A Smarter Pet Food Bowl By The Mind Behind Disney Magicbands. As many as 54% of US dogs are overweight, and that blame is on all of us. Dogs don’t go shopping. They don’t portion their own meals. It’s the human element that overfeeds a loyal pet and needs retraining. ProBowl, on IndieGogo now, is a smart food bowl that can help you help your dog lose weight. Designed by Matter—which was founded by Max Burton, who worked on early iterations of the Nike+ Fuelband and was largely responsible for the Disney Magicband—the ProBowl is essentially a scale that weighs the food or water you pour in.
It connects via Wi-Fi to a smartphone app that allows you to monitor, or wean your dog’s eating over time. And if at any time you over pour a serving, or if another family member accidentally feeds the dog again, the bowl will turn red—the visual equivalent of yelling, "Bad owner! "You don’t need to know it's ¾ of a cup that you’re pouring in, you’ll just know it's full," Burton says. The app brings all sorts of additional brains to the operation as well. CUJO Is More Than A Web Security Avatar—It's Part Of The Next Wave Of Emotive Tech. In some ways, using a guard dog as a nom de guerre for a connected security device makes perfect sense.
A canine sentry keeps a watchful eye and will howl and snarl if a burglar enters your home, alerting you to a potential threat. Physical intruders and anomalies are easier to detect, but what about hackers and digital breeches? CUJO, a new device designed by the San Francisco innovation firm Matter, tackles network security through a doglike avatar and channels the new wave of Zero UI in the process. Our dwellings are becoming more connected thanks to a fleet of innovative smart home products splashing into the market.
Not to sound too alarmist, but anything that connects to your Wi-Fi network is a potential gateway for hackers. According to Einaras Gravrock, the founder of home tech startup CUJO, 70% of connected devices have around 20 security flaws apiece. "In the near future, every device, every wearable will have an IP address," Gravrock says. Graava Is A Smart Action Cam For Adrenaline Junkies Who Don't Want to Edit Footage. Think of how your brain makes memories. You can recall certain moments with crystal clarity: when your child was born, when you first sampled VR, that epic burrito you had at Chipotle. And other moments—like your commute—are so mundane that you forget them instantly. Graava, a new wearable camera, wants to change the way we record our memories by highlighting only the best ones.
While strapping on a GoPro assures you that every memorable moment of your surf trip is caught on film, it also assures that you'll have to wade through hours of floating in the water waiting for that perfect wave to come. Graava uses artificial intelligence and sensors to infer what you yourself would remember, and crafts a highlight reel from the footage. The San Francisco innovation firm Matter was tapped to design Graava. The HD camera is kitted out with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, a light sensor, accelerometer, gyro sensor, and audio recorder. Wherefore Wearables. Page1of 3< 1 2 3 > Wherefore Wearables Pioneering designers rush to the wearables frontier. By Sam McMillan Is this the year wearables go mainstream? Before that carton of milk expires in your fridge, another wearable will hit the market. Currently, the database compiled by Vandrico Inc. tracks 288 wearable devices on the market… and counting.
From smart watches paired to our phones to biomedical sensors and fitness trackers worn against our skin, from multifunction jewelry to a new generation of head-mounted computers, cameras and game players, wearables are changing the way we interact with technology, information and even our own bodies. And they will certainly change the way we design. Christopher Ireland doesn’t surf, but the adjunct professor in the graduate design program at the California College of the Arts (CCA) knows a coming wave when she sees one.
In other words, a smart watch is not a smaller smartphone. A lot, as it turns out. Max Burton: The Future of Wearable Technology. Design of Wearables. Join us for three weeks of curated panels, meetups, and short-duration workshops taught by industry experts on the CCA San Francisco campus evenings and Saturdays, July 24 through August 14, 2014. Mix and match or take them all! What Do People Do with Their Wearable Data? Internet of Things Meetup (Signups closed) The Quantified Self-Meetup (Signups closed) Wearables from a UX Perspective (Panel discussion) (Signups closed) Wearables from a Fashion Design Perspective (Panel discussion) (Signups closed) Wearables: What’s Next? (Panel discussion) (Signups closed) Wearables from a Product Design Perspective (Panel discussion) Sensory Tech: Optics, Haptics & Audio (Panel discussion) (Signups closed) AutoDesk Design Night: Fashion + Tech (SOLD OUT) WEARTECHCON: Art+Design of Wearable Tech Startups DMBA Foresight Film Festival Episode 1: Augmented Reality Panel discussions can be viewed on the CCA channel on YouTube » What Do People Do with Their Wearable Data?
Instructors: M. Instructor: M. Kickstarter Rescues Startups That VCs Won't Touch, But Here's What's Missing. It may seem like we have entered a golden era of product design, in which the world’s most valuable company has built its entire business on a dozen consumer products while heightening our appreciation of the subtleties of industrial design immeasurably. So why do I get a pervasive feeling of doom and gloom when I hang out with my product design pals? Maybe its because all of the action has moved to software and apps. There is a real startup frenzy out there with designers playing a meaningful role this time around. Yet it is still damn hard to get a VC to go along with any startup involving hardware unless you have already locked in distribution with Best Buy or Walmart. When will hardware hit the masses, with MakerBots and 3-D printers on our desktops? The answer is pretty unclear. But in the meantime, you’ve got to love Kickstarter for creating a marketplace (or at least the impression of one), where the hardware plays can rise to the top.
The Good 1. 2. 3. The Bad 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. For Cellphones, It's Hip to Be Square. For cellphones, square is the new black. This season, big handset makers including Nokia, Microsoft and Motorola are betting you’ll want to flaunt cute, palm-shaped devices that look more like compact powder cases than brick-shaped mini-tablets. Motorola is likely to introduce a new phone next month called Flipout that will have a 2.8-inch display, a 3.1-megapixel camera and a twist-out keyboard. We haven’t tested it yet, but on looks alone, it’s fabulous, darling. Motorola’s square-shaped phone follows the release of Microsoft’s fresh-looking Kin One earlier this month. The Kin One has a 2.6-inch display, a slide-out keyboard, and looks like a rounded square when closed. In September, Nokia introduced the Twist on Verizon, a squarish phone with a 2.5-inch display. Even LG has a square-shaped phone called the Lotus, which has been available on Sprint for more than a year, and though it’s not exactly been a big seller, its looks are hot, hot, hot.
Click to Open Overlay Gallery See Also: When Pixels Dominate Design, Your Hardware Is The Brand. A major takeaway of the recent Samsung/Apple patent dispute: Physical objects have retained their power in the digital age. The battle wasn’t centered so much on technical innovations but design patents--specifically, the physical look of the iPad versus that of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Smartphones, laptops, and tablets are very much like ships from the colonial days of the past. Then, the countries with the best merchant navies dominated the seas and, as a result, became the richest and most powerful nations in the world.
Today, we have shifted from shipping physical goods to digitally transmitting services and media, and companies with the best vessels control the digital trade. Yet smartphones, tablets, and laptops are more than just vessels and delivery mechanisms for digital content. In the digital age, physical devices also serve as emblems of the complex, software-based goods and services they bring to life. Form Follows Meaning From Product to Ecosystem Design A New Era for Hardware. Reporters' Roundtable: Elements of tech design (podcast) This week, the Roundtable is live from CES in Las Vegas. Topic: Design. My two guests, Gregor Berkowitz of MOTO Development (and author of the Design Review blog), and Max Burton of Frog Design, talk with me about design vs. engineering, why Apple's designs are so successful, and how companies balance designers' views with marketers'.
We also take a trip into the future, looking at new kinds of user interfaces and advances in materials sciences and manufacturing. Podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Reporters' Roundtable #15: Elements of design Gregor Berkowitz is president of MOTO Development Group, a firm specializing in product strategy and development for clients that have included Apple, Intel, and Microsoft. Max Burton is executive creative director at Frog Design, which has worked with Disney, GE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Yahoo and other companies to bring new conusmer experiences to market. Hosts CCA student final critique « LUNAR > creativity that makes a difference industrial design, product design, engineering design, graphic design, interaction design.
LUNAR hosts CCA student final critique We love the fresh take on design that comes from students, especially those studying at one of our favorite schools — the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Last week, LUNAR hosted an evening with 13 CCA third-year design students from Industrial Design 4 where we heard presentations based on this semester’s major projects. The event gave the students a chance to talk through their projects and have their work evaluated by a team of experienced designers.
Each of the students’ solutions to real-world problems were based on extensive user interviews, design explorations and prototype testing. “Their work was creative, inspiring and fun,” says LUNAR’s Sasha Tseng, senior industrial designer at LUNAR and guest judge. The awesome CCA course instructors who led the students through their projects are Max Burton (Frog Design), Karson Shadley (Shape Field Office), Chris Luomanen (Thing Tank) and Rob Swinton (Huge). Artefact - Technology Product Design for the 21st Century. Tech Moves to the Background as Design Becomes Foremost. Stephen Lam/ReutersCraig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president for software engineering, discussing the redesign of its mobile software system.
In the last few decades, the computing industry has passed through several different eras. In the ’90s, the big tech companies were in a race for faster and more powerful computers. Then in the 2000s, the industry moved to mobile in a quest for slimmer phones with brighter screens. Now, the industry is entering the era of design. As I noted in my column this week, Disruptions: Mobile Competition Shifts to Software Design, tech companies are looking for ways to make sure the user interfaces of their products are unique. Design experts I spoke with noted that many of the devices we use today look almost exactly the same, which explains the emphasis on the software that goes into that interface. Design, it seems, is becoming a mainstream topic. “In the ’90s when I would meet with investors, there was no return on investment for design.
Mr. Electronics Designers Struggle With Form, Function and Obsolescence. Nick Bilton/The New York TimesThe result of movable object (iPhone) meeting immovable object (pavement) Sorry, Steve Jobs, I owe you a new iPhone. For the past few weeks I’ve been using a loaner iPhone 4 from Apple. As most reviewers have pointed out, the silky smooth glass front and back makes the phone an object that is a pleasure to hold. But not to drop. An object made of glass surely needs protection, right? Which is why I added a nice blue bumper to the edge of the iPhone.
I thought it would work beautifully until I dropped my iPhone on the concrete on Tuesday evening. I’m still trying to figure out whose fault it was. Before the Apple fanboys tear me to shreds, this is way beyond just Apple. Max Burton, executive creative director for Frog Design, said in a phone interview that Apple and other electronics companies offer a product that makes sense for consumers to slip in their pockets, looks beautiful and isn’t too cumbersome. Mr. Mr. Frogdesign: #CES Live! frog's ECD Max Burton... PER Design UK - Product Design News. The China International Design & Art Fair (CIDF) is initiated by Tsinghua University and organised by China Building Decoration Association, Tsinghua University Academy of Art and Design, and the China Industrial Design Association. Since it’s start 4 years ago, it’s been widely supported by the China Industrial Design Association, Tsinghua University, China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou Fine Arts Institute, ICSID, Hong Kong Institute of Architects, UK Design Council, Beijing Industrial Design Center and associations and institutes from Italy, Switzerland, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Over 2000 designers have participated in the exhibitions to date. The activities include design competitions, design seminars, exhibitions and lectures to improve and promote contemporary design, and strengthen the interaction between designers, support associations and businesses internationally. The Future of Product Design. Creativity that makes a difference industrial design, product design, engineering design, graphic design, interaction design » Education. Bun vs. Plastic Fork. By Kajsa Westman - August 22, 2011 A lifecycle analysis of a design before it flies is tough task, the specs are likely to not exist prior to the product being on the market. It’s next to impossible to locate the hidden toxic traps, logistic nightmares, and energy thieves without expensive testing of the supply chain form start to finish. It’s also possible to miss out on finding better logistic solutions, material and energy savings as well as consumer benefits.
So how about a middle way, a lifecycle guesstimation? For example; after overlooking my rough guesstimation below, bun vs. plastic fork, (the scenarios solve the same user problem of eating a hot dog) would you rather suggest the solution that ends up in a landfill, or would you suggest the solution that ends up with more crop? Design and business as a whole are poised for a dramatic shift. Frog Design Strengthens Creative Leadership with New Appointments. Global innovation firm frog design today announced that it is expanding its creative leadership team with several new appointments. The new hires underscore frog's commitment to enhancing its diverse expertise and building on its strong growth in multiple practice areas including industrial design, digital media design, and brand strategy.
Previously Creative Director for Nike's Tech Lab, Max Burton joins frog's San Francisco studio as Executive Creative Director. In his role at Nike, Burton worked with Nike Digital to provide connected consumer experiences that seamlessly combine product, service and community. His most recent success includes Nike's partnership with Apple for the launch of Nike+. Joining frog's New York studio, Hans Neubert has been appointed Executive Creative Director. Expanding frog's creative team in Shanghai, Rainer Wessler joins as Creative Director. British American Business Council - Northern California. Press — HENRY WU DESIGN. Candice Lin » Press. Max Burton. CSD. Attitudes and Behaviors | 3-3:30 pm | Burton. Last year, I visited Shanghai with Max Burton, one... | Young and Brilliant.
Last year, I visited Shanghai with Max Burton, one... | Young and Brilliant. CCA Junior Critiques at Frog Design San Francisco. Checking out max Burton of frog talkin bout future of id @idsanola. Frog design Strengthens Creative Leadership With New Appointments -- SAN FRANCISCO, May 13. Max Burton. Frog Design Strengthens Creative Leadership with New Appointments. Frogdesign: frog's Max Burton: Moving from... Tangible Thinking. Max Burton | Term | Object Oriented. Burton, Max | frog.