by I love it when SuperGenius minds go beyond the ordinary to re-imagine everyday objects and then make them better. Witness this fantastical, functional, and much better crosswalk signaler created in bendable, bright, LEDs! Why, it’s the absolute definition of an Urban Semiotic in a contextual city.
Here’s how the SuperGeniuses at Yanko Design describe this fantastic, and evolutional, innovation:
Imagine using a flexible LED solar panel as traffic signal! The idea is awesome. It can be installed on any existing circular base like a tree or a utility pole. So there you have a tree that’s a prime spot for a pedestrian signal, and here is this flexi strip waiting to be coiled around the tree! Easy urban and rural installation.
Some may think such a wraparound tree design is impractical and, perhaps, dangerous, but I see the greater genius in the design of environmental warnings that can be embedded in situ to create greater meaning within an already established frame of reference.
We can create bendable LED weathervanes, re-establish police and fire call boxes in an urban frame, and facilitate informational vistas that can even scroll our thoughts in scene.
What if we were able to interact with these bendable LEDs to automatically change the light from “Don’t Walk” to “Walk?”
What if we were able to program a button on our clothes that would invisibly share information we wanted broadcast and integrated into these bendable LED displays that could then react to our energy and wondering throughout the day based on other passersby with our shared interests?
I love a greener and a more energy efficient and a self-sustaining crosswalk signaller and I’m sure there will be a big niche for this kind of technology to fill in cities with shrinking budgets, but that also still have an environmental aesthetic at stake. With bendable LED communication technology, we can begin to re-envision a future above us that is brighter and keener than simple, strung up, electricity firing 100-year-old bulb technology that still hangs over our head like an executioner’s axe.
I could see it now — and just imagine a walk signal that has its own twitter feed? Foursquare letting you check into traffic lights and see how many people are waiting at the same intersection? It all sounds like a lot of good practical fun. I love Yanko design though almost everything that you see as concept does not ultimately get developed and almost everything you see in their actual store is beyond the affordability of everyday people, alas.
I love the idea, Gordon!
I think it’s great the Yanko team dream in public — that’s a great way to get an idea out in the air for the tasting.