Now, for a blind person, this might be excellent, although the designers could stand to reduce the size of the letters. As for the sighted, I don’t know about all you guys, but generally I sleep with my head sideways on my pillow, and could see my alarm clock clearly if I had one. I think it would wake me more to have to reach over and trace out each digit individually.

And what, sir, if I happen to wake up next to a woman of quality? What then, sir? If my arm is pinned, I won’t know what time it is until the lady wakes. If there’s an appointment to be made or work to be done, I’d have to chew my arm off just to tell whether or not it’s time to get up. Unacceptable.

[via Unpluggd]

Not sure exactly how they do it, and power consumption might be an issue, but it certainly is a cool looking watch that looks more like an accessory then your bog standard watch.

No formal announcement on the release date or the price, but it should probably be out in the next few months and be in the sub-$400 range.

[via ablogtoread]

It is a cool idea, though questionably legal. The person who did the rendering did invite Apple and Microsoft to contact him, but somehow I suspect it won’t be the kind of contact he’s hoping for. I have to admit though, I hope this product does get made. Good luck Mintpass!

[via Technabob]

Rasterized images are, of course, slightly reduced in fidelity from the original, but they cost virtually nothing; it’d be fun to give them out at parties or events for free. The trouble is, how do you combine a compact digital camera and LCD screen with something you have to pound with your fist to get a result? Well, you don’t really. I don’t think the Punch Camera will ever see the light of day for this fact. That said, they could make a just-the-punch part, which could take whatever input (card or whatnot, maybe shown on a tiny out-of-the-way LCD and punch it.

Seriously, I’d buy one. Wouldn’t you?

[via Diskursdisko and LikeCool]

Japan is the nation of robots. Everybody knows that. It’s also the nation of cell phones. So why not mix robots and cell phones? That’s what the country’s second biggest mobile phone provider KDDI au thought and today presents the iida Polaris, a robotic cell phone [link in English], for the first time (click here for my iida concept photo report from April).

Truth be told, the Polaris looks more like a cell phone installed in a dock and it’s just a concept, but it’s pretty and makes more sense than Sony’s Rolly. The idea is to offer some kind of life recorder that monitors your health, by processing diet data, keeping a record of your physical activity, giving tips on when and what to eat etc. KDDI au has been jointly developed with another company called Flower Robotics (which recently gave us the mannequin robot).

And it does that in a supposedly “intelligent” way, meaning the Polaris “learns” over time and is able to adjust to your personal lifestyle.

Watch the (pretty cool) video embedded below to get an idea how this is supposed to work one day in the future. I want this thing to fly next to me when I leave the house.

It’s called “Buddy” by guy ceder. I’m sure you can come to the same conclusion as that the device is suppose to provide a lot of functionality in a small package. You have two tablet computers, a projector, and a base station of some sort that charges it and probably provides storage, along with wireless connectivity. Plus the outside is wrapped in pleasant – yes, pleasant – stitched fabric. Want. Too bad it probably will never be made ’cause I want. Bad.

Yanko Design via ubergizmo via DotGizmo

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.

I’m surprised the concept hasn’t been tried before, although I’m worried that the added complexity might contribute to frequent umbrella breakage (although the strings look like they’ll help it stay right-side-in). It also looks a little too much like a jellyfish or a metroid for my liking.

[via Urlesque and BBG]

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.

Under the hood: an E Ink screen (to save battery life!) and future-perfect reliance on Google Maps. Nothing wrong with Google Maps.

I don’t know, it look neat. That’s very when it comes to these concepts. Who wants to spend all day looking at an ugly concept?

Not me, certainly.

(Also, visca el Barça. Also, ESPN Soccernet is broken. As we all know, Catalunya, of which Barcelona is the capital, is not Spain.)

Sure, teledildonics will be taking off in the next couple years, and you can already get… er, reproductions of famous orifices. But even being able to purchase a replica kiss from Natalie Portman in the kiss store won’t make this sucker worthwhile. It’d be fun to put two of these things together, though and watch them go at it. Hmm, that actually sounds pretty creepy.

You can see more on the KissPhone and other concepts at the inventor’s website.

[via Gizmag]

Although this is just a product concept, the Kicker Conference Phone looks like exactly the sort of innovation we need! The team clearly put a lot of time and effort into reducing the shortcomings of a conference phone, while simultaneously adding useful new features. The “nudge” feature is something that could really be a lifesaver!

For those times when you want to remotely tell someone to wake up and respond or, alternately, stop talking, we designed a Poke feature. Double-tapping on an icon “pokes” that line. Poking is a virtual nudge or kick under the table. It’s a light-weight form of back-channel conversation (although it only works if the other person is on a Kicker Conference Phone). Pokes only show to those who have been poked and they will also vibrate the pods if they are in use.

The use of removable microphone “pods” is also a really novel concept. It allows folks to wander away from the conference table, but still be able to participate in the discussion. This will help reduce people speaking overly loud to be heard above their in-person peers.

I really enjoy reading these kinds of product design wrap-ups. It’s neat to see the ways in which talented professionals tackle problems that so many of us have learned to just live with. Although I wonder, how much longer will the notion of a “conference call” even be around, as video calls get more and more commonplace?

In this case, I’d guess that the video would minimize to a corner and your picture-in-picture would disappear. This frees up CPU cycles as well as minimizing screen garbage. But splitting the screen like this gets a big boo from me.

The form factor is debatable. A one-way wedge like that means the phone would be top-heavy — bad news if you’re holding it at the bottom. The PCB, touch, and display layers are likely unable to take that sort of miniaturization right now anyway, though that’s no guarantee they won’t in the future.

Apple also wouldn’t say “multi-way,” or imply in their copy that you are going to be conferencing to something, which makes no sense. I’m a grammatical pedant, can you tell?

See, I told you this would be fun.

[Thanks for the tip, Rodolphe]

It’s pretty obvious that our fascination with crazy designs and fancy renders has recently returned. Today’s example, a scooter—oh how European—that solves the problem of, “Gee, where do I stash my bread and cheese?” Why, in the large space underneath the seat, silly!

It’s name is Cargo, and it was designed by one Elliot Ortiz. It has a standard gas motor (so don’t tell the Green police) and a hollowed out, I don’t know, middle section where the rider can store whatever.

Yes, this is primarily a picture post, but that’s okay because it’s Friday.

This is a scanner. It may not look like one, and, technically, it’s not even real, but it’s a scanner. Promise.

Unlike the typical stand-alone scanner (or combo unit), this scanner concept is quite small. Pocket-sized, even. In its smallest state, it looks like one of those long tubes that posters come in. The scanner bed rolls out like aluminum foil or like a Bowflex.

That’s about it. It’s a neat concept, I think I can say. Hats off to its designer, one Ashish Chaudhary, who, presumably isn’t the Bollywood movie star of the same name.

WHO LIKES BICYCLES?! (Whoops, sorry, caps lock.) This little design-thing, Light Lane, 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].

What this concept attempts to do is make the streets a tiny bit safer for city bicycle riders. A device attaches to the back of your bicycle and projects an instant bicycle lane onto the road, as this picture show. That way, you can whip about town without a care in the world, knowing that you’re letting other dirvers know that, hey, this here is a bicycle lane.

I applaud the imagination behind this.

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.

Gone is the cheap plastic shell, replaced by a less cheap aluminum one. The dimensions have been shaved down, too, resulting in a slimmer, dare I say sleeker aesthetic. Also incorporated into the design is Apple’s latest innovation in “touch” technology. It’d be able to interpret different gestures—a flick across its surface could open a new window, say—in order to improve your Mac-using experience.

Again, it’s just a render, a little thinking out loud, if you will, so don’t get too excited.

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.

Here’s how it works: The colors rotate on the bracelet, blue/green for morning, yellow/orange for noon, red/purple for evening and night. The bracelet’s surface is a touchscreen and you can set timers by tapping it.

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.

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.

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.