Business Idea of the Day

The Gazette: Manuel Desrochers didn’t set out to design an award-winning piece of utilitarian sculpture. “I’m not even a designer,” is the first thing Desrochers, the 34-year-old Montreal creator of the Ovopur water-filtration unit, says about himself.

cnet asia (crave): LED lighting products for the home are finally heading Asia’s way. The Ledino collection, under Philips, will be its hero product when the Dutch company sets up its first exclusive Philips Home Lighting Concept Stores in Singapore come January 2010. This will be followed by four more before end of next year. This initiative is part of the company’s direction for the region, clearly to increase sales through retail and distribution via Philips-branded showrooms

Unplgged: When we read about this, we thought that this was a concept, but no, it’s actually something that you can buy right now. All over the world, people are using magnetic and RFID cards all over the place in order to get into their workplaces.

The Foot Flush is a revolutionary foot pedal designed to use in your home or office bathroom in order to keep away germs and promote better health. Besides the obvious health advantages, The Foot Flush has received rave reviews from seniors and customers with back problems, arthritis, limited mobility, and other physical difficulties. The Foot Flush is also great for potty training, getting children to flush, and reducing the spread of germs in your bathroom.

Inhabitat: The serene back-and-forth movement of a rocking chair is nothing if not relaxing. It can also be useful and productive, according to Rochus Jacob. The designer’s Murakami Chair, a winner in designboom’s Green Life competition, uses the kinetic energy produced by rocking to power an attached OLED lamp. During the day, the Murakami chair stores energy in an on-board battery back. And in the evening, stored energy provides juice for the lamp.

Times Online: Would you want a bath in the beedroom? Mark Macauley, a documentary-maker from London, did. His three-bedroom flat in South Kensington has an elegant drawing room with the original 1890s shutters and stained-glass windows in the dining room, but the most eye-catching feature is undoubtedly the handmade £5,200 copper-clad bath that takes centre stage in the master bedroom. The inspiration was not just the colonial splendour of African safari lodges that Macauley, 53, has visited over the years, but also Babington House hotel in Somerset, where three of the 32 rooms have baths by the beds and Room Six — Madonna’s favourite — has one on the balcony. Chris Sanderson, a director at the Future Laboratory, a trend-forecasting consultancy, says people increasingly want their own homes to be like the hotels where they stayed on holiday — especially the bathrooms.

Times Online: Many new projects are incorporating technically advanced glass, such as panes with the ability to turn from clear to an opaque milky white at the flick of a switch. The laminate in Blink glass contains liquid-crystal polymers, connected to an electric current. When the current is on, the liquid crystals are clear, but when it’s turned off, the UV-filtering, high-insulation panes take less than a second to switch to privacy mode (£1,000-£1,500 per square metre, including installation; 0845 290 3107, blinkglass.com).

IdeaPaint is the most flexible, durable and cost-effective dry-erase solution on the market. It can be applied to any smooth surface, outperforms and outlasts the leading dry-erase options and works better with all brands of dry-erase markers. When you’re confined to the space of a typical whiteboard, your ideas are destined to be small. IdeaPaint turns virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface, giving you the space you need to collaborate, interact and fully explore your creativity. No matter where you use it, big ideas follow.

SanLuisObispo.com: Although Get-A-Mattress offers plenty of mainstream inner-spring and memory foam mattresses, it specializes in organic and natural mattresses, which comprise around 30 percent of its inventory. “Everyone talks green these days,” Brezeale explained. “We felt that people were finally understanding how important it is to have a clean, safe environment somewhere where we spend eight hours a day.” Natural, in this case, refers to latex, which is a product derived from the rubber tree. Brezeale touts it for its resistance to allergens like dust mites, mold and mildew; its ability to contour to the body like memory foam; its natural ventilating attributes, which help maintain a comfortable body temperature; and its ability to biodegrade. Organic mattresses combine natural latex with cotton or bamboo covers and cotton or wool padding — all of it produced without chemicals.

examiner.com: The newest recycled material to hit the market is sure to enhance your bathrooms look while keeping it “green”. Piedrifina Recycled Marble is created by utilizing stones that were once discarded. These marble stone are then re-used and made into durable marble surfaces. Since this marble is only available in 5/8″ thicknesses, it is really only ideal for bathroom applications such as vanity tops or shower and tub surrounds