Measure: Digitally

As any regular reader of this blog knows, I love Sketchup, and I also love a good app for a smart phone.  Lately, I have been mashing up a slick mobile app with Sketchup.  The app, called MyMeasures (available to Android and iOS)  allows you to measure right on a picture.  Check out this video to see it in action:

Pretty awesome right?  I am working on a kitchen with an old soapstone sink that the homeowners want to reuse.  I needed to draw the sink in Sketchup so that I can design a custom cabinet to go beneath it.  I used MyMeasures to get the dimensions.

From this picture, I modeled this:

So, using MyMeasures I was able to capture easily all the details I needed to create this sink in 3D.  The modeling took just a few minutes.  Once I had the 3D model, I was able to work with it as if I was right there on the jobsite in 3D.  Try doing that with 2020!

Feel free to download this model and see it for yourself!

What the bleep? (Kitchen Tech Part 3)

Would you store your food in green goo?  How about something that charges your cell phone with no wires?  Is it the future?  Some of it is, some of it you can buy right now...  This post could be originally seen on Design Kula.

Electrolux Biorobot food storage device: Ok, at first glance this thing looks gross. Would you be OK with putting your food in green goo to keep it fresh? That concept might take some getting used to, but a few years ago we never thought we’d be using our phones as computers either. The idea behind this concept refrigerator is that you stick your food in the green goo, it forms pods around it, and by using the light in the room the goo stays cool and germ free. Also, since your food is separate from other items, there is no odor transfer. Interestingly, Sub Zero utilizes this same concept in their refrigerators with multiple cooling zones driven by multiple compressors. This keeps odors from moving from one area to another so your food stays fresher longer. If this goo concept were ever to come to market, there would be so many uses for it. Imagine instead of one giant food cooling area, you could have multiple “goo units” that store food at the point of use. Your wet bar could have a small area for fruit, and a main area for beverages. This could also be great in restaurant use as well.

Inductive Charging Mats: How many kitchens have you walked into that have cell phone, ipod, and game system chargers all over the countertops? We’ve got so many things that we need to recharge these days, and a lot of that goes on in the kitchen. If you’re clever, you can create a nice charging station to manage all those wires. But why manage the present when you could bring your kitchen into the future? How about wireless charging? Powermat, and Energizer make these great mats that can charge your devices by just dropping them on the mat. No wires needed. Older devices will need to have an adapter slipped onto the battery, but a lot of new cell phones are coming with inductive charging built in. Check out this video to see it in action, it’s F***ing awesome!

There is a lot of great kitchen technology out there, and this list doesn’t even scratch the surface. Consumers see more of this technology, they want it integrated into their designs. It makes sense, if they can have all this powerful technology at their desks, why should one’s kitchen be in the stone age?

Kitchen Technology Part 2

This is a follow up post to my last post on kitchen technology.  This post as originally featured on Design Kula.

The Brizo SmartTouch faucet: Did Brizo re-invent the faucet from the ground up? Nope. But they did add a “touch” of technology that really improves the way you use a faucet. You can touch this one to turn it on and off. Doesn’t sound that exciting huh? I’ll admit, it doesn’t shoot lasers, but it is hugely useful in the kitchen. Imagine this: You are cooking and your hands are all dirty. You need to wash off, but you don’t want to get your BBQ sauce covered fingers, or worse, your raw chicken coated fingers all over the faucet. With Brizo SmartTouch, you just tap your forearm, elbow, nose, or other fleshy bit on the faucet and you’ve got clean flowing water to rinse off in. I recently “forced” a client (my mother) to get one of these. She thought it was the most unnecessary thing when I explained it to her. After a day of using it she can’t stop raving about it! Allegedly a facerub from you cat can also activate the faucet, so curious water hating cats: you have been warned. Brizo seamlessly blends style and technology into all of it’s products, unlike Aquabrass who have attached a Playstation controller to the end of a faucet.

ZigBee Appliances: You may never have heard of ZigBee, but it’s a pretty interesting thing. ZigBee makes wireless transmitters, and the associated computer magic to get appliances to talk to one another. Why does it matter if your appliances can talk together? Not so they can plan world domination, but so they can work together to save you money. It all starts with your electric meter. If you have a ZigBee wireless electric meter it can send out lots of useful information, most importantly when electricity is the cheapest. Your appliances talk to the meter, and know when it’s the best time to do energy intensive tasks. For example, your dishwasher can automatically run at 3am, when electricity is cheapest. Your refrigerator can defrost then too. Of course, you can override these settings if you need your favorite jeans washed right away. Check out this video by Consumer Reports to see some of these appliances in action. This video features GE appliances, but SubZero also is in the ZigBee appliance game.

Stay tuned early in the week for the summary of all this kitchen technology!

Kitchen Technology, Part 1

This post originally appeared on Design Kula.  This is a fabulous blog and I suggest you check it out.

Technology: It’s everywhere these days. It’s evolving at a blistering pace. We all know how it goes, that shiny new aluminium tablet you bought two months ago is already out of date, replaced by something that is twice as fast, and half the price! That’s not just all marketing hype, there is a law, Moores Law. Moore’s law talks about the amount of transistors on a chip doubling.... Ok, I’ll forgo the technical jargon before you jump to your Facebook page. Basically the law says that computers will get twice as fast and half the price each year. This has been true for the last 50 or so years!

So how has this affected the kitchen in today’s market? Well, there is TONS of tech out there for the kitchen. Some of it good, some bad, and some just plain odd. I’ll guide you through just some of the things I have discovered in my travels. Before we start, I think I need to get some geek credentials out of the way:

My name is Eric Schimelpfenig, AKBD. I am a kitchen and bath designer, Sketchup modeler, trainer, public speaker, blogger, and a firm believer that the Internet is here to stay. At an early age I assembled my own computer in a cardboard box, and today I have no less then three screens on my desk at any given time. I could keep going, but I think you get the picture...

First up: The AlessiTAB. This tablet is a touch screen tablet that was developed for use exclusively in the kitchen. It runs on that all familiar Android operating system, and even features a TV tuner! I think it’s a great idea, but it’s going to be a dismal failure. Since it’s got all the tablet specs, it’s got the tablet price, without the tablet portability. The idea of having a computer or tablet in the kitchen is something a lot consumers want. With so many great apps out there for the kitchen why not get an iPad Chef Sleeve or just in put it a Zip Lock bag? (Yes, that actually works really well!)

Outdoor grilling, it’s one of the great outdoor pastimes. Imagine this: You are outside on your deck, you’re surrounded by friends, great smelling food, and wonderful weather. What could possibly make this day any better? Being able to leave all that and go hide inside. But how can you go inside to play another round of Angry Birds or check your Match.com inbox without the risk of burning your delicious meats? You can’t trust your friends, but you can trust iGrill. iGrill is a remote meat thermometer that communicates over Bluetooth to your favorite iOS device. Yup, you can look right at your iPhone or iPad and see the status of your meats without ever having to leave that computer chair. Frag on oh “master of the meats”.

Stay tuned to this spot towards the end of the week and I will unveil even more exciting (and actually useful) kitchen tech!

3D Connexion Design Challenge

3D Connexion is a division of Logitech, the company that makes all kinds of peripherals for the PC.  Chances are you are using one of those right now.

If you are unfamiliar with a 3D Connexion controller, think of it as a 3D mouse.  Ok, that probably doesn't help, so check out this video.

Most CAD applications, Sketchup and otherwise have used a combination of mouse and keyboard commands to get you around in 3D space for years.  This is a bit like driving a car with a manual transmission using one arm.  You can do it, but it's not a particularly smooth ride.

With a 3D Connexion controller, you can use the famous "cap" to grab onto your model just as if it was in your hands.  It looks complicated, but it's actually very natural to use.  I find that it makes me a way more efficient modeler.  I did a review on one of their controllers a while back, you can see it here (complete with video!)

I've had the basic 3D Connexion controller for years, and I have loved it:

There are several different models of the controller, this one just has the basic 3D cap.  The bigger models are adorned with buttons that can be mapped to all kinds of shortcuts.

3D Connexion has announced a challenge:  They want anyone to design a new controller.  It can be any size and shape that you want, as long as it has the 3D cap on it.  This is your chance to come up with the latest and greatest 3D controller.  What do you get in return for your troubles?  You can win one of three of the 3D Connexion controllers, and the grand prize is a mind bendingly fast CAD workstation from BOXX.

Click this link to see all the details.

As part of the contest materials, they have provided you with a 3D model of the cap to get you started.  I was surprised to see that they didn't include a Sketchup file as one of the formats.  Naturally I am Sketchup Pro user so I was able to import one of the file formats into Sketchup.  Those that are on Sketchup Free aren't so fortunate, so I did the work for you:

So check it out, I think this is a really cool contest.  If you have any submissions, please send them my way, I'd love to feature them here on the blog!