Tag: Design

Origami techniques can help vehicles achieve greater stability, whatever the terrain. Whereas, less stable objects can be lifted by robots with grippers made from soft materials such as cloth or silicon. Though useful, these grippers’ low load capacity is a limiting factor. Enter a Seoul-based research team, which is using a centuries old technique so that robots can grasp...

Subjected to high-frequency sound waves, stem cells extracted from fat tissue grow into new bone cells. Audible sound waves are useful too, as this latest innovation from a London-based designer shows: her portable speaker doubles as an air purifier. Internal ventilators along with the music’s waves remove harmful particles from the air and drive them into a special filter...

Modern, environmentally-friendly vintage cars aren't as contradictory as it sounds. Electric vehicle races are well established too. And now one of the British teams has built a drivable prototype entirely from electronic waste: they used discarded E-cigarettes, cell phones, laptops and charging cables. The waste came from companies and school pupils, and the concept was jumpstarted together with a...

Donations left by a desert robot could help create an oasis. The same cannot be said, however, for humans leaving their “mark” and their tissues in nature. Enter an Israeli design student’s sustainable toilet paper. Made from oranges and aloe vera, each individual leaf is woven with plant seeds such as mint, rose or parsley. Though thicker than traditional...

Complex objects could be reliably lifted during production. But how can people with rheumatism or carpal tunnel syndrome be helped to carry out everyday activities such as brushing their teeth? Cue a new online platform which aims to provide personalised adapters for handheld and electric toothbrushes. First, users provide information about their condition and the type of toothbrush they...

Rail journeys should be more comfortable in future. People with limited mobility, however, don’t just need help at train stations. Which is why a British consortium has developed a new concept to improve accessibility at airports. The consortium’s electric one-seater vehicle is self-balancing and comes with luggage space at the rear. Its design means users can dine or shop like other airport...

Video games can help diagnose depression, and smartphones identify blocked arteries. Now, a research team in Singapore has developed a light-emitting diode (LED), less than a micrometre in size, which has been used to build a holographic mini-microscope. Both LED and microscope are the smallest of their kind in the world. A neural network-algorithm converts objects measured by the microscope, such as cells...

A cooling helmet helps prevent hair loss during chemotherapy. Hot flushes, which afflict women during the menopause, are equally undesirable. But thanks to a young designer from England and his startup, these episodes could soon be a thing of the past. His armband with integrated sensors detects hot flushes as they develop and activates a patch which cools the...