Reblogs for 20110124

Thrive PortionWare from IFTF on Vimeo.

 

Here is the final of the winning presentations from the BodyShock the Future contest for ideas to improve global health that was held last summer.

One of the top 5 winners of the contest was Thrive Portion Ware, a cup and set of plates designed by Sally Ng at the California College of Art to help reduce food intake by 20%. Her presentation is above, and her entry into the contest describes her innovative idea:

“Thrive portion control ware’s cups and plates help steer people to eat 20% less per meal. It works subtly and subconsciously to enable people to eat and drink less. Plate will tip if user places food in the red zone. Control words are on back of plate so users will see “restraint” or “will power” every time they pick one up from a dish rack or cupboard. Cup is quartered off as well, so users drink 20% less no matter what the beverage is. People can consciously consume less. Thrive Portion Ware enables people to do just that.”

Today, Sally sent us an update on her progress in the past couple of months:

“I just finished my last semester a month ago. So I'm working on various projects including Thrive. I made a mock website for it since then, here it is: http://pomo.cca.edu/~sng2/ThriveFinal/. I'm trying to code the Shop section to work correctly, where it will tally up the amount of people who do want to buy it in order to gather some statistics. After I work out that bug, I will be touching it up, move it to a new server instead of my school's so it won't crash from traffic spikes. I’m also finishing up writing the patent to submit.”

We wish Sally all the best as she moves forward with her idea to make portion control easy and beautiful. Stay tuned for more updates on each winner throughout the year as they make progress.

IFTF's current contest, accepting entries until January 31, is the California Dreams Contest. We're asking people, "What is Your Dream for the Future of California?" The winner will receive the $3,000 Roy Amara Prize for Participatory Foresight. Enter your dream today!