Besides world peace, free energy and a “fat-free fudge cake that doesn’t let you down in the flavor department like so many others”, mankind’s greatest pursuit has been a solution to the problem of dirty laundry. And it turns out it’s been sitting right under our butts the whole time. It just took the designers at elementodiseño to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
What they’ve come up with is a brilliant way to ignore and avoid the issue of washing soiled garments, by turning them into the stuffing for a padded stool. Now I know what you’re probably thinking: “Andrew, I’ve been wallowing in a mountain of dirty laundry for months now, this isn’t new!” And I can’t argue with that. But, have you been wallowing in it while it’s stuffed inside a stylish blue canvas bag with reinforced seams? I didn’t think so. So let’s give the credit where the credit is due ok?
I really like the design of Younes Duret’s Ransa sofa which makes it look like the sitting area is floating over a floor-level bookshelf, but I have to question its practicality. I mean it’s nice to have a small library of reading material within arm’s reach when you’re lounging about, but as one of those guys who hates cracking the spine on his books and magazines, I’d be constantly worried about guests swinging their legs, constantly banging into my collection. But as I’ve discovered time and time again, maybe that’s just me…
As far as I can tell this is just a design concept, but I’m sure you can DIY one with an old futon and a collection of milk crates once you remove all the vinyl hippy.
The current trend in smartphone design is that of a vertical symmetry. It’s important to make sure the left and the right of the screen, (that being the right and left when the phone is held in a portrait mode,) are equal, or at least appear to be equal. The future of the phone is presented in a project by Jason Wang, a designer who believes that the next logical step in the evolution of the handheld communicator is symmetry in landscape mode. As a proof, he offers a conceptual design by the name of Nokia E2.
Wang believes that as the past several years have yielded a set of smartphones that are overwhelmingly similar to one another, it becomes difficult for the consumer to differentiate between them. He believes that the first step toward a new type of phone is the 21:9 aspect ratio. He notes though, that upon first viewing a traditionally designed 21:9 phone, it lacks visual appeal, especially due to the fact that they’re designed, still, to be held upright.
His solution is the E2, a 21:9 device with a horizontal symmetry, and what he says is “a large screen, a relatively small size, no vertical orientation bias, and no compromises.” Specs for his concept phone are as follows:
4.6″ 21:9 ClearBlack display
Proximity sensor
12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and 720p recording at 30fps
Concealed SIM and MicroSD slots (under the left side of the back cover, tilted 2 degrees)
3.5 mm headphone jack
Micro USB port
Multi-Purpose button (center, top) 3 zone button/rocker with capacitive layer
HDMI output
Stereo Speaker
Call speaker
Call microphone (with noise-cancellation, activation upon upward facing orientation)
2nd call speaker
2nd call microphone (with noise-cancellation, activation upon upward facing orientation)
*What these two call mics do is assure the user that any way they hold the phone, its the right way.
What do you think? We’re already sort of leaning this way with flip-out keyboards and gamepads like the upcoming XPERIA Play – is this the way of the future?
If you’re at all familiar with the work of Mac Funamizu, you know he’s an industrial designer whose only limit is real-world application. He does not allow the technological limits of today have an effect on his work, therefor he does magnificent designs that might never exist. For this project, Mac found inspiration in a project by the name of WVIL Concept Camera, a camera with a similar aim but a much bigger package. The camera you’re about to peek at is made up of a single piece of glass, a clip-on tiny lens, and a metal rim. Of course there’d be some technological insides, but take a look and imagine something so very simple.
This camera goes by the name “Klipp Concept Camera” because of the nature of the lens, which indeed does clip onto the rim of the screen you’ll be using as both a viewfinder and a touchscreen. Then of course after each photo is taken, the image is wirelessly transmitted to your cloud, and all is well. How many years away from reality?
Slap some EL wire on this, and you could be looking at the best Tron-themed record player around. In fact it’s the handiwork of designer R.D. Silver, who set himself the task of stripping a turntable down to its bare essentials and ended up with Turnstyle.
The minimalist deck has controls for power and volume, with an integrated speaker and a bent and curved maze of copper separating the motor hub from the counterbalanced arm. It’s all just a prototype at this stage, though one that doesn’t look like it couldn’t cross over to production with little difficulty.
As the outside of our vehicles get more advanced, the inside is advancing at a far quicker pace. And while having the word “resistive” in any type of touchscreen implementation may not seem all that advanced to anyone, Shoei has created a hybrid touch panel that actually uses resistive technology in a useful fashion. Of course, it helps that the company doesn’t have any intention of implementing their idea in an actual display.
The company is currently showing off their optical/resistive touch panel at the third annual International Automotive Electronics Technology Expo, that began on January 19th and runs until the 21st. It’s taking place in Tokyo, and it’s where many companies go to show off their next best gadgets or design, all in the hopes of getting it installed in the next popular vehicle.
For Shoei, their idea is to combine both a resistive technology with an optical touch panel, and instead of focus on a touchscreen display like we’ve seen in so many vehicles lately, make it an independent operation terminal for usage in connection with the display we’ve come to expect in vehicles. The company would hope that the touch panel would be installed somewhere near the driver, so that they could control the LCD display in the dashboard without having to lean over and interact with it.
The company demonstrated it on the floor. From the sounds of it, you would interact with the operation terminal much like that of a laptop’s touchpad and mouse buttons. Simply pressing the touch panel down allows for the user to navigate a cursor on the LCD monitor in the dashboard, and allows for quick inputs without having to worry about getting distracted while leaning over to interact with the dashboard unit. The unit on display was created from combining a camera, and retroreflective tape. The two features are a necessity to make the device function properly.
As for a release date, Shoei believes they can create a truly functioning prototype of their idea some time in 2011. Their goal is to have it commercialized in some capacity by the year 2012.
Not too long ago, it looked like projectors were picking up speed and heading into the mainstream market. They were even being built into phones. But then that phase seemed to get passed over relatively quickly. One market that seems to have shied away from the projector, is the tablet market. To some, a projector and a tablet would make the perfect bed fellows. MSI apparently agrees with those folks, and have created a prototype device that, at least right now, runs Windows 7 and is powered by Intel.
The tablet itself features a 10-inch touchscreen display. The projector, though, sits in a rotating section on the “top” of the tablet. It’s able to rotate backwards and forwards, so that the owner can project an image from the tablet onto a wall behind the tablet, or right in front of it. As mentioned above, Windows 7 is coming initially on the device, but MSI was up-front about their aspirations of bringing Android to the device, with an ARM-based architecture under the hood.
The device is just a prototype, and MSI has their feelers out, trying to find a good market for the tablet device. Entertainment on the go, or for on-the-move business workers who need to hold presentations in several different locations would probably be a good fit for this device. As for a projected release date, MSI doesn’t have one. Nor is there any word on what a tablet with a built-in projector would cost from MSI.
This one’s only a concept so don’t get your hopes up, but we’re loving the design here, called the Flip from designer Kristian Ulrich Larsen. It’s a triple-display handset running stock Android that pops out like a tent, collapses into a standard (if curved) slate, and even folds out like a little book. Each screen is said to be Super AMOLED hiding behind Gorilla Glass, with steel mesh acting as hinges — and there’s a full QWERTY keyboard somewhere in there too. Is it magic? No, it’s just a render, but we’re hoping that something like this becomes rather more physical in the not too distant future. Until then, enjoy the dreamy video after the break.
This is a design straight out of the concept books of both Peter Vardai and Tamas Fodor, both of whome have brought to life this magnificent machine for the world to get their TRON on in. It seems like this TRON fad has become a movement as the movie itself is leaving theaters yet concepts keep popping up. The goal of the designer of this project (Vardai) was to both reinforce the emotions people feel toward the Mercedes brand and bring their eyes up and out forward toward the future. Light strips on black sides will do that!
The shape of this vehicle, Vardai says, is based on the aerodynamics of an airplane, a streamlined set of sides for a smooth ride all the time. Black and silver are strewn throughout (though you can only see the black and the lights above) and lights, although the designer doesn’t mention them in his outline, are taken straight out of the newest installment in the Tron series: Legacy. Behold!
Most concepts won’t become reality. It’s a sad truth, but one nonetheless. In the case of the Chase 2053 concept car, it may have a chance at becoming a reality. Not because of the technology inside, but because the designer, Thomas Larsen Røed, has allowed plenty of time for this idea to get passed around amongst those who might make it a reality some day. 2053 isn’t around the corner, and that could be the singular hope for this vehicle to make it to production lines in the future.
The Chase 2053 is an attractive concept, no doubt. Røed envisions a vehicle that can’t be damaged, thanks to its construction from carbon nanotubes. If the construction isn’t any indicator, Røed envisions this from a purely science-fiction point of view. The vehicle also has sections of it created from fabric skin, which is a stretchable organic material. There’s a hydrogen-powered jet engine under the hood. The Chase 2053 is also capable of flying, or hovering to be more exact.
A pair of carbon fiber seats allow for comfortable rides, wherever you might be driving in 2053. Considering the leaps and bounds that automobiles have made in the last 40 years, there’s at least a small chance that the Chase 2053 becomes a reality in the next 40. We can keep our fingers crossed, anyway.
