From devices that enhance your lighting and security, to products that upgrade your air quality and culinary experience, these products are essential to any design-savvy smart home owner.
Although the Global Grad Show is as much about ideas as it is about products, we have scoped out the projects and selected the best design products that are both tech savvy and environmentally friendly to upgrade your smart home.
From devices that enhance your lighting and security, to products that upgrade your air quality and culinary experience, these products are essential to any design-savvy smart home owner.
Tip.Tap.Mat
This productis a smart doormat that solves the problem of trying to unlock your door while your hands are full. It is designed by a student collective from Korea’s research university, KAIST, to allow you to open doors just by using your feet. Pressure sensors under the mat detect your movements and once you tap the correct combination, data is transmitted via wireless signal to a digital unlocker that opens the lock without you ever having to put down your bags.
Flair
Sim Hao Jie from the National University of Singapore’s design not only beautifies living spaces for urban apartment dwellers, it is also a botanical air purifier that improves air quality, which is especially significant asindoor air pollution can be far worse than outdoors due to the release of harmful Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from manmade materials.
The airflow schematics of Flair was the product of a collaboration between the designer and plant research and manufacturing company, In Vitro, after rigorous experimental testing for the efficient removal of harmful VOCs in the air, which Flair does by directing air to the plants’ roots.
Recandescent
Designed by John Routledge from the RCA, this product was inspired by the advances in hot mirror technology developed by MIT.Recandescentis an artificial light source that combines traditional incandescent lighting technology with innovative nano-technology to create the most energy-efficient and environmentally friendly light bulb ever. Not only does it have the potential to replace LED as the dominant source of artificial light in the world, every component can also be reused or recycled almost indefinitely, to avoid depletion of our natural resources. Not only does this light bulb help prevent the destruction of the environment; we think that it looks really edgy too.
LEVIT8
We love LEVIT8, not only for being portable and practical, but also for its functionality. Say goodbye to long work hours constrained behind a desk, the LEVIT8 desk enables one to move and stand up while working. This affordable and multi-purpose folding desk looks like an unassuming magazine but it can transform any ordinary desk into a standing desk. Furthermore, it has no parts and doesn’t require assembly; its functionality and form originate from a simple origami technique - the box-spiral fold, designed by three students from the National University of Singapore.
Percy Stools
Ryan Penning from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology looks to combine parametric, algorithmic and computational design with conventional product design and robotic fabrication. In his series of Percy Stools, each light weight stool is generated by a unique algorithmic design process and 3D printed with an industrial Kuka robotic arm. The results are unique, visually striking and functional furniture. Sleek and intricate, these stools made from PLA (Polylactic Acid) also have a solid feel, weighing 5-6kg each.
Oneware
Make your kitchen more versatile with Onewareby Loren Lim Tian Hwee from the National University of Singapore. The design is a special sink and cutting board tool that allows the entire process of food preparation and dish washing to be done singlehandedly. Though this is a disability-inspired design, by allowing your second hand to be free, it also means that you can multi-task when it comes to your household chores.
Solari
Designed by Bodin Hon from the Istituto Europeo di Design, Solari is the world’s first portable slow cooker, representing the next generation of fuel-free, pollution-free cookers. The light weight design uses solar energy, enabling you to enjoy your cooking experience outdoors under the sun. The concept was conceived as part of Hon’s experimental Project Solari, which aims to create innovative products that focus on sustainability. Hon is a Milan-based, American industrial designer who previously created life support systems (think spacesuits and toilets) for NASA, after graduating from Rice University.
MIITO
Designed by Jasmina Grase from the Design Academy Eindhoven for that perfect cup of tea, MIITO is an intelligent kettle mechanism that allows you to heat the exact amount of water needed in the vessel of your choice. Designed with precision in mind, MIITO gives you the option to choose your desired temperature (from 30°-100°C) once the temperature is chosen, the induction base heats the rod, which then heats the liquid surrounding it. MIITO will switch off automatically when the desired temperature is reached.
Livefeed
Coming out of another National University of Singapore graduate, Loh Zhide, Livefeed includes Airfeed, an indoor air quality monitor that is powered by wind energy, and Lightfeed, a smart bookmark powered by ambient light, informing users on whether the light level in the room is suitable for reading. Zhide was inspired by symbiotic parasitic behavior in nature to create a series of self-sustaining parasitic sensors that can measure anything from lights, batteries, air flow or air quality information in an intuitive, familiar, and non-invasive manner.Easy to live with, and easy to understand, these are ideal markers to gauge the perfect ambiance in your home.
Browse Air
Innovation need not be without a sense of humour and that is exactly the element that Pierry Jaquillard and Justine Rieder from Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne imbued their Browse Airfan with. Forget licking your finger to turn a page, the Browse Air was developed specifically to turn the pages of a book by the force of its blow – an unusual but creative way in which to read.