We designers love it when new tech comes out, allowing us to create better products. The Himax by 3M is one of those little jewels of tech (and we mean LITTLE!) that we see opening up the proverbial door for all manners of design ideas.

The Himax is a tiny little projector, capable of outputting a decent-sized image onto any surface. Imagine placing this product in mobile phone designs, laptops, or personal media players. It’s minute size is applicable across a plethora of products, and its portability allows for the envisioning of even more.

One of the most obvious design ideas at CES this year came from IPEVO with their PoV Web Cam.

The Question: How do you make a web cam more easily usable, providing simple “point and shoot” video that even our grandmothers can understand?

The Answer: Make it a pointer, so that you can easily understand the function and use.

Face it, the days of the infamous web cam “eyeball” sitting on top of your monitor have worn us thin. The IPEVO is a simple, elegant, and obvious design progression.

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Every year at CES we come across a ton of gaming chairs, usually filled to the brim with sound and vibration and appearing as though an ottoman mated with a massage pad… but nothing with the quality and technology that these have. D-Box (of Montreal) has created a Motion Code that syncs with the movement of DVD’s, software and video games via proprietary code. Have you ever tried those infamous motion theaters at the amusement park? Well then, get ready because this is undeniably better, and without the loving motion sickness.

Now, how much of a difference does motion make in the video/gaming experience? Well, to showcase this, the D-Box booth offered up a home theater-style demo showing clips with and without motion. Dear friends, once you experience it, there isn’t any going back. And not only does it achieve roll, pitch, and heave but also the vibration is so sensitive and sophisticated that you can feel the textural difference when you drive on pavement, grass, dirt, etc. I can already imagine feeling the tire tread wearing down while playing Gran Turismo 5 or the shots fired at me while I duck around in Gears of War.

There is a premium cost for this new technology. The current game chair goes for over 10 grand, but these concepts were co-developed with automotive supplier Johnson Controls and could be priced as low as $3500. Not a bad price for a product that will change home entertainment and set a new standard.

Check out the video of the chair doing its thang, and then view the hi-quality pix and press release after the jump.

 

 dbox [0:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (341)

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While scouting around CES, it’s easy to see the plethora of cars used to either A) show off new technolog, or B) be a piece of eye candy. The latter can be said about the Jaguar XF appearing at the Bowers & Wilkins booth to promote… something (anything?).

Regardless, it’s nice to oogle at the prettiest Jag in years.

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Bumblebee makes a rare appearance at the Dolby booth.

Enjoy the pretty photos of our favorite robot-turned-VW Bug-turned-Camaro!

From the creators of the famous Nautilus speakers, Bowers & Wilkins brings us the Zeppelin, the iPod speakers designed to look like, well, a zeppelin. While the plethora of iPod dock speakers continues to grow in the consumer marker, B&W are at least incorporating a few interesting techs and design cues.

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You heard (read) right.. CDF is heading to CES for all of the breakdown on more of the notable gadgets, trends, and concepts to grace the show floor.

Stay tuned right here to CDF!

There is some more info on the A-BAT at carbodydesign.com. They have a good background to the design theme as well as sketch development. Toyota has a good 3 step process showing the original concept sketch (above) and the final design.

After looking at more pics of this truck, I think it will definitely be production ready with a few changes. As wild as the FJ was at first it made it through and so will this. Toyota as conservative as they are seem to be really pushing some boundaries with design.

Autoblog also has a ton of pics posted.

With America’s ever increasing waist line cars keep getting bigger from their previous generation. The same is true for compact pick ups. The Ford Ranger is the only truck that has retained its small size ( only because Ford has not redesigned it twenty years). Me having had a Toyota pick up in high school am excited to see their modern take on this tiny Yoter.

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At long last, Mazda remembers that they once had a winning LeMans car team… by introducing the Furai concept vehicle. And one thing is certain: it looks like no other LeMans car out there!

The first thing we notice about the Furai is it’s decidedly “melting” aesthetic… an extreme variant of their new/future design theme (eg. Nagare, Taiki, etc). Meant to imitate wind and motion (the name literally means “the sound of wind”) the Furai’s aesthetic certainly captures that “movement while standing still” idea.

While not the sexiest of vehicles, it does dabble in anime-inspired forms and shapes, and harkens back to the days of watching Akira in our dorm rooms.

More pics after the jump. Read more