Top 10 Drool-worthy Designs
There are 194 works currently on display at MoMA’s exhibit “Talk to Me.” Selecting ten goodies out of the bunch was easy, but selecting the ten absolute best was very, very hard. So instead of calling this the Top Ten Best, let’s call it the Top Ten Awfully Good and Incredibly Inspiring Objects from “Talk to Me.” (It doesn’t have quite the same ring, I know.)
10. Happylife
There are 194 works currently on display at MoMA's exhibit "Talk to Me." These are the pieces that inspired us.
This ones' bananas. Happylife is a machine that's smarter than you are. Its camera and sensors "detect changes in a person's mood and emotion by taking thermal images of his or her face. By analyzing facial expressions, eye movements, pupil dilation, and other physiological changes, the camera may be able to predict future criminal activity." But the designers want to market it to families for "keeping peace at home." Over time, it will learn the emotional habits and mood swings of each family member and be able to predict them before they occur. As an example, they profile a family who experienced the death of one of its members. ''It was that time of the year. All of the Happylife prediction dials had spun anti-clockwise, like barometers reacting to an incoming storm. We lost David 4 years ago and the system was anticipating our coming sadness. We found this strangely comforting.''
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.9. Eyewriter
If you saw Julian Schnabel's THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY back in 2007, then you know that communication for a paralytic is almost impossible. Still, Jean-Do managed to write his autobiography by blinking it to his nurse/transcriber. If he had had a tweaked version of the Eyewriter, he might have fared better.
In 2003, an LA-based graffiti artist was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which, like Jean-Do, left him entirely paralyzed except for his eyes. However, with the help of some amazing foundations, he developed a pair of glasses that are "wirelessly connected to a laptop and laser-tagging apparatus installed in downtown LA," so he can "paint graffiti tags in color, which are then projected at a superhuman scale in real time," and people walking in downtown can see the tag appear on buildings it's created.
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.8. Soundrop
When I first walked through the exhibition, I was kind of annoyed by how many gaming-related concepts were on display. They seemed to make up the overwhelming majority and conveyed - to me, at least - the depressing message that new technology was mainly being used for distraction. But then I saw the delightful attention-diverting Soundrop, "a musical geometry game" that was actually one of the very first apps I downloaded on my iPhone.
It works like this: users create a soundscape by drawing lines that intercept balls dropping down the screen at regular intervals. The balls bounce off the lines, and the faster they bounce, the higher the pitch they emit. Complex and labyrinthine soundscapes emerge, shaped by a unique blend of randomness and intention: rhythms at first appear regular but begin to shift as more balls activate the space."
I still think there are too many pointless games available that merely act as time-suckers, but Soundrop is so much more inventive and unique that I've made it my particular exception.
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.7. Menstruation Machine
Designed to be worn by men, children, postmenopausal women, or whoever else wants to experience menstruation, "the metal device, which looks like a chastity belt and is equipped with a blood-dispensing system and electrodes that stimulate the lower abdomen, replicates the pain and bleeding of the average five-day menstruation period."
Watch the video, if you can stand it. It shows a man (I think), getting all dolled up for a night out, which, in Japan, means putting on a hot pink wig, an orange hat, a metallic green jacket and a shiny silver menstruation belt. During the night, the belt-wearer doubles over in pain from cramps and then heads to a bathroom where he watches blood drip from the machine into the toilet. It's officially the winner for #1 most bizarre/questionable usefulness.
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.6. E. Chromi
Next up on gross-out technology is E.Chromi, which made museum-goers either laugh or cringe because it's about poop - neon-colored poop, to be precise. The project alters strains of bacteria "so that they change color when exposed to various chemicals produced by the body in the presence of different pathogens''. The patient ingests a drink, much like a probiotic shake, laced with the engineered E. coli; The bacteria react with the enzymes, proteins and other chemicals that are present in the gastrointestinal tract and turn different colors for different diseases, thus changing the color of the patient’s feces."
It has the potential for easy, straight forward diagnoses, and the designers were so proud of their poop they displayed various samples in a briefcase, as if to say, "let's get down to business!"
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.5. Word Lens
This app would have been super helpful on my recent trip to Peru, when I tried to beg a menu translation from various non-English-speaking waiters at the many hole-in-the-wall restaurants I opted for instead of the tasteless tourist traps in the middle of town.
Sure, I survived, and I now know that cuy is guinea pig, but this app, which "uses character-recognition software to instantaneously translate written words," would have been my monolingual ass' best friend. All you do is hold your phone in front of the text and it translates it from English to Spanish or vice versa without altering the rest of the image. More languages are coming soon.
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.4. Helix card game
Helix is unlike any other game you’ve ever seen – seriously. For starters, it requires your DNA. Yep, before you can begin the game players send a swab of their saliva to a lab to be analyzed. From that data, the game's designers create a customized 50-card deck based on the traits and tendencies revealed by your DNA.
One card might be for obesity, another for depression and another for curly hair. The game begins when each player lays their cards on the table and engage in duels that ''reward strategy and decision making but are limited by genetic reality.''
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.3. Prayer Companion
The nine nuns that make up the Poor Clare Sisters in York, UK, live much like nuns did in medieval times. Taking a vow of enclosure, "their only connection to the outside world is through occasional access to Catholic newspapers, mail and limited use of the telephone and computer." Now they can add the Prayer Companion to that very short list.
The device was designed to be understated and unobtrusive, and it's the only one of its kind. ''Goldie,'' as the nuns call it, sits on a table in a hallway that they often pass through, scrolling news as well as the feelings of anonymous strangers whose blog entries are aggregated by the website We Feel Fine. The nuns have said that ''it has been valuable in keeping their prayers pertinent.''
I'm not a religious person in the least, but knowing that there are real nuns on the other end of this machine, reading the prayers of the hopeful is like if Santa was real and he read every Christmas wish list sent to him by every the kid in the whole world.
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.2. VoteEasy
If you're like me and have no idea when the election for House and Senate reps is, or know who's even running, you best get yourself to the VoteEasy.com, an amazing, interactive website you can use to determine "which political candidates most accurately reflect [your] own views."
The interface is an astro-turf-covered map of the US. When you click on your state and district, the map zooms in a pleasant, bubbly fashion, with chirping birds and happy, outdoor sounds to make choosing the right candidate as fun as possible. And it is. In an absolutely painless ten minutes I found two candidates in my district who are 86% in line with my stance on abortion, Afghanistan, crime, the economy, education, the environment, guns, healthcare, immigration, social security and taxes. They're both women and - surprise, surprise - they're both in the Green party.
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.1. Digital Remains
I'm still mulling this one over. Digital Remains is "a beautiful, personalized data-storage artifact equipped with a Bluetooth connection [that] allows users to log onto the digital remains of a loved one and receive their data on personal digital devices."
The designers' argue that being able to pull up "a photograph from a holiday spent together or a favorite piece of music [will evoke] the presence of the deceased." But what about all the other stuff we compile online during our lives? Will this be a curated memory? Who can make it through this life without ever suffering the humiliation of a controversial photo or other embarrassing web gaffe?
I'm not so sure I want my nearest and dearest to have access to absolutely everything Google manages to dig up, do you?
Anyone can be the next great inventor. Watch QUIRKY, Tuesdays at 10p.
