If you asked a cartoonist from the 1950s to produce an icon of a drunk guy, he'd probably draw a man with a lampshade on his head. Shanghai-based industrial & interaction designer Mathieu Servais, however, envisions a similar set-up for a more sober application: Work.
Servais' unusual concept consists of an enormous shade on an articulating arm, with the idea being that a worker within an open-plan office can pull it down to gain a measure of privacy, both visual and acoustic. On the technological side, the shade would also "[isolate the user] from digital noise by filtering data receipt (e-mails, phone calls, instant messages)...[via connection to] an online service."
Called Efi, the concept served as Servais' industrial design Masters thesis at France's L'Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique. For those curious, the full thesis can be downloaded (albeit in French) here.
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