These animal shaped IoT home appliances bring some light to our Corona-blues!

In relation to technology, the concept of “untact marketing” refers to smart products and services that require no human contact. Untact marketing schemes and technological services have risen in numbers since the start of the 2020 pandemic because no longer is AI intelligence and smart technology considered an exciting exception, but it has become the norm. As a means of following this paradigm shift, S2VICTOR designed a collection of untact IoT home appliances, called Animal Land, to resemble different animals, bringing in some lighthearted fun into this seemingly endless pandemic.

In order to convey an ecosystem’s natural and simple life cycles, the Animal Land collection consists of a giraffe-shaped router, a whale-shaped diffuser, and a home speaker shaped to resemble a turtle. All three of the home appliances are connected with one another through smart home technology and can be separately managed with an accompanying app. S2VICTOR chose the shape of a giraffe to form their router as the giraffe’s long neck resembles a long antenna. Equipped with motion sensors and voice recognition capabilities, the giraffe-shaped router caters to the needs of everyone in each given home. The whale-shaped diffuser is first and foremost an aromatic refresher but incorporates special smart technology in order to enhance its untact nature. In addition to its main purpose of diffusing different aromas, Animal Land’s whale-shaped diffuser also measures humidity, air quality, and the atmosphere in any given home, transmitting useful information for each resident inside without requiring them to open a weather app. Finally, Animal Land includes a home speaker device shaped like a turtle, which comes equipped with smart technology in order to provide fast response time and voice recognition features. The home speaker’s playful disguise might indicate a slower speed, but an engraving underneath the home speaker’s shell reads, “I’m not slow,” revealing the speaker’s high-speed response time and connectivity.

In order for many modern products and services to be able to compete with today’s market, the inclusion of untact technology is a prerequisite. Overall, it seems that Animal Land’s true inspiration is found in the collection’s playful facade. Animal Land from S2VICTOR recognizes the urgency behind the untact movement and meets it with both a playful design and sense of humor to make light of these grim global circumstances.

Designer: S2VICTOR

 

This sanitizing coat rack is a pandemic-era design that will be a part of the restaurant’s new normal

Whether it be to the grocery store or the library, when I leave the house nowadays, you won’t catch me without my hand sanitizer. No matter how little room I have in my pockets, I won’t leave the house without it. However, most stores are installing hand sanitizing stations in their storefronts in order to encourage sanitary browsing. Typically these stations come in the form of an old, previously discarded working desk with a handwritten note taped on the front that reads a friendly, health code reminder to use the available hand sanitizer before entering the store’s sales floor.

Retail establishments were quick to install their own hand sanitizing stations to their storefronts, but for some, the makeshift health posts end up looking less than sanitary and more like worn-down gatekeepers whose only purpose is to enforce clean shopping. Mexico City-based NOS Design understood how design plays a major role in making this essential health precaution feel a little more inviting, so they teamed up with Trusty Tower to design a sanitizing coat rack that fuses functionality with necessity and looks more familiar and less like an unfortunate sign of the times. Their sanitizing coat rack based on a conventional, average-sized metal tube that’s bent at its top so that bottles of hand sanitizers can be placed at an angle. Just below the metal tube’s bend, a short rod insert holds the hand sanitizer in place, allowing the bottle to be pumped at an angle by pressing the coat rack’s top lid.

Additionally, NOS Design attached four hooks for different items like outerwear, purses, or some trendy mask cases. I know when I enter the stores that require hand sanitizing before browsing, it usually takes a minute for me to set all that I’m carrying down before I can sanitize, and even afterward, gathering all my belongings takes more time than necessary. NOS Design cuts that time in half by assembling a means to sanitize and providing an easy hanging spot for all of your belongings at the same time. Hopefully, since responsible shopping in the age of COVID-19 is so important, with designs like this one, sanitizing your hands won’t feel like such a hassle before you can resume regular (pre-Corona) programming (shopping).

Designer: NOS Design x Trendy Tower

This WFH office kit comes with AR glasses, a smartpen, and an AI speaker to streamline group projects!

We’ve been working from home for a while now. I’ve honestly last track of how long it’s been, but we’ve managed to avoid going stir crazy (so far) thanks to home renovation projects. Redesigning our workspaces so that they accommodate the growing list of the needs of today is essential to keep from losing our heads. Fortunately, with today’s ever-evolving technology, designs like MAZI from Younghyun Kim help make working from home a little more exciting.

MAZI consists of three different pieces of technology: an AI speaker, a pair of AR glasses, and an accompanying smartpen. Since group tasks such as marketing campaigns or architectural conceptualizations seem a lot more organized when each worker is in the same room, MAZI comes equipped with AR glasses that enable coworkers to share their visual perspective with other team members. For instance, while working on a sketch, an architect can literally share their line of sight with a collaborator so they can see the sketches in real-time, the same way we once could in the office. MAZI’s AI-powered speaker, which doubly functions as a carrying case, helps keep your hands-free while speaking with fellow team members, only raising the bar for the product’s goal of streamlining each workday. Secure in a carrying case, both the smartpen and AR glasses snugly fit into precisely shaped pockets. The smartpen from MAZI remains locked with a fingerprint scanner that only registers the owner’s prints, keeping your private business details secure and locked.

Once upon a time, work was entirely contained in one designated space: the office. With stay-at-home orders commencing early with the start of 2020, the office’s hub of fullscreen monitors, cable webs, and project workstations was forced to find a compromise in the form of working from home. Meaning ‘together,’ in Greek, MAZI was designed to provide workers with a portable office kit for those long WFH days spent in the living room on the phone with business partners. While collaborative, performance projects can easily be discussed through a phone call or e-mail chain, sharing a screen isn’t the same thing as sharing your vision.

Designer: Younghyun Kim

A Commemorative Coin to Celebrate the End of 2020

2020: it was an inextinguishable dumpster fire. And to celebrate its end/our survival, Antsy Labs is releasing this A.D. 2020: This Is Fine’ commemorative coin. Emblazoned with the year’s lowlights like the coronavirus, Australian wildfires, and murder hornets, it serves as a reminder of all the hardships we’ve overcome.

The coins are available via an already-funded Kickstarter campaign. A single coin costs $7 plus shipping ($5 to the US, $13 to Canada, $10 – $18 to Europe). I just bought a dozen, which I’ll inevitably slowly lose in the couch cushions, until, God willing, 2020 is but a distant, horrible memory.

There’s no doubt people will tell their grandchildren about the great toilet paper scare of 2020, the whole while scanning the skies for robotic drones sent to identify and extinguish human lifeforms. Ha, and you thought 2020 was bad, just wait till 2050! Not being able to find toilet paper or Lysol is going to sound like a dream you’d wish to come true.

A prefabricated cabin that doubles as a winter retreat to ring in 2021!

Winter is slowly revving up and, since quarantine kept us inside from enjoying the usual social perks of summer, we’re all hoping to find ways to make the most of the upcoming snowy season. Recently, new architectural ventures have led to the creation of prefabricated cabins, which very possibly might become winter’s saving grace in the age of COVID-19. Prefabricated cabins such as GROVE CAB, designed by Valerii Shcherbak, help make nature getaways feel a lot cozier and all the more accommodating.

This new type of architecture is garnering a lot of popularity in Europe and it’s no surprise. Prefabricated cabins are constructed prioritizing simplicity and modularity. Being that Shcherbak’s cabin is built from wood material and sturdy paneling, each component of GROVE CAB is designed for familiar and intuitive construction, and the light, natural wooden tones help open up each room. The cabin comes in two modules: the first containing a living room or recreation area and your bedroom, and the second comes with a kitchen, bathroom, and exterior patio. The two units are connected where the frames for both of the module’s hallways meet, which creates a space that feels like a one-bedroom home. Additionally, both of the modules have their own doors so whichever side you might find yourself, access to the outdoors is only ever a few steps away.

Equipped with butterfly roofs, the respective module comes with high ceilings to ensure that, despite the compact, manageable size of the whole cabin, it feels roomy and snug at the same time. Adding to the structure’s toastiness, a fully-integrated fireplace warms up this prefabricated cabin from the bedroom for a rustic ambiance and to help you feel right at home in wintery landscapes. Further, on the cabin’s modularity, glass windows take up entire walls in the bedroom and kitchen so that during the day, snowy horizons and forests fill your perspective and at night, closed curtains can keep the cold air at bay while you enjoy the fire. Outside on the patio, a bonfire can heat up late-night conversations or accompany quiet evenings with a crackling, intimate background. Since prefabricated cabins are built in order for you to situate them wherever you feel like visiting, they are inherently more eco-conscious. Instead of digging up land for a built-in log cabin, GROVE CAB lets the natural beauty of winter environments be your guide. Preconstructed cabins provide a gentle reminder for all of us that wherever we may find ourselves, all we need is a little bit of space and time and we can build a home.

Designer: Valerii Shcherbak

Fujifilm’s portable X-ray unit brings healthcare to the palm of your hands!

No one ever looks forward to a hospital visit, especially not right now – home healthcare is making a serious comeback in the year 2020, and not only for the older crowd. Product designs like CALNEO XAir, a portable X-ray unit, have come to prove it. The handheld device is authoritative and trustworthy in its conception and manufacturing. In 2019, CALNEO XAir received both the Bronze award in International Design Excellence from IDEA and the Gold Product Award from iF Design.

The award-winning design was created by the team at FUJIFILM in order to provide a convenient household healthcare tool that meets today’s medical guidelines and scientific standards. CALNEO Xair’s exterior is appealing in its intuitively cohesive configuration, making for a stress-free operation. Additionally, through advanced technological features, the product’s battery power and its ultra-high sensitive cassette for diagnostic imaging have also been improved. The high-sensitivity cassette utilizes FUJIFILM’s proprietary ISS method, which translates X-ray energy into optical signals with minimal electric currents and offers a noticeable amount of noise reduction.

Thanks to its super-sensitive imaging plates, CALNEO Xair captures high-quality images, and the radiation dosage necessary for CALNEO Xair’s operation is considerably less than that of X-ray machines found in hospitals. This means that even in the comfort of your own home, you can receive the medical attention and information necessary for healthy living. The product is handheld in order to provide optimal comfort and convenience. Its full weight comes out to an ultralight 3.5kg (roughly 7lbs) as a result of less battery mass and a lightweight X-ray tube. CALNEO Xair reduces radiation exposure for patients, provides reliable and quick information related to the user’s bone health, and brings the benefits of home healthcare to the palm of your hand.

Hospital workers have a lot on their plates, always, but especially in the year 2020, with COVID-19 ramping up again and medical centers understaffed or overwhelmed. CALNEO Xair could provide some relief by transforming the prototypical, heavy-duty X-Ray machine into a contemporary, modern handheld device that’s instinctive and accessible for everyone.

Designer: FUJIFILM

This Smart Robot Is The Perfect Quarantine Companion For Youngsters!

Quarantine has been an adjustment period for everyone, but especially for young children who only got a taste of what socializing and education could offer prior to the onset of today’s global pandemic. The world is most likely forever changed as a result, which true creatives embrace accordingly. Designers behind products like Xiaole, an educational company robot for young minds, adapt to today’s world while acknowledging the connective companionship that molded our world of yesterday. Xiaole offers a touch of sentimentality in its friendly accompaniment and an artful amount of respect for the young person of today in regard to their future world.

Companionship is essential for young children, so globally mandated quarantines might get in the way of fundamental growth. Jerry C, the designer behind Xiaole, created the smart companion prior to 2020, but it’s timelier than ever. Xiaole’s digital library is filled with high-quality content that helps inspire self-motivated education amongst youngsters. Reminiscent of robot characters from science-fiction films, this robot is also naturally comforting and familiar to young minds, so learning will always feel welcome and accessible. Speaking to the product’s accessibility, the digital library is stocked with integrated translators, encyclopedias, and entertainment components. This all-encompassing library provides thoughtful and leisurely entertainment for children of varying ages and backgrounds. Xiaole is warm in its shape, emotional in its digitized expressions, and dynamic is physical gestures. This smart robot is intuitive in its control buttons, so anyone, no matter how old or young, will be able to bring Xiaole to life With this merging of innovation and sensitivity, Jerry C notes that Xiaole is a “smart companion robot with a sense of technology and affinity.”

Ahead of its time, Xiaole’s design was conceived before the age of COVID-19, but its early arrival speaks to the young human’s inevitable need for connection and stimulation. With or without quarantine, we all need some good friends in today’s world, especially young kids, and if there ever was a time to implement lighthearted respect for our unstoppable future world through design, the time is now.

Designer: Jerry C

IDEO’s Winter Dining challenge’s winning designs balance safety without sacrificing the experience!

IDEO launched its very own Chicago-based Winter Dining Challenge during the age of COVID-19. Through this challenge, the city of Chicago aims to stimulate and encourage safe dining from Lake Michigan to Chicago Lawn and everywhere in between. This challenge is 2020 pandemic-specific since alternative dining experiences have been at the forefront of everyone’s minds, as you probably already know. On October 8th, IDEO announced the top designs for Chicago, each of which brought with them a distinct interpretation of safe, yet lively dining experiences.

Cozy Cabins

Inspired by ice fishing huts, Young designed modular, transparent cabins so that dinner guests can enjoy the bustling streets of Chicago while maintaining safety protocol for social distancing. The cabins are identical in size and shape, which makes it easy to reproduce in other cities, fitting easily within average-sized parking spaces. Best yet, the cabins are also simply produced, requiring only wood, corrugated metal, polycarbonate plastic, and standard framing hardware. Additionally, these cabins are inexpensive to make and integrate a floor-heating system in order to keep diners warm while they enjoy their meals. Cozy Cabin would offer Chicagoans a warm, appetizing retreat during the city’s notoriously frigid winter months.

Designers:  Amy Young x ASD | SKY 

Each Cozy Cabin is identical in size and shape, making the process of construction and reproduction manageable. Additionally, the cabins require minimal material, all of which can be sustainably sourced and maintained. Diners will have lots of personal space in these Cozy Cabins, depending on their party’s size.

Block Party

Urban designers, Neil Reindel and Flo Mettetal designed expandable, life-size blocks for their alternative dining spaces. These blocks fit within parking lanes, in order to fully expand. However, if restaurants do not have enough space in their parking lots, then the blocks can be positioned on extended sidewalks or pocket parks. The blocks position diners amongst the busy and many pedestrians of city streets, bringing the communal experience of eating out to each block. Likely, the most exciting feature of this concept in particular is the expansion feature. If your party is bigger, then the blocks can be grouped together in order to enlarge the dining space. This dining experience is not fully enclosed, allowing for some air circulation. However, available curtains would allow diners to turn their dining experience into a private one. Each module would be constructed using Metal ‘C’ studs, in expanded polystyrene, and objects (tables, light fixtures, etc.) would be clad with sealed MDF, a material denser than plywood. By implementing a thermal mesh system, Block Party ensures a warm dining experience for each block partygoer.

Designers: Neil Reindel and Flo Mettetal

Each module seats two guests comfortably and can be arranged to accommodate bigger parties if the need arises.

Each module can be moved using a caster wheel dolly and combined so that modules can increase room for diners by increments of two. The modules fasten together using pin joints, which is a good option in order to prevent the modules from rotating or drifting.

The modules can be arranged so that the restaurant’s outdoor seating space is optimized and after work hours, the blocks can be separated and organized depending on the space available.

While these blocks themselves represent a safe dining experience, the Chicago-based, urban designers intend to implement further safety protocols, such as one-way routes for wait staff and pedestrians, along with security blocks in order to minimize traffic flow on the sidewalk.

Heated Tables

Working from Japanese modes of dining, Chicago-based Ellie Henderson planned outdoor heated tables for IDEO’s Winter Design Challenge. Heated tables, also known as kotatsu, are common in Japan and provide an economical way to keep warm during cold months. Typically found indoors, heated tables represent a hub of warmth for households. By making a few modifications, Henderson hopes to bring Hygge dining, a Danish concept meant in regard to life’s simple pleasures, to the streets of Chicago. This design stands out for its open-air approach to dining. This means that servers and restaurant-owners will still have to maintain COVID-19 safety protocol. Air circulation is vital in reducing the transmission of Coronavirus, which means this design might thrive so long as initiatives such as the closure of streets for comfortable outdoor dining remain in place. Perhaps the most economical design option, heated tables’ construction would require only preexisting material: a source of heat, blanket, screws, and a table.

Designer: Ellie Henderson

Inspired by the Japanese way of dining (kotatsu) an economical, and familiar material make up this design. All that it needs is a tabletop, blanket, a source of heat, and some screws. The heating element typically remains out of view, underneath the table and blanket covering.

In addition to dining experiences, bars, festivals, and other indoor services have changed their indoor seating to similar variants of the heated table design, inspired by kotatsu, as pictured above.

A new Batmobile is probably one of the only good things to happen in 2020

Boredom and dissatisfaction are two of the biggest drivers for innovation and creativity. Maybe you don’t like something, maybe you have free time on your hands, so you sit and fix stuff and make them better in your own vision. That’s sort of why we’re looking at this absolutely vicious Pagani-on-steroids Batmobile that Encho Enchev designed because he felt the current Batmobile wasn’t intense enough.

Designed with edgy body-work, piercing looks, and the classic black design with yellow accents, the Batmobile GT 2020 feels like it could strike fear into the hearts of the toughest criminals (or at least get them to consider an honest living even for a split second). If the edgy, Batarang-on-wheels bodywork doesn’t do it, the pop-out machine guns near the rear wheels should spook even armed bandits… and when justice is restored, the Dark Knight can flee the scene at breakneck speeds, thanks to those three pretty illegal looking afterburners on the rear.

I hope it isn’t too late for Robert Pattinson to reconsider his ride.

Designer: Encho Enchev

The Batmobile GT 2020 is a conceptual creation and is in no way associated with the Batman franchise. The use of the Batman logo is purely representative.

Rumors of the 2020 iPhone 12 hint at a flat-edge design inspired by the iconic iPhone 4

When I see these renders float around the twitterverse, I don’t take them as entirely sacrosanct, but I don’t completely reject them either. Apple has, over the past few years, developed a very sound strategy to selectively leak its product designs just to help keep the hype and buzz going. By the time we’re a few months away from the actual launch, the internet has already painted a reasonably accurate picture of the phone Tim Cook’s about to unveil… even down to its color options!

Created by concept-designer Aziz Ghaus, this is perhaps the best representation of the upcoming iPhone 12, which is all set to launch this year around October-November. The iPhone gets a design-refresh every 2-3 years, and given that we haven’t seen much of a design change since the iPhone X debuted in 2017, this year might be the year the iPhone gets a makeover. Its new design isn’t a radical deviation though… in all honesty, the 2020 iPhone concept borrows a lot from the design language set up by Jony Ive and Steve Jobs (before his unfortunate passing in 2011). The iPhone 12 concept performs a hat-tip to the design of the iconic iPhone 4 and 5, with a flat-edge running around the sides helping break the continuous transition from screen to back. As far as the changes go, there’s also a noticeable update to the camera bump, which now features 4 prominent camera lenses instead of 3. Some may remember this camera bump from the 2020 iPad Pro launch and all indications show that the iPad’s camera layout will make its way to the smartphone, with space for a ToF sensor that’ll help the iPhone 12 perform 3D scanning to support Apple’s ARKit and possibly AR-based games that may roll out in the future.

Some things remain immutable with the iPhone’s design though. The front still looks exactly the same, with the notch design that seems almost exclusive to Apple now, especially since its competitors have moved on to hole-punch cameras. The iPhone 12, from the looks of these renders, will still have FaceID too, a feature that I wonder why Apple hasn’t moved beyond, considering how everyone wears masks nowadays. The new phone also looks like it’ll still sport the lightning port, although prominent Apple insiders and analysts claim that the new iPhone will come without a charging cable and adapter in the box (they’ll need to be bought separately)… although in terms of change, that might be pushing things a bit too far, don’t you think??

Designer: Aziz Ghaus

Picture Credits: @smazizg