Hasta La Gadget!

Remember the Gesundheit Radio, a sneezing wireless manufactured back in 1972 by the fictional Attenborough Design Group? The radio would sneeze twice a year to expel dust that had built up around its tubes and dials, a spring (and autumn) clean which would help it live a longer (imaginary) life.

Well, that wonderful whimsy has been joined by more anthropomorphic gadgets from the same designers (actually a pair named Chambers and Judd). First is the Antitouch Lamp, a tall wisp of a standard-lamp which shies away when a person comes near, using cables and pulleys to bend like reed in the wind. This stops you from touching the halogen bulb at its top and leaving your greasy, life-reducing fingermarks thereon.

Better, and way cuter than a snooty lamp, is the 3.5-inch disk-drive called “Floppy Legs” (above). This sits on your desktop, wary but serene, waiting for the inevitable coffee-spill. When it comes, four legs pop out and it leaps back and stands on tiptoe, out of harm’s way.

Wouldn’t these gadgets be great in real life? A floppy drive may not be the most handy of items, but a water-fearing keyboard or even cellphone would be. Imagine your poor iPhone throwing out its tiny limbs and trying desperately to gain purchase on the shiny porcelain as it slides, slowly and inevitably, down toward the fetid toilet water. Forget the oleophobic coating. We want hydrophobic legs.

Floppy Legs [Chambers Judd]

Antitouch Lamp [Chambers Judd via Core77]

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