I New Idea Homepage

The invention and application of the digital players marks that the mankind have entered the Digital Age, during which period people seldom use vinyl records or CD players. But we never forget them, and designer Pavel Sidorenko has applied the clock idea to vinyl records, creating several clocks of various shapes. You see, here is a gun, a bird, a rabbit, a chair, a teapot, and all of them are laser-cut. Fantastic! [Read the rest of this entry...]

Good news for people who have long suffered from heavy farm work is that the Wunda Weeder will free them from those unpleasant tasks. As a collaborative invention by Brendan Corry and Peter Sargent, the Wunda Weeder features a sort of bed with an adjustable headrest, allowing the users to lay on their stomach while busy with the crops. The “bed” is adjustable, so that you can use the Wunda Weeder with different types of crops. On its top roof are a set of solar panels that harvest sun light to power the electric motor. So in one word, the motor comes with a remarkable ability to improve the farm productivity while cutting down the fuel consumption. No wonder such a Wunda Weeder is expected to be sold around $8,000. [Read the rest of this entry...]

What if your clothes could play music? What if your clothes could act as a guitar? If you’re interested in both the two ideas, you must thank MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics. During the past decade, the lab has been working hard to develop fibers so that they can interact with the environment, and in the August issue of Nature Materials, the lab announced a new kind of fibers that can detect and produce sound. The heart of the acoustic fibers is a plastic used in microphones, and it can change shapes when an electric field is applied to it. So it’s not a fantasy to apply these fibers into clothes, though we may still have to wait for years to see the real acoustic coats and shirts in the store. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Guess what, the cool jacket is made from vegetable leather that is grown from a vat of green tea! That’s really incredible, but that’s just what the fashion designer Suzanna Lee has created in the “BioCouture” research project based at Central Saint Martin’s College.

Continue reading for a further explanation offered by Suzanna after the jump. [Read the rest of this entry...]

On a fine afternoon, put the books aside, open the Happy Window and have a pleasant chatting with your buddies when enjoying the beautiful scenery outside—what could be better than that? Just start an easy life with the “Happy Window”. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Czech design student Jiri Richter has offered us a possible solution to recycle materials. He bounded dozens of empty 2L Coca Cola bottles together and therefore created the lightweight, portable concave seating unit. You may have thought of the same concept, but it is Jiri Richter that gives us a real one. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Hooks are useful tools but they’re not that useful to keep towels, jackets or raincoats from falling off. So sculptor and engineer Stefan Bennedahl offered the Clever Hook with a self-grabbing mechanism, to pinch everything in place. It works in a way like this: you hang a towel onto the lower “arm”, the weight of the towel then causes the top “arm” to come down and grab the item tightly. The mechanism is designed to hold up to 40 lbs, and the heavier the item is, the tighter it grabs. To remove, you simply need to lift up the item, and the top arm will retract. [Read the rest of this entry...]

We’d like to call the pixel orca sculpture “the most memorable orca (or sculpture)”, not  because of its huge size and unique design, but because it’s the first orca or sculpture that makes us feel dizzy. Even so, we still believe that the Pixel Orca Sculpture will give a new look to the Vancouver convention center. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Only the God knows how much I needed the Safety Cutter—I’ve had more than three finger-cuts on my left thumb, even though I tried to use the knives as carefully as possible. But the Safety Cutter will take care of your fingers. It features a knife that is attached to a ruler, which not only helps you to cut the sheet effectively, but protects your fingers at the same time. Apparently the Safety Cutter wouldn’t change my past, but it surely will change your future. [Read the rest of this entry...]

The 2010 summer is really special and memorable to Joe Ciaglia and many other people in California, not because of the World Cup, but one giant skateboard. Built by Joe, the skateboard looks the same as normal ones but features a rather huge size and it can hold more than one person at one time. Not surprisingly that the picture above is often regarded as a clever photoshop, but the video after the jump will soon prove the world’s largest skateboard does exist in California…  Look, it’s running down the hill! [Read the rest of this entry...]

What could be better than the X-tape? Check out these optical illusion “hinge” tapes designed by Hyoungmin Park and Jeongmin Lee for mmiinn, and then you can fix such hinges onto boxes, books, cups and even your faces… [Read the rest of this entry...]

So you have been using flowers, lemons as well as tea leaves to clear the air? But you also have the option of the Bacon Air Freshener, something that smells as good as the sizzling bacon…  Hmmm, I feel a little bit hungry now. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Do remember that a gentleman is, before anything else, a man that dresses neatly and decently. But if you don’t have adequate confidence keeping your suits and shoes clean in rainy days, you would possibly like to have a look at the waterproof suits, waterproof shoes as well as the waterproof wallets. Ideal for those who are very busy with invitations to parties or conferences, these stylish products will always keep you clean and dry even if you accidentally fall into the mud! [Read the rest of this entry...]

Each of the Magnetic Thinking Putty comes with millions of tiny micron-sized magnets inside, due to which the new product also exhibits magnets’ property of attracting nails apart from having the same functions as normal putty. And with the help of the included super-strong neodymium iron boron cube magnet, we can also enjoy new fun with the classical toy: you move the cube magnet and then find the putty acting like a snake charmer…  Isn’t that weird? Just have a try. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Folding up the bathroom? That seems like an impossible task. But here on I New Idea we believe that everything is possible, and we’re always experimenting with new things, e.g. the “Folding Shower”. [Read the rest of this entry...]