360 DEGREES Weblog

Fancy a cooking robot to help you roll out a gourmet treat this Christmas? We have earlier told you about some of the finest humanoid robots including the Chinese AIC-AI cooking robot that is capable of making Sichuan, Shandong and Canton cuisines along with thousands of Chinese dishes. But, for the Japanese food-lover multi-talented Motoman SDA10 from Yaskawa Electric is a perfect robot-servant which can grill okonomiyaki with manual precision. When done with grilling the dish, Motoman even puts it on a plate, and applies condiments. Designed to operate independently alongside humans in the workplace, the 135-centimeter (4.5 ft) tall, 220-kilogram (480 lb) industrial robot has 15 joints — 7 in each arm and one in the torso — allowing a wide range of motion for the job, whether it be on the factory floor or behind the kitchen counter. The robot is on display at the International Next-Generation Robot Fair now underway in Osaka. The company reported a sales plan: 1,200 units/year for 2008, 2,400 units/year for 2009, 3,000 units/year for 2010 or after. I want one! No really now you can marry your JAP and still enjoy a good dinner at home!

This past summer we wrote about all the various books, auctions and so forth paying tribute to the King of Cool. The one we’ve long been waiting for has finally arrived, and it’s without a doubt the best we’ve ever seen: Unforgettable Steve McQueen, edited by Henri Suzeau from Verlhac Editions in conjunction with Tag Heuer. This is the perfect gift for the enthusiast of classic men’s style or really any connoisseur of cool.

It’s a stunningly well-curated collection of McQueen photos, encompassing some iconic images but also plenty of rare and little-known pictures of the man Uma Thurman calls “Extremely sexy, extremely wild and extremely talented” in the introduction. Steve McQueen’s rugged sportiness, authentic masculinity and innate good taste have inspired countless fashion designers, not to mention scores of other actors who followed in his wake.

RaceChairs takes seats from Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche sports cars and turns them into luxurious (and expensive) office chairs. They look comfortable, and have price tags to match their respective exotic pedigrees.

Prices: $3000 - $11,000, though if you are a tightwad they offer a Recaro model for $1500.

All those future parents who want to listen to the heartbeats of their unborn children in the comfort of their own homes may just have their wish fulfilled if the product concept “Beforme” sees the light of day.

Designed by Elżbieta Madej and Robert Majkut, Beforme is a stethoscope with a built-in MP3 player that can play back the heartbeats of an unborn child. While the embryo-shaped Beforme allows the mother to listen in to the heart rhythms on the MP3 player at the touch of a button, it also displays the beats in a graphical form on the display. In addition, the recordings can be downloaded on to a PC via USB or Bluetooth and then sent to a doctor for examination.

Call that the most utilitarian gift that you can give to a pregnant woman. The product is still in the prototype (embryo) phase.

Nothing on the telly?

Fall a sleep on this TV pillow.

The Hotel St. Barth Isle de France, the luxuriously appointed hotel, resort and spa in the French West Indies that was just named Best Hotel in the Caribbean by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler, has just opened a quartet of new state-of-the-art Beach Suites. Designed by Penny Morrison of Morrison Interiors in London, the Suites feature amazing views of the island’s beautiful Flamands beach. Each one has a private infinity plunge pool (above), large terrace with beach loungers, 52″ plasma television, fully equipped kitchen, wireless internet, stone bathtub and outdoor shower. The hotel also recently introduced membership in the Isle de France Club, an investment opportunity consisting of a fractional ownership in one of five Club residences, complete with the finest furnishings and the highest level of guest services.

Starting early next month, global banking giant HSBC is offering passengers at Heathrow’s Terminal 1 a chance to select magazine articles on topics they’re interested in and have them bound into a hardback form they can take on their flight, according to Marketing Week. Through a kiosk located beyond security at Terminal 1, travellers will be greeted with an HSBC-branded hardback magazine cover. They’ll then browse the diverse selection of loose-leaf articles arranged on backlit shelving, UTalkMarketing.com reported. Available articles will be sourced from coverage around the globe focusing on four general topic areas: home and abroad, commerce and politics, health and sport, and media and culture. Consumers will also be able to choose from among five writers, including celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, tennis legend Björn Borg and Harrod’s trend forecaster on the future of shopping. Once they’ve made their selections, travelers will simply take their articles to HSBC’s binding bar to be neatly bound inside the hard cover. The two-week pilot effort, which is part of a campaign to promote the HSBC Premier Card, was developed by Cunning with JC Decaux Airport, Kinetic’s Aviator division and MindShare.

By providing a bespoke, branded experience to Heathrow travellers from around the globe, the custom magazine project will underscore the upscale targeting of HSBC’s Premier Card, as well as highlighting the company’s global presence. If extended beyond the pilot phase, such an initiative could also be offered as a perk to Premier customers.

Thanks Springwise

The Spice Gun is a chef’s deadliest weapon. You load the gun in the revolver with your spice bottles as if they were bullets; pulling the trigger shoots a burst of flavor into your dish. Pepper? Blam. Basil? Bang! Paprika? Kapow! Awesome — it’d probably be an effective weapon for torturing Guantánamo Bay prisoners, too. It’s a shame the gun’s still just a concept design. But maybe if we wish hard enough we’ll be tucking this bad boy under our apron strings one day.

Thanks Wired

Rule number one of burglary is ‘don’t get yourself photographed’. Probably coming in somewhere around rule number 437, meanwhile, is ‘don’t make an enemy of someone who owns billboards all around your city’.
Unfortunately for one New Zealand thief, he just broke both those rules.

The thief was caught on camera stealing expensive equipment, but he’d picked the wrong target - because now the billboard company he was stealing from has plastered his image around Wellington, New Zealand’s largest city, seeking his capture.

The crazy idea of selling billions of gallons of water in everlasting plastic bottles to people who already have access to clean water sources is turning our planet into a gigantic garbage heap. Finally, somebody is doing something about that. Brandimage created the 360 Bottle made of paper, which is 100% renewable.

Nice. It’s apparently an impossible task to convince a sizable portion of our population that there’s no need to clutch a bottle of water like a baby with a pacifier all day long. So, might as well limit the amount of harm done. These paper bottles are good for just about any liquid, too — not just water.

Hope that this idea can even make a dent in the 60 million plastic bottles tossed each day in the U.S. The 360 Bottle received an IDEA (International Design Excellence Award).