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Innovative Designs and Devices

January 7th, 2008 in Monday Inspiration | 122 Comments

Steve Jobs stated once that the “design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” While this statement has proven to be crucial over thousands of years, one shouldn’t misinterpret it by emphasizing the functionality despite the design. When it comes to product design, the significance of aesthetics of a given device, the way its design looks and feels, determines the choice of the customer once the functionalities of multiple devices are more or less similar. If supported by sound user interface and a well-tested, clean implementation, innovative design solutions can drastically enhance the user experience.

This article presents innovative, futuristic gadgets, devices, designs and concepts. Unless explicitly specified, none of these cut-edge concepts is currently being manufactured. None of them is available for end-users which is why neither the price nor links to the stores are mentioned.

Please keep in mind that the main idea of this article is not to do the sell-talk for trendy products, but to showcase innovative design solutions and futuristic devices which can become reality in 2008 or over the next few years.

You can also take a look at our article User Experience Of The Future which covers recent developments in the field of user interface design.

Sony’s Apple Remote Control

Sony’s Apple Remote Control
Is there any place for innovation when it comes to the design of remote controls? Apparently, there is. This Sony’s”apple” allows users to perform basic functions like changing channels, volume etc. with simple motion gestures (see image below). Once “apples” are placed on the bowl, the remote control is being recharged. Neither price nor production dates are known.

Optimus Tactus & Optimus Maximus

Artemy Lebedev’s Optimus keyboards offer an unusual approach for a traditional input device. A small OLED-display (Organic Display) is placed beneath every key to enable users to define displayed characters and the keys’ functionality manually. In other words, with Optimus the placement of labels on the keyboard can be varied at any time.

Optimus Tactus does not have physical keys, which means there are no restrictions on their shape and size. Any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or to display any images. Production date and price: unknown.

Optimus Maximus (Demo). Each of the 113 keys is a stand-alone display that shows the function currently assigned to it. Optimus’s customizable layout allows convenient use of any language — Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic, Quenya, hiragana, etc. — as well as of any other character sets: notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math functions and so on to infinity. Production date: the end of January 2008, price: 460$.

The Keyboard Configurator. You can assign any images and characters to display on your Optimus keyboard.

Nonobject Behind the Scenes Camera

The Nonobject Behind the Scenes Camera (Video) has “lenses and displays on both sides for simultaneously recording what you’re aiming at, and what you’re not.” Behind the Scenes Camera is designed to capture what’s going on behind our back, beyond our control, while simultaneously capturing the scene in front of us.

Duofone

The main idea behind Duofone is the possibility to put multiple devices together to combine their screen real estate. The battery power can be shared, and a movie can be watched on a larger screen.

Toast Messenger

Toast Messenger incorporates a little message board where one can write quick notes and then instantly print them on the toaster. Simple, yet innovative.

Dual Music Player

Compared to traditional music players, this Dual Music Player is different. It is a portable solution that supports both CDs and Flash-memory. You can listen to MP3s stored on your Flash-drive and copy music via USB while once you need to play your old CDs you can simply open both sides and let the player do the rest.

Vaio Zoom

The Vaio Zoom notebook takes everything we know about holographic technology and squeezes it inside a thin glass form factor. When off, the screen is completely transparent and the keyboard goes opaque. Turn it on and the touchscreen holographic festivities begin. Even the mouse buttons are holographic! [via Gizmodo]

Visual Desktop Charger

Quite often the details are not the details. They make the design. Saying that, Charles Eames was right: the beauty of Visual Desktop Charger lies in its close attention to small details. The device is a visual indicator of the charge status of a mobile phone. It is supposed to like like a “bird bath-like charger, complete with radiating rings of light to indicate charge status and to top it all off, thirsty birds that glow once the rings of light hit ‘em.” [via YankoDesign]

Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard

This is reality. This BlueTooth Laser Virtual Keyboard, a laser projection keyboard, allows you to type on any flat surface. You can use it to compose an e-mail on your Bluetooth enabled PDA or Cell Phone. With 63 keys and and full size QWERTY layout the Laser Virtual Keyboard can approach the typing speed of a standard keyboard. Size: a little larger than a matchbook. Already released. Price: $150.

Omaura HTPC

Omaura Home Theater Personal PC is a new face in HTPCs. “When we first opened the PDF containing the concept images of Omaura’s concept TT chassis, we thought for a second it was a large, TV-stand-ready all-in-one PC whose display had a seriously distorted aspect ratio. We’ll confess to a little disappointment once we realized it was simply an upright case, but that shot of its interior got us excited again. Imagine sticking the TT on a low-profile table under your wall-mounted LCD or plasma screen.” [via CNet]

Hi-Tech Office: Eclipse Partitioning System

Eclipse Partitioning System (Video) includes a desk, task chair, expandable hood, integrated speakers, and power all set on casters for true mobility. The central idea behind this hi-tech office is versatility. Its retractable hood allows for various levels of privacy and access to accommodate to the changing work flow of one’s daily job. You should really take a look at the video. Neither price nor production dates are known.

EmTrace’s PS100 Photoskin Frames

EmTrace PS100 offers one single dock station for all your personal needs and interests. Looking like a digital photo frame, it fits into a wallet and syncs data for stocks, weather and other information via Internet. You can load whatever information you’d like on your personal dock station and take it with you — in your wallet. Neither price nor production dates are known.

iRing

iRing is a control playback for your Apple media devices. As a simple ring which fits on a finger, it has a wireless Bluetooth connectivity with iPod and iPhone. “iRing features a bright OLED status display with touch-sensitive function strip, and a rechargeable battery life of up to 2 days. Conveniently recharge your iRing using the included cradle.” Neither price nor production dates are known.

Pock-It

So simple, yet so effective. Pock-It is a simple design concepts that allows you to use a little pocket instead of usual stick-it-notes.

Bonus: “sQuba” Diving Car

Rinspeed’s sQuba Diving Car is the “first real diving car designed to autonomously turn into an amphibious vehicle at the push of a button — can submerge up to 10m (33ft) under water.” Powering the concept is an electric motor mated to the rear wheels.

The propulsion on the water is ensured by two propellers in the stern and two powerful jet drives in the bow to propel the vehicle under water. The body is constructed from light weight components made of Carbon Nano Tubes and contains an on-board air-filling system. Neither price nor production dates are known.

Resources

YankoDesign.com
Form Beyond Function. A weblog dedicated to introducing the best modern international design, covering from industrial design, concepts, technology, interior design, architecture, exhibition and fashion.
ProductDose.com
Style, technology, design, substance
Techeblog: Concepts
A number of recent technology concepts, designs and unusual approaches in the “Concepts” category on Techeblog.com.

Published in Monday Inspiration, January 7th, 2008
Tags: devices, gadgets, hi-tech, innovation, inspiration

1.

mee (January 7th, 2008, 2:16 am)

I like to see all these good concepts.
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2.

Tony (January 7th, 2008, 2:28 am)

I’m really liking the dual-music player’s design - but thats a tight list overall.
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3.

kl3tte (January 7th, 2008, 2:36 am)

Wow great list of geek toys. I like the Apple Remote — good joke!
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4.

marikas (January 7th, 2008, 2:40 am)

Great post, thanks SM.

We live in amazing times don’t we. :)
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5.

Evangelist (January 7th, 2008, 2:56 am)

Ooh! Some nice stuff - am lovin’ the laser Keyboard and the Vaio Zoom!
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6.

Ste Mac (January 7th, 2008, 2:58 am)

Where’s my hover-car damnit!!

;)
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7.

Blogging Magazin (January 7th, 2008, 3:05 am)

The bluetooth laser keyboard looks good for me!
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8.

Chris Vincent (January 7th, 2008, 3:12 am)

Looking at these amazing instruments gives me the greatest ideas for a couple of my clients websites… THANKYOU
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9.

chris (January 7th, 2008, 3:43 am)

I claim the sQuba car to be fake, because it’s underwater, but has no roof *lol*
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10.

Billy Halsey (January 7th, 2008, 4:18 am)

I love the idea of OLED keyboards. Link [www.appleinsider.com] reported only 4 days ago that Apple has filed a patent on a new OLED-based keyboard themselves. Considering the sheer number that Apple would produce, as well as the reduced cost of no longer supporting multiple keyboards for each localization, I’d imagine we would see the price of that item far below the $460 quoted for Optimus’ aftermarket keyboard. Whether Apple’s OLED-based keyboard would be standard or a premium add-on is conjecturable, but it seems we’re getting closer to Star Wars: TNG’s LCARS displays every year.
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11.

Balakumar Muthu (January 7th, 2008, 6:02 am)

Pock-It is my fav.!
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12.

Jeff Adams (January 7th, 2008, 6:13 am)

At first I asked myself WHY you would need a toaster that burnt the message on it. Afte I got over that I figured it was actaully pretty awesome idea haha. I liked the iRing and the wallet sized photo frame is sweet!
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13.

BlueBear (January 7th, 2008, 6:58 am)

Awesome guys! I really liked the Opsimus Maximus!
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14.

Kevin (January 7th, 2008, 7:23 am)

An important thing to note about the Optimus Maximus - the 460$ version has one active key. The one with 113 active keys is $1564.37.
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15.

Nick Husher (January 7th, 2008, 7:31 am)

Note on the price of the Optimus Maximus: It’s directly tied to how many active keys you want. For the ten ‘function’ keys on the left, it’s $480. If you want the whole keyboard active it’ll run you $1,250. You can buy the model with one active key and upgrade as you can afford; it seems the chassis supports ad-hoc upgrading from passive to active keys.

My intuition is that if the Tacticus model uses traditional LCD technology (not OLED), it would be cheaper overall and it would last longer (OLEDs burn out in a startlingly short period of time). Perhaps $500-$600 for the whole surface, if the iPhone/iPod Touch is any indication.
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16.

Dave Lane (January 7th, 2008, 7:56 am)

This is absolutely the most exciting post I have ever read on SM. Excellent job!!!
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17.

CSS Templates (January 7th, 2008, 8:01 am)

I like those concepts! Hopefully I get to see the iRings soon :)
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18.

Goffee (January 7th, 2008, 8:04 am)

Check out this guy’s Digital Rubik’s cube - got to be hot for Christmas 2008 and it does so much more…

Link [goffee-freelance.blogspot.com]
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19.

Alexandr (January 7th, 2008, 8:50 am)

Sony’s Apple Remote Control is not new one. More fine have Artem Gobunov’s Studio.
P.S. Sorry for my english :-)
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20.

nathan (January 7th, 2008, 9:35 am)

@chris

I too particularly like how the diving car appears to be a convertible. I also like how it’s not mentioned that the iRing is an obviously fake product (heck, the ‘design’ looks like Sony, not Apple).

Some of the other products that seem like they have a chance of production are tight, though (read: Optimus Maximus).
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21.

allen (January 7th, 2008, 10:01 am)

My boss got one of those laser bluetooth keyboard devices about a year or two ago. neat little gadget that works fine. just one of those “ooh geek toy!” show it around to everyone in the office, gadget.
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22.

sam (January 7th, 2008, 10:42 am)

As usual great stuff ! “sQuba” Diving Car is pretty old stuff seen it in jamesbond movies :-)
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23.

Justin Khoury (January 7th, 2008, 10:50 am)

Wow, that’s an extremely interesting post. Theres’ definitely some stuff in there I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on.
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24.

John (January 7th, 2008, 12:02 pm)

WOW, I realy like the laser projection keyboard. But the whole post is realy great..
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25.

Tim (January 7th, 2008, 12:35 pm)

You claim wrong — the people appear to have a regulator in their mouths. So if you don’t mind getting a little wet, it’s the perfect car! ;-)
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26.

Fluppeteer (January 7th, 2008, 1:43 pm)

Good to see a list like this with reasonably practical contents!

Sony’s remote is particularly amusing - managing to ape Apple and the Wiimote in the same product. Given how abysmal the interface on my Sony TV is (never again), it’ll never happen of course.

The Optimus keyboards have never really appealed to me. The flat one has no tactile feedback (a problem also exhibited by the laser keyboards, of which I have one - but at least they’re portable), and aren’t really distinguished from electing to leave your fingerprints over any other touch screen. I always thought the OLED key-cap one was an overkill solution as well - a flat panel under a fully transparent keyboard with lenses in the key caps ought to be far simpler to produce and program (especially in a touch screen - see the Sony-Ericsson P800’s keypad solution, which just poked the touch-screen below it when in place).

The dual music player concept I’ve seen before, too. I’ve not seen how you stop the slot filling with fluff, keep the CD stable, or stop it sawing holes in things/slicing off fingers - but as a concept it’s clever. Life was easier when making a tape player smaller than an audio tape was the only aim.

Not so convinced by the Nonobject dual-camera thing. Most video phones have two cameras, but you don’t usually want to bother recording with both (admittedly, *usually*). It’s a change from using Nikon’s multi-thousand-dollar 6mm fish-eye or waving shiny spheres around, though. I’m not so sure about the use of the toast, either. If people want to innovate with toasters, how about adding an LDR to turn them off properly when the toast is the right colour? (I believe industrial toasters do this, but it’s certainly not common in residential toasters.)

I like the plug-together phones, although I’ve always been dubious about tiling displays (I’ve never seen a seamless one without some optics involved). I suspect micro projection is the way forward for big screens in mobiles (or HUDs). I’m sure some of the wearable computing stuff could use the plug-and-combine concept, if it’s not already doing so.

Speaking of wearables, I like the iRing. I’d been pondering putting processing power in a ring for years, but I’ve got no time for tinkering - I’ve still got ARM processors waiting to be turned into a Linux watch when I eventually get around to it. Putting a kinetic power source in
the ring would be cool - and it would get plenty of movement even from those of us who spend all our time typing without moving about.

The Pock-It is genius; who hasn’t glued something to a surface with bits of post-it note? Plus the name is gagging to be done. A similar idea I’ve seen is a post-it-gummed bag with a hole in the middle: if you want to drill a hole in a wall, place this around the hole and it catches (most of) the dust. This is the kind of thing which makes the world a better place, not the kind of invention competition which gives out prizes for a radio with a holographic display of the singer (the “inventor” was nine, it obviously only existed in “wouldn’t it be cool if…” form, and 3DTV is neither new nor practical; the runner-up “inventor” actually had a novel and practical idea). If the world knew that the big inventions are the little ideas, humanity might make use of more than a tiny fraction of its collective brain-power.
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27.

mac_fun (January 7th, 2008, 5:12 pm)

I can’t wait to use a Vaio Zoom-typed laptop. Hope it will be realized soon.
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28.

Aravind (January 7th, 2008, 6:31 pm)

Wow…! SM rocks..!
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29.

jalansutera (January 7th, 2008, 8:11 pm)

all the designs are futuristic. I love them all…
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30.

misser (January 7th, 2008, 8:15 pm)

the vaio lp is so cooool, but i don’t think it would be comfortable for use
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31.

Mohammed Alaa (January 7th, 2008, 8:17 pm)

very nice collection … still wondering to where technology are gonna take us
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32.

Ben Jacon (January 7th, 2008, 8:44 pm)

Going Gizmo….
Most of them are still remaining in the Computers of Designers and Manufactures… they are Conceptual..
I like all its Designs the glossy touch ans smoothe finish..

Now Smashing Magazine has unified the article about most of such Concept Gadgets that where alredy on Gadget Blogs.. :)

Thanks !
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33.

Bizri (January 7th, 2008, 9:37 pm)

Hmmm the toast messenger :), great and unique idea, and I think I will need virtual keyboard like that
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34.

Satana (January 7th, 2008, 10:47 pm)

Love the apple remote control (the green apple ones, though the ‘Apple’ controller is cute (but boring)).
Also the Duofone is a great one and so is the Dual Music Player.

The author needs to go and read up on what the word ‘holographic’ actually means. :)
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35.

Wallpics (January 8th, 2008, 12:00 am)

Wow..This is amazing…Thanks SM
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36.

chaitrax (January 8th, 2008, 12:50 am)

great products.. the future is interesting…it’s time to shift
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37.

Praveen (January 8th, 2008, 12:54 am)

Thanks, Truly inspirational.
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38.

raj (January 8th, 2008, 1:22 am)

Awesome post….. really great
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39.

bala (January 8th, 2008, 1:36 am)

Where can I buy the toaster?
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40.

Helen (January 8th, 2008, 7:34 am)

I love the Toast Messenger, Optimus Tactus and Vaio Zoom notebook. Looks as if from a sci-fi movie, not real world… Unbelievable what human being have achieved!..
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41.

syed (January 8th, 2008, 8:03 am)

Nice one, really inspiring
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42.

Slyguy (January 8th, 2008, 2:40 pm)

Ahhh…..boring…somebody wake me in 2023….
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43.

Al (January 8th, 2008, 3:15 pm)

Some amazing concepts there :drool:
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44.

Jeff Adans (January 8th, 2008, 4:13 pm)

i read the bit on the toaster and instantly thought WHY? hahaha. but see now im wondering when and where i will be able to get one, purely to draw something silly on it for the missus heh. Love this article, gives you hope for future techs out there that our kids will be using!
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45.

BlogCini (January 9th, 2008, 3:43 am)

Great post! Vonderful consept…

Thank You.
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46.

danny (January 9th, 2008, 4:20 am)

Optimus Maximus has to be my fav.
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47.

Matthew Griffin (January 9th, 2008, 5:43 am)

An incredible list. It really is starting to feel like we live in a Blade Runner world. The Sony notebook is especially impressive. My Apple is feeling jealous.
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48.

OverZero.it (January 9th, 2008, 8:01 am)

My Vaio notebook seems to be already obsolete! :-/
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49.

pingoogle (January 9th, 2008, 10:56 pm)

Three Cheers for the future!!! thanks SM!!!
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50.

Aria Rajasa (January 10th, 2008, 7:52 am)

Will be wanting that CD/Flash mp3 player. real nice design and easily braggable :))
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51.

Dj Marrulla (January 14th, 2008, 1:41 am)

Que buenos productos, me parecio reloco el teclado
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52.

kronchev (January 14th, 2008, 8:58 pm)

That CD player/flash memory device is really useless. CDs stop playing as soon as they’re touched. I’m sure it has no built in skip protection because you’d be crazy to carry it, which means breathing on it will screw up playback. The only way I can see a minimal design like that being cool is if it instead ripped the CD to its memory. If it did that, I would seriously consider one, as it would make ripping my CD collection a thousand times easier. Assuming it used LAME and customizable settings of course :)
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53.

reezluv (January 15th, 2008, 7:35 am)

wow..what is that…is it what we called it..hi tech?wa…so impressed..if I can have one of that…lol

thanks for the good post..so how do you trace that stuff?In magazine?
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54.

Canta (January 15th, 2008, 10:10 am)

Optimus Maximus has to be my fav.
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55.

Syahid A. (January 17th, 2008, 5:06 am)

The keyboard is awesome. The price is the only downside of it.
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56.

mehmet (January 22nd, 2008, 4:03 am)

Some amazing concepts there :drool:
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57.

yustasmaddy (February 10th, 2008, 6:30 pm)

Absolutely impressing. Where can I find any in-future interface samples just for mindwork?
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58.

Karen (April 28th, 2008, 12:05 pm)

This might be my favourite Monday Inspiration thusfar.
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