We all have a different perspective on life. As much as we hate to begin this article with both a pun and a cliche, it’s rarely as appropriate a time as this one. The Tel Aviv-based design duo Studio Ve has created physical representations of this cliche in the form of a series of clocks.

The Perspective series of wall clocks puts the focus on the hands and not the face. According to the project’s Kickstarter page, the peculiar angles at which the hands hang “[demonstrate] a different approach to the dimension of time.” Each of the five clocks’ hands are a series of white lines that make the typical three-hand clock layout look primitive. With the 3D layouts, time is meant to be perceived more than read.

The clocks’ relation to personality type is largely what drove the concept. “For some, time is a crucial part of life – a motivator, a judge, a measuring stick,” the website goes on to explain. “For others, time serves a more fluid purpose, more of a suggestion than anything else. We developed the Perspective Series to explore the way time is experienced by different people in different ways.”

The post Skew Space and Time With These Oddly-Armed Wall Clocks first appeared on Gajitz.

How often have you heard someone ask “where did the time go?” It’s easy to ignore or simply not notice the passage of time, particularly when you’re occupied with some other pursuit. Design duo Skrekkøgle have come up with a simple way to keep you aware of how many minutes are slipping away.

The object is called Durr; it is a vibrating bracelet that vibrates every five minutes as a reminder to be present, in the moment, and aware of how you are using your time. It could be a potent reminder to cherish each moment because in the big ol’ picture of life, the universe, and everything, we don’t really have too many minutes to spend on Earth.

Skrekkøgle used a Makerbot for the bracelet’s outer parts (except the leather band) and an Arduino inside to trigger the vibrations. The design is still being developed and refined, but the team have already produced (and sold) 50 prototypes. The project was initially begun just to see if there was any consumer interest in a product like Durr. Now that the interest has been proven, it isn’t clear whether the company will make and release any more time-perception bracelets.

The post Vibrating Bracelet Makes You More Aware of Passing of Time first appeared on Gajitz.

The mind/body relationship, a classic philosophical conundrum, was recently the subject of a study that shows that virtual representations of human organs have the ability to cause out-of-body experiences. Two researchers came to this conclusion after connecting subjects to virtual reality representations of themselves. The catalyst for the discovery was the human heart’s natural rhythm, which was externally represented by a flashing outline around the virtual ‘self.’ The participants claimed to be closer to their virtual doubles, and several described feeling of being in another part of the room.

Anorexia and ‘yo-yo’ dieting are two trends that will hopefully benefit from the research. “Patients with anorexia seem to identify with a body which is larger than their physical body,” said Dr. Jane Aspell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, UK, who co-authored the study. Using this technique, doctors could help those suffering with body dysmorphia see the “real me” that everyone else sees when looking at them.

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Empathy is an integral part of the human condition. To put oneself into another’s shoes, so to speak, is to appreciate life. Violent criminals often have difficulty feeling empathy, and it’s what separates us from our closest animal relatives, the primates. One computer program hopes to spread this increasingly-less important human trait.

Working at the University of Barcelona, scientists used the seemingly-forgotten technological branch of virtual reality to simulate being a child. Historically, virtual reality has given the user sensations of ‘being’ the program’s subject. In a previous study, one participant simulated as a teenage girl reported physically feeling a slap by a simulated mother.

The scientists involved in the University of Barcelona’s study placed their subjects into either an adult body or one of a four-year-old boy. The amazing result was that those rendered as a child felt that simulated objects were twice the size, on average, than that of their adult counterparts. One supposition is that this study may help violent criminals, if placed under certain conditions, to feel more empathy when placed inside another body.

The post Forever Young: Virtual Reality Puts Adults in Kids’ Bodies first appeared on Gajitz.

When people experience a very harrowing event, they often say that time slows down. The Decelerator helmet from German artist Lorenz Potthast replicates that slowing of time with no near-death experience needed. It is a commentary on our fast paced lives and the technology that defines them.

The odd-looking helmet uses a head-mounted camera to create the effect of slowed time for its wearer. The camera captures what is really happening outside of the helmet and slows the action way, way down before showing it to the wearer on the internal display. An external display shows passers-by the slowed-down action as well.

The helmet itself, as a “reflection bubble,” effectively sequesters the wearer and gives him a chance to escape from the world temporarily and reflect on his relationship with time. The project is an exploration of sensory perception and the way in which many of our natural senses and experiences can actually be reproduced by technology.

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