OLEDs are like a new type of magical material, self-illuminating and eco-friendly. They are organic and work in a way similar to the bioluminescence that makes a firefly and certain deep sea fish glow. OLEDs can be extremely thin, flexible, varying in shapes, colors and sizes, some are even transparent while providing a lovely ambient glow. The function and creative possibilities of OLEDs in clothing, furniture, jewelry, and art are only as limited as the creator’s imagination. Here are 33 excellent OLED eco-friendly and energy efficient designs, from the super-sly spy to the interactive.
…We’re talking about an actual (well, artificial) cloud that promises to be both a real structure and a massive digital display. That’s the bright idea of a team of researchers from MIT, anyway, and it’s now been shortlisted in a competition designed to find a new tourist attraction to be built in London for the 2012 Olympics. Dubbed simply “The Cloud,” the structure would consist of two 400-foot tall mesh towers that are linked by a series of interconnected plastic bubbles, which would themselves house an observation deck inside and be used to display everything from Olympic scores and highlights to a “barometer of the city’s interests and moods” outside (that latter bit comes courtesy of the group’s partnership with Google).
The RemoteHome is a flat share that will exist in two distant cities at the same time: London and Berlin. Both spaces are electronically connected through the Internet, to turn furniture and architectural elements into tangible and sensual means of communication.
IBM announced the opening of the sixth in a network of analytics solution centers - this one dedicated to helping federal agencies and other public sector organizations extract actionable insights from their data.
The new IBM Analytics Solution Center in Washington, D.C., will draw on the expertise of more than 400 IBM professionals. These will include IBM researchers, experts in advanced software platforms, and consultants with deep industry knowledge in areas such as transportation, social services, public safety, customs and border management, revenue management, defense, logistics, healthcare and education
The need to design new systems with complex yet subtle social effects, and compelling social benefits, makes this an exciting and challenging new area for usability.
Half the states in the U.S. require utilities to generate a certain percentage of power from renewable sources, helping to fuel rapid growth in wind and solar power. Exelon is working with SunPower to put a solar photovoltaic plant on an old brownfield site on Chicago’s South Side. The 10-megawatt plant will have 32,000 solar panels and should be able to power between 1,200 and 1,500 homes.
Suzuki has launched a hybrid gasoline/electric vehicle for sale on the Japanese market that travels an impressive 100 miles per gallon of gas! The Suzuki Twin also features an automatic idling stop system shuts the engine down whenever the car stops at traffic lights or when stationary in heavy traffic, minimizing CO’ emissions and fuel consumption.
