In the news this week…
The Lexus that can paint
Lexus Belgium have just launched an interesting new project. It’s called ART IS MOTION, and it involves a car (the new Lexus IS 300 hybrid), a driver and some digital art software.
Essentially, Lexus have introduced a car that can paint, with a unique system that renders the driver in real-time.
And the way the car paints your portrait depends on how you drive. It looks at the speed you drive and at how you accelerate – amongst various other inputs – and converts them into different colours and brush strokes.
So if you’re a fast driver, your portrait will be rendered with stronger brush strokes. And it’ll be more vibrant in its choice of colours. If you’re slower you’ll be painted with cooler colours, like blues and greens.
It’s all based on the work of multi-meda Spanish artist Sergio Albiac, and Lexus Belgium’s marketing director, Joris Peeters, had this to say:
“The project is ‘amazing’ in finding a way to link our advanced technology with art and the driver in such a unique way. The car itself is transformed into a real-time piece of art.”
You can find out more about the Lexus IS 300 and see some of the digital portraits it’s produced in this Lexus-released video.
Ferrari V8 engine quad bike
The Lazereth Wazuma V8F is a quad bike the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
To get the obvious out of the way: the Wazuma looks nothing like a quad bike. Its low profile racing tyre and its sleek wide frame make it look more like a compact F1 racer than anything else.
And in terms of performance, the analogy’s not far off.
The Wazuma get its power from a 3.0-litre V8 engine taken from a Ferrari 308, and to get the enormous 250hp it produces from the engine to the wheels, it has to make use of a BMW M3 six-speed sequential gearbox, which is operated with buttons mounted on the handlebars.
With specially-designed parts and an engine and gearbox culled from different performance cars, the Wazuma’s a bit of racing hybrid. But quite how it handles on the track hasn’t yet been reported, and no performance figures have been released either, so there’s not much to go on.
But we don’t care.
Just look at it…