Hasta La Ideas

LG has always been known to make excellent products. Not every released gadget or appliance sell by the millions, but the South Korean tech company continues to deliver value for the customers. It is living its promise to a shared responsibility to provide minimal impact to the planet by introducing “greener” efforts.

Still following the “Life’s Good when it’s green” motto, LG Electronics has shared additional attempts for a more sustainable future. LG explains how the soundbar lifecycle is made greener. A lot of consumers have become more conscious when it comes to shopping. Some people support brands that deliver sustainability in several ways, from product development to packaging and customer service.

Designer: LG Electronics

LG has been introducing more environmentally responsible executions. The latest lineup that perfectly shows the brand’s efforts is the line of soundbars, as every development stage is greener. LG says that the product lifecycle of soundbars is more environment-friendly. It starts with choosing the materials, as most are recyclable or have been reused, to actual production that emits less carbon footprint. The soundbars are also designed to use as little power as possible and are packed in eco-friendly boxes.

The fabric of the new LG soundbars is made from recycled plastic bottles. It’s called Polyester Jersey, which is the same material commonly used for athletic apparel. Those soundbars released last year came with a durable casing. As per LG, it uses about 1.5 million 500mm PET bottles each year to develop the said fabric. You call this repurposing, as old products are being repurposed and given a new lease in life. LG will continue to do this as it commits to becoming more sustainable than ever.

The products themselves are also green and environment-friendly. Energy efficiency is the name of the game, and it is demonstrated by the ENERGY STAR certification of LG soundbars. The models that will be released this 2022 will be power-efficient, so expect to see the Energy Star logo on more future products from LG.

Another proof that LG is serious with sustainability is that the LG 2021 soundbars got the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Product Champion Award. It is a significant award because it only recognizes brands that demonstrate social, economic, and environmental impact according to the Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Electronics Challenge requirements by the EPA.

Products from last year are already sustainable enough, but the new 2022 LG Soundbar lineup will be better. The soundbars will offer top-notch quality audio services and materials passing the Global Recycled Standard (GRS. Sustainable innovations are not just trends, they are the future, and LG Electronics is at the helm. The company has pledged to protect the environment, and we can witness more of that in future product releases like soundbars, ovens, washing machines, TVs, and other consumer electronics.

The post LG continues to deliver sustainability innovations like these eco-minded soundbars first appeared on Yanko Design.

Honda and Sony have both released statements confirming they’re in the process of forming a joint venture, to be solidified by this year, to produce electric cars together. They plan to roll out their first models in 2025.

“This alliance aims to bring together Honda’s mobility development capabilities, vehicle body manufacturing technology and after-sales service management experience cultivated over many years, with Sony’s expertise in the development and application of imaging, sensing, telecommunication, network, and entertainment technologies, to realize a new generation of mobility and services that are closely aligned with users and the environment, and continue to evolve going forward.”

New steering wheel?

The statement says that the alliance will produce and sell EVs “in conjunction with providing mobility services,” and that while Honda will manufacture the cars, it’s Sony that will develop “a mobility service platform.” No word on what that entails.

The statement only refers to the joint venture as “the New Company,” so they’ve not yet settled on a name. Honny? Sonda?

All jokes aside, here’s video of a guy actually driving a car with a PlayStation controller:

Yamaha is a name almost synonymous with excellent performance, whether about instruments or motorbikes. Both brands deliver reliable products, especially when it comes to design and quality. Whether you are searching for a new musical instrument or a motorbike, you can trust Yamaha and Yamaha Motor to offer products with value for your hard-earned money.

The two Yamaha brands have been tapped under a One Passion project to show off a computer accessory that is useful every day—a PC mouse. The two divisions of the Japanese company each presented a computer mouse design proposal with their specific influence. Just by looking at the images, we can see the inspirations. From the Yamaha group is a mouse that looks like a golden wind instrument. It looks more like a French horn, but the design team could have simply combined the familiar elements from different instruments.

Designer: Yamaha

The concept design is unique and has never been done before. Instead of wind flow, the shape follows the flow of electrons usually found in a mouse. There is a circuit board that sends the mouse’s instructions, and there are electrical signals that make the mouse function. The left and right-click buttons appear to be like piston valves. As the latter pushes air within a wind instrument, the buttons, when clicked, do what they are supposed to do as electrical signals are transmitted like scrolling and clicking. The mouse also shows some dial knobs that work. They can be used to set or “tune” the click intervals, a number of scrolls, or mouse pointer speed.

The Yamaha Motor version looks more like a mouse, but the motorcycle design can still be identified. We are not sure about ergonomics, but a motorcycle-like frame makes it an interesting piece. With the choice of color, others may think it is another boring mouse, but it looks tough and rugged—like most motorbikes from Yamaha Motor.

There is a certain “toughness” that shows this PC mouse can work as an efficient mouse. As a person can be carried smoothly by a Yamaha motorcycle, so can this mouse design take your hand with ease and offer precise control. The Yamaha Motor mouse also comes with physical click buttons. They mimic the gas pedal of an all-terrain vehicle or a personal watercraft, looking more like a lever. Scrolling is done when you hold the left/right clicks and then hold the thumb button. It is similar to a motorcycle operation when you’re holding the clutch.

The two mouse designs give us a glimpse into the design method of both Yamaha for the instruments and the Yamaha Motor for its motorbikes. They won’t go into production, but we love how imaginative Yamaha can be. These images tell us the commitment of the people behind Yamaha’s brands to “Make Waves.” If and when the two mice designs turn into reality, they can make any customer’s heart tremble. Each mouse can offer an extraordinary moment for everyone who loves either playing or listening to music or riding a motorbike.

The post Yamaha concept PC mouse designs inspired by a wind instrument and a motorbike first appeared on Yanko Design.

Here’s an interesting furniture/materials experiment, done by four students (Chen-Yu Shih, Shin-Chi Yang, Bo-Cheng Guo and Jie-Yi Chen) from the Product Design Department at the Tainan University of Technology in Taiwan. The idea behind this GanDan Bench was to design a piece of furniture made of wood, but not solid pieces of wood, which of course creates offcuts; instead the bulk of the material here is veneer.

Inspired by silkworm cocoons, the team wrapped the veneer around a foam form, yielding a bench that looks solid, yet feels soft when you sit on it.

The team writes that the project was made “without any waste or scrap,” though I wish they’d provided more details. They also mention that the veneer-wrapping technique originated from Japan’s Aomori prefecture.

My only gripe is that they used foam for the filling. Giving the natural look and waste-minimizing spirit of the project, I’d have dug it if they used something a little more eco-friendly to provide the cushioning.

Image: Gerald Schömbs on Unsplash

Sharkskin is crazy stuff, covered in what’s called dermal denticles. Seen through a scanning electron microscope, those denticles look like this:

Image: Pascal Deynat/Odontobase, CC BY-SA 3.0

As if their teeth weren’t bad enough, even their skin has teeth.

These denticles are thought to improve hydrodynamics by creating little vortexes of turbulence near their leading edges. Whatever their function, shark skin feels abrasive to the touch, like sandpaper. And in an era when no one knew how to make sandpaper, the Japanese found an application for shark skin in the kitchen:

That’s a traditional Japanese oroshiki, skinned with shark, used for grating wasabi.

Later the Japanese developed oroshigane, which are graters made of metal.

Image: Chris 73, CC BY-SA 3.0

To clean an oroshigane, they came up with this crazy brush:

Why’s it crazy? The thing is made out of a single piece of bamboo! They’ve somehow sliced the end into bristles.

The monomaterial brush reminds me of Shay Nifusi’s Monobloc Brushes.