A 12-Year-Old Designs A Low-Cost Braille Printer That Is Made With LEGO Bricks

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Seventh grade student Shubham Banerjee from Santa Clara, California, has created a Braille printer made entirely out of LEGO bricks.



His printer is called BRAIGO, and it is made using a Lego Mindstorms EV3 and some add-ons from the hardware store.



A typical Braille printer costs more than $2000. The BRAIGO has slashed the price to around $350, allowing more groups of people to use the printer for education, teaching and home use purposes.



That’s not all. Banerjee also promises to give his design and code for free download and open source use, so medical institutions can modify the printer as they wish.



Watch him demonstrate the printer below:























[via CNET]

A Compact 360-Degree View Camera That Acts As A 'Fly On The Wall'

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USA-based company EyeSee360 has created 360Fly Camera, a camera that does not just capture a rectangular frame, but a 360-degree view of the world.



With the ability to attach to helmets, tripods, bikes and more, it acts like a ‘fly on the wall’, discreetly capturing entire 360-degree images.



The 360Fly Camera is compatible with iOS and Android, and can capture video or images. It also allows you to edit what you’ve filmed and instantly share it on the web with friends.



Watch how it works below:

Capturing all of life. 360Fly. from 360Fly on Vimeo.

[via Uncrate]

Artist Geoff McFetridge Shows What You Can Do While Your Tea Is Steeping

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As a part of tea brand Bigelow Tea’s new series, While You Were Steeping, they have created a series of videos featuring artists working while they wait for their tea to steep.



The first in its series features Geoff McFetridge, a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, California.



McFetridge is most recently known for designing the interfaces seen in the 2013 Spike Jonze movie, ‘Her’.



In this short video, McFetridge skillfully paints a beautiful art piece over the table he works on, all while his tea is brewing.



Watch it below:

While You Were Steeping: Geoff McFetridge from Bigelow Website Team on Vimeo.

[via It’s Nice That]

An iPhone Button Device That Allows For Perfect Selfies

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Sometimes, with a group of friends, taking group selfies can be a bit of a challenge when the angle that fits everyone comfortably in the shot is out of reach for you and everyone in the group.



Enter HISY, a new Bluetooth-paired button device that works with Apple devices that allows you to snap the picture in a “hands-free” manner.



HISY also allows you to take the picture while being a few feet apart from the camera, allowing you to take perfect selfies.



HISY is only currently compatible with Apple devices. For full specifications, visit their website here.



Watch the product video below:























[via New York Magazine]

Delightful Black And White, Hand-Sketched Typographic Illustrations

London-based Dave Smith is a talented artist and illustrator who goes by the moniker of Hatch, and he has created a delightful series of black and white, hand-sketched typography graphics.



His wonderful series of hand-drawn illustrations with an emphasis on typography feature interesting themes of conversation, such as what the magician’s bunny might say if he had a voice.



View them below:



















[via Hatch]

New York, The Greatest City In The World? This Blog Will Make You Reconsider.

Stained and torn rubber glove on a driveway in Flatbush, Brooklyn.



If you have always thought New York City to be the greatest city in the world, this Tumblr blog titled ‘New York Is Gross’ might change your mind.



New York might be home to some of the most glamorous things in the world, but it is also full of random trash. This Tumblr blog features various trash items found on the streets, a side of the Big Apple that is not always talked about.



For more pictures of the revolting trash one might find in New York’s sidewalks, visit the blog here.





A bag of feces on 28th and Broadway.





A condom and diarrhea on Ocean Avenue, Brooklyn.





Frozen garbage water on 7th Avenue, Manhattan.



[via New York Is Gross]

Mike Parker, The Man Who Made Helvetica Popular, Passes Away At Age 85

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Mike Parker, the man most known for popularizing the Helvetica typeface, has passed away on Sunday, 23 February 2014. He was 85 years old.



Parker did not design Helvetica, but as a type designer, historian, and consultant at Font Bureau, he developed over 1,100 typefaces and is credited for Helvetica’s popularity in the modern world.



Parker was looking for an adaptable European font that would work at many different weights when he discovered the Swiss typeface named Neue Haas Grotesk designed by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman of the Haas Type Foundry.



However, when he tried to use it in his company’s industry-standard typesetting machine—the Mergenthaler Linotype Company hot metal typesetting machine—he realized that the European-designed Neue Haas Grotesk had letters that were not created for use with their machine.



This led Parker and his team to rework Haas’s original drawings of letters so they would work on Linotype’s machines. This modification of Neue Haas Grotesk became known as Helvetica.



It is evident that Parker has spent most of his life dedicated to work that only fueled his passion for typefaces. In his career, he also founded Bitstream, the world's first all-digital type company; was the developer of Pages Software, a powerful early word processor on Steve Jobs’ NeXT Computer platform (now lauded as the early version of Apple’s word processor, Pages), and was still creating new typefaces in 2009, where he created Starling, a series based upon the proto-Times Roman designs of Starling Burgess.



Mike Parker was a man with a single-minded love for typefaces. As he passes on, we remember his work in building the typeface that has arguably been the greatest typographic influence in our modern environment.



The pervasive presence of Helvetica is undeniable, as they are present in numerous popular logos, subway signs, or even come pre-installed on your computer.



Watch this documentary by Gary Hustwit in 2007 to take a peek at Mike Parker’s remarkable life spent devoted to type:

Mike Parker from Type Directors Club on Vimeo.

[via Fast Company]