Israeli designer Zlil Lazarovich aims to make masks less frightening by allowing family members to recognize the face behind the safety harness.Let’s face it: if the situation requires a gas mask, then something scary is already happening. So why do masks themselves have to look so terrifying? The design of such apparatus has changed little since World War II, so most still resemble an alien f...

UNO, a portable station was born out of the intention to design a movable support, essential and elegant in shapes but efficient and effective in its functions. It aims to become the ambassador of the beauty of visual and tactile language of wood material. The adjustable height makes it exploitable in different contexts, thanks to the modules of which it is composed, rigid but articulated throu...

The retail giant took Microsoft's 'RoomAlive' ball and ran with it. Augmented reality (AR) isn't all headsets and funny glasses. Amazon wants to turn it into something that you can interact with in your living room, judging by a couple of the company's recently approved patents. The "object tracking" patent shows how a system of projectors and cameras could beam virtual images onto real objects...

Investments can have the same internal rate of return for different reasons. A breakdown of this metric in private equity shows why it matters.Executives, analysts, and investors often rely on internal-rate-of-return (IRR) calculations as one measure of a project’s yield. Private-equity firms and oil and gas companies, among others, commonly use it as a shorthand benchmark to compare the relat...

Japanese printer company epson has developed a compact office paper making system capable of producing new paper from securely shredded waste paper without the use of water. Businesses and government offices that install a ‘paperlab’ in the building will be able to produce various sizes, thicknesses, and types, from office paper and business card paper to paper that is colored and scented. or...

Today’s touch interfaces are primarily driven by the 2D location of touch events. However, there are many other dimensions of touch that can be captured and utilized interactively. By increasing the richness of touch input, users can do more in the same small space, potentially enabling richer applications. In this research, we describe a new method that estimates a finger’s angle relative to...

For 2016, pantone takes on a softer approach to the color of the year, combining for the first time, two shades – rose quartz (pantone 13-1520) and serenity (pantone 15-3919).the emblematic selection is a response to what has been taking place within our culture — consumers seeking well-being as an antidote to modern day stresses — and serves as an expression of a mood and attitude. ‘the tw...

Throughout Boston, there are plenty of university-affiliated incubators and accelerator programs. The MIT Media Lab isn’t one of them. But despite the organization’s focus on academic research, so many people’s projects there translate very well to startup-dom.In fact, some notable names in Boston’s entrepreneurial scene are spin-offs from research done at this MIT fixture, and you probably...

MIT researchers have studied the entrainment of air in hairy surfaces and the water-repellant properties of fur and feathers, which may inspire the design of novel textiles -- like hairy wet suits.Seals and otters stay warm in cold water because their fur is ideally structured for trapping insulating air. These unique hairy surfaces could inspire the design of new kinds of textiles, such as wet...