July 22, 2010

Sports park lit up entirely with LED lighting

Filed under: Dutch first,Science,Sports,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 11:26 am
LED

As of September, a sports park in Eindhoven (three football pitches, four tennis courts and the rest of the place) will be entirely lit using LED lights, made popular in its mordern-day version sometime around 1999 by Dutch firm Philips, headquartered in Eindhoven.

Local newspaper Eindhovens Dagblad claims that this is a world first, as they couldn’t find anyone else who did this. LED lighting is much less energy consuming that regular lighting, up to 60% according to measurements quoted in the newspaper.

(Link: nuzakelijk.nl, Photo of LED lighting project by Velo Steve, some rights reserved)

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June 13, 2010

E-book pioneer iRex files for bankruptcy

Filed under: Literature,Technology by Branko Collin @ 2:31 pm

In 2006 I borrowed Orangemaster’s camera, hopped on the train to Eindhoven, and visited a start-up at Philips’ famous High Tech Campus to look at its single, yet to be released product, the Iliad e-reader. Today I learnt through newspaper FD that the former start-up Irex has filed for and received bankruptcy (Dutch).

The Iliad was an E Ink based tablet computer suited mainly for reading, hence the name. At the time, only Sony had a comparable device, the Librié.

Irex’s goal was to replace paper, not necessarily to compete with similar e-readers for consumers. To that effect, its reader had a larger screen and it could also be written to using a stylus. The company left selling books to third parties, expecting content providers to bundle the Iliad with their products. The intended customers for the device weren’t novel readers, but students, lawyers and others used to toting around kilos of text books and note pads each day.

Later, Irex also turned to the consumer market, where it had to compete with the Kindle, the Apple Ipad and the newer Sony devices, and even the Bebook, another Dutch brand of e-reader. Apparently, trying to introduce its latest consumer device in the USA is what broke the camel’s back. Disappointing sales due to a late FCC approval (only after the Christmas season) meant that Irex’s cash flow dried up,

The good news is that besides its cash flow problem, Irex is apparently in good health, and has a lot of intellectual capital. The type of bankruptcy that they have filed for and received last Tuesday, called surseance van betaling, does not mean the end of the company but merely a temporary stop of its obligation to pay bills. Irex owes more than 5 million euro, mostly to Deutsche Bank. FD reports in a follow-up article that lots of other companies are interested in buying the outfit.

See also:

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January 21, 2010

Public transport chip card opens dustbins

Filed under: Technology,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:34 am

To add to the problems and weirdness surrounding the country’s new public transport chip card, a circus that is in its second year, students at the University of Eindhoven have a nice video for you in Dutch.

Students got their special, reduced rate cards not long ago and lo and behold, they don’t work with certain bus companies, can’t be topped up properly sometimes or too much is often deducted from the card and a whole list of other issues.

Just like magic, in this video, you can see the erratic public transport chip card open the city’s underground dustbins that can apparently only be opened with a special city pass that is linked to one’s postal code, as to only dump trash in your own ‘hood.

(Link: rtl.nl)

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October 26, 2009

Merry-go-round coat rack, wool filler, rain barrel win prizes at Design Week ’09

Filed under: Design,Fashion by Branko Collin @ 8:11 am

This merry-go-round coat rack by Wieki Somers won the overall prize for the best Dutch design project at the Dutch Design Week 2009. It is already in use at the Museum Boijmans – Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Other winners were the rain barrel by Bas van der Veer that we wrote about last week, which won the René Smeets award, the prize for the best project of this year’s Design Academy Eindhoven graduates.

Heleen Klop won a Doen Materials Prize of 5,000 euro for coming up with a method to repair holes in wool clothing using felt.

Other interesting designs were those of Digna Kosse, who experimented with how much material you can leave out of a dress and still call it a dress (may be NSFW), and Austrian Eindhoven Design Academy graduate Sonja Bäumel, who experimented with clothes that grow themselves in the areas of the body that most need the warmth by letting bacteria do the heavy lifting.

Dezeen has a lot of write-ups about this years Design Week.

(Source photo: Wieki Somers.)

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July 22, 2009

Foldable e-reader Readius provides last headlines

Filed under: Gadgets,Online by Branko Collin @ 4:34 pm

“Readius is dead” (CNet), “… goes under” (Washington Post), “… closes its doors” (Geek.com), “… files for bankruptcy” (IT Pro Portal)—news sites are struggling not have to use the headline PC World did: “Flexible eBook reader company folds.”

Polymer Vision, the Dutch display company that came up with the foldable electronic reading device Readius, has, as you may have inferred by now, filed for bankruptcy. CNet quotes CEO Karl McGoldrick as saying that the product itself may survive: “We are working hard to find new investors to take over and re-start and get our technology and product into the market, where it should be.”

There is some speculation among tech sites whether the arrival of the Amazon Kindle may have led to Polymer Vision’s demise, but that seems unlikely to me. The Kindle is only sold in the USA, and there is plenty of room for e-readers in the rest of the world. A more probable assumption is that the Eindhoven-based company has serious competition from recent, large screen mobile phones. Early press photos of the Readius suggested that the device was to be used by business people on the move for reading up on stock reports and news.

(Photo: Polymer Vision.)

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November 3, 2008

Soft bathtub like sinking into a sofa

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 10:32 am
Tender Tub

Dutch designer Maren Hartveld presented a soft bathtub called the Tender Tub at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show in the Netherlands earlier this month. “Bringing a new meaning to sinking into one’s tub,” says Hartveld. “A free-standing soft bathtub made from polyurethene coated foam rubber; not cold and hard like the average bathtub, but soft and warm, and comfortable like a sofa”.

At first glance, the corners are scary, many people commented, and give the impression that you could poke an eye out. It also looks difficult to clean, others said. And seeing the thing in use would be a good idea. It does look cool.

(Link: dezeen.com)

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October 17, 2008

The future still looks like the sixties

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 9:50 am
Villa by Powerhouse

“Set in the Dutch woodlands, the program of Villa 1 by Powerhouse Company is optimally oriented towards the views on the terrain and the sun. Half of the program is pushed below ground to meet local zoning regulations, creating a clear dichotomy in the spatial experience of the house: a glass box ground floor where the mass is concentrated in furniture elements and a ‘medieval’ basement, where the spaces are carved out of the mass.

The interior of Villa 1 has been nominated for the category ‘best private interior’ of the Dutch Design Award. The villa is said to “ruthlessly position itself within the tradition of modern (interior) architecture”. The award will be granted on 18 October 2008, during the Dutch Design Week, in Eindhoven.”

Do follow the link below for more dreamy pictures.

(Link: dezeen.com)

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October 16, 2008

New world fire-breathing record in Eindhoven

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 8:56 am
Fire breathing

On Wednesday 15 October, students of the Eindhoven University of Technology set a new world record for simultaneous fire-breathing. The Eindhoven campus got 267 people breathing fire simultaneously. On 14 March 2007, a world record for fire-breathing was set in Tilburg, Brabant, with 115 people breathing fire simultaneously. All fire-breathers used Roman oil as fuel under the watchful eye of the local fire brigade. As well, every participant followed a fire-breathing course the week before.

Will Tilburg try again next year? Will Eindhoven hold on to their world record? Stay tuned.

(Link and photo: omroepbrabant.nl)

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October 2, 2008

Street miles for hookers in Eindhoven

Filed under: Design,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:13 am
Hooker

The city of Eindhoven wants to reward street hookers for good behaviour, which seems to mean getting out of the hooker business. Instead of earning ‘air miles’, originally a Dutch concept by the way, prostitutes get to earn ‘street miles’ so they can buy things from the city. I still have no idea what that could be as I write this!

The city has a range of plans to help hookers stop with their street corner activities. Interestingly enough, the plans were not thought up by bureaucrats, but by… designers! City council called in the Eindhoven Design Academy and the Cologne International School of Design. The Germans thought up a plan to provide structure to the hookers’ lives with the help of coaches. By way of a credit system they will be rewarded when they participate in certain – I suppose – more wholesome activities. They will also get some sort of common room where they can meet and swap stories.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl, Photo: omroepbrabant.nl)

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October 1, 2008

Punching bag emits light the more you hit it

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 7:46 am

Stella Boess and Stefan Gross came up with this light emitting punching bag called Love Hate Punch and won the Frits Philips Kunstprijs of the Museum Kunstlicht in de Kunst (Artificial Light in Art Museum) in Eindhoven with it. The more you hit the bag, the more light it emits, from deep rage red all the way to soothing bright green.

According to the artists on Gross’ website:

We made this piece because we were tired of the fact that interactive lighting is mostly used to elicit soft, flat emotions. We wanted to provoke the rage that sometimes happens to you in real life. And we wanted to put something in the museum that visitors could not just touch, but that actually invites to intensive physical interaction.

You may remember Stefan Gross from his skull-shaped bird houses, named Rebirdy.

Via Trendbeheer (Dutch).

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