The 2024 Design Intelligence Award (DIA) ceremony wrapped up the 2024 awards season at the China Academy of Art, Liangzhu Campus. The top honor and grand prize went to the Fourier General-Purpose Humanoid Robot GR-1. The THETA Dental Implant Surgery Robot System, Digital Central Axis: Immersive Interactive Digital Exhibition of Beijing's Central Axis, Pic Copilot, and the Ventete aH-1 Helmet (UK) all earned Gold Awards.This year's entries reflect the global diversity and cross-cultural exchange of the contemporary era, featuring work with cutting-edge applications in artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, virtual reality, new materials, and so much more. The work actively explores augmented reality and human-machine symbiosis within emerging industries - like low-altitude economy, digital cultural tourism, and humanoid robotics - promoting the reconstruction and upgrading of global supply chains, innovation chains, and value chains in Industry 4.0. Founded in 2015, the Design Intelligence Award (DIA) is the first international academy award in the field of industrial design in China. Upholding the core values of humanistic Intellect, life wisdom, industrial think tank, and science-art intelligence, DIA has run successfully for nine seasons. The DIA aims for professionalism, international participation, and perspective, making it China's most influential industrial design competition and an important global platform for discussing intelligent design and innovative wisdom.This year's competition current DIA edition has received over 8,000 entries from 47 countries and regions worldwide, adding seven new participating countries and gathering representation from 76 countries and regions for the first time. Among the entries, 360 works from 21 countries and regions were awarded, with 39 outstanding works reaching the finals. Notably, 58% of the selected works are not yet on the market, and 56% are making their global debut. The Grand Prize project Fourier General-Purpose Humanoid Robot GR-1.DIA 2024 Grand PrizeThe Jury's top prize was awarded to Shanghai Fourier Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. for the Fourier General-Purpose Humanoid Robot GR-1 (China). This is a complete humanoid framework with a robust platform customization, combining bionics with high-performance robotic technology, endowing the machine with a sense of life and immense intelligence potential. The THETA Dental Implant Surgery Robot System Industrial Equipment Gold winner.Industrial Equipment - Gold AwardHangzhou Jianjia Medical Technology Co., Ltd earned a gold in the Industrial Equipment category for their THETA Dental Implant Surgery Robot System. This is a dual-mode, multi-configuration, mobile and easy-to-operate robot for the dental surgery field. The integrated digital design enhances precision and efficiency, showcasing the promising prospects of artificial intelligence in the dental field while promoting equitable access to oral healthcare.The Pic Copilot Digital Economy Gold Winner.Digital Economy - Gold AwardAlibaba International Digital Business Group took the gold in Digital Economy for its Pic Copilot a clever and simple design with highly efficient and practical AI, integrating multicultural experiences and addressing commercial pain points, effectively covering a wide range of user demands for everyday issues. Digital Central Axis: Immersive Interactive Digital Exhibition takes Gold for Cultural Innovation.Cultural Innovation - Gold AwardTencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. earned Gold in the Cultural Innovation category for Digital Central Axis: Immersive Interactive Digital Exhibition. The largest hyper-realistic digital twin space of Beijing's Central Axis to date, marking the first global application of gaming technology in world heritage nominations. The integration of historical heritage and modern technology is profoundly significant. The Ventete aH-1 Helmet wins gold in the Life Wisdom category. Life Wisdom - Gold AwardVentete Ltd (UK) took the Gold in the Life Wisdom category for Ventete aH-1 Helmet, an inflatable, mini-foldable bicycle helmet with a patented pneumatic structure system which delivers unprecedented multifunctionality and convenience.Check out all the award-winning projects in the Design Intelligence Awards 2024 program and learn more about DIA for 2025 by visiting the official DIA website.

There are so many objects in our lives that we take for granted because of their familiarity and banality. They dont see much in the way of innovation, new features, or radically new technology, either because theyre perfect the way they are or they dont have much room for improvement anymore. Thats hardly the case, of course, and there are plenty of ways these designs can be improved that dont change their functions.User experience is defined less by a set of features and more by the way we relate to and interact with a product. Simply changing the user interface while retaining the functionality can already have a significant impact on the experience, for better or for worse. Changing a products story by simply changing the way it looks can also make it more relatable, as demonstrated by these design concepts of regular, everyday tools that poke fun at their own idiosyncrasies.Designer: Changhwi KimAlthough it was a world-changing innovation back in the early 1900s, the bread toaster, especially the pop-up kind, is hardly seen as a marvel these days. The only time you even notice its presence is when it catches you off guard, either with a bell sound or the sudden jumping of bread slices. In a way, the toaster is almost like a ticking bomb that suddenly explodes when you the timer hits zero.The ed!t Time Bomb Toaster takes that sometimes annoying design to heart, enlarging the timer and making it the focal point of the design. Rather than just a simple lever that you push down to start the process, you turn the dial as you would on some ovens and microwaves. You then watch with bated breath as the dial ticks and turns until you hear the familiar ding, announcing the arrival of freshly toasted slices. The entire process becomes a little bit more playful and less mechanical, adding a touch of delight to your mornings.Not everyone will need a hair dryer, but for those that do, its an indispensable part of their daily routine. Some might even be so dependent on it that they will invest in some portable power source to be able to use it outdoors. It becomes a sort of partner and guardian of sorts, often serving as a visual reminder that they need to dry their hair before proceeding to the next part of their day.The Watchman Dryer concept takes that role quite literally, with a folded form that looks like an iconic police cars red siren. On top of your dresser or beside table, its presence clues you in on your routine, but you can take it one step further by setting an alarm that alerts you when your scheduled hair care moment is near.Wireless charging has made it super-easy to put down a phone and pick it up over and over again. Sometimes you can even have it charging while standing up, increasing opportunities for distractions. If we cant help but reach for our phones every now and then, maybe it would be easier if the phones themselves stayed out of reach.The Hide and Seek Charger concept does exactly that but in a somewhat comical way. The conical wireless charger is supposed to roll away with your phone during a set period of time when you dont want to be disturbed. How that works is, of course, anyones guess, but it paints the picture of a smartphone accessory that wants to be helpful even if it means hiding your phone from you.The post Everyday devices re-imagined with tongue-in-cheek humor and playful designs first appeared on Yanko Design.

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Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple will move away from its current processor designs that keep the CPU and GPU cores on the same chip and see a performance gain.TSMC has just announced an all-new chip production process called "A16"One of the reasons for Apple Silicon's speed over the previous Intel processors has been that each M-series chip has been a single unit. This System-on-a-Chip (SoC) idea cuts bottlenecks by having all the processor's elements together on one chip package.According to Kuo, however, Apple is going to change this for the M5 Pro, M5 Max, and M5 Ultra. Only the M5 will remain as a single unit. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

On this episode of the HomeKit Insider Podcast, your hosts talk through even more smart home rumors from Apple, talk about the new 18.3 releases, and review the xBloom smart coffee maker.HomeKit Insider PodcastThis week on AppleInsider we rounded up all of the most recent Apple rumors for the smart home and tried to put them into a timeline and strategy that makes sense. We revisited that here on the podcast.We then walked through the newly-released beta updates for developers, including iOS 18.3 and tvOS 18.3. 4th updates have minor smart-home related changes, including support for robotic vacuum cleaners. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums