by Matt Burns on June 20, 2009
Concept
by Devin Coldewey on June 11, 2009
In Seattle, umbrella culture is vibrant — as you might imagine. People have big umbrellas, small umbrellas, black umbrellas, colored umbrellas, clear umbrellas, cane umbrellas, micro-umbrellas, and bumbershoots. You also have umbrella-haters who boycott umbrella use and simply dash from awning to dripping awning.
So there’s a lot of umbrella etiquette on a rainy day downtown, and while this partially-retractable umbrella concept might complicate your umbrella experience, on the whole it’s probably a good idea. I’ve seen good men die from umbrella wounds, and I myself bear scars from these monstrous, twirling razor-wheels.
by Nicholas Deleon on April 28, 2009
This will never come out, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth looking at. It’s called PathQuest, and it’s a portable GPS device that’s shaped, yes, like a compass. How this isn’t a more popular concept—GPS devices shaped like a compass—I have no idea.
by Devin Coldewey on April 25, 2009
We’ve seen some strange concepts in our time, but this has to be one of the weirdest and most unlikely. This concept KissPhone is probably going to stay imaginary, since it’s the most ridiculous thing in the galaxy. Capture the movement, warmth, and “sucking force” of a lover’s lips and transmit it in real time to a pair of robo-lips? Yeah, I see a market for that. It’s called crazy people.
by Scott Merrill on April 15, 2009
The opening line of the Kicker Conference Phone product page tells you just about all you need to know about the motivation behind this thing: “Conference phones suck.” Amen, brother! I hate sitting around a conference table, speaking either too loud or too soft for the conference phone, straining my ears to hear what’s being said, and wondering when the hell this madness will end. The folks at Kicker obviously feel similarly, and set out to design a better conference phone.
by Devin Coldewey on February 9, 2009
Another day, another iPhone 3 (iPhone Video?) mockup. Clearly this is completely from some fellow’s imagination, but it’s fun to play make-believe anyway. So, what do we think of today’s?
by Nicholas Deleon on January 30, 2009
by Nicholas Deleon on January 29, 2009
This is a scanner. It may not look like one, and, technically, it’s not even real, but it’s a scanner. Promise.
by Nicholas Deleon on January 16, 2009
WHO LIKES BICYCLES?! (Whoops, sorry, caps lock.) This little design-thing caught my eye, and I figured I’d share it with y’all, because, let’s face it, it’s Friday and most of you, myself included, would rather be constructing an army of snowmen or tap dancing on a Brazilian beach than [whatever it is you're currently doing].
by Nicholas Deleon on December 19, 2008
No one uses Apple’s Mighty Mouse because it’s a giant heap of hot, liquidy garbage. This render, whipped up by the MacBlogz folks, shows one direction Apple could take to remedy the problem.
by Ivan Beres on December 19, 2008
The idea of this weird looking bracelet popped out from the head of Nicolas Meiresonne, a student from Belgium, Antwerp. The goal was to design a watch that will give the user a perception of time and some sort of experience.
by Nicholas Deleon on December 9, 2008
While the radio business may be finished—CBS Radio, no one is going to suffer through commercials to listen to pre-selected, cookie-cutter music when they have a perfectly viable iPod in their pocket—there’s still plenty of industrial designers out there who are able to put their own little spin on the device. Take this White Fruit Radio, for example, It’s made of sycamore, a main event wood, and there’s a row of LEDs on the inside.
Where the exactly radio transmitter is, who know. More importantly, who cares.
You’re supposed to rub your finger across the top to tune it!
Looks neat, but like I said, radio is dead so, you know, best put your design skills toward something else.
by Matt Burns on November 19, 2008
Temperature-taking has came a long way from the ‘ol up-the-pooper method. This concept takes the age old hand on the forehead method to the next level but it has a natural feel to it so hopefully, it will eventually find its way on to Rite Aid shelves.
by Devin Coldewey on November 18, 2008
Ah, concept products. You are the court jesters of the tech kingdom. Where else can every trend and UI rule be bucked — in both good ways and bad? This concept computer called the Samsung Scroll (does Samsung know about this?) is a complete disaster.
It is a device that you can use to browse the net, chat with friends, IM, email, write or draw. It works with most updated servers so that the information you have put on the scroll can be uploaded to any device. It even hosts a hologram to view Windows.
Look at the pictures. What about this device makes sense? How many rules of ergonomics does it break? Does the concept designer know what hologram is or how one is created? Does he think people want to carry holsters around all the time? I hate to rag so much on it, but honestly this is like something out of design kindergarten.
by Nicholas Deleon on November 10, 2008
This little guy, the Febot, charges your batteries, literally. Like, it literally charges Duracell (and other, lesser brands) batteries. Well, “literally” is a bit strong, as it’s only a concept, but whatever.
by Nicholas Deleon on November 5, 2008
This is the Lull, a fancy children’s lamp that works in conjunction with the day/night cycle. That is, in the morning the lamp opens open not unlike a flower, shining light on your child’s face. Wake up. In the evening, the lamp closes and slowly dims, allowing your child to fall asleep while counting sheep or some such.
by John Biggs on October 21, 2008
Reader Billy May sent us these concept sketches for the Nike Hindsight, specially design biking glasses with specifically tuned Fresnel lenses for keeping an eye on approaching taxis/cars/baby strollers.
Writes Billy:
Nike Hindsight is, put simply, like giving bicyclists a pair of bifocals for their peripheral vision. By using Fresnel lenses on the sides of eye wear, riders can detect motion in a field of view beyond the normal human limit of 180º. To get technical, high power, diverging Fresnel zones aligned vertically distort into view an extra 25º of view on either side. In doing this, vision is radically distorted in the periphery, but as the eye detects only motion in that area, little clarity is lost in the process.
by Serkan Toto on October 7, 2008
Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier NTT Docomo had one of the coolest booths at this year’s CEATEC (which ended last Saturday), showcasing a lot of spectacular new stuff.
These are their cell phone concepts, some of which even might make it to the mass market one day. Watch a video of their microprojector cell-phone hybrid here and a see this post for more information on their cell phone/car key prototype made for Nissan (both are not pictured here).
by Matt Burns on August 22, 2008
Picture your flat’s sink full of nasty dishes. Ok, maybe not nasty nasty, but you know, dingy. Then all you do is fill up the sink with water and drop this little guy in. Press the indicator light to have your new roommate wash everything submerged with ultrasonic tech.
Who knows if this concept will ever make it out of CG-world and into my sink. If it helps though, I can provide an extensive list of guys willing to sell a lot of blood to fund such a device. It’s just so hard getting the dishes from the sink into the built-in dishwasher.
Tuvie via Cooking Gadgets
by Doug Aamoth on August 1, 2008
I’m not crazy about touchscreen keyboards — BUT! – I could probably make an exception for the Plica, if it ever comes out in real life. It’s a folding Nintendo DS-style device that can be used in landscape or portrait mode with one or both screens.
It’s brainchild of industrial designer James Piatt, who’s thoughtfully made the hinges of the device into a USB port and a headphone jack. Nice work.
[via Newlaunches]
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