Author: jrtrombold@gmail.com

Spotted: Moschino’s creative director Jeremy Scott has developed a fashion line based on The Sims, the Electronic Arts’ PC game popular with the millennial generation. The designs feature graphical elements straight from the game, including a bathing suit covered in green diamonds, which players will recognise as the same ones that appear above The Sims…

Spotted: Italian startup Vitesy has developed an air purification system to monitor and clean indoor air. The device, called Natede, has become the most crowdfunded anti-pollution product ever — raising €1 million since last April. Natede is essentially a smart flowerpot, combining the natural purification of plants with a photocatalytic filter to purify indoor air.…

Spotted: OTRO is a sports app that allows audiences to access video content and engage with world-famous football players for a little over €4.00 a month. Additional access involves live Q&As and the opportunity to meet players in person.  The company, which only launched in December, is already disrupting its business model. Until now, OTRO…

Spotted: Indian ride hailing company Ola already holds the largest share of India’s ride hailing market, surpassing Uber. Now it hopes to scale its electric vehicle business to reach more of the vast country. It is also setting up a new office in San Francisco. Ola has just raised €220 million for its electricity-powered vehicle…

Spotted: Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have created contact lenses that can be controlled with eye movements, including a zoom feature that is activated by blinking twice. They work by using the eye’s electrooculographic potential.  The scientists measured the electrical impulses of the human eye and then adapted them to change the…

Spotted: France-based EyeLights has created a portable device that converts car windshields into a hologram that displays phone functions and apps, like navigators. The hologram is projected on an eight-inch display that does not impair the driver’s view of the road. The device, which is compatible with any vehicle, responds to hand gestures and voice…

Spotted: UK-based NGO Buses4Homeless is turning decommissioned buses into shelters as part of an intervention aiming to improve the living conditions of London’s homeless.  The buses have been donated by Stagecoach, one of the main bus operators in London. They are part of a three-month recreational programme attempting to reintegrate homeless people back into the…

Spotted: The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) has developed the world’s first fully autonomous delivery helicopter. The gyrocopter is a modified commercial craft designed to operate without a pilot. The seats have been replaced by a loading bay, additional sensors have been installed and a flight computer has been added for the autonomous features. The gyrocopter…

Spotted: Mexico-based Esrawe Studio has designed two collections of low-cost, easy-to-produce furniture for a state housing project. The collections aim to prove that high-quality housing does not have to be expensive. Designer Héctor Esrawe and his team used easy-to-obtain materials – wood and metal – to create the furniture. All the pieces can be easily…

Large-scale performative artist and stage designer Es Devlin is designing the UK’s pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE. Titled the Poem Pavilion, the structure will encompass a 20-metre high façade lit by LED lights to beam a collective, artificial intelligence (AI) generated global poetic message to outer space. All of the expected 25 million visitors…