We have been using cool gadgets very often and it would not be wrong to say that we are, in more than one way, dependent on these new gadgets. Be it a computer, laptop, mobile phone, PS3, xbox 360, music system or household items like washing machine, television or refrigerators. You need a proof… just have a look at your expenditure budget and mark the heavy outflows. I bet most of them, if not all are consumer electronic items. The expenditure on such keeps rising with time and worse, you need to upgrade them sooner than their potential life due to changes in technology. While we cannot advise on how to save on the purchase but there is some hope seen in how to dispose, or rather put the otherwise discarded items to better use. For example, the iron radio (pictured below) is a perfect example to use a outdated iron for another use, that is a Radio, saving on the latter’s material costs.
Known as the ‘Ironic Radio’, it is the outcome of one of the projects undertaken at the Interaction Design Programme by Dean McNamee, Elena Gianni, Gizem Boyacioglu & Mayo Nissen, where the guys turned a disposed IRON into a RADIO. Not a matter of irony but praise since the guys saved on the extra material that would have been utilized for the radio by re-using discarded iron’s parts. One more step towards going green, Right!
The parts and components of the iron now serve you the functions of a radio. The iron’s base (obviously, not hot at all now) is used for selecting the desired station. Plus the knob and dial let you adjust the volume and switch between AM/FM.
To convert an iron into a radio, the guys disintegrated the useful parts of the iron and sandwiched the Arduino circuits inside the re-assembled parts, along with a speaker, sensors and LEDs under the metal plate. Plus more scientific stuff is done to make it workable in the form of wiring, etc.
I agree that it is not that appealing or maybe practical, since not everybody is equipped with technical skills required for it, but one can always hire the talent available locally, to get the job done. Remember it is just an IDEA which makes things happen. One cannot rule out on this!
Know more about such cool devices like the Koopa Troopa Electric Guitar and the Neato Robotics Vacuum Cleaner.
