The "Object Wall" created by Durrell Bishop - one of Gillian Crampton Smith's design and technology team at the Royal College of Art - offers a new look at control. The information appliances on the wall have no knobs or buttons - but if you slide the wall's movable screen near to the TV, or the computer, or the radio, it provides you with an interface that lets you take control.
That way, designers get the freedom to make the appliances look like anything they want. For Bishop, that means radios that look like rulers and a box that turns into a complete home-banking service. Given some wireless networking, the smooth black monolith could be a hi-fi; and for retro fans, the newest microwave could be dressed as a Baby Belling. And why not ?
John Browning