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: 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
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: 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
The RCA_airnergy is a USB-connected device that converts Wi-Fi antenna signals into usable power for your gadgets. The device is completely self-sustaining — it automatically charges whenever a Wi-Fi signal is close by and stores the power in a lithium-ion battery. While it may not be practical for emergency charging in the woods, the Airnergy could be invaluable in on-the-go situations when your cell phone’s power is petering out.
via:: inhabitat
Filed under: biomimicry & Ecology, technology, Uncategorized | Tags: human energy, Hyejin Lee, Song Teaho
Mind you, this is not a product yet, just a concept. But It could be a helpful solution for a tricky situation. The situation being: you running out of juice on your mobile phone. So what do you do? Remove the battery from the back of the phone; give it a few good turns around your index finger and its gathered enough power to last you a conversation or a safe trip to your charger and electric point.
via:: yankodesign
Filed under: Product Design, technology | Tags: conductive, cooking, Hot plate, plate
At a time when almost every object around us seems to suddenly get Smart; From MP3 jackets to GPS cars to Smart bombs. It seems appropriate to take that age-old baked piece of mud that we like our ancestors eat off of – the ceramic plate, and fuse it with contemporary technological know-how. We use the conductive properties of silk-screened gold or Amorphic Metal films in the same manner printed circuit boards or car windshield defrosters work. Hook up the plate to an electrical source and the current will run through the “decoration” keeping food stuff warm. Ornate graphic patterns are given “function”- in the most modernist sense of the word.
via:: designboom
Filed under: Architecture, biomimicry & Ecology, interior design, technology | Tags: cables, optical, solar
The SolarPoint™ Lighting system, also called hybrid solar lighting, consists of a roof-mounted SolarPoint™ Platform, a 45’ long plastic fiber optic bundle, and a number of special “hybrid” luminaires. The technology concentrates natural sunlight into a small bundle of optical fibers that “pipe” sunlight directly into a building or enclosure. Special lighting fixtures called hybrid luminaires diffuse light throughout the space, delivering up to 25,000 peak lumens. The hybrid luminaires blend the natural light with existing artificial lighting to provide controllable interior lighting. As sunlight levels increase and decrease, a daylight harvesting controller automatically increases or decreases the co-located artificial lighting proportionally, providing significant energy savings during daylight hours.
via:: sunlight direct
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