Category Archives: Industrial design

Finnish autonomous driving company sensible 4 and Japanese lifestyle brand Muji have launched the first driverless bus called “GACHA” for all weather conditions. It is expected to start operating in the city of Espoo, Finland in April 2019.

Specialty paper company Takeo based in Tokyo, and Torafu architects collaborated and created “airvase” by using a single piece of paper. It was exhibited at Japan House in London.

A new series of “Infobar” will be released in Japan in February 2013. Designed by Naotao Fukasawa, the HTC-made phone comes with Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064, 4.7-inch 720p display, 16GB of storage, microSD slot, 2,100mAh battery, LTE radio (800/1500) and Android 4.1.

Japanese carrier NTT DOCOMO will launch NEC’s “MEDIAS W N-05E” in April 2013. It is possible to use two displays separately for different tasks, or to use them together as one larger display. Specs: OS: Android 4.1 Processor: Dual core MSM8960/1.5GHz System memory: 1GB Camera: 8.0 megapixels Built-in storage: 16 GB Battery: 2100mAh Dimensions: 136 x 64 x 12.2mm Weight: 183g Images and videos via buzzap.jp

SONY will release “LLS-201”, a wireless storage device on April 30th. It comes with NFC (Near Field Communication), and the device can receive data files such as pictures and videos from mobile devices just by one tap. Specifications: Storage: 1TB Wireless LAN: IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) Inputs and Outputs: USB 2.0, Memory Stick Duo, SD memory card, HDMI output Supported formats: JPEG, MPO, RAW, AVCHD, MP4, MPEG2, SD, MOV, 3GPP(3GPP2), AVI, MPEG1 Dimension: 172 x 172 x 32mm. Weight:500g Price: 30,000 Yen or around $335.

Panasonic will release its first mobile phone in seven years outside Japan. Panasonic left the global market in 2005 when its sales went down. The name of the mobile phone has not been disclosed, but it is a ultra-shin mobile phone with minimal design.  It also features a 4.3 inch OLED display and is water-resistant. This global model will be available only in Europe in March 2012. Panasonic apparently has a plan to expand its market to the US and China later.  

Japanese mobile phone brand “iida” released a new model “X-RAY” designed by Tokujin Yoshioka. The concept is “designing a phone that doesn’t seem to have a form” It is transparent, and Yoshioka designed the inside the phone: the chips and electric lines. The material used is also a new, special material which was developed by a glass textile manufacturer. Red, Black, and Blue are available.