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Child-in-the-road illusion to deter speeding
A Canadian safety awareness group put a 45-foot decal of a little girl on a West Vancouver intersection. Apparently when you approach it, it creates an optical illusion of a real 3D figure. The effect is similar to the fake speed bumps I posted about in 2008. The organization behind the child-in-the-road sticker, Preventagble, is examining how it impacts driving behavior and also, seemingly with success, creating a buzz about road safety in the area. From CNN: The group, which uses guerrilla marketing in campaigns focusing on preventable injuries, developed the image with the support of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation, the District of West Vancouver, School District #45 West Vancouver, and the West Vancouver Police. With the help of a Youtube video that shows how it appears to an approaching driver, the illusion has sparked intense debate in British Columbia and outside Canada, with some claiming it could lead drivers to swerve or break abruptly in a school zone. But Preventable says a detailed risk assessment was undertaken to address such concerns. Before drivers approach the image, they pass a "School Zone" sign, crosswalk, an extended curb and a sign by Preventable that reads, "You’re probably not expecting kids to run out on the road." "3D illusion in street tries to change drivers' attitudes"...
 
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Just look at this awesome banana boat.
Just look at it. Banana Boat. Wood, string and banana. 2010 (Jacob Dahlstrup Jensen, Denmark) (Thanks, Austin!) Previously: Just look at this awesome banana skateboard. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana Viking helmet. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome slow-moving performance artist whose face has been covered with exploding bananas. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome EU banana curvature regulation. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome anti-banana-ripening bag. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome Korean banana-ripening facility. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana peeler. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana peeling simulator. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana slicer. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana saver clip. Boing Boing Just look at this awesome banana bunker. Boing Boing HOWTO disassemble a banana - Boing Boing Robber uses banana as "gun" - Boing Boing Hemant "The Friendly Atheist" Mehta Interviews Ray "The Banana Man ... Peeling bananas from the other end is easier - Boing Boing Forlorn bananas of London - Boing Boing 11 students suspended for banana prank - Boing Boing...
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Coming to Germany, Amsterdam for Little Brother/Makers tour
Hey, Germans! Next Monday, I leave for a ten-day tour of Deutschland with the German edition of Little Brother. At my urging, my publisher Rowohlt has set an insane pace so that I get to as many places as possible. I'm coming to Hamburg, Braunschweig, Köln, Seeheim-Jugenheim, Erding and Göttingen. I wrap up with two days in Amsterdam, where I'm appearing at Picnic and doing an event for the Bits of Freedom activist group, in honor of the launch for the Dutch edition of Makers. Can't wait to see you! German tour schedule...
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Roombots: autonomous, mobile, evolutionary self-assembling furniture
Roombots are autonomous, roving furniture segments that cruise around your house, looking for each other and spontaneously organizing themselves into furnishings that evolve based on how you use them. It's a project from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. This project intends to design and control modular robots, called Roombots, to be used as building blocks for furniture that moves, self-assembles, self-reconfigures, and self-repairs. Modular robots are robots made of multiple simple robotic modules that can attach and detach (Wikipedia: Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robotics). Connectors between units allow the creation of arbitrary and changing structures depending on the task to be solved. Compared to "monolithic" robots, modular robots offer higher versatility and robustness against failure, as well as the possibility of self-reconfiguration. The type of scenario that we envision for the Rolex Learning Center is a group of Roombots that autonomously connect to each other to form different types of furniture, e.g. stools, chairs, sofas and tables, depending on user requirements. This furniture will change shape over time (e.g. a stool becoming a chair, a set of chairs becoming a sofa) as well as move using actuated joints to different locations depending on the users needs. When not needed, the group of modules can create a static structure such as a wall or a box. Roombots: Modular robotics for adaptive and self-organizing furniture (via Beyond the Beyond) Long-exposure photo of Roomba coverage Concept for swarming "display blocks" What happens to junk left behind in foreclosed homes?...
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Smell like a Swiss Army Knife
Want to smell like a Swiss Army Knife? Lucky for you, Victorinox has introduced a line of fragrances, sold with a little caribiner for your active scented lifestyle. (via Beyond the Beyond)...
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