Making Furniture

I am the sort of man whom game companies fall all over themselves to seduce. I'm sweaty, pale, awkward, and spend too much money on video games. There are many of us, especially among XBox 360 owners. We are the most stereotypically "gamer" group of console owners. The XBox 36 ...more

PETA wouldn't consider James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau's ingenious flypaper clock very eco-friendly, but I might beg to differ. The clock doesn't require any electricity or batteries. Instead it captures flies and converts the bodies of the dead insects into energy. Eight dead f ...more

Originally made using whale fat, candles first appeared over 2,200 years ago as a means of illumination. From the 1st century up until the 19th century, candles were primarily made using beeswax or tallow, and aside from providing light, were used as a method of keeping time. ...more

Gatorade: its popular red flavor can stain the whitest fabric, and its sweet taste is oddly refreshing after breaking a sweat. If you've ever participated in a sport, you probably spent halftime at games and practice breaks chugging the stuff. Though it made its name as a spor ...more

Contrary to popular belief, augmented reality apps have been available for a while now. I remember using the Layar app (still available for iOS and Android) to explore nearby businesses and landmarks with varying success via an early-generation Android handset. It would be ha ...more

Furniture arranging apps have been rolling out on different platforms for a while now thanks, in no small part, to augmented reality. However, people have been waiting to see what the first room arranging app was going to be with Apple's ARKit. Most of the signs pointed to it ...more

For anyone who has spent an entire afternoon attempting to assemble a set of IKEA chairs, these wooden masterpieces probably seem pretty appealing. British furniture maker Gavin Munro has found a way to create interesting, yet functional pieces by planting tree shoots, guidin ...more

Ironing is a serious chore: hot, unpleasant, and frustrating all in one, but necessary if you don't want to look like you crawled out of bed just before work. While you might only turn to your flatiron when faced with wrinkled clothing, this little appliance packs the power to ...more

How to make a wooden bench from reclaimed wood. Recycled wood projects, whether it's from pallet wood or old fence palings, the end result can be fantastic! In this video l am using reclaimed hardwood fence palings to build a rustic wooden bench seat. Rustic wood furniture has ...more

In many ways, the latest version of the MakeSpace iPhone app, now updated with ARKit, makes it the bizarro world IKEA Place; instead of measuring your living space for new furniture, it measures your furniture so you can move it into storage. Using ARKit (or any other AR plat ...more

When Apple introduced ARKit earlier this year, they trotted out IKEA as one of the companies it was working with to build an augmented reality app that lets customers see furniture as it would appear in their home. While the Swedish furniture monger did not make an appearance ...more

How to build a Hall Table from recycled wood pallets. I love pallet furniture and this wooden pallet project is no exception. It's easy to build and costs very little money. The hall stand is made entirely from old pallets and hardwood fence palings. Hall tables are very pract ...more

Playing Super Mario Bros 3 with a giant controller on a projection screen = nerd nirvana. Giant NES controller/coffee table/storage box made by Kyle Downes. This piece of furniture actually connects to the system, and works as a real controller. Scroll down for video demonstra ...more

Microsoft recently announced that they're producing HoloLens units fast enough to keep up with demand, which means you can acquire up to five dev kits right now—if you've got the $3,000 fee for each one. The HoloLens will likely cost a good amount less after Microsoft makes i ...more

While the early stages of any new technology always seems amazing because of the utilitarian, almost altruistic software concepts it inspires, mixed and augmented reality will still see its fair share of corporate apps. That might be a good thing, however, as Volvo's plan goes ...more

Pallets, Pallets, Pallets. You have to love them! How to build an outdoor play kitchen for the kids using old pallets and recycled / reclaimed wood. I came up with the idea after seeing how my young son loved playing with the one at childcare. Pallet projects and Pallet Ideas ...more

I have an interest in using recycled materials in sculptures, particularly circuit boards and other wasted electronic and mechanical components with which I put together sprawling cities lit with fairy lights. These cityscapes can conjure an image of a parallel society built f ...more

I've covered augmented reality apps for about three years now and the most useful mobile app I've encountered over that time is Google Lens. In brief, Google Lens can recognize and interact with text and identify a wide spectrum of objects, turning your smartphone's camera in ...more

Although retailers like Mac Cosmetics and Zara have been celebrated for deploying innovative in-store augmented reality experiences in their brick-and-mortar locations, a new report throws cold water on the practice. In a report titled "Augmented Reality in Retail," market re ...more

Hutch Interiors, Inc., makers of an eponymous augmented reality home design app for iOS and Android, has closed a series A round of funding, led by online real estate company Zillow Group, totaling $10 million. Hutch shares the approach of similar augmented reality apps from ...more

Augmented reality seems to be the talk of the town lately, with everything from glasses to furniture stores prepping to implement exciting, new AR technology. Well now, it looks like even our food is getting a makeover for the augmented reality future. Dr. Katsunori Okajima, ...more

Furniture gets beat up—it's a fact of life. Your beautiful tables will end up scratched, the legs of your chairs will grow nicked, and you'll find interesting dents and damage in other places around the house, too. Yet if most of your furniture is made of wood, you don't have ...more

What can't coconut oil do? This edible oil, extracted from the copra or meat of a coconut, has done what most other food, beauty, and health trends have not: demonstrated real lasting power. Indeed, the "superfood" continues to make headlines, with its many uses the subject of ...more

We frequently associate plastics with the modern era, starting at around the 1950s with the prevalence of bakelite. However, for all of you "you can't use plastic in Steampunk" purists out there, I have bad news for you: Victorians used plastic! Granted, bakelite is the firs ...more

It might sound odd to call interior decorating exciting, especially if you're not a professional within that industry. But that's exactly what it is when combined with augmented reality. I recently found out just how fun it can be when I downloaded the new Sotheby's Curate ap ...more

While many retailers have introduced try-before-you-buy features in their apps, Walmart has gone in another direction by bringing shoppers an augmented reality tool to help them compare products they want to buy. Available exclusively for iOS (app versions 18.20 and ARKit-com ...more

Facebook is preparing to make augmented reality experiences for brands more visible in its mobile app with Tuesday's introduction of augmented reality ads in its News Feed. News Feed AR ads will enable advertisers to insert AR camera effects, from virtual product try-ons to p ...more

Pottery Barn has teamed up with Google to create 3D Room View, a new mobile app to allow all wannabe interior designers (like me) to pick out the perfect couch, table, or whatever, and then overlay it onto a spot in his or her house. I used to obsess over the Pottery Barn Tee ...more

Intel, the company which is mostly known for creating computer processors, once again showed off their Project Alloy "merged reality" experience, this time during their CES 2017 press conference. Intel's Chief Executive Officer, Brian Krzanich, stated that they will be "produc ...more

Augmented reality began on smartphones but technical limitations have prevented further development. Google's Tango (formerly Project Tango) aimed to change all that, and with Lenovo's help, they now have their first device. Check out the features in this video from Lenovo: V ...more

Google I/O is right around the corner, and everyone's expecting new virtual and augmented reality news. Here's what to expect from this week's announcements. Google Cardboard Will Evolve into Android VR Given the power of upcoming virtual reality headsets like Facebook's Ocu ...more

Whether you drive a new or used car, discovering a new dent, scratch, or scuff mark can send you into a frustration spiral. While there are many DIY ways to deal with dents, scratches and scuff marks are trickier because using the wrong stuff could make your car's paint job lo ...more

Coconut oil must be sent from the gods themselves, because this stuff is made of miracles. If you ever wondered why your mother always has it around, it's because she's smart enough to know the countless uses for it. Whether you need a beauty remedy, help with weight loss, or ...more

Apple's ARKit has built a considerable lead in terms of features over Google's ARCore, but Google's latest update to ARCore adds a capability that makes the platform a bit more competitive with ARKit. On Monday, Google unveiled its new Depth API for ARCore, an algorithm that ...more

The long wait is over — the best augmented reality device on the planet is finally available. Update #2, Friday, 12:45 p.m. ET: Yesterday's Microsoft HoloLens 2 announcement was welcome news for many but still left some eager developers scratching their heads in confusion as ...more

While IKEA is collaborating with Apple for its ARKit furniture app, Marxent is ready to help the rest of the interior decorating and home improvement crowd with their apps. The company already counts Ashley Furniture, Lowe's Home Improvement, and AZEK among the companies that ...more

Beer isn't just for drinking anymore. There are many useful and surprising things that an ice-cold brewski can help you accomplish, from household chores to better-tasting food. It can even help you look and feel healthier. And while it may seem sacrilegious to use a beer for ...more

Acetone-based nail polish remover is great for removing nail polish, and it's also great for some DIY uses around the home. From eliminating scratches to fixing the consistency of correction fluid, its uses are varied but all effective. With nail polish remover, you can also c ...more

Just dried a load of laundry? Don't throw away that used fabric softener sheet just yet. You can repurpose a used sheet for a variety of practical uses around the home, such as picking up pet hair from your furniture, deodorizing your gym bag, removing static cling from your s ...more

While much of the world is currently in some form of quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, augmented reality (AR) gives us all the opportunity to see virtual content while stuck in our homes. In addition to installing mobile AR apps or playing with camera effects on Facebo ...more

Apple's iOS 12 has finally landed. The big update appeared for everyone on Monday, Sept. 17, and hiding within are some pretty amazing augmented reality upgrades for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. We've been playing with them ever since the iOS 12 beta launched in June, and ...more

If there's one strength of Apple's that iOS and Android fans can agree on, it's the company's dedication to user privacy. With each new iteration of iOS, Apple builds upon these foundations, enhancing and increasing each iPhone's ability to protect its user's data. In iOS 12, ...more

The hype train that left the station years ago has reached its first stop, and now we finally have access to the Magic Leap One, the device many have claimed would revolutionize the augmented reality space at launch. But is that really true? On Wednesday morning, as Next Real ...more

With the announcement of ARKit 2.0 at WWDC 2018, Apple is bringing some powerful new capabilities to mobile augmented reality apps this fall. Shared experiences, persistent content, and 3D object recognition will enable more social, transcendent, and immersive experiences for ...more

With the advent of ARKit, apps that can place virtual furniture in a real room have become nearly a universal practice for furniture retailers, with Pottery Barn being the latest to join the fray. While it might seem as though Pottery Barn is playing catch-up with the likes o ...more

Apple demonstrated their continued interest and investment into the awesome world of augmented reality during their Sept. 12 event, highlighting a few new AR games that will appear on iPhones thanks to ARKit. But that's not all you can expect — as long as you have an iPhone wi ...more

Bed bugs are parasites not yet known to spread disease — but they cause plenty of irritation. As scientists and landlords search for new ways to deal with the pests, a new study examines how we can deter bed bugs without so many chemicals. While they don't infect us with anyt ...more

In the tech world, when you're a small startup going up against the Goliaths and their massive marketing budgets, you're forced to find and produce something almost magical to help your product stand apart from the rest. And that's exactly what Occipital Inc. has done with the ...more

If you have encountered bed bugs lately, you are not alone. While the pesticides used to fight these pests are losing effectiveness, a fungus shows promise in knocking the bugs out of beds everywhere. Bed bugs, or Cimex lectularius, are parasitic arthropods, part of a broad g ...more

In the past, to see a pre-constructed state of the house that you would one day live in, you had to be able to read blueprints or hire an artist to sketch it out. Later came the ability to have a 3D rendering of that house on a screen, but you'd still have to work hard to envi ...more

I recently wrote about fast food fakeouts you can make at home, but people cannot live off fast food alone. Sometimes you need to step up your game a little and enjoy the fare at a popular chain restaurant with a bit more variety to its menu. Don't Miss: Check Out These 5-St ...more

A few years ago I went hog-wild trying to achieve a zero-waste lifestyle. I didn't succeed, but the experiment taught me that we throw away things we could—and should—be using more. In ye olde days of our forefathers, people generally used every part of the animal in cooking. ...more

About ten years ago, Western research figured out that green tea was a nutritional powerhouse. After all, in Asian countries where green tea is consumed throughout the day, cancer rates tend to be much lower, although there are probably other factors contributing to that fact, ...more

In a surprising twist of expectation management, Magic Leap managed to not only ship but deliver the Magic Leap One I ordered on Wednesday by 4 p.m. PT on the same day. After spending about an hour with the headset running through set up and poking around its UI and a couple ...more