All posts tagged concept

All-In-One Electronic Card (travel light and green!)

I always have this big issue to deal with when I’m travelling “light”: “what should I do with the dozen of plastic cards I have in my wallet?”. I have plastic cards for almost everything: of course my credit card, ID card and driving licence, but also my various customer cards, membership card from various associations and finally frequent flyer card for different airlines.

I let you imagine what my wallet looks like at the end of the day. So it’s always a big deal, when I’m trying to travel light, to decide which card to take or to leave in a drawer.

One other issue is that every time one card expires, its plastic adds to the trash. So do the numerous receipts that we accumulate after swiping our CC.

But a wind of change might blow (soon?)…

The fundamental of the One Card Electronic Card is quite simple: it wants to eliminate the trash and give a break to our poor ever growing wallet (and resolve issues like identity theft via discarded expired CCs) by proposing to be this all-credit-cards-in-one device.

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On one end of the gadget is a Memory Card Slot that will help the user upload their various card Details.

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The other end has a turning-knob that allows one to choose the appropriate card to be swiped.

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The display on the device reflects an identical copy of the card front, while the strip on the back mimics a card’s magnetic strip. Once the transaction is completed, the receipt generated is displayed on the device (no paper receipt) and the info gets stored on the memory card.

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The concept is pretty clear in what it wants to achieve, namely combine all cards that a person uses under one umbrella, reduce generation of paper/plastic trash, identity security etc. The only block is the compatibility with various banks and the willingness of people to rely on a gadget for daily CC transactions. Yes, we do use online, virtual services, but something like this is quite different.

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As a matter of facts this concept may one day revolution our approach to the concept of wallet itself! Imagine that this all-in-one credit card may give us the ability not only to pay our goods, but also services (a virtual e-ticket for public transportations or airplanes, social security, insurance) and feature everything from our secured personal data (passport/ID card/Driving licence) to the family picture we carry everywhere…

Of course there’s always the issue of losing it with all the critical information it carries… but it is just the same problem as loosing your real wallet. Except that we can imagine that this all-in-one wallet will be able to be deactivated remotely and thus safeguards all our data.

A very nice concept indeed.

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Designer: Kim Young Suk

Portable Map Projector Concept

Maptor is an innovative portable map projector concept by Jin-Sun Park and Seon-Keun Park that promises to eliminate the need for paper maps.

Equipped with GPS and a small projector, Maptor allows the user to display map on almost any surface and view their current location. It somehow reminds me the mobile phone with embedded GPS which displays arrows on the ground in “Microsoft’s vision to the future”.

Creating a concept is nice, turning it into reality is even better.

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Augmented Reality Future by Nokia

Here’s a video showcasing some of the future technologies dreamt up by Nokia and introduced at Nokia World. According to Nokia, this new concept featured in the video allows people to experience immersion and effortless navigation through new types of interactions involving near-to-eye displays, gaze direction tracking, 3D audio, 3D video, gesture and touch. Thanks to these new types of social linkages people will be connected in innovative ways between the physical and digital worlds.

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Want more? go and visit Nokia labs

Do you speak QR Codes?

“And then the invasion slowly started, deeply burying its roots in the neuralgic points of major industrial cities, before it spread all over the World.

And there they were, all around us, before we realized it was too late.”

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To that point you are maybe wondering if this is some kind of stupid joke like the Crop Circles, a punk movement like the Army of the Twelve Monkeys or if this is real and we are under the threat of an Alien-like invasion.

“None of them” you’ll say. And you’re damn right and clever! Those weird drawings are only QR Codes. Continue Reading →

$100 laptop cushion: what the point in that??!

While browsing the news today I just came up with a couple of articles from serious publications celebrating the release at IFA of one of Philips’ latest innovation: the CushionSpeaker.

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Save Nabaztag: because we don’t like to see bunnies die

nabaztag_tag_blogLets be honest. You wouldn’t normally associate bunny rabbits with cutting-edge technology and superior intelligence.
Of course there was that time Bugs Bunny outwitted Marvin the Martian using an Aludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator but we’re talking real-life here! Maybe that’s why thousands of fans worldwide have been utterly gobsmacked by Nabaztag/tag. Derived from the Armenian word for rabbit, this ingenious Wi-Fi-enabled bunny has revolutionned the way Wi-Fi fans receive information about… well, about anything! Continue Reading →

“Beam me up, Scotty!” *

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On Time Sound headset system is a Project that looks into the future, aiming to new trends and styles. According to Pedro Gomes, its conceptor, this device “re-designs the concept of headsets as a futuristic clock-bracelet. When using it as an headset, the bracelet works as a clock and the LCD touchpad screen allows the user to see the caller id. When calling, the bracelet vibrates for a silent warning and to answer the calls, it only needs one touch on the screen and two to reject it.”

No doubt that Captain Kirk would have traded his transponder’s communicator for that one instead…

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Source: Core 77 / Coroflot

More on Beam me up, Scotty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_me_up,_Scotty

Warm your lunch on your laptop’s USB! Portable heating food system concept by MO:BEN

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Here is a prototype of food container specifically designed for office workers (or urban nomads always on the go…) who do not even have time to heat their lunch in the microwave oven during their lunch break. Continue Reading →