The Innovative Concepts and Futuristic Designs of Igor Chak

We’ve all seen some of the beautifully designed cars out there. The Lamborghini Murcielago, the Ferrari Spider, of those gorgeous muscle cars from the 60s and 70s. However, there’s a lot of conceptual work the general public is never sold or gets to see on the streets. Welcome to the work of Igor Chak.

Innovative and futuristic, the concepts of Igor Chak dazzle the eyes. Take the Donkey Kong wall, for example. This imaginative wall display is the perfect match for any crazed fan of one of the original Nintendo classics. Made of carbon fiber and held up by steel rods, they are meant to imitate the eccentric steel beams from the Donkey Kong games. What’s great about them is the pink ‘pixelated’ lines running between either plank of each segment; they make it look just like an old Super Nintendo video game!

Check out the watches he’s been designing, too. Sleek and lustrous, they’d certainly turn some heads. With an electronic screen that displays the time on a dial instead of in numbers, Version 1 of the watch is unique in that it shares elements of the technology from the past and from the present. Version 2 is even more interesting. Boasting a display of two times zones simultaneously in the same ‘future/present’ manner, you’ll have hard luck finding anything else like it!

By far the coolest thing Igor Chak has designed is the Izh Hybrid Concept. Not yet built in real life, the Izh is so new-looking that it even bears similarities to some of the flying vehicles from Star Wars! A great mixture of sharp edges and smooth surfaces, this concept combines the muscular features of big choppers and the more grace of moderns motorcycles.

If you liked the concepts of Igor Chak, you should also check out the Dinosaur Skeleton Motorcycle and the Donkey Kong Castset!

Via: The Igor Chak webpage

Taxi Green Mumbai Provides Green Solution For The Inner City

In the center of Mumbai, India, gas-driven Rickshaws are prohibited because of their noise and their pollution. By combining an electric drivetrain, which is supposed to be funded by the government, with a network of solar filling stations, Taxi Green Mumbai provides a clean and green solution for the inner city. It reaches up to 300km on a single fill, which makes it useable for one day of driving at a top speed of 30km/h. The design takes its clues from old Rickshaws and their history in the last century. To make it as simple as possible, the whole electronic system is limited to the front part of the vehicle. The battery is located beneath the passengers, as well as a small luggage compartment, which can be locked from inside the cabin only. As there is a lot of rain in Mumbai, the cabin can be partially closed on the sides by pulling out a canvas cover. When there is good weather, the roof of the vehicle can be opened to enjoy the drive.

Designer : Michael Scherger, Nina Thöming, and Henrik Mucha

Giấy điện tử màu đầu tiên trên thế giới

Wisereader E920 là thiết bị đọc sách sử dụng giấy điện tử màu, thiết bị do Hanvon sản xuất. Khác biệt với của sản phẩm này là Wisereader E920 cho phép người dùng chủ động chọn chế độ màu hoặc đen trắng. Chất lượng màu sắc do Wisereader E920 đem lại có thể chưa làm hài lòng những người dùng khó tính bởi nó thể rực rỡ như các màn hình LCD. Tuy nhiên, với các cuốn truyện tranh thì Wisereader E920 thực sự phù hợp để lựa chọn. Wisereader E920 có màn hình cảm ứng rộng 9,7 inch độ phân giải 1200x1600pixel, mật độ điểm ảnh lên tới 200dpi. Thiết bị có thể cắm thêm thẻ nhớ để mở rộng dung lượng lưu trữ. Ngoài ra, thời gian chờ của pin lên tới 15 ngày hoặc tương đương với lật 10 nghìn trang giấy. Sản phẩm dự kiến ra mắt vào tháng 6 năm nay và có giá khoảng 500 USD. Hanvon là nhà thiết kế và sản xuất các sách điện tử chiếm tới 95% thị phần sách điện tử tại Trung Quốc. Hãng này cũng là một trong những nhà sản xuất đi đầu trong việc tích hợp khả năng nhận dạng chữ viết trên giấy điện tử.

Theo Lao động

The New Flip Phone

Here’s a flip phone that could put the “cool” back into clamshells. When you receive an incoming call, the corner dog-ears up and if need be, opens up (book-style) using actuators like artificial muscles in its elastomeric cover. Awesome! Motorola StarTAC 2.o maybe?

Designers: Miyazawa Tetsu & Ichimura Shigenori

Softness for Child Sitting

Here’s a project consisting of three different bits of children’s furniture, each of them able to not only accommodate the child’s sitting, playing, and laying, it can also contain a whole batch of toys inside! Each of these bits of furniture is made of light foam so that the kids cannot hurt themselves whilst playing, and leatherette which is eco friendly false leather. Each of the furniture bits can be cleaned easily, and the color schemes are what the designers call “sober.” I must agree.

Each of these soft creatures, part of the “Soft Gang,” has a complete lack of facial features, no ears, no hair, none of that – allowing then the child’s imagination to run wild. One of the designers, Luiza Kwiatkowska, suggests they might be seen as a rabbit, a horse, and a fish! All are lovely.

Designer: Creature Industry

CES 2011 Part 3

Just three days into CES, the buffet foods, complimentary candies, sleepless nights, coffee and energy drinks are taking their toll on everyone, everyone but me because I came prepared. I’m dressed to the nines, rocking my freshly knitted tabi boots, constantly sucking on my Water Bobble, here to bring you part 3 of our coverage.

Exhibition: CES 2011 Part 3

While everyone is drooling over the super thin LED TVs, InnVision Lab’s HoloAd Diamond has my full attention. It’s kind of odd looking but the tech is proof in the pudding. Not exactly sure how, but the system is able to convert 2D video into some kind of sudo-holographic 3D image. That puffer fish was almost as real as those seashells.

Samsung showed off its latest wares in super thin, flexible displays. The 4.5″ AMOLED prototype carries a 840 x 480 resolution. Barely 0.3 mm thick, it’s quite “bendy” but the image never distorts. It’s incredibly sharp and other than cost, I can’t see why we shouldn’t see it mass produced soon.

The Motorola Xoom is by far the best in show in the tablet category. Android 3.0 Honeycomb, 10″ display, HD resolution, dual-core processors, front and rear facing cameras, 10 hour battery, and it’s its own mobile hotspot providing Wi-Fi access up to five other devices. The hardware is beautifully designed – basic and utilitarian.

The X100 is Fujifilm’s entry into the pro-sumer camera market. All of the tech inside makes it comparable to other compact SLRs so they’ve opted to go retro in industrial design. I’m not usually partial to retro styling but this thing was damn fun to use. The new Fujinon 23mm f/2.0 pancake lens produced some awesome pictures on the 3.0 screen. Expect it in March.

WheeMe is a palm-size robot that gently massages and caresses as it moves slowly across your body. Embodying a unique tilt sensor technology, it automatically and silently steers itself over your body without falling off or losing its grip. It’s no Swedish massage but I was tickled. Yea.. I’m getting one.

Our best buddy Bluelounge had a booth at CES to unveil the Nest iPad stand and StudioDesk XL. As usual they’ve come up with the simplest, smartest solutions for everyday problems. The Nest props the iPad up multiple ways and has a built-in caddy to store tchotchkes. The StudioDesk XL is a gorgeous mahogany table designed to hide all those unsightly cables. Totally drooling for one. Both are available this Spring if not sooner.

And yea… I’m the one wearing knitted tabis. Hey, a unicorn herding ninja has got to stay warm somehow.

:output award – call for entries

: output is the biggest international competition for students in design and architecture. The works selected by the jury will be published in the : output publication. : output Grand Prix: 3.000 Euro, Deadline for submissions: February 18 2011

Registration 2011 Skyscraper Competition

There is only one week left to register for the 2011 Skyscraper Competition. The registration deadline is January 11, 2011. So hurry up.

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NEOS: The Future of Biking

On mean city streets, the best friend a man can have is his trusted two-wheeler motorcycle. The two-wheeler can zip through traffic and allows the rider to reach from point A to point B in the shortest time possible. Motorcycles, ranging from sports bikes to cruisers, have also been used as an individual style statement.

One particular disadvantage with the two-wheeler motorcycle is safety. When compared to an automobile, a motorbike provides less safety to the rider. In case of a vehicular accident, the person riding a bike is more likely to end up with a serious injury than a person behind the wheels of a car.

Industrial designer Daniel Munnink, who is an avid biker, decided to come up with a concept design for a motorcycle that will have the raw power of a cruiser or a sports bike, and the safety features of an automobile. NEOS is the name of the design concept and it promises to take motorbike design into a new age of speed and safety.

NEOS is a true blue motorbike at heart, covered with a lightweight aluminum body frame that gives it a pod like appearance. The aesthetics of the bike design deserves bragging rights with a never seen before body shape. The front portion of the bike has a sleek, transparent windshield followed by the nose portion of the bike that features a definitive, well-defined frame.

To add stability and comfort to the riding experience, the designer has added three high-grip wheels instead of the regular two. Two wheels sit in front and one with a relatively thicker wheel located at the rear of the bike. All the three wheels of the bike have been fitted with a next generation braking system.

The true genius of the NEOS, however, lies on the inside. Daniel Munnink’s bike design will not run on traditional fossil fuels. Instead, it will have a rechargeable 3-phase AC induction motor that has a powerful output. The cockpit of the futuristic bike features a Color Touch Screen Display with automatic mobile phone sync. The intelligent bike also has a surrounding vehicle sense technology that would alert the rider of the vehicles in the bike’s vicinity.

The NEOS also boasts of a modular sidecar that can be detached when not required by the rider. The sidecar can be used to carry things and store items.

Never before has there been a motorcycle that offers a safe ride coupled with raw power. The NEOS is one such new age bike.

Do you already feel like zooming on this amazing bike on clean roads? Wait for a while as it is still a concept. Talking about it, there are several other remarkable concepts on the site that you can look at – Apple PowerMac G4 Motorbike Mod, Pluma Track Bike and Monstrous Jet Bike.

Walyou

Rael: a road bike concept by Evan Solida

I have posted about Evan Solida’s CervellumHindsight digital rearview camera a few times in the past. In a post last August, I mentioned that the concept is moving forward and will be ready to ship sometime this year. Accident recording capability is something that people hoped for in earlier versions of the concept, and Evan explains that it will be available in the final product:

“Accident recording, a patent-pending technology, is done by continuously recording loops of video both for­ward and behind the bicycle. With the integrated G-sensor, the Hindsight 60 can detect large impacts and will cease recording 10-seconds after any major shock, leaving the cyclist with actual video evidence of whatever occurred leading up to the accident.”

Evan’s latest design, the Rael concept bike, has a Hindsight camera lens nicely integrated into the seatstays. That is just one of the features that differentiates this concept bike from other high-end carbon road models on the market. An LED battery indicator for the Di2 drivetrain is included in the stem cap. Brakes are also integrated into the frame and fork leaving a clean overall appearance. The seat-tube is split diagonally and fitted with a dense elastomer. Doing this essentially turns the seat-stays and top-tube into an enor­mous leaf-spring, resulting in a limited amount of suspension. Other details, like the proprietary crankset and wheelset(s) combine to make this bike visually unlike any other.

The patent-pending handlebar/brake concept is perhaps the most interesting detail on this bike though. Evan studied the ergonomics of traditional brake-lever/ handlebar assemblies before developing this new design. He explains:

“When you’re riding on normal hoods, your index finger (longest and most powerful digit) is located near the pivot for the lever. That’s far from ideal. You can generate the most braking power by riding in the drops with your index finger near the tip of the lever blade, the farthest point from the pivot. I flipped things around so that you have the most modulation control while riding on the “hoods.” Also, the “drops” can be angled outward to the user’s discretion. One more benefit is that the “drops” are ergonomically shaped like a pistol grip, fantastic for tough sprints.”

You can see more renderings, and a specification chart, for the Rael concept below. For more information, contact Evan directly at evan (at) 6ixdesign (dot) com.