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Currently wrapping up a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, the Shelfy sort of looks like a misplaced Apple device. It’s a minimalist white pod that you tuck onto one of your refrigerator shelves to let it do its magic. Taking up less space than a gallon of milk, the Shelfy extends shelf life up to 12 days, reduces bad odors by 80 percent, and results in up to 10 times less bacterial load inside the refrigerator.

To use it, you just select the mode you want (eco, standard, or boost); place it in the fridge wherever it fits best, including in a drawer or door; and reap the benefits. Shelfy’s makers claim the device can keep some vegetables like zucchini good for as long as 22 days, and extend the lives of fast-rotting foods like strawberries by up to a week.

Food waste is a major contributor to environmental crises like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, requiring tons of resources and land to grow food that people don’t end up eating (and emitting methane gases when it rots). A single family spends an average of almost $2,000 a year on food that they end up throwing away. Shelfy cites studies that show one out of every two refrigerators has an above-average proliferation of mold and bacteria, contributing to the problem.

The Shelfy uses an advanced ceramic filter, a silent fan, and a battery to take in air inside the refrigerator through mechanical ventilation, passing it through a photocatalytic filter that destroys pollutants. After a while, it’ll notify you that it’s time to remove the filter and wash it under running water, or charge it via a USB-C plug. You can control it with the Vitesy Hub app and connect it to Amazon Alexa and Google Home via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The Shelfy also monitors your refrigerator’s energy consumption based on how many times you open the door.

The designers explain that they “conducted research at CSI SpA – FPM Laboratory (Food Packaging Materials), an Italian and European technological hub with a team of about 400 experts including engineers, physicists, chemists,and microbiologists who have made quality, safety, and sustainability the backbone of their professional role. They’re recognized as a center of excellence, especially for companies in the food, packaging, construction, and automotive sectors, in which every day, for more than 25 years, they have been working to enhance quality companies and protect the market.”

“Shelfy uses an innovative and sustainable nanomaterial-based photocatalytic technology since the filter doesn’t need to be replaced, just washed under running water. Photocatalysis is a safe chemical reaction that absorbs air pollutants and turns them into harmless elements. The use of this technology guarantees safety, better performance, and less consumption. In this way, we make Vitesy technology sustainable and effective.”

If you missed the Shelfy’s Kickstarter campaign, you’ll be able to pick one up soon for the retail price of €169 (about $175).

The post Fight Food Waste in Your Fridge with the Shelfy Smart Purifier first appeared on Dornob.

Now, those officials are calling for electric car companies to explain what happened, and how it can be prevented from happening again. State Fire Marshall Jimmy Patronis issued a letter to over 30 carmakers, including Tesla, Ford, and Rivian, asking them to “step up, demonstrate leadership, and partner with the State of Florida and local officials in this recovery.”

The letter also demanded that EV makers explain whether they knew this was a risk, and to identify whether EVs exposed to saltwater could reignite weeks or months after they were flooded.

“Has your company conducted any analysis on the effects of saltwater intrusion on the lithium-ion batteries in your vehicles and their risks associated with fires? Are there any fire risks associated with chargers that were submerged in the storm surge? Do you have the ability to assess whether an EV impacted by a storm surge is operational and currently being used?,” the letter reads.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration confirmed that “test results specific to saltwater submersion show that salt bridges can form within the battery pack and provide a path for short circuit and self-heating. This can lead to fire ignition. Lithium-ion vehicle battery fires have been observed both rapidly igniting and igniting several weeks after battery damage occurred.”

This happens because saltwater is extremely conductive, and when it collides with a lithium-ion battery full of energy, the results can be dramatic. Fires have the potential to be even more dangerous if they involve RVs, golf carts, or scooters inside saltwater-flooded homes, creating larger blazes.

Floridians affected by the storm were urged not to turn on their EVs, plug them in, or unplug them, instead seeking professional assistance to move their vehicles. It’s still unknown what exactly sparks a blaze in the first place, but experts believe it could be as simple as turning the wheel.

The fires put a political target on the backs of electric vehicles during a time when the Biden administration is attempting to address climate change by replacing millions of gas-powered cars with zero-emitting EVs. Industry groups worry that the fires could lead to an impression that electric vehicles are less safe overall, pointing out a recent report that found roughly 25 fires for every 100,000 EVs sold, and 1,530 gas car fires for every 100,000 internal combustion vehicles sold.

“One Tesla fire gets more news than 10,000 gasoline car fires, whether it’s because people are super interested in Tesla or because people are still fighting the battle to suggest that electric cars are not ready for prime time or not good,” says Marc Geller, spokesperson for the Electric Vehicle Association.

The post EVs Catch Fire in the Aftermath of Hurricane Ian first appeared on Dornob.

While not intended for drivers (there’s even a warning letting intended players know that games like Solitaire are “for everyone, but playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers,”) it’s still possible for the driver to play – or, at the very least, be distracted by the screen.

This summer, Tesla introduced the update for its vehicles that allows drivers to play while on the road. Given the “autonomous” nature of Tesla vehicles, it makes sense that drivers would be more than slightly tempted to get their game on mid-trip, which poses a definite safety concern, especially given that distracted driving is often the cause of major traffic accidents.

In a recent statement, a spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) weighed in on the controversial new feature and its potential dangers, explaining that “Distraction-affected crashes are a concern, particularly in vehicles equipped with an array of convenience technologies such as entertainment screens. We are aware of driver concerns and are discussing the feature with the manufacturer.”

But Tesla is not the only automobile manufacturer who’s implemented touchscreen technology into their list of features. In fact, most newer vehicles have touchscreen technology built into them, whether it’s in the form of entertainment (like Stellantis’ DVD player) or simply the ability to load directions, music, and other basic information. Here, as with Tesla’s infotainment features, the onus is on the driver to act responsibly and utilize the system’s “voice-based” technology — though this doesn’t always happen. For example, in a recent study, researchers at the University of Utah found that even when drivers used voice-based technology, they were more likely to “[take] their hands, eyes, and mind off the road for more than 24 seconds to complete tasks.”

And 24 seconds could make a big difference, especially behind the wheel of a car. Of course, there are supposed safety systems in place when it comes to such automobile technology. The DVD on the dashboard from Stellantis, for example, only lets people watch while the car is in park. And NHTSA guidelines strongly urge automakers to install protocols that prevent drivers from completing such “inherently distracting secondary tasks while driving.”

While Tesla does urge drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel, even when in Autopilot mode, chances are drivers will only become distracted when more gameplay options are added to the mix. While the future of Tesla’s infotainment options is in question (currently, the company has not made any effort to comment on these safety concerns), statistics show that features like these only lead to more distracted driving and accidents.

Guess we’ll just have to play Solitaire the old-fashioned way, sitting sedentary in our office chair while we’re supposed to be working.

The post Tesla’s In-Dash Gaming is Super Cool – But is It Safe? first appeared on Dornob.

During the recent Giga Fest at Tesla’s Giga Berlin plant, the company provided a demo of the new lights, showing off their precision and power by having them project the word “TESLA” on a wall inside the factory.

In response to a twitter post from Tesla fan Paul Kelly, the company’s founder and CEO Elon Musk replied, “Yeah, headlights are precision LED, so they can be bright without blinding oncoming traffic, pedestrians, and cyclists.”

And while there were no details released about the adaptive headlights, it is assumed that they were showcased in the Made-in-Germany (MIG) Model Y during the factory opening tour because they will be a standard feature of the car when it comes out of production, possibly as early as the end of November 2021.

Adaptive driving beam headlights, or ADB lights, are smart technology that far surpasses even systems that automatically switch between high and low beams. They provide a constant light to the driver that’s as bright as a traditional high beam headlight. To make sure they don’t blind other drivers though, they have special light units that can alter the brightness, direction, and even shape of the beam as needed. The system knows how and when to change the light due to a host of sensors that are built into the car. When an oncoming vehicle approaches, the smart lights will cast a shadow in certain directions while still providing the driver with a bright, pinpoint-accurate beam.

There are several European automakers already incorporating this smart tech into their vehicles. ADB lights are available in the Audi e-tron, Cadillac XT6, Polestar 2, and the Lexus RX.

In some versions of ADB lights, the beams can also shift direction as the vehicle goes around curves. This is particularly essential to helping cars become autonomous as they need the light to follow any curve for best performance.

But before Tesla can realize its dreams of going fully automated with its cars in the U.S., it will have to lobby for the repeal of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108, a government regulation dating back to 1967 that prohibits headlights that can operate both low and high beams at the same time. Back then, it was intended to reduce traffic accidents, but it’s obviously based on antiquated technology, as today’s ADB lights would help with safety and prevent more collisions than today’s standard headlights.

American car manufacturers currently self-certify their compliance with the law, adding a Department of Transportation symbol to all their lights and reflectors. However, over the past few years the U.S. Automotive Alliance has called the half-century-old regulation “overly stringent and not based on modern headlight systems.”

Until enough pressure is applied on the government to overturn the existing rule, U.S. consumers will have to sit on the sidelines and watch as Europe and Asia move into the future with smart headlights in Tesla and other car brands.

The post Tesla Model Y Gets Smart Headlight Updates in Europe That Are Still Illegal in U.S. first appeared on Dornob.

Imagine a device that could suppress these fires before they blossomed out of control, actively fighting them and preventing them from spreading. Such a device could act as an important stopgap measure for homes and businesses and proactively address fires at their source.

Enter high school student Arul Mathur, a New Jersey transplant who moved to California and witnessed firsthand the devastation of the fires, with his family nearly having to evacuate their own home in 2019. As Mathur says, that made it “personal.”

Inspired to come up with some sort of solution, Mather designed “F.A.C.E.,” or the Fire Activated Canister Extinguisher. A new type of firefighting equipment, F.A.C.E. is a completely self-contained device; i.e. no human is necessary to operate it. It’s also heat-activated, akin to a fire alarm, albeit activated with a rise in temperature instead of the presence of smoke. Think of it as a fire alarm version 2.0: easily portable, easily installable, and containing its own fire suppression materials like a super-charged sprinkler.

However, it’s not water that comes from F.A.C.E. when it’s activated, its an eco-friendly fire retardant called Cold Fire that sprays the surrounding area (in a 5-6 foot radius) with the help of a built-in a sprinkler. When F.A.C.E.’s temperature hits 155 degrees Fahrenheit, this glycerin bulb sprinkler is activated, and its little metal canister springs into action like an inorganic mini firefighter. The response is quick, making it an effective way to stop combustion at its source, and prevent potential spreading.

The only human element involved in F.A.C.E. is its simple installation along a home or business’ outdoor wall or fence, and the easy refilling of the fire retardant (if necessary). Once it’s installed, F.A.C.E. is ready to go – you can set it and forget it.

Mathur says the device is meant to give individuals more agency in preventing the spread of wildfires, causing them to be “[less] reliant on the fire department to save their home. Firefighters could [instead] focus on containing the fire, while we, as residents, could control the fate of our property.”

Though F.A.C.E. is still in the early stages of development, and the prototype needs to undergo more extensive testing before mass production and distribution, the news is encouraging, with Mathur’s Kickstarter campaign well exceeding its $10,000 goal. The estimated retail on each F.A.C.E. unit would be around $120.

https://youtu.be/AOnjjaqIMx8

While not meant to be the end-all solution to wildfires, F.A.C.E. could efficiently and actively delay a fire, giving residents and the community at large time to evacuate or extinguish it before it grows. It could also make small brushfires easier to contain. After learning about the devastating effects of wildfires, student Arul Mathur “knew that [he] needed to do something about it.” And with a blend of creativity, ingenuity, and enthusiasm, it certainly looks like he has succeeded with his design for F.A.C.E.

The post In Your F.A.C.E: Student Develops Supercharged Extinguisher in Response to California Wildfires first appeared on Dornob.

Unfortunately, additional deaths were a predictable result of the reopening. As journalists noted well before the tourist attraction first opened to the public in March 2019, the Vessel’s glass railings are only waist-high on the average person. And when you make it easy for someone to jump to their death, especially in spectacular fashion in front of a crowd, you’re going to draw in desperate people who might otherwise recover and find reasons to go on. That’s also true for other common sites of suicide, like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, which is currently undergoing a renovation to install new guards.

This last suicide, at the very least, could have been prevented. Earlier this year, calls to raise the height of the Vessel’s glass railings were declined by Stephen Ross, the billionaire chairman of developer Related Companies. Designed by architect Thomas Heatherwick and personally commissioned and approved by Ross, the attraction was supposed to be a gargantuan piece of public furniture inviting people to climb and lean over in every direction, taking in the views of the city around it as well as the sculpture itself. The implication by Ross at the time (and, by extension, everyone else involved in the project) was that the dubious beauty of the object had to be preserved at all costs.

It’s not that alteration is impossible. After this most recent incident, Heatherwick’s firm told Architectural Digest that they’d “exhaustively explored physical solutions that would increase safety,” all of which require “rigorous” testing, “and while we have not identified one yet, we continue to work to identify a solution that is feasible in terms of engineering and installation.” There are precedents that prove this endeavor worthwhile, like the open-air crosswalks inside New York University’s Philip Johnson-designed Bobst Library. In that case, plexiglass barricades were installed after a string of suicides, but failed to fully prevent them. Today, a new decorative “veil” of perforated metal sheets adds a much stronger safety barrier and gives the structure a facelift at the same time.

Curbed’s Audrey Wachs brings up what might be the most important question of all, a question that should play heavily into decisions about whether the Vessel should be altered or even demolished. Who is it for, really? When the design was unveiled, Heatherwick and the developers waxed poetic about creating “something that everybody could use, touch, relate to.” But the structure is fundamentally not for everybody. It’s not accessible to anyone who can’t physically climb it, and though disability activists prompted Related Companies to broaden elevator access, the stairs on every level prevent people with mobility issues from doing anything other than standing momentarily at an overlook.

Then there’s the sense of unease that many onlookers have had about the project since its inception. Some people couldn’t quite put their finger on what made the Vessel vaguely ominous, other than the sort of sci-fi nature of its design. Others are explicit: the Vessel is a grotesque monument to late-stage capitalism, which is currently launching our entire planet into a climate change and pollution-induced death spiral. Surrounded on all sides by billion-dollar penthouses, luxury shopping centers, and corporate headquarters, the Vessel gives its more introspective visitors a depressing up-close view of the economic inequality and cancerous commercialism contributing to our collective mental health crises.

“The Vessel is like some MC Escher nightmare,” says lecturer Jacob Alspector of the Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York. “It’s kind of relentless. It’s very gaudy, it’s very cold. It’s thrilling… it’s not the most friendly and life-affirming and inclusive kind of space or structure. It’s kind of empty. What’s the point of it? Just to walk up and walk down? People who feel alienated with the world may not be supported very well by an experience like that.”

For now, at least, the Vessel is closed to the public again while the developers decide how to proceed.

The post Plagued by Suicides, The Vessel at Hudson Yards Faces Calls for Demolition first appeared on Dornob.

In place of the plain plexiglass partitions many restaurants have installed as hygienic shields between customers and staff, LG envisions transparent OLED screens that offer additional functionality. Shown in use at a sushi bar at this year’s virtual CES, the 55-inch smart display offers a touchscreen menu. Guests can make their selections and then choose from entertainment like sporting events or TV shows to watch while their food is prepared. Instead of being kind of pointless, the transparency of the screen actually comes in handy, allowing them to maintain visual contact with their server or chef as they watch.

This use in a restaurant is notable for its novelty, and the fact that it’s uniquely well-suited to what will likely be our pandemic-induced “new normal” for the foreseeable future. It allows for virtually zero contact between diners and staff, especially with integrated card readers. Of course, one does have to wonder whether having multiple displays like this would make restaurants even noisier than they already are, and whether being bombarded with entertainment everywhere we go is all that good for us.

But this is far from the only way LG’s latest transparent screens can be used. The company already replaced subway train windows in Beijing and Shenzhen with its displays, showing commuters information about subway schedules, transfers, local weather, and news without cutting off access to daylight or views of the passing scenery. And in its virtual CES show, LG demonstrated how its transparent OLED products can be integrated into a smart bed that rises from the footboard, with cinematic sound embedded right into the frame. A video by Engadget shows all three uses in action, along with other tech from LG’s presentation.

As usual, these aren’t finished products ready to hit the market. LG is just showing off what its transparent display can do, and how other manufacturers could potentially incorporate it into their own products.

“With its superior transparency, Transparent OLED can be used in various fields such as smart homes, smart buildings, and mobility, including autonomous vehicles, aircraft, and subways,” the company said in a recent press release. “LG Display, the only transparent OLED manufacturer in the world, is seeing growing demand for Transparent OLED from these industries.”

The new version of the transparent OLED “realizes 40 percent transparency, providing clear image quality while being crystal clear like glass compared to the existing transparent LCD with only 10-percent transparency,” according to LG, so it’s a pretty considerable upgrade. Maybe it won’t be long before one shows up at a sushi restaurant near you. If you’re interested in seeing more, you can check out LG’s virtual CES 2021 showroom at VXLGDisplay.com.

The post LG’s Transparent OLED Display Doubles as a Pandemic-Safe Partition first appeared on Dornob.

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning company Shigeru Ban Architects, the two sets of glass-walled restrooms are part of the Tokyo Toilet Project, an initiative launched by the Nippon Foundation to increase public restroom use by dispelling stereotypes that they are “dark, dirty, smelly, and scary.” The new see-through lavatories, which become opaque when locked, were designed to address these specific issues. “There are two things we worry about when entering a public restroom, especially those located at a park. This first is cleanliness, and the second is whether anyone is inside,” the architects explain on the project website.

The transparent walls allow passers-by to judge the tidiness of the toilets without even entering. They also make it obvious if the facilities are in use or not. When a bathroom stall is locked, crystals in the tinted glass are realigned by an electric current, restricting most of the light from passing through. This creates a frosted look, giving the occupants sufficient privacy. As soon as the door is unlocked, the walls become transparent again.

Another measure of safety intersecting with art is the way the restrooms “light up the park like a beautiful lantern” at night. Each toilet compartment glows in its own vibrant shade: lime green, tangerine, violet, aqua, or fuchsia. Adding to the mystique of these toilets, the walls between the stalls are also mirrored. Reviews on this feature have been mixed, though, as it seems to give users a strange feeling of being watched.

These particular installations, located in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park and Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park, are just two of 17 new restrooms commissioned by the Nippon Foundation in its efforts to “build public toilets that can be used by anyone.” The project dovetails with a countrywide push to make the city more hospitable before the now-postponed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

“When Japan succeeded to host the Olympic and Paralympic 2020, the word ‘omotenashi’ (a Japanese word that means to wholeheartedly look after guests) was repeatedly presented as the symbol of Japanese hospitailty,” said Mihoko Ueki, project coordinator for the Nippon Foundation’s social innovation team, in a recent interview.

“However, if you take a look at the public toilets, most of them are not accessible for everyone regardless of gender, age, or disability. Considering that, we thought that we [could not truly] show the guests from overseas ‘omotenashi’ as the symbol of Japanese hospitality.”

According to a government survey, up until 2016, 40 percent of Japan’s public restrooms only had squat stalls, requiring trucks to suck out waste and dispose of it elsewhere. Since then, 332 public facilities have been refurbished with more modern, hygienic toilets.

The new Shigeru Ban lavatories certainly fit the desired profile for cleaner, state-of the art toilets with their colorful outer shells and crisp interiors of white tile and chrome. To date, three other public restrooms have been unveiled, including the “Squid Toilet” by designer Fumihiko Maki, itself a courtyard of stalls under a curved roof housed within a children’s playground known as the “octopus park.” Second is the “Modern Kawaya (river hut)” by designer Masamichi Katayama and his studio Wonderwall Inc., and third is the Origata (traditional Japanese method of gift wrapping) toilet, created by designer Nao Tamura. A total of 12 more facilities will be installed by the end of August 2021.

The post Tokyo Designers Bring Transparency to Public Restrooms — Literally first appeared on Dornob.

Wearing a plastic face shield is an easy way to stop this habit in its tracks, but most of the ones you’ll find for sale at your local drugstore or on Amazon are bulky, uncomfortable, and too hazy to see through. A different version aims to be as comfortable as wearing glasses while offering protection from potentially infectious droplets and interrupting mindless face touching.

“Blocc” covers all the major avenues for infection on your face, working as a barrier when you reach for them. Unlike a conventional face shield, which uses foam and a headband to cling to your face, Blocc rests on your ears and nose. It doesn’t quite extend all the way past the chin, but its bubble-like shape makes that unnecessary.

It might seem like a face shield worn like glasses would make it impossible to actually wear glasses underneath it, but the design actually leaves plenty of room for most frames. Just remove the Blocc’s nose rest to accommodate them. The ergonomic shape also makes it easy to wear when running or riding a bike.

3D printed out of clear polycarbonate, Blocc is designed for everyday use by the public, not for healthcare or laboratory settings. It’s easy to wash with soap and water so you can use it over and over again. Though it’s no replacement for a mask, it’s a great supplement, especially for people who have to interface with the public for work and need some extra protection.

The face shield’s creators explain that “our team is based in South Korea — one of the first countries to be hit hard by the pandemic. We often noticed people wearing masks and habitually touching their face out in public. After looking into this further, we found that the average person subconsciously touches their face 23 times an hour (source: https://bit.ly/2APII4I) and that this is an innate habit very difficult to break. Therefore, it only seemed logical for us to create a face shield that would block (hence, the product name) the hand from touching the face.”

“We noticed that some people had already been using them, but none of them seemed to look comfortable or well-designed. This is why we decided to make one ourselves — one designed for the average person to wear in public without feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable. Our sincere hope is that Blocc will help you become wary of your face-touching habit. With your help, we can make Blocc a reality.”

Blocc raised nearly 500 times its initial goal of $5,000 on Kickstarter, and it’s now available for pre-sale on Indiegogo. You can get one for $27, or a two pack for $52.

The post Blocc: A Streamlined Face Shield You Wear Like Glasses first appeared on Dornob.

If you’ve watched the news at all lately, you’ve probably heard of social distancing. The phrase was first used back in 2003 during the SARS epidemic, made brief appearances in the years following, and had its most famous comeback just a few months ago when the coronavirus pandemic first struck. Now, in one of the most creative ways imaginable, four art shows in Austin, Texas are zeroing in on the meaning of the phrase.

With little to no good news recently on the pandemic, Austin artists decided to spin the misery into something positive. They unveiled four different projects in parks throughout the city, including Roy Guerrero Colorado River Park, Pease Park, Republic Square, and Zilker Park.

How the Project Materialized

Austin was determined to bring some joy and happiness to the lives of its people. The Austin Foundation for Architecture, Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department, the Pease Park Conservancy, and the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation all got together to brainstorm ideas that would incorporate bright cheerful colors and stress the importance of following the CDC guidelines. Sticking to those procedures in wide open spaces such as parks has been difficult for many, and the new Austin installations greatly simplify the concept.

The Installations

In each of the parks, oversized, colorful boxes were painted onto the grass, each exactly 64 square feet in size and six feet away from the boxes around it. Even better, the paint used to make the boxes was an environmentally friendly water-based type designed specifically to paint turf. Each color palette in the separate parks was motivated by the hues of Texas Hill Country wildflowers, with an overall goal of increasing the safety of outdoor areas in an artistically pleasing way.

Gerardo Gandy, a designer at Gensler, introduced the idea when he saw similar art projects being implemented in other cities. His inspiration to integrate the colors of assorted Texas wildflowers was partly due to a memorable quote by former first lady and dedicated conservationist Lady Bird Johnson: “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”

City Leaders’ Praise

Not only are the residents of Austin thankful for the uplifting art spaces, but many of Austin’s leaders also voiced their appreciation for the project.

Ingrid Spencer, executive director for the Austin Foundation for Architecture and AIA Austin, issued a press release stating: “We could not be more excited to be part of this important, timely, relevant, and necessary project. P A R K S P A C E boldly weaves the elements of an architectural landscaping intervention and a social distancing awareness campaign into one exciting public outdoor experience.”

Kimberly McNeeley, Parks and Recreation Department director, echoed those sentiments in her own press release, which explains that “as we navigate the current situation, the Parks and Recreation Department encourages utilization of our parks and green spaces to create community safety. We’re delighted to be partnering with the Austin Foundation for Architecture to facilitate their creative vision of P A R K S P A C E that will help Austinites continue to maintain physical distancing while the park goers nurture their mental, physical, and spiritual health.”

Even Austin Mayor Steve Adler told the media that “Creative placemaking is a communal experience, and P A R K S P A C E is an installation for our times; a new way to be together, apart.”

The entire four-park pilot project was completed prior to the Fourth of July weekend, even though all Austin and Travis County parks were closed over the holiday as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the state of Texas. More local parks are currently under consideration for P A R K S P A C E installations.

The post PARKSPACE: Austin Art Project Focuses on Creative Social Distancing first appeared on Dornob.

“The competition seeks to explore the aesthetic, functional, social, gestural, and experiential possibilities of enhanced hygiene,” says Bombas & Parr. “It is hoped that this will accelerate the establishment of new behavioral norms which benefit the ongoing health of global society. Ultimately, the aim is to explore how people can safely re-enter the public realm.”

The entries are divided into eight categories: Luxury Design, Sustainable Design, Hygiene Innovation Beyond the Sanitizer, Awareness and Communication, Cadet Designers (Under 18’s), Child-Directed Design, Gesture and Ritual, and Industrial Design. These are the winners, but all of the entries are worth checking out on the Fountain of Hygiene website.

Child-Directed Design: Paint Your Hands Clean

It’s tough to get kids to wash their hands properly. This submission by Kate Strudwick, Amos Oyedeji, Alexander Facey, and Nicole Stjernswärd presents a color-changing hand sanitizer brush that turns hygiene into a fun activity.

Sustainable Design: Seaweed Capsule

Terry Hearnshaw’s biodegradable dispensing system makes it possible to carry individual doses of hand sanitizer in your wallet or pocket, or dispense them from gumball-style machines. Bursting the capsule within clenched hands releases the optimum amount of sanitizer.

Gesture and Ritual: Hygiene-Friendly Visits

This sanitizing doorbell by Line Johnsen is a simple concept that basically forces people to sanitize their hands before entering a home. In order to ring the doorbell, they have to place their hands beneath the automatic dispenser.

Luxury Design: Step One

Sally Reynolds’ innovation is a pedal-activated sanitizer dispenser made of colorful recycled plastics resembling terrazzo. Just step on the copper foot pedal to make the gel come out of the spout.

Hygiene Innovation Beyond Sanitizer: Centrepeace

Our phones might just be the germiest things we ever touch. This invention by Conrad Haddaway, Twomuch Studio, and Inga Ziemele sits in the center of a dining table, offering three shelves for phones. An ozone-generating UV light then sterilizes them while you eat.

Industrial Design: Bubble Party

“Imagine when we finally get back to having small social gatherings, the experience of hand sanitizer in the form of a floating cloud of bubbles, seeing people both young and old drawn to play, capture, and get clean!” says Steve Jarvis, designer of this neat creation. “So much more inviting than simply passing around a basic plastic bottle from person to person.”

Awareness and Communication: Buggy

Another attempt to encourage people to sanitize their phones, “Buggy” by Zoe Lester, Beth Thomas, Emma Chih, Erin Giles, and Kris Murphy is a habit-building app displaying the buildup of bacteria on your locked phone screen. It works by collecting data around daily phone usage, generating multiplying bacteria across your lock screen to convey the real-life bacteria that needs to be cleaned off your phone.

Cadet Designer: Handle Sanitizer

This tactile sanitizer dispenser system by teen inventor Bo Willis is a sponge cover that fits over door handles, automatically covering people’s hands with sanitizer when they enter the room. Willis also proposed “sanitizer walls,” living walls of aloe vera, cinnamon, cloves, rosemary, and eucalyptus that you can run your hands through to kill bacteria.

The post The Fountain of Hygiene: Hand Sanitizer Competition Produces Creative Results first appeared on Dornob.

Major tech companies including IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft have agreed to stop selling facial recognition systems to law enforcement until legislation is passed regarding how the technology will be handled going forward. The debate is squarely centered around human rights at a time when the topic is front and center due to the ongoing protests across the nation sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and many other Black Americans at the hands of the police. For that reason, tech companies are insisting on well-defined regulations regarding how and when police will be able use facial recognition innovations in the future.

Microsoft president Brad Smith commented: “We need Congress to act, not just tech companies alone.” It’s not the first time Smith has spoken out about the potential for misuse of the technology. Two years ago, in another blog post, he explained that “unless we act, we risk waking up five years from now to find that facial recognition services have spread in ways that exacerbate societal issues. By that time, these challenges will be much more difficult to bottle back up.”

There are two main reasons theses companies pulled back plans to release the tech into police departments while insisting on legislative action. The first is due to the current focus on both racial injustice and police brutality. These companies are taking a moral stance against both and are trying to protect the public from them.

The second reason for the decision is that myriad reports have shown that commercial facial recognition algorithms are less accurate when it comes to darker skin, frequently misidentifying minorities and people of color. And since the goal of the technology is to make the job of the police easier, and not to result in false matches or propagate inaccurate stereotypes, that seems like a pretty big problem. Having individual privacy and discrimination protections in place not only safeguards the public, but insulates the companies providing the technology, too.

The reality is that in general, technological innovation is far outpacing appropriate legislation. For example, Amazon’s widely popular Ring doorbells can also provide facial recognition information, and the company already partners with around 1,300 police departments across the nation. Although it’s ready to launch new products, Amazon Ring announced this month that it would be putting a one-year hold on selling new tech to law enforcement in order to give the courts time to implement protections.

Also this month, IBM announced that it was no longer investing in the research and development of facial recognition technology. Instead, CEO Arvind Krishna publicly expressed an interest in working with lawmakers to advance social justice and police reform, stating, “We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies.” He added, “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values.”

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No matter when a vaccine arrives for the novel coronavirus, we’re not done dealing with pandemics anytime soon. Scientists say COVID-19 is just the beginning, as things like climate change and habitat loss will likely continue to make highly communicable diseases more common. If you think we’re all about to get back to “normal” life as it looked prior to 2020, you’re probably being overly optimistic.

The good news is that there are lots of things we can do to adjust (while simultaneously doing everything we can to limit the impacts of climate change). Designers and engineers are coming up with all kinds of interesting ideas to reduce disease transmission in public places, and thankfully, most of them stop short of putting us all in our own fully enclosed bubbles.

Recognizing that indoor dining is a primary vector of coronavirus spread, the Plex’Eat by Christophe Gernigon essentially places each diner inside their own hanging hygienic shield. These suspended plexiglass hoods surround you on three sides while you’re seated at the table, reducing the risk of airborne infection. They’re big enough to accommodate most people, along with the plates and glasses in front of them.

“I imagined, during my nocturnal creative wanderings of these months of confinement, a new way of welcoming customers of bars and restaurants in search of outings,” says Gernigon. “Though we would have preferred not to arrive at this point, it is better to consider aesthetic, design, and elegant alternatives that guarantee the rules of social distancing.”

He makes a good point, especially about the “guarantee” of compliance. Many diners simply aren’t concerned with the risks and are unwilling to follow the rules on their own. Design that makes participation compulsory solves that problem.

Of course, the single-occupancy Plex’Eat design also presents a few practical problems right off the bat. First of all, dining is often an intimate experience involving close conversation. It’s kind of hard to hear your companion through two layers of plexiglass, and restaurants are already loud enough without people shouting to get around this issue.

But Gernigon has a solution for this, too, proposing that some shields can be large enough to enclose two people together, or entire families. That way, you’re protected from diners you don’t know, but can maintain close contact with people from your own household.

The design isn’t just applicable to dining. Gernigon suggests that it could be used to protect both employees and customers in all kinds of environments, like reception desks, nail salons, casinos, bars, airports, and health care facilities. And, as far as products that limit contagion go, it’s reasonably attractive.

The Plex’Eat has already been installed in a Paris restaurant as a demonstration, and French manufacturer Sitour has begun producing single- and couple-sized models. We might as well get used to seeing a lot more plexiglass in public spaces in the near future. Some people might feel safer, while others might feel like the shields create a claustrophobic, antisocial effect. How would you react to your favorite restaurants and bars installing these things?

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One workaround is to carry an antimicrobial tool for opening doors and pushing buttons. But as we all grow more aware of potential public health concerns, designers are coming up with some clever built-in solutions, too.

“Dropkick” addresses one high-touch urban surface: pedestrian buttons at crosswalks. Noticing people contorting their bodies in order to push the waist-height buttons with their feet, the folks at One Design Office realized there’s a really obvious way to solve the problem.

They explain: “diving deeper into this, there was a general consensus that these buttons were not hygienic. The negative connotation is further amplified with the rampant rise of COVID-19 and the growing obsession with public hygiene. As reported in the Journal, studies show that the surfaces of these buttons have been breeding grounds for bacteria, with swabs showing significant colonies of bacteria dwelling on them. Even active wiping down of these buttons may prove to be futile with the bacteria becoming more dominant if they survive. Re-appropriating this to the context of COVID-19, traces of the COVID virus were found on stainless steel surfaces as long as 72 hours after initial contact.”

“You’d imagine that in the 21st century that technology would advance beyond needing to operate buttons. In fact, some cities are already putting in place sensor-activated pedestrian crossing buttons. It was also discovered that many of these buttons don’t actually contribute to the timing or speed of activating a crossing, as most of them work to a pre-determined schedule during peak hours, making them “placebo buttons,” as quoted in the Guardian article. Could it be that these buttons exist for the sole purpose of satisfying the human need of feeling as though they have actively done something to reduce waiting times, much like the ‘close’ button in elevators? We suspect that there could not be a replacement for the tactility of a physical button.”

Their solution, developed in collaboration with Greenpoint Media, is a kickable, hands-free pedestrian button set at ground level. They hope Dropkick can help reduce the transmission of germs while allowing the buttons to continue what is essentially a placebo function. The pill-like shape of the button allows it to be pressed from multiple directions, and it’s backlit for visibility, especially as pedestrians get used to looking further down the light pole than usual. But as the designers point out, having the button on the ground comes with an additional benefit: most people standing at crosswalks are already looking down at their smartphones, anyway.

The button features a hard one-piece aluminum shell for strength and durability, with holes drilled to let the green or red arrow lights pass through. The buttons also contain speakers that can alert pedestrians when it’s time to cross the road, or introduce “biophilic sounds” to the urban environment, like those of singing birds.

This hands-free approach is just one example of how urban design and even home interior design might change as a result of COVID-19. Check out some essential interior design takeaways from the coronavirus crisis, and what we might be able to expect from major cities in the years to come.

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While people have been aware of the dirty doorknob dilemma for decades now, the pandemic has motivated professionals from all kinds of fields to develop creative solutions that could revolutionize the ways we enter and exit rooms and buildings.

The CleanKey

Ziad Salah from Edmonton, Alberta was motivated by his personal situation. His wife is pregnant with their first child, and their older parents are at high risk for contracting the virus. He was following all the protective protocols, of course, but he still felt it wasn’t enough. He says that “it’s not enough to socially distance from being around people. You have to socially distance from things that are publicly shared, too.”

Working with his friends Abed and Ammar Shawar, Salah brainstormed possible solutions. They ultimately came up with a small key-shaped tool with a hook on the end that fits into any pocket and opens doors weighing up to 70 pounds without the hands ever making contact with a knob or handle. The CleanKey can also help you avoid hand contact with keypads and touch screens.

Although CleanKey is among an assortment of portable door-openers currently on the market, Salah and the Shawar brothers believe their curved hood design is more stable than those of their competitors — not to mention more competitively priced at $7. Salah explains that “we’re getting orders for five to six of them at a time, one for every member of a family, so we don’t want the total cost running to $100.”

Free for All

Instead of carrying a tool to open doors, engineers at Materialise (one of Europe’s largest 3D-printing operations) came up with a device that can be easily installed on existing door handles. Perhaps most impressively, it took them only three days to devise, produce, improve, and make public online printing blueprints for it.

Just to clarify, Materialise’s primary focus is the design and 3D-printing of medical equipment, so their aim was never to mass-produce the handles. Instead, they made the blueprints available free online so any individual or company with a 3D printer could use them to create their own. To date, over 100,000 blueprints have been downloaded, equal to around one-tenth of all 3D-printer owners in the world.

The “Less is More” Solution

Arjun Kaicker, head of workplace analytics and insights at London-based Zaha Hadid Architects, thinks voice-activated doors will someday be common. Until then, he suggests a much simpler answer to avoiding germy doorknobs.

“Meeting room doors are going to be propped open, and only if you have a meeting requiring absolute privacy will a person close that door with a handkerchief. And when people move into the offices straightaway, they might just take doors off meetings rooms and offices and put them into storage until things change.”

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