(Credit:
Aether & Hemera)
With the IKEA aesthetic taking over so many homes, you might be yearning for furniture that reflects your mood. Literally. The interactive Mood Chair by U.K. designers Aether & Hemera "changes color in response to the colors that its sensors perceive from the environment and the users."
Is it accurate? We're not sure. But we give the artists props for reminding us of mood rings from our adolescent years.
Aether & Hemera play with LED lights, fiber optics, projections, and UV lamps, creating installations that explore light and its power to trigger a sense of identity or set a mood. Although the partially translucent Mood Chair may never make it into living rooms, the design would sit well in a commercial setting.
(Via Technabob)
Keeping the drinks cool and the mood warm.
(Credit: Drinkstuff)Mood lighting is important in any situation. However, when a bottle of wine is opened the need is even more pronounced. It just calls for having the lights down low and some pleasant tunes on the hi-fi. Of course some friendly company is an agreeable accompaniment too.
But what of the times when the lights just aren't right? Too low or too bright, sometimes it's tricky to set the proper mood.
Enter the Drink Light Bottle Cooler. Or rather, turn it on.
This combination designed by Jorge Najera takes the lowly ice bucket and transforms it into something special. Weighing in at about 13 pounds and reaching up to about 2 1/2 feet, the freestanding ice bucket makes a great piece to have set up anywhere in the room. Just watch out for that power cable as it does, after all, light up.
In case you haven't noticed, the Drink Light Bottle Cooler is from across the pond. But don't let that stop you. If you have more than $400 (£274.99) to spend, you can get it shipped right on over. Of course at that price money might be an issue, so you may want to opt for the old-fashioned ice bucket and a candle instead.
(Via Appliancist)
(Credit:
Brando)
From its weird name to bizarre product lineup, we've always been fascinated by Hong Kong-based Brando. It has, after all, been single-handedly responsible for giving us everything from lip phones and mosquito repellants to mouse massagers and aromatherapy speakers.
But every once in a long while, it comes up with something we'd actually consider buying. And this is one of the exceptions: an LED message pen. We have no idea why--it's not as if we need one to advertise our business or anything, though it would be pretty nifty to have one that lit up with "Crave."
Maybe it's just the notion that we could change our personal message at will, kind of like an LED mood ring, to let everyone around us know if they should keep their distance. The message is limited to 20 characters but, if it's a particularly bad day, that should be more than enough.
Depression among household pets may be worse than originally believed.
(Credit:
Luxurylaunches)
We thought the issue was more isolated last month upon learning of the "Fauna Sauna"--its name doesn't exactly scream credibility--a device that uses radiant heat "to bring healing to your pet right in your home." But now it has competition in the "SunSpa," another product that claims to control mood swings by simulating sunlight "for a warm and soothing heaven for your pets," according to Luxurylaunches. We're not sure about that, but it does look considerably more comfy than its competitor.
To calm the savage beast's nerves (and your pet's as well), the 150-watt light keeps the bed at a toasty 80 to 85 degrees while promising to last 5,000 hours. The bed itself is covered with "Crypton Fabric" that is odor- and water-resistant, two qualities that would probably improve any pet's disposition with or without any lights at all.
(Credit:
ThinkGeek)
Why did this LED lightbulb catch our eye? Three simple reasons: 1) We like LED stuff; 2) we like weird remotes even more, and 3) Caroline McCarthy demands that we post anything that might vaguely qualify as "color-changey."
Naturally, this multi-color LED lightbulb with remote was a no-brainer. The bulb, which we saw on the Gadgets Weblog, has 16 colors that can be adjusted at various brightness intensities and includes "transitions effects" such as longer times on particular colors and slow fades in between. Perfect to create the right mood, per orders from the The Ladies Man.
The Sensosphere shows a starry night on cabin walls.
(Credit: Rinspeed)Swiss automotive design house Rinspeed announced a new initiative to design airplane cabins with light displays on the walls. According to its press release, Rinspeed says it can replace "clinical and plastic-orientated ceiling and side panels" with "soft-focus effect pictures and patterns, which are supported by sound and aromas". Rinspeed calls its cabin design Sensosphere. It relies on a computer-controlled electroluminescent material lining the cabin walls for the displays, and we're not really sure what it relies on for the aromas. But anything has got to smell better than the passenger in the next seat. We've seen Rinspeed's work before with its crazy transparent eXasis concept car at the Geneva auto show. BMW recently announced its own initiative to design airline cabins, so it seems this is a hot new market for carmakers. We've seen similar mood design going into Toyota's iSwing concept.
(Credit:
GetDigital)
We all have days when we just don't want to talk to anyone, especially those office pests who think nothing of barging into our private sanctuary without warning. (You know who you are.) That's where the "Memo Motion Sensor" is indispensible.
This handy little gadget can record a 10-second message and play it back to whomever enters the room, informing them of your whereabouts, instructions or anything else you'd otherwise leave on a Post-It note that might or might not be seen, according to Coolest-Gadgets. Even an inspirational message, if you're so inclined.
It's meant to be used when you're not physically present, of course, but why stop there? We think it should be adopted for all situations--including times when you're just in a foul mood and don't want to talk to anybody. Come to think of it, perhaps there's a home version in the works as well.
(Credit:
TechEBlog)
A gadget that projects colored lights may seem pointless to many people, especially when it has no raver or laser effects. But for us it conjures memories of our childhood when, every Christmas, our cheapskate dad would pull out a silver aluminum tree that came with a rotating lamp to give it "festive colors." How depressing.
As best we can tell from the description on TechEBlog, Philips' "LivingColors" is basically just a multi-hued LED lamp that can be dimmed or intensified by remote control to match your mood (see the YouTube clip below). Why anyone would want or need one of these is beyond us, but we admit to feeling kind of nostalgic about that stupid metal tree. We just wouldn't wish it on anyone else.
(Credit:
Gear Live)
If you crossed a mood ring with a cell phone, what would you get? More importantly, why would anyone think of such a thing?
The people at Panasonic and NTT DoCoMo have apparently done just that, and the result is a mobile phone that changes color depending on your emotional state. The key to this bizarre feature is something called the "Feel Talk" function (so Japanese), which analyzes your voice tones and patterns while you're conversing.
Depending on what kind of day you're having, according to Gear Live, the phone can show "10 variations of brightness and colors with a 128-gradiation LED light." That sounds like an awful lot of trouble for a mood phone, but it also has a 1.3-megapixel camera, optional 2GB storage and other stuff to go with the glowing lamp.
The phone comes in four colors, but you may want to get them all. After all, you never know how you may feel about your choice an hour later.
- prev
- 1
- next
