augmented reality | petitinvention

Kaya – Future Microwave Oven Concept

I’m not a cook, but I know what the food should be like for me to eat. I know it shouldn’t be burned or it should be defrosted. I just don’t know exactly how long it should be cooked. I wish there were a microwave oven like this that ‘shows” me what the food will be like after cooking.

But first, I wish a microwave oven was movable so that it could get close to the table when necessary.

Put a dish in it and this oven tells what kinds of foods are in it.

Adjust the ‘look’ of the food displayed on the glass by dragging the button. You can control the cooking time while looking at what it will be like after cooking the adjusted length of time. You’ll know exactly when it boils or burns.

Inspired by a dome tray when I was watching Ratatouille.

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Thru –Lucent Mobile Phone Concept

Just like some of my previous mobile phone concepts, the transparent body would be pretty attractive.

What’s different this time though is that this Thru has a function to show 3D images behind the screen. It looks as if there were another world behind it because the images are made to look natural on the floor behind the screen.

So the email notification would be made like a game, which sounds fun.

There could be a fierce battle on your desk. In any case, I’m pretty sure it would be so fun that you couldn’t stop watching it.

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January 11, 2011 | Categories: augmented reality, concept, Design, future, Gadget, mobile, technology | Tags: augmented reality, concept, future, mobile, phone | 7 Comments

FiiL – Post-Touchscreen Interface Concept

Future TUI (Tangible User Interface) mobile phone. This is a post-Looking Glass concept; I’m thinking this type of user interface will be commercialized after touchscreen hopefully within a few decades.

As matter of fact, Looking Glass has two sequels in my head.

Looking Glass –> FiiL –> ???

I’ll make a post of the 3rd concept after I make a few that introduce more application examples of FiiL.

Basically this is a touchscreen, but this mobile phone lets you “feel” what you’re touching. The flexible screen surface makes z-axis movements and takes shapes of buttons, switches and so on.

For example, you toggle a switch to unlock the phone.

Buttons are now real buttons that you can feel the height of. You also feel the pressure when you push it.

Not leveled ground can be instantly scanned and rendered on the screen, which must be helpful for visually disabled people.

Solar charging. How much is completed can be known by its shape.

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January 7, 2011 | Categories: concept, Design, future, Gadget, technology | Tags: augmented reality, future, mobile phone, TUI | 3 Comments

red dot design concept award 2009

I can’t believe I won the red dot design concept award for the Looking Glass concept!! (I added some photos of the awarding ceremony on my Flickr.)

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.

September 4, 2009 | Categories: augmented reality, competition, concept, Design, Gadget, inspiration, technology | Tags: augmented reality, award, competition, concept, Design, red dot | 57 Comments

3D Desktop Concept

I’m back! Thank you so much for all the get-well messages and comments. As I wrote on Twitter, the operation went OK and I’m 90% back to normal. I drew some sketches in my Moleskine while I was in the hospital, and this is one of them.

This 3D hologram video just makes me want to have a desktop like this.

When you’re not using it, it works as a desk lamp.

Bring the black curtain down so that the hologram can be seen more clearly in front of you.
There are tiny projectors installed, giving off 3D hologram in front of the curtain.

A browser window can be resized by actually “pinching” and dragging the tab at bottom right.

It would be fun if a document could be made as if you were using a typewriter. The curled paper hologram comes out of the keyboard.

Touching the 3D objects would be really fun. Dragging, throwing, resizing, etc., but crushing paper to dispose it would be the most interesting.

You have to adjust the “depth” of the cursor on screen, so how about a mouse like this? By pressing the mouse body downwards, the cursor sinks (goes deeper) on screen. When you release it, it goes back to the default position (front).

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Speech Balloons for the Hearing-Impaired

Speech balloons in comic books show very well how the characters speak. If we could instantly visualize how people speak, wouldn’t it be nice for the hearing-impaired? It means they can SEE our voices.

Stressed words are rendered larger than those spoken less loudly.