No doubt the development of technology has greatly changed our life, and we wouldn’t agree with that more after we’ve seen the continuous improvement of LED films. Dubbed LightForm, the world’s first flexible LED lighting film measure 254mm long and 12.7mm wide, with an average thickness of less than 1mm. Moreover, it could be easily cut into various shapes, according to your different needs—attaching them onto your car or even sew them onto your clothes. Available in red, amber, green and blue colors, the LED film is priced from $ 26.95 (no battery included) to $29.95 (a battery included).

More Information Here

Everybody knows clearly that daily consumption of water could be recycled by rainwater, which could then be purified and used again to meet our daily needs of pure water. But the problem is: we seldom know how to ‘harvest’ and recycle rainwater effectively. Possibly the ‘Capture The Rain’ skyscraper will show us a new way. The concept building features a special roof to collect as much rainwater as it possible, as well as reservoirs under the roof to store large amounts of water. Apart from meeting its inhabitants’ daily need, rainwater collected by the skyscraper will also be stored in reservoir under the building for other uses.

Designer: H3AR

See what happens when furniture, snacks, daily necessities, and even the humans are adopted as a main element of the chess, the results are incredible and of course remarkable…Designed by a group of contemporary artists, ‘the art of chess’ will be exhibited at project b gallery held in milan next month, but you’ll see them on I New Idea far ahead of that time.

Enjoy more pics after the break.

Designer: jake and dinos chapman, tracey emin, tom friedman, damien hirst, barbara kruger, alastair mackie & rachel whiteread

After lengthy years of research and development, an Austria-based company is ready to launch their first brain-computer interface, the ‘Intendix’. It utilizes an electrical cap worn on the user’s head to capture brainwaves, which will then be transferred to the computer to complete certain commands. Since what you have to do to control your computer is to think, you’ll have your hands and mouth free, and that’s also why the system is believed perfect for hands-impaired people. But at present, it is only being used for writing and playing advanced video games.

More Information Here

No matter what you normally do with your old hoodie, the method here will still interest you a lot. So what are you waiting for? Follow the instructions shown in the pictorial and transform your hoodie into a functional backpack then!

Via: Gizmodo

The ExiTool concept has been designed as an essential safety gadget for car drivers, and the users will find it especially practical when they have to break the seat belts and get out of the car quickly. The emergency tool comes with a seat belt cutter, a tungsten carbide window breaker and a LED flashlight.

The belt cutter is designed with a sharp blade made from high-carbon stainless steel, allowing the drivers to cut the belt in just one single pull.

The window breaker aims to help the drivers break the window effectively.

Given that you need to look for small items in the dark corner of the vehicle, the tool also features a LED light that uses one replaceable CR2032 3-Volt lithium battery.

When not in use, the ExiTool could be easily fixed onto the seat belts with a simple folding clap.

Selling Price: $26.99

Buy it here

Coming in a similar outlook as the famous Sydney Opera, the design we’re to argue about is actually a pop-up camper, which is surprisingly luxury than you’ve ever thought！It features everything you can find in a presidential suite or a sumptuous apartment: a teak veranda, ceramic toilet, electrically adjustable beds, water heater, hot air heater and even the low-energy LED floor lighting. Its price? Well, as the old saying goes, if you have to ask, you can’t afford one.

Why is a building famous? The reason is apparently different: some are well-known because of the ingenious architects, or due to the significant locations, but there’re still some buildings that become attractive just because they’re surprisingly ’slim’! So right here are several skinny buildings we’ve collected for you guys, the building above is Haussmann building in Paris, and continue reading for more fun!

【Located in Tokyo, Japan】

【From CheongJu, South Korea】

【You can find it in London.】

【New York’s Line Tower】

【Slim but high, 15 floors plus, 8 feet wide】

【Thin house in Tarragona, Spain】

【Another skinny building from US, in Omaha】

Via: oobject

A balloon with the other end tied to the band on your wrist? What is that used for? It’s intended for ensuring the safety of the swimmers, by helping the lifeguards to quickly and accurately spot those people in danger. The concept features a stylish wristband that releases a balloon when you press the button. Simultaneously the balloons will get inflated by compressed helium gas and rise quickly into the sky, alerting the seashore lifeguards of the emergency situation.

Designer: Min Ji Hong & Kim Dong Eon

More Information Here

New York City Stoop Bench is a multifunctional piece of furniture that could be easily shifted between a bench and a stair. Just as shown in the pictures, it could flip over to change into a stair mode or double-bench mode, easy as that!

Designer: Alvaro Uribe

The two common kinds of watches separately has their own advantages—digital watches tell us the exact time directly and clearly, while mechanical watches also double as fashionable accessories for success men. So what about combining them two together? Apparently, the result is the 4N watch. It features the quirky disc-based mechanism, which rotates the numbers to deliver the time as the digital watches do. Leaving aside its high-quality material and fine workmanship, simply the limited run of only 16 units has confirmed our speculation that the watch must be quite expensive!

More Information Here

Using software made with the openFrameworks library by YesYesNo, four creative agencies and the public have collaborated to display several colorful and amazing scenes on the facade of the Auckland’s Ferry Building. Named as ‘Night Lights’,  the project was created for the re-branding of Telecom New Zealand.

More Pictures Here

What may you need to cut a cake? Of course a knife is needed, and then? The Petals Cake Slicer from a Taiwan-based company! Each set consists of a single plastic flower, but actually featuring two different ways to cut the cake—using either the pedals or the leaves. Check them out after the jump.

Cut the cake with pedals: since each pedal spans 30 degrees, simply insert the pedals into the cake, keep it in place, and then you can perfectly cut the cake into 3, 4, 6 or 12pieces.

Cut the cake with leaves: You must start first with a cut, place the leaf with the number of your needed pieces against the cut, make another cut at the other end of the leaf, and continue cutting in the same way. With the leaves, you can cut the cake into 5, 7, 8, 9, or 10 pieces.

More Information Here

Your little boys want a changing table to showcase their Transformers, his cute girls ask for enough drawers for storing their skirts, while her naughty baby needs a crib… Yups, different people need different things, but the Multi-functional Furniture by Adensen Furniture is rightly something every parent has dreamed of. Especially designed for kids up to 10 years old, the smart furniture could be changed into a crib, a table, storage drawers, shelves, and a bigger bed, etc.

Designer: Adensen Furniture

Not only in the outlook of the buildings, great changes have also taken place in the houses’ interior design, say the floating stairs. So today we’d like to show you 11 trendy floating stairs, which are achieved using glass balustrade, hidden bolts, unique shapes, etc. And the above, Maison NW, is designed by Nathalie Wolberg Architecture.

【By Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann, external tower stair】

【From German】

【Floating stair for a mountain in Peru】

【Designed for a concept architecture, by Toyo Ito】

【Floating stair hanged by Steel Ropes】

【Stair supported by double glass sides】

【Double Spiral Hanging Stair】

【Another hanging stair】

【Found in a house in Norway】

【Ribbon Stairs by HSH Architects】

Via: oobject

May it have you feel disappointed or not, I’d still like to declare that the ‘Sprout’ Pen is merely a concept from Igor Lobanov before we start the topic. But it’s really a refreshing idea, featuring a housed plant in the bulk. The containment plant lives on the ink, which means you will see the plant inflate and change color from yellow to vibrate green as the pen sits in the inkwell and takes in the ink.

Perhaps next time you’re to furnish your living room, you’d prefer the Lighting Design by Seo Dong-Hun. It consists of two parts, some color LEDs installed on the ceiling and a “light brush” to control them. Just as shown in the pictures, you can easily complete a shinning painting on the ceiling by turning on or off certain LEDs.

Designer: Seo Dong-Hun

More Information Here

Like most conventional lamps, the Airswitch1 here is still controlled by your hands, but in a totally different way. It could sense your hands, changing its light intensity when you raise your hand vertically and switching on/off if you move your hand horizontally above the lamp. Cool!

Selling Price:￡49

Buy it here

Note that the tele lens from Canon is not designed for cameras, but for holding water…Though everyone believes the cup fits photographers quite well, just imagine what would happen if they carelessly take it as real lens…

Memory Drops—as its name implies—is something designed for guiding the users to find items easily. It works more or less in the same way as the navigation systems, but using the sound rather than images. What you have to do is to stick the small drops onto your items, and press the button on the keychain-shaped device to make your belongings sound when you’re looking for them.

Designer: Bilgi Karan

Even the toolsets have gone functionally aesthetic since more and more people are pursuing a perfect combination of functionalities and art. From designaffairs STUDIO, the Repair Toolset is rightly the thing you’re looking for. It keeps a range of handy tools in a board-like kit, which is integrated with bookcases for an easy reach.

I am the kind of person who seldom remembers to unplug the devices when they’re fully charged, so you can imagine how much I’ve paid to the electric power bureau. But the Wind Up Socket, featuring an integrated timer, may change that. All you have to do is to rotate the plug to set the duration. And the socket will then cut off the power automatically, as the time passes by. For forgetful guys like you and me, the socket is really the best choice.

Coca Cola has released a new can for the Burn Energy Drink, which is especially intended for those who can’t drink up a whole tin at a single time. It features a reseal-able top, which could be twisted to open and close the mouth hole.

More Information Here

Of course every piece of soap is inevitably covered with bacteria, but who has ever seen soaps made from bacteria? These soaps from Etsy seller Cleaner Science are in the same shape of petri dishes, with bacteria (obviously they’re not real) growing inside.

Plus, some of them even have the capabilities to glow, allowing the users to easily find them in the dark.

Selling Price: $2.75- $12

Buy it here

You’ll finally leave your footprints all over the world some day, if you’re to keep running on the treadmill…I’m not kidding, because the NordicTrack x7i Interactive Incline Trainer features a fitness database which will pull actual trail and marathon routes from Google Maps, when connected to the iFit Live. As a result, you can imagine yourself a marathon runner, when completing your route shown on the screen. Wearing a price tag of $2,000, the treadmill just aims to make you enjoy fitness more.

Via

You think the watch is merely an amazing concept? It’s real, coming from Thomas Prescher. All its components have been hidden in the bezel except the tourbillon, which is held in the middle of space by a single metal wire. The rotating cylinders at the top separately indicate the hours and minutes. Positioned between them is a spherical, moon phase calendar. At the bottom is also an interesting calendar—days on the left and months on the right. Integrated with a horizontal swinging oscillating weight based on gravity, the calendar would show you the dates no matter which side of the watch is held up. Also note that there’re two crowns, one for winding and the other for setting the time and calendar.

Designer: Thomas Prescher

The first time I looked at the Hydrofloors, I thought the thing shouldn’t exist, coz more and more people including me would go crazy! Compared with luxury swimming pools, the hidden pool created by Hydrofloors is more attractive, magnificent and of course more expensive. Whenever you’d like to swim, you can easily make the floors sink into the ground to a needed depth, using a control panel. Cool as that!

Video after the break.

More Information Here

A seat, a backrest and even a simple writing desk, Miray Oktem’s “Twist Chair” is something that that would offer a comfortable and interesting seat especially for bookworms and PC users. It supports the user’s body in upper chest and forehead, allowing them to comfortably lean on the backrest for an easy reading or viewing through the hole. According to the designers, the seat would “extend towards the support to create a saddle like shape that transforms into a seat while sitting in a lower angle”. Its seat height, support height and forehead support height can be adjusted to fit different users.

Via

Imagine a table cover that also functions as a luminaire…Unbelievable? But technology has made that come true. Just have a look at the LED Table Cover. Made from fiber optics, the cloth could create a soft and warm glow when its elven-foot power cord is plugged into an electric outlet. Moreover, the cloth is completely waterproof so that you could easily wash it under running water.

Selling Price: $500

Buy it here

When given everybody a pair of eyes to discover beauty of breakfasts, we generally noticed that they look delicious, while a German photographer Oliver Schwarzwald discovered their artistic beauty. To widely share the special beauty he has found, Oliver completed a series of photographs of different countries’ breakfasts. The above is the Sweden breakfast. Continue reading for more pics.

【Russia】

【International Breakfast】

【France】

【US】

【UK】

Surely no one would mind bumping into the other person if they fortuitously found their Mr. Right or Ms. Right. But who knows whether or not the God is playing a trick on you? So my suggestion is: you should be careful enough when rushing around the corner, or simply pay attention to the Corner’s Communication Warning Sign. Designed by Sanghoon Lee, the corner sign could sense the sound emitted by someone approaching around and then light up to warn the other guys. That’s especially ideal for public places like the hospitals, restaurants and offices, where a large number of people walk around frequently.

Designer: Sanghoon Lee

Via Here

There is an element of practicality in the “Chair Poster”, an innovative outdoor advertisement for KitKat. As you can see from the pictures, each part of the poster could be easily popped out and assembled into a chair for the passengers to sit on. And then, just as its slogan says, when you have a break, you may also want a KitKat…

Designer: JWT Auckland

“Made of plastic” is not the only characteristic of the Izzy Plastic Urban Bike, a collaborative project between Omer Sagiv and Uri Sadeh. One would expect a fragile vehicle but the bike is actually quite firm to bear the weight of two adults. Best of all, its frame is recyclable, which means that you can have the damaged frame replaced at the store. To top off the cool concept, the bike also incorporates 2 free standing locking systems, three-dimensional illumination, and the integrated rear suspension.

But does the “completely plastic design” also means the bikes could be easily burned to ashes? Hopefully not.

Designer: Omer Sagiv & Uri Sadeh

Inspired by Japanese Soma-Toh, Mac Funamizu has come up with the Funny USB Memory Stick that features an interesting and direct way to present its spare capacity. Compared with conventional USB memory disks needing to be connected to PC to show its usage conditions, this device presents its spare capacity with disco lights: no lights stand for “empty  stick”, pink light for “images stored”, blue for “documents”, green for “movies” and “all lights are on ” for “full memory”. Cool!

Designer: Mac Funamizu

Welcome to the cool looking Falcon Concept Car. It’s futuristic, it’s magnificent, and most importantly, it’s powered with jet propelled engines. Yups, it’s a perfect combination of the racing car and the aircraft. Allowing an efficient driving on busy urban roads, the engines are also designed to push up the rear end of the vehicle to an upright position. When the engines are turned off, Falcon would rest in a vertical position as the SEGWAY does, taking up less space than conventional vehicles.

Designer: Samir Sadikhov

What, the flowers decide to give those who often forget to water them a good lesson by hitting on their noses with a ball…? May you believe it or not, that would happen for real if you’re using the “VaseBall” Magnetic Vase. The base of the vase and the top of the base each has magnets, which are mutually exclusive. So when the water in the vase is not enough, the ball-shaped vase will then go up from the ground. According to the designer Min Seok Song, the magnets also act as the “intermediary in communication between human in plant”. It’s time to care your plants more.

Designer: Min Seok Song

While most researchers are trying to improve the touchscreen interfaces used on PC, cellphones and MP3 players, Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft have developed a touch-interface for your skin. That’s really terrific! The ‘Skinput’ includes a micro-sized pico projector, which is embedded in an armband to beam an interface on the skin. But it actually uses an acoustic detector —which would match the sound frequencies with specific skin locations—to recognize which part  you’ve tapped. The revolutionary technology also supports wireless applications like Bluetooth.

Video after the jump.

More Information Here

What if the kids love all kinds of food? Mhmm… I guess the parents would thank the God again and again…But they should also feel grateful to Philips Design, for the Food Creation Concept they’ve come up with. The concept is intended for giving each kind of food a new look, by mixing various edible ingredients together and ‘printing’ them out in your kids’ desired shape and consistency. For example, carrots could be served as foam and broccoli as ice cream. On the other hand, it also presents the physical/chemical processes (which happen while cooking) in an artistic and modern way.

Designer: Philips Design

The Rotary Kettle fits in perfect to the handicapped, and those who are really too lazy to pick up the kettle…Featuring a user-centered design, it allows you to pour water in quite an easy way: simply grip the handle, rotate its body and then pour…Due to the spring system, the kettle will return to an upright resting position once the user release it. Its hourglass body and vivid color contract makes the kettle aesthetic enough for modern spaces. Finished in stainless steel and heat-resistant, flame-retardant polymers, the revolutionary kettle ensures a completely safe using.

Designer: Adrian Lim

More and more designers are endeavoring to improve the personal urban mobility, including Ben Thorpe with his latest Urban Wheelchair Concept. Made from the highest quality materials, the wheelchair is lightweight enough to ensure the users an easy transportation. It adopts a tightly packed ball bearing system to reduce rolling resistance, greatly increasing its efficiency. Considering the users’ needs to reach for items on high shelves, the concept also features the lifting mechanism, which would lift the user into an upright position. Powered by two Lithium-ion batteries, the Urban Wheelchair is completely rechargeable.

Designer: Ben Thorpe

Created at the Knierim Yacht Club in northern Germany, PlanetSolar is the world’s largest solar-powered boat, measuring 31 meters x 15 meters x 7.5 meters. The yacht is covered with up to 500 sqm of solar panels, which are expected to capture 103.4 kW of solar energy to power the engine that merely needs 20KW. Designed with an average speed of about 9mph, the boat could reach a top speed of 17 miles per hour. About 18 million euro has been invested into the project. According to Knierim Yacht Club, the yacht has been ready for testing later this month and the sea trials (due between June and September). If everything goes smoothly, PlanetSolar will start its first world tour in early 2011.

Manufacturer: Knierim Yacht Club

Postcarden—pronounced “post(card) garden”—is a stereoscopic card that turns into a mini-sized garden when filled with seeds and watered. Of course sunlight and a little fertilizer are also needed. Created by A Studio for Design, the Postcarden is available in three types: Allotment, City or Botanical.

Selling Price: 7.5Euro

Buy it here

Designed by Benjamin Wojtyna, Compact Kitchen Cart is quite ideal for small departments and other small living areas, where urgently needs small-sized furniture. Several containers are hidden inside and some hangers are built on its side to hold your utensils.

Designer: Benjamin Wojtyna

Some of us just don’t like to hold the umbrellas in the hands when no longer using them, and they prefer to drag them around…until the umbrellas are totally broken as a result. The ‘umbROLLa’, featuring a small ball in the top, is rightly intended for those who have that queer hobby, while not damaging the gadget.

Designer: Qian Jiang & Yiying Wu

Not everybody could easily handle the simple thing to knot their shoelaces, and the case is particularly bad to the kids and hands-impaired people. Maybe that’s why the Lace-amatic is created. The device mainly consists of two sections, one is a peg to twist and hold the laces and the other is the flat plate for keeping the peg in place. Just as you can see, simply slide the flat plate behind the laces, twist the loosely-tied laces using the peg,  and then you can easily have your shoelaces fastened. Want to take off the shoes? Well, what you need to do is only to flip the lever open with your feet! Easy as that!

More Information Here

In my humble opinion, the design seems like a terrible idea, resulting needless complexity since the piano may get wet if you carelessly pour water on the table… Of course, you won’t agree with me, if you’re just in the necessity to place a bulky piano inside your small department. So consider it for a second, the idea of the Piano Table seems quite valuable. So you like it? For $6000, you still like it? OMG!

Designer: Georg Bohle

Selling Price: $6000

Before you all leave comments about the “quite ordinary clock”, I’ve just had a question for you: how could the Oblique Clock indicate the exact time since it has no essential components like the gears? (Hints: the clock is made of laminated maple, custom mechanism and digital driver.)

You don’t know the exact answer? Well, neither do I, and that’s also a riddle for the visitors who saw it during the Toronto Design Week.

Returning to the clock itself, the cool timepiece is really cool for modern spaces. Even though its structure looks quite simple, the limited edition (20 pieces) wall clock is sold at $4000 (CAD)…So pricey…

More Information Here

An amazing bar recently appeared at the Oporto University in Portugal, capturing almost everybody’s eyes. Why, you may ask, the bar could be so appealing? Perhaps that mainly attributes to the special material the Temporary Bar is made of. It is built by firstly fixing 420 different-depth IKEA storage boxes on a wooden structure and then attaching them to the main metal structure. The designers, Diogo Aguiar and Teresa Otto, have folded open one of the building’s walls, to make it look exactly like a cool bar. Since LED lights are also adopted in the project, each box will give a different brightness (according to its depth) at night, adding more fun to the wonderful time.

Designer: Diogo Aguiar and Teresa Otto

Although named as the “Saving Energy Multitap”, the strip actually won’t directly reduce your electricity cost, but helps you to develop a good habit of unplugging the unused gadgets from the strip so as to save the energy. It sucks up the energy wasted by the unplugged devices and uses it in a rational way—to power the touch-sensitive ambient lights on the wall. The main task of the ambient lights is to remind you to switch off those unplugged gadgets if you no longer use them. As for the ambient lights, they could also be turned on or off via simple tapping.

Designer: Dong Hoon Han, Hwa Yong Shin & Dong Jin Shin

Taking the personal urban mobility to a new altitude, Honda has come up with the latest 3R-C concept, a single-seat three-wheeler. It is powered by a lithium ion battery, which is mounted low in the chassis to keep the vehicle stable. The fully enclosed design not only protects the vehicle from dirt and water, but could be used as a windshield. A lockable cargo was also included for the riders to carry needed items.