LiFi is here - Connect to the Internet Through Lightbulbs

Whether you’re using wireless internet in a coffee shop, stealing it from the guy next door, or competing for bandwidth at a conference, you’ve probably gotten frustrated at the slow speeds you face when more than one device is tapped into the network. As more and more people—and their many devices—access wireless internet, clogged airwaves are going to make it increasingly difficult to latch onto a reliable signal.

But radio waves are just one part of the spectrum that can carry our data. What if we could use other waves to surf the internet?

One German physicist, Harald Haas, has come up with a solution he calls “data through illumination”—taking the fiber out of fiber optics by sending data through an LED lightbulb that varies in intensity faster than the human eye can follow. It’s the same idea behind infrared remote controls, but far more powerful.

Haas says his invention, which he calls D-Light, can produce data rates faster than 10 megabits per second, which is speedier than your average broadband connection. He envisions a future where data for laptops, smartphones, and tablets is transmitted through the light in a room. And security would be a snap—if you can’t see the light, you can’t access the data.

You can imagine all kinds of uses for this technology, from public internet access through street lamps to auto-piloted cars that communicate through their headlights. And more data coming through the visible spectrum could help alleviate concerns that the electromagnetic waves that come with WiFi could adversely affect your health. Talk about the bright side.

Alcon Lighting

Zip Cabin

Cabin Fever is a Miami-based manufacturer of smart prefab buildings.

“My design decisions are shaped by first-hand manufacturing experience. When I put an idea out there, I have already considered the materials, the challenges of building it, and the suitability of the solution to the problem at hand.  I do my best work operating within the boundaries of manufacturability and affordability”– Andrew Kelly, Founder and CEO

Capturing Wind Energy

As anyone living near railway tracks will tell you, speeding trains generate quite a bit of wind as they whoosh past. Industrial designers Qian Jiang and Alessandro Leonetti Luparini have come up with a device that's installed between the sleepers on a track, and as the train passes overhead, the wind drives a turbine to generate electricity. The T-box devices could be placed along railway or subway lines, and make good use of an otherwise wasted resource.
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Banana Peels Remove Toxic Metals

Banana Peel Applied to the Solid Phase Extraction of Copper and Lead from River Water

This article reports on an investigation into the ability of minced banana peel to extract lead and copper ions from water and the parameters involved in this process. The kinetics of copper and lead uptake reached equilibrium in 10 min and the extraction of metals ions was favorable above pH 3. The medium was characterized by FTIR, which showed absorption bands of carboxylic and amine groups at 1730 and 889 cm¹, respectively. The adsorption isotherm fitted by Langmuir’s model showed maximum adsorption capacities of 0.33 and 0.20 mmol g⁻¹ (or 20.97 and 41.44 mg g⁻¹) for Cu(II) and Pb(II), respectively. Minced banana peel was applied in the preconcentration system and showed approximately 20-fold enrichment factor and the column was reused for 11 cycles without loss in the percentage of recovery. The proposed method was applied in the determination of Cu(II) and Pb(II) in a sample of raw river water and was validated by comparison with a standard reference material.

Flat Lamp

As we watch the lowly incandescent bulb fade into the dark for more energy efficient alternatives, there is one designer ready to canonize the dying bulb into retro status. Designed by Vienna-based Maciej Chmara, the Sympathy for the Bulb Lamp offers a new place to screw in your CFLs and LED replacements, all with a tongue-in-cheek cutout design referencing the ”classic” lightbulb. Flat-packed within cardboard, this simple wood lamp is easily transportable and can be setup in a snap!

a better POST-IT

This is a great design project because a) it incorporates recycling, b) it's a useful product, and c) the design addresses and corrects the flaws of earlier generations of the same product.
Shibuya-based Naruse-Inokama Architects, comprised of Jun Inokuma and Yuri Naruse, takes wood waste from houses and turns that into paper. The resultant paper is then formed into a stack of Post-It-like sticky notes that are in turn shaped like little houses. (They're called IE-TAGs as "ie" is Japanese for "house.") And as anyone who's ever seen a thick book loaded up with Post-It bookmarks can attest, the corners of the Post-Its get dog-eared like nobody's business. The resultant mess could hardly be called aesthetically pleasing.


via Naruse-Inokama Architects