The Wildest Design Yet For Google's Project Ara Phone
Google’s Project Ara is one of the company’s most ambitious projects. It’s a modular phone, in which users could snap in new cameras, batteries, or processors as quickly as snapping together Lego.
Thus far, Google has been focused primarily on just bringing Ara to reality, and creating a piece of open source hardware that can squeeze into your pocket. But designers at the Russian firm Lapka—nominees of our 2013 Innovation by Design awards, who have their 'environmental sensors' on sale at Urban Outfitters—have imagined what Ara would be in their hands. Their vision, seen here, is a quirky, stylish, celebration of color and form that squeezes modules that detect air quality, CO2, blood glucose, light, and your heartbeat all into your hand.
Sleek and subtle? Not at all. This thing has vents. Instead, Lapka’s founder Vadik Marmeladov tells us his firm was inspired by the brash fashions of high-end sneakers—a collection of various fabrics and foams that assemble into a design forward accessory.
"Everything about Project Ara is five years ahead of the curve...well, except their design," Marmeladov tells Co.Design. "I think the design should be a visual and cultural milestone as well."
In an email interview, Marmeladov went on to suggest that Google needs to develop an Ara design language—what their Material Design is for software—for Ara hardware. To some extent Google, along with New Deal Design (a firm that’s consulted on Ara) has built some of that design language tacitly. In Google’s latest Ara marketing materials, Ara is becoming, something distinctive across its mosaic of hypothetical modules.
Even still, Marmeladov’s point is well-taken. The limits of what Ara hardware can be need to be established, and Lapka’s pocket-stretching, shoe-inspired design exemplifies it. Ara can’t be a shuriken of pointy hardware and also a smartphone as we think of it today. But at the same time, Ara’s truest potential live in its infinite possibilities, and the fact that it’s not constrained to one fixed shape."The Ara platform allows you to extend the shape of your phone to any dimension," Marmeladov says. "Our concept, for instance, transforms the phone to desktop mobile laboratory. Imagine making a microscope as a module . . . or a chair."
I’m not sure Lapka’s Ara concept is the perfect vision of what Ara could or should be, or even an entirely realistic one. But it’s asking questions necessary to the platform’s evolution. What are the limits on open-ended hardware? And how can we make an infinite collection of hardware modules practical and cohesive? Maybe high tops aren’t such a bad place to start.
shortly after google’s advanced technology & projects (ATAP) group presented the newest prototype of its project ara smartphone, the search engine giant tapped the creative minds at lapka to envision a series of blocks influenced by the exploration of the body network and personal environments. from blood and urine to radiation and carbon monoxide sensors, the san francisco-based tech company imagined seven modules based on their current product line up. the result is a separate line of haute couture accessories designed to support ara’s eco-system.
lapka believes ara is a platform for the internet of things and wants it to become more than just a mobile phone
detail of the ‘haute couture’ modules
detail of the CO2 sensor module
the lapka x google project ara blocks reimagines scientific devices into stylish and accessible technology
the air quality module
the extruding attachment has been designed to collect and analyze air quality samples. ‘air quality affects our comfort, health and other external parts of our environment that we care about,’ explains lapka. ‘now you’ll know when and where should you open a window, where to place your yoga mat, and even why you’re dreaming a certain way.’ the device also detects volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, fine particles in the air, temperature and humidity.
the CO2 module
the CO2 adapter checks for carbon dioxide concentrations and features a NDIR (non-dispersive infrared) CO2 sensor. with an 8 hour time weighted average, the block self calibrates the environment and has a 15 minute short term exposure limit.
the EKG module
‘your phone becomes more intimate than ever when holding the phone and measuring your heart becomes the same gesture,’ they add. ‘this degree of accessibility changes your relationship to activity and even what it means to have a pulse.’ the black module is capable of checking the heart’s electrical activity, finding causes of unexplained chest pain, check how well medicines are working and the health of the heart, can follow friend’s hearbeats and translates heart beats through a series of vibrations.
the ‘soul’ module – lapka still hasn’t released any information on this one
the light module
details of the light module includes a lux sensor which detects a level of illuminance, a UV sensor, advises skin and eyes protection and also features a ‘photo assistant’.
like their handheld ceramic breathalyzer, the USB-like accessory measures blood alcohol levels, metabolism, hydration and breath quality.
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