So you’ve had a laboriously difficult day at work with your annoying boss doing his usual job of bossing around and yelling down your neck. Relaxation is the need of the hour and all you wish for is to settle into your comfortable sofa at home and listen to some soothing music. Well, the next time you need some relaxation, simply use the Senses, a concept device by designer Raquelly Dias. The Senses basically appeals to your senses like touch, smell and hearing. It works as a massager to soothe your nerves, plays some pretty soft soothing music and lets out an aroma that’s bound to make you relax and rewind. Also, being ergonomically designed, it can easily be adjusted to fit on to your head or nape.

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Ever wondered how senselessly stupid the game your cat plays with that woolen ball is? Your cat can now create some humidity for you playing silly games too! Designer Yuan Gu came up with the Wool Ball Hybrid Humidifier, an eco-friendly energy-saving device, a concept humidifier. The device has two operational modes, one of which is the standard mode wherein you connect the humidifier to a power output to work. The hybrid mode is a lot more fun though. The humidifier also recharges by simply rolling it around. Emitting a sound as it rolls, this one generates energy which in turn is used to create the required humidity. So, just leave the Wool Ball Hybrid Humidifier to your pet, and watch while kitty plays around with it and creates some humidity!

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Is it too hot out there? Have you been wiping the sweat off your brow every few minutes? Is the weather hot enough to bake a cake in? Well, you don’t need to look for a place with a cool interior or simply stay home on a hot summer’s day anymore. This Active Cooling System by designer Jean-Marc Sheitoyan will make sure you stay cool, on the move. The system in short reduces the human body temperature to make the temperature of the environment a bit more bearable. It was developed with a design team at Mawashi Protective Clothing Inc. Besides just being a cooling agent to keep us cool in hot environments, this one could work well in keeping soldiers cool in hot arid desert areas where they are required to wear heavy camouflages that tend to heat up.

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Space crunches are everywhere, parking lots, homes, office spaces and just everywhere we turn our heads. Paul Coudamy has come up with a way to live, that takes a seriously low amount of space. The interior designer designed this living space that takes up just 23 square meters. It includes a bathroom, a bedroom, place to work and a dresser too! With moving and mobile parts like the bookshelf, this one tucks in all these spaces neatly. And for its aesthetic appeal, it uses a red carmine gloss finish contrasted with white walls. Two way mirrors control the visibility of the hidden spaces with a little help from the lighting. A two way mirror above the basin lets you decide the intimacy between the bathing area and the rest of the living space.

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Planning to hit the frosty white slopes with your snowboard anytime soon? Well, here’s something that might interest you and make your trip up there a tad easier. Burton’s Snowboard Bag works just great, packing your snowboard and everything else you’ll require up the hills. No longer do you need to juggle around with your snowboard, boots and stuff while in the ski-lift taking you up. Just slide in your snowboard in the reinforced space, slip in your boots in the interior space of the bag, strap on your Burton Snowboard Bag and you’re all ready to go.

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I don’t know if it is the child in me but the idea of riding in a tram always excites me. Designer Simon Colabufalo has given me even more reason for excitement with his concept Metrotopia – futuristic and compact trams. The Metrotopia is the designer’s vision for the future public transport of Melbourne which boasts of the largest tram network in the world. Simon’s Metrotopia comprises of small 2 seat vehicles that drive on a single rubber ball instead of the large buses of trams. The small vehicles are powered by an electric powertrain which is located in the rotating ball. The small compact cars dock inside the large trams for recharging. The wheel is still rotating while recharging, allowing users to take main routes with others and break away to get to their final destination.

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Increasing population and shortage of space is causing designers to give up their conventional thinking and come up with space saving and space efficient designs. This need for utilizing space especially in compact homes is reflected from designer Nicolas Hubert’s entry for the Electrolux Design Lab 2010 contest. His entry is dubbed the External Refrigerator. He was inspired to come up with this concept design after spending two years in northern China where food is kept on balconies in the winter to save space and energy. The External Refrigerator can be directly fixed on the outside wall of residential buildings. During cold seasons and at night, the low external temperatures provide the right climate for items in the fridge while during warmer weather; the sun is used to transform light into energy through solar panels. The designer says this concept will not only help save space but also energy making it must have creation. The external structure of the fridge is made from Polycarbonate plastic and the door features a capacitive-sensing touch screen.

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Designer Itay Laniado’s entry for the ‘Design For All’ competition organized by Designboom in collaboration with Seoul Design fair 2010 is the 'Garden Tools - Form / Function Research”. What is more, his unique Garden Tools project is one of the lucky 240 entries to have been shortlisted for the competition. According to the designer the unique garden tools project was approached from “a material, aesthetic, and functional investigative perspective.” The designer’s Garden Tools project comprises of six tools: sickle, axe/machete, spade, shovel, scythe and bow saw. Each tool has been crafted from oak wood while the blade is made from stainless steel. The project had the designer experimenting with wood and testing its flexibility and durability. The designer has stretched the wood into functional pieces that are simple to use and produce. What is more, the designer even conducted a formal investigation for creating the shape of the blades.

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We have come across many concept kitchens and stoves. But none leave an impression like "The William" stove-top concept. The smart stove top is unlike the common ones you find these days and is exceptionally great if you have a large family or are cooking for a party. The smart William concept allows cooks to cook not just two or four items but fifteen! Helping you save time, this concept stove has no restrictions on the size of pots you can place on it or even the number of items. From your entrees to the desert, all your dishes can be ready at one time allowing you to mix and mingle with your guests instead of spending all your time in the kitchen. This stove top is exceptionally good when you have to heat your dishes. Controlled by a touch screen panel, this electric stove top is one high-tech easy to use creation. Just watch the video to see how this amazing concept works.

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I hate stepping on those glass staircases. Although they are strong and built to sustain heavy weights, I just don’t feel safe climbing on them. So imagine my fright when I came across the Twin self-supporting glass staircase from Italian furniture house Faraone. Designed by designer Roberto Volpe, this staircase is sure to make you feel as if you were in mid air. The minimal staircase, boasts of lightweight transparent treads made of safe and durable tempered glass, which mount directly to your wall with contemporary steel supports. The banister which is also made of tempered, laminated glass, offers additional support to this unique staircase. This aesthetically appealing staircase will definitely add a unique touch to your living space.

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Chess is a game of skill and strategy. While many designers have given this game of skill an aesthetic makeover, designer Samantha Oliveria has given this game a high-tech touch. By developing the concept Touchscreen Chess Board, the designer has beautifully given the game a futuristic feel. Just use the board like any touch interface to move your various players. Since the designer has not provided us any information, we can only guess the features of this board from the various images.

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Railway Foot Over Bridges are a usual site on the Indian Railway. All over the country, station are interconnected by bridges, besides subways beneath. Now, carrying a suitcase from one platform across to another can be troublesome at times. The stations at times are equipped with slopes instead of steps to access these bridges. Not all of them feature this though. So, one may need to carry all those heavy wheeled suitcases up a flight of stairs. Well, dump those old suitcases and use the Mounty Travel Trolley Bags instead. Bigger wheels pop out of its side by using a lever. So you don’t need to carry the bag vertically up the flight of stairs. The wheels help you pull it over the steps. Once done and at the top. Simply use the lever again and the big wheels go back into place, making the bag a regular trolley.

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Remember the story of the three pigs and the big bad wolf? One built a house a straw, one a house of wood, and the wise one, a house of bricks. Well, Amsterdam-based office Zeinstra Van Gelderen Architecten thought the three pigs to be rather silly to use such building materials and decided on rubber instead! On display at the Museumbahnsteig in Oberhausen, Germany, the Rubber House is ideal for someone who needs some lone time, meditation or just loves sitting in places extra ordinary. Measuring around 2.3m high and built as a perfect square of 1.5m X 1.5m, the “house” has a cave-like atmosphere and glutinous, partly translucent walls, one with a small bench and the other with a viewless window frame.

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Trains have incorporated the use of toilets that enable travelers answer natures call while on the go. Sadly, buses haven’t given this much though, until now. In a few places, toilets were fitted on to buses, only turn into unhygienic corners, seldom cleaned, and rarely visited, cramped up and tiny. So, Sergio Alonso from Venezuela came up with this concept that helps passengers on buses relieve themselves. The toilet is just righ for men, women and children too. Using a minimalist design to fit in place, this toilet also has place to change a baby’s diapers. It also boasts a charging station, bin and a paper holder. It also doesn’t need you to touch to many surfaces inside, increasing hygiene standards.

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We certainly are anxiously awaiting the future, and grow impatient every time we come across vehicles like these, that will hog the streets in a few years from now, probably. Take the Electric Rickshaw for example, an entry at the Peugeot Concours Design in 2006. This one uses the concept of gyroscopes and travels on a set of just two-wheels instead of the usual three rickshaws around the globe use instead today. The wheels are each attached to an asymmetrical axle permits them to change their relative centers enabling it to have different configurations. To enter, one must use the front of the vehicle. The Rickshaw also has individually powered wheels, allowing it to rotate on the spot making parking a lot easier. This one can seat two.

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