This is something a little different from my usual posts. This time I tried to design gadgets that I want to see in a Sci-Fi movie like “Minority Report”. I love the futuristic computer and the UX in the movie, but I was wondering what it would be like if I designed those stuff. So this time I just focused on look and feel of the devices.

“Cobalto”
I don’t remember what the mobile phone is like that is used in the movie, but the glass computer screen remains vividly in my mind and I tried to use as much lucent stuff as possible.

With this deformable metal, you can have either the usual number buttons or an iPod like dial.

LIke one of my previous posts “3D Desktop PC Concept“, it would be fun if this could create 3D objects in the air. With this device, you could see 3D holography on top of a 2D screen, so it would be really exciting.

I happened to be talked to by a Russian TV program, who wanted to feature my 3D desktop concept, so I also gave them this mobile phone concept images and 3D animation. Check out the animation too!

Future Mobile Phone Concept from mac_fun on Vimeo.

“Zafiro”

The desktop is also made of a glass screen and a round rim. This is not the one that Tom Cruise makes that hand (or body) gesture to use. This is a desktop PC.

Remember that transparent disk used in Minority Report? It can be also inserted on the screen.

The keyboard has the deformable metal and the keys get flattened when not in use.

I mentioned that I wanted to try a new career on Twitter and I’ve been thinking of becoming a concept designer for movies. I’m finding a way to be one. Do you think I can be a Hollywood concept artist?

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By the way, I’ll be out of Japan next week to attend the red dot award ceremony in Singapore, so I won’t be able to post for FFFFOUND! during the week. But I’ll upload some Singapore photos in my Flickr. Oh of course I’ll be tweeting while I’m in Singapore, too.

I like Fandi Meng’s great “Sunny Flower” concept very much and was inspired a lot by the design.

It’s a solar charger for an iPhone. Based on Fandi’s design, I made it work also as an iPhone stand.

petals colored with different lightness

See animation at Vimeo.

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So sorry about the slow update…
This is one of my favorite quotes by Thomas Edison. “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

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With tons of stuff to do, I haven’t even posted the latest idea. I’ll do it next week I promise. And after that, probably the best post for this year will be here in a few weeks!

This is a very weird looking CD player. It looks like a head of a duck when a CD is set. (Why a CD player now you ask? I’ll write a post in Johnnyholland.)

There’s a round body that rolls and a black speaker. the speaker is attached to the body at its axis and it rolls around the body.

The functions are just play/pause/next/previous and volume up/down. To turn up the volume, you roll the body so that the “beak” opens up. When you turn it off, just let it stop quacking.

That’s it. I wouldn’t stop rolling it for a while I had it on my desk. And my kids would never leave there.

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Just in time.

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“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus

If I’m allowed to design stuff like what I show in this blog not only in my free time but all day long, I’ll definitely do it. Just wondering.

This is simple and it might have been used already, but I really want to paste a post-it on a desktop icon so that I won’t forget what I should do with it. So if anybody knows a plugin like this, please let me know!!

Post-it colors, font size should be customizable just like “Stickies” (a default mac application).

Quick Look (a quick preview feature) or hover the cursor to see the enlarged image of the post-it.

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iHammock

I use my iPhone at work and at home. When I’m at work in the office, I can’t make it ring loud when there’s an incoming phone call or an email, so I change the setting to the silent (vibration) mode. But when it vibrates on my desk, it makes even louder noise than a beep, so I was thinking if I could make something soft to put my iPhone on so that it doesn’t rattle when vibrating, and thought that a hammock style would be fun. It looks like your iPhone is relaxing on a hammock, so I added a parasol that works as a solar power battery charger. You open and flip the parasol in the sun to get electricity and close and fix it on the hammock to charge your iPhone.
“iHammock”?

Just for fun again.

iAcqua2

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a 3D screen that displays stereoscopic images of music visualizer and stocked photos when your iPhone is docked? It’s like a combination of my old ideas (snow globe screen and iAcqua).

3D screen and a speaker

Cover flow in the water flow?

OC

This one tilts a bit when your iPhone is docked, making the speakers and the transparent screen float.
It tells you when there’s a phone call and an email by rocking from side to side.

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I have several cloth hangers unused in my closet. I always wanted to use them like a mobile sculpture.
Just for fun again.

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I can’t believe I won the red dot design concept award for the Looking Glass concept!!

First of all, let me thank Radhika Seth (for everything), Mika Ueno and *momoc (for beautiful photos), Takashi Yamada (for first picking up and naming this gadget), Regina Teh (for inviting me for the competition) and my family (for letting me keep doing this crazy hobby).
This is really exciting for me because it’s the first award I won since I became a designer.

I added some new images and fixed a few old ones.

Dragging stuff like a building floor to see its floor map would be useful and fun.

And here’s the presentation sheet I submitted to the red dot.

I also appreciate all the support I’ve got from the readers and magazine/newspaper editors who wrote articles of this gadget.
I’m planning to attend the award ceremony on November 24th in Singapore, so anyone who happens to be there, please talk to me. I’ll post some photos on my Flickr if I can shoot good ones there. And of course I’ll keep twitting in Singapore, too.

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Sorry it took so much.
This is one of my favorite quotes that my teacher taught me when I was in 5th grade of elementary school. In Japanese it says like “No genius can compete with someone who’s making continuous efforts”. Since I knew that quote, I try to do what I want to be good at little by little but every single day.