5 Great Designs At The 2013 Dyson Awards

The annual Dyson awards are a celebration of great engineering and innovative product design. Coming up with something to impress the man behind the bagless vacuum has to be a challenging design job, and the contest attracts entrants from all over the world.

This year’s winner will be announced in early November, but in the meantime, here are five shortlisted projects that deserve our attention. From power generation to medical supplies, each one demonstrates flair and innovation.

1. The Portable Wind Generator

When we think of portable renewable energy, we tend to think of solar panels. But it’s difficult to generate enough electricity in some environments, and solar is obviously completely useless at night.

German engineers have come up with Xarius, a portable generator that harnesses the wind to create electricity. It’s designed for backpacking and camping.

2. The Noise Reducer

This Austrian invention will be of interest to anyone who lives with noise pollution. Sono is a device that attaches to a window pane to cancel out certain frequencies; it consists of a speaker, a microphone, a power cell and an antenna.

Users benefit from active noise cancellation that can be tweaked to suit their environment.

3. The Cycle Safety Lights

LEDs offer cyclists an efficient alternative to the traditional bike light, offering super bright light and low power consumption. This Dyson entrant, Revolights, takes the concept one stage further.

Revolights are attached to the wheel rim to provide a constant beam of light that falls in front of the bike and behind it (in white and red respectively). They can be viewed from every angle.

4. The Printer That Eats Paper

Stack is the amazing printer that appears to eat through a ream of letter-sized paper as it prints. The printer sits on top of the pile and draws one sheet at a time through its loading mechanism.

Stack saves space and cuts down on plastic: there’s no need for a sheet feeder, and it can stand on a fairly tall ream as long as it’s stable. What’s more, it benefits from classic Swiss design flair.

5. The 3D Printed Cast

If you’ve ever fractured a limb, you’ll know just how hot and uncomfortable plaster casts can be. The Cortex is a 3D printed plastic support that does the same job without the weight, offering ventilation and strength without being cumbersome to the wearer.

What’s more, Cortex is environmentally friendly. The ‘cast’ is made from recycled plastic waste. 3D printed body parts may be on the horizon, but we'll almost certainly see 3D printed casts far sooner.

Naming the Winning Designer

James Dyson will choose the winner of the 2013 Dyson Award ahead of an announcement on 7th November. For updates, head to the Dyson Awards website. If you’re an aspiring designer or engineer, you’ll get plenty of inspiration for your own design assignments and inventions from the Dyson shortlist, even if you’re too late to enter this year’s awards with your own design.

By Sam Wright

Sam Wright is a writer working with Brand Republic. Click here to visit the website.