Core77

Flotspotting: Cao's Clever Concepts

By Rain Noe - July 26, 2011

in Flotspotting

Here's a trio of neat design concepts from Coroflotter Ming Cao, a Wuxi, China-based industrial designer with more than ten years in the game.

His Telescopic Door Handle, above, would be brilliant on public bathroom doors where you often have to knock to determine if someone's inside. When you lock the door from the inside, the knob on the other side retracts, providing a clear visual and physical indication that you can't enter.

Cao's Cross Bamboo stool and light combine plastic and bamboo, the latter of which is abundant in tropical regions. It's not clear if this is his marketing intent, but it would be cool to sell just the business ends of the pieces and allow the end-user to locate their own legs and chop them down to size.

His Chopsticks Sharpener is not so much about keeping the sticks pointy; rather, it's a way to conserve and re-use them. After using disposable chopsticks we often toss them because they're dirty, but the sharpener shaves off that soiled outer layer, providing you with a fresh set of sticks.

Handily, the sharpener comes in a case that you can throw the chopsticks into—to take them home from a restaurant, for instance. Perfect for cheap bastards like me, although I don't know that I'd do this on a first date. Wait a second, yes I would, I'd just wait until she went to the bathroom. (And if it was a cool restaurant, the bathrooms would have Cao's doorknobs on them.)

In addition to working on his own projects, Cao is also an assistant professor in the ID Department at the Jiangnan University School of Design. Check out his book on Coroflot. Chinese readers, his website is here. (Sorry English-only-readers, at press time Cao's website was breaking Google Translator.)

o

Favorite This
Q
4

Comment

Comments

Thomas Barrett

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

The doorknob device resembles something I designed during my second year undergraduate project. It too had a telescopic handle but was intended for security in a shop and only was released when the proper code was inserted.
!Report as spam
Sam Overton

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Like the comment above, the doorknob device would be illegal in all public places in the US based upon the ADA standards and unlawful in many states and localities for private use (homes). Many disabled folks have grasp problems due to many conditions (incomplete quadriplegia, CP, amputation, low mental function, and a long list of other conditions).

I am not sure what the privacy problems are in Asia, but the Western world seems to have muddled through millennia without this device and without identifiable trauma from the occasional privacy intrusion. Before you tout some device, think it's use through.
!Report as spam
Andrew

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I like the Lifetime Movie Network -esq descriptions: "You are alone in the room...the man outside can't use the handle..."
!Report as spam
Dan

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Telescopic Door Handle.
Mode 4: You have a prosthetic hand, and can never use the handle.
(Not ideal for public bathrooms.)
!Report as spam