Catching insects

Glowing Pathfinder Bugs, an interactive art installation created by Anthony Rowe and the digital arts group Squidsoup. Found in Siggraph 2010 by Core77.

Manufacturing process of tissue for paragliding

''This story concerns the creation of fabric for paragliders. It is not new; it backs thousands of years, but throughout this time, man has been perfecting his manufacturing techniques. And modern-day fabric is not like that of yesterday. The purpose of the film is to introduce you to this modern technology that is at the origin of your paraglider.''

Building in a bag

From Concrete Canvas, a contribution to the advancement of design, industry, society and economy.

“With the simple addition of water, Concrete Cloth makes it possible to create safe, durable, non-combustible structures for a wide range of commercial, military and humanitarian uses”
Concrete Cloth has been chosen from Material Connexion as winner for its groundbreaking cement impregnated flexible fabric technology that can be quickly and easily molded and set into shapes. This innovation is remarkable for enabling the quick construction of safe and insulated infrastructure for a wide range of humanitarian, commercial, and military uses, including the creation of rapidly deployable shelter and food storage structures in disaster relief situations. Check here for more info.
Via Design Addict

Integrated Harness

Rossignol innovated by building a climbing harness into a pair of pants!!! Lovely concept.

''This new Rossignol patented system is the result of close collaboration between the Freeride team and Cilao, a firm specializing in the design of climbing harnesses.
Because safety is vital for Freeriding and because it can be difficult to free oneself from delicate, unforeseen passages, Rossignol launches the HARNESS pants integrating a harness so light you will forget it's there (94 g or 3.3 oz. in medium-size, one of the lightest on the market).''

Portable solar powered radio

''With gadgets like the iPod reducing radio usage to a minimum, there are a few who believe that with some ingenuity radios can be made favorites in no time. Industrial designers Wu Kun-chia, Wang Shih-ju, Chen Ming-daw and Liou Chang-ho have designed the Flexio – a solar-powered portable radio, which is printable and inexpensive.''
Via Ecofriend

Ribcap

I've just discover this great thing... a woolen hat with sewn-in lightweight structure impact.

Ribcap was presented for the first time in 2005 as a world wide innovation.

This product offers all the advantages of a normal cap or beanie and can at the same time protect against bumps...
Using structure's advanced lightweight technology, upon impact the structure material changes from a lightweight flexible material into a semi-rigid or fully rigid state depending on the size of the impact.
Fashionable and safe, these protective hats are better than wearing nothing and the next best thing to wearing a helmet.

They've been sponsorizing two paragliders; Chrigel Maurer and Thomas Theurillat on the X-Alps contest.

Chris O'Shea

Interesting and fun :)
'''Chris O'Shea, an artist with latent fantasies about growing into a giant and teasing, then destroying, the people of Liverpool, England, has a new installation! It's a live video billboard that teases, then destroys, the people of Liverpool, England.
The piece, titled "Hand from Above," is best explained in video, but in any case it's fairly simple: a live camera feed from in front of the billboard is overlaid with a giant finger, which has its way, such as it does, with rapt viewers. The tickling and teasing soon gets more severe, and before you know it, said finger is throwing you off of the pavement, or shrinking you into nothingness.
The effect is playful and charming for adults, though it may cause minor metaphysical crises in small children and pets. For art!'''
via Gizmodo

Bruno Kammerl jumps

The biggest waterslide on earth, the test run was more than successful :)

Solar Tent for high-tech campers

Futuristic concept tent can harness solar energy to provide electricity to portable gadgets.
Orange, utilizing cutting edge technology in solar harnessing PVs, has reveled new updated Solar Concept Tent. What make it worth mentioning are its high-tech features that give the freedom of camping with all electronic facilities. Designed in association with American product design consultancy kaleidoscope, this futuristic tent can supply energy harnessed from sun to portable gadgets like cell phones and laptops through wireless charging pouch.
Specially coated solar threads are woven into conventional fabric and can be folded easily. Because of its light weight it sets you free from carrying conventional heavy solar panels. The three directional glides can be rotated in any direction to follow the sun whole day. Not only this, but it incorporates ‘glo-cation’ technology which helps the festive-goers to track the location using either an SMS message or automatic active RFID technology.
It will make the tent glow in dark so that you can easily recognize your destination. At the heart of the tent lies a central wireless control hub which indicates the amount of energy generated on a flexible touchscreen LCD display screen. Further, the tent includes an internal heating element embedded within the tent’s groundsheet which is controlled by the central hub.
Via Pocket-Lint.

Live manufacturing

Elliott Montgomery is making people realize the importance of waste management by making them think, not for fun but for a recycled shopping bag. The designer has solar-powered public outreach kiosk that is currently installed in NYC. Using solar energy, the designer creates fabric shopping bags that are made from salvaged materials collected from nearby locations. People who are out for shopping can visit the kiosk and purchase these bags by providing an idea for localized manufacture, materials sourcing and likewise. Apart from making people aware and think about such topics, he’s making sure that your shopping spree goes without having much negative impact on the environment.

Eco cars

Funny magnet powered vehicle for hi-tech cities of tomorrow. Via Ecofriend.

Digital art- interactive installation

Designed for the Red Bull Music Academy 08, Guten Touch is an interactive installation that involves people into a natural relationship with technology. A two projected display system plus a 3m x 2m multitouch wall showcase applications designed to engage us into human friendly experiences rather than flashy and jaw-dropping visualizations. Space Invaders hitted by foam balls, pixel paintings created with brushes and digital objects holded by hands try to blur boundaries between real and digital.
Concept, Design and Coding by Multitouch Barcelona. Music: Saeglopur - Sigur Ros
Via Kelake.

Web 2.0 The machine is using Us/ing Us

How to understand visually what means the web 2.0. The video has been made more than two years back, still very interesting, by Michael Wesch.

Extra thin paraglider!!

New prototype from the austrian brand Wings Of Change, ''Deathblade'': with a ratio of 13m!!! (a standard paraglider has a ratio of 6m aproximatly)...



Psychohammer Extream 9.01

Towards a new textile for paragliders

Just as within the field of aviation, the development of new materials plays a huge part in paragliding.
Until now, products constructed from lightweight cloth had a very limited life. Even after limited usage, the strength of the fabric was compromised and porosity substantially increased.
The innovation of this material is the process of weaving
metallised fibers, ...they don’t absorb the damaging UV rays.
Now an aluminum mixture lends the silver fibers their shine:
fine tuned build up of nanocoatings ajavascript:void(0)re the key to the stability of the metallised cloth.
This fabric, with the shiny metal surface and a weight of only 29g/m2, fascinates with its aging characteristics... multiple times higher than those of similar ultra light cloths.
Skywalk (paraglider manofacturer) together with Aeroix are developing this project.

Smart fiber; Seacell

The latest innovation in marine textil (2001) is the development of a new fiber, SeaCell ®, the combination of cellulose and active substances of seaweeds (e.g. Ascophyllum nodosum) and silver.
-Process does not require handling of pesticides or pesticide-like substances.
-The seaweed has an activating effect, that can keep the skin fresh and smooth.
-First cellulosic fiber with an antibacterial and fungicidal effect.
The result is a soft, breathable, stimulating and comfortable fabric.