A wonderful way to keep kids interested in the outside world rather than glued to a small screen on road trips, this interactive window design lets riders zoom into passing landscapes, test vocabulary skills and make video games out of scenic surroundings. But you really need to see it to understand its potential, so take a look at the short video below:

The core concept is simple: let windows appear simply transparent, then overlay a series of custom functions that can be adjusted to suit different needs and moods. A child (or adult, for that matter) can opt to label passing phenomena, or draw around animals, trees, houses and more while stopped (then let their work slide off the screen when the car starts up again). Video games can also be designed to incorporate elements creating all kinds of augmented reality possibilities.

It can also be turned to purely functional purposes, making that ‘zoom and enhance’ trick we are often fooled by on CSI shows into a real technique for looking closer at things around us. Screenshots can be captured, too — no more fumbling around for a camera while a cool sight passes you by.

Companies like Taptl are adapting the same technologies for boats and other luxury vehicles, but as with anything: what starts out expensive will only get cheaper and more accessible with time. And as vehicles go driverless, these could end up transforming how we view and use front windows, too.

The post Touchscreen Car Windows Turn Back Back-Seat Views into Interactive Games first appeared on Gajitz.

Sounding more like a science fictional creature than a real-life animal, these amazing critters imitate the stars in the sky in order to catch meals.

Disorienting through astronomical imitation, these predators have evolved to use nighttime navigational strategies of other species to their advantage. Many animals, like moths, use starlight and moonlight to find their way and fly straight.

“That works fine when the moon and stars are real,” said Dave Merritt, a biologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, “but when the source is close they end up spiraling into it.'” Many of these worms are found in caves where other species would only go by accident.

Decoys are common among deep-sea fish, where any light might indicate direction, but less common on the surface where so many competing sources of illumination are present.

In this case, “with their glowing lures in place, the worms drop threadlike snares, thin filaments of silk secreted from their mouths and dotted with balls of mucous, to trap confused flyers. Besides being extra-sticky, those mucous balls lend the strands the appearance of mardi gras beads, which magnify the worms’ spectral light like chandeliers.

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Plastic six-pack rings are one of the most iconic pieces of environmentally-unfriendly design and technology, adding a little convenience for humans but slowly killing animals, at least until now.

A beer brewery in Florida has created a set of 3D-printed edible and biodegradable can rings that double as food for sea turtles and other susceptible species known for getting their necks trapped inside of rings. This design also represents a neat form of recycling, being constructed from byproducts of the beer-brewing process.

The plastic ring problem has been a big one for a long time. It is estimated that millions of animals have been harmed by them, in part from getting caught within the rings, but also by eating the plastic (so the old trick of cutting the rings before discarding them doesn’t do a whole lot of good). America drinks 6.3 billion gallons of beer annually, and most of the rings end up in the ocean.

Saltwater Brewery, founded in 2013, has worked to connect with local sea lovers including surfers and fishermen. The company gives “a portion of their profits to charities working to conserve our oceans and the creatures who call it home, including CCA, Surfrider, Ocean Foundation, and MOTE. Creating the 100-percent biodegradable, edible six-pack rings was the natural next step in the brewery’s sustainability mission, and the new rings have met with resounding approval in local trials. Craft brewers in other parts of the country are already asking to use the edible rings for their own beers.”

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A growing company called Precious Plastic is developing a line of tools to let anyone convert waste plastic into usable objects, turning trash, as they say, into treasure.

Started by Dave Hakkens, a 27 year old Dutch designer, their system of modular machines are being made available with free plans anyone can download then construct with basic tools and local materials. These machines let you spin plastic into cord or even use it to 3D-print complex objects.

Last year the world produced nearly 311 million tons of plastic, but less than 10% of that was recycled. Most of it ends up in landfills, oceans and even animals.

The goal of Precious Plastic is to make recycling open-source and universally-available, ultimately as cheap and easy as throwing something away, and a way not only to help the environment but for people to save money, too

The post Precious Plastic: DIY Recycling + 3D Printing Machines first appeared on Gajitz.

The ultimate weapon, a NERF gun to end all wars, this nuclear NERF bombshell fires off 80 devastating darts that will clear the room of hostiles. Or if you feel like waiting it out: you create your very own new interoffice cold war through mutually-assured destruction.

Trading distance for compactness, the reverse-plunger system still fires up to 30 feet, handheld, or 40 feet, tripod-mounted. You will need to see this thing in action to believe it, and you can, thanks to ThinkGeek.

“Safety Warning: Do not fire the NERF Nuke at humans, children, pets, wild animals, trees, the elderly, faces, ghosts, or in very confined spaces. Always wear safety glasses, knee pads, and other forms of protection.”

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