Oxman went through medical school, but abandoned that career path for a “mishmash of design, architecture, art, and computer programming”.

She works out of MIT’s media lab and strives to bring about her vision of the future which consists of all objects living, breathing and adapting as we interact with them. She imagines organic architecture designs, nanotube walls which change size, chairs that change shape as you sit, DNA-encoded clothing that grows with you. She explains that studying how human bones adjust, getting thicker when a woman is pregnant or thinner when individuals are in outer space, inspired that vision of hers.

As with many other designs that we see, Oxman’s are stunning in their intricate plays with textures and materials, but to me the dreamy vision that pushes her to create them adds so much more to the way I view her works. I expect them to draw breath. Maybe we should start taking closer looks at the minds behind the eye-candy we so enjoy. Are there any objects, maybe even gadgets, that truly made you want to know how they were inspired? [Materialecology Blog via Materialecology via Esquire]

You can click on the picture for a closer look at those six studs.

Photo by Wear Cam

Diana Eng, who you might remember as Project Runway’s premiere nerd designer, took a look at MIT’s Media Lab and found some pretty cool stuff, mostly run off of Arduino microcontrollers. Check it out.

A lot of this stuff is just playful, so some of the clothes don’t need to be too polished — but I love that electronic wallpaper. Down with light switches, I say! [Fairytale Fashion]

In other words, AIDA is like your highway helper. A robot pal you can bond with on those long lonely trips. Kind of like a naggy, whiny version of Kitt.

To identify the set of goals the driver would like to achieve, AIDA analyses the driver’s mobility patterns, keeping track of common routes and destinations. AIDA draws on an understanding of the city beyond what can be seen through the windshield, incorporating real-time event information and knowledge of environmental conditions, as well as commercial activity, tourist attractions, and residential areas.

“When it merges knowledge about the city with an understanding of the driver’s priorities and needs, AIDA can make important inferences,” explains Assaf Biderman, associate director of the SENSEable City Lab. “Within a week AIDA will have figured out your home and work location. Soon afterwards the system will be able to direct you to your preferred grocery store, suggesting a route that avoids a street fair-induced traffic jam. On the way AIDA might recommend a stop to fill up your tank, upon noticing that you are getting low on gas,” says Biderman. “AIDA can also give you feedback on your driving, helping you achieve more energy efficiency and safer behaviour.”

Oh, and did I mention that it emotes with facial expressions? I have plenty of relatives that are perfectly willing to bitch about my driving as it is. On the other hand, maybe AIDA will qualify as an additional passenger on transit lanes — then maybe it can tag along.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — MIT researchers and designers are developing the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA) – a new in-car personal robot that aims to change the way we interact with our car. The project is a collaboration between the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, MIT’s SENSEable City Lab and the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab.

“With the ubiquity of sensors and mobile computers, information about our surroundings is ever abundant. AIDA embodies a new effort to make sense of these great amounts of data, harnessing our personal electronic devices as tools for behavioral support,” comments professor Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Lab. “In developing AIDA we asked ourselves how we could design a system that would offer the same kind of guidance as an informed and friendly companion.”

AIDA communicates with the driver through a small robot embedded in the dashboard. “AIDA builds on our long experience in building sociable robots,” explains professor Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab. “We are developing AIDA to read the driver’s mood from facial expression and other cues and respond in a socially appropriate and informative way.”

AIDA communicates in a very immediate way: with the seamlessness of a smile or the blink of an eye. Over time, the project envisions that a kind of symbiotic relationship develops between the driver and AIDA, whereby both parties learn from each other and establish an affective bond.

To identify the set of goals the driver would like to achieve, AIDA analyses the driver’s mobility patterns, keeping track of common routes and destinations. AIDA draws on an understanding of the city beyond what can be seen through the windshield, incorporating real-time event information and knowledge of environmental conditions, as well as commercial activity, tourist attractions, and residential areas.

“When it merges knowledge about the city with an understanding of the driver’s priorities and needs, AIDA can make important inferences,” explains Assaf Biderman, associate director of the SENSEable City Lab. “Within a week AIDA will have figured out your home and work location. Soon afterwards the system will be able to direct you to your preferred grocery store, suggesting a route that avoids a street fair-induced traffic jam. On the way AIDA might recommend a stop to fill up your tank, upon noticing that you are getting low on gas,” says Biderman. “AIDA can also give you feedback on your driving, helping you achieve more energy efficiency and safer behaviour.”

AIDA was developed in partnership with Audi, a premium brand of the Volkswagen Group, and the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab. The AIDA team is directed by Professor Cynthia Breazeal, Carlo Ratti, and Assaf Biderman. The SENSEable City Lab team includes team leader Giusy di Lorenzo and includes Francisco Pereira, Fabio Pinelli, Pedro Correia, E Roon Kang, Jennifer Dunnam, and Shaocong Zhou. The Personal Robots Group’s technical and aesthetic team includes Mikey Siegel, Fardad Faridi and Ryan Wistort as well as videographers Paula Aguilera and Jonathan Williams. Chuhee Lee and Charles Lee represent the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab.

[MIT]

OnlineCourses has put together a list of 100 open tech courses and broken them down into 10 categories: Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Security, Programming, The Web, Software, Information Technology, Communication Technology, Technology in Education, Tech Math, and Technology and Society.

Looking over the list, about 98% of the courses come from MIT, so you know you are going to learn something valuable. Admittedly, some of the courses are a bit out of date, but they should provide you with a foundation on useful topics like computer systems engineering, C++, Computer graphics, Flash and Database systems to help you decide whether or not to pursue your education further. Hit the link for the full course list. [OnlineCourses]

The 40-nanometre TILE-Gx will reportedly draw about 55 watts of power at full load, and though it’s expected to cost between $US400 and $US1000 (depending on volume), it’s more intended for use on Linux-based enterprise Web servers.

According to Wired, the chip isn’t really geared for regular operating systems such as Windows 7 — for that, you’ll have to wait for Intel’s 80-core processor which was demonstrated last year and is expected in about five years. [Tilera via Wired]

You see, teapots have this annoying habit of dribbling a bit, especially during low rates of flow. A team of French scientists deemed this unacceptable, and since there’s no Flomax for teapots, they set out to identify the underlying problem and eliminate it. Apparently it’s an issue. Something about damp undies splashing the cup.

After what must have been hours of unimaginable tea-bagging and heavy steeping, the team, led by Cyril Duez at the University of Lyon in France, discovered that a single factor was to blame. Called the “hydro-capillary” effect, the phenomenon keeps liquid in contact with the teapot material as it leaves the spout. Think of it like a pond’s surface tension and water bugs, except in this case it’s with tea, Earl Grey, hot.

To fix the issue, Duez and company made the teapot lip as thin as possible. And, being intelligent scientists with access to really cool shit, they also coated the lip with “the latest generation of superhydrophobic materials”. Even cooler, these materials can be controlled electronically.

So you say you like a dribbling teapot, but only on Sundays? Great, just flick off the switch and your Sunday tea will splish-splash into the cup with all the grace and class of retirement home incontinence. Leave it to the rest of the week to be dignified, as your electronic, superhydrophobic teapot will provide you with the perfect pour, every time. [arxiv via MIT Technology Review]

In a survey of brand names dropped in the tweets and facials (is that the right term?) of today’s social-networking mavens, Google came out primero, with Apple at #2, and Microsoft at #3. (Blackballed fans would know that Apple is #2 because it’s the shit, but anyway…) The funny part is what didn’t make the top 10: HP is there, but Dell is not; BMW yes, but Mercedes, nope; I see a Samsung, but I do not see Sony. As unscientific as this study by Sysomos is, it must tell us something. [AppleInsider]

Wired wrote up MIT roboticist Sangbae Kim, father of the gecko-inspired Stickybot. His new plan? To make a robot that looks like a cheetah—and runs as fast as one. Yep, he’s saying his carbon-fiber quadruped will hit 112kph. Trouble is, this is all chalkboard chatter: It’ll take 18 months for Kim and his colleagues to whip up prototypes of this evil-looking dude, so we have to wait to find out if he was right or nuts. [Wired]

NPR today showed off a product that will hopefully soon come free with a donation to listener-supported radio. I say that not just as a fan of listener-supported radio, but as someone who would never specifically buy an NPR-branded radio. It aggregates all of NPR’s affiliates under one button, and offers on-demand streams of Terry Gross and other awesome NPR folks, but none of this is exclusive to this device. Charitable notions aside, this makes no more sense than an NBC-branded TV (that also lets me watch Fox). [CNet]

Having spent my whole life in the northern parts of these United States, I have always assumed that it’s up to the sunnier parts to get with the solar-power program. At least San Diego sees the logic of this, and is going all in with alternative power. UC San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego are building a smart grid, which puts power back into the system when claimed from solar panels and other alternative sources. The school will produce 3.4 megawatts of renewable energy by next year, while San Diego Gas & Electric pledged to get 33% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. Maybe when they get over 100%, they can share the excess sunlight with those of us in cloudyville. [Treehugger; Image credit slack12/Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

In addition to curing blindness and developing solar cars, the minds at MIT have found time to revolutionize the world of pop-up books by integrating electronics for more “dynamic interactivity.”

According to the project page, “Popables” utilises flexible, paper-based electronics to create “an interactive pop-up book that sparkles, sings, and moves.” Imagine how this could revolutionize children’s books, the greeting card industry and classics like The Pop Up Book of Sex and The Pop Up Book of Phobias. [MIT via Architectradure via OhGizmo via Ubergizmo]

The latest Micro Air Vehicle from MIT does an incredible job of balancing itself in-air. Not to mention that the helicopter models its surroundings so well it could probably fly over to the fridge and make you a sandwich.

By using lasers and 3D cameras, the team built a vision engine that can very accurately define the helicopter’s surrounding environment. That’s only part of the trick to getting it to fly so well, the other half is some pretty sweet flight path correction. Think of it like a flying Big Dog. Check out what happens when the guy pokes it with a stick.

Hopefully no one sticks a spinning blade on this thing. Wouldn’t want that flying through my window at night. [MIT Tech TV via Engadget]