Design

A design studio based in San Francisco has produced a conceptual vision for an autonomous passenger vehicle for the year 2040. Able to comfortably seat seven people, the designers see the Autonomobile taking care of all that tedious driving from A to B while those onboard sit back on the curved sofa and watch a movie, play games or catch up with the news on a large touchscreen display. And if the mood calls for some refreshments, the vehicle can even take care of that too. Read More

What do get when you combine a Leica M8, a universal shelving system and a Braun radio designed by Dieter Rams, some Illy ground coffee tins and an Ikepod Solaris watch? Probably not much but thankfully 18-year-old Andrew Seunghyun Kim has used design influences from those very items to produce a gorgeous mobile phone concept he's decided to call the "HTC 1" (though he has no affiliation with HTC). From the slight curve to the touchscreen display to its metallic construction and simple but functional user interface – it's a pretty slick design. Read More

Imagine waking up on a cold winter’s morning to light streaming in through your bedroom window and the smell of fresh coffee. The concrete floor is warm and your favorite music starts to play as you eat your breakfast. As you drive away the house automatically locks, the thermostat reduces and the insulation panels close as the house goes into hibernation until you return. Welcome to LUMENHAUS, the completely solar powered, open plan house that uses computer technology, flexible architectural design and energy efficiency to adapt to its owner’s changing needs as well as environmental conditions... and it recently won the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe. Read More

On display at the Design Engineering and Manufacturing Solutions Expo in Tokyo, this pen assembly machine is an impressive example of robotic multi-tasking and dexterity – albeit perhaps not that practical. So if you happen to work on a pen assembly line, you might now be redundant thanks to this robot. Or maybe not... Read More

Fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are huge priorities in the aviation industry – passenger airliners chew through amazing quantities of fuel. Take the Boeing 747, which guzzles somewhere around a gallon of jet fuel per second – it's clear that a percentile improvement in fuel consumption can make a huge difference to costs at the end of a long-haul flight. That's why the Minix wing tip deserves close scrutiny. It replaces the tilted winglets at the tip of an aircraft wing, can be retrofitted to any airplane, and smooths out the wing-tip vortex, reducing the aircraft's wing drag. Minix claims the design is five times more effective than a regular winglet and can save as much as 6% on an aircraft's energy costs. For a commercial Boeing 747, that equates to a saving of around 600,000 gallons of fuel per year, per aircraft. Food for thought. Read More

There are racing simulators – and then there’s I-WAY World. Taking four years to complete, the strikingly stylish complex in Lyon, France, features not only a bar, restaurant, fitness and conference rooms, but also offers enthusiasts 18 fully equipped 6-axis racing simulators with the choice of rally, endurance and Formula 1 simulation. Read More

Here's a clever stencil kit that will help iPad developers sketch out their application ideas on paper. UI Stencils' iPad Stencil Kit features all the standard buttons and menu items that you would see on an iPad, and lets you trace them out on your paper with ease. Read More

This year's Design Lab competition from Electrolux has seen 1,300 entries from 17 countries flood in for consideration. The theme for 2010 is the "2nd Space Age" and the 25 semi-finalists have just been announced. Soon that number will be further reduced to just eight, who will then battle it out to try and win a wad of cash and the chance to work at one of the company's design centers. But before that happens, let's take a quick look at what's on offer. Read More

There’s no doubt that the wonders of modern technology allow for some pretty special experiences and benefits that would leave the previous generation wide-eyed with disbelief – just yesterday I was watching a World Cup match on an iPhone outside a pub in flawless quality – but do you ever find yourself pining for simpler times? If so, even if it's more for nostalgia than practical purposes, the USBTypewriter could be right up your street. Read More