I don't envy those who have to work, or live, out of their cars, but that's the reality for some. Chinese manufacturer FansDreams aims to make those tasks a bit easier with their Pi Foldable Lap Desk. It's made out of fiberglass wrapped in waterproof faux leather. It folds down to ½" thick, weighs two pounds and can support 44 pounds. Two sizes are offered, with the Pi going for $100 and the Pi Max going for $130 ..read more

Auto modder Amir produces these unusual accessories: Infinity taillights… …and headlights that have programmable eyeballs: I believe these wouldn't be Department-of-Transportation-approved for use in the U.S., but Amir is based in Tehran. Lots more of his unusual mods here ..read more

Well, this is mildly terrifying. Harvard students AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio proved, as a safety warning, that you can use a pair of Meta's Ray-Ban 2 sunglasses to instantly access the personal data of anyone you see. They pulled it off by simply using face search engines, public databases and an LLM to string the information together. They call the project I-XRAY. As a frightening example from the demonstration, they encounter a young woman they don't know, and instantly have her home address and her parents' names. In another instance, they're able to quickly gain background informati ..read more

Here's what we looked at this week: Production methods: Pultrusion, for producing lonnnng (up to 10km!) carbon fiber profiles. A stunning spectacle: The world's largest drone display. This is surely how we'll be advertised to in the future. Gerber's EAB utility knife is minimum viable product, well-executed. Do people really want touch-capacitive HMI designs? I'd hate to have to use this thing, which is intended for the automotive market: This object by Unnecessary Design Studio harvests burrito waste for tacos. AquaFence's clever design for anti-flooding barriers. New LOVR material: Lea ..read more

This project, "Bringing Interactive Unity to All Starbucks In-Store Connected Devices," is by design consultancy Tactile. The firm straightened out the coffee chain's behind-the-counter systems by tackling the work in five phases. Starbucks Professional Design System At the heart of the Starbucks café experience are their employees–an essential factor in delivering the perfect treat to customers. No minor feat, given the wide array of choices available. So, to help streamline the beverage-building process, Starbucks asked Tactile to craft a common UX strategy and UI design system for all their ..read more

These photographs are by Felix Alejandro Hernandez. The thing is, Hernandez isn't just a photographer, but an expert modelmaker and digital artist. His Instagram features a bunch of fun videos showing you the behind-the-scenes. In this one, he creates a sci-fi set using a combination of modelmaking, practical photography and digital skills: Plenty more to see here, and Hernandez offers courses on how he does it all here ..read more

More multi-screen madness. This TriCreate object consists of three 15.6", 1080p screens, an internal battery and a built-in stand. It folds flat into a briefcase form factor for easy transport, and weighs 3kg (6.6 lbs). It works with both Macs and PCs. The stand is height-adjustable, with the trade-off being that the lower you position the screens, the more the supporting arms intrude into your workspace. Here's how it folds and unfolds: The TriCreate has been successfully Kickstarted, closing in at $400K at press time with 4 days left to pledge. Buy-in starts at $650 ..read more

UK-based Costa Coffee has rolled out this elaborate robotic coffee station. The company says their completely automated, AI-powered station is "capable of matching or exceeding human barista quality," and is targeting locations where a 24-hour unattended small-footprint coffee shop are desirable. The self-cleaning machine can operate for "up to 7 days" without human intervention. It's already started popping up at U.S. airports and college campuses. Here's what the real thing looks like in action, and it is quite the spectacle, from the making to the serving ..read more

Flowing with Blessings is a nonprofit that provides free, hot showers to Atlanta's unhoused population. Founder Nicky Crawford aims to restore hygiene, dignity and hope to the disadvantaged with his mobile shower units. Crawford saw a need to expand into mobile laundry services. To design and build his Mobile Laundry Bus, Crawford collaborated with the Industrial Design department at Georgia Tech. ID juniors and seniors Zaria Hardnett, David Hounyo, Lily Liang, Claudia Ross, and Anushka Vaidya worked on the project. "Using their design and engineering skills, the team was involved in every s ..read more

We really are hurtling into the future here, folks. So this company Serve Robotics makes these sidewalk delivery robots. A restaurant worker loads them, then the autonomous 'bot drives itself over to your building. While the 'bots have a range of up to 25 miles, they're not that fast—they top out around 6 MPH—so most of the deliveries they're used for are within a 2-mile radius. However, now the company is partnering with Wing Aviation, a drone delivery provider. Under the arrangement, Serve's robots will transport the delivery to a Wing Autoloader station nearby. Then a Wing drone picks th ..read more