The Philips Design Probes investigation series is a “foresighting initiative which tracks emerging developments in five areas: politics, economics, environment, technology and culture.” They’ve explored subjects ranging from living jewelry to emotion sensors and the entire series can pretty much be summarized by exploring topics you would expect to read in a science fiction novel.
Recently, the folks at Philips decided to create a project designed around the topic of food. And as described on their website, this study involved, “tracking and interpreting issues like the shift in emphasis from curative to preventative medicine, the growth in popularity of organic produce, implications of genetic modification, land use patterns in growing what we eat, the threat of serious shortages, and rising food prices.”
What resulted was an interesting three part project. (I’m still deciding whether to be deeply disturbed by this or to be in awe. I’ll let you guys decide for yourselves.)
- Diagnostic Kitchen: Nutrition monitors display your body’s status after tell your body exactly what it needs at that moment in time.
- Food Creation: The concept of a “Food Printer” is explored in which ingredients are tossed into the machine and combine and ‘print’ them in the desired shape and consistency. (Similar to the way a stereolithographic printer can create a 3-D representation of a product)
- Home Farming: Explores ways in which daily dietary needs can be grown inside the home on stacked ‘mini eco-systems’.
Here’s the video!
(Via today and tomorrow)