Computers Beyond the Box
To rethink PC design, Microsoft teamed with IDSA and with other tech giants to offer a competition for new concepts. Here's a look
Despite tremendous advances in processing speeds and memory capacity, despite Wi-Fi and the Web, the industrial design of today's personal computer isn't so very different from the Apple Lisa. The basic components -- keyboard, monitor, mouse -- haven't changed. To encourage designers to think outside the box, Microsoft teamed up with the Industrial Designers Society of America, Dell and HP to sponsor the Next Generation OS PC Design Competition.
The result: nearly 200 teams from 33 countries proposed designs, ranging from OS[e], a screen-less computer for the blind, to the Response Desk (above), fully-functioning PC embedded in a desk. Microsoft announced two winners January 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and two more public choice awards will be awarded the week of January 9 when votes at the competition's Web site (www.startsomethingpc.com) are tabulated.
Sungho Son, a graduate student at Purdue University, won the Judge's Award for his "Bookshelf" concept, a machine designed to simplify the management of digital content and copyrights. Bill Gates awarded the Chairman's Prize to Prashant Chandra, an industrial designer in New Delhi, whose "sChOOLpack" proposes an alternative to paper notebooks and heavy textbooks. Both will receive $50,000 each.
Microsoft is offering hardware manufacturers the opportunity to license the best entries, and plans to make the competition -- conceived as a one-time event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Windows -- an annual event.
Take a look at the winning concepts and a selection of some of the most interesting entries, along with the designers project statements.