Crowd clout has already wreaked havoc on industries far and wide, and now it appears the home furnishings industry could be among the next to get transformed. French site Myfab.com lets consumers collectively tell manufacturers which furniture items they want produced and then purchase them direct at near-factory prices.

Each week Paris-based Myfab posts a catalogue of items that are available for voting, inviting members of the site to indicate the ones they like best. Those that win the most votes get put into production by one of Myfab's factory partners and become available for purchase through the site. Whereas many major furniture brands carry prices up to 10 times what it costs the factory to produce them, the site says, Myfab's prices can be as much as 70 percent lower since no middleman is involved. Consumers who voted for an item during its pre-production phase get an additional 10 percent off. All factory partners must adhere to the site's charter of quality, and consumers are given a one-week trial period to decide if they're satisfied. Myfab ships to France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and the UK. Delivery takes 9 weeks on average, and consumers can follow an item's progress online each step of the way. In addition to furniture, Myfab also offers products in fashion, accessories, sports equipment and watches using the same crowd-based voting model.

The lesson to be learned? Between transparency tyranny and crowd clout, companies are running out of places to hide. Better listen to the crowds, or risk getting crowded out! ;-) (Related: Shoppers team up for better deals — Reverse-boycotting: crowd clout meets eco-persuasion.)

Website: www.myfab.com
Contact: www.myfab.com/NousContacter.aspx

Spotted by: Lamia Aloui & Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and it's also widespread in Paraguay, where some 300,000 families lack adequate housing. Motivated by that fact--and by the severe deforestation that has been wrought upon the land--a local Paraguayan activist has devised a way to create recyclable housing materials without using wood.

Social activist Elsa Zaldívar has found a way to mix loofah, the cucumberlike vegetable that gets dried into a scratchy sponge for use in bathing, along with corn and palm husks into a soup of melted, recycled plastics to form strong, lightweight panels suitable for use in houses and furniture. Loofah are already readily available in Paraguay thanks to a project Zaldívar, as head of nonprofit organization Base ECTA, initiated to empower local women. Working with Zaldívar, industrial engineer Pedro Padrós then devised a machine to combine the vegetable materials and plastics into panels that can be produced with varying strength, flexibility, weight, insulating qualities and colours. The lightweight composite panels are not only easier to handle than lumber or brick, but also much better in an earthquake or other natural catastrophe; if destroyed, they are fully recyclable, too. Combining a melting unit, mixer, extruder and cutting unit, Padrós' machine can produce a half-metre-wide panel 120 metres long in one hour. Costs have already fallen to less than about USD 3 per square metre, making the material competitive with existing construction materials.

A newly granted Rolex Award will finance a promotion centre, the construction of three model houses and a video that will be used to describe the project, which has already attracted commercial interest as well. One to sponsor, test out, or otherwise get involved in? (Related: Instead of Styrofoam, fungus and rice hulls.)

Website: www.rolexawards.com/en/the-laureates/elsazaldivar-the-project.jsp
Contact: baseecta@baseecta.org.py

We've already seen partially enclosed pods used to offer naps at airports, haircuts on the go and multisensory break spaces in busy corporate environments. A new, completely private pod from The Oculas Group, however, now provides total immersion in a wide array of multimedia tools.

Similar to Yamaha's EntertainmentMyRoom, Ovei is actually a redesigned version of Oculas's original, namesake capsule, reengineered with new materials, finishes and customisation options through a partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies. Measuring 170cm high by 95cm wide by 190cm long, the unit can be opened and closed via an automatically sliding door. Inside is a climate-controlled space with controllable LED colour-changing lighting, leather seating, a retractable and adjustable, flat-screen 26-inch TV and JBL 5.1 surround sound. Everything is controlled via a Crestron tablet, and the Ovei's technologies can also be integrated into other audio/visual installations. Users can customise many details of the unit's interior, such as paint and trim, lighting and type of screen. Available in white, black, silver and gunmetal grey beginning next year, each Ovei is hand-assembled over a 10-week period and then numbered and signed by designer Lee McCormack. Only 500 Ovei capsules will be produced worldwide, UK-based Oculas says, priced starting at GBP 50,000 each.

Besides the bespoke pricing and planned scarcity, both of which will surely increase its appeal for the wealthiest elite, the Ovei also promises to offer a highly immersive experience that provides a strong dose of "me time," far removed from the demands of others. Don't look now, but the youniverse just got a little bigger! ;-)

Website: www.ovei.co.uk
Contact: sales@oculas.com

Spotted by: Robert Kreff

Home security may be an age-old need, but that doesn't mean it can't be addressed in a thoroughly modern way. To wit: AlertMe, a service that combines home security and energy monitoring for automatic delivery via the web or a mobile phone.

Originally released in January, AlertMe is a wireless system whose security component monitors doors and windows and detects motion or other potential emergencies within the home. Users can self-install the technology without the need for wires or drilling; rather, they simply place a set of sensors around their home. Those sensors then communicate wirelessly with a hub that gets plugged into the home broadband connection. Then, in the event of a burglary or a smoke detector going off, a sensor is triggered to alert the hub, which sends the information to the AlertMe servers; those, in turn, send an instant alert to the user via mobile phone. The system is controlled via key fob, with battery backup and GPRS connection in case broadband goes down.

In September, AlertMe announced a new application for its platform that will add energy-monitoring capabilities to the security system. Called the Smart Plug, the new technology plugs into any outlet and uses the same AlertMe hub to monitor and control the energy use of any appliance that's plugged into it. Customers can see both live and historical consumption and control appliances remotely through the web or phone. The device can automatically turn on lights, for example, and it can also alert users remotely when key appliances fail. Perhaps even more compelling, it can automatically turn off appliances when users leave the house and then turn select ones on again--say, a kettle readying water for tea--when they're on their way home.

AlertMe's security kits are available now, starting at GBP 149. The energy-monitoring Smart Plug is due to be released soon, the company says, with pricing reportedly at about GBP 25 per plug. Heating control and meter-reading features are due to launch next year. Meanwhile, the UK-based company is currently setting up a network of authorized distributors; one to get in on early? (Related: Stylish fire protection kits -- Visualising energy use -- Greener driving with Fiat & Microsoft's plug & play eco-monitoring system.)

Website: www.alertme.com
Contact: info@alertme.com

Spotted by: Cathy Bruen

Bringing a sense of style to the Craigslist model, new online marketplace Lushpad aims to connect buyers and sellers of mid-century design. By taking users straight to what they're looking for rather than having them trawl through columns of irrelevant goods, the Canadian website hopes to capture a lucrative niche.

As the company's target customers are aesthetically sensitive types, they should feel more at home on Lushpad's well-designed site than looking through loud ads on eBay or perusing Craigslist's messageboards. Sellers have also commented on listing prices, which beat eBay by being free for items under USD 250, and USD 8-12 for more expensive items.

Described as part gallery, part auction house and part design magazine, the site aims to build a resource to draw customers to the site and keep them coming back, by generating content about design classics, profiling designers, architects and manufacturers and reviewing relevant books. Besides attracting enough buyers and sellers, the key challenge for Lushpad and other new marketplaces targeting niche audiences is to maintain a strong focus. Which means moderating and curating, and rejecting any items that won't appeal to the target audience.

Website: www.lushpad.com
Contact: www.lushpad.com/contact.php

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen