atohmsFiled under: Product Design, technology | Tags: cooking tops, honeycomb, modular
These cooktops can be fitted into virtually any countertop material and provide a great freedom of arrangement. Just choose the number and the type of cooking zones you require. Then create your own, ideal layout. The controls for all the cooking zones are positioned centrally in a separate honeycomb, which you can locate within easy reach. The smooth and easy to clean sensor touch controls put the selection of the individual heat levels and all other functions at the tip of your finger. They give you all the benefits of electronic cooktops – including quick and easy cleaning.
via:: Kuppersbush
Filed under: Materials, Product Design | Tags: container, flexible, tupperware
Tupperware sought to improve the design of their famous product for consumers who need more flexibility in their storage. Many people devote an entire cabinet to storage bins, yet they have trouble finding a container that is the right size. And when they do, they have trouble finding the lid that fits. The solution to this problem was derived from the accordion-style expansion of drainage pipes. A form that would flatten to occupy little storage space, then extend into a full container when in use. These can even be loaded into the dishwasher like plates and washed flat. The products are also color-coded, so it’s easy to locate the right size container and its corresponding lid.
via:: frogdesign
Filed under: automotive, Materials, technology | Tags: BMW, car, concept, textile
Concept cars give automotive designers a chance to let their imaginations run wild, often with outlandish results. But even by that measure, BMW has come up with something as strange as it is innovative — a shape-shifting car covered with fabric. Instead of steel, aluminum or even carbon fiber, the Gina has a body of seamless fabric stretched over a movable metal frame that allows the driver to change its shape at will. The car — which actually runs and drives — is a styling design headed straight for the BMW Museum in Munich and so it will never see production, but building a practical car wasn’t the point.
via:: Wired
Filed under: Product Design, technology | Tags: external, refrigirator, solar
Two years in China provided the inspiration for Nicolas Hubert’s external refrigerator. Fixed directly on the outside wall of residential buildings, the concept is an elaboration on a way of life in northern China where food is kept on balconies in the winter to save space and energy. During cold seasons and at night, the low external temperatures are used to provide the right climate for items in the fridge. During warmer weather, the sun is used to transform light into energy through solar panels. Nicolas reflects Electrolux design values: the shape and finish are kept pure and simple so as to ensure easy integration with the external urban environment, whilst a range of colours and ambient lighting facilitate this further still.
via:: Electrolux Design lab
Filed under: Product Design, technology | Tags: gps, Martin Frey, path finding
CabBoots is a pair of shoes with an integrated guidance system. In other words, a pedestrian navigation system built into a pair of shoes. Conventional navigational devices usually communicate through acoustic and visual signals. The CabBoots shoes pursue a more intuitive mode of information as they utilize tactile feedback.
CabBoots mimics the principles of walking on a path. A path usually has a concave cross-section, and when walking along such a path, the feet of the person walking only come down on a flat surface right in the middle of the trail. In both sides of such a path, the foot lands on an outward slope which causes the ankle to tilt a bit to one side. While walking, the body registers this tilting of the ankle and intuitively compensates by steering back towards the middle thus enabling the person to walk the path blindfolded. CabBoots utilizes this characteristic. Electromechanical elements placed in the sole of the CabBoots shoes produce an artificial tilting of the feet. This artificial tilting of the feet resembles the real thing, and individual and virtual paths can thus be communicated via CabBoots.
via:: digitalexperience
Filed under: biomimicry & Ecology, interior design, Product Design | Tags: multifunctional, sink, toilet
The Roca W + W (wash basin + water closet) is as eco-friendly as it is good looking. Designed by the Roca Innovation Lab and Italian architects Gabriele and Oscar Buratti, the W+W fuses a washbasin and lavatory into a single piece and applies new Roca “Reusing Water” technology. This new technology reduces water consumption by 25% when compared with standard dual-flush toilets by re-using water from the washbasin to fill the lavatory cistern. It also employs for the first-time an automatic cleansing system which prevents bacteria and odors from entering the water cistern.
via:: Roca
The Circular printer concept from Samsung is extremely small and doesn’t look like any other printer we’ve seen. Instead moving linearly, this printer uses rotational motion to print one page at a time. Unfortunately, Samsung has never taken the Circular Printer to production.
via:: Pcworld
RjDj is a music application for the Iphone. It uses sensory input to generate and control music you are listening to. RjDj is mainly consumed with headphones. Think of it as the next generation of Walkman or mp3 player where the music reacts to the sounds of your environment. Nothing will ever sound the same twice. Really mind-boggling and playful application and it’s free!
via:: RJDJ
Filed under: biomimicry & Ecology, Product Design | Tags: harvesting water, playpump
Water For People began implementing this solution in 2010 as a way to improve school water solutions. A spinning merry-go-round pumps water out of a borehole and up into a tank.While children have fun spinning on the PlayPump merry-go-round, clean water is pumped from underground into a 2,500-liter tank, standing seven meters above the ground. A simple tap makes it easy for adults and children to draw water. Excess water is diverted from the storage tank back down into the borehole. Capable of producing up to 1,400 liters of water per hour at 16 rpm from a depth of 40 meters, it is effective up to a depth of 100 meters.
via :: waterforpeople
Filed under: Product Design, technology | Tags: bricks, modular, siftables
Siftables are sets of cookie-sized computers with motion sensing, neighbor detection, graphical display, and wireless communication. Siftables act in concert to form a single interface: users physically manipulate them—piling, grouping, sorting—to interact with digital information and media. Siftables provide a new platform on which to implement tangible games. The possibilities are endless. Check out the video to have an idea of how awesome these little bricks can be:
there’s also a great TEDtalk about siftables.
via:: siftables
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