Here at Inhabitat we’ve been hoping for, and advocating, biodegradable packaging for years, but now designer entrepreneurs are thinking even bigger; how about packaging one could actually consume? Turning what was a waste product into something that could actually confer nutrition (and would degrade quickly if uneaten), could make litter a thing of the past. Several companies have been working on edible packaging over the last couple of years, and as the idea moves closer to reality, Time magazine even called it a ‘game changer’ for 2012. Read on for a look at the state of the art in edible packaging!
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2012-12-06 08:28:20 UTC
Systems that convert kinetic energy into electric energy have made great strides in recent times, from mobile phone charging bicycle dynamos to tiles that turn footsteps into electrical energy. Recently researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with what they believe is a more efficient approach – a self-charging power cell that directly converts mechanical energy to chemical energy and stores the power for release as an electrical current...
Continue Reading Hybrid self-charging power cell by-passes batteries
Frog’s Max Burton advocates a new era for industrial design, in which hardware becomes a brand asset and the product is the interaction ecosystem.
A major takeaway of the recent Samsung/Apple patent dispute: Physical objects have retained their power in the digital age. The battle wasn’t centered so much on technical innovations but design patents--specifically, the physical look of the iPad versus that of the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Smartphones, laptops, and tablets are very much like ships from the colonial days of the past. Then, the countries with the best merchant navies dominated the seas and, as a result, became the richest and most powerful nations in the world. Today, we have shifted from shipping physical goods to digitally transmitting services and media, and companies with the best vessels control the digital trade.
Yet smartphones, tablets, and laptops are more than just vessels and delivery mechanisms for digital content. In the digital age, physical devices also serve as emblems of the complex, software-based goods and services they bring to life. In a world of ever-shifting software and application development, these symbols offer a sense of permanence and consistency. For many technology firms, iconic physical devices have replaced corporate logos as the primary representations of brand identity. Familiar artifacts, like Apple’s iPhone, serve as functional, usable, three-dimensional trademarks, simultaneously expressing the ecosystem, content, and brand values in one powerful statement.
Those with an understanding of history will know that the power of symbolic objects is not new. Complex ideas such as religion, nationhood, and even love are often expressed through the use of objects to help make complicated and abstract ideas simpler to relate to. A cross stands for Christianity, a flag conveys national identity, and a wedding band represents a marriage.
Similarly, as tangible, real-world experiences increasingly become digital and virtual, industrial design, through the embodiment of meaning in concrete form, has reemerged as a critical component of a company’s success. Companies with vast digital ecosystems need simple, straightforward ways to express their brands, and it just so happens that physical devices, which serve both a functional and symbolic purpose, perform this task exceptionally well.
Apple was the first to understand that as the world becomes virtualized, there arises a parallel need for impeccably designed and masterfully engineered physical products. Fast on Apple’s heels, many other companies have followed suit, especially in Silicon Valley. Amazon’s Lab 126 has produced some great hardware, including commercially successful products like the Kindle Fire. Google has staked its claim in the hardware space with the Nexus Q and the public unveiling of its groundbreaking Project Glass. In June 2012, Colin Gillis, an Internet analyst at BGC Partners, told the New York Times: "Google is a hardware company now. Hardware is becoming the doorway to products and services. If you’re going to use the Internet, you are going to have to use a device. Whoever makes that device controls what services and products are offered to you, and those nickels and dimes add up over time."
Microsoft, the world’s most successful “pure software” company, is now seeking to develop equally enticing physical products such as the new Surface RT tablet, a move that threatens to disrupt permanently the conventional division between companies that make software and those that supply the hardware to run it. If Microsoft produces both the software and the hardware, what will that mean for Dell, HP, and the other hardware suppliers that have spent the past decade focusing on efficient engineering and cost reduction at the expense of innovation? In a recent New York Times article, Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky is quoted saying, "We decided to do Surface because it is the ultimate expression of Windows. It’s a stage."
Even Nike (where I worked as a creative director of Tech Lab) is moving into the realm of digital experience and ecosystem design, while maintaining a stronghold on the physical object. For example, Nike Fuel could simply have been an app on a smartphone, but the system is brought alive by the powerful symbolism of a single wearable accessory.
As we move from designing isolated, single-function products toward a world dominated by universal products, platforms, and ecosystems, the tools, processes, and approaches to industrial design must evolve. In this regard, there are two main factors for industrial designers to consider:
First, ecosystem design is about orchestrating an experience. Design in this context becomes closer to movie making and theater than conventional object design and engineering. We are, in effect, writing a script in which objects are the characters in a play. Most of the recent work I have done at Frog focuses on orchestrating an experience, with products and their functionality designed to fit that experience. Frog’s creative leadership tackles these complex ecosystem programs like a movie-making team with directors, producers, and animators. They work together to shape the narrative and make the production come alive for the audience.
The teams are interdisciplinary because the solutions to the new design challenges are rooted in multiple perspectives. Our industry places a high value on the so-called T-shaped designer, one with a core skill on the vertical axis combined with a generalist understanding of a series of contributing disciplines along the horizontal axis. This skill combination creates an overlap among designers and allows for better collaboration as we understand and build upon one another’s strengths and capabilities.
Second, think of the physical world as a giant supercomputer. As technological advances have made devices more portable and personal, networks and connected environments are becoming more prevalent. This creates new possibilities for designers to engineer the three-dimensional world we live in, as opposed to just three-dimensional objects. Technology is being dispersed into the environment, as networks, sensors, and the cloud replace many of the functions of a traditional, standalone computer. Links to the network through radios, sensors, and transceivers connect people in such a way that the physical environment itself is taking on the role of a supercomputer. We now talk about interactions that go beyond the screen and conventional input devices such as a mouse and stylus.
Taking the computer out of computing means physical product designers have a radically expanded space in which to play. When designing in a three-dimensional environment, we can take advantage of qualities like movement, gesture, gravity, and inertia. In this context, industrial designers have a new and exciting role to play, one where our expertise in designing for the three-dimensional world can be fully applied.
Right now is an incredible time to be an industrial designer in the tech industry. To take advantage of this pivotal moment, it is critical that designers develop an awareness of the new paradigm of the product ecosystem and realize their potential to shape the human environment.
We first sawAnirudha Surabhi's "Kranium" bicycle helmet shortly after he presented his graduation project at the Royal College of Art. Two years and £20,000 (courtesy of a James Dyson grant) later, the "Kranium" will finally be available to savvy cyclists in Europe.
Surabhi, who goes by Ani for short, essentially designed the helmet from scratch: "the revolutionary Kranium liner is based on the corrugated structure found in the woodpecker and it is this structure, which provides the right amount of crumple zone to absorb impact energy."
Expanded polystyrene (EPS) helmets are proven to protect your head only 20% of the time. The Kranium liner has proven to absorb 3 times the amount of impact energy during collision. At the same time, it is 15% lighter than Polystyrene helmets. EPS helmets are made from petroleum based products where are the Kranium liner is made from recycled paper. They have been tested at several test labs across the globe, including TUV in Germany and HPE in the UK. They have been developed for mass production and will be available in the market in December 2012.
As Ani explains in the must-see video (below), the project originated in his final year at the Royal College of Art, when he had the misfortune of falling off his bike and cracking the helmet which he was wearing at the time. The rest, as they say, is history:
Having suffered minor concussions, I decided to take this as a design challenge and create the safest helmet on the planet. Looking into nature, the woodpecker is one of the only animal which experiences the same kind of impact on a regular basis. In fact, it strikes the tree ten times a second and closes its eyes every time so that they don't pop out, which means a monumental amount of energy that goes through its head.
SPECIAL REPORT / Nearly six months after the Rio+20 global environment summit, the jury is still out on whether greener growth can truly happen. In the absence of major commitments by participating countries, EU officials were left placing their hopes on voluntary agreements by industry sectors, including plastics and PVC. But can those deliver?
german vehicle division SMART has colllaborated with fashion designer jeremy scott to conceive a limited edition electrified ‘fortwo’. equipped with wings that illuminate like igniting rockets to form avant-garde rear taillights, the feature becomes the central design element of the car body, accentuating its futuristic approach to transportation.
based on the current production version of the ‘smart fortwo electric drive’, it has the capabilities of accelerating from 0-60 km/h (37 mph) in 4.8 seconds, achieving a top speed of 125km/h (78 mph). its 17.6 kWh lithium-ion battery enables the urban two-seater to travel approximately 145 kilometres in city traffic without producing any local emissions. painted in bright white, chrome accents in the front headlights and grille, mirror caps, and tridion cell contrast to appear like a ‘glistening jewel’. the interior is outfitted in fine white nappa leather for the instrument panel, seats and door trim while the centre panels in the doors boast extravagant diamond stitching as a further sign of elegance and freedom.
‘for me, wings mean freedom, a sense of weightlessness. because of this, I definitely wanted to have them for the ‘smart electric drive’ in order to convey the way it frees the environment of noxious emissions and symbolises the new lightness of mobility‘, explains jeremy scott, who, in addition to his fashion collections, also creates unique costumes for pop stars such as lady gaga, madonna, katy perry and rihanna.
3/4 front view of the smart fortwo electric drive by jeremy scott
driver side view with wing detail
rear detail of the wing-taillights
3/4 front context with chrome reflective details
passenger side view context
rear passenger 3/4 with wings
side view wing detail
inner working detail of the illuminated taillights
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2012-12-01 05:27:36 UTC
GM has the Volt and the Spark, Ford has the Focus Electric, and now Chrysler has the Fiat 500e. The first all-electric car from the third member of the Detroit Big Three made its debut this week at the 2012 L.A. Auto Show. The diminutive electric promises to be one of the cleanest cars on North American roads, though it won't be available to many North Americans. ..
Continue Reading Fiat 500e – Chrysler's all-electric vehicle debuts in L.A.
EcoBot III is a lightweight self-sustaining robot designed to clean wastewater! Powered by Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), the robot runs off human waste, using it to produce electricity necessary for performing its cleaning task. The project was funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and developed in collaboration between Wessex Water and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in England.
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2012-12-07 12:46:55 UTC
Waacs is not promoting itself as a "green" design agency but is alway looking with customers what options are. In this case the goal was to create ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2012-12-06 08:49:36 UTC
CarbonCure is a piece of equipment that makes it possible to inject CO2 gas, from for instance emissions of nearby other production, into concrete ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2012-12-04 07:27:47 UTC
The Modlet from ThinkEco is a smart outlet that reduces energy waste by monitoring real-time equipment power consumption and creating an automated ...
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