From the darkness to the light

This one is a month old, but I suddenly chanced upon it again today and wanted to share it over here. 

To see what I’m talking about (the video below is nice but the effects don’t come through as they are supposed to, probably because it doesn’t work when it’s embedded), you’ll need to watch the original video on the Vimeo page over here. Let me know what you think. 

Honda Insight – Let It Shine from Honda on Vimeo.

Tracking your virtual presence through a doll, who would have thought!

This is another idea I caught on Trendwatching which sounds like a lot of fun for GenY types. It’s a USB doll which functions according to the presence of a particular friend on instant messaging. So, if the friend is online, it pops up, and once he or she goes offline, the doll falls down! Extremely entertaining concept. Here’s a video:

It’s called Availabot, and can also work the other way around: i.e if you store your name and info on the doll, you can hand it to friends who will then be able to register your virtual presence. It’s also customisable. It’s not yet available for sale, but the design agency behind it, Schulze & Webb, is working on it.

I love the creativity behind the whole idea. It’s not something I would have thought of, but I can imagine many people who, like me, are enthralled by creative concepts and they’d buy it for exactly that reason and no other. I mean, it’s not like I’ll NEED one, but if it’s going to have novelty value AND make me laugh (and because I will be in a vast minority of people who have it, I hope!), I’d go for it.