Issue no.39

Augmented reality by Camille Scherer

She is an interaction designer who has the most elegant vision for augmented reality. Instead of designing objects for machines to read, she imbues meaningful things with added information in a harmonious way - giving you the feeling that the things around you all have the potential to contain secret messages.

Website – she’s got some quite interesting projects over there (such as: personal propaganda poster generator)

This week’s specials

Hand-me-downs

As belts tighten ever more in a continuously precarious economy, it's fairly certain more and more parents are turning to second-hand sources for children's clothes and other items. While thrift stores tend to be hit-or-miss and online offerings are often buried within the likes of Craigslist, a new classifieds site for moms promises to aggregate such listings from across the web, making it quicker and easier for parents to find high-quality and low-cost kids' goods.

Hand-me-downs allows parents to buy, sell, give away or donate new and gently used children's products in a family friendly atmosphere.

Via

Dad's Cab

All parents know how hectic, time-consuming and frustrating driving around kids and teens can be. Especially when the apple of your eye is a socially active, extra curricular maven that's super involved in everything. Fortunately, a solution has been created in order to help kids appreciate the value of their daddy's time, efforts and driving skills: The 'Dad's Cab' is a mock taxi meter that is placed on Dad's dashboard. Every time he drops off a kid at his/her destination, Dad tosses out a fare card which specifies a task, chore or favor that the child will have to return in exchange for the ride. This way children learn to appreciate their parents' time investment and discover that not everything in life is for free. When someone works for you, you have to pay for it.

The Schwimmhaus by German architects Confused-Direction is a green hausboot (oops, house boat) designed to float around or just stay put on the shore. Its modern pre-fab aesthetic sets it aside from most maritime-y houseboats, and a green roof adds freshness and sustainable cred. Still under construction, Schwimmhaus is being built from wood salvaged from an old farm house in addition to other sustainable building materials.

Via