Get Smart

We are constantly awed by the wizardry of technology. The fact that our mobile GPS can guide us through winding countryside back roads, or that Shazam can tell us what song is playing in our favorite boutique, continues to astound us. But phones aren’t the only products that can “learn” our wants, needs and desires. Indeed, smart technology is now being applied to everything from greenhouse gear to furniture. Heck, someday soon the whole idea of “pillow talk” may take on a whole new meaning.

Tulipe Pot: Though our BlackBerry’s Tasks app is useful for generating to-do lists, we still have lapses in memory for the most basic chores, like watering house plants. Even Post-It notes prove less than effective for this simple task. (Indeed, our office terrarium is looking a little wilted these days.) There may be a solution, however, thanks to a highly creative Brit named Natalie King, now a designer for Chanel. For her final university project, King created a plant pot that lights up to alert its owners when the plant inside requires some TLC. The Tulipe pot is not commercially available yet – any angel investors out there? – but the prototype has sensors that detect temperature, light and moisture levels. Of course, that’s all fine and good for when we’re home to water it, but what about when we’re away? We’re envisioning a version that enables users to react remotely, so that when we return from one of those extended vacations, our plants will be there to greet us, alive and well.

Vibrotactile Posture Feedback Chair: Also incubated at a place of higher education, the Vibrotactile Posture Feedback Chair was designed by researchers at Yale’s engineering school. Student Ying Zheng and professor John Morrell retrofitted a plastic Herman Miller Aeron chair with details that Design Within Reach has yet to apply to its PostureFit model. Six force-sensitive resistors, or tactors, and one distance sensor vibrate if the seated person slouches or loses the correct spinal alignment necessary for good posture, thus startling slumped desk jockeys into sitting up straight. Lest you think the vibrating sensation is akin to an airport massage chair, it’s actually intended to be less than relaxing – making us wonder if, after a few days of use, we’d end up turning the technology off out of annoyance. But with so many office back injuries incurred just from sitting and typing, it could be the best way to avoid having to visit a chiropractor.

Tweeting Ford Fiesta: Four University of Michigan students (Collin Hockey, John Ciccone, Joe Phillips and Sangmi Park) recently broke new media boundaries with Caravan Track, a cloud-based app that has the ability to socially connect cars through the Internet. (Caravan Track is just one of the applications developed during Cloud Computing in the Commute, a 12-week course that Ford created in conjunction with the university.) The app allows a group of vehicles to track and tweet one another’s locations, speed and direction; plot, share and update routes; and alert one another to stops along the way or hazards on the road – all of which can be done on a multiple choice interface that eliminates the need for (and hazards of) a phone. While the idea of a tweeting car at first sounded ridiculous, if it can prevent getting stuck in a traffic jam, we’re all for it.