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Build a better babysitter

By Design News Staff -- Design News, May 21, 2001

Toronto—An interactive baby mobile took first prize in "Create What's Next,"

A Chicago designer dreamed up a mobile that can change its display according to a baby's reaction.

an engineering contest this April that awarded prizes to designers who created products enabled by technologies 5 to 10 years in the future.

Aaron DeJule, an industrial designer from Chicago, created a mobile that would monitor a baby's movement inside its crib, then display suitable images on its six screens, which are shaped like the blades of a ceiling fan. The organic, electronic displays could even change from black and white still-pictures to color video as the child matured. DeJule won $10,000 in cash, a computer workstation, and software, from contest sponsors Alias Wavefront and IBM.

Other entries included: a purse-shaped PC containing computational jewelry; clothing with flexible, wireless, networked displays; and a universal identity card for Web transactions.

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