Legal Heroin: Is Virtual Reality Our Next Hard Drug


* Co-written with Laura Anne Edwards, Global Content Partner, Unreasonable Group. So video games are addictive—this we know. It comes down to dopamine, one of the brain’s basic signaling molecules....
    






Delray Beach Flooding Results in Two Casualties


Abandoned vehicles and waist high floods were the order of the day in Florida. Even the lives of people were put in danger due to the massive deluge of water that came pouring down from the heavens....
    






The Air Walk

Air Rope is an inflatable rescue tunnel that can be deployed during flood situations. It is a safer option to the rope pulley system and is easier to use. Instead of braving the torrent and crossing the river to secure a pulley system, the inflatable air walk is used. Air is pumped into a doughnut-shaped fabric tube that extends into a round tunnel.

  • It can be used as a thoroughfare across a river when secured to the ground and a tree at each end.
  • A motor and propeller create a powerful flow of air.
  • The air nozzle has a screw-in profile to prevent air leakage.
  • Aluminum alloy, which is light and strong, is used for the metal components. When deflated, the tube can be folded and packed into its storage case.

Air Rope is a 2013 red dot award: design concept winner.

Designers: Lee Yong Ho, Lee Jee Won & Lee Juan

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(The Air Walk was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Deflecting Flash Floods

Flash floods are such a pain, especially to merchants and street vendors who stand to lose the most in this emergency situation. One of the more aesthetic preventive actions is the 360° Water Barrier. Essentially this is a road barrier that is seen dotting the city roads in the low-lying areas, and has expandable metal shutters that can be used to prevent or divert the flow of the water. With a couple more refinements, this could become a do-able concept. What do you think?

Designer: Nicholas Tay

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Yanko Design
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(Deflecting Flash Floods was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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So We Survived 2012

And you know what that means right? The Mayans were wrong; the world did not end, but that doesn’t mean the end of natural disasters like floods and tsunami. Which is why it’s better to be prepared than sorry. Look forward to a bright future with preparedness gear like the Defender, which is a ‘sandbag’ for flood control. It contains absorbent recycled paper fiber that becomes heavy when wet. When dry, however, it is lightweight and is easy to handle. Stay safe people!

Defender is a 2012 red dot award: design concept winner.

Designers: Teng Xuan, Zhang Mingxi, Yang Zhaonan & Zhen Zhiliang

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Yanko Design
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Yanko Design Store - We are about more than just concepts. See what's hot at the YD Store!
(So We Survived 2012 was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Butlers, lunar rovers, snakes and airboats: the best of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute

Butlers, lunar rovers, snakes and airboats the best Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute

How was your week? We got to spend a couple of days trekking around the Carnegie Mellon campus in Pittsburgh, PA to check out some of the latest projects from the school's world renowned Robotics Institute -- a trip that culminated with the bi-annual induction ceremony from the CMU-sponsored Robot Hall of Fame. Given all the craziness of the past seven days, you might have missed some of the awesomeness, but fear not, we've got it all for you here in one handy place -- plus a couple of videos from the trip that we haven't shown you yet. Join us after the break to catch up.

Continue reading Butlers, lunar rovers, snakes and airboats: the best of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute

Butlers, lunar rovers, snakes and airboats: the best of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Oct 2012 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Platypus airboats have a Nexus S for a brain, we go eyes-on (video)

Platypus Android handsetpowered airboats eyeson video

Here's another extremely cool offshoot of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute. Platypus LLC build autonomous robotic airboats that can be deployed for a wide range of usages including environmental data and monitoring hard-to-reach spots after natural disasters like flooding. The hull of the boat looks a good deal like a boogie board, built from polyurethane. On top, you'll find a propulsion fan assembly, just behind a hard plastic electronics compartment that houses internals like the Arduino board. That microcontroller communicates via Bluetooth with a smartphone that sits in the front of of the boat, safely cocooned inside an Otterbox case.

The models we saw this week were carrying Nexus S handsets -- relatively cheap solutions bought second-hand off of eBay. Just about any Android phone should do the trick, but in the case of this project, where phones can get wrenched loose or just outright pilfered, cheaper is certainly better. Platypus' proprietary app helps control the boat autonomously, using the handset's camera to provide situational awareness. Sensors mounted on the boat, meanwhile, offer up information on oxygen and PH levels, temperature and more.

Continue reading Platypus airboats have a Nexus S for a brain, we go eyes-on (video)

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Platypus airboats have a Nexus S for a brain, we go eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hard drive shipments recover from floods in Thailand, expected to reach record high

Hard drive shipments recover from floods in Thailand, expected to reach record high

Last year's floods in Thailand caused hard drive shortages after wreaking havoc on a number of electronics manufacturers, but new stats from IHS iSuppli indicate that the HDD market for PCs has fully recovered and is poised to hit an all time high. The firm expects 524 million units for internal use in PCs to ship this year, besting the previous record by 4.3 percent. What's giving the recovery an added boost? According to the analytics group, the extra demand comes courtesy of Windows 8 and Ultrabooks. Unfortunately for deal hounds, the company noted in a report earlier this year that prices aren't expected to dip below the pre-flood range until 2014. If IHS iSuppli projections hold true, total annual hard drive shipments could reach 575.1 million by 2016.

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Hard drive shipments recover from floods in Thailand, expected to reach record high originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 16:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source of Water Turns Flood Water into Potable Water

Floods are becoming more and more common these days. Probably because people are still cutting down trees like no tomorrow and throwing their trash everywhere (which clogs up all the overtaxed drainage systems.)

Source of WaterIt’s ironic, but what usually happens during extreme floods are water shortages all over the place. Not of floodwater (obviously), but of clean drinking water.

So designer Wang Can came up with the Source of Water concept. Basically it’s a tube filter that’s meant to be thrown right into the water that has accumulated outside. The water surrounding the canister exerts pressure on the tube, pushing the waters inside and through the filters, purifying it in the process.

Source of Water1

Just think of all the lives that can be saved with Can’s concept – if it works to actually purify the dirty flood waters, that is.

[via Yanko Design]