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Jaguar Land Rover has created self-driving cars with eyes that are used to communicate with pedestrians when it’s safe to cross in front of them.

Currently being tested in Coventry, England, the prototype autonomous vehicles sport two eyes in front, giving them a friendly face.

Much like human drivers, the cars make eye contact with nearby pedestrians to acknowledge that they’ve seen them and are stopping to let them cross the road safely.

The cars, or “eye pods”, are part of a suite of tests being conducted by Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility division, which is exploring how humans can be encouraged to trust self-driving cars.

For ideas, they’re looking to how drivers, pedestrians and other road users already communicate.

“It’s second-nature to glance at the driver of the approaching vehicle before stepping into the road,” said Pete Bennett, research manager at Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility division. “Understanding how this translates in tomorrow’s more automated world is important.”

“We want to know if it is beneficial to provide humans with information about a vehicle’s intentions or whether simply letting a pedestrian know it has been recognised is enough to improve confidence,” Bennett continued.

Statistics from the American Automobile Association show two-thirds of people say they’d feel less safe sharing the road with a driverless vehicle while walking or cycling. The figures have appeared to worsen following recent fatal crashes.

The psychological barriers to realising autonomous driving technology are now often regarded as greater than the legal barriers — a point that BMW board director Peter Schwarzenbauer discussed with Dezeen in an interview last year.

Jaguar Land Rover is working with psychologists on these trials, as it attempts to understand how vehicle behaviour can improve human confidence in the new technology. Autonomous vehicles are expected to reduce the number of road accidents.

The trials are part of the UK government-backed Autodrive project, which unites businesses, local authorities and academic institutions attempting to bring autonomous technology to the country.

The pods are made by local manufacturer Aurrigo and are being tested in a mock street scene.

They appear to look directly at nearby pedestrians to signal it is safe to cross, and engineers are recording the subjects’ trust levels before and after to gauge how much confidence they have in the vehicle stopping. More than 500 test subjects have been studied so far.

Jaguar Land Rover is a UK-based Tata Motors-owned automotive manufacturer, with both the rugged Land Rover and luxury Jaguar brands under its belt.

As well as its interest in developing driverless technology, the automaker has committed to introducing electrified versions of all its vehicles by 2020, although it will continue to make pure petrol and diesel engines as well.

The post Jaguar Land Rover’s prototype driverless car makes eye contact with pedestrians appeared first on Dezeen.

The LG G7 ThinQ phone boasts of an unusual feature. Resonance speakers. The phone doesn’t come with speakers of its own, but rather, IS the speaker. It vibrates to the audio you play on it, and if you’re holding the phone, you hear the music almost running through your body. Things get even more interesting when you keep the phone on a surface. The phone transmits vibrations to the surface, turning it into an amplifier of sorts… and depending on which material you keep it on, you get audio that sounds distinctly different.

Aimed at the Korean market, LG’s Boom Your Sound competition hoped to get designers to come together and submit entries for boomboxes that best amplified the G7’s sound. Three entries stood out, not only for their distinct style, but also for how they replicated the phone’s audio, amplifying it without the need of electricity or batteries. Sung Jae Han’s Sound Engine was modeled on the design of an engine, hoping that the G7’s sound would boom out of the engine’s hollow design just the way the car engine’s pistons do. Made out of corrugated paper, the V10 engine even comes with adjustable sound chambers that rise upwards, creating a slightly altered sound.

Designer: Sung Jae Han

Sin Seok Kim’s Sound Chamber bases itself on more traditional acoustics. Designed out of a love for and taking inspiration from the violin, the Sound Chamber comes in a squarish style, but using the very same wood a violin does, even complete with the f-cuts on the sides that beautifully emit a rich sound. Play orchestral music on the G7 and place it on the Sound Chamber, and the entire room fills up with a loud, well-balanced sound, courtesy centuries of acoustical perfection, and the perfect inspiration source!

Designer: Sin Seok Kim

Thomas Feichtner’s Resonance definitely takes on an abstract, avant-garde approach. Styled sort of like a futuristic furnace, the Resonance comes with a metal body, and placing the G7 on its top results in a sound that is (no surprise) much more metallic, with exaggerated high-ends. An ideal apparatus probably for techno music, or any sort of music relying on trebles, the Resonance is a class apart, both visually, as well as audibly.

Designer: Thomas Feichtner

Visit LG G7’s Boom Your Sound contest website here

The concept’s been floating around for a while now, but trust Motorola to take risks and bring concepts to life. First with the Phonebloks, and now with the Sphere. Half Bluetooth speaker, half Bluetooth headphone, and complete inventiveness, the Sphere gives you the option of a wireless audio experience that’s both private and public, portable and powerful… because the Sphere is not just a Bluetooth speaker. It’s also a dock for a wireless pair of headphones. Designed in a rather made-for-each-other format, the spherical wireless speaker also acts as a dock and charging station for the wireless headphones, that when positioned properly, make use of contact charging pins to juice up (and also look like an alien head wearing headphones). When you’re in the mood for some high-octane audio, tap into the Sphere’s dual 8W audio drivers with bass porting. The minute you want a more personal, private audio experience, pop the wireless headphones out and continue listening to your audio through the headphones that provide 20 hours of play-time as well as noise isolation. You can quite literally have the best of both worlds!

Designer: Motorola

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American studio Rowland + Broughton has overhauled a 1960s house in Aspen, Colorado, to offer occupants a better connection with the mountain landscape.

Ridge House is situated on an 8.5-acre (3.4 hectares) site overlooking the Rocky Mountains. It is accessed via a long driveway that curves through the undulating terrain and passes through a grove of aspen and oak trees.

The clients wanted better views of the landscape, as well as better sight lines between the rooms of the 1968 property. They also asked for spaces where they could display their collection of contemporary artwork.

Rowland + Broughton, which has offices in Aspen and Denver, sought to achieve this in “a thoughtful blending of old and new.”

“Modern architecture mixed with curated details allows for a layering of history and a connection to the ranch-like character of the site,” said the team.

The home’s structure consists of glue-laminated timber and steel columns. On the exterior, the west elevation is sheathed in dark metal siding and large expanses of glass, which usher in daylight while also affording generous views of the terrain.

On the east facade, original stone cladding had to be replaced due to water issues within the wall. The team used textured, Appalachian grey sandstone, which visually draws references to the surrounding topography.

“Sets of staggered, remnant stone walls run in a single direction, allowing light and landscape to slip past,” the team described.

Encompassing 8,250 square feet (766 square metres), the home is composed of rectilinear rooms that are organised along a central spine.

The elongated corridor, measuring 126 feet long (38 metres) and stretching from north to south, has white walls paired with wooden door frames, ceiling beams and flooring.

Occupying the centre of the home is the communal zone.

The kitchen features a cosy fireplace, stainless-steel appliances and cabinetry faced with cold-rolled steel. The kitchen steps down to a light-filled living room, where a stone fireplace with a built-in wood store acts as a centrepiece.

The south end of the home contains an expansive master bedroom suite with an original wood-burning stove, which was restored.

The north side is occupied by guest quarters and two kids’ bedrooms. A third children’s bedroom is situated in a small, upper-storey volume.

Throughout the dwelling, the team used earthy materials, such as reclaimed white oak and different variations of sandstone.

Rooms are fitted with contemporary decor in neutral colours, helping create a serene atmosphere, while floor-to-ceiling glass and sliding doors provide an intimate connection to the scenic landscape and vast blue sky.

A mecca for both skiers and cultural aficionados, Aspen is a popular spot for modern architecture.

Other recent projects in the mountainous area include a spacious residence by CCY Architects that features timber-clad boxes linked by glazed bridges, and a dwelling by Studio B that consists of zinc-clad boxes resting atop a concrete plinth.

Photography is by Brent Moss.

Project credits:

Architect and interior design: Rowland + Broughton
Design team: Sarah Broughton, Sara Upton, Will Otte, Mark Bever, Carol Cisco, Mallory Buck

The post Ridge House by Rowland + Broughton frames views of Rocky Mountains appeared first on Dezeen.

Jaguar Land Rover has created self-driving cars with eyes that are used to communicate with pedestrians when it’s safe to cross in front of them.

Currently being tested in Coventry, England, the prototype autonomous vehicles sport two eyes in front, giving them a friendly face.

Much like human drivers, the cars make eye contact with nearby pedestrians to acknowledge that they’ve seen them and are stopping to let them cross the road safely.

The cars, or “eye pods”, are part of a suite of tests being conducted by Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility division, which is exploring how humans can be encouraged to trust self-driving cars.

For ideas, they’re looking to how drivers, pedestrians and other road users already communicate.

“It’s second-nature to glance at the driver of the approaching vehicle before stepping into the road,” said Pete Bennett, research manager at Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility division. “Understanding how this translates in tomorrow’s more automated world is important.”

“We want to know if it is beneficial to provide humans with information about a vehicle’s intentions or whether simply letting a pedestrian know it has been recognised is enough to improve confidence,” Bennett continued.

Statistics from the American Automobile Association show two-thirds of people say they’d feel less safe sharing the road with a driverless vehicle while walking or cycling. The figures have appeared to worsen following recent fatal crashes.

The psychological barriers to realising autonomous driving technology are now often regarded as greater than the legal barriers — a point that BMW board director Peter Schwarzenbauer discussed with Dezeen in an interview last year.

Jaguar Land Rover is working with psychologists on these trials, as it attempts to understand how vehicle behaviour can improve human confidence in the new technology. Autonomous vehicles are expected to reduce the number of road accidents.

The trials are part of the UK government-backed Autodrive project, which unites businesses, local authorities and academic institutions attempting to bring autonomous technology to the country.

The pods are made by local manufacturer Aurrigo and are being tested in a mock street scene.

They appear to look directly at nearby pedestrians to signal it is safe to cross, and engineers are recording the subjects’ trust levels before and after to gauge how much confidence they have in the vehicle stopping. More than 500 test subjects have been studied so far.

Jaguar Land Rover is a UK-based Tata Motors-owned automotive manufacturer, with both the rugged Land Rover and luxury Jaguar brands under its belt.

As well as its interest in developing driverless technology, the automaker has committed to introducing electrified versions of all its vehicles by 2020, although it will continue to make pure petrol and diesel engines as well.

The post Jaguar Land Rover’s prototype driverless car makes eye contact with pedestrians appeared first on Dezeen.