Lapka, a company specializing in design-forward sensor-driven hardware, has created a concept line for Google's modular smartphone. Lapka
Lapka, a company specializing in design-forward sensor-driven hardware, has created a concept line for Google's modular smartphone.
The imagined Lapka x Project Ara line comprises seven components in all. Lapka
The imagined Lapka x Project Ara line comprises seven components in all.
The little yellow node is a light sensor. Lapka
The little yellow node is a light sensor.
The carbon dioxide sensor. Lapka
The carbon dioxide sensor.
The air quality monitor. Lapka
The air quality monitor.
A glucometer for continuous glucose tracking. Lapka
A glucometer for continuous glucose tracking.
An EKG node that measures heart activity. Lapka
An EKG node that measures heart activity.
A breathalyzer node. (Lapka also sells a standalone breathlyzer.) Lapka
A breathalyzer node. (Lapka also sells a standalone breathlyzer.)
And last, a “soul” module. It’s anyone’s guess what that last one will do—Lapka hasn’t supplied any details. Lapka
And last, a “soul” module. It’s anyone’s guess what that last one will do—Lapka hasn’t supplied any details.
“We think style is super important. It’s the only way people will use medical devices at their own will," says Lapka creative director Vadik Marmeladov. Lapka
“We think style is super important. It’s the only way people will use medical devices at their own will," says Lapka creative director Vadik Marmeladov.
Last week, Google teased its modular smartphone, Project Ara, with a video showcasing ultra-customized, ultra-colorful skins for its various modules. Today, we’re getting a different glimpse of how Ara might cater to myriad user needs: A set of conceptual sensors modules that could unlock functionality well beyond what’s possible with today’s smartphones.
The speculative modules were created by Lapka, a company specializing in design-forward sensor-driven hardware. Lapka launched its novel Personal Environment Monitor (PEM for short), in 2012, making it an early player in the environment-tracking scene that’s continuing to proliferate today. Its latest product is a sleek smartphone-assisted breathalyzer. The company has met with Google and tested out the Ara phone, but this project is entirely Lapka’s own initiative. With the imagined Lapka x Project Ara product line, Ara users would not only have the option to upgrade their smartphones’ cameras, screens, and batteries—they’d also be able to plug in things like a CO2 monitor or a glucometer.
The concept comprises seven components in all: an air quality sensor, a CO2 monitor, a light sensor, an EKG node that measures heart activity, a glucometer for glucose tracking, a breathalyzer, and a “soul” module. (It’s anyone’s guess what that last one will do—Lapka hasn’t supplied any details.) The idea is to use Ara’s modular platform to expand beyond traditional smartphone functionality—and the traditional aesthetic of diagnostic devices. With Lapka, a Project Ara device could become a mobile doctor’s office, a meteorology station, or a lab technician’s assistant. “Our idea is to create and establish a health care brand,” says Vadik Marmeladov, creative director at Lapka. “We think style is super important. It’s the only way people will use medical devices at their own will.”
Lapka’s PEM monitor from 2012, left, and Lapka’s vision for Google Ara phones, right. Lapka
Lapka predates Project Ara, but you can see a kinship to Ara in the company’s early work. PEM’s square and rectangular pieces were designed to fit together into a rectangular puzzle, not unlike Ara’s electromagnetically-attachable modules. But the Ara concept work stakes out its own striking aesthetic: Modules are green, pink, spackled, and sharply geometric. According to Lapka’s blog, the architectural pieces were inspired by “high-end, designer sneakers with the most unique combinations of materials and textures.” They also harken back to the Memphis design movement that came out Milan in the 1980s, whose furniture favored loud colors, sharp angles, and unapologetic geometry.
The Project Ara vision is one where gadgets become increasingly personal. It takes customization beyond changing your lock screen or switching up your case. Lapka’s work shows a different side of Ara’s potential, one where fashion and technology coexist. “All these companies like Zara, H&M, who collaborate with Margiela or Alexander Wang, they create this limited edition that can be sold globally,” Marmeladov says. “This could also work in the tech industry. Lapka could be the high-end fashion brand, where we work with Google to create these because Google is so big that they can’t make the product this brave or colorful. So they can use boutique brands like ours to come up with these ideas.”
These modules aren’t meant for everyone, but that would be the point. They’re designed for highly specific use cases and tastes. They hint at a future in which modular gadgets don’t just change the face of smartphones, but perhaps medical devices, scientific instruments, and educational tools, too.
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