Award-winning, innovative product design of 2009
Published on: Monday, 24th August 2009 09:28 AM
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1. Personal Light lane for cycling
Cycle lanes are a good way of keeping bikes away from cars and minimising accidents, but they aren't available on every road.
Evan Gant at the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Alex Tee of Altitude Inc in Somerville, Massachusetts, have designed a portable cycle "Light Lane" that straps to the back of a bike.
A laser projects an image of a cycle lane onto the road directly behind the cyclist to remind approaching cars to leave room.
2. Tastable cookbook - Award-winning product design of 2009
Want to taste a dish before you make it? Then the TEASER digital cookbook concept is for you.
Designed by Scott Shim of Ohio State University and Xi Calvin Chen of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, it sports a touchscreen and an edible print system with 18 "flavour" cartridges to recreate the taste of the dishes in the book.
There's even the option to tweak the taste of a dish if you don't like the printed sample, letting you tweak the recipe before you begin cooking.
3. Instant Braille - Award-winning product design of 2009
Non-Braille books are made accessible to the blind with the Haptic Reader, designed by researchers at Handong Global University and Keimyung University, both in South Korea.
When placed on a page, the reader scans typed letters and converts them to their Braille equivalent on the device's upper surface. The text can also be converted to speech.
4. The Nike Trash Talk - Award-winning product design of 2009
The latest Nike basketball shoe, the Trash Talk, is made from the leftover leather, foam and rubber that's normally thrown away after making trainers. The shoe was awarded "best in show" for 2009.
5. Contact lense sunglasses - Award-winning product design of 2009
Sunglasses and contact sports don't make happy bedfellows. Jin-young Yoon, Jun-kyo Lee and Young-ho Lee of the Korea Design Membership, South Korea, have an answer – contact lenses that act as sunglasses.
The lenses are available in four different shades for different weather conditions and activities.
6. Multiview map - Award-winning product design of 2009
People are beginning to throw away unwieldy city maps in favour of the GPS systems and maps built into some smart phones. But the information-rich Panamap from Urban Mapping, a San Francisco-based firm, could reverse the trend.
It uses new print technology to display three complementary maps on one sheet. Tilt the map and you'll see either a street map, the public transport routes, or the town's main districts.
7. Foldable plug - Award-winning product design of 2009
The British three-pin plug is a lot more bulky than two-pin equivalents. So Min-kyu Choi at the Royal College of Art in London, UK, has designed a folding version that saves space.
The folded plug is just 10 millimetres thick for maximum portability.
8. Grating bucket - Award-winning product design of 2009
Traditional graters must be used with a plate or board to stop the grated food from spreading and making a mess.
Henrik Holbæk and Claus Jensen of Tools Design in Denmark simply added a solid bottom to a grater to create a tool that holds the food without spillage.
9. Recycled battery flower - Award-winning product design of 2009
Recycling old batteries is essential to avoid the toxic chemicals they contain leaching from landfill sites. The Energy Seed, designed by Sungwoo Park of Kookmin University and Sunhee Kim of Chung-Ang University, both in South Korea, is designed to encourage good recycling practices by making the recycling bin attractive and obvious.
Users deposit their old batteries in the slots provided, and a circuit scavenges the dregs of power in the batteries to light the device.
The flower-shaped unit supposedly helps people see discarding batteries as a constructive process, akin to planting a seed that then flowers when the unit lights up.
10. ICON A5 Amphibious Sport Aircraft - Award-winning product design of 2009
The ICON A5 amphibious sport plane was developed in response to the establishment of the Sport Pilot License and Light Sport Aircraft category. Pilots and non-pilots alike appreciate the aircraft’s features, which emphasize the user experience, accessibility, safety and fun. The A5 can fly from both land and water, and has folding wings, enabling it to be towed on a trailer and compactly stored.
Source: computerweekly