Tag Archives: tactile

Tilt This Smart Clock, and It Triggers Your Entire Bedtime Routine

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Most smart home routines now live inside apps and voice menus, which is powerful but often feels abstract and fiddly. Controlling physical things through layers of screens can feel backwards, especially for simple daily transitions like going to bed or waking up. This smart alarm clock concept treats day and night as a single, physical gesture instead, asking what would happen if your entire bedtime routine followed one tilt of a solid object.

The concept is a smart alarm clock that doubles as an IoT scene switcher. It’s a small wedge-shaped object with a square display on one face and fabric wrapping the rest of the body. Instead of tapping through modes, you literally tilt the clock like a seesaw to flip between day and night. The display follows, showing a bright sun or a dim moon depending on which way it rests.

Designer: Hojung Cha

In day orientation, the clock faces you with a bright UI, lights and music on, and your phone fully awake. Tilt it the other way into night mode, and the screen darkens, lights fade, music winds down, and your phone can automatically switch to Do Not Disturb while setting an alarm for the morning. One physical move triggers a whole bedtime routine without touching a single app or menu.

The form is a soft rectangular block with one angled face for the display, wrapped in fabric so it feels more like a piece of furniture than a gadget. The angled front makes it easy to read from bed, and the two stable resting positions are obvious at a glance. It looks comfortable on a nightstand next to a lamp and a book, not like a piece of lab equipment waiting to blink at you.

The clock inverts the typical IoT relationship. Instead of your phone being the remote for everything else, the clock becomes a physical remote for the phone. It can tell your smartphone when to be quiet, when to wake you, and when to leave you alone. At the same time, it coordinates with lights and speakers, acting as a simple, dedicated interface for the most common daily transition in the home.

The design borrows the familiar bedside clock silhouette but adds the tilt mechanic and a clean, modern display. The goal is technology that can be seen, touched, and held, making its function legible without an instruction manual. The two orientations and matching UIs turn a behavior we already do, such as getting up or going to bed, into something the object naturally understands and responds to.

The smart alarm clock concept is a small argument for more tangible IoT. It doesn’t try to solve every scenario with an app; it focuses on one moment and makes it physical, glanceable, and easy to understand. The idea of flipping a solid object to tell your home and your phone “day” or “night” feels like the kind of interaction our sleepy brains can actually live with.

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VoxeLite Is a Bandage-Thin Patch That Adds Textures to Screens

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Screens and headphones already give us high-resolution sight and sound, but touch is still mostly limited to simple buzzes that tell you a notification arrived. That gap makes virtual experiences feel flat, even when the visuals are convincing. VoxeLite is a research project from Northwestern University that brings fingertip-level detail into digital touch, wrapped in a form factor closer to a bandage than a bulky glove.

VoxeLite is a transparent, stretchy patch that wraps around your fingertip like a thin adhesive strip. It’s only a tenth of a millimeter thick and weighs less than a paperclip, but it hides a grid of tiny soft domes that can be turned on and off individually. When you slide your finger across a surface, those domes add patterns of force that feel like bumps, ripples, or directional cues layered over whatever you’re touching.

Designers: Sylvia Tan, Michael A. Peskhin, Roberta L. Klatzky, and J. Edward Colgate (Northwestern University)

The experience works through tiny grabs and releases. As you move your finger, some of the domes gently stick and drag against the surface beneath them, creating little taps or tugs on your skin. Because there are many of them packed closely together and they can switch very fast, the system can draw small icons, arrows, or textures directly on your fingertip. That opens the door to touch-based notifications, tactile emojis, or invisible guides on flat glass.

One of the most important design choices is that VoxeLite is meant to disappear when it’s not active. The soft domes compress and move with your skin, so you can still feel the real texture of a fabric, a button, or a tool handle through the patch. In tests, people could tell rough from smooth materials while wearing it, which is crucial if you want a wearable that stays on during everyday tasks.

On touchscreens, VoxeLite could make virtual buttons feel different from each other, helping you find controls without looking. In AR and VR, it could add the grain of wood, the click of a dial, or the direction of a swipe gesture directly to your finger. For accessibility, it could help blind users trace contours, follow tactile arrows, or feel icons on otherwise flat interfaces that currently offer no feedback.

The research team pushed both how many tactile pixels they could fit and how fast they could update them. The densest version packs more than a hundred actuators into a square centimeter and creates sensations up to hundreds of times per second. In user studies, people could reliably recognize tiny directional patterns and different virtual textures, suggesting that the fingertip can receive surprisingly rich information from such a thin patch.

VoxeLite is still a lab prototype, tethered to external electronics and tested on single fingers. Scaling it up to multiple fingers, making it wireless, and figuring out the best patterns for everyday use are all open questions. It’s a glimpse of what it might feel like when our fingers can sense digital content as clearly as our eyes see pixels, turning touch into a first-class channel instead of an afterthought.

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4 Smart Devices Controlled by Touch, Not Screens or Apps

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Digital devices promise convenience, but too often they deliver complexity instead, with endless menus, constant updates, and a learning curve that never seems to end, no matter how long you use them. Many of us long for the days when using a product was as simple as turning a dial or pressing a button without consulting manuals or watching tutorial videos online to understand basic functions.

The Tamed Digital Devices concept reimagines our relationship with technology by bringing back the tactile, multi-sensory experiences of analog gadgets we used to love and understand instinctively. Created by SF-SO in 2019, it’s a vision of tech that’s calming, intuitive, and designed to fit seamlessly into daily life without demanding constant attention or learning new interfaces. Each device in the series prioritizes touch, sound, and movement over screens and menus.

Designer: Hoyoung Joo (studio SF-SO)

Each device in the series is inspired by classic analog forms and controls that people already understand instinctively without any instruction. The Ball Internet Radio swaps touchscreens for three magnetic balls on top that you roll or lift to change stations, making tuning in both intuitive and satisfying for all ages. The tactile feedback and visual movement of the balls create a playful interaction that feels natural rather than digital or sterile.

The Cone Bluetooth Speaker powers on or off with a simple flip, using a gravity sensor to turn a basic gesture into a moment of physical delight and satisfaction. No buttons to hunt for, no hold-and-press sequences to remember or decipher from tiny icons—just flip the speaker and it responds instantly. The conical shape with its bright orange accent doubles as sculptural home decor when not playing music, blending function with visual warmth.

The Wheel Digital Radio lets you tune frequencies by rotating the entire body like traditional wheel-tuned radios, echoing the mental model of classic analog radios from decades past that everyone intuitively understands. A physical marker shows the tuned station, providing immediate visual feedback without digital displays or complicated interfaces. The cylindrical form with ribbed texture and green accent makes the interaction obvious at a glance to anyone who sees it.

The Fingerprint Smart Door Lock combines the security of a keyless system with the familiar, physical action of turning a traditional lock mechanism that has existed for centuries. Users unlock the door by placing a finger on the sensor and rotating the dial, restoring the satisfying tactile feedback of analog hardware. The circular, wall-mounted form with green accent light provides visual confirmation without overwhelming smart home complexity.

Across the series, the use of tactile controls like rolling balls, turning wheels, and flipping speakers restores a sense of physicality and engagement lost in most digital products today that rely solely on touchscreens. The design language is clean and modern throughout, with geometric shapes, soft edges, and playful color accents that invite touch and curiosity rather than intimidation or confusion about how things work.

Tamed Digital Devices offer a glimpse of a future where technology supports well-being instead of adding stress to already busy lives filled with screens. For anyone craving a calmer, more human connection with their devices and tired of digital overload, this concept series is a reminder that innovation doesn’t have to mean complexity but can mean rediscovering the joy of simplicity and tactile pleasure.

The post 4 Smart Devices Controlled by Touch, Not Screens or Apps first appeared on Yanko Design.

Tiny USB-C accessory adds a physical volume slider to your laptop

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Laptops are getting thinner and smaller, but their functionality is getting even more powerful. The usually means plenty of things to control, and some of them need to be reached faster than digging through menus and clicking on buttons. Keyboard shortcuts are, of course, a viable solution, but they can also be cumbersome, complicated, and unintuitive.

Something as normal and as regular as changing the volume, for example, shouldn’t take two keystrokes or scrolling your mouse wheel (which might not exist) over some tiny icon. This simple yet useful accessory brings a bit of sanity and physicality to that action on laptops, at least if you have an extra USB-C to spare.

Designer: Pavel Burgr

Depending on your laptop’s keyboard layout and settings, turning the volume up or down can involve one or two keystrokes. The problem is that the location of these keys is inconsistent across keyboards and laptop brands, and they’re not exactly memorable or intuitive in their location. Having dedicated volume keys would be nice, but it could be a waste of precious space on the keyboard.

SoundSlide attacks that problem from a different angle by providing a physical volume control that you can connect and remove as needed. It’s a rather small object, smaller than a USB-A port and only 3.5mm thin, so it barely sticks out from the side of your laptop. It does connect via a USB-C port, and when it does, it gives you a way to actually feel like you’re raising or lowering your laptop’s volume.

The flat capacitive surface has exposed gold contacts that translate the sliding gestures to volume controls. A tap also mutes or unmutes the volume, giving you instant physical control without having to second guess which keys to press. It’s also promised to work out of the box on Windows, macOS, and even Linux, so you can use it without any setup or configuration. That said, you can also change a few settings such as sensitivity, orientation, and custom gestures using a Web-based interface.

The catch to this almost wonderful trinket is that it does occupy a USB-C slot. Some laptops have a limited number of ports, so you’re sacrificing what could be a potentially critical connection. That said, you don’t always need to have SoundSlide connected, so it’s not like you’re permanently losing an important USB-C port either.

The post Tiny USB-C accessory adds a physical volume slider to your laptop first appeared on Yanko Design.

Remote control redesign lets you use the device without even looking

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Even with the advent of smart TVs and streaming, remote controls are still an indispensable part of that user experience, imperfect as it may be. The basic design of remote controls has changed very little, save for the extra minimalist variants that, in exchange for simplicity, sometimes make you crawl through menus and options just to get to the function you need. More importantly, however, the complexity of these electronic accessories has made them too stressful to use, and their tendency to get stuck in the corners of couches was a meme even before there were memes. This concept tries to revolutionize the remote control design to deliver a more tactile experience that lets you operate or even pick it up without looking at it at all.

Designer: Gisung Han

The traditional remote control design has always been one of practical convenience rather than comfort or enjoyment. It’s meant to let you quickly change channels or the volume, but the irony is that it often takes more time to look for the right button or, worse, look for the remote itself. Even with more minimal designs that reduce the buttons to half a dozen or so, the rectangular shape of the device itself lends it to being lost too easily.

The Sightless Remote Control proposes a rather drastic change to the standard design in order to address these issues. Instead of a flat rectangle, the remote has a T-shaped form that ensures it won’t slip through the gaps in couches and chairs. It also makes it easy to pick up the remote, whether from those corners or from the top of a table, all without even looking at the remote and just using our sense of touch instead.

The same is true for the buttons themselves, which are no longer distinct circles or ovals. Instead, there’s a single column in the middle of the remote’s top surface with wedge-like shapes rising on opposite sides almost like waves in the ocean. Instead of using printed icons, text representing the functions are instead embossed, again allowing for “blind” use by letting your fingers do the seeing. It will still require a bit of muscle memory to help place that finger in the right area, but it won’t be as tedious as on a typical remote with very smooth buttons.

More than just enabling sightless use of the device, this design tries to bring back the joy of using an analog device in an age of smartphones and touchscreens. It makes entertainment not just a pleasure for our eyes and ears but also for our sense of touch, all while helping reduce the cognitive overload that multi-functional screens and phone apps bring to our brains.

The post Remote control redesign lets you use the device without even looking first appeared on Yanko Design.

Screw-shaped table lamp offers a unique and tactile way to control your light

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There are some designs and interfaces that seem to be so intuitive that there’s almost no question about how to use them. Babies have an inborn knowledge on how to breast feed (even if they have no clue why or when), lever-type switches leave no doubt about what to do to turn something on or off, and the grooves on a screw’s body, a.k.a. its “threads,” hint that it’s something that needs to be rotated or twisted. These intuitive interfaces often have a fixed purpose and use, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be applied to something totally unrelated. This industrial-style table lamp, for example, uses not just the metaphor of a screw but even its mechanism to offer a more personal and direct way to dim or brighten your surroundings.

Designer: Jamie Wolfond

Even when it comes to appearances, the Set Table Lamp already sets itself apart from the crowd. Especially when its lampshade is at its lowest point, it looks nothing more than a gigantic screw standing on your table or shelf. Apart from the standard tall body and wide shade composition, it’s not exactly a design you’d expect from a lamp, even one with a striking industrial style. Unlike lamps that just let you look at it to appreciate its design, this one looks like it’s inviting you to interact with it, which is exactly the point of the design.

The lamp’s screw design isn’t just cosmetic but is actually a key part of its function. The light that comes from the lamp’s cylindrical body shines upward toward the lampshade and is bounced off to illuminate your surroundings. The shade’s shape isn’t typical either in that it’s a very flat cone with its tip facing downward instead of the umbrella-like shades of most lamps. This not only reflects light around the lamp rather than just downward, it also mimics the design of a screw head more closely as well.

Most lamps these days have a dimming feature that often requires turning the lamp on and off to cycle through different brightness levels. It’s an unintuitive and tiring method that leaves no room for finer adjustments. In contrast, the Set Table Lamp’s unique design works in its favor because you can simply turn the shade to lower or raise it, thereby dimming or brightening the light it gives off, respectively. And you do this not with a switch but with an easy motion of “screwing” the cap around the body’s grooves.

With today’s smart lighting products, such a design might seem impractical or even obsolete, but how many such smart lamps can boast of such a beautiful and “personal” lamp? The remote and indirect control of smart lamps takes out the human element in designs, somewhat ironic for products made for human living space. Set Table Lamp offers a more tactile experience that gives humans the feeling of agency and control that they are losing little by little to automation and AI.

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Discover Your Poetic Journey Through Time With Calen-bar

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In a world characterized by the ceaseless march of technology, the Calen-Bar emerges as a distinctive and poetic tribute to time, seamlessly blending aesthetics, mindfulness, and sustainability. This perpetual calendar transcends the conventional, inviting users into a realm where the manual meets the meaningful, where every little act becomes a marker of eternal days.

Designer: Yukimasa Hirota

Crafted with precision and an eye for detail, the Calen-Bar is more than a tool; it is an experience. The inclusion of a metal weight introduces a tactile elegance, grounding the calendar in substance and texture. As fingers delicately adjust the rubber band to align with the current date, a connection is forged with the tangible passage of time. This manual engagement elevates the daily routine of checking dates into a ritual of reflection, ensuring that each day is not just observed but remembered, retrospectively embraced, and seized.

Positioned thoughtfully at the right end of the material rotation, the day of the week becomes a subtle but integral part of Calen-Bar’s design. As the material gracefully turns, it serves as a visual reminder that time, like the calendar itself, is in perpetual motion. This dynamic element adds a layer of continuity, urging users to appreciate the cyclical nature of days and the interconnected dance of weeks and months.

In a society racing against the clock, the Calen-Bar offers a respite from the relentless pace of technology. It is not a mere tool for making remarks or planning; rather, it is a sanctuary of poetic and aesthetic value. By embracing the manual nature of this calendar, users are prompted to engage in the deliberate act of adjusting dates, fostering a connection with time that transcends the digital coldness of screens and alarms.

Beyond its aesthetic charm, the Calen-Bar boasts a commendable sustainable aspect in its design. In a world inundated with disposable calendars, this perpetual masterpiece breaks the cycle. By omitting the mention of the year, it becomes a timeless companion, allowing users to reuse it year after year. The absence of a predefined year, while potentially leaving room for miscalculations, is a deliberate compromise in the pursuit of sustainability. In an age where ecological considerations are paramount, the Calen-Bar offers a meaningful alternative, prompting users to embrace the beauty of imperfection and intentional living.

While the manual adjustment may invite occasional errors, the Calen-Bar gracefully acknowledges the digital age, leaving room for users to cross-verify dates with their devices. This harmonious integration of analog charm and digital precision ensures that the Calen-Bar is not just a relic of the past but a versatile companion for the present and future.

In essence, the Calen-Bar is a testament to the enduring allure of simplicity, mindfulness, and sustainability. As we navigate the fast-paced currents of modern life, this perpetual calendar stands as a reminder to savor the little moments, to mark the eternal days not just in our lives but in the products that accompany us on this journey. It is a celebration of time, a fusion of elegance and purpose that invites us to comprehend the lost moments, appreciate the present, and embrace the time that is yet to come.

The post Discover Your Poetic Journey Through Time With Calen-bar first appeared on Yanko Design.