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Todd Stabelfeldt has been paralyzed from the shoulders down since a gun accident at age 8 severed his spinal cord, leaving him confined to a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. Using iOS Switch Control, he’s gained new abilities and independence through accessible technology. And now–using HomeKit and Siri–his entire home has become accessible.
Something like this should be an assignment at every industrial design program–and it was conceived of by a used car dealer in the UK. The imaginative folks over at Jennings Ford Direct have commissioned an unknown designer to render “8 Classic Game Consoles Redesigned as Cars,” whereby s/he essentially transfers the design language from one series of objects onto another:
Atari brought the arcade experience to your home in the early 1980s. With its faux-wood panelling and chunky black chassis, you’ll be eager to flick that satisfying ‘On’ lever in our street level version.
The NES car is inspired equally by the early Nintendo’s blocky 8-bit graphics and the boxy console itself. Just as the Nintendo Entertainment System took gaming from geek territory into family pastime, you’ll be able to fit the whole tribe into this one!
The Sega Genesis, or Megadrive as it was known outside of North America, dragged console culture into the 16-bit age. The machine that gave us Sonic the Hedgehog was a sleeker number than its predecessors. You’ll want to get its pacy automobile equivalent onto the open road to put it to the test.
With a 128-bit, 294 Mhz Emotion Engine running under the hood, Sony’s breakthrough games machine is the godfather of 21st century consoles. Just one look at the powerful Playstation car will tell you that now we mean business.
Nintendo’s PS2-rival was a prettier machine both inside and out. The superior graphics of the games were matched by the elegant indigo box that powered them. The vehicular version is similarly elegant – and easy to park!
It’s funny to think that the graphics of handheld consoles used to be in black and white. Sega and Atari both beat Nintendo off the mark when it came to producing a color screen – but when the Game Boy Color arrived, its batteries had far better staying power. The Game Boy car, therefore, is a neat little runaround that’ll keep going as long as you need it.
The Xbox 360 introduced console gaming as we know it today. With its superior graphics, built-in hard drive, DVD player, web access and usb ports, the machine is ready to communicate with the outside world. We reckon this makes the car version just about ‘driverless’-ready – and versatile enough for town, arena, and off-road.
Finally consoles have gone truly mobile: the Switch is a powerful home console that you can pick up and play on the go. Naturally, its car version is a sporty 2-seater that looks like it’s ready for anything!
If you were an ID professor giving this assignment, what two object categories would you have your students connect? Assume that it’s an exercise and not practical. I’d like to see mid century modern superyachts, modernist farm tractors and Memphis-style exercise machines.
The “Greatest Show on Earth†is closing its doors, but it’s giving everyone on Facebook a chance to tune in to the final bow. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, a mainstay of entertainment since P.T. Barnum’s first show in 1871, will have its last performance on May 21. The Associated Press reported today the entire show will be broadcast from start to finish on Facebook Live. Kenneth Feld, CEO of parent company Feld Entertainment explained the reason for the show’s closing when it was announced in January: The decision to end the circus tours was made as a result of high…
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An anonymous reader writes: Sunday is World Autism Awareness Day, and landmarks around the world will “light it up blue” as a show of support, including New York’s Rockefeller Center and the White House. “Autism spectrum disorders affect an estimated one out of every 68 children in America,” President Trump posted Friday, and autistic characters have now even been added to the new Power Rangers movie and on Sesame Street.
But technology could also play a role in improving the live of people with autism spectrum disorders. Reuters is reporting on a robot specifically designed to help teach communication and interaction skills to autistic children, while Vanderbilt University has 20 studies exploring more ways that robotics and technology could help, according to Zachary Warren, an associate professor of pediatrics. “A child may not respond to their mother calling their name but may automatically respond to a robot action or a piece of technology,” Warren says after one program which showed improvement in five out of six participants. “If we can use that technology to shift how that child responds, then we may have a very valuable system to that child, that family and maybe for autism intervention.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader writes: Sunday is World Autism Awareness Day, and landmarks around the world will “light it up blue” as a show of support, including New York’s Rockefeller Center and the White House. “Autism spectrum disorders affect an estimated one out of every 68 children in America,” President Trump posted Friday, and autistic characters have now even been added to the new Power Rangers movie and on Sesame Street.
But technology could also play a role in improving the live of people with autism spectrum disorders. Reuters is reporting on a robot specifically designed to help teach communication and interaction skills to autistic children, while Vanderbilt University has 20 studies exploring more ways that robotics and technology could help, according to Zachary Warren, an associate professor of pediatrics. “A child may not respond to their mother calling their name but may automatically respond to a robot action or a piece of technology,” Warren says after one program which showed improvement in five out of six participants. “If we can use that technology to shift how that child responds, then we may have a very valuable system to that child, that family and maybe for autism intervention.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.