This minimal fan’s stripped down design is crafted from sustainable materials to last for generations!

It’s that time of year again– it’s getting hot and the fans are coming out. Finding the right fan for your living space means finding one that’s practical and blends in with the rest of your furniture and architecture. As consumers, we tend to make a lot of stylistic compromises for the sake of practicality, which leads to products getting discarded before they reach obsolescence. Inspired to create a standing fan that’s not white, plastic, and likely to end up on the sidewalk come September, design group Ttato built Aura.

Minimal by conscious design, Aura’s build was stripped down to its bare components: cage, propeller, base, and motor. Built to be a home appliance that can be used throughout the year, Aura was specifically built for optimal functionality. Constructed with materials that were selected for their sustainability, durability, and beauty, Aura exudes a sophisticated air and follows that through with detailed functionality.

Aura’s rotor blades, for instance, were formed from the overlaying and bending of birch and ash veneers, lengthening the rotor blades’ lifespan while celebrating the craft of woodworkers. Then, the aluminum frame is coated with powder and designed to be lightweight and easy to assemble. The three legs of Aura are carved from solid ash wood and can be easily dislodged so that Aura can be transported anywhere. Designed to outlast and redefine our relationships with household furniture, Aura is in it even for the long winter.

Named after the mythical deity that represents ‘the gentle breeze in the early morning,’ Aura was built to move large quantities of air at low speeds. Aura’s built-in controller allows users to choose from five different speeds and outfitted with a swivel and tilt function, users can adjust the direction of airflow as well. During the winter, Aura can be used to move the cooler air from the floor to the ceiling by tilting the fan upwards so the rotor can draw in cool air and the blades can propel the warmer air back down towards the floor.

Designer: Ttato Design

Aura’s minimalist design merges a slim build with a wide area for an elegant addition to any living space.

Aura’s powder-coated aluminum frame is lightweight and durable.

Coming in an array of different colors, Aura has the right look for your space.

By turning the fan upwards, the rotor draws in the cool air and propels the warmer air to the ground.

The 5-speed controller comes with summer and winter modes.

Aura’s 5-speed controller allows users to adjust the strength and mode of the fan’s airflow.

Who needs a display when this keyboard projects your screen directly on your retina?

We love seeing concepts that challenge our perception of the future of technology by forcing us to rethink how we will one day interact with devices. Aura certainly achieves this, and it does so by transforming the humble laptop into an ultra-portable, productivity station!

So, you may be asking yourself how it functions without a screen, well that’s all down to the rather clever Eye-tracking Infrared Illuminators that locate eye-details and reflection patterns to project the image directly onto the user’s retinas! The futuristic technology doesn’t end there; in addition to the lack of screen, there is also concave keyboard with Glow Thru keys that’s been paired with an adaptive input service for maximum productivity!

Every single detail has been considered in immense detail; from the seamless and intuitive charging cable that is reminiscent of Apple’s iconic Magnetic cable, through to the careful selection of materials that elevate the premium feel of the computer! If this is what the future of computing could be like, then count us in!

Designer: Vince Wang

How it Works

Retinal display technologies do not need a physical screen. Instead, the viewer and the projector face each other, forming virtual images on the retina of the viewer.

Magical Eyetracking

Invisible infrared dots are projected and captured by the sensors for processing. By finding eye details and reflection patterns, eye patterns are calculated, giving perfect projections within the viewing angle.

Every Detail Matters

Every step of the way was methodical, increasing in fidelity and brought forward more and more details. Full-scale iterations revealed form and proportions changes that are hard to notice digitally.

Iconic & Timeless

A comfortable, familiar tactile gesture of rolling the bar turns the device on and off. Iris scanning allows you to unlock your device and setup multiple Iris profiles for multi-user use.

Secondary Keys

To declutter your workspace, secondary keys are hidden until you activate them with the numbers, ‘123’ button or the symbols “#+=” button. Press and your keys will magically glow through the trackpad. A new adaptive keyboard with no learning curve.

Invisible Aura

With no physical keys to press, you experience a fully seamless surface that is natural and easy to interact with. Haptic feedback adds a sense of touch by slight vibrations when you run your fingertips across the keys or press down on them.

Aura Can Take the Heat

Torx T3 screws allow you to do battery replacement on your own, clean out dust, and give you ultimate repairability and the ability to recycle. Rubber feet grip keep your device secure while raising it up to help with airflow and cooling.

Natural Cursor Movement

The trackpad you’ve grown to love is still there. Although this one lights up with buttons when you want it to. Aura uses eye-tracking for moving your cursor around, simply look where you want it to go. We reply on this natural human eye movement and use infrared lights to accurately track your eye gaze.

Seamless Intuitive Charging

No more lining up prongs or ports to charge your device. A simple magnetic inductive surface charges any way you snap it on, allowing you to beautifuuly charge your Aura as unobtusively as possible.

Aura squeezes its fitness band into an Apple Watch ‘Smart Strap’

In May Aura closed a relatively modest $109,000 Kickstarter for its Band, a fitness tracker that it says uses biompedance analysis to monitor "fat, muscle mass, minerals, and body water." We spoke to the people behind the Band, who said it is availab...

Lighting With Medieval Roots

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Designer Clara del Portillo’s Aura lighting concept is an exploration in using the versatile Kriskadecor chainmail-like material. On or off, the lamps chain ‘tubes’ create an interesting and sculptural statement sure to be the centerpiece of any room. Switched on, however, the chain links are brought to life through shimmering light, reflection, and shadows.

Designer: Clara del Portillo

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VR as a health aid??

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Could VR cure jet-lag?? A bunch of designers sure think so! The Aura, designed to look like the coolest VR headset ever and to behave like a jet-lag-curing machine, is a headset you wear around your head, positioning the earpieces on your ears before sliding the screen to cover your eyes. Not only does the headset act as an eyemask and ear muff, when switched on, it creates a meditatively personal space that isolates the traveler in a scenery of their preference, to assist travelers to fall asleep as soon as possible. AURA provides a variety of VR themes, such as outer-space, forest, ocean and canyon. It also uses a combination of sounds and soundtracks (ASMR) to trigger relaxation and get you to drift off into dreamland.

What’s truly fascinating about the Aura, aside from its innovative use, is its design. The collapsing design allows it to be docked in airplanes pretty easily, looking (and even behaving) like headphones, until you slide the VR headset out in sheer sci-fi fashion. The Aura charges via induction, and is powered using a phone app that gives you full control over what you want the VR headset to do. Although it looks so cool, I’d probably give in to the jet lag and binge watch movies through my flight!

Designers: Ju Chia Lee, John Cao, Cheng Fu Hsieh & Ming Hung Lin.

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A Wearable for Feels

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AURA is a twist on wearable tech that isn’t focused on your steps or trying to help you build muscle, rather, it’s aim is to help you master your mental fitness! Designed for anyone struggling with mental illness, depression or distress, it uses biometric sensors to detect stress, anger, sadness and happiness.

You can gain perspective of your current mental state by looking at the e-ink display that looks much like a simple watch face. Your overall data history can then be reviewed over time to track the moments you were experiencing different emotions in order to make informed behavioral or situational changes.

Designer: Pritika Sekar

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Turn Your Jet Lag into Zen Lag

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Did you know that a simple meditation is all it takes to combat your jet lag?! It’s not as easy as it sounds, however, especially considering how most of us struggle to take person time to reflect at all let alone when we’re faced with intense timezone changes. That’s where AURA comes in handy. It takes the guesswork out of meditating and the torture out of jet lag so you feel enlightened upon arrival.

Designed primarily for business travelers and frequent flyers, it provides a personal place of serenity and relaxation using an immersive combination of virtual reality and light/sound therapy. During a flight, users can place headphones over the head and extend the retractable visor down for complete isolation. Then, the environment of their choice can be selected with custom options for scenery and sound. They can also choose to follow a number of guided meditations to destress, unwind or refocus the mind in preparation for their journey.

Designers: Ju Chia Lee, John Cao, Cheng Fu Hsieh, Ming Hung Lin

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Digital Storm’s Aura All-in-one Packs a 10-core CPU

Have you noticed the trend of gigantic all-in-one gaming PCs? Yeah, we kinda noticed that too. Looks like that trend is here to stay, because Digital Storm has unveiled a new version of the Aura, and this 34-inch curved system is packing some serious power.

Not only is it one of the first PCs to use Intel’s Broadwell-E-based Core i7 Extreme Edition processors, but you can even outfit it with up to a 10-core chip. Gamers are going to love this rig, that’s for sure.

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You can also add a GeForce GTX 1080 to go with Aura’s ultra-wide 3,440 x 1,440 resolution. It may be an all-in-one, but you’re not giving up hardware upgrades to save space. Digital Storm says that just about everything on board can be replaced. It even supports liquid cooling.

Obviously this isn’t going to come cheap. The Aura starts at $1,999(USD) and goes up from there depending how beefed up you want it.

[via Engadget]

Digital Storm’s Aura All-in-one Packs a 10-core CPU

Have you noticed the trend of gigantic all-in-one gaming PCs? Yeah, we kinda noticed that too. Looks like that trend is here to stay, because Digital Storm has unveiled a new version of the Aura, and this 34-inch curved system is packing some serious power.

Not only is it one of the first PCs to use Intel’s Broadwell-E-based Core i7 Extreme Edition processors, but you can even outfit it with up to a 10-core chip. Gamers are going to love this rig, that’s for sure.

aura_pc_1zoom in


You can also add a GeForce GTX 1080 to go with Aura’s ultra-wide 3,440 x 1,440 resolution. It may be an all-in-one, but you’re not giving up hardware upgrades to save space. Digital Storm says that just about everything on board can be replaced. It even supports liquid cooling.

Obviously this isn’t going to come cheap. The Aura starts at $1,999(USD) and goes up from there depending how beefed up you want it.

[via Engadget]