Initial Ideas

There are several ideas that I have been wanting to design/build for awhile now and this might finally give me the perfect excuse to spend the time/money to actually do one of them.

Each idea posses a very different kind of aesthetic to me... they are:

• Magnetic Stirling Engine (form from function)

By: Huib Visser (Video)

Engines, typically tucked away under mountains of utilitarian garbage or hideous decorative plastic, it is very rare to find an engine that is intended to be beautiful. Personally, my favorite aesthetic is when the form follows the function, however, I think this can be in elegant and non-elegant ways. I always remember a quote I heard from a car designer once that went something like, "... I like to think of the engine like a sparkling diamond, and the car is its box. When you open the hood of a car, it should feel as though you are opening an engagement ring box, where the engine is presented to you, taking your breath away, and everything else just fade into the background." Although not in a car, I think Huib Visser's model Stirling engines are a perfect example of the beauty an engine can aspire to.

• Plasma Speaker (show casing)

By: jmartis2 (Video)

The plasma speaker is an example of a massless speaker design that results in ultra-high fidelity sound reproduction. It uses an electric plasma arc, controlled lightning, to create the pressure waves, controlled thunder, which we hear as sound. The magic of this process is in the utilization of pulse width modulation (PWM). The arc's clock frequency is first tuned far above the range of human hearing, usually around 80-100 KHz, rendering it silent. Then this high clock frequency is tuned on and off at the specific frequency of the sound to be produced. The aesthetic challenge of the plasma speaker is how to showcase such a cool and unusual technology. What proportion of internals should be left visible, should the plasma be seen directly or should just a glow of light be shown, what materials should be used, etc.

• Wind Powered USB charger (product)

By: MiniKin

A USB charger is a perfect example of simple consumer product where its design has very little to do with its function… this is why they almost all look like your typical AC converter brick. However, with the addition of something dynamic, like a wind turbine, the aesthetic of the product becomes a larger proportion of the overall design intent. 

Any suggestions?