Although it is still a concept, the Energy Box could prove to be a vital link in you turning eco-friendly. This unique box designed by Jiang Hao from China, uses solar energy to power and recharge various devices. It has a very functional slot on top of the box that accommodates your device. MP3 player, mobile phone or camera, it hooks any of these plus plays back music or doubles up as a handsfree. The Energy Box has the capability to turn the trapped solar energy to electric, so that you can juice up the gadgets. It would be great if such concepts are encouraged and they see the light of the day. Considering the number of gadgets a single person uses these days, it would prove to be a magnificent way to turn environmentally conscious.

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There have been many concept cars developed in the name of progressive technology, but very few are there that have a sever focus on design. The Sunrise is a concept car that was designed by the students of the Hunan University. Although there is very little information available for the concept, the images speak for themselves. What really strikes you when you view a slide is the ample windshield that extends to the roof. Urging you to simply Drive Your Passion, the concept focuses on bringing as much natural light into the car. Although the extent of safety of this idea cannot be guaranteed, it looks sturdy enough to pass all road-safety regulations. Doing away with the need for a sunroof, Sunrise hope to make your journey as beautiful as possible.

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All this while you thought you couldn't do without your handycam, phone, musicplayer etc. but if Sony has its way, you may be able to have just one gadget that does it all for you. It will be your mobile phone, still-camera, video recorder, PDA, music player; in short everything bundled together. This concept phone has a unique twist to it, to lock it or use it; you need to twist the movable base. It sports a 5 MP camera and has dual mode. You can either use the simple keypad or a stylus for inputs. WiFi and music/ video broadcasting capabilities complete the package. It also features handwriting recognition, which is quite an essential function for gadgets. This brilliant concept could give the Nokia Xpress phones a run for their money.

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Hard Drives have the sole purpose of cramming your information into their bellies. However the biggest problems with this storehouse of information, is that you need to boot the entire system to access info like memory and capacity. This Lenovo external HD concept seems to have hit the nail on the head, with its finger-touch access and external display. The surface of the drive acts like a fingerprint reader; acting like a password it the readily displays the memory space left and other info via the digital display. A wonderful idea, that would help the geeks know how much more info they can pack-in, in a jiffy!

More images after the jump

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Now here is an interesting design that incorporates two aspects of life that keep you from being tardy. For starters, this is a clock, an ordinary clock that has the simple function of telling you the time, so that you are never late for your next commitment. Secondly it features a note board carved into each hour, so that you can pin up those reminders. This way you get to see those notes glaring into your face, reminding you to do the job promptly. I'm not sure, but if this design does include an alarm at the hour of the posted note, it would compliment the purpose as well.

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The ready excuse of having no time will soon be redundant if the Computer Health board ever takes shape. This humongous keyboard or rather footboard is supposed to be placed on the floor. Using the indent keys and feet, the board aims at giving you a workout right in your office. Instead of using your fingers to type, you are supposed to use your feet to key in the text. A very innovative idea that has some semblance to the game called Twister sans the colors and dots. The embedded LED lights allow you to use this keyboard even in darkness, however I wonder why you would want to do that. Teamed with the wireless mouse, this design sure can help those workaholics loose some lard!

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The last time I stayed in this huge resort, I had the most harrowing time locating the restaurants and play areas. No offence to the huge sizes, but guest can easily get lost, if they don't carry the guide maps or ask the staff for help. Yes, staying in plush, luxury hotels does have this as a big sore point, navigating around the place. Not all of us remember to carry the maps, so an ingenious designer has come up with the E-Foot Hotel Card. This card is not only your room key but also is an electronic device that directs you to your room or point of interest in the hotel. Assuming the shape of a normal card, the design is easy to pocket and is handy as well. Doing away with the need to ask around, the map shows up on the digital interface guiding you through to the destination. It is aimed for the medium to big sized hotels and resorts.

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Imagine being able to tour on the road with all your exhibits in tow and holding impromptu exhibitions and interacting with the public. I guess every artist sometime in his career would want this kind of communication. Well let's not confine this wonderful design just to the artsy types, the concept vehicle you see here is nothing but marvelous that can be ideal for touring musicians or activists. It opens up from the sides and props up folding canopies to function as a viewing area. What you display or showcase inside the gallery is up to you. It's a totally road-show friendly design that flaps out to encompass a large area. The cabin itself is quite roomy, and big enough to seat five people at a time. The luggage storage is also ample. As my Chinese is no-good and I am unable to tell you more about the vehicle, but I simply love this concept of taking the road-show trip, hence I had to bring this to you.

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The LeafD concept vehicle by Bai Ran is a unique design specifically aimed at showing tourists the city-sights in a very non-conformist way. The design takes inspiration from the natural environment, specially leaves and flowing water. The fluid concept accommodates only one or at the most two people at a time and keeping the dynamics of the vehicle in mind it features no door either. The seats are made using integral foaming and can be removed from the car to make the vehicle lighter. On a full load, i.e. seating two people the vehicle tops at 35 kmph, so incase you are alone, you could remove a seat to gain maximum speed advantage. With a green-conscious, the vehicle is powered by hydrogen fuel cells and electricity. The in-wheel motor and magnetic suspension motor of the rear wheel aid in gaining momentum.

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Designer Jinwoo Han has showcased his talents with the Torch Lamp, so much so that it picked up the IDEA Award. This time round he has put up some concepts for Altec Lansing. The speaker set with 2.1ch and sub-woofer look smoking hot in a deep red and black combo. As is with most concepts, not much info is given about the specs, so as usual we'll let the pictures do the talking. Check out more after the jump.

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The two things that govern the choice of a mobile phone; One: its looks Two: it's battery life The LED Cellphone concept scores ten on ten in both these parameters. Designed by Tao Ma, Yue Meng and Jenny Pan, the phone sports a sleek body that looks groovy in black. It seems to come with it's own docking station, however I cannot confirm this. All the navigation functions are carried out via the ample LED screen and the icing of course is that it requires only 2 AAA batteries to power it. Besides the batteries you can also juice up the device via USB.

What do you get when you put five enthusiastic designers in an arena to output an award-winning device? You get the Mirror Talk. Designers Le Li, Long Li, Xiao-Ming Yang, Bing Zhang and Xiang-Fei Ran have conjured up the Mirror Talk. This is an electronic magnifier that blows up the print to a size that is comfortable for you to view. The sleek body packs in an internal camera with a powerful lens that can zoom in and out of documents with ease. Like most concept devices, this too delves out very little specs, but this I can tell you, it has a search function that probably aids to find particular words or pick up specific paragraphs from the text. Mirror Talk consists of a circular disk kind of device that helps in reading a document. A pen-like probe is used to navigate it. The designed picked up silver at the 8th Lite-On Awards.

Sight is a gift most taken for granted, like you reading this post or me typing it. However being blind is no longer a handicap considering the number of aids propping up for easy survival. If it's not the Jojo, then it could be a portable Braille printer. Designers Guang-Shen Guo and Danni Luo from China have devised the Embossing Braille Printer. This unique portable device has the ability to distinguish items via special embossed labels. I am not very clear about how exactly this thing works because my translation skill are not up to the mark, but it seems worthy enough to pick up the Silver Medal for the 8th Lite-On Awards. The intuitive interface not only prints out Braille labels but also features an audio prompter that repeats whatever is being printed in an electronic voice.

Ever so often I have a showdown with my kids on the ethics of leaving a room. I constantly bicker about switching off lights and fans, or unhooking the power cords and switching off the TV as well. What they don't realize is that even if you turn off the gadgets with a remote, you need to switch them completely off from the mains to reduce power consumption. Leave aside the mounting bill; wastage of power takes a toll on our resources. The design team of Yen-Ting Kuo, Ming-Xian Sun and I-Pei Chang from Taiwan has conceptualized a system called the Housekeep. In this system, one needs to plug-in all the mains to this board. Housekeep, then in turn keeps a tab on your consumption and points out the flaws.

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