Stuff for Smart Masses. Go Go Gadget! Lego Cocktail Party. *notcot in home+decor , 21:26 Lego Cocktail Party- 10.04.06 Today’s finds make me want the throw a lego cocktail party.
Apparently lego readily facilitates this by offering Ice Cube Trays, Coasters (can’t you imagine people marking their drinks/coasters by putting the lego guy of their choice on it to claim it?) , Bottle Opener+Corkscrews, and Salt and Pepper Shakers that are heads. More images below. I wonder if you can build with the ice… like a mini lego igloo? Corkscrew! Bottle Opener! Coasters! Salt & Pepper Heads! If only this were sold to customers ordering from the US, I would love to buy it for the science fiction and hacker convention Penguicon! ----- Matt Arnold 05.10.06 08:11 If only the ice cube tray had a backing would make indents on the underside of the cubes so that the cubes could be stackable when frozen! When you throw this party…tell me! ----- Sara 07.10.06 13:26 if you were to buy 2 trays couldn[‘tyou stack one upon another and create the indents etc. etc.?? James. A Table That Turns Your Kitchen Into Mini Ecosystem [UPDATED] Convenience and efficiency are king when it comes to product design.
![A Table That Turns Your Kitchen Into Mini Ecosystem [UPDATED]](http://cdn.pearltrees.com/s/pic/th/ecosystem-business-innovation-37523442)
What could be more efficient than a natural ecosystem? That's the insight behind a "living kitchen" designed by the brilliant young design studio Studio Gorm. They looked at what we have in our kitchens--fruits, vegetables, organic waste--and figured: That's actually enough to create a miniature system for watering fresh herbs, composting the waste, and generating new soil. None of the elements is brand new to this product, but their integration wins points for ergonomics and ease. Above the sink, there's a rack for drip-drying your dishes. Maybe what's most surprising is that Studio Gorm isn't based in the Netherlands or Scandinavia--but rather in Eugene, Oregon. Check out some of Studio Gorm's other designs, including a modular furniture system of pegs and boards; an elegant Egyptian-inspired chair; a handsome adjustable lamp; and an overhead light inspired by--of all things--a falafel container.
20 Odd Inventions: Awesome Or Totally Pointless? An Accessory That Replaces Mouse Movements With Hand Waves. It's been nearly 50 years since Douglas Engelbart, an engineer at the Stanford Research Institute, invented the first computer mouse.
Since then, his basic point-and-click input scheme has remained fundamentally unchanged; even trackpads and touchscreens, which recognize multiple points at once, work on the same guiding principle. Now Leap Motion, a San Francisco company, is aiming to reinvent human-computer interaction. Its three-inch-long motion-capture device, known simply as the Leap, lets users control computers and manipulate onscreen objects by just waving their fingers. Connected to any Windows or Mac OS X computer, the Leap uses a combination of infrared LEDs and 1.3-megapixel camera sensors to monitor movement in an 8-cubic-foot field.
Leap's software runs custom algorithms to convert what the device sees into a 3-D map of the user's hands. Out of the box, the Leap will be able to take over basic onscreen navigation, but hundreds more uses are coming. The Leap.