Breathe In, Breathe Out
The “inhale” shape, crisp lines and cool greenish whites of the Xbox 360, a gaming console from Microsoft that will make its debut at the end of the year, signal the company’s first foray into high-concept hardware design à la Apple. Microsoft broke away from the black color of its original Xbox and created a sculptural object to accord with its vision of the home of the future — and to play well in cramped spaces in cities such as Tokyo, said Kelly Stanmore, Microsoft product manager for Windows gaming. Although the idea of the “inhale” shape came from San Francisco-based Astro Studios, the designers at Osaka, Japan-based Hers Experimental Design Laboratory Inc., which also worked on the project, pronounced it very “Japanese,” said Microsoft Xbox 360 design director Jonathan Hayes. Coincidentally, the concept echoes a Panasonic Design Center prototype for a remote control made of biogel that was exhibited in Japan last year. When it’s switched on, the device appears to “breathe” in and out. Or, as Hayes says of the Xbox on Microsoft’s Web site, “I think of the design’s iconic gesture as the inhale of a martial artist before a burst of power.”
Orange Tang
Only slightly bigger than a credit card, the Casio EX-S500 camera is easy to carry and can shoot still photos or an hour of video with sound. It comes in white, orange and stainless steel. The 5-megapixel camera makes its debut later this month.
Color Me Stimulated
Don’t like the environs, but too polite to say so? Let an Urban Chameleon skirt do the talking. Embedded in the fabric of these skirts are sensors, microphones and conductive fibers that detect pollutants and environmental stimuli such as motion, contact, sound, carbon dioxide and methane. The skirts signal the presence of these irritants through changing colored lights and thermo-chromic inks. “We were looking at novel forms of information delivery,” said Katherine Moriwaki, a Ph.D. candidate in the Networks and Telecommunications Research Group at Trinity College, University of Dublin, who collaborated on the project with fellow student Fionnuala Conway. Moriwaki showed off three of the skirts at the Wired NextFest exhibition in Chicago last month. Next up: Handbags equipped with global positioning systems and WiFi.
— Denise Power