ferrofluid
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Ferrofluid 'font' produces trippy, one-of-a-kind art
You may have seen ferrofluid (aka magnetic ink) used for clever science demonstrations in school, but it might just get a much cooler application before long. Linden Gledhill and Craig Ward have developed Fe2O3 Glyphs, wild-looking characters created by putting a ferrofluid between glass plates and subjecting it to spinning magnetic fields. The result is a sort of anti-font -- while the "letters" look like they could be part of an alien language, they're so unique that you'd likely never produce the same effect twice.
Martin Frey's interaction projects make your senior thesis look lame
Sure, it might be a little bulky, and could probably use a few months / years of polish before it's ready for market, but we want one now. Martin Frey's prototype Just In Time Watch (pictured) is designed to eliminate to difficult and time consuming mental processes that usually go on when you look at a watch: what time is it, when's that next appointment, how long will it take to get there, when should I leave, etc. The watch can communicate with your cellphone to leech the internets and a GPS position. It then looks up your next appointment, and maps where you are in relation to the next place you need to be, along with how long it'll take you to get there, then displays the amount of time you have left to draw shaving cream smiley faces in the mirror before you actually need to take off. Another project by Martin Frey, titled "SnOil" is decidedly less functional, but makes up for it with extra sexy. The device is basically a low-resolution display made out of Ferrofluid -- you know, that weird magnetic-ish liquid stuff -- which lets you play a simple game of Snake on its few pixels, including a "GAME OVER" message when you screw up. Finally, Martin's CabBoots are a bit more conceptual, but are designed to steer the user by tilting the sole of the shoe to guide the wearer based on GPS data. Soon, in the Frey-designed future, we will always be on time to appointments (for our Ferrofluid massage, naturally) which we will arrive at after blindly following our shoes. We can't wait. Peep shots of this other stuff after the break.Read - Just In Time WatchRead - SnOilRead - CabBoots
