Tag Archives: designworks

BMW Rival Rig gaming chair comes with Adaptive Seating, Micro Climate Control and even massage functions!

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Designworks, the design innovation studio for the BMW Group has unveiled their concept for an advanced gaming chair designed to bring an immersive physical experience for the gamers, at the first-ever BMW Esports Boost event. Called the Rival Rig gaming chair, it is the perfect bridge between the physical world and the virtual world – giving the users a functional sensory input while being utterly comfortable. A perfect proposition for streamers and Esports professionals indeed. The idea is to analyze the movements of the player, and with time adapt to their sitting position for a weightless feeling sans any physical stress during long hours of casual or professional gaming. This leads to sustained performance of the player not limited by physical or mental stress.

Rival Rig is embedded with sensors that detect the rise in body temperature and then beam cool air to the particular area. They call it the Microclimate Control System. Likewise, if there is too much pressure on the arms, the armrests lower automatically to eliminate any pressure points – a feature dubbed as the Adaptive Seating made possible with the embedded pneumatic air pads and electro-mechanical actuators. Designworks worked with gamers and athletes to understand body posture and the different actions and moods they are going through during gaming. This resulted in different modes like ease mode for relaxed posture or the boost mode which brings the chair forward and the table lowered and angled for immersive gameplay. The chair also has the massage function to release any stress build-up in the muscles with extended gaming stints. All this in conjunction with the AI-enabled algorithm brings automated control to the chair allowing players to concentrate on their gameplay.

According to Holger Hampf, President of Designworks, the team’s goal was to “create the most comfortable seating, hand posture, and head movement situation, that allow the gamer to fully immerse.” Inspiration for the project came from fields where split-second decisions have to be made – like in spacecraft and Formula 1. Holger Hampf added that they adapted learning from these fields to the microscopic level and it was all about millimeters rather than centimeters,” in design perfection. The led lighting of the chair adapts to the environment of the in-game action for the perfect immersive environment. How the rig is articulating also allows the audience (online and live) to be part of the action – for good bonding between the gaming athletes and spectators.

The gaming chair will be open source for adding new features and also allowing game studios to tailor the in-game experience. It will also aid in collaboration with the right partners to access the health and sports data to design ergonomic chairs of the future. Rival Rig is truly the onset of immersion via the power of design!

Designer: Designworks





The future of taxis is airborne… and emission-free.

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The redundance of having a sky-borne vehicle named Skai isn’t lost on me, but hey… let’s table that discussion for later because this vehicle is remarkable for quite a few reasons. For starters, it’s all poised to become the standard for intra-city air travel… and here’s my favorite part. It uses hydrogen-cell technology that’s lauded for being absolutely clean and emission-free.

With its core technologies designed by the “industry’s top aerospace experts, engineers and veteran pilots from NASA, Raytheon, Airbus, Boeing and the Department of Defense”, Skai was just recently unveiled at its launch event in Los Angeles, and touted as the world’s first eVTOL to rely completely on hydrogen-cells, a revolutionary bit of technology that’s 95% reusable and 99% recyclable, and provides the cleanest energy, leaving behind only water vapor, giving it the lowest environmental footprint of any fuel on the planet.

The Skai is a six-seater electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle that boasts of a 4-hour flight-capacity and a range of approximately 400 miles. Designed to be synonymous with taxis that transport passengers over short distances within the same city, the Skai functions as an air-taxi, transporting its passengers to their destination in a third of the time.

On the design front, the Skai takes on the avatar of a multicopter drone with six massive 100kW rotors providing the necessary vertical trust, and a fairly large cabin/cockpit that seats five passengers and a pilot (although Alaka’i is also working to develop a self-driving pilot-less variant in the future). The cabin’s V-shape allows all passengers to enjoy a wonderful 180° view of the skies as they soar above their city, while the eVTOL also comes equipped with 5G WiFi to ease you through long rides. Underneath the cabin lie massive carbon-fiber skids that allow the Skai to rest comfortably on helipads, while cutting down on the weight of having a metal skid, like those found on helicopters. Skai comes built with a safety-first design, featuring a secure airframe made from a strong-but-flexible carbon composite. Passenger seats are designed to absorb shock, and come armed with a 4-way seatbelt to keep the riders safe at all times. For dire emergency scenarios, Skai even comes with an airframe parachute that, upon deployment, can literally carry the entire aircraft to safety. The design for the Skai comes courtesy Alaka’i’s partnership with Designworks, a global creative consultancy owned by BMW. Currently past its prototype phase, the Skai is pending FAA approval, following which we can finally live the dream of zooming across cities in those long-awaited air-taxis!

Designers: Alaka’i Technologies & Designworks

The Ultimate Running Machine

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The latest from BMW Group’s Designworks, the X-CAT DISC is an athletic fashion statement that takes inspiration from the legendary GINA Light Concept car. GINA stands for “Geometry/Function In Adaptions” and this athletic shoe holds true to that idea.

The car sported a seamless, flexible, fabric outer shell stretched over a movable substructure, and the shoe utilizes the same innovative material. Instead of using laces, this system works with a rotating disc that pulls internal wires to close and open the shoe. Using only one thin layer of stretchable and super-light GINA material, the shoe wraps around the foot like a second skin. Additional seams are no longer necessary and dynamic movement feels very natural.

Another design cue taken from the original GINA concept is the functional aesthetic of revealing the underlying structure when tightening the shoe. The designers also re- thought the concept for the sole and the Puma DISC, applying BMW engineering approaches to add greater precision. They viewed the sole as the engine of the foot, the driver of movement. This produced a unique design which was inspired by interconnecting gears and integrates both engineered flexibility and interlinked stability.

Get your hands on the X-CAT DISC starting July 1st in a limited selection of Puma stores across the world!

Designer: Designworks

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British Airways teams up with Designworks for electronic bag tags that nab info from your smartphone

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British Airways teams up with Designworks for electronic bag tags that nab info from your smartphone

Tired of ripping off those old luggage tags after a trip? Well, those could be a thing of the past if all goes according to plan -- at least when flying British Airways. The airline cooked up an electronic bag tag that looks to discard the paper version with the help of the folks at Designworks. Once passengers have checked in, they simply need to hover a smartphone over the tag to beam (via NFC, we'd surmise) both flight info and the requisite barcode to the tag's display. The idea behind the whole thing isn't only to keep the paper-changing to a minimum, but to also save precious time at the check-in counter. A live trial of the tagging gadget is planned, so we'll soon be able to see if the concept stands up to baggage handlers.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

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Source: Designworks