Tag: ‘Design’

Pimp my Dream Tanker

05 Sep 2006

Dream Tanker

The Dream Tanker, one of the largest liquified natural gas (LNG) tankers in the world, now travels in style. Comedian-turned-painter Jimmy Onishi and 40 elementary school students have designed monster-sized psychedelic murals for the ship's spherical tanks. The total area covered by the murals is large enough to cover 100 buses.

The 120,000-ton Dream Tanker, owned by an affiliate of Osaka Gas, measures 289.5 meters (950 feet) long and 49 meters (160 feet) wide. With 4 independent spherical tanks measuring 43 meters (140 feet) in diameter, the tanker can hold up to 67,000 tons of LNG.

Osaka Gas decided to decorate the tanker with graphics in celebration of the company's 100th anniversary. The company asked Kansai-area elementary school students to draw pictures, which Jimmy Onishi then incorporated into his giant images of a fish, crab, shrimp and turtle. Sumitomo 3M Ltd. then used computers to process the images and printed them onto a special adhesive film, which was attached to the tanks.

The total surface area of the images amounts to about 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet, or 1 acre), prompting Sumitomo 3M to submit an application to the Guinness Book of World Records to officially establish the work as the world's largest graphic design on a mode of transportation.

For more images, visit the official Dream Tanker website (Flash alert!). After you get past the Flash introduction, click on the second button on the right. That will take you to a control interface where you can zoom in on the ship and view it from different angles.

[Source: Garbagenews]

Rooftop lawn-planting made simple

25 Aug 2006

TM9 turf mat

On August 25, Toyota Roof Garden (a subsidiary of the Toyota Motor Corporation) began taking orders for its TM9 turf mats, modular grass tiles developed specifically for converting rooftops into fields of green. In addition to providing an extra layer of thermal insulation to a building, a grassy rooftop can also be used as a putting green, says the company.

The mats act as a foundation upon which to grow Toyota's TM9 brand of Korean velvet grass (korai shiba), which only needs to be cut once a year (as opposed to 3 to 4 times for other varieties) due to its slow growth. Each 50 x 50 cm (20 x 20 in.) mat is 6 cm (2 in.) thick. Setting up a field is fast and easy -- just arrange the mats where you want them and voila, your grass is ready to be enjoyed.

The mats also include space for water tubes that can be used as an automated irrigation system. Water flows through the tubes into a series of channels beneath the grass, providing an even supply of moisture to the roots. Each square meter (10 sq.ft.) needs 17 liters (4.5 gallons) of water every 3 days.

For the time being, TM9 turf mats are made to order. At 5,000 yen (US$43) per square meter (10 sq.ft.), the company aims to sell 3,000 square meters (30,000 sq.ft.) in 2006.

Green rooftops provide thermal insulation for buildings and can help combat the urban heat island effect. The annual Japanese market for rooftop and wall gardening products is expected to grow to between 10 and 15 billion yen (US$90 to 130 million) in the near future.

[Source: Fuji Sankei]

New pharmaceutical pictograms

21 Jul 2006

The Risk/Benefit Assessment of Drugs-Analysis and Response (RAD-AR) Council of Japan has released a new batch of pictograms for use on pharmaceutical packaging. No more deciphering complicated dosage directions and warnings -- a glance is all it takes now.

Medical pictograms

Get your copy of all 51 pictograms here.

[Via Iza!]

Face to face with high-tech medical devices

13 Jul 2006

The International Modern Hospital Show 2006 is being held from July 12 to 14 in Tokyo (Tokyo Big Sight), where nearly 400 companies have gathered to showcase the latest in healthcare-related technology. The theme of the show is "Reliable Health, Medical Treatment, and Care -- Aiming for High Quality Service," a theme whose success evidently depends on high technology. Below are photos (via Impress Watch) and explanations of a few of the devices appearing at the show. Despite appearances, these fellows are here to help.

The first photo shows a patient simulator developed by IMI Corporation and Paramount Bed Co., Ltd., a system consisting of a monitor connected to a sensor-laden mannequin whose physiology changes realistically according to the treatment it receives. Great for training future medical professionals. Great for your haunted house, too.

Patient sumulator developed by IMI and Paramount Bed

The next photo shows a transnasal endoscope developed by FUJIFILM Medical Co., Ltd. and Fujinon Toshiba ES Systems Co., Ltd. Surveys show that 90% of patients who have experienced endoscopy think it is more comfortable to enter through the nose (as opposed to through the mouth or anus). I hope the expression on this guy's face is no indication of his comfort level.

Nasal endoscope developed by FUJIFILM and Fujinon Toshiba ES Systems

The next photo shows Muu Socia 3.0 (left), a cute cyclopean teardrop-shaped "communication support" robot developed by ATR and Systec Akazawa. The robot is designed to serve as a social mediator that livens up the communication between care giver and care recipient. Muu Socia has voice recognition, voice synthesis, speech processing and face recognition capabilities. And it starts bouncing around when something obstructs its view (watch the 5-second video (WMV)).

Pictured on the right is a home appliance control robot developed by RayTron Co., Ltd. Voice recognition capabilities allow patients to operate their home appliances by remote control. It looks sort of like an owl.

Muu Socia 3.0 (left) and home appliance control robot (right)

You can see more photos and read about the other technology on display at the link below.

[Source: Impress Watch]

Follow the solar brick road

11 Apr 2006

Solar LED blocks from Sunlight Sunlight Co., Ltd., a venture company based in Himeji, Japan, has unveiled a new line of self-illuminating bricks that contain solar-powered LEDs. The company expects the solar LED blocks, which are powered by sunshine collected during the day, to be used in the construction of public roads and parks.

Embedded in sidewalks, the solar LED blocks can provide lighting underfoot at night and during power outages, and can be used for decorative purposes or for emergency evacuation lighting. The block's built-in solar cells and light components are arranged so that illumination is distributed evenly across the entire surface, an improvement over Sunlight?s previous solar LED blocks that featured a segregated component arrangement.

The bricks use solar cells that efficiently store and generate electricity even on cloudy days or under poor lighting conditions, and they can emit up to 8 hours of continuous light (or 24 hours of blinking light).

"In addition to improving the scenery, these lights can play a role in accident prevention and in emergency lighting during a disaster," says Yoshikazu Arai, President of Sunlight. "And they are environmentally friendly, too." The blocks start at 12,000 yen (US$100) and come in 5 colors.

[Source: Kobe Shimbun]

Soccer ball-shaped safe homes

03 Apr 2006

BarrierAn assortment of model "safe" homes shaped like soccer balls are on display at a home exhibition in suburban Gifu. The homes -- named "Barier" by manufacturer Kimidori Kenchiku -- are 32-sided polyhedrons encased in stainless steel. According to the company website, Barier's bulletproof construction is resistant to earthquake, typhoon, fire, and terrorist attack, and its ability to float in water makes it floodproof. When buried underground, Barier can be used as a tornado or bomb shelter. The price tag includes a mini-kitchen, a bed and two 15-inch LCD TVs, so you can be sure to catch all the World Cup action no matter what transpires outside.

[Source: Jiji, Kimidori Kenchiku]

Panasonic develops bamboo speakers

30 Mar 2006

Bamboo speakerPanasonic Electronic Devices (subsidary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.) announced on March 29 that it has teamed up with Doshisha University to develop speaker diaphragms using paper made from bamboo. Compared to speakers with conventional diaphragms that use paper made from softwood, bamboo speakers have a wider sound range and crisper treble.

Bamboo is lighter and harder than softwood, making it a suitable material for speaker diaphragms. To maintain the ideal properties of bamboo, high-speed grindstones are used instead of chemicals (which can cause some properties to be lost) to break the bamboo down into fiber.

Panasonic hopes to put the speakers on the market at the end of 2007. The speakers are expected to cost double that of conventional speakers, but the company claims that using bamboo can play a role in resource conservation because it grows faster than softwood. The company hopes to establish bamboo as a mainstream material for speakers.

[Source: Asahi Shimbun]

KOTOHANA communicates emotions from afar

03 Mar 2006

NEC, NEC Design and SGI Japan have teamed up to develop KOTOHANA, flower-shaped terminals that use LED light to remotely communicate human emotions.

Each KOTOHANA set consists of two flower-shaped terminals equipped with LEDs that change color according to the emotions of the person who owns the counterpart. Each flower contains a microphone that captures voice data for processing, the results of which are sent via wireless LAN to the other terminal, where it is expressed as LED light.

KOTOHANA

KOTOHANA's Sensibility Technology (ST) emotion recognition engine, which was developed by SGI Japan with the cooperation of AGI, detects joy, sorrow, calmness and excitement in speech patterns. Happiness is expressed as yellow, sadness as blue, calmness as green, and excitement as red. Changing emotions are expressed through subtle color gradations and variations in light brightness.

The product is still in the prototype stage, with the ST engine running on a separate computer connected to KOTOHANA. NEC plans to showcase KOTOHANA at CeBIT, the international trade show for information and telecommunications technology to be held from March 9 to 15 in Hannover, Germany.

[Source: Yahoo! News Japan via japan.internet.com]

Electrical Fantasista: Hip technology you can feel

27 Feb 2006

Cutting-edge technology meets art at Electrical Fantasista, an exhibit and series of events held at BankART Studio NYK in Yokohama (Feb 24 ? Mar 14). The exhibit is divided into four zones that explore the future of modern lifestyle.

ZONE 1: Positive Living
Artists and scientists from Japan have created robots and machines that rely on IT to bring comfort to people. The works in this zone fuse art with the latest in technology to evoke true delight, providing a glimpse into the future of relaxation.

ZONE 1 works
- Tabby: Communicative healing IT interior that reacts to voice and touch
- PARO: Interactive seal robot with therapeutic powers recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records
- Co-animation table: Table that anyone can enjoy to create animation
- Mutant Critter: "Skins" that transform things into furry creatures
- Mr. Jones Watches: Series of retro-futuristic watches with a variety of unique functions
- Katazukue: Tidy table that forces slobs to clean up

PARO
PARO, the healing seal robot

ZONE 2: Game Is Life
The "games" in Zone 2 are the stuff that fuels the development of games. But beware, these works of art from Germany and Japan venture dangerously into realms ordinary games only dream to go, which explains why gamers and developers from across the globe are dying to try them out.

ZONE 2 works
- PainStation: Arcade game that exposes the loser to electric heat/shock and lashings
(Note: Due to the possibility of physical harm, play is limited to those who agree to bear full responsibility for any injury incurred.)
- Through the looking glass: Air hockey game that pits you against your mirror image
- MisLeading MisReading: Artificial intelligence message game that uses advanced speech recognition and machine translation technology to translate your spoken words

PainStation
PainStation

ZONE 3: Electrical Lounge

MorphoTowerZone 3 explores new types of experience in optics. Relying on the latest in optic technology, such as LED and sensors, the works in this zone go beyond the flashing of lights to magically stimulate all the senses. Here, visitors experience new forms of comfort and stimulation.

ZONE 3 works
- Kaze-no-michi: Light sculpture that transforms the beauty of wind into light that illuminates the floor
- MorphoTower: Living sculpture of magnetic fluid that continuously morphs into magical shapes
- Fuwa Pica: Sofas that change color when you sit -- soft on the eyes, soft to the touch

ZONE 4: Flash Fantasista
Zone 4 features a selection of interactive art chosen the curators. See http://www.shift.jp.org for details.

(Map to BankART Studio NYK)

[Source: Creative Cluster]

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