IDEA Awards
17th Jul. 2004
The results from this year’s Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) are online and I spent my morning coffee time looking through a hundred and thirty winners. Here are some of my favourites:
Audiopad
James Patten and Ben Recht, MIT Media Lab
"Trying to move away from the standard way in which electronic music is produced-sitting behind a laptop-this computer-based musical synthesizer engages the performer's body and includes a strong visual component for the audience. Each of the tracks in a musical composition is represented by objects on the Audiopad. When an object is moved, the computer detects the motion and changes the corresponding audio track. Fluid geometric graphics projected onto the Audiopad provide real-time feedback to the performer and add to the visual component."
AJ3136 Clock Radio (not a name to remember)
Philips, China
"To make a clock targeted at young consumers, designers created this fun device. The round device features include easy-to-hold-and-use interface that allows personalization of wake-up sounds, called the "Roll Me Over" function. The display rotates as the clock is rolled over thanks to a directional sensor."
Circular Printer
Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd, Korea and Seoul National University, Korea
"This circular-type portable concept printer responds to a real need for business travelers and challenges engineers to make it a reality. Using rotational, instead of linear, movement to obtain a truly portable design, printer size is reduced by one-third."
Categorized: Design