Potential Chindōgus
If we could have anything in the world that could solve our petty but annoying problems, even if it was unuseless, the mere existence of it would calm our mind. For the Bridge 1 project, we had to design a chindōgu that would solve our partner’s problem. Therefore, to design potential chindōgus for my partner, I came up with a few questions to interview her. Figuring out a person in a limited period of time is extremely hard, however, thankfully my partner’s answers provided enough information to design my chindōgu. And luckily, I was able to relate to her problems and wants. Among her answers, I picked three basic yet essential problems that could be solved. One small problem she had in her daily life was her glasses constantly sliding down from her nose. Along with her problem, she wanted two practical skills that would make her life more efficient: peeling fruits and vegetables without cutting herself and being good at cutting bangs.
For my partner’s problem with her glasses, I designed few headpieces that could hold her glasses in place so that it would not slide down. Concerning this problem, I personally able to relate to this because my glasses also fall down from my nose and prevent myself from seeing clearly — the upper half is blurry and the lower half is partially clear. So in designing the chindōgu, my main focus was on the glasses staying in place without needing the support of the nose. In my design, a glasses is attached to a headband which sort of covers the whole face. Rather than looking like normal glasses, it resembles goggles and beneath the surface, there is gel attached so that it could stick to the face.
Another chindōgu I designed was for peeling fruits and vegetables. For this, I came up with a design that could cut an apple without even holding a knife. The chindōgu it a device that would peel off the surface and cut an apple into pieces. And if my partner only wants to peel off the surface, she can remove the knives in the center. Also, this device expands and shirks easily, therefore, being useful for all sizes of fruits and vegetables. The chindōgu resembles a dome with the top open and closing by twisting.
My final design is a chindōgu for cutting bangs. This was especially hard to design because I have never had bangs in my entire life so I do not know how I should cut and how hard it is. According to my research, you need to gather the hairs for your bangs, hold them with your fingers, and finally cut. The whole process seemed hard and bothersome. Therefore, I designed a device that would hold the hair together and cut the band with a simple push. You only need to place your hairs in the rectangular portion with the blade and it will cut immediately. There’s no need to worry about cutting your hand.
Coming up with ideas for chindōgus was extremely hard. It needs to be useful yet useless. It was difficult balancing between these and I am not even sure if my chindōgus follow the ten tenants of chindōgu. But this was definitely a process where I could think out of the box and create an invention of my own.
