There are a few things in this world that every man wants: a monkey that does household chores, a red Italian sports car, and anything that has a heads-up display.

Utilizing this highly-scientific research, Zeal Optics has developed the world's first GPS-integrated ski goggle. Complete with a heads-up display (of course), the goggles can inform the wearer of everything from conditions (temperature, altitude) to how insane your run is (vertical odometer, speed).

It should be noted that this isn't a fancy concept on paper. These goggles are available for purchase and begin shipping in October, in a variety of lens options, and for a hefty price tag.

So dudes: what are you waiting for? Pick up a pair on their website. Or better yet, grab a set for your monkey too, and be the coolest guy on the block.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

When it comes to green design solutions that turn our consumption-heavy habits into environmental practices, there's not a whole lot of low-hanging fruit. This design wins a few points in my heart for having its roots in practicality and feasibility.

Essentially, the concept aims to harness the "breezes" from passing vehicles on highways to turn turbines, which in turn power the roadway's lights. There are clearly details that the designers, TAK Studios, would have to work out, such as how to meter the energy it harnesses; and the economics of the concept aren't entirely convincing. The good news, though, is that green geeks around the world have been wrestling with these questions on various scales for a long time.

We might not be seeing turbine lights on our nation's roads any time soon, but it's good to know that there are designers out there thinking about ways to transform one of our country's biggest vices-- driving everywhere-- into a greener practice.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

brand tags is a text-based manifestation of author Noah Brier's assertion that the qualities of a brand exist entirely in our heads. Therefore, a brand is whatever we say it is.

Essentially, brand tags works by playing the classic "first thing that pops in your head" game with logos. Users are asked to type a word or phrase that comes to mind when they see that brand. The site stores the phrase in a tag cloud for each brand, which you can check out for free (after you enter 5 of your own phrases, for first-time visitors). For instance, "design" is an enormous tag for the brand "Adobe". (bonus points to the reader that gets my "nickselman.com" brand on the site!)

There's some other fun little features, but you should just check it out for yourself.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

map² is an origami-like take on the classic roadmap. The inner folds of the map contain a 4:1 magnification of the standard overview on the outside, and each quadrant can be folded out to reveal the more detailed view.

Currently the designer, Anne Stauche, has a working map of London on the market.

I think that this design addresses one of the fundamental problems that people have with real maps, which is the constant wrestling with the expansive and unwieldy objects. I praise this design for its simplicity, but I don't feel as enthusiastic about its practicality as I would have, say, 5 years ago. A classic example: no matter how superfluous e-book readers have become, there is no real substitute for ink and paper. I don't get that same tingly feeling about a map, and I'd certainly take my Droid's free navigation software over an elegantly designed paper map any day.

Overall, I am impressed but not blown away.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

I received the NYC poster as a birthday gift from my thoughtful girlfriend (nobody knows how to indulge a transplanted tri-stater better), and fell in love with the originality and simplicity of these designs.

Jenny Beorkrem created the original Chicago design for herself, before she realized she was on to something and expanded the line. Soon enough, Ork Posters went viral.

Posters and screen prints are very resonably-priced on their website.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

The website is still very beta, but I'm pretty happy with the cross-browser uniformity (first-try on IE looks good!!), considering I design on a Mac. I have been tweaking some source code for the navigation-bar-style menu from javascript.org, and I think it works fairly well. I only remember about this > < much JS from freshman year, and I really wish I could figure out how to get the submenu to close when you mouse-out.

If anyone has feedback, I'd love to hear it in the comments.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

If you've never been caught without a dead cell phone or iPod battery, chances are you don't actually own either one. And if this situation doesn't infuriate you to the ends of the Earth, then I'd like to ask you to check your pulse.

This concept by Teaho & Lee is, by no means, the first attempt by designers to solve the portable power (or lack thereof) conundrum. However, this one will really make those engineers out there hark back to the days of physics and Newtonian coordinates (centripetal forces, anyone?).

For the rest of you, just understand that (as the picture on the right suggests) the energy you're introducing into the battery by twirling it on your fingertip would be enough to get you some much-needed voice calling juice. Theoretically, you'd never be stranded with a dead battery.

The downside? Would you rather have your current cell phone battery, or one that gets 50% less juice but can be recharged indefinitely using some physical effort? The choice might not be as straightforward as you think to the average technology consumer.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

Safety tends to take a prominent role in my blog, for several reasons. For one thing, I think safety in design sort of go hand-in-hand. You can't consider safety without considering such things as human factors, new technologies, or the economic feasibility of safety. However, I think there is just something beautiful about a unique take on safety. It is making something mundane, something we often take for granted, and making it into a desirable object or idea.

Now, if you'll let me bring it back to the concept at hand, we have Art Lebedev's Transparentius concept. It's a pretty simple concept: a semi truck, a camera, and some way to project a large image onto a flat surface. The camera would take live video of what was going on in front of the truck and communicate it to those in tow. The idea is that safety can be enhanced if you were able to see around the truck in front of you.

Cynics among us might argue that it could increase road rage or danger, for various reasons. And then there's the whole "what happens the 0.1% of the time when it doesn't work" argument, often associated with complex electronics. Oh, and then there's cost. Because the trucking industry isn't already about cutting corners and pinching pennies.

Still, the concept is unique and idea-inspiring, and therefore deserves a shout-out from Yours Truly. My two cents? There are far more efficient and cost-effective ways of executing this idea. For instance, instead of complex optics and projection, why not use basic radar instrumentation (similar to that on many passenger cars in accident avoidance systems) and a simpler black-and-white dot matrix on the rear of the truck to show hazards in relation to the truck in two dimensions. Taking it a step further, we could question who really needs this information, and I'd argue that the truck drivers would benefit a lot more from knowing if they're about to merge on top of Ford Expedition, or my Genesis Coupe.

/road rage

Stay Innnovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

I'll be the first to admit: I've seen their stuff around and never even known it. Okay, your turn. Go ahead and fess up.

SWAY Studio's proprietary CG technology is ubiquitous on those pesky things you fast-forward your DVR through nowadays. They can mostly be found in just about every car commercial out there, but other clientele include a utilities company, Bon Jovi, and Kanye West/Complex Magazine.

Their work is so amazing that, most of the time, you don't know you're even watching it. I first started trying to figure out "who made this" when I saw this GMC Terrain commercial below. Not because it looked unrealistic, but because I really enjoyed the planar feature callouts. This is still one of my favorite commercials (even though I hate American cars), because of its simple and elegant design.

A couple more really neat ones below... A "making of" Bon Jovi video and (another) one of my favorite car commercials of all time (but mostly because of the classic video game reference).

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)

Synaptics dabbled in the mobile touchscreen market before the Apple iPhone ever came along. For an innovator with that type of reputation, the Fuse concept makes a logical next step. Believing that a new breakthrough in this design space is overdue, Synaptics assembled an all-star cast of technology leaders to collaborate on the Fuse.

The idea behind the Synpatics Fuse is to expand on the essentially one-dimensional interactivity of a normal touchscreen phone. The Fuse has a plethora of sensors at its disposal, which allows the user to squeeze, tilt, and otherwise interact with parts of the phone. The goal is to allow the user to perform complex tasks with one hand, and without looking at the device.

While I'm not sure that squeezing a mobile phone is the logical next step, the concept does raise many questions about interaction design and user interfaces. Are there simpler ways to perform mundane tasks on ever-more-capable smart phones? A 3.5" screen is an awfully small amount of screen real estate to control the kitchen sink of functions that a 16- or 32-GB phone can accomplish.

Plus, while the concept is innovative, it seems that our wonderful mobile hardware OEM manufacturers are still having a tough time just getting touchscreen correct. Thus, don't expect to see the Synaptics Fuse offered at a rebate through your mobile phone provider anytime soon.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)