If you figured your kitchen utensils were safe from a tech upgrade, you were wrong. The IC3 concept would give your cutlery a computerized body able to hold three interchangeable eating tools: fork, spoon and knife.

The fork wont just stab blindly, it will also analyze the composition of the food, reporting details on fat, protein, and sugars. The spoon will measure weight with the knife acting as a thermometer. All of this information will be compiled into a detailed report so that you know exactly what you’re eating. Screw that. Who wants some nanny telling them what’s good for them. These utensils can go fork themselves.

The iPod pretty much owns the day in the world of MP3 players, but that doesn’t mean they can’t give it a drastic upgrade in the future. Designer Gopinath Prasana prefers a wearable player and so created the iBangle concept. Wearing it is better then carrying an extra gadget after all.

This MP3 player is in the form of a bracelet or bangle, hence the name. It features a multi-touch track pad so you can control your playlist. It’s pretty small, so you won’t be watching videos or movies, making this like the iPod shuffle. Since everyone has different wrist sizes, the iBangle adjusts by inflating a cushion so it will fit snugly.

So house phones are nearly extinct, or will be soon. Zinc Chan apparently can’t let go of the landline and has redesigned it into the Icono Home Phone. Forget numbers. The phone won’t remember them, instead you draw the shape that corresponds with the person you want to contact and the phone will automatically call them. The pad looks like a constellation map.

The handset has also been updated and comes in two segments, one to place on your thumb while the other is attached to your pinky. You know, so you can make that annoying “call me” gesture. I’m not sure if this concept is an improvement or not, but Zinc lost me with the whole “call me” hand gesture thing required to use it.

I say it’s about time somebody called the pool table on it’s BS. It barely qualifies as a table, and it sure isn’t a pool. I know, I sound like Seinfeld, but how about a little trurh in advertising? Really a pool table is a ball table. Well, the design team at Freshwest have created a true literal pool table.

It’s actually a coffee table made with 50mm acrylic that reflects light so that it looks like a shimmering swimming pool. A pool suspended in the air, like somebody dug the ground out from beneath it. The miniature diving board on one end is a nice touch. Obviously, we want it, but who knows if it will ever be available to us regular folk. Then again, that’s gotta be a heavy table. And you’d need inflatable pool toy coasters.

This IBM concept laptop looks like something from an alternate dimension. It’s the kind of laptop we might be using had the cold war never ended and spies were everywhere and issued these laptops by Q.

It’s a concept by Nicolas Lehotzky. The most interesting thing about it is the giant security “knob” which is fingerprint activated and allows the laptop to respond only to the owner’s touch, acting as a physical lock. It also has hidden USB ports and a trusty built-in paper shredder. It goes well with the watches depicting the Bond villains.

Throwing away batteries is a serious crime against nature. At least that’s what some hippies told me once in a dream, when I drank too much cough syrup. So what are we expected to do with batteries if we can’t throw them out? That’s always been our conundrum. Well, the Energy Seed concept by Sungwoo Park is the answer.

You collect all the batteries that no longer power all of your gadgets and you deposit them in the base of this lamp. The lamp then glows, because even a “dead” battery will be able to power an ultra-efficient light source. What we need are battery recycling programs where people can drop their batteries, so that they can power certain lights used around any given city. Pretty cool.

So some Russians had a bathroom design contest and they came up with this toilet, named “Mrs. Hudson” for some reason. I have no idea why. Maybe Mrs. Hudson is known for huge steaming BMs and affectionately called the pisser behind closed doors. It’s as good a guess as any. Design firm 2-B-2 Architecture claims that this winning toilet was “inspired by a water drop,”. Aren’t they all? The Russkies are crazy. I’m thinking some guy appears and shouts Riiicolllla and blows in this thing creating a huge mess.

Your laptop probably didn’t come with enough hard disk space, so chances are you buy an external hard drive, but that takes up desk space, and suddenly your laptop feels more like a desktop. Plus there’s the wires to get in your way. That’s where this Hang it On hard drive enclosure comes in handy. Just throw a 500GB drive inside and attach it to the back of your laptop and problem solved. Sure, it doesn’t do much for your laptop’s looks, but it keeps the drive out of your way and keeps it all portable.

This is one sweet looking single seat vehicle designed by Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar, who obviously channels the future like some crazy modern techno-shaman. I don’t know whether to drive it or just drool over it for an hour.

The idea is that the car works mainly through articulation meaning that this vehicle remains low at high speeds and it will also display helpful information during long trips through voice command by the driver. RD is convenient on busy roads as well as on long distance drives. Looks comfy too. It’s definitely a cool one to drive, but one problem. No room for a girl beside you. Check out a video below.

The X Sting Wish not only has a clever name, but an even more clever design. You can easily see it fragging cyborgs and aliens. It’s from UK designer Adam Scott and according to him it’s for extinguishing fires, not fragging aliens. I don’t care what he says, I want to see it make something ugly or robotic into something dead. Not that Scott cares about my fantasies.

The idea is that the X Sting Wish is much easier to understand and operate than your average extinguisher, while still being recognizable. It sports a huge trigger and many firing options, like powder, CO², and water. Plus it’s ultra durable. This is one concept I really want to see become reality.

EPOS-lite is a cash register with a touch interface that also has a built-in menu. It was showcased at the University of Wolverhampton degree show 08 and at New Designers 08, London. It’s good for the environment because it eliminates the need for a separate menu that holds the pricing details. Not only that, but it makes it easy to update the menu.

It’s light, it’s convenient, it’s on every table. This is the sort of innovation that makes life easier. It’s the little things after all. The concept device also features a wireless charging option for on-table recharging. Designer Stephen Allport knows what he’s doing and he obviously has an eye for what is needed to make life easier on both sides of the table. Awesome concept and we’d love to see this one in the future.

The iSound, designed by Seohyun Baek, is a set of headphones that lets you to listen to your mp3 player while still hearing the background noise around you. That’s a pretty handy thing, especially when that background noise is oncoming traffic. Old headphones=death, these=you live to get hit on another day. They use a semi-circular design that doesn’t cover your whole ear, that way some background noise is still heard. The unit is wireless with a bluetooth module that connects to the headphone jack in your mp3 player. Excellent concept that will surely find a market.

Art Lebedev’s design shop is at it again, this time trying its hand at handset design. We like the results. Art is teaming up with Scartel, a Russian carrier in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The conceptual stage is looking good.

In addition to a WiMax radio, the device has WiFi, tri-band GSM, microSD, dual cameras, 3.5mm audio, an A/V plug and a huge 850 x 480 screen. The buttons are kept minimal at the base: five-way joystick and call/end, and no keypad, so it must sport a touchscreen. There’s a lot to like already. Android maybe? No word yet if it will go from concept to actual product.

Named Blade Runner, this concept has nothing to do with chasing replicants. It’s a bus/train concept from British firm Silvertip Design. It will drive on roads just like other normal wheeled vehicles, but it also sports a set of retractable train-wheels that it can deploy to ride the rail lines. It looks like something that should be dueling with KITT on the open road. It’s supposed to carry 105 standing and sitting people and could well be a nice solution to long commutes. The fact that it straddles both the rails and the streets makes it very promising.

The conventional shape of luggage isn’t exactly ideal. It isn’t easy lugging around square and rectangular bags that are filled to bursting, even when they have small wheels. So why not make the entire thing a rolling wheel?

The Samsonite OBAG was designed by Rooz Mousavi, and it’s a roll-on bag that…rolls. It’s got a rugged exterior that will stand up to the most brutal treatment and foul weather, but the main point is that it will allow you to effortlessly roll your luggage in just about any condition, even through snow. And a large wheel requires much less energy to move it around then a rectangle. It even sports a few compartments on the sides so you can carry around more stuff. The handle collapses for easy storage.