Good Thinking

Hair extensions are already big business in the world of fashion – or so I’m reliably informed by those with more fashion sense and hair than yours truly. Now two graduates from London’s Royal College of Art have found another use for people’s jettisoned locks by creating a collection of fashion glasses made from human hair. Read More

We’ve seen a growing number 3D printers that use additive manufacturing technology to form objects one layer at a time, usually from resin or ABS plastic. But Markus Kayser, an MA student at the Royal College of Art in London, has created a 3D printer that creates 3D objects using two things found in abundance in the desert – sun and sand. As well as being powered by the sun via two photovoltaic panels, the Solar-Sinter also focuses the sun’s rays to heat sand to its melting point so it then solidifies as glass when it cools, allowing the computer controlled device to produce glass objects from 3D computer designs. Read More

It's a hot summer day, you're sweaty and uncomfortable, and there's a river full of cool, clear water right beside you. Do you jump in? Not if you're in New York City, as the rivers that flow through that city are too polluted for swimming ... or at the very least, that's the perception that most people have of them. Three young entrepreneurs, however, have proposed a way of getting New Yorkers into the Hudson, East and/or Bronx Rivers. It's called the +Pool (Plus Pool) – a public swimming pool that would float in the river, allowing people to swim in filtered river water. Read More

The 25 semi-finalists in this year's Electrolux Design Lab competition have now been announced. Every year, students and recent graduates are invited to submit design concepts that tie in with the chosen theme of the challenge. This year's Design Lab is all about Intelligent Mobility for domestic appliances and has attracted 1,300 entries from over 50 countries. We'll be taking a closer look at some of the entries in the coming weeks but for now, here's a quick look at some of those that have caught our eye. Read More

The Fits.me virtual fitting room is an online changing room where you simply enter your sizing statistics and a robotic mannequin models how various sizes will look on your torso - all from the comfort of your own home. Among a host of advantages, the virtual fitting room saves time - the one commodity destined to always be in short supply and solves the single biggest problem for online fashion retail - the lack of a fitting room.

When it was introduced for men last year, sales to new customers increased by 57%, and sales to international customers doubled. Now it's available for women too. Read More

All of us feel the need to make like an ostrich and hide from the world around us now and then. Could this be the answer? Lying somewhere between a travel cushion and a soft bag to put over your head, the OSTRICH is a design concept that aims to provide a portable retreat from any waking daytime environment where the stresses and strains of the day can melt away. Read More

In June of 2008, San Jose, California’s Rob Thompson was in a car accident that left him with a traumatic brain injury. Now 22, he still uses a wheelchair, as he is unable to fully control his left arm and leg. He also has difficulties with short term memory and speech. He goes for physical therapy twice a day, and is slowly recovering. Fortunately for Rob, however, his father Dave decided to speed his recovery by creating a therapeutic device that looks like a ton of fun to use – a tandem recumbent/upright tricycle. Read More

Given that approximately one sixth of the world's population lacks access to safe drinking water, it would obviously be a very good idea to create something that allows those people to easily and cheaply filter their local tainted water. That was the thinking behind the LifeStraw. Developed by European disease control firm Vestergaard Frandsen, the simple device allows individual users to drink directly out of unclean water bodies, without ingesting pathogens or other pollutants. Now, the larger-scale LifeStraw Family is being introduced in Kenya, where it could potentially save millions of lives, reduce air pollution, and pay for itself in the process. Read More

Those of us who need to wear glasses face a bit of a quandary when it comes to protective eyewear. We can put big safety glasses on over top of our prescription glasses, although these can be bulky, uncomfortable, and a little funny-looking. Those drawbacks can be avoided by getting safety glasses with prescription lenses, but given the conditions under which such glasses are typically worn, it’s entirely possible that their custom lenses will get scratched. This leaves users on the hook for an expensive new pair, which they will have to wait several days for. Australian inventor Andreas Mehringer, however, has created what could be a better alternative, in the form of his IC Safety System. Read More