This radio from an alternate universe uses glasses of water as it’s remote control! - Yanko Design

We're all used to turning a couple of knobs and pressing a few buttons to operate a radio, but have you ever played with glasses of water to change a radio channel? Probably non. Designers Tore Knudsen, Simone Okholm Hansen, and Victor Permild recently launched their fine art project 'Pour Reception'. And it's beyond anything you can imagine. Cascade Reception consists of two internal speakers, an AUX input, a handy guide and two glasses that must be placed on the trunk of the radio. And no the glasses aren't just to sip water from, though you could do that. The radio uses the ii glasses filled with h2o every bit it's interface!

Designers: Tore Knudsen, Simone Okholm Hansen, and Victor Permild

Sounding a niggling fantastical to y'all? In that location'due south more. Pour h2o into the glasses, and the stereo starts! Transfer some water from one glass to some other and you can change channels. Touch the glasses, and yous can fine-tune the radio's signal, eliminating baloney. Finally, pop a finger into the water to control the volume or to bring the radio to a halt!

This might seem like a scenario from an alternating universe, but the tech behind information technology is pretty common. Objects emit micro amounts of electricity, and touch tends to disrupt this and convert it into a signal. By using Tact library by NANDstudio (an open-source Arduino shield that turns any object into a touch and proximity sensor), the designers converted the radio platform, glasses, and h2o into different layers of a capacitive interface, allowing them to conduct minute amounts of electricity and transforming them into sensors. Utilizing a Wekinator (an interactive machine learning tool), various gestures such every bit touching the glass or dipping a finger into the h2o were mapped into commands for controlling the radio. The end result; a radio with spectacles of h2o functioning as a "digital textile interface".

And so why did the designers actually create such a stereo? "Information technology is possible to augment our concrete earth in ways that challenge our perceptions of the objects we collaborate with. In this projection, we aim to modify the user'due south perception of what a glass is–both culturally and technically. Cascade Reception is an example of how technology can give new pregnant to our cultural and functional perception of objects" said the creators.

They wanted united states of america to look beyond the usual functionality of day to solar day objects, to dive deeper into the unlike ways they could be used in our lives, and to grade an interactive connection with our environment. And I think they have succeeded. I don't know about you only I'll never be able to wait at an ordinary radio or a glass of water in the same style once more. I'll know their existent potential!