Award-winning innovation is rarely associated with restrooms, but considering the long lack of innovation with respect to the loo, it should come as no surprise that there is a better way to design toilets.

Announced on World Toilet Day (yes, it exists), the Wellbeing Toilet designed by three Central Saint Martin’s graduate students responds to the inefficiency and long-term health risks of traditional seats, generally forcing people to sit at 90 degrees. Its shape and structure were “commended for improving human health by reducing the risk of intestinal cancer and haemorrhoids and diagnosing medical conditions.” The design borrows from both Eastern and Western design strategies, combining them with well-being considerations.

A panel of industry experts selected this winner on other criteria as well, including its sustainability (reduction of water usage) and advanced technology (urine analysis to reveal medical conditions), but the primary considerations were related to its simple and effective (com)mode of addressing a basic and necessary human function. The toilet has changed so little over the last few hundred years since the first flushable was introduced, but the time has come to rethink it, even if it all of this potty talk will inevitably elicit a few giggles here and there.

The post Ergonomic Toilet: Shifting Users from Sitting to Squatting first appeared on Gajitz.

On social networks many of us already wear our proverbial hearts on our digital sleeves, but what if that translated back into a physical representation – something that augmented our interactions, notified us of nearby friends and activities or helped break the ice between secondary connections in real life?

A joint project of the MIT Fluid Interface Group and Tangible Media Group, this project attempts to bridge the gap between clothing and devices, utilizing our mobile machines in our pockets or hands to do the heavy computational and network lifting but displaying the results on shirts or other items of apparel.

Beyond that, though, there are elements of physical interaction – touching the activated cloth not only changes patterns but can also change relationships, letting you add ‘friends’ to your network just by making contact (or showing who your mutual friends may be via light-up text displays).

“If you think about it, our Facebook and Twitter profiles reach and even impact thousands of people every day, but it doesn’t feel like it,” Kan, representing the group, tells me. “But while the way we represent ourselves in social media is intangible, what we wear isn’t. We wanted to see if we could merge the two to create social catalysts.”

From FastCo: “For many, fashion is already something of a way of communicating to others that you’re part of a secret club. Social Textiles could take that concept to the next level, buzzing and flashing on the club floor when a like-minded club kid bumps into you. But the Social Textiles team also sees their invention being useful at more structured events like freshman meet-and-greets, company picnics, industry conferences, and so on. After all, meeting new people is hard enough. Why not let your clothes do some of the work for you?

The post Social Textiles: Wearable Networks by MIT Tangible Media first appeared on Gajitz.

We’ve all heard the stories about how dangerous hitchhiking is: you’ll be kidnapped, dismembered or, at best, forced to listen to a smelly person go on and on about their quest to find themselves on the open road. In this environment of inherent fear of hitching, then, it’s surprising that anyone would use that “dangerous” mode of transportation as a social experiment. But that’s exactly what a group of researchers set out to do with a robot made of junk.

HitchBot is a simple looking bot: its body is a bucket covered in solar panels, its appendages are pool noodles, and its LED display “face” is covered with a plastic cake protector. Its wears Wellington boots and rubber gloves, one of them with an upturned thumb to signal drivers that it’s looking for a lift. Its creators wanted to see whether Canadians would shuttle the little contraption from one end of the country to the other. It was an exercise in trust – both in humans and in technology.

HitchBot talks (often quoting Wikipedia articles) and is equipped with a friendly smile and a GPS tracker. It also has an integrated camera with which it takes photos and uploads them to its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Along its journey, Hitchbot’s many generous transporters charged its batteries, took it to visit landmarks, and even invited it to a wedding. It seems that the friendly face was enough to convince plenty of humans to stop and pick up a device that some might consider dangerous.

Of course, part of the reason for HitchBot’s success might have been the international attention the project received before it even started. The world was curious to know just how well humans would interact with this unusual piece of technology, and the world was not disappointed. Although the team made backup HitchBots in case of theft or damage, the original bot made the journey on its own with just a few incidental bumps and cracks along the way.

The journey began on July 26, 2014 in Halifax, Novia Scotia. It spent the next 21 days traveling 6,000 kilometers (3700 miles) to Victoria, British Columbia. Along the way it hitched 19 rides and gathered the signatures and well-wishes of tons of people. After its long and eventful hitchhiking trip, HitchBot embarked on a plane ride home and held a party to celebrate the success of a truly one-of-a-kind experiment in trust between humans and robots.

The post Smiling, Talking Robot Hitchhikes Across Canada Unharmed first appeared on Gajitz.

The vending machine is usually associated with the negative aspects of our culture: instant gratification, over-consumption, mindless consumerism. But this vending machine is very different. It is known as the Swap-O-Matic, and its goal is to change the way we think about acquiring objects. Rather than rushing off to the store to buy something brand new, why not swap something you have and don’t want for something you don’t have but need? The Swap-O-Matic is like a swap meet that’s free for everyone but which causes positive social change.

The machine works solely on credits – no money ever changes hands. As seen in the video above, shoppers use credits to pull items that they want out of the machine and earn credits by donating items. Safeguards like user flagging are in place to ensure that the honor system isn’t abused. The Swap-O-Matic is part social commentary and part pop-up store; it has appeared in several NY locations and continues to travel around the city, bringing with it a message of reducing, reusing and recycling.

The post Swap Meet in a Box: Exchange Old Stuff for New Stuff, Free first appeared on Gajitz.