12/08/2010

Thoughtful Innovation

Despite the sophistication of western technology there are too many people who are unable to enjoy these breakthroughs through dispair, poverty or medical condition.

Design That Matters is a non-profit that takes a pragmatic approach to lending a helping hand in the most unexpected ways. Over 4 million babies die within one month of birth, mostly in 3rd world countries. Despite generous aid from the western world, equipment donated to help these countries tends to break down within a year of installation. Due to lack of technical knowhow and access to spare parts these sohpisticated modern creations are then rendered useless. Design That Matters partnered with a neonatal manufacturer (Neonurture) to produce an incubator that is made entirely of...spare car parts. Warming is achieved via car headlights, the device is powered by a car battery and the alarms to alert caregivers are car horns.

Being aware of the ecosystem in which this device operates resulted in a product that any car mechanic can service yet provides the same level of care as a hospital with the technology for a $40,000 device.



Click here for more information

An unrelated but amazing application of technology for good use is the Eyewriter: how a group of tech geeks got together to help a grafitti artist who fell victim to ALS to restore his ability to create. He can only move his eyes yet they enabled him to "tag" a large building off the california freeway.

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing the link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at tiran.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?


Thanks,
Peter