TimeFlex is a unique concept idea for the watch. It uses a “self-gumming” sticker(I know, that sounds wrong) like watch which is capable of sticking on to any surface like your hand, arm or even clothing. The idea is that sometimes you need a watch, but there are some situations where it’s not good to wear one. Like when you are swimming for instance or in a laboratory.

I don’t think we are likely to see this anytime soon and I can’t imagine any kind of a market for it. It’s basically a slightly thick band-aid that tells you the time. How many times have you cut yourself and simultaneously needed to know what time it is? Of course, maybe people want disposable watches for some reason I can’t fathom.

Sang Hoon Lee has designed a new portable hard disk drive that truly looks good enough to eat. Mmmmm Chocolate. The chocolate bar hard drive is non-edible and comprised of modular flash drives, and the central hub features a built in touchscreen. The touchscreen can be used to view and organize all of your various files.

The idea here is that files could be organized any way you want and you can take the sections with you in your pocket, to use on another computer. That’s nothing we can’t do already, but it’s the design that’s cool. It’s a fun and unique concept. Whether it is worth using in the real world remains to be seen, but it sure makes me hungry.

These will definately add some style to your home. At first, these apple remotes seem to be on the silly side, but they are a pretty interesting take on remotes, with some interesting features. This concept device is brought to you by Jason Roebuck. They certainly beat standard remotes as far as being eye pleasing. When in their charging station or cradle, or “bowl” if you like, they’ll blend in with their surroundings.

Each member of the house can have their own personal remote, programmed to their specific likes. Want to lower the volume? The device is motion sensitive. Just rotate it left. Rotate it right to raise the volume. When they are not being used, just sit them in the charging station.

This Heart Lamp design by Lígia Carteiro is not the heart shape we would normally expect to see, but uses a more realistic and a little less appealing likeness of the human heart. According to Carteiro, the lamp was inspired by the proverb “cold hand, warm heart” and the lamp is warm to the touch due to a 15w light bulb. It doesn’t look like it would do a great job as a lamp, however. By looking at it I think the concept would do just as well as a mouse, or a maybe a USB powered lamp?

Unfortunately in today’s world most businesses are a little too thrifty to allow everyone’s office or cube to have a window, or even a view to a window in many cases. Makoto Hirahara is looking out for these folks with this concept design of a window blind with electroluminescent sheet lights behind it. This design can make just about any wall look like its got a window with the sun trying to shine through into your space. Adjusting the blinds will dim or brighten the light coming through the “window”. Even though they have this example built it’s still just a concept right now and isn’t available for purchase or even priced. It’s nice to think however, that despite that fact that you may not be getting an office with a window anytime soon, your current office could get itself a window.

It’s good to know that someone out there has updated one of mankind’s original gadgets, the sewing machine. Crafters and grandmothers everywhere will rejoice. Kristine Bruckner designed this sewing machine, named the belOga, to be high on design and to be efficient. It’s a success on both counts.

Anyone who has ever tried to thread a sewing machine knows what a chore it can be. Well, with this machine, just drop the spool of thread in and it threads itself. Hey, for sewing that’s huge!(Not that I sew. Honestly…I just know people who do.) The machine also sports a screen that will actually show you what the stitch will look like in advance. That will stop mistakes from happening and save alot of time.

Just as the automobile manufacturers are thinking about the next generation of cleaner, more efficient automobiles so too are the boat makers. This concept design for a future boat is called the Volitan and it comes from a Turkish architectural design company called Designnobis Studio. Made with lightweight materials the Volitan does away with traditional billowy sails in favor of two solar collector columns that gather light from the sun and also utilize wind power. It kind of looks like an X-Wing floating on the water and just like Luke Skywalker’s spaceship from “Star Wars” the Volitan’s solar wings can raise up and down but also go one step better and turn around to better collect the energy and/or wind power. Two small stabilizer wings are affixed to the lower side of the Volitan’s body which help it stay afloat even in storms that blow up to 60 knots. Small rudders in the stabilizers can allow the captain to turn the craft on a dime.

Volkswagen has developed its latest vehicle concept for an electric car of the future. Designed in collaboration with German design student Marc Kirsch for his diploma project, the Volkswagen Viseo is a three-seater that produces zero carbon emissions. Created to show that being environmentally friendly doesn’t mean that you don’t look sexy, the Viseo has that streamlined look that screams sports car sex appeal. Unfortunately we don’t know what kind of miles per charge the electric cars in the future will get so while the Viseo looks great it’s still an unknown performer.

One novel new feature about the Viseo is that the back-end of the car can detach and becomes a suitcase that you can wheel around. Something like this sounds great if you need to fly a lot and park your car longterm at the airport but as an everyday idea, it’s not so hot.

Most desktop chargers suffer from a case of severe ugliness. That’s where this one differs, with a brilliant endearing design by Sun Kyung Kim. It simulates the visual experience of ripples within a bird bath. Sun’s thinking is that humans like to have visual indicators for all things, mobile devices are no exception. Most chargers do not give you any visual indication of charge status, whereas this one will show you radiating rings of light that the indicate the charge status. To top it off, the thirsty birds on the edge glow once the rings of light reach them.

No word yet on when it might be available or pricing, assuming that it ever gets manufactured.

This new concept from Industrial design company Priestman Goode is essentially a cardboard disposable phone, called the Post A Phone. What you get is a 4mm (0.16 inch) thick cardboard landline handset that pops out from a backing board. That’s it. It’s ready to plug and make calls.

The whole thing can fit in an envelope. Say a cell phone customer loses their phone. This can be mailed right out to them. Environmentally speaking, it’s cardboard so it won’t hurt the environment.

This funny little USB peripheral called the Availabot is designed to work in conjunction with the instant messenger on your computer. It stands on a little marshmallow looking stand that connects via USB to your computer and gives you a physical representation of the availability of your friends on your IM application, laying flaccid when the contact is gone, and quickly standing upright when the contact is available.

The idea is pretty interesting (and funny) and the Availabots are completely customizable in the profile they store and in how they look. You can use as many of them at a time as you would like to dedicate a USB port for. The puppets currently work with iChat on Mac OS X 10.4 but the company has plans to extend them to other IM programs on the Mac and eventually Windows.

This concept design by David Münscher is what Yanko Design describes as a “Stalker’s Dream” and consists of a tiny camera small enough to be worn around one finger and take pictures with “high quality optics”. The spy-like camera has a single button to aim and snap photos requiring on a couple of fingers and creating a very discrete shooter. It’s hard to say if something this small could become a reality in the near future while still providing “high quality” shots, but like most of the concepts we just like it because it looks cool. If they actually get it to work, why that’s just a bonus!

The Japanese are constantly innovative and inventive. They are basically tech Gods. And yet sometimes the concepts that they come up with come off as just a bit silly. Take this anti-rape/crime dress for example. Designed by Aya Tsukioka, it makes you a human transformer.

At the first hint of crime, simply perform some fancy clothing magic and disguise yourself as a Vending machine. Another option, if vending machines aren’t your style, is the Manhole Bag. Not a great name for a product that’s geared toward women in danger, I know. The Manhole Bag converts a handbag into what is supposed to be a sewer cover. It claims to even keep your valuables safe inside while in this mode.

Silly or inventive? I say both. But I also have to say that I wouldn’t want my life to depend on it. Your attacker would need to have some serious bad eyesight and depth perception to miss snatching you up. It does have a certain coolness factor though.

The Nissan NV200 concept vehicle gets you from your home to the office in under 10 seconds flat. That’s because your entire office IS the van. Instead of driving to work, you will instead, drive your work everywhere. It’s obviously designed for those people that work literally, all over the map. The entire back end of the van slides out, which gives you a nice roomy office inside, while exposing the exterior storage areas that are fully customizable.

For the 2007 Tokyo Motor show, they decked it out as if it belonged to an ocean photographer, complete with the storage area full of various tools of that trade. They even put in an editing station and a remote control panel for a spider camera. I think I’ve found my new office. Next time you read me, I’ll be on the road…

Some things are meant to be. Peanut Butter and Jelly, Ben and Jerry, Brad and Angelina. And now apparently, biking while surfing the web. I’m talking about the Bobby prototype electric bike from Yamaha motors. Pedestrians will never know what hit them, while you read your favorite blog. Aside from distracting you with the wonders of the web, the bike can be easily turned on and off using specific cell phones.

Some other features you can use when you are no longer impressed with having the web on 2 wheels are: a collapsible seat, fold-in rear wheel, handlebars and footrests making the bike a breeze to store.