Kinetic Architecture

This is quite possibly one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Seriously. The good people over at Yanko Design introduced the Kinetower, a new build for skyscrapers that utilizes sunlight to transform a building from a traditional straight-up structure to something of a flower. The Kinetower uses a material that is rigid as high grade steel when taut, but flexible when loose. The result is a building that can open itself up to sunlight and wind, meaning a much more energy-sustainable structure. Rather than using man-made electricity, solar and wind energy can be utilized for a building that essentially powers itself. The applications for this design are endless, and with a premium being placed on 'green', I wouldn't be surprised to see the Kinetower in the works somewhere soon. Hopefully the US will get its head on straight and order a bunch of these. Check out some more renderings of the Kinetower after the jump...

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No Excuse Not to Wash Your Hands Now

Funny diagram, but it's so simple.. How did we not think of this before???

One thing that I hate about being in public is using public restrooms. Obviously, for men the experience is a little less unsanitary than for women. Nonetheless, the nastiness and grime that I see in people's bathroom behavior is reason enough for me to think cholera and dysentery will rear their ugly heads again. No one washes their hands! And if they do, it's a small splash of water. In the most plain terms, that don't work! It seems like people need to be reminded left and right that keeping your hands clean is the easiest route to not spending two days cuddled up with some tissue and Benadryl (much like I was yesterday). I guess the good people over at Yanko Design felt the same way, because they've come up with a combination urinal with both a urinal and faucet built in. Not only does the 'Eco Urinal' create incentive to wash your hands (the sh*t is literally in front of you), it also saves water. The water you use to wash your hand gets siphoned down in to the urinal portion to wash away whatever excrement you put out. Somehow, I think this design can change the whole public bathroom game from a nasty, potentially disease-ridden affair, to something less nerve-wracking to germaphobes. Check out a rendering of the invention, and make sure you WASH YOUR HANDS!!

i-sound Transformable Earphones

Earphones are a necessary evil for those of us who want to take our music with us, but don't want clunky headphones to weigh us down. Earphones are cheap, provide good sound quality and are portable. Yet, one of my pet peeves about them is how easily that misshaped earphones can fall out of one's ear, or just provide bad sound because of their placement. The good people over at Yanko Design picked up a new way to create earphones, which puts a simple cord loop on the earphones so that they can wrap around your ears and hold the earphone in your ear. It's the simplest of tweaks, but it does so much for the design. It's a shame Sony or one of the big electronics companies didn't come up with this idea. This could easily replace those crappy molded plastic earphones that itch and make your ear hurt after a while. Check out some different views of the i-Sound Transformable Earphones...

The Y-Lock

There's never enough that can be said about simplicity. The act of dumbing down or altering even the most rudimentary of inventions takes a lot more intellect than just creating them. That's because you have to backtrack to the point or objective of the design and find another way to get there. I suppose the guys over at Yanko Design didn't have to go all the way back to the idea of the traditional lock. The Y-Lock, though, is an ingenious modification for people who always have trouble putting their key in the door (me) half the time. It'd probably cut down on broken doorknobs too, since it's just the lock mechanism. One of those things that make you go 'duhhhh'....

Infinite USB Plugs?

Why is it that the Japanese are always on the cutting edge of innovation, yet some of the designs they brew up are so simplistic that you wonder why you hadn't thought of it first? I suppose this is one of those ideas. The good people at Yanko Design dropped another bomb on the head of needless technology, by making the typical USB cord into a pluggable chain of USB cords. It's so simple, I feel stupid. The only thing is that after 4 or 5 plugs, the idea gets a bit cumbersome. I suppose that's why most computers have more than one USB input in the first place. The color coding is a good look too. I hope this gets to the production line soon...