So this is what it's come to. We've spent all and now are compelled to face the true reality of the situation we've chiseled out for ourselves. All these years trying to get more, get more, and get more independent have really all been spent mortaring ourselves tightly inside the chamber of the Hate Goat.
The Hate Goat sows confusion and harvests the gutted husks of dreams from within the foul Abbatoir of Hope. He rejoices that we've invested so much of our blood and effort, only to finally join him in his vile abode.
YOU LIED TO ME YOU SAID YOU'D NEVER TURN FROM ME YOU LIED TO ME YOU LIED TO ME (40,029)
Having the wrong idea can lead to pleasant surprises. This isn't always the case, of course -- for example, being under the impression that one is going to school and later finding out that one is indentured in a spirit-extinguishing mill of bleak negation straight out of a Brueghel the Elder panel is actually a pretty nasty shock. But sometimes, misunderstanding can lead to a fun serendipity.
My experience at this month's IxDA (Interaction Design Association) Phoenix event was such a delightful mix-up. I'd understood that this event was going to be about "rapid prototyping." When I hear the phrase "rapid prototyping," I'm thinking about supercool "3D Printers" and the like, such as the RepRap, an amazing self-replicating prototying / microfacturing robot. This kind of rapid prototyping is so cool that it makes th' first Guns 'n' Roses record look like Candlebox' B-side collection, and I'm really into it. I was expecting, say, a presentation from a prototyping professional or tech guy and hopefully a demonstration of one of th' amazing machines. Seriously, these things are cool -- look them up! Your university probably has one.
As it turned out, the sort of rapid prototyping on deck at IxDA Phoenix that day was th' sort where a bunch of designers sit around a table with cardboard and kindergarten-style craft materials with the intention of developing a profound improvement on a common household item and building a model of the improved concept.
This turned out to be big fun and more awesome than watching a robot build pieces of itself. Th' industrial-design posse split into two teams. Our team, Team 1, chose to reimagine the domestic laundry setup, while our esteemed competition Team 2 opted for the toaster oven.
One of Team 1's main ideas was a way to integrate "line-dry" or "drip-dry" clothing items into the normal wash / dry regimen without the need for liability-fraught clotheslines or brassieres hanging in the shower.
This was accomplished by creating a slot-based, cartridge-fed air-drying section on the side of our laundry assembly. The design created a rapid-air-dry system by recycling the heat exhaust from the dryer unit through a piping system (cooling the air slightly) and then circulating it amongst the air-dry clothing. The air-dry items are placed in V-fold flat cartridges mad eof perforated non-corrosive screen to maximize air flow. Any water that is captured from the air-dry process is recycled to the washer mechanism. Each load / cylinder can be programmed to stop and make a sound at the end of the washing stage to aler the user to the presence of air-dry items within the load.
The other main idea of Team 1 was to eliminate the hassle of manually changing clothing loads from washer to dryer. This was accomplished by the use of a rotating "magazine" of three laundry cylinders, each of which can be loaded and programmed differently. The cylinders rotate on a central carriage device and are individually and automatically engaged and disengaged from the main rotation motors in the washer and dryer sections of the machine. The cylinders are constructed and ported in such a way that they can function either as washer or dryer vessels.
The washer section of the unit is on top, the dryer is on bottom. The "third" cylinder is idle and out of view until rotated into the washer or dryer position.
With this system, the user can load up to three loads of laundry at once including air-dry-only items, and expect the air-dry items to be done at roughly the same time as the normal machine-dry items.
The entire system takes up approximately the same footprint as a conventional washer-dryer pair (but is slightly taller) and can use the same hookups. In sum, this system is more convenient, more variable, and more eco-friendly than current standard laundry setups.
Team 2 designed a below-cabinet toaster oven, the GuttenTost, that looks like a Star Wars vehicle and serves up tasty toast without the space-hogging hassle of a big-footprint kitchen appliance. Watch the video -- it even makes great toast out of cardboard bread! (42,554)
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