Within the Jewish faith, there is a practice called netilas yedayim shachris, which means "morning handwashing." The idea is that as one sleeps, spiritual impurities settle upon the body; thus the practice is to wash one's hands immediately after waking up, using a special cup to pour water over one's hands. The water is caught by a bowl. Because bathrooms are considered impure, this is typically done next to the bed.As you can imagine, this presents a UX challenge. The practitioner now needs to carry a bowl filled with waterwater now considered impureto a sink in order to dump it out. Right after waking up, when they're likely groggy. Spilling the water is a common problem, particularly with children.Thus Kosher Innovations, a Canada-based company that applies product design to Jewish needs, has invented this Smart Shissel ("shissel" means "bowl"). Once you pour water into it, it drains into a compartment within the bowl and cannot be spilled, even if you turn the bowl upside down:To drain it, there's a child-safe plug in the side that you open. There is one remaining hassle, in that the bowl has to be cleaned, and you cannot directly access the drain compartment. The company recommends the following: "Fill 1/10 of the [included] Smart Shissel cup with bleach and 9/10 water. Pour in during the day and let sit until night, emptying when getting ready for bed, before setting water for the morning." No one said religious adherence would be easy.

The Core77 Design Awards Medical & Healthcare category features equipment, devices, consumables, and technologies used for diagnosing, monitoring, treating, or preventing health issues. Products that are essential for maintaining well-being, managing chronic conditions, providing care, and ensuring public health. Elements can be utilized in various settings, including hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and homes.From Ben Beck's perspective forged over four decades as a designer, the rapid pace of acceleration in the world poses "multi-dimensional challenges." To meet these challenges, says Ben, "We might need to stay tuned to our ancestral heritage as we critically view the future."He's viewing that future through his lens as CDO of ELEVEN, a human-centered design studio that integrates research, strategy, design, and engineering under one roof. Since its founding in 1996, ELEVEN has generated $1.3 billion in sales of its licensed products. Ben's creative reach has touched a broad range of clients including Burton Snowboards, OXO, Herman Miller, Bauer Hockey, P&G, Whirlpool, Keurig, Staples, Sharp, Polycom, Samsung, Titleist, MGB, and Zoll Medical.Ben is also a co-founder of Healthcare Innovation Partners (HIP), a group of designers, engineers, doctors, and entrepreneurs dedicated to finding, developing, and delivering better healthcare products, medical innovations, and devices to the healthcare market. Ben is credited with over 70 patents, numerous awards including IDSA/IDEA, iF, Red Dot, Core77, and Good Design, and publications in Time, Newsweek, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, and Innovation. Ben is also a frequent guest speaker, juror, and critic at RISD, BC, MIT, WIT, MassArt, CES, and IDSA.While the challenges ahead may be complex, Ben remains optimistic, thanks in large part to his talented colleagues. "Our small yet diverse team of creatives at ELEVEN inspire me every day and give hope that the world can be a better place to live in the future."For this year's awards, Ben invites submissions that demonstrate thoughtful, holistic problem-solving and ingenuitydesigns that not only innovate but resonate with human needs and aspirations. As he aptly advises, "Projects that reflect profound insights into complete, thoughtful solutions are the ones that truly stand out." The 2024 winner, Aescape Robotic Massage System, designed by Whipsaw. Aescape was founded by Eric Litman, a highly accomplished serial entrepreneur and engineer. He smartly leveraged good design from the get-go, stating "We must make sure the machine is centered around the user experience. It must work better than a human and be gorgeous too."The 2025 Core77 Design Awards would like to see your medical and healthcare innovations no prescription required. Submit your work for consideration today. Enter your work in the Core77 Design Awards today.

We havent heard about them lately except when bad things happen, but autonomous vehicles are still pretty much the desired future of transportation. Safety concerns aside, who wouldnt want to just sit back and relax during an hour-long drive to and from work? Who wouldnt simply want to enjoy the journey from one state to another without worrying about the traffic or, better yet, your coffee breaks?This concept for a self-driving vehicle or SDV doesnt touch on the actual driving itself but on what you can do inside. Why not enjoy a sip of your favorite caffeinated brew while binging on a new TV series? This concept definitely tries to do that by putting a robot on your dashboard, complete with a flexible arm that serves you that coffee and a face on the steering wheel that makes it feel like youre actually communicating with someone, for better or worse.Designer: Yu Joung KimEven with all the hype around personalized and human-sounding AI in tech today, the AI inside self-driving cars remains oddly distant and impersonal. Of course, car makers are rightfully more focused on making sure autonomous vehicles are safe for both passengers and pedestrians, but those two goals arent mutually exclusive. The lack of a human element in many of the concepts they present paints a very cold and impersonal picture that loses its appeal after the novelty of the technology has worn off.fika, which supposedly means coffee break or tea time in Swedish, puts a face on those robotic cars, quite literally even. Admittedly, it might be a bit uncomfortable having a virtual face looking back at you from the steering wheel, but it gives the car some personality, turning it into something more like a friend than an appliance. That, however, isnt the most unique thing about it, which is the fact that it can serve you coffee.Yes, theres a coffee machine built inside the dashboard of this car, and it wont even make you reach for that cup and accidentally spill the hot liquid on yourself. It has a flat flexible arm that reaches up to grab the cup and then carefully hands it to you. Compared to this feat, even the color-changing surface of the dashboard sounds almost uninteresting.Yes, the concept is equal parts fascinating and disconcerting, but it does touch on one missing aspect in many of those future visions of self-driving cars. They always presume that people inside said vehicles will be traveling with other people, focusing on the social benefits of not having to mind the wheel or the road, while solo travelers are left to fend for themselves and seek their own entertainment. The fika concept not only tries to add a bit of character to an otherwise smart but flat car but can also potentially minimize the coffee stops you have to make and save both time and money along the way.The post Self-driving car concept puts a robot barista on your dashboard first appeared on Yanko Design.

The increased frequency of wildfires and other devastating fires all over the world has caused many of us to rethink our survival strategies at home. But while many of the safety devices and procedures naturally prioritize human lives, the furry members of their families are just as important. Unfortunately, some of our pets tend to be too small for firefighters to see in all the smoke or are even unaware of their presence inside a home.In times of emergencies and panic, we cant rely on the victims to always be aware of their surroundings, let alone if their precious pets have been rescued along with them. In order to remove the guesswork when time is of the essence, this simple accessory will alert first responders and rescuers to the presence and location of your pets so that they can be retrieved with fewer risks to both humans and animals.Designers: Ryan and Rusty Tussing (Rescue Retriever)When parents caution their kids about how raising pets is a full-time responsibility, they probably never envisioned a day when it would be a literal matter of life or death for these animals. Sadly, they can be forgotten in the panic to get out of a burning house, and firefighters rushing inside to save them might not even know where to begin. Thats why this rather simple product was developed, to guide humans to where the stressed and scared dog or cat is.In a nutshell, Rescue Retriever is a large smoke detector shaped like a paw that you stick to places where your pet is likely to be in case of a fire. It could be a cage, a house, or even on your bed frame for dogs that often seek shelter under the bed during stressful situations.What makes the product different from a regular smoke detector, however, is its visibility. In addition to being quite large, it also flashes a strong, pulsating light that will be visible even with thick indoor smoke. This will help rescuers quickly locate the pet and bring them out to safety, saving not just time but also both their lives.Rescue Retriever is admittedly a very simple concept, which makes you wonder why few have even thought of it before. The designers are considering making a more portable version in the form of a collar, though there are concerns over how it could psychologically affect the animal. While the device itself doesnt emit a sound, the strobe light itself could be a source of stress and anxiety for the pet, especially if in such close quarters.The post Paw-shaped smoke detector and strobe light can help save pets in a fire first appeared on Yanko Design.

Swifties can't shake off the similarities.

Far-right lawmakers and extremist influencers the world over are celebrating Trumps early days in office and advocating for similar efforts in their own countries.

In an exclusive interview with WIRED, celebrated intellectual property lawyer Mark Lemley elaborates on why he quit and what he makes of the AI copyright battlefield.

The nominees for the 97th Academy Awards have been announced and Apple TV+ is not going to take home another Best Picture Oscar, or anything else because it didn't try."Blitz" was the only Apple production to even make it as far as the Oscars shortlistNobody can ever take away from Apple that it was the first-ever streamer to win a Best Picture Oscar for "CODA." It's not going to repeat that in 2025, but unlike Netflix, Apple truly didn't try very hard this time.That's clear not from the lack of nominations, but from the Oscars shortlist and before that, from Apple's own PR attempts. Every year studios mount campaigns known as "For Your Consideration," trying to get the Academy's voters to at least watch key films, and Apple pushed four titles. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

It might not be "new year, new me" for the iPhone yet, as scattered reports across social media show that the iPhone is, yet again, failing to wake people up.The iPhone seems to be sleeping on the job once moreNothing starts the day off on the wrong foot like missing your alarm when you've got somewhere to be or something to do. Unfortunately for some iPhone owners, that seems to be the exact situation they've found themselves in.Stop us if you've heard this before. A quick check on X shows plenty of iPhone owners reporting that their alarms are not going off or are going off silently. A smaller subset of people are reporting that their alarms are going off at the incorrect time. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has responded to President Donald Trumps reinstated executive order demanding, among other things, that the General Service Administration (GSA) report to him within 60 days with a plan to reinstate the primacy of classically-inspired architecture in all new federal buildings.One of more than two dozen new orders signed by Trump in his first days in office, his Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture remand, which offers a slightly toned-down version of an original 2020 signed order, promotes the notion of a restored American preeminence by advancing "regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage."The AIA letter says: "AIA is extremely concerned about any revisions that remove control from local communities; mandate official federal design preferences, or otherwise hinder design freedom; and add bureaucratic hurdles for federal buildings. AIA supports the GSAs Guiding Principles, and we support freedom in design.""...