts from all these platforms and on all these themes, and parse the examples to show relative merits and demerits. It will be the first substantial handbook for those designers who write and those writers who design. It will include some case studies as well as interviews with writers, editors and researches on the process they go through.

The book features Core77-faves such as Alice Twemlow, Maria Popova, Rick Poynor, Ralph Caplan, Stefan Sagmeister and Stefan Bucher. (Core77's Allan Chochinov is in the mix as well.)

Go ahead and buy it now!

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International Home + Housewares Show 2013: New from Alessi - Small Furniture, Designer Collaborations & More

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The Alessi booth is always a welcome sight at any given design show or exhibition, for both the fun products on display and the friendly folks behind the brand. We caught up with President Alessio Alessi on multiple occasions last year: first in Miami (along with his son Giovanni) and at last year's Housewares Show a few months later.

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This time around, we went for a good ol' fashioned sit-down interview with Alessio at McCormick Place, where he gladly explained their latest collection.

Core77: Hi Alessio. How's it going?

Alessio Alessi: It's good, thank you.

How long are you here?

[Just for two days]—I came on Friday, and I leave today.

But it is very interesting for me, because we just had a long period of different exhibitions in Europe, starting in January, in Paris, then Milan and in Frankfurt. And now this one in the U.S. is very important for me, to see the difference in the kind of exhibitions.

Alessi-ToyoIto-MuSilverware.jpg"Mu" silverware by 2013 Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito - the hexagonal handles refer to Ito design for the Museum of Architecture, while the spoon refers to a ginkgo leaf

How does this [the Housewares Show] compare to, say, Ambiente in Frankfurt?

It's quite different, yes. There are a lot more typologies shown at Ambiente than here. Here it seems more specialized in kitchen.

So what does Alessi have in store for us this year?

We are launching a line of small furniture, and this is a project? for the future also, to ... this line of furniture [that we are .

We are starting a new project, and we hope to present it [at] the next Salone de Mobile in Italy, but not for this year—in 2014.

You have to keep in mind that when we realize a new idea from the design, it takes a long time to become a reality of the object—an average of two years. At this moment, we have selected the original designs and we are working on how to produce it.

Alessi-ClaudiaRaimondo-Joyn1Bowl.jpgMore on the "Joy N.1" bowl below...

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Core77 Design Awards 2013: Better Late Than Never-- Deadline for Submissions Extended to Next Tuesday, March 26

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If you haven't heard the news about the deadline extension yet, you're in luck! Now that the deadline to submit your work for consideration in the 2013 Core77 Design Awards has been extended to Tuesday, March 26th at 8PM Eastern, those of you who thought you wouldn't have a chance to show off your mad design skills this year can enjoy that huge sigh of relief. With the extra time, you can get busy making sure your work is up to snuff for submission.

Just don't let procrastination or distraction get the best of you this time around, because this deadline is set in stone! (I know we said that about the last one, but this time, we're serious.)

We can't wait to see all the rest of your entries over the next eight days!

» Enter your best work today!

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Production Methods vs. Piracy: New York Aims to Shoot Down Forgeries with Lasers

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A driver's license is meant to be induplicable, so you might ask why on Earth New York State has decided to switch the headshots from color to black and white. Surely a greyscale image is easier to knock off than a color one? That's true with printed images, but the headshots on the new licenses will use a more esoteric production method: Lasers.

In a bid to eliminate forgery, the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles will still capture your image with a conventional camera—but a high-end laser engraver will then burn your mug onto a polycarbonate sheet. While the official language is understandably vague, it appears polycarbonate was chosen because it can essentially be fused shut—unlike earlier, laminated versions of driver's licenses. As anyone who's ever owned a skateboard or abused a piece of plywood knows, laminated layers can be separated. In the case of licenses, that separation allowed tampering that a polycarbonate material would preclude. A host of other identifying measures not subject to public scrutiny are to also be embedded within the material.

One thing we're curious about is how thick the cards are, and how much the new, stiffer material will flex inside a wallet you're sitting on. "The new cards are so stiff," the Times reports, "that they sound like a compact disc when dropped."

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International Home + Housewares Show 2013: You Can Never Have Too Many Cooking Appliances in the Kitchen

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I've used or otherwise come across Bosch power tools but was less familiar with the company's various other industrial and commercial offerings. In addition to being the world's biggest supplier of automotive components, Bosch has applied their engineering and manufacturing know-how to several countertop kitchen appliances, of which the MUM 5 is the latest model.

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Gary Leavitt of L'Chef (U.S. distributor of Bosch kitchen appliances, as well as L'Equip and Nutrimill) also related, in so many words, that founder Robert Bosch's last will and testament "stipulated that the earnings of the [private] company should be allocated to charitable causes." (From the Wikipedia entry, which has a badass portrait of Bobby Bosch back in the day, c. 1888.)

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L'Chef also distributes the Nutrimill Grain Mill, which can be used to turn a variety of dry / non-oily grains into flour or cereal. This apparently is a fairly common practice in Europe, but I can easily see it catching on Stateside, what with the increasing conscientiousness about how and what we eat. (I was unable to find information about the model pictured above and featured in the video below, so you'll have to contact them for more details—assuming the Housewares Show went well, they may be available at a retailer near you.)

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See both products in action:

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Philips' Minimalist, Monolithic DesignLine TVs

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If I've learned anything from watching movies, it is that you usually get involved in a motorcycle chase through narrow European alleys at the same time that two workmen are transporting a large sheet of glass. I believe this will change, and in the future it will be two workmen transporting a DesignLine television.

With 46" and 55" screens, Philips' new DesignLine TVs might not be as large as Samsung's recently-unveiled behemoths, but they arguably have a more elegant design approach. Whereas Samsung's designers created metal frames—albeit sleek, sexy ones—to support the screen, Philips has adopted a monolithic approach for theirs. It simply looks like a gi-normous piece of glass leaning against the wall.

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Cynical industrial designers will see this as the World's Simplest CAD Job, but there was a quite a bit more to it than that, as you'll see in the video below.

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Rethinking Design Thinking

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OK, I take it back. Well, some of it anyway.

In June, 2010, I posted an essay on Core77 entitled "Design Thinking: A Useful Myth." (Got a lot of responses, that one did.) Since my essay was posted, I keep encountering people who jump to solutions and who fail to question assumptions—engineers, business people, and yes, designers (and design students). These encounters made me reconsider. I observed design students who were acting mindlessly, simply doing their assignments as presented. No creativity, no imagination, no questioning. That's not what design thinking is about. As a result, I have changed my mind: Design Thinking really is special. Alas, it isn't embraced by all designers, but where it exists, it is powerful. However, if we call this "design thinking," then shouldn't all designers do it?

I am here to say that I now have rethought my position. I still stand by the major points of the earlier essay, but I have changed the conclusion. As a result, the essay should really be titled: Design Thinking: An Essential Tool. Let me explain.

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International Home + Housewares Show 2013: Countertop Gardens and Kitchen Farming

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As Americans become more conscious of food politics and increasingly seek out local ingredients, one of my favorite trends of recent years is countertop gardening kits. What's more local than your own kitchen? Perfect for small spaces and urban dwellers, the idea of growing your own greens indoors is not new, but the most recent offerings are less complicated and more thoughtfully designed.

As we reported last week with Click and Grow's, designers have invested time into creating beautiful countertop gardening systems that turn the blackest thumbs, green. I particularly love the Grow Green terracotta boxes from Swedish design duo, Cult Design. The stacking boxes contain the right amount of moisture to cultivate varying sprouts—alfalfa, broccoli sprouts, beans and more. Their "kitchen farming" line of products are simple and functional.

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Back to the Roots, a young startup from two UC Berkeley graduates, diverts and reuses 3.6 million pounds of coffee grounds a year as soil in their Mushroom Kits. Each Mushroom kit grows up to 1.5 pounds of pearl oyster mushrooms right from the box.

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Bring Your Graphic Talents to the Team at Cars.com in Chicago, Illinois

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Work for Foursquare!


wants a Graphic Designer
in Chicago, Illinois

Do you dream in Pantone colors? Are you constantly critiquing the font, leading and kerning of restaurant menus and wedding invites? Do you see a website and think "Wow...I could have done better than that!"? If so, Team IDEA, the in-house creative services and events department for Cars.com, wants to meet you... and hire you!

They are seeking a talented, creative and visionary graphic designer to bring concepts to life as a visual storyteller. The ideal candidate will possess multi-faceted design experience - traditional and interactive - as well as a client-first focused attitude. Keep reading to find out if you're the designer they seek.

Apply Now

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Design Salary Infographic - The 2013 Creative Employment Snapshot

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Coroflot Creative Employment Snapshot

For more than a decade, we've been gathering and organizing salary and career data from creative professionals all over the world through our Design Salary Guide. Today we are proud to present The Creative Employment Snapshot, an infographic presentation of the current state of employment in design, creative and interaction fields based on more than ten thousand submissions to the Design Salary Guide.

The infographic (designed by Corolfot's own Tim Biery) includes brand new data points and comparisons, and features a design inspired by the new UI introduced during the 2012 Design Salary Guide re-launch. We examined elements of the creative employment experience that include, and go beyond, current and potential earnings, thus answering questions that are critical to both working creative professionals and the employers who need to hire them.

Check out the Creative Employment Snapshot here. Remember, the more creative professionals who add their information to the Design Salary Guide, the more accurate and insightful our results become, so don't forget to add your entry and share the Snapshot with others!

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How a Doctor's Five-Minute, $15 iPhone Hack Could Affect 600 Million Lives

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Despite ubiquitous assurances that "There's an app for that," one thing not included in the "that" is the detection of soil-transmitted helminths in human beings. (Helminths are the scientific name for hookworms and their nasty little friends.) Hookworm is a particular problem in developing nations without access to proper medical screening facilities, and Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a Canadian internal medicine specialist, figured out a clever way to tackle that with an extraordinarily simple smartphone hack.

We transformed a mobile phone into a microscope by temporarily mounting a 3-mm ball lens (Edmund Optics, Barrington, NJ) to the camera of an iPhone 4S (Apple, Cupertino, CA) with double-sided tape (3M, St. Paul, MN)... A small hole was punctured in the middle of the double-sided tape, and the ball lens was positioned in this hole. The ball lens was then centered over the iPhone camera lens, with the tape holding the lens to the camera for stability.

Kato-Katz thick smear slides were directly placed up against the double-sided tape, such that a small space less than 1 mm separated the lens from the slide (Figure 1). The mobile phone microscope was placed on top of a slide, which was illuminated from below by a generic, small, handheld incandescent flashlight powered by one AA battery. Images were viewed on the mobile phone screen, and magnification was increased with the digital zoom function; we estimate that this method could achieve an equivalent of 50-60 u magnification. The microscopist manually manipulated the slide underneath the mobile phone microscope to examine the entire area of stool on the slide.

Dr. Bogoch then tested his hacked iPhone on samples taken from schoolchildren in Tanzania and achieved a detection rate accurate to 69.4%—not good enough to eradicate the problem, but certainly a promising start. Dr. Bogoch's research paper in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene [PDF] estimates the hack can be "easily assembled in less than 5 minutes at a cost of approximately US $15."

We know you're thinking "Doc, that is awesome—but you pressed your phone up against human poo?" Of course he didn't, the man is a doctor!

The thick double-sided tape (3M) that held the ball lens to the mobile phone provided a 1-mm buffer zone between the slide and ball lens. In addition, the cellophane strip placed over stool on the slide prevented the ball lens from becoming contaminated with stool.

Understandably, Apple, 3M, and lens manufacturer Edmunds Optics would probably be squeamish about running a commercial advertising Dr. Bogoch's accomplishment. But the health implications for this hack are not to be underestimated. Hookworms reportedly infect more than 600 million people around the globe.

If you've been searching for a socially important Kickstarter project, I'd say you reach out to Dr. Bogoch and get down to business.

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