This ergonomic joystick-shaped mouse was inspired by the way our hand holds a pencil

It’s just common sense… your hand’s much more dexterous when you’re holding a pencil versus holding a mouse. Try writing your name on a piece of paper with a pencil, versus on the MS Paint program with a cursor and you’ll see the difference! The fact dawned on Seoul-based designer Foxtail Gihawoo too, that the best way to make a mouse that’s ergonomic as well as precise, was to rely on the pencil-grip technique.

Gihawoo’s Ergonomic Mouse looks like a joystick at first, until you realize that it’s meant to be held at its base like a thick marker instead of at the tip (where one would normally hold a joystick). It sports neat curved surfaces for your hand to rest on, with left and right-click buttons both resting under your index finger in a manner that may require a bit of getting used to. To left-click, simply press the upper button, and to right-click, move your finger slightly lower to hit the lower button. The scroll wheel finds its place naturally under the middle finger, which means you can scroll and click together without shifting fingers around. Ultimately, the design comes with a grippy rubberized surface around its sides, boosting dexterity, and even though the mouse isn’t ambidextrous, one can easily manufacture left-handed variants for people who require it.

Designer: Foxtail Gihawoo

Copic Marker gets reinvented with a RGB slider to create a marker worthy of the future!

Every designer faces this struggle in their life, how many Copic markers can I buy, and how do I carry them all with me? Designers and their love for Copic markers is legendary, there is no replacing them. But how do we juggle which to carry and how? Well, designer and product sketching specialist Berkay Gursoy has a concept to inspire Copic, and it truly solves our woes.

This genius conceptual reinvention of the Copic markers combines all your RGB needs into one! The concept seems to be inspired by the Photoshop RGB color picker or even a printer (yes, we know a printer uses CMYK ink but I am referring to the mixing colors in real-time). The interface seems easy to use, with a slider for individual color – red, green, and blue. Its almost as if the photoshop brush came to life and presented itself in this marker! Lessen the clutter, switch colors efficiently, and no need for you to keep a track of multiple caps.

Berkay’s concept though it excites us, it also raises questions. First would be how to control the exact levels of the colors used, second would be how the nib would clear out the existing color. Maybe if we have a digital input to control the color input better, or a CMYK version to resemble the printer’s mechanism – the possibilities are endless and we can’t wait for Copic to bring this concept to life. A design designed to make designers’ lives easier.

Designer: Berkay Gursoy

The Vacuum-based Sketch Marker that Promises to Never Dry Up!

I remember an anecdote back in school where NASA was bamboozled by a problem where their astronauts couldn’t use conventional ballpoint pens in space because of the lack of gravity. They spent a lot of time and money before developing the astronaut pen, a pen that contained a pressurized ink chamber that was capable of writing anywhere, anyhow, and even in the absence of gravity. This technology led to the development of gel pens that we so commonly use today. One could draw quite a few parallels between that anecdote and the latest revolution in pen technology, the Airless Pen.

My heart really goes out to sketch-pens that die before their time because someone forgot to replace the cap on them… or because even with their cap placed on, the pen dried out of ink. It’s really a shame when that happens and you’ve got a bunch of lifeless felt-tipped pens that effectively have no use because you can’t quite replace the refills inside them. The Airless Pen is the sketch pen’s astronaut moment. Unlike regular felt-tipped pens that come with caps that NEED to be replaced, the Airless Pen relies on a clicking mechanism that deploys and retracts the nib. To prevent air from drying the nib out, the pen features a sealed-tube technology that allows the refill to sit inside the pen in an air-tight chamber, preventing air circulation within the pen’s ink chamber, and consequently keeping the refill from drying out.

The Airless Pen seems like a much-needed innovation for a few reasons. Aside from its ability to keep the pen lasting as long as intended, it also removes the one previously-unavoidable headache associated with sketch pens. The cap. The cap is the very bane of the sketch pen’s existence. It’s easy to lose, easy to mix up, and doesn’t really create an air-tight seal because pen-caps are, by law, supposed to have holes in them so that if swallowed, they don’t block your airway. As a result, sketch pens almost always dry out within months (if not weeks) of using them. The Airless Pen’s click-to-activate mechanism eliminates the need of an external pen-cap, and locks the nib back into an air-tight chamber preventing accidental leaks too.

The Airless Pen comes in a variety of colors (as a set) and even across different nib-sizes. For regular sketching or coloring, the 1mm nib works just like a regular sketch marker, while a 0.7mm nib allows for more delicate penmanship, like writing or line-drawing. The Airless Pens promise to last much longer than any traditional sketch pen, thanks to its air-lock technology. Maybe version two will allow you to change refills so the pen doesn’t become disposable!

Designer: All Button

Click here to Buy Now: $19.00 $29.00 (35% off) for a set of 12 pens.

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Airless Pen is created with a retractable silicon cap that prevents air inflow into the pen so the ink never runs dry. This specialized cap, which is installed in the pen, creates a small vacuum space where the water-based ink stays fluid. Airless Pen is the perfect instrument for an individual’s creative space as it eliminates the hassle of pen caps.

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Problem

A marker is filled with ink that is either oil or water-based. Typically, if you leave a marker with the cap off, the fluid evaporates, leaving only dry pigments, which cannot be used. To prevent this, a cap is used to prevent the evaporation process from occurring, but requires a marker to be capped and recapped with every use.

Constantly having to take the cap on and off can be quite bothersome and even irritating at times. The cap can also be lost easily. If a marker is left uncovered for even a few hours (sometimes less), it can dry out and become useless.


Solution

Airless Pen’s ‘Sealed tube technology’ which prevents the ink from drying for water-based pens, felt pens, highlighter pens and fountain pens. We were able to develop this technology by creating a small vacuum space where the water-based ink can stay fluid.

Click here to Buy Now: $19.00 $29.00 (35% off) for a set of 12 pens.

One Marker to Rule Them All

The Copic Marker proves that big things come in small packages! Unlike a limited, space-consuming set of colored markers, it gives users endless color options in one compact device. Like an ink printer, the design utilizes replaceable cartridges of cyan, yellow and magenta. The user can select their desired shade with a smartphone app, sync and draw away!

Designer: Burov Art

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE - We are more than just concepts. See what's hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(One Marker to Rule Them All was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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  2. Bow To the Rule
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ColorCutter ShapeShark Cuts as You Draw: Slice-A-Sketch

Scissors and cutters are indispensable crafting tools. They’re versatile, straightforward and cheap. But Perry Teri Toys thinks it has a better alternative – a colored pen with a small blade on its tip. Called the ColorCutter ShapeShark, the marker and blade combo makes cutting as easy as drawing.

colorcutter_marker_by_perri_teri_toys_1zoom in

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The ColorCutter ShapeShark comes with an attachment called a spinner, which appears to help angle the blade into paper. That’s because the colored tip is slightly longer than the blade as a safety precaution. The spinner also has a bearing that makes it easy to make curved cuts.

As of now, Perry Teri Toys only has colored markers lined up but it’s considering releasing an inkless version so you’ll be able to cut without drawing. Pledge at least $15 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a ColorCutter ShapeShark set, which includes five markers, one spinner and a cutting mat.

The MacGyver of EDCs

The Tactical Marker transforms the ubiquitous every-day-carry Sharpie pen into a unique EDC tool that can also be used for camping, hiking, punching leather and sheet metal, or using as an awl, breaking hard ground, breaking and gripping ice, boating, prying, rope work… the list goes on and on! It includes 3 screw-on ends, referred to as the Tapper, Hammer and Spike, that can be used for various purposes. Vid after the jump!

Designer: Bobby Davis

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE - We are more than just concepts. See what's hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(The MacGyver of EDCs was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Eraseable Glass Art: Spray Paint Dry Erase Marker

Spray Paint Dry Erase Marker

 

Create graffiti, make a point during brainstorming sessions, or simply let your artistic side run wild without the permanent mess with these cans of DEP spray. It’s essentially a dry erase marker of sorts packaged in an aersol can. All you need is a whiteboard, a window, or any glass surface, and you’re good to go. When you’re done, take a picture for a posterity, wipe everything off with a paper towel and get ready to start all over again.

DEP spray is available online for $10.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ TIWIB ]

The post Eraseable Glass Art: Spray Paint Dry Erase Marker appeared first on OhGizmo!.

What Happens When You Microwave a Highlighter

Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to put things in the microwave that don’t belong in there. But that doesn’t stop the curious minds of people like us from wanting to see what happens to other stuff when you jostle around its atoms in the microwave. Take, for instance, office supplies – more specifically, a fluorescent highlighter pen. Well, ask, and ye shall receive…

highlighter microwave

This amazing image of an exploding highlighter was captured by Redditor opticreason, presumably for some optic reason, or maybe just for fun. Either way, he’s going to have a whole lot of fun cleaning out the inside of his microwave after this mess. Never mind the fact that the next time he goes to heat up a Hot Pocket or pop some Reddenbacher’s, his food is going to be hot pink. This makes me wonder what might happen if you microwaved some of those scented markers. Could you make food taste like other flavors? I always had a thing for the grape scent.

Needless to say, I don’t recommend that you try this at home. Your office, on the other hand…

[Reddit via Buzzfeed via Gizmodo]

Griffin Launches Crayola Light Marker for iPad: The Un-Stylus

I can always tell when my daughter is an art making mood. I don’t have to see her artwork to know she’s feeling artsy, I can look at her hands and tell when she’s been in the marker box. She always ends up with pink and orange swirls on her fingers and on the side of her hand. We also end up with Crayola wrappers everywhere and pieces of paper thrown all around. She typically makes a big mess but ends up with beautiful artwork.

If your kid likes to make a lot of artwork, but isn’t exactly neat about it you might want to check out a new product from Griffin called the Crayola Light Marker for iPad.

crayola light marker

The device itself looks like your typical Crayola marker, only it has a glowing light on one end and works in conjunction with an application that runs on the iPad. Instead of drawing directly on the screen of your iPad, you draw in the air with the Light Marker. It uses the iPad’s front-facing camera to track the position of the marker. It also comes with a stand to hold the iPad in place at just the proper angle for drawing.

crayola light marker 2

The app offers several different things the kids can do including a free draw where they can draw on the screen just like they would on a piece of paper with any color marker they want. The app also includes coloring pages, dot-to-dot pictures, and hide and seek pages to play with. The app is available on the app store at no cost and the Crayola Light Marker itself is available right now for $29.99(USD).

Google offers Floor Plan Marker app to businesses so they can improve indoor mapping

Google offers Floor Plan Marker app to businesses so they can improve indoor mapping
Are folks still getting lost in the faux marble expanse of your airport or shopping mall, even after you've uploaded the floor plan to Google Maps? Then maybe it's time you went the extra mile and improved indoor mapping using the official Floor Plan Marker app. It instructs you to walk around the "entire surface" of your place of interest, while gathering position data from GPS, public WiFi signals and cell towers. Once added to Google's database, this extra info will allow the familiar blue dot to function on your customers' Android phones even when your actually-concrete building gets in the way of their satellite signal. The app's already available at Google Play, so go ahead -- make the schlep now so that others don't have to.

Google offers Floor Plan Marker app to businesses so they can improve indoor mapping originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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