Transformer Chair; More Than Meets The Eye…

When is a chair not a chair? When it’s a sofa, or a chaise of course. Well that is the idea behind this three-in-one design from newcomer Roel Verhagen-Kaptein. Roel’s take on modern seating just might have been inspired by those lovable, petrol blooded Cybertrons. With the same utilitarian notion built into Optimus Prime, you too can simply rearrange the pieces of this seating concept to transform into a chair, a three person sofa, or a chaise lounger for those nights spent drawing Kate Winslet in the nude. However you look at it, this design has your ass covered. (Golf clap)

Designer: Roel Verhagen Kaptein

Electric Slide Mobile Get Bent!

Why bother with one screen when you can have two for probably double the price? Designer Andy Kurovets presents his “Bend Mobile” concept. He thinks turning on a device and having it grow to nearly double its size will really be attractive to some people. He may be right but where is the proof? Oh right, he is also including a high capacity digital camera that also pops out to larger than expected proportions. All that and it’s curved, for easy sliding in and out of your pants. Niiice.

Designer: Andy Kurovets

Check Me Out

The Motorola Sparrow was conceived to provide retail stores with a mobile point of sale device to solve increased service demands from consumers while decentralizing the check out point, i.e. pay for it and get out as fast as you can. It combines a scanner, point of sale (POS) system, RFID, communication and credit card reading capabilities into one mobile device.

There are a few devices that offer MPOS (mobile point of sale) in the marketplace but none are consumer facing nor appropriate for front-end retail environments. Existing products are often rugged and obtrusive. If you’ve ever been to an Apple store, you know what I’m talking about. They often take away from the environment and make the entire retail experience unpleasant.

Both the front and back of the Sparrow are equipped with touch sensitive areas, supposedly making it easier to navigate and use. The entire unit can hang from a lanyard.

This isn’t a new idea but definitely a huge improvement. Many high-tech electronic stores now equip their employees with mobile point of sale devices but design studio Aruliden definitely has an eye for form and function. I’d love to see it integrated into retail environments.

Designer: Aruliden Studio

The Future of Work - Transparent Monitors & Pocket Library

Pocket Library - Flexible e-ink screens, as easy on the eyes as newsprint, will wirelessly grab the documents you need when you enter a meeting. You can then unfurl them on the train or switch over to the newspaper. Researchers at Dutch company Polymer Vision have created flexible circuitry that bonds to displays at low temperatures so that screens can bend without melting or breaking. Now they’re working on circuits for high-resolution 8-by-11-inch displays.

Transparent Monitors - Go ahead, stare out the windowit’s also your monitor. Displays can already be 75 percent transparent when turned off, thanks to thin electroluminescent films called organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Universal Display Corporation in New Jersey and others are developing see-through conductive materials to replace the last visible part: the grid of circuits that delivers power to pixels.

Source: Popular Science

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

DND Casa a Korean design company has developed an amazing line of television equipped mirrors using Ad Notam mirror image technology. The possibilities are limitless with where you can watch TV. Staying true to their “everything is imaginable and almost everything is possible” philosophy, DND Casa has applied this technology to other home and office objects as well, making anything multifunctional.

Designer: DND Casa

Touching My Image

The LUPE may look like another touchscreen camera but this concept is designed for ease of use and simplicity even tho technically it’s quite complex. Thru a series of transparent touchscreens and optical quality glass lenses, the LUPE magnifies images near and far for almost macro like quality. The focusing mechanism is quite ingenious. Just touch what you want in focus and the camera handles everything else.

Although there’s no mention of traditional mechanisms like shutters and apertures, the LUPE was designed to work without having to think about it. As if looking thru a window you make with your hands, you just focus in on what you want and a snapshot is taken. Simple as that.

Designer: Seoghwan Choi

Texts from the designer regards to the idea:

The understanding of photograph has been changed from a visual-based recording tool for a special moment to an every day life good as its technology has been progressed from the film-based to the digital image-based. As we have been doing so in our every day life, how about taking a picture like observing my daily life with a magnifying glass? The magnifying glass is my metaphoric approach in designing new digital camera. It can be used like the magnifying glass; your observing activities towards things with the magnifier becomes new way of taking photographs in this digital era.