The International Home and Housewares Show wrapped up last week and with it, thousands of single-use kitchen products will hit the market, destined to clutter cabinets and contribute to that chaotic pile of unnecessary gadgets and mystery parts.
View the full content hereBamboo Bicycle Club's own Autumn Yard Design Collective is hoping to pioneer the "Bike of the Future" with it's live 3D printing demonstration taking place at Design Museum London.Brought together by their shared passion for sustainable design, technology and education, the Autumn Yard Collective's goal is to pioneer an open source, wholly customizable bike that can be printed in your own home. The 'Future Bike' will be built and tested live for the first time on Saturday and Sunday, April 9th and 10th 2016 in the foyer of The Design Museum in London.
We're on Twitter tomorrow (add us now @Core77!!) chatting about the future of housewares and material technology with our friends at Eastman Innovation Lab @Eastman_EIL. With this year's International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago behind us and the Spring design weeks ahead of us, we're asking the experts about the products and ideas that will shape how we will cook, live and relax in our homes in the near future.
Join Dan Black (@blackblumdesign)of Black and Blum, Fred Bould of Bould Design and Paul Haney (@paulhaney68) of GE Appliances in a wide-ranging Twitter conversation on the connected home, smart kitchen appliances, material innovations and more.
Ready your ideas. Tweet us your questions using the #EILConvos hashtag between now (and even during) the Twitter chat and we'll pick our favorites to ask this month's panel of experts. And join the conversation tomorrow by following us @Core77! We look forward to chatting with you.
Remember that guy laying down the road markings in Italy at hyperspeed? I'd wondered if the contraption he was driving was stock or hacked, but I couldn't decipher the logo on it to look up the model:
However, two sharp-eyed Core77 readers could, and tied the logo to the correct company. As readers Marc and Jacob (ah, if only it was Marc Jacobs) point out the manufacturer of this machine is CMC, an Italian company that's been creating the things since 1980. The logo seems a little more legible on their website than in the screenshot, but I still can't forgive the graphic designer for that swastika-octopus flourish before the letters.
In any case, the variant that Mr. Indrit Mema was cruising around on in the above-linked video is known as a "man on board" striper and looks to be the L90 IETP, shown here with all the bells and whistles:
So yep, the little rolling platform is in fact stock.
The machine's specifications sheet reveals the motor is a turbocharged inline four. Kidding, just wanted to see if you were paying attention. It is in fact a gasoline engine, a two-cylinder good for 16 horsepower, but the spec sheet doesn't tell us what we really want to know: How fast can it go? They'll only say that "minimum and maximum speeds are adjustable."
I think it's safe to say Mema has adjusted his on the higher-speed side. He goes way faster in his video than any of the demo videos on CMC's website—including the one where they have one of their machines painting a Formula One track.
Thanks Marc & Jacob!
This is so cool! Researchers at Stanford University's Biomimetic Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory have cribbed from two animals—geckos and ants—to create "super strong microTug microrobots." As we've seen, ants can do impressive things when they all team up, and their daisy-chaining behavior wasn't lost on the researchers. Thus the team first tried to have insect-like, six- and eight-legged microbots pull heavy weights by working together.
That didn't work, and the problem was because the tiny feet of the 'bots don't provide enough surface area to get good traction. Hence the team gave each 'bot an adhesive base inspired by gecko toes, replaced their legs with two wheels, enabled the 'bots to raise or lower the stick-pad base in place, and equipped them with mechanical winches. Check this out:
All we need to do is combine these ant-bots with the Winbag air shims and we can put these guys to work leveling windows and installing cabinets.
My favorite part about these tiny 'bots is, no matter how strong they are, we can still crush them with our feet. That's easier than scrabbling for some remote kill switch if they get out of line.
Via Gizmodo
Full-time 3D product designer of fun and function with an Industrial Design degree wanted! Designers will work on projects from mass market to museum pieces, so they shouldn't mind getting their hands dirty building prototypes. Candidates must have knowledge of Solidworks, Materiality and an affinity with European and American aesthetics.
View the full design job hereRumpl has been making fun indoor-outdoor blankets since a successful Kickstarter campaign launched them into production a few years ago. Since then the SF company has grown from a small lifestyle brand to a small lifestyle brand with multiple offerings. The most recent release is the Down Puffy Rumpl, a lighter, warmer, and more compact version of their classic blanket, achieved using duck down. Opinions on down insulation run hot, so I chatted with co-founder Nick Polinko to hear why they took their line of water-resistant and machine washable blankets into duck country.
NP: When we released the initial product there were two general mindsets in the industry. One is all about this synthetic, everything made from petroleum byproducts, type of insulation, the other thinks down is the only way to go. So when we launched a lot of people just assumed we were using down, but there are a lot of difficulties in working with down. A big one is the price–it's 2 to 3 times more expensive per square, so to do a queen or king sized blanket, just materials-wise you're often looking at a $300-$500 blanket.
So we were like, let's do down the way down should be done, which is all about compressibility and portability. If it's not mobile there's no reason for it to be down. Synthetic is cheaper, and does roughly the same insulation job, but if you're taking this thing with you, you want it as small as possible and as warm as possible. So this version is a travel companion you don't really think about, it's just there, and so you end up using it 10 times more than you thought you would.
In the last couple years waterproof down has started becoming more approachable, and we made a decision early on to use it. There are a bunch of cool videos that show if you dump a bag of feathers into a jar and shake it, normal feathers will turn into sludge, but waterproof stuff just stays together and afloat. Being a travel blanket, where you don't know the conditions you're going to be in, it makes total sense to expect this blanket to get wet, and that you'll want to use it even if it does get wet, so getting that premium in the water resistance category was a huge factor.
We wanted to take our CNC quilting stitching to a down product, which hadn't been done before. That was probably our biggest challenge, balancing our look and a traditional pattern. There's a reason they're square baffled! The exact amount of down per square is known and very controllable, and we kind of had to break those rules. The design you see now is a square baffle but all the squares kind of rotate and turn. That had to do with keeping all those baffles somewhat equal, and keeping each square evenly filled, otherwise you're going against the insulation! You'd be fighting hot and cold spots on the blanket. It was a fun design challenge to take an equal square area and twist and bend that without changing the area per shape. That was hard: how do you make something with the same area, repeated, look unique and organic and flowing?
The decision to use the roll-top, because it's just one minimalist compression sack. [The blanket] is stored less compressed, which is what you want for down, since if you store it packed it'll lose its springiness over time. The bag is designed so that it doesn't hurt the down, but then when you want to grab it and take it with you, you can scrunch it down and go, just roll and it compresses by about 50%. It saves weight and there's less moving parts. The whole finished product looks really tidy, plus it can clip to your backpack or car or use it as a little handle. It'll just roll with you, which just reinforces the idea that this is meant to be picked up and carried.
These materials were designed for really hardcore purposes, and the end result is that they're really good! Nylon, polyester, fleece… all these things have been tested and they're extremely rugged. Some people might say that it might be unnecessary to use that kind of thing in the home, but we think that the things you use every day need to be durable, and have that day in day out quality. We're all about changing people's mentality on quality–if you're gonna get something you want to get the thing that's going to last, not the thing that's going to explode or break apart. You want to enjoy it every day.
Our superfleece is the embodiment of that. We're taking premium fleece used in high quality jackets, and putting it into your bed blanket. Why do I need a rain-proof, waterproof bed? Well... there's a lot of stuff that gets spilled in a bed. There's a lot more action in your bed and everyday life than you probably realize.
Having a security blanket that kind of rolls with me everywhere means I've found a lot of uses that I wouldn't have expected. Like impromptu picnicking, which kind of sounds dorky, but if you need lunch and don't want to deal with a restaurant you can grab a sandwich, grab the blanket, and all of a sudden you're picnicking! And we're in SF where you're at risk of being cold at any point during the day. Jeans, t-shirt, jacket, year round.
I think this new more portable version is going to allow people to go deeper and lighter, to take it places they might not have normally. Like if you're trekking and don't have a hotel for the night, maybe you end up sleeping on the beach with your blanket, and it becomes one of your favorite memories, like "We totally got shut out but we ended up partying on the beach and it was the best night of the trip!"
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The Down Puffy Rumpl (which sounds like a fancy drink) features the same 20D Ripstop nylon with DWR as the original synthetic fill design, and packs down to "around the size of a cantaloupe." More info at www.gorumpl.com.
We've all experienced the transformative, transporting power of a good book but what about objects that adopt the book as a form—do they hold a similar ability to move us? For years, Mindell Dublansky, a preservation librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Thomas J. Watson Library, has been collecting a wide variety of functional objects that look like books—or blooks, as she has come to call them. As her collection grew to hundreds of objects, she began to notice that blooks have been around for centuries living "in a parallel universe to real books," as she describes. For Dublansky, "eliminating the text and studying objects that are made to look like books, tells me about what books mean to people."
Her collection runs the gamut from blooks used as storage, household objects made to resemble the familiar shape of books, blooks that take advantage of a hollow interior to conceal another object, "punchline" blooks that are made to deliver jokes, blooks made to memorialize or commemorate an event, and blooks used as learning devices.
All kitschiness aside (and there is plenty of it), the sheer range of blooks—dating as far back as the 18th century and appearing across various cultures—tells us that there exists a human tendency "to reflect values and emotions through creating and associating with books."
Although it began as a private collection, Dublansky's dedicated study has garnered more public attention, with exhibitions at the Vassar College Art Library and most recently at The Grolier Club in New York City. Alongside a recently published survey book, she maintains an extensive blog archiving her findings and tracing their origins.
If you look at a site like The Container Store, you'll see a wide range of hanger designs—enough to meet most end users' needs. But designers have created hangers beyond the ordinary, filling niches that those ordinary hangers don't.
The Pantone Universe Studio Hangers, designed by Holscher Design, come in various Pantone colors (such as Keepsake Lilac) and are certainly eye-catching, but they have somewhat limited uses. They're fine for jackets, and they might work well for shawls (which don't work well on many standard hangers). But they're not something the end user would want to use for shirts, blouses and such. They're 2.2 inches thick, which is more than many wooden hangers, so they can only be used where there's plenty of space.
Ace hangers were designed to save vertical space by eliminating the long neck that most hangers have. The design is somewhat similar to the Hercules hanger from Magis that I've mentioned in the past. They can also help with shirts that have narrow neck holes, as the video illustrates. However, they might not fit on all closet rods, forcing the end user to buy a "combo pack" which includes hangers, rods and mounts.
The Higher Hangers take a different approach to saving vertical space; they look much more like normal hangers, just without the long neck. They come in two styles: one made from HDF, and one with a slim velvet-coated design which keeps clothes from sliding off. This second design also has notches to accommodate clothes with straps. The Kickstarter for these Higher Hangers will be funded on March 31.
Designs like this can allow double-hang rods to work where they otherwise might not. Some collared shirts might wind up lightly touching the rod—but Drew Cleaver, the creator, says that's really not a problem.
The Dream Big hangers for women and the Well Hung hangers for men look like normal high-quality wooden hangers, but they are specifically designed for those who need hangers for larger-sized clothes. The women's hangers are 19 inches wide and accommodate sizes 14 to 24.
Adjustable hangers might help other end users who have problems with hangers fitting their clothes properly. The Jori Adjustable Hangers can be adjusted to be 16, 17 or 18 inches wide. (For comparison, the tubular hangers at The Container Store are 16.5 inches wide.)
The Jori hanger can also be disassembled to make it easy to pack in a suitcase. As someone who does sometimes put a hanger or two in my suitcase, I certainly see the appeal of having something that's compact.
The Pliable hanger from Almove, designed by ddpstudio, seems super easy to stash away.
But this hanger is somewhat oddly shaped when unfolded, which would limit its usefulness. For example, I couldn't use it for the clothes I hand wash and then hang to dry; they'd wind up with odd bumps.
The Duo Hanger from Good Thing, designed by Visibility, incorporates a piece of aromatic cedar to help repel insects. This would be an especially nice feature on hangers used for woolens. With insect-repeling cedar blocks, vendors usually recommend lightly sanding the blocks when the fragrance fades (once a year, perhaps) and I suppose end users could take some sandpaper to these hangers, too.
Faktura also makes a hanger called the Duo— but it's a totally different design, made from powder coated steel.
This space-saving hanger allows the end user to keep clothing and accessories together. I can see this working well for items that are almost always worn together, but it might cause confusion when there isn't that one-to-one relationship.
The Phasmatodea, designed by Nicola Stäubli, never went beyond the prototype, but it's certainly an interesting, unique product. This hanger allows the end user to hang clothes from a wall-mounted towel rod by extending out from the wall. It also serves as a hook rather than a hanger when it's flipped over.
I don't know how often end users need a product like this; one thought I had is that it might be useful for hanging up damp clothes in a bathroom. Some potential issues: If the end user's towel rack isn't the right distance from the wall, this design won't work. And I'm not sure I'd want a powder coated steel hanger rubbing up against the wall.
Get the electric kettle going and set your automatic coffee maker on brew—we're on Twitter with Eastman Innovation Lab (@Eastman_EIL) chatting about the future of homewares with Dan Black (@blackblumdesign) of Black and Blum, Fred Bould (@BouldDesign) of Bould Design and Paul Haney (@paulhaney68) of GE Appliances in a wide-ranging Twitter conversation on the connected home, smart kitchen appliances, material innovations and more. Join the discussion by using the hashtag #EILConvos and sharing your thoughts—it's easy.
Feel free to ask questions yourself or answer the ones we ask. Just use the hashtag #EILConvos—we'll be tracking and retweeting your ideas.
It's time for Holz-Handwerk 2016, the gi-normous European trade show dedicated to tools, machinery, techniques and miscellaneous equipment for building things out of wood.
Held in concert with window trade show Fensterbau (whose awesome motto is "The Fenestration Destination") there are over 100,000 attendees here and 1,300 exhibitors from 39 countries. This place is so mobbed that the organizers had to shift the opening/closing times by an hour just so host city Nuremberg's mass transit could accommodate the crush of visitors.
It's a lot to take in, and as with last time shooting video of demos in the packed booths is well nigh impossible, but we'll gather as much info as we can for you. Holz-Handwerk's target market is folks who build things from wood, from the independent furniture designer/builder to exhibition installers to carpenters all the way up to mass producers. This time around we'll eschew the NASA-sized machines that only corporations can afford…
…and we'll try to focus on the tools, techniques and materials more in line with Core77's readership.
Stay tuned as we dive in!
You probably don't expect to laugh out loud while watching a video about thermal cameras, but maybe that's because you've never seen this man present one. Here Mehdi Sadaghdar, the crazy Canadian behind the YouTube ElectroBOOM channel, explains a layperson's thermal camera applications in his signature funny and deadpan style. He also tackles some thermal camera myths:
As you can see, Sadadghar is a man who's not afraid to hurt himself and capture it on video. In a world filled with safety trolls, it's refreshing to see him leave all of the no-nos in his videos—as evidenced in his channel trailer, which is one of the best we've recently seen:
One has to wonder: Is he baiting the safety trolls on purpose? The money shot in the following video—whereby he tries to see if it's possible to jump start a car using AA batteries—starts around 1:42, and his delivery is so straight that I can't tell if he's doing it on purpose or not:
"They're going to look past my unibrow and see me for the genius I really am!"
There's plenty more ElectroBOOM here. (Warning: Do not start drinking any fluids near your computer while watching.)
Sometimes it seems like the app and wearable worlds want to bear the weight of the world's problems on its shoulders. Got a problem? There's probably an app for that.
This in turn can make our behaviors and tendencies as humans seem so predictable while framing the path to solutions for our complex problems as highly simple. So the fact that in many ways, things like the state of our own well-being can be tracked through some startup's wacky app is a bit perplexing. But with the right intent, can an app really better people's lives? And if so, how should it be designed in order for that to be true?
This is where Prana comes in—a wearable currently on Indiegogo aiming to better your health by training you in a very Pavlov-y way to sit up straight. The device pays attention to your posture as well as your breathing patterns; as soon as it detects an unhealthy sitting position it sends you a notification on your phone to adjust and take some deep breaths. In a seemingly short matter of time, you can train yourself to sit upright at your desk and save your back from gradual damage. The company even claims that their breathing exercises can save you from mid-day fatigue.
There is one problem I see with this product though, which is the element of distraction. When I'm at work, I don't want to be constantly distracted by my phone (and actually, phones are one of the main reasons behind the statistic that office workers are distracted from their work every 11 minutes. Even worse, it take us over twice that amount of time to get back in the zone).
In addition to the level of distraction, I'm skeptical about the usefulness of all of the underlying data within tracking apps and wearables—how many people use wearables and actually religiously follow graphs and charts related to their progress? It's hard for me to see how a collection of direct statistics can guide us to a more holistic and healthy lifestyle. For a mission as humble as helping someone learn to be more calm and aware of their body, a highly minimal and intuitive interface seems more appropriate than an onslaught of numbers and data.
Despite some of its flaws, the intent behind such a device is noble. The fact of the matter is, many of us sit at desks all day staring at computer screens with no regard to our posture and the possible repercussions of sitting. So the real question is, is this an issue that can be solved through wearable tech?
What do you think: is there a better way to design an object like this that could be more intuitive and less distracting? Or is this an app you could actually see yourself using?
With over 2000 exhibitors representing 40 countries, this year's International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago embraced the theme of "It's Smart" with some strong entries from major manufacturers and Silicon Valley startups in the smart kitchen and cleaning space. The standout amongst the smart systems include a debut by Hestan Cue, a smart kitchen system that integrates a smart pan, induction burner and app. Gourmia, a Brooklyn-based appliance manufacturer, showed a wi-fi enabled multicooker that can prep and cook a meal with the help of programmed recipes. An app tracks the progress of your meal and sends updates to your Android phone as it goes. And multicookers will be a bridge between the product islands of our current appliances and the connected future.
Multicookers ruled the appliance world with options from KitchenAid, Aroma, Crockpot, Redmond, Panasonic, DeLonghi and the likes. Each promised to outdo the next with the number of settings, attachments, bells and whistles. Alternatively, I loved the smoke-less indoor grill from Philips but unfortunately, us New Yorkers just don't have the storage or counter space for an appliance of that size.
Other trends include the continued proliferation of stacking storage containers, lunchboxes and water bottles—seems like Americans are still on-the-go and are looking for simple design solutions to help them transition from home to office. Microwave cookers from Joseph Joseph and OXO could be one solution to that problem—now you can cook a whole meal in your office microwave.
And in the cleaning space we saw a move towards more natural or chemical-free cleaning alternatives from brands like Casabella and Full Circle. Silicone has also found a way to invade the cleaning space with a few silicone scrub sponges appearing on the market. This is all great but really, what we're waiting for is the robot maid.
Inspired by the kitchen tools you saw in the International Home and Housewares gallery?
Let's say you need to cut curves into a flat surface, whether it's a piece of furniture, a countertop or large physical letters for a sign. Unless you've got a CNC machine, you'll mark and cut your curve to the best of your ability with a jigsaw or bandsaw; then it's off to your oscillating spindle sander, disc sander, belt sander and/or hand-sanding block to clean up the edges and keep them in tangency. This is particularly crucial when you're making a template, as copies routed with a bearing-guided bit will all repeat any flaw you've overlooked.
German tischlermeister (master carpenter) Dierk Söder and his tool design company, ProTus, has invented a better way to do this. He calls his invention the Kurvenlinfix, and here's what it looks like:
Here's how you'd integrate it into your workflow to save yourself a lot of time and cleaning up of the curves:
While the material might look like ABS in the still shots, it definitely isn't; I touched the stuff and it's a strange blend of stiff and bendy at the same time. They'll only say it's made of "an elastic synthetic material that doesn't contain plasticizers," so we've no idea what this proprietary material is.
Originally designed for luthiers (guitar makers), the Kurvenlinfix comes in different sizes capable of hitting different radii. For those of you looking to give it a try, you can find a list of international distributors here.
Candidates will be responsible for producing high quality, creative graphics on toy packaging from concept to production. Applicants should have 3-5 years of consumer goods packaging/graphic design experience and hold a BFA Degree. A working knowledge of type manipulation, photography, mechanical art production and preparing 3D packaging samples required!
View the full design job hereIf you live somewhere flat, salty and chill Kickstarter might have an interesting bike for you. Priority Cycles has already launched a couple successful small-run bike projects, and their new Priority Coast is a classic beach cruiser that might put up a better fight against coastal conditions.
Let me get the fact that I personally loathe cruisers out of the way. It's probably because the beaches of the Northwest are more more boulder than sand, and more "perpetually raining" than "relaxing and balmy." It's also because cruisers are un-ergonomic for anything but a boardwalk. That said, the classic beach cruiser can be fun but doesn't fare well by the actual beach, since cheap bikes feature vulnerable steel and bearings readily damaged by salt spray and sandy environments.
The Priority Cruiser makes several gestures towards a better beach ride, while keeping the package within the traditional cruisery sub-$500 price range. The first change is hardly visible, but arguably the most important: the frame ought to be aluminum. Steel has its perks elsewhere, but an aluminum frame goes a long way towards the life of your bike in climates where salt gets airborne–unprotected steel frames regularly rust from under the paint or even from the inside out. Priority continues this move by speccing all stainless or aluminum components.
Next on the list: ditch the squeaky, rusty chain with a belt drive. Chains are simple and durable, but they're still a finicky system of steel pins that relies on the user for regular upkeep. And this is the beach, man. A low-geared Gates Carbon drivetrain and aluminum cranks would be plenty tough and nearly zero-maintenance, and when installed correctly they're smooth and quiet.
Third, protect those bearings! Priority uses "sealed cartridge bearings from the bottom bracket and headset to the pedals and front hub" as a solution. This is a good move but also where the bike mechanic in my heart starts to squint. Bearings are what make a bike work. They let the wheels rotate without grinding friction, they allow you to steer controllably, and you can propel yourself with a spinning drive train while your pedals stay flat under your feet. Bearings matter on bikes and ought to be better protected here, but "sealed" cartridge bearings are a misnomer.
Without more information on what they're sticking in, or photos of their inventive proprietary dust covers, I'd bet money it's just the same unadjustable plastic-lid cartridges you'll find on most mid level bikes. Better, but not a cure-all. These might not be directly open to the sunset, but "sealed" bottom brackets, headsets and hubs are still prone to salt damage, rust and corrosion, particularly if you're someone who's pretty "laid back" about how you treat your beach bike.
Other than that the specs and design look straightforward. You get a big fat seat and big wide bars, a probably sketchy coaster brake, matching fenders, and it's all trimmed with materials that ostensibly won't break down as fast as standard plastics, steels and rubbers. It will ship with an un-pictured front brake (thankfully), and it sounds like the cool surf rack in the video will be available eventually. They even assure the buyer a 15-minute DIY assembly, requiring no technical knowledge! Which sounds very nice, and sent my inner mechanic out for a drink.
All in all, the features on the Priority Coast are simple, since cruisers are simple, but getting them all in one place is neither common nor affordable. The Kickstarter campaign runs through April 15, 2016, and estimates shipping by June or July.
Check out these crazily-colored planks:
Get closer and the effect is pretty impressive:
While a skilled, chemistry-minded professional craftsman like Benjamin Lai could pull that off using common materials, most of us don't have his training and wouldn't know what to mix nor how to apply it. But German wood finishes company Osmo has created a special finish, called Wood Wax Finish Intensive, that's so easy-to-use even a layperson could lay it on.
To accomplish this two-tone technique, the end user brushes the initial coat on--no primer needed nor any sanding between coats, making this a quick process--then wipes it back while wet. A good amount of the grain is thus left exposed. After the first coat has dried, the second color is brushed on and also wiped back; as it cannot stick to the waxy first color, it fills in the remaining wood grain.
We shot some close-ups of the boards above, to give you a sense of the possibilities:
Perhaps most impressive is the plant-based paint's qualities:
[The paint will] not crack, peel, flake or blister. Resistant to wine, beer, cola, tea, fruit juice, milk and water according to DIN 68861-1C – no water spots. When dry, finish is safe for humans, animals and plants (saliva-resistant and sweatproof according to DIN 53160 (German industrial norm), suitable for children's toys as per EN 71.3 (European norm)).
Based on natural plant oils and waxes (sunflower oil, soya oil, thistle oil, linseed oil, carnauba wax and candelilla wax), paraffin, iron oxide and organic pigments, titanium dioxide white pigment, siccatives (drying agents) and water-repelling additives. Dearomatized white spirit (benzene-free).
Osmo reckons the paint is perfect for furniture, walls, doors and even children's toys and floors. They're confident in the paint's green credentials and while it's technically translucent as used above, their policies offer complete transparency: As they write, a "detailed declaration of ingredients [is] available upon request."
You can learn more about the stuff here [PDF].
I've seen a lot of tape measures in my day, but I've never seen two like these. Here a gentleman from Bavaria-based BMI, which actually stands for Bayerische MassIndustrie, demonstrates two of the company's fascinating tape measures: A sort of inside-out, self-deploying model and a level-equipped model that can pull a surprising trick.
What you might not be able to tell in the video--sorry for my crappy camerawork--is that the BMImeter, as the first tape measure is called, is actually convex rather than concave:
It's designed that way so that one can actually use it as a straightedge for striking lines, which is impossible with a standard concave tape measure. BMI's official demo video makes this clear, as well as giving you a better look at the center trigger that deploys the tape:
The second tape measure, the newer BMI Pico, has no demo video as of yet. (At press time it wasn't listed on their website, either.) Hopefully you can see the tape's utility even in the shaky video I shot; once the tape is removed and clicked into that channel in the back, the user can easily slide the body (containing a handy spirit level) along it to strike horizontal measurements. And it's also got the convex tape of its brethren, allowing one to use it as a ruler.
Stay tuned for more from BMI!
''DieFabriek'' is pop-up factory run by two designers, Geert Snijders and Martin Honings. Their first project provides an innovative design workshop in which they create a bio-based light object. The process is dedicated to old craftsmanship but is entirely new; they are the first to find a way to process an environmentally friendly bioplastic for a lighting design application.
