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Digital Placemat
Even decorations will be digital. These digital placemats are made of flexible screens that can be rolled as paper. Images can easily be downloaded and transferred to the placemats, be it from the Internet, a digital camera or elsewhere. Whether a formal dinner or a weeknight supper, these placemats lend any mood or theme to mealtimes.
Designer: Rodrigo Wolff
7 Comments »
Connor says
This would be very useful for restuarant who could display their Menu on it.
Nowwer says
I agree.
tar says
This design completely subverts the point of a placemat: to protect the table underneath it from getting dirty or damaged by plates, cutlery, the heat from the food or indeed the food itself. For this you would need to create a cover that keeps the design visible while still being sturdy enough to guard against damage.
Restaurants especially would have quite a time with this – the paper placemats that a lot of places set out seem to attract food particles like magnets. It wouldn’t take too long before one of these was more full of crumbs and dead skin than your average keyboard, and upkeep costs would probably be equal to if not greater than the cost of producing paper mats.
For home use, the cost to maintain just one of these would more than likely far exceed the cost of maintaining traditional placemats made of, say, rubber or cloth.
Wade says
The photo shows that it has a thick glass cover – unlike a keyboard or touchscreen monitor, there’s no need to allow the user to touch anything that can’t be sturdily built and easily cleaned.
Of course, that makes me wonder about ‘These digital placemats are made of flexible screens that can be rolled as paper’.
eric says
duh, of course an e-paper placemat is going to be less economical compared to its printed paper counterpart. that’s not the idea behind this design, it is looking into another way to add to the user experience. there are plenty of materials which this could be made out of that would actually be more economical then you think and would be quite easy to clean with low upkeep. i think this would create a wonderful opportunity for restaurants to express themselves in an innovative and practical way
rainbow says
cool
sash says
sure it seems cool, sure it saves on paper HOWEVER am I the only one questioning where all the energy will be at to supply all these new digital designs with power?? Energy crisis is not just going to go away. Plus we have new more toxic wastes as a result. When that battery dies will it be eco friendly? when the placement no longer works can it degrade back in the environment safely?