When new technology zooms to the rescue of ancient heritage
From 3D reproduction to laser-cut models, heritage sites around the world are getting a makeover thanks to digital innovations.
by Cherise Fong
Cherise Fong a travaillé dans des start-ups web à New York, Monaco et Londres avant de devenir journaliste indépendante. Elle a collaboré notamment avec CNN.com International, MCD, Poptronics… Pour Makery, elle donne des nouvelles des labs et de la culture maker au Japon, aux Etats-Unis et dans le monde entier, et assure également l’essentiel des traductions en anglais.
Meet Solarcast, Safecast’s newest DIY environmental monitoring device
Safecast, best known for its DIY Geiger counter, the bGeigie, just announced on April 29 its newest device: Solarcast has sensors to measure temperature, humidity, radiation and air quality.
Agriculture: the smart DIY greenhouse from Japan
Conceived with Japanese farmers in mind, UECS-Pi is a functional prototype of an autonomous greenhouse that runs on a Raspberry Pi connected to an Arduino.
Magic Calendar, when paper gets smart
A wall calendar made of intelligent paper that displays the latest updates from your smartphone is the idea underlying designer Kosho Tsuboi’s “Magic Calendar”.
New material self-heals like Wolverine, stretches like Mr. Fantastic
Researchers from the University of California presented a rubber-like material that is stretchable and transparent, conducts ions and can heal itself to regain all its fantastic properties.
For Alibaba, food safety begins with the blockchain
The e-commerce giant Alibaba signed agreements to collaborate with Australian and New Zealand companies to launch pilot frameworks based on blockchain.
FabCafe Tokyo exhibits the winners of the Haptic Design Award
Preview of the winning prototypes of the Haptic Design Award exhibited at FabCafe Tokyo. When every object has a palpable soul...
Black to red and white to blue, my hair does what I want it to
Revealing the invisible through color is the specialty of The Unseen. The British company’s latest creation is a hair dye that reacts to ambient temperature… or to your mood.
Keep your communications as safe as Snowden
Whistleblowers, journalists, activists, citizens: we all have the right to communicate privately and anonymously. Tips to protect yourself from the eyes and ears of all Big Brothers.
Happy PI Day—with a transfinite collector’s item
This March 14, one particularly numerically oriented artist duo decided to celebrate π Day (3/14) by launching an... unlimited edition artwork.
Lifepatch, the Indonesian lab that rejects the maker label
Lifepatch is showing a modest retrospective in the prestigious ICC art and new media center in Tokyo. An opportunity to take a closer look at the discreet but passionate way of “making” of this Indonesian community.
Muscle robots revealed: robot soldier vs. robot savior?
On one side, Handle by Boston Dynamics, a military-grade equine robot that rolls, jumps and spins; on the other, Spider, an excavator commissioned to crush and remove nuclear debris in Fukushima.
At FabCafe Singapore, a little fab corner under a big lotus flower
Opened six months ago within the avant-garde ArtScience Museum in Singapore’s newest commercial and tourist district, the FabCafe is the latest addition to the global network born in Tokyo in 2012.
Paint your own circuits with DIY conductive ink
Do you find conductive ink pens too costly and recipes too chemical? A lab in Barcelona offers a simple method to make your own conductive ink at home.
Workbench Projects, the makerspace under the Bangalore metro
Anupama Gowda and Pavan Kumar, encountered at the FAB12 international fablab conference in Shenzhen, created the first fablab in Bangalore, India, under a metro station. For Makery, Anupama Gowda tells its story.
Tokyo upcycles its smartphones into Olympic medals
Tokyo 2020 organizing committee invites all residents of Japan to donate their obsolete electronic devices to manufacture 100% of the Olympic medals.
YouFab 2016, or the emergence of Fab 4.0
For its 4th edition, the YouFab Global Creative Awards has selected 23 finalists. As we wait for the winners to be announced by Fabcafe Tokyo, here are our favorites.
Discover your inner drone through a DIY didgeridoo
Not only is the didgeridoo one of the world’s oldest musical instruments, it can help treat asthma and sleep apnea. Best of all, anyone can make one out of a plastic pipe.
Makerbay’s vehicle of the future is an autonomous electric living room
Hong Kong’s first makerspace has created a prototype of the electric vehicle of the future... which looks like a dome on wheels.
“I am an android”: Late Japanese author is robotically revived
Exactly one hundred years after his death in 1916, Japan’s most famous Meiji-era author, Natsume Soseki, was both commemorated and revived at a Tokyo University in the form of an android.