Design

Tal Avitzur is obsessed with collecting what he calls "retro junk." The California artist spends hours sifting through scrapyards to find parts for the whimsical robots he dreams up.

At his Talbotics studio in Santa Barbara, Avitzur has created dozens of bots that are creepy, cute, alien, or just plain bizarre. Many are more than just ornamental -- they work as night lights, illuminating dark rooms with their otherworldly LED eyes.

Some of his "Talbots" feature unexpected parts like vacuum cleaner motor housings, dolls, winches, clutches, floor polishers, meat grinder blades, taxidermy animal eyes, and old boat fittings. … Read more

British inventor Colin Furze's 1-month-old son may have to wait til he's old enough to drive before he really gets to ride in his own baby carriage. Furze set his mind to creating the world's fastest pram, and it looks like he is likely to succeed.

According to the Daily Mail, the three-wheeled baby carriage is outfitted with a 125cc motorbike engine. It took four weeks and more than $700 to put the speed demon machine together. … Read more

Take a Sony Aibo and cross it with a Samsonite. Congratulations, you have the world's most loyal piece of luggage, the Hop. Hop is a suitcase that automatically follows you around.

The suitcase is stocked with three receivers that triangulate the user's phone's position over Bluetooth. A microcontroller does the calculations and keeps it at a close distance. The suitcase is security-minded. If it gets lost, the user's phone will vibrate and Hop will lock itself up tight. … Read more

Feeling a touch of terror as the dentist moves the drill closer to your face? Perhaps some tunes emanating from the tool will assuage your anxiety.

That's the idea behind Dr. Dhanni Gustiana's musical drill. The dentist from Java, Indonesia, modified a regular dental drill to play MP3s instead of its usual ominous high-pitched buzzing. The drill even takes requests, though I'd highly recommend staying away from Slayer or Cannibal Corpse. … Read more

The eternal debate about whether running or walking through rain gets you wetter has now become a moot point. An art and technology installation in London lets you make your way through rain without getting wet at all.

You don't need an umbrella or a Gore-Tex suit to achieve this feat. You just need to make sure you're visiting Random International's RainRoom.… Read more

Somewhere under Aspen, Colo., a time capsule containing Steve Jobs' mouse has been sitting and waiting to be unearthed. Since 1983. And no one knows where it is.

That's what blogger Marcel Brown wrote this morning, explaining that the time capsule, known as the Aspen Time Tube and buried in conjunction with the 1983 International Design Conference there, is lost and those looking for it are facing considerable odds against success.

According to a 2010 article in the Glenwood Springs (Colo.) Post Independent, the Aspen Time Tube was buried in June, 1983, and contained a number of items, ranging … Read more

Ever since we started using the iPhone 5, we've either been carting the Lightning-to-USB cable around or had to go out and buy a spare.

Those pesky cables, however, have a tendency to get tangled in our bags, as well as cause a mess on our desks, so we were intrigued when we spotted the Spixi from New York-based Escargot on Kickstarter. … Read more

Last weekend in Taos, N.M., I watched a young girl pulverize a police car with just her right hand.

Of course, she had a little help from the 7-ton hydraulic mechanical hand that she was controlling through a sort of glove apparatus mounted to a raised control chair. The mechanical working structure is a creation of local artist Christian Ristow, who first designed the "Hand of Man" for the Burning Man festival a few years ago.… Read more

NTT DoCoMo has always showcased interesting concepts at trade shows. For example, we saw a breathalyzer in a smartphone and an ultra-high-speed charging jacket at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

This time, at Ceatec in Japan, NTT DoCoMo has come up with a concept handset that can be operated with one hand simply by gripping it in various ways.

The Grip UI, which is really a combination of hardware (pressure sensors on the back and both sides of the phone) and software, can be applied to activate shortcuts for opening apps or unlocking the phone. … Read more