Here’s one more item inspired by the Star Trek franchise. This time it’s a futuristic timepiece designed by Arny Kapshitzer, a big fan of Star Trek, himself. His latest creation, known as the HMS Automatic Warp Watch, features some interesting similarities with the strship Enterprise.

Now, don’t expect this thing to teleport you to some other worlds. Anyhow, most of the body and mechanisms are made out of carbon fiber, and the perfluorinated, hypoallergenic rubber wristband is impervious to "all acids," according to the designer. Acids? Wait; is this going to become standard gear for the future marines pitted against those swarms of Aliens?

Gizmodo informs that the designer factored in the natural asymmetry of the human arm, and made the crown side of the watch thicker so it would fit almost perfectly. The new breed of rubber that makes up the band is also used to seal the watch, and Kapshitzer guarantees it’ll last for 50 years.

OK, it looks cool and all that, but does it actually tell the time? Located eccentrically towards the right of the dial, a cut-away metal piece reveals the jumping hours and minutes on two superimposed discs. The seconds are displayed in the 3 o'clock area on a cylinder linked directly to the crown. The 9 o'clock area of the dial forms the tail of the “spaceship.”

Alright, Data, set course for Earth 2, warp 9!

Looks like the next big thing for DLP projectors is extreme miniaturization. Pretty soon we’ll be carrying projectors as powerful as the most advanced we see today in our pockets. Optoma introduces the first Pico projector based on the DLP Pico chipset from TI.

<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->The Pico projector is smaller than most smart phones and Optoma recommends it as an ideal companion for ultra-portable media devices such as iPods, PDA's, smart phones and digital cameras.

Pico weighs only four-ounce and makes it easier for users to share share photos and videos, enjoying a far better visual experience with an image that is up to 100 times larger than the small screen of the source device.

Optoma's Pico Projector implements the most advanced LED technology resulting in a colorful and vivid image. The small yet powerful unit still makes good use of the DLP technology, assuring the highest possible contrast.

"The handheld Pico projector represents the latest advancement in the mobile device display industry. We view the Pico projector as a completely new and exciting market – one which dramatically expands the reach and potential of projection products into new end user applications," says Dr. William Coggshall, founder and president of Pacific Media Associates.

The projector will be first presented at Texas Instrument's InfoComm 2008 booth C909 and is supposed to hit the European and Asian markets in limited distributions in late 2008, with a worldwide launch in 2009.

Finally, the winners at the Next-Gen PC Design Competition were announced!


<-125x125 Button - left->
The 1st Place Judges Award & Chairman’s Award Winner is Napkin PC, conceived by Avery Holleman, which was very appreciated by Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect, who will offer the $10,000 prize for this concept representing a modular computer featuring multi-user and multi-interface technologies, and being destined for groups of creative professionals that work together.



The 2nd Place Judges is for WITHUS, a complex computer designed for pre-school kids by Taeho Wang and Minjoong Kim, bringing multi human interaction and a fun interface/functionalities to let children develop their creativity skills and. WITHUS was chosen by several IDSA members from the International PC and industrial design community to receive $5,000.



Backpacker's Diary, one of our favorites, won the 3rd Place Judges Award & Public’s Choice Award Winner, meaning a prize of $2,500, thanks to the website visitors’ votes.
Zhongren Zhang and Chun Yang designed a portable computer in the shape of a travel diary, optimized for the needs of people traveling a lot in the nature. If this computer concept would be real, people could benefit from media recording, solar recharging and EL illuminant.

<-234x60 Half Banner - left->Among the computer design concepts we wrote about on Techpin recently are two specifically designed for visually impaired. If these 2 computers would exist on the market, people with eye disabilities would benefit from several next-generation technologies such as an intuitive tactile user interface, the magneclay material with morphing capability to take the shape of all Braille symbols, and 3D relief images brought by the Siafu concept, while ZEN would deliver something more complex but also in a single stylish portable computer.



ZEN’s design is inspired from Zen Buddhism and conceived as a combination of Sandbox PC hardware running on the ZEN operating system concept.
Its name comes from “Z-axis Enabled” suggesting the full interactive 3D computer functionality.
One of the Sandbox PC components is the electronic Active Surface, matrix of tiny fibers which make up each pixel, capable of taking various shapes for easy Braille reading, windows scrolling, icons and several textures. The surface activates when you scratch it with the fingers, based on touch-sensitivity technology.



ZEN measures 36 x 17 x 2.8 inches with 0.7 inch thickness and a 7 degrees work angle.
When the blind user touches its tactile surface that replaces the keyboard, ZEN turns On and the user feels what is on the surface including emails text, web pages text and others. For music and sound effects the computer comes with built-in speakers, saving significant space on the desk.
Also there is no cable used for connectivity as all happens wirelessly. For example to charge a cell phone the user has to place it on ZEN’s surface and the handset starts to recharge automatically. Same thing would happen with the other mobile devices.



The designer didn’t specify a name for the material that takes different shapes from ZEN’s surface, revealing 3D images like animated ripples and landscapes, but he suggested the digital mater-like material developed by Carnegie Mellon University. Anyway, it is very similar with Siafu’s magneclay.



The fibers from the Active Surface are shifting up and down creating a variation in depth across the matrix of fibers, and these accept pressure input to change their shape.
This technology permits the enabled computer to be a perfect device for online communication, document management, media playing, file sharing and so on, all done wirelessly and with eyes closed.



ZEN is the last PC concept from the NextGen PC Design Competition 2007-2008, in the alphabetical order, featured during the last two months. Now we'll have to wait until the judges decide which concept from the 31 finalists will occupy the first place.



Later this month you'll find out the Judges’ Awards, Chairman’s Award, and Public’s Choice Award winners so don't forget to subscribe to our news feeds via "Get email delivery" in the sidebar, and receive the next articles in your email.

Since its appearance, the Yuno PC concept was a pleasant surprise for many of us because of its unique shape of a long cup of coffee, capable to display the contacts and menus on its exterior surface that is a large touch-sensitive OLED display.



It was designed especially for business professionals, but also for people who like to travel, as a mobile companion that would serve as the morning and afternoon coffee cup as well as a cool personal computer.
Although it is a cool computer design concept I can’t say it is meant to replace a laptop, because it doesn’t provide a keyboard to complete your Office documents or PowerPoint presentation projects.



Yuno measures 6.25 x 3.75 inches and is washable if you remove the detachable bottom that houses the hardware.



While drinking your hot coffee or tea in the morning you can just touch its surface to reveal the latest emails, information on stocks, news and even traffic. When you’re done reading you can simply set a nice wallpaper on its surface and take it with you at work.



What do you like and what don’t you like at a coffee cup-shaped PC?
To receive our last article from the NextGen PC Design series subscribe to our news feeds via “Get email delivery” in the sidebar.