I’d wager if chronic disaster survivors had a choice of where to lodge, they’d choose what’s actually called the Recover Shelter. With several components that make it eco-friendly, cheap to produce, easy to transport, reconfigurable, and adaptable to multiple environments, Matthew Malone’s design has great potential for emergency situations and beyond…
Designer: Matthew Malone
Conceived after visiting a children’s hospital in Jerusalem, designer Shabtai Hirshberg created the A2B trike so disabled kids could mount and ride by themselves. When a child mounts the trike, stepping on the pedal locks the wheels, enabling the child to literally walk right into a seated position. The chest support keeps the child stabilized, and the whole trike can be customized to each child’s needs.
Designer: Shabtai Hirshbrg
Imagine being blind for a minute, and you have to go to the store to pick up a few things. You have everything in your basket ready to be checked out and since you have no cash in your pocket, you whip out the old trustworthy debit card. However, since debit/credit card machines have pretty much gone all digital, you will have to trust the clerk to help you with entering your private information. Yeah, pretty scary huh?
Designer: Kyle Lechtenberg
Braille is still the standard when it comes to helping the visually impaired read. Unfortunately translating text into braille is costly and time consuming thus the disproportionate number of braille books. Voice Stick is an advance optical character recognition scanner designed to make all books available to the visually impaired.
Designer: Sungwoo Park
I will admit, upon first reading and laying eyes on this design I almost laughed out loud. Not because of the design, but for its intended purpose. Designer Chueh Lee over at Samsung China has designed what may be the worlds first camera for the blind, the “Touch Sight”. Yup, you read me right…a camera for the blind. Chueh actually makes a good argument for such a design.
Designer: Chueh Lee
Those of you plugged into the post modern scene know the name Eames. The duo that brought us molded plywood in every shape and form is aped left and right by today’s designers. That aesthetic could be translated into almost anything as demonstrated by designer Joanna M. Hawley and her Prosthetic Leg concept.
Designer: Joanna M. Hawley
Pay a visit to any modern hospital and you’ll mostly like find a sterile, plain environment devoid of any human connection. The only comfort are the caring staff and family visits. UBIQ is a holographic dome that projects you and your family into the flexible dome in real time. It’s an important part of healing, to feel your loved ones nearby.
Designer: François Mestre
Before I get tons of comments as to the merits(or lack there of) of this design, hear me out. I am all for inspiring designers to help people that are not given the same gifts most of us are born with. The gift of hearing is one of those we all take for granted everyday, and designer Pierre-Antoine Bouzard is contributing his part to help the deaf of the world share and “feel” the gift of music.
Designer: Pierre-Antoine Bouzard
Ok, no Flintstones jokes please…this is serious business. Africans in rural areas often need ways to traverse vast distances to seek immediate medical attention. Most of the time a traditional ambulance or even any motorized vehicle is simply not available. Designer Benoît Angibaud addresses this issue with his “Jaambaaro” pedal car design.
Designer: Benoît Angibaud
An apple a day does not keep the dentist away. Trust me, I’ve tried and my dentist always finds room to tell me to brush more often. I swear I brush twice a day! Technically you should brush after you eat anything but I’m not walking around with a toothbrush. The Any Brush is all about portable brushing in a convenient disposable package.
Designer: Yuanyan Li
Here in the U.S. this week, one of our most respected political journalist and host of NBC’s “Meet The Press” died at the young age of 58 from sudden cardiac arrest. Bringing new attention to the global heart disease issue, his sudden death was not only a shock but could have been prevented if proper life saving techniques were performed. Proper application of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) can increase the chances of a victim surviving by up to 50%. Designer Ryan Helps (yup, really his name) has addressed this issue with his “CPR-PAD” design.
Seeing is not always believing as mobile phones go. It’s all about the screen and how much info can be managed through the screen. But for the blind or mostly blind of the world, little thought has gone into making a phone that helps them in their journey through life. The “Sens” phone by Takumi Yoshida is a great idea who’s time has come. For the nearly blind, this phone features lighted sides that help convey different alert messages.
Designer: Takumi Yoshida
Now here is a perfect example of concept design bettering the world in previously unimagined ways. The deaf of the world are not just being deprived of music, a sweet whisper and a simple phone call. They are also lacking the ability to be fairly warned of impending danger from out of sight sources. Designers Kwang-seok Jeong, Min-hee Kim and Hyun-joong Kim really deserve a round of silent applause for this inspired design.
Designer: Kwang-Seok Jeong
RSS
Subscribe to our Newsletter
