GNR8 new/s

hugms

Designer: Mark Argo

Have you ever wanted to send a hug to someone, or tell them you love them, without getting bogged down in some humdrum chitchat about dinner or the kids or whatever...if the answer is yes, you need a hugms.

The latest in a growing number of "emotional technology" products, hugms is a device designed for sending someone you care about a hug using your mobile phone.

once hugms is connected to your mobile phone all you have to do is send it the phone number of the person you'd like to hug and then squeeze. sensors inside the device read how long and how hard you have squeezed and will format a text message based on your hug.

for example, a long squeeze would look like

'hhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuggggggg'

while a short and hard squeeze would look like

'hhHHUUUUUUugg'

hugms also communicates with light and color. the strength of the squeeze is mapped to a change in color. if the person you're hugging also has a hugms, then your message will also trigger the same color change. finally, your loved one can return the hug to you, either by squeezing their hugms or just replying to the text message. once received your hugms will glow a warm color, giving you the knowledge that you're being hugged in return.

glow brick

Designers: Sam & Jude

The latest from always trendy, always controversial (some people love them, some hate them) design team Suck UK, this nightlight is the ultimate in simplicity: The encased bulb recharges from natural light during the day, and glows at night.

Totally environmental. Totally Cool.

US$45. Available now at GNR8

LED Underwear

Designers: Puff Buff

Here's one for the now-i've-seen-everything file:

Polish designers puff buff have carried out LED experimentation to it's logical extreme: LED underwear. We don't have much information about the design or the designers (and please excuse the tiny image), but what's the difference.

What can we say...finally! Or maybe, ok everybody...move along...there's nothing to see here.

Audio Cubes

Designer: Bert Schiettecatte

From the Audio Cubes site:

This is a musical interface I have been working on over the past years. It is a tangible user interface (TUI) consisting of a number of cubes made out of a plastic material. Each cube contains a digital signal processor (DSP) with optical sensors and emitters (infrared, red, green and blue LEDs). The sensors and emitters receive and send audio signals which are generated or processed by the signal processor in the cube. Each cube is powered by a rechargeable battery pack. By positioning the cubes relative to each other and moving them around, a signal processing network can be created. A musician can use this interface to learn a new way of interacting with sound and music.

OK, so technically, this should probably be considered more of an audio/sound engineering creation, but optical sensors and emitters (infrared, red, green and blue LEDs) ARE involved, the cubes are cool, and, if they can change colors to the music, then I definitely want a set.

via We Make Money Not Art

neon chandelier

Designer: Matt Dilling

From New York Magazine's Rima Suqi:

Chandeliers are back in fashion, but if your taste tends to the modern, you’re likely to find yourself left in the dark by multiple tiers dripping with crystals. There’s one exception: this neon chandelier by Matt Dilling, whose work has lit up Stella McCartney's storefront and Bergdorf Goodman's window installations. It’s made from five feet of triphosphor neon tubing—also used to treat seasonal affective disorder, because it mimics natural light—and a 20-by-24-inch model takes about a day to put together. The source of Dilling’s inspiration, appropriately enough, was a turn-of-the-last-century candelabra that could be fitted for bulbs, referencing “the conversion of one kind of lighting technology into another.”

US$2399 Available now at GNR8

On/Off lampshades

So simple, yet so cool.

These little shades are printed on both sides, so, when the lamp is off, you see one thing, but when it's on, you see the "real" thing.

Eight styles available.

US$19.99/set of three. Available now at gnr8.