rain

The eternal debate about whether running or walking through rain gets you wetter has now become a moot point. An art and technology installation in London lets you make your way through rain without getting wet at all.

You don't need an umbrella or a Gore-Tex suit to achieve this feat. You just need to make sure you're visiting Random International's RainRoom.… Read more

YoWindow is a weather application for your PC that manages to deliver weather data in a unique and fun interface. With its ability to save multiple locations, it makes it incredibly simple to quickly pull up weather reports from anywhere in the world.

The program is about as simple as your typical weather-reporting Web site. Enter a city anywhere in the world, and watch as YoWindow's background image changes to reflect the current weather conditions there. In addition, YoWindow supplies you with all of the hard facts, including high and low for the day, Wind, Pressure, and Humidity. There'… Read more

Driving around in a snowstorm or heavy rain often feels similar to the hyperspace travel effect seen in the various "Star Wars" movies, which can distract even the most seasoned driver (unless you can make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs). A new smart headlight from Carnegie Mellon University could make distracting precipitation far less dangerous to drive through.… Read more

Located in the departure hall of Singapore's Changi Airport Terminal 1 is a new installation that's a sight to behold. The Kinetic Rain sculpture consists of two segments that use 1,216 aluminum droplets coated in bronze, individually attached to motors located in the ceiling.

The droplets transform into various shapes by moving up and down, and the patterns are controlled by special custom software created by German design house Art+Com. The sculpture is part of the Terminal 1's $400 million upgrade, which has just been completed.

Check out the video below to see just how magical it all is. For still more, here's the "making of" video. … Read more

Pop quiz. You have 12 piezo sensors, Arduino Uno, two speakers, lots of wire, and plenty of duct tape. There is an umbrella nearby. What do you make? How about a musical umbrella that translates raindrops into song?

Two creative Germans, Alice Zappe and Julia Lager, built an umbrella that detects raindrops and interprets them as 8-bit music. This could turn a regular walk down the street into a personalized retro gaming adventure.… Read more

LOS ANGELES--David Cage had a great E3. The French game director and the development team he leads up, Quantic Dream, are responsible for some of the industry's most ambitious interactive entertainment experiences like 2010's Heavy Rain. At an event where originality and innovation were the hottest of commodities, showing a game like Beyond: Two Souls was like hitting the jackpot.

I was lucky enough to attend a breakout session hosted by Cage where he dove a little deeper into the world he has created for Beyond: Two Souls. … Read more

The Weather Channel is a free weather-monitoring application that provides many more features than Apple's built-in Weather app. Released first in 2008, the app recently received a complete overhaul to the interface, adding features that make it even easier to check weather conditions wherever you are.

You can find paid weather applications that are more specialized, but The Weather Channel (sponsored by the cable channel of the same name) offers the features most people want in a weather app. You can view forecasts (hourly, 36-hour, and 10-day outlooks), quick access to Weather Channel local and regional video forecasts, severe … Read more

The Wt360 app uses weather trends from the past to predict future weather up to a year in advance.

Obviously, you can't expect the app to be terribly accurate at predicting the exact temperature for a date eight months from now. But you can expect it to give you a good general idea of the weather on any given date within the next year. It's a handy tool for anyone planning a major event, like a wedding or birthday.

When you first open up Wt360, the first thing you'll notice is that it's decidedly unattractive. The … Read more

We have these things in New Mexico called rain barrels. They're big plastic tanks that catch rain water running off your roof for later use in your garden.

The Raincatch coat concept is like a personal rain barrel or a do-it-yourself CamelBak. Instead of filling up a water bottle and taking it with you, you just catch your drinking water as it falls from the sky.

Hyeona Yang and Joseph Noble, students at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, hatched the Raincatch idea and fashioned a prototype from an existing rain coat.

The coat's collar flares out like a particularly dramatic Dracula cloak. Rain is captured, runs down the back of the coat, flits through charcoal filters, and then zips through a chemical purification process.

The rain is stored in a hidden reservoir around the hips, though I'm not sure how many ladies will be keen to carry extra water around there. The resulting potable water is drinkable through a straw whenever you're feeling a bit thirsty.… Read more