Five Awesome Utility Concepts That Can Change Your Life

Tech is changing our life – from the way mundane tasks are carried out to something as exotic and complex as the Internet of Things or harnessing the power of the Moon. Some of these things are still in the concept stage, some are about to take shape while others are ready to enter the mass market. Keeping that in mind, we bring you five innovative utility concepts that will make life super cool. Check them out.

Cool eyewear that keeps your cell phone running
With these glasses on, you can always stay cool as your cell phone will never run out of juice. That is what designer Sayalee Kaluskar (from India), along with Ramiro Ramirez, has devised and a test version for the iPhone is already out. In this special edition of Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, now called Shama-Shades, the arms carry solar panels that are wired to a battery hidden within the plastic. The cells charge the battery whenever a user is out in the sun. The rest is simple. As soon as your mobile needs some charge, pop off the arms and there you find a microUSB or Lightning charger that can be plugged into your iPhone. So get it charging and chill – here is a wearable gadget that works wonders and looks super fashionable.

Image: Digitaltrends.com



Drones on a power-trapping mission
Who says drones are for war alone? Or Amazon’s package delivery? UK-based New Wave Energy wants to fit them up with solar panels and small wind turbines – so that they can collect solar and wind energy right from the sky. Then the power could be beamed down as microwave and collected by ground-based antennas. These antennas will then turn the electromagnetic radiation into usable DC power and feed it into the grid. Each 20x20 metre craft (self-powered by on-board energy) will contain four small propellers, a flat surface covered with solar panels and a few wind turbines. They will be flying at around 50,000 ft – above the existing air traffic. The company plans to raise about $500,000 on Kickstarter to fund the prototype and if that is successful, the first flying power plant could be up in six months.

Image: New Wave Energy



‘Reinvented’ smart wheel with loads of spark
Here’s one hybrid bike (we mean bicycle) that may tempt you to power-ride, instead of driving. Its USP is the Copenhagen Wheel, a 12 pound rear wheel with a small motor assembly mounted in the centre. It gathers energy when a biker brakes or descends, and finally has enough juice to provide a battery-powered ride uphill or along the plains. The ‘wheel’ was first developed by a small group of students at MIT’s SENSEable City Laboratory. It is now up for pre-order and Superpedestrian, a venture-backed company operating out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has the exclusive licence to the Copenhagen Wheel. This company has been founded by MIT SENSEable’s associate director Assaf Biderman who is a part of the original Copenhagen Wheel crew. Initially, the firm will be selling the wheel at $699 for a single-gear configuration, but soon one can get fully fitted-out bikes and multigear set-ups.

Image: Digitaltrends.com



Flying ‘economy class’ can be a pleasure with Morph
Lack of funds need not cramp your style anymore – if British design firm Seymourpowell has its way with airlines’ seats. The new concept called Morph is all about custom-sizing your seat. Unlike traditional seats, Morph features a bench-like piece of furniture, covered with stretchy fabric over a foam base. This fabric is stretched over the entire width of three seats, around the frame and over the formers. The fabric is then clamped down by the armrests and the upper dividers to form three individual hammock seats. But the seat space can be adjusted the way you want it as the seat dividers can be moved and clamped down in a different position. What’s more, there are mechanical seat formers underneath for adjusting recline and other ergonomic requirements. That’s what we call flying customer size and hope it will be adopted soon.

Image: Seymourpowell.com



Here’s a window cling that cuts out noise
If a noisy neighbour or a noisy neighbourhood is driving you nuts, there is Sono, a window cling (in fact, it will attach itself to any glass surface) that can cut out all irritating sounds in the same way active noise cancellation is done by some hi-end headphones. But it happens to be more sophisticated and enables you to ‘block’ noise selectively. That means you can still listen to songbirds or the wind rushing through the trees, but not the cars honking on the street or the bagpipe practice going on next door. Well, Sono can discern between a wide range of frequencies and has the ability to neutralise these selectively – so this sound magic is totally possible. Developed by industrial designer Rudolf Stefanich, the interface looks and acts like a dial. As of now, Sono is just a working prototype, but once it enters the market, we all can enjoy the glorious gift of silence even in the heart of busiest cities.

Image: Jamesdysonaward.org