Tempo, Digital Recycle Bin

Currently just a conceptual design, the TEMPO is an external storage device that’s designed to prevent you from losing files you accidentally delete. The clever thing about it is that it actually looks like a little recycling bin (although it might be mistaken for a cup of really black coffee).

Created by industrial designer Franco Cagnina for Intech, the TEMPO connects via Bluetooth to your Mac or PC and automatically stores backup copies of files as you delete them. As you fill the drive, a series colored LEDs on the side of the device indicates how full the “bin” is.

This is one of those great examples of utility and intuitive interface design coming together. I really hope that Intech does end up producing these.

Client: Intech
Product Type: Storage Device
Design Team: Franco Cagnina

H-Racer, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Toy Car

It may be years before you can buy a Chevy powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Tired of waiting, Shanghai-based Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies decided to design and market the H-racer, a 6-in.-long toy car that does what Detroit still can't. It runs on hydrogen extracted from plain tap water using the solar-powered Hydrogen Station and can travel more than 300 ft. in a single fuel-up. The car's miniature scale gives it one advantage over full-size prototypes: since it uses only a trace amount of flammable hydrogen, there's no risk of it pulling a Hindenburg in your living room.

PRODUCT : H-Racer
MANUFACTURER : Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies
DESIGNER : Taras Wankewycz
WEB : http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/

The H-racer, is a futuristic toy car that contains one of the most exciting and advanced technologies of the 21st century. This car operates on 100% clean fuel produced by a miniature solar-powered hydrogen refueling station that converts water to hydrogen using energy captured from the sun.

With new advances in technology, hydrogen is on its way to becoming the world’s next fuel. Hydrogen offers many important advantages: it is non-toxic, renewable, clean to use, and the most abundant element in our universe. And by using fuel cell technology to convert hydrogen to electricity without any combustion, the technology is a significant solution to many of our global energy and environmental problems.

No combustion occurs inside a fuel cell. The only exhaust resulting from hydrogen fuel cell cars is pure water. Fuel cell cars that use hydrogen as a fuel are also known as “zero emission vehicles.”

The H-racer is the working miniature version of what is being developed in real-size cars of the future. This palm-size fuel cell car contains an onboard hydrogen storage tank, a fuel cell system connected to the car’s electric motor, and a hydrogen refueling system linking the car’s storage tank to an external hydrogen refueling station. Given its small size, the H-racer is also very safe as only tiny quantities of hydrogen are sufficient to power the car.