Living with the Buzz

Sustainable Honey Made at Home

Imaging what it would be like to get your honey fresh from the hive every morning? Yes you live in the city, but that will not be a problem because the hive will be right inside your house. Scared? Don't be. If the prototype created by Philips Design sees the light of day, you can enjoy all the benefits of bee farming, conveniently in your city apartment without the attendant risk.

This is what the Urban Beehive is all about. Urban Beehive is an innovative concept in sustainably produced food. “The beehive is designed to allow us a glimpse into the fascinating world of these industrious creatures”, so says the Netherlands based Philips Design. The structure consists of two parts: an early passage and flower pot, which is on the outside, and an egg shaped glass vessel. This glass vessel contains the honey comb and houses the bee colony. The glass is such that it filters light, allowing only the orange wavelength that the bees use for sight. Thus your interior lighting won't be disruptive to your co-occupants.

To have access to the honey when desired, all you do is release smoke into the hive to calm the bees before opening. Else you might risk unleashing the colonialists on your own territory.
Image source: Philips Design

So are you willing to live with the buzz? Share your thoughts in comments below.

A Clear Vision with a Dynamic Eye

Now You Can Tune Out the Glare

One of the great hazards while driving to a driver is glare. That spontaneous direct blinding sunlight can be irritating, and most times what we can do is just squint and bear it. Well maybe not anymore and it's all thanks to Chris Mullin of Dynamic Eye, a research engineer with a PhD in physics and a background in optics, electronics and plastics. His next generation sunglasses uses electronics to instantly reduce annoying glare.

Regular sunglasses reflect roughly 8% of light hitting the lens, so only 92% of available light enters the eye for vision. Thus most times they can't handle a glare, Mullin says. But Mullin's glasses using its proprietary Liquid Crystal Display Shield, SpotShield, immediately darkens the part of the lens where the user is experiencing a glare. This may be from bright sun or lights, and it does this without dimming the rest of the lens.

Well all you have to do now is remember to charge your glasses. According to Dynamic Eye, this shouldn't be too frequent as a single charge lasts hundreds of hours.
Image credits: Dynamic Eye

What do you think of this, are you getting one? Share your thoughts in the comment below.