Welcomed by an erotic female ‘mission control’ voice, this incredible array of space suites combines direct references to outer space travel while conveying the overall aesthetics of 2001: A Space Odyssey and other topical science-fiction thrillers.

Everything has something to do from space, from the starry carpets and paint jobs to seemingly-floating beds and even rocket-booster-shaped ceiling lights. Guests get the sense they are living in either a space habitat, space movie or both.

Other nice touches include a space glove valet sticking out of the wall, ready to ‘hold’ your keys or cellular phone. Mockups of historic rockets and photos of real lunar adventures decorate the place as well.

Space-referencing materials can be found subtly throughout like foil, while the bookshelves are filled with both scientific and fictional works about space. Seriously, there is a lot of space in this place. Visit for yourself at the Kameha Grand Zürich Hotel, and pack your spacesuit if you really want to get into the mood, though depressurization is unlikely.

The post Space Odyssey Suite: Out-of-this-World Luxury Hotel Room first appeared on Gajitz.

If you’re a grilling enthusiast who can’t quite seem to master the finer points of the barbecue, or if you’re just learning to grill, this Bible of Barbecue has everything you need to get ready for summer cooking. Cookware company Tramonitina and ad agency JWT Brazil released the very unusual book to help enlighten would-be barbecue experts.

The book comes equipped with coal, a fire-starting page, a small fan to build the flames, a cutting board, salt for the meat, knife sharpener, apron, tray, and kitchen cloth. They are arranged like pages in a book that you remove one at a time in the order they will be used.

The book can only be used with all of its functional contents once, but the case and some of the contents can be kept forever. Judging from the promotional video, it looks like there may be instructional pages as well which stay in the book to provide guidance even after the charcoal has been smashed and the salt has been crumbled. Copies of the book were first sent to top chefs in Brazil but the company plans to sell it to the public in bookstores sometime in 2014.

The post Beautiful Book Contains Complete Set of Barbecue Tools first appeared on Gajitz.

Get ready for reading to become even more fun. A student team at MIT’s Media Lab has developed a wearable book that lets readers feel the emotions and environmental stimuli that the characters in the book are feeling. Sensory Fiction is a setup that includes a sensor-covered book and a vest that you wear while reading.

The book in the experiment is “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by James Tiptree, Jr. The main character in the story experiences a wide variety of events and feelings, and MIT’s system lets the reader experience all of those things right along with the protagonist. The sci-fi book contains LEDs that light up to create an ambiance appropriate for the current scene, setting the mood for whatever adventure is to follow.

The wearable portion of the system has a heating system at the collarbone to convey changes in body temperature. The vest inflates and deflates to convey tension or relief, and a vibration system that can actually make your heart beat faster. In this way, the reader can feel the heat of the sun, the chest tightness of fear, and the heart-thumping effect of excitement.

Literature purists will likely decry the idea – the purpose of a book, after all, is to draw the reader in with words rather than outside stimuli. But just as movies based on books introduce non-readers to classic works, maybe inventions like this will encourage people to experience reading – and that’s never a bad thing, even if they do need an inflatable vest to achieve it.

The post Wearable Book Takes Some Imagination Out of Reading first appeared on Gajitz.

Antique books are already fascinating, but this one from the late 16th century is a truly special specimen. It was bound in the dos-á-dos (“back to back” in French) binding method. It looks like a single volume, but it is actually six books in one – it opens six different ways thanks to specially placed clasps.

This unique binding method was used to make books that were typically used at the same time, such as a hymnal and a prayer book. This example is a small copy of a religious devotational text printed in Germany and currently displayed at the Rogge Library in Strängnäs, Sweden.

Once you figured out how the clasps worked, it would have been very handy to carry this small volume around. It was a compact way to keep six different books in your pocket without taking up much space.

The incredibly ornate book is a masterpiece of 16th century bookbinding. And we have to say, it would be pretty hard to keep from opening and closing each of the six books over and over just because of the novelty factor.

The post Six Books None the Richer: Antique German 6-in-1 Book first appeared on Gajitz.

Remember reading your favorite book as a kid and feeling like the stories were alive? Like you could really see what the characters were doing? Disney is making that fantasy a reality with a new device they call HideOut. The HideOut is a simple hand-held projector that augments the characters in a book or board game with characters that seem to leap off of the page.

It works with hidden infrared-absorbing markers that are invisible to the naked eye. A special camera in the hand-held projector sees them, though, and digital imagery interacts with the surface onto which it’s projected. Little characters run around on the pages of a book, adding a real-feeling layer to the words. Games use real-life physical pieces that interact with the projected characters, causing them to move this way or that.

The really fun part of the HideOut is that little children can handle it with ease, and their entertainment experience is not interrupted when they wiggle around. The digital flashlight-like device keeps track of its position relative to the position of the book at which it is pointed and keeps the characters playing and amusing kids all day.

Disney hasn’t released the HideOut yet, but hopefully we’ll see this kind of immediate, ultra-fun augmented reality platform in homes soon. Because there is no need for special hardware like a visual translator between the book and the viewer, the flashlight becomes a kind of magic wand that brings little pretend characters to life. And that is exactly how you delight kids both young and old.

The post Magic Flashlight Lets Cartoons Interact with Real Objects first appeared on Gajitz.