Tech Thursday: Visionary Machines

Permalink 03/03/05  

Back in the 1960s HAL 9000's glowing red "eye" served as one of the first realistic ideas of machine vision (as opposed to Gort from "The Day The Earth Stood Still", and others). But the reality was that machine vision was barely more than simple light beam interrupt sensors -- the kind that you can now find in products as simple as children's toys. Now, almost 40 years later, the technologies once only dreamed of are allowing real products to see for the first time. Tech Thursday looks at the new opportunities opened up by these artificial eyes.

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Tech Thursday: Amorphous Metal Mania

Permalink 01/27/05  

One of our big goals with Tech Thursday is to spread the word about new material technologies so that designers can know their strengths; Similarly, we try to let you all know about the limitations to keep new materials or processes from being spec'd unnecessarily. One of the newest classes of material which is in danger of becoming a "fad material" is amorphous metals. What's all the fuss about? Why are "glassy" metals going to change the way products are made -- or are they at all? Don't worry, Tech Thursday has you covered.
Casting steel might soon be a thing of the past

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Tech Thursday: The Right Light

Permalink 12/16/04  

Last Tech Thursday, we covered some of the popular platforms for generating 3d rendered prototype images. If you took a look at the images in any of the galleries from Brazil, Lightwave, Maya, or 3ds MAX, you may have said "Hey, I can't get pictures to look that good, no matter what I do". The truth is, recent developments in lighting for rendering have made it easy to get many times more realism out of a render, but only if you know what tools to use. So, this TT, we're making sure the design community knows what's available in 3d lighting.
HDRI lit sphere of glass

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Tech Thursday: Fake It To Make It

Permalink 11/18/04  

Here at IDFuel, we tend to focus on the functionalist aspects of design. But so much of design is about presentation, we thought this Tech Thursday should be a little different. Have you ever finished an amazing model in Rhinoceros, Solidworks, or Pro Engineer, only to find that the final renderings you can make kind of lack punch? Well, never fear. Tech Thursday's on the case. In this first of a series of TTs on rendering, we're going to take a look at a couple alternative rendering options that can really make your presentation renderings shine.
Bottle By Rune Spaans - www.toxic.no

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Tech Thursday: Pack-Tech

Permalink 11/04/04  

As designers, we spend so much of our time focused on producing the object of end use, that sometimes we overlook another huge opportunity for product development: Packaging design. And we don't mean just snazzy perfume bottles either. Packaging is allowing ordinary items like milk, food, and household products to interact with users on a whole new level, and to add a huge amount of value to the resulting item. Tech Thursday takes on Tech Packaging.
Dutchboy Ready To Roll Bucket

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Tech Thursday: Material Mayhem

Permalink 10/22/04  

You may have noticed that today is in fact, Friday. Oh well, who hasn't slipped on a deadline here and there. We've been seeing a ton of new, and updated materials resource sites on the net lately. This week on TT, we're serving them up piping hot. If your routine could use some new material, you've come to the right place.
Materials

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Tech Thursday: Great Balls Of Fireproofing

Permalink 10/07/04  

Ever since Humans discovered fire, it has captivated us. It has also had the unfortunate habit of burning our houses down. So, shortly after it's discovery, humans turned to trying to find ways to keep it from burning things. Today, the designer desiring to play with fire has a number of choices to avoid getting into hot water. It's Tech Thursday, get out the marshmallows!
Man on fire

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