Industrial designers and conceptual thinkers don’t often concern themsevles with the fiddly ins and outs of physics or real life technology. If left to their own devices, they’ll produce the kind of tech you can only dream of: beautiful, if completely unfeasible. But that doesn’t mean we can’t look at the best bits from the future tech concept drawing board and hope for the best. Join us, then, on a weekly look through this best in blue-sky thinking tech designs…
Air Clicker invisible camera by Yeori Su Kim
What if you could take a picture with just your thumb and forefinger, and leave the bulky camera at home? That’s the idea explored here. A ‘normal’ compact camera has been stripped back to its key points: a lens, digital storage and a shutter mechanism. The lens is a Bluetooth-enabled thumb ring, that talks and responds to a bendable finger band stuffed with motion sensors. Tense your finger in a ‘clicking’ motion and the lens will take a picture.
Art Lebedev Studio watch by Art Lebedev Studio
Watches tell the time. That’s a fairly difficult fundamentality to move away from, so the key is to thrust more design into the casing. Art Lebedev Studio’s watch design is comprised of two parts; the hour and minute displays are separate modules that also make up the clasp. Snap the two together to lock it. Seems entirely plausible. Someone get on the phone to Tokyo Flash.
Ursla and Bertha mobile phone and holographic pendant by Mac Funamizu
The old phone display size argument rages on unabated, but what if there were a better solution to just upping the phone size? While Bertha (yes, bertha) here – the slick, impossible-to-manufacture smartphone – has a screen size matching the iPhone, it’s backed up by Urlsa, a holograph-emitting neck pendant. Ursla throws out images, text and maps that might be useful with what’s going on on Bertha’s display, but without clogging up vital screen estate.
Like that? Check out Espoo’s vision of the future mobile
Snappy dresser intelligent wardrobe by Nelly Trakidou
File this one squarely under J for ‘Jetsons’. The Snappy dresser will proffer outfit ideas based on what’s logged inside and the occasion you present it with. You can preview the outfit on yourself with an augmented reality mirror, and then give it feedback. If you tell it it’s chosen a right stinker of an outfit, it’ll learn what you like.
Aeolus hybrid subcompact city car by Yuhan Zhang
Why does a tiny city car have to look weedy? If there’s room for the smart car, there’s room for something a bit meatier. The Aeolus is a hybrid pneumatic electric car with a capacity for three people and a speed touching 120kmph. The designers claim it’s actually going to market, for a price of $8000 (£5,000). We’ll believe that when we see it.
