If everything at CES actually worked (i.e., no concepts) and you won one of those grab-whatever-you-can-in-fifteen-minutes shopping sprees, what would you snag? We've worked out a short list:
The Cynaps Bone Conduction Bluetooth Headset is the perfect way to take noisy calls on a crowded city sidewalk (or CES exhibition hall floor). I tested the device out in person (it was embedded inside a baseball cap) and it's awesome; just push your tragus—that little flap on your outer ear—closed, and you can hear audio coming in clear as day, transmitted through your bones.
The Cynaps is currently up for pledging on IndieGogo, and at $9,000 of $20,000 with 20 days left to go at press time, it could go either way. I should also point out that I'm of the opinion that they need to add a throat mic, though they claim their external mic picks up voices fine.
PiqX Imaging's XCANEX portable scanner was one of the few devices on the showroom floor that actually looked like an industrial design project.
The portable, fold-flat device clips onto your laptop, and can then be used to "scan" (via snapshot) documents, books, receipts, you name it. The included software auto-rotates the image to the correct orientation while OCR sorts out the text, making it an easy, and quick, push-button solution. Also a great way to quickly scan ID sketches. Totally wish I had one.
A little background: while recently perusing the About page of the Below the Boat website, I noticed that the Johnsons punned that they "side launched" the site in December, with a link to this YouTube video:
Wikipedia, the source of the images at top and below, is uncharacteristically uninformative on the topic of side launching, but the Internet, being the oceanic expanse of data that it is, has turned up a quasi-encyclopedic account from a contemporary shipbuilder. As 11th generation Master Shipwright Harold Burnham of Essex, MA, relates in his exhaustive but otherwise enlightening account of his first side launch:
The way a side launch is executed is as follows: First, the vessel is leaned over so that her bilge rests on a short plank and wedges which will ride on the one groundway down into the water. Then a number of greased slabs (the barked edges of logs that are discarded when squaring off timber) are wedged up under the vessel's keel in the spaces between the blocking she was built on. Finally, as the tide rises, starting aft, the vessel's blocking is split out from under her keel. When enough of her weight rests on the greased slabs, the gravity pulling her down overcomes the friction holding her back. It is hard to guess which block will start her. Sometimes it takes a little jacking and jerking to get the vessel going, but once she starts things get really interesting...
This image dates back to 1751
Exactly who developed this method of launching is lost to history, but it is almost unquestionable that the draft restrictions of the Essex River spawned its use. Likewise, it was probably the horrendous angle of the vessels as they entered the water that limited the adoption of the side launching technique despite the fact that it was far easier and less expensive than a cradle launch.
As launchings became more and more infrequent, they went from being regular occurrences to exciting events. People came from miles around to watch. It is amazing how some people find mystery in the most basic of arts, and I am sure that many builders were entertained by the aura of uncertainty they created. I have heard educated people who witnessed the old launchings comment, "You never know what was going to happen"...
I must admit that the startup Designed by m mostly struck me for its cheeky take on Apple's brand identity, appropriating the design cues (including the font Myriad Pro) with a wink and a nod for their website and, to a lesser extent, Kickstarter campaign. In any case, the AL13 aluminum iPhone bumper is a go, handily doubling its $20,000 goal in a week, and it doesn't take an aerospace engineer to see why: it's sleek, lightweight, easy to install and, above all, thinner than its competitors in the bumper category.
Of course, if the AL13 isn't minimal enough for you, we covered a couple of ultraminimal cases about a month ago. Although Alex Karp didn't reach his funding goal via Kickstarter, the campaign apparently received enough publicity to attract outside investors, who have offered to bankroll Bummpies. mod-3, on the other hand, has surpassed their goal for the Radius case by over 50% as of press time, with five days to go.
Judging by the large amount of small, wheeled, floor-mounted robots we mostly saw coming from Asian manufacturers, manually cleaning spaces in Asia will be a thing of the past.
While iRobot is a well-known name in the 'States, in China it's Xrobot (see their machines up top, as well as the one below that looks like it was designed by Cylons) that's all over the "intelligent robot service industry."
Techko Maid's RV102 sweeping mop-bot breaks out of the familiar circular form factor to go with a square.
EcoVacs' Winbot is also square, but can pull a trick the others can't: The window-cleaning robot sticks to vertical glass.
Moneual (the company behind the Touchscreen Cafe Table) makes a "state of the art robot air purifier" in the H800, which chugs around your apartment scrubbing the O2. I'm not crazy about the taller form factor, because unlike the floor vacs, this one looks trickier to flip over and disable in case it goes rogue.
The H800 is not yet sold in the 'States, but once it is, how long until a Star Wars geek hacks it up to look like R2-D2?
This is awesome: Tokyo-based Showta Mori, a businessman turned stage performer from what we can tell, has rigged up a Travis-Bickle-like iPhone contraption using drawer slides. What's funny is that some of the younger generation currently linking to this video apparently have no idea it's based on Taxi Driver. Anyways just watch this, it's worth it:
With our third year in full swing, the Core77 Design Awards is keeping up one of our favorite traditions: the limited edition poster. This year, our intricate poster was designed by the magnificent guys at Zut Alors! in New York City.
The poster offers a fresh new take on the awards program, offering a witty and inspirational tale that will encourage you to Try Hard(-er). It's sure to motivate and inspire; plus it looks awesome. Be sure to check out all the easter eggs—you won't be disappointed!
All you have to do is REGISTER THIS WEEK, and we will send you a poster to display on the wall of your choice. And even better, if you submit your entry before our Earlybird deadline of January 31, you'll receive 20% off your entry fee!
Moment is looking for exceptional Experience Designers to join our team in New York. The ideal candidate is a T-shaped designer, with broad skills in business consulting, user research, service design and experience strategy and depth of experience in information architecture and interaction design. Moment relies heavily on critique and collaboration—with each other, our clients, and their customers—in order to ensure successful experiences for the people who use the products that they design.
Say what you want about IDEO, but no one can deny that some brilliant folks roam their open-plan workspaces, including Dave Vondle and Jerry O'Leary. The longtime colleagues at the firm's Chicago office have just launched a side project under the name Central Standard Timing on the occasion of CES 2013, handily surpassing their $200,000 crowdfunding goal for "The World's Thinnest Watch" in a day and a half.
Indeed, the CST-01 comes in at a svelte 0.8mm, and, at 12 grams, "weighs less than five pennies"—the first 500, which sold out in a matter of hours, were available for $99, or about 54.5 lbs worth of pennies. The internal electronics are laminated into the flexible stainless steel band, which accommodates a scant 0.5mm of componentry in its 'face,' "[showcasing] the most innovative qualities of E Ink's SURF segmented displays; ultra-thinness, readability, ruggedness, flexibility, and low power."
Vondle and O'Leary have also wisely chosen to forgo hardware buttons: Users set the time through the charging stand, which is a beautiful object in itself. Of course, considering that it will only take ten minutes to charge the CST-01 for a month of use, the buoy-shapped base might end up in a drawer for most of the wristwatch's 15 year lifetime (our two cents: maybe it could double as a coffee tamper?).
3D Systems seemed to be the only 3D printing company out in force at CES, perhaps because it was at last years' that they debuted their Cube 3D Printer.
This year they pulled the sheets off of not one, but two machines: Their updated Cube 2, a faster and more accurate update to the original, and their larger CubeX, which can print "basketball size" (10.75" x 10.75" x 9.5") in both ABS and PLA.
Once Nexiom had refined their wicked Power Slate ultra-slim battery, they needed some industrial designers to refine the product it would be a part of. After a successful Coroflot search that product is now ready: The AMPT Smart Bag is a sort of messenger bag/backpack hybrid capable of charging many gadgets at once.
The vertically-oriented, sleekly profiled bag can take a laptop in one side...
...and tablets, phones, cables, and smaller gadgets on the other side.
Inner sleeves take Power Slates to provide charging functionality, and the larger 1300 model has enough juice to get your laptop from zero to full.
LIVE from CES Las Vegas!
Five Design Themes For 2013
Tokyo Designers Week / DesignTide Tokyo 2012
Beijing Design Week 2012
Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation
Beam Project: Call for Proposals
Stripes: Design Between the Lines, Edited by Linda O'Keeffe
Hidden Forms by Franco Clivio, Hans Hansen and Pierre Mendell
Design Process Kills Creativity / Design Process Creates Creativity
"If I Knew Then What I Know Now..."
Industrial Design and Crime
If you are a leader, make sure you give props
Core77 Design Awards 
SHIFTBoston 2012 Glow Competition 
This image dates back to 1751
Biomimicry 3.8: What Would You Ask Nature
Changing the Face of Motocross
20 Years of Kikkerland
Discovering Chinese Design
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2012
BEIJING DESIGN WEEK 2012
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2012
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2012
"Why Shrink-wrap a Cucumber? The Complete Guide to Environmental Packaging"
"Stripes: Design Between The Lines"
Hidden Forms by Franco Clivio, Hans Hansen and Pierre Mendell
Taschen's "Design of the 20th Century"
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Poetry in Motion: A Four-Part History of the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing
All Chips On the Table: The Bicycle Art & Design of Garrett Chow
The Future of 3D Printing: Mere Misnomer or Something More?
The Road to Recovery
Notes from the Field: Design Observations in Uganda
