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. 

The Flying Car

The Long Wait for Sky Cars from the “Wrong Brothers”

It took just two men and their commitment to their belief to set the ball rolling in aviation. It is now one hundred and nine years long from those first steps by the Wright brothers. The sector over the years has seen wonderful innovations like the supersonic, vertical take off and landing jets among many others. All this not withstanding, it is yet to attain the availability and ease of ownership that the motor car has. Hence that long desire of most men to have a vehicle that can fly is yet to be met. Well maybe not for much longer, as companies like Terrafugia seem to be breaking new ground in that sphere.

The Woburn, Massachusetts based company having completed test flights for its prototype the Transition, is set to start making deliveries next year for the orders it has. A single craft goes for as much as $279,000, which still makes it way out of common reach.

In the Netherlands, other companies seem to be coming up with their own variations. One of note is the PAL-V One by Baileybrugweg based PAL-V Europe N.V. Its vehicle takes the gyrocopter approach, offering a two seat hybrid car.

While welcome adaptations in the quest for the flying car, the major handicap these vehicles seem to have is that they fall short of existing vehicles from which they make their hybrids.
Take for example, the Transition looks awkward for a car, and its speed of 110km/h is not exactly top notch for road vehicles. So the key at this stage according to its CEO is to tap into that special niche that doesn't fly too far afield and yet needs a means to get around when on the ground.
Image source: Terrafugia, Etsu, and Pal-V

What is your view of the future of flying vehicles? Share them in the comment box below.