Jakob Wästberg's shampoodle blog

Backpackers and MoSoSo Design:


By Howard Rheingold, Thu May 19 08:00:00 GMT 2005



While mobile devices may not have been designed with community use in mind, several researchers in Australia are investigating how to create devices and services useful for community media.

Jeff Axup, a Ph.D candidate in the University of Queensland, Australia's Information Environments program, specializes in Mobile Community Design. He's working from a challenging foundation: although mobile telephones -- both devices and services -- were never designed to support community uses, more and more SMSers, mobile IMers and Mobile Social Software experimenters are using their small-screen, tiny-keyboard devices to kludge together roving social networks, smart mobs and other forms of mobile community. Axup and his colleagues believe good design begins with observing users in their natural environment.

Hug over a distance:
Florian Muller has developed Hug Over a Distance to let you tell your loved one how much you care. Here's the scenario:
Take the toy koala and rub its belly, and it will send out a hug signal, visualized by a little animation. Your partner is wearing a normal-looking vest containing a wireless receiver, which receives the hug signal.

Small air compartments inside the vest inflate quickly all around her/his torso, giving a sensation similar to a real hug. The hug is discretely received, because others cannot "see" the hug.
Video.
Via Sylvie Noel.
Related: the Hug Shirt.

Upholstered Skateboards:
Now I don't pretend to know much about the world of sk8erz (got that from an Avril Levigne song - see I'm not entirely out of touch. The "z" was my own addition) but I'm fairly sure you wouldn't get...

Barbie: 1 Modern Circle - Melody, Production Assistant at KBtoys.com: "The 1 Modern Circle characters follow a storyline that that revolves around Barbie, a producer at Modern Circle Production Company, and her production crew, including Ken, Melody and Simone. This line is geared towards collectors. 1 Modern Circle Melody is the most carefree and energetic spirit of the group, and her style is in step with what's cool for work and play. She is dressed in a black knit sleeveless top with a matching cardigan tied at her waist, and black tweed-like pants. She dons black-heeled boots and a golden lariat necklace and matching bracelet. She carries with her a pink handbag and her morning cup of coffee"

Barbie Collector Showcase: "Modern Circle%u2122 Ken? doll is a passionate set designer whose style reflects his line of work. Featuring the vintage face sculpt, his hair has been updated to a more modern style with highlights framing his face. He wears dark denim jeans and a leather-like jacket over a green turtleneck. He carries with him a portfolio containing two drawings of his set designs. Doll cannot hold portfolio as shown."

Bubble House for sale:
Inspired by Finnish architect Antti Lovag (see his own Palais Bulles) in the mid 70's, the Bubble House with its an indoor river, bubble kernel and cactus garden is for sale.

Lovag invented the bubble-house concept in the 1970s when he noted that primitive dwellings, such as caves and igloos, better reflected the way humans move (which is maybe correct but i lived in a "bubble" house once and it was a chore to find "bubble" furniture to fit there).
The Bubble House current owner, Daniel Bord, fell in love with Lovag's creations, took himself off to a week-long bubble-house-building course at Lovag's workshop near Nice, came back in Festes-et-Saint-André, in south-west France and started work.

There are some 20 bubble houses in France, the price of this one is set at €2,440,000 ($3,000,000).
Via BookofJoe. See also The Telegraph.
Via "we make money not art"

Insole converts exercise into TV watching time:
The Square-eyes shoe is fitted with a unique insole that records the amount of exercise a child does and converts it into television watching time.
One button hidden in the insole records the amount of steps taken by the child over the course of the day and another button transmits this information to a base station connected to the TV.

Once the time earned runs out, the TV automatically switches itself off.
The insole was designed by Gillian Swan, a final year design student at the UK's Brunel University.
"It will raise awareness among the family of their sedentary lifestyle and bring about a change in behaviour for the whole family," said Paul Turnock, design director of Brunel's School of Engineering and Design.
Square-eyes will be showcased alongside the other work of Brunel graduates at the University's School of Engineering and Design show next week.
Via BBC News.

weeHouse - little prefab on the prairie:
seriously small

iWoodKiosk weds wood and Mac - Engadget - www.engadget.com /

Relax to win Sensor - Royal Philips Electronics:
Orange Brand Futures group, the major UK cell phone service providers, developed the computer game 'Relax to Win' with Media Lab Europe. The game is based on the concept that the more you relax, the more you will achieve in the game.

In order to realize the concept, Philips Design designed a device to measuer the player's galvanic skin response and sends the data by wireless connection to a PC or cell phone screen. To play the game, simply slide it between any two fingers and relax. You see yourslef on screen as a friendly dragon; the more you relax the more your dragon will float and eventually fly. the mesh-like textile material contains sensors but is soft to the touch.

Letters to Walken:
featuring otters

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company | Houses

My name is Jay Shafer, and I live in a house smaller than some people’s bathrooms. I call my tiny home Tumbleweed. My decision to inhabit just 100 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I just do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space. Tumbleweed meets all of my domestic needs without demanding much in return. The simple, slower lifestyle my home affords is a luxury for which I am supremely grateful.