openMaterials

Another great initiative from Stanford, this time involving the novel usage of accelerometers. Quake-Catcher Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers. It involves installing software that collects data from the computer’s accelerometer, which pings the quake-catcher networks’ server if a tremor [...]

Tito Ingenieri, from Quilmes - Argentina, built his house out of six million empty bottles over a period of 19 years. His main motivation was the accessibility of scrap materials: “I didn’t have any other way to make my house and this was easy enough to do… Scrap iron and the remnants of other materials [...]

Refarm the city (aka re:farm) is a collective project started and led by Hernani Dias with the purpose of developing open source software and hardware tools for urban farmers. In its creators’ words, the project is a cross between a good meal (the crop, the seeds, the friends), hardware (the urban farm, the composter, the [...]

This solar clothes washer was made by 2nd year art students from the École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence (France). The challenge was to make a DIY washing machine using only materials available in the sahara. The prototype shown above uses bicycle parts (the tires and wheel), bamboo, and a solar panel connected directly to a recycled [...]

Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops in which a community explores creative reuse through the recycling of used clothing. The website has ideas for clothes swapping, fashion parades and DIY workshops, along with suggestions for rebranding your creations with ‘100% Recycled’ or ‘Modified by Me’ labels. The event was started in [...]

Researchers at Europe’s Atomic Energy Commission, in France, have shown that vibrations from raindrops can generate enough energy to operate certain low power wireless sensors. The findings could help improve networks of wireless sensors that measure conditions like temperature, pressure, or the presence of pollutants. These networks provide early warning systems for dangerous air [...]