Chariot Skates

Testing 1st samples from new moulds in Sydney & China from Chariot Skates on Vimeo.

Chariot Skates. It's what happens when a unicycle collides into each leg of a rollerblade.

Water is good for the eyes.

Chanced upon this article in the Guardian about Josh Silver and his vision (their pun, only borrowed by me) of making the world's poor see. And like any cost effective model, it started with eliminating the middle man. In this case the optician. Take out his fine tuning cost and you can make a pair of spectacles a lot more affordable.
So who will do the tuning then? Well Josh Silver answered that with a question. What if a pair of glasses could be "tuned" by the wearer him/herself to correct his/her vision?
This professor of physics at the Oxford University, then found the answer to this question in a simple principle of optics - The thicker the lens, the more powerful it is. And in a simple marvel of nature - Liquid is a natural magnifier. After that, it was as clear as water. Inside the tough plastic lens of the frame are two clear, circular sacs that can be filled with fluid. The volume of the fluid can be controlled by syringes attached to each arm of the frame.
The wearer adjusts the fluids levels to suit his/her vision. And when one reaches the desired clarity, the sacs are sealed by twisting a small screw and the syringes removed.
His glasses have already found their way to about 15 countries, and about 30,000 of them are already perched on noses there. But retd-Prof. Silver has his sights set far higher. He's looking at India through his fluid filled glasses. By next year, he and his team plan to launch a trial where they hope to find at least a million noses to house their visionary product.
With a target cost of a dollar a piece, the economies of scale that an India and China can add to the pricing formula can definitely make it a reality. Add to that the simplicity of the product that allows it to be mass-produced and not custom-made to vision and one could see the pricing being pulled even lower.
But while he can see a bright future for his product (and for its users), he also sees a lot of scope for improvement. The clunky size and design, being the most pressing one. But Silver is optimistic about being able to make it as delightful to look at, as it is to look though.

Wheel of change

Conceived and developed by the the SENSEable City Lab for the Kobenhavns Kommune, the Copenhagen Wheel would have debuted on December 15th at the COP15 United Nations Climate Conference. If you haven't heard about it (I hadn't), it's probably because all murmurs of approval must have drowned under the heated debates at the conference and the loud protests on the streets.
While the wheel may not become a missionary for the environment (yet), converting the heathen motorists to religiously start cycling to whereever they can; but it definitely takes cycling to its next generation. The Nike Plus equivalent for cyclists; it allows you to send and store information in your smart phones, mapping pollution levels, traffic congestion and road conditions in real time. While the wheel itself allows you to capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking and use it when you feel your energy levels dipping.
"SENSE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Controlled through your smart phone, the Copenhagen Wheel becomes
a natural extension of your everyday life. You can use your phone to unlock and
lock your bike, change gears and select how much the motor assists you.
As you cycle, the wheel’s sensing unit is also capturing your effort level and
information about your surroundings, including road conditions, carbon monoxide,
NOx, noise, ambient temperature and relative humidity. Access this data
through your phone or the web and use it to plan healthier bike routes,
to achieve your exercise goals or to meet up with friends on the go.
You can also share your data with friends, or with your city - anonymously
if you wish – thereby contributing to a fine-grained database of
environmental information from which we can all benefit."

Hydros Bottle

Drinking is a worldwide problem that's fast heading towards becoming a worldwide crisis. In many villages in Africa, the women have to walk for miles each day for a potful of water that's suitable for drinking. In most villages in India even walking that far won't get you a glassful of clean drinking water. But with the Hydros Bottle, there may only be a need to walk to your nearest supermarket or cyber cafe. (not that it'll be any shorter a walk, but at least one won't have to make it daily)
The Hydros Bottle was an effort by Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science of the University of Pennsylvania to provide purified water to increasingly mobile, urban people in the developing world. But a product that was originally born out of altruistic motives, soon found a business opportunity for itself as researchers pointed out that contaminated drinking water was not the problem of developing nations alone. Water flowing out of taps in many parts of the US are laced with dangerous levels of heavy metals and toxins. And so while the 700ml bottle will make its first appearance soon. It's going to start with the US markets.
A glance at the illustrative reference should be enough to tell you how the Hydros Bottle works. The filter attached to the mouth of the bottle is what purifies the water as it flows out of the bottle. The filter reduces arsenic, particulate and dissolved lead, mercury, copper, chlorine and cadmium.
Made for the urban dweller in developing nations, to be sold first in a developed country. But it's rather conservative pricing of $25, sure makes it an optimistic option for the rural markets in both developing and under-developed countries.
The recyclable filter needs a change once every 40 gallon at a cost of $6. Which also makes it a cheaper and a rather convenient substitute to bottled water. A potential life saver for mother nature who is flaying her green limbs for help in the sea of plastic bottles.
Just a thought though. Why not just sell a filter that can be attached to any glass bottle? And the fact that the developers didn't choose glass over plastic for the bottle itself is a tad disappointing. Nevertheless a great product.