In 2005, Neil Gershenfeld, one of the minds behind MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, published an innovative book on Personal Fabrication called FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop. FAB is a reflection and future vision of Industrial Fabrication becoming individually accessible. Imagine having the ability to design, print, and assemble nearly anything in your own home, with a FAB lab that vision is nearly within reach. For about $25,000 in equipment and parts students at MIT have been experimenting with personal fabrication in a course called "How to make (Almost) Anything." The FAB equipment that Prof. Gershenfeld teaches on usually requires a steep learning curve and a background knowledge of industrial techniques out of the box. The environment of the laboratory nearly eliminates these requirements and enables anyone to step up to a machine and start creating. A simple process of scanning a drawing into a computer and spitting it out to a vinyl cutter can be achieved with a mere button press, calling for absolutely no contact with complex software. For more advanced tasks, online documentation provides instructions and tips to help out new users. There's even a collection of tools being developed for Ubuntu at Fabuntu.org. The entire concept is lit up my brain like a field of fireflys with ideas and dreams. Learn more for yourself at FAB Central.

It's fairly well known that a lot of college students are "slackers." For some unknown and appalling reason, students choose to spend their money (or their parents money) on educational resources that they knowingly disregard in order to play games and grow moss. The student body of my university is no exception to the appearance of "slackers." In fact the very nature of the degrees offered tend to attract more than the usual population. Luckily most of the kids that have the slacker mentality decide that higher education wasn't the right choice and drop out. It's the ones that won't leave that bother me. They show up to class, maybe once or twice every month, and even then sleep in the corner. Their off and on presence forces the instructor to include them in group activities, where they pick up minuet amounts of credit for emailing the entire class at the last second and giving some BS story about never being given an assignment.

If you or someone you know is showing signs of "slacking," seek a deep canyon and jump.

Please.

Shawn Frayne is a 28yr old inventor living in Mountain View, California, who's come up with a revolutionary way to convert wind energy into power. Traditional wind power is derived from a set of blades spinning around either a vertical or horizontal axis to drive an electric generator. Frayne's invention uses wind induced oscillations to move rare earth magnets through coils, the magnetic flux induces a current in the coils producing electricity with far less moving parts than traditional wind turbines. Take a look a his interview with Popular Mechanics

Over the last week I've been searching for new projects to undertake, or maybe just add to the list of projects I hope to one day finish. I have a small list of projects that are underway or completed on my main site. A great source of inspiration for me has been a blog called MoCo Loco, the site specializes in the latest modern contemporary design. In about a half an hour I discovered five designs that have great DIY potential. I'm collecting materials to attempt some of them in the coming weeks. It looks as if owning a laser cutter or at least having access to one would be an immense benefit in creating some of these designs. In the meantime take a look...

Neko Design based in Mexico has created a unique bracelet called orbit that features silicone elastic threads woven inside an aluminum ring. When worn the bracelet appears to float around the arm. If I can find the elastic I may be able to use the concept for some other applications.

http://www.nekomexico.com/html/producto-orbit.html



Furni issued a design challenge in June 07, asking for submissions of an innovative placement, case or modification of their alarm clock kit. You had a choice to either buy the electronics in a kit from their site or print out a PDF of the various parts. The concept for this kind of design challenge is relay interesting. I have a feeling it could be used in an educational setting to introduce electronics systems to design students who want to incorporate complex systems into their art.
http://furni.myshopify.com/pages/show-us-your-skills


The table here is created by I-Beam Design and Architecture of New York. Mounted inside the table are RGB LEDs capable of a full spectrum of color. Controls on the table allow the color to be changed at will. Frosted polycarbonate and honeycomb form the light diffusing surface that gives the table a smooth glow.


I really can't show you a single picture from this site, so you'll have to check it out yourself... I particularly like the LEDs embedded in acrylic disk, they for a sort of constellation within the piece and provide ambient lighting at the same time. I have the acrylic on order from McMaster Carr right now, I can't wait to start this one.
http://www.luminicdesign.blogspot.com/


I'm a bit of a Star Trek fan and the piece to the right looks like the best Borg fashion statement ever conceived. The ring was created by a SLS rapid prototyping machine. LED's, batteries, and a reed switch on the inside of the ring project through a cut pattern creating a light design on the wearers skin.
http://www.kyeokkim.com/