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PRIZES
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 Our winner will receive two traveling companions, the palm-sized RCA Lyra(TM) RD2780 Audio/Video Jukebox ($449) and lightweight RCA HPNC300 noise-canceling headphones ($69.95). Record and play TV shows and video along with audio, still-photos and data files all on the 20GB RCA Lyra(TM) device and listen with RCA's new portable, foldable, headphones.

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Winners and runners up
 will be published in
PopSci and Core77





Personal Security
Design a product that explores novel opportunities for personal security.

Registration Deadline
July 9, 2004

Entry Deadline
July 11, 2004

The notion of personal security is both timely and timeless. From wildlife-deterring campfires to motion-sensing outdoor lighting, the quest for personal security has incorporated various levels of urgency, context and efficiency. What are the forces driving developments in personal security today, what will they be in the future, and how should designers respond to these demands?

PSC77 Challenge #4: "Personal Security" challenges participants to design a product that explores the concept of personal security. For this challenge, entries should be submitted for consideration in one (and only one) of four sub-categories: Preventive Measures, Self-Defense, Emotional Security, or Financial Security. Designs should be based on existing or emerging technologies, not on magic or nonexistent materials. Entries will be judged on originality, innovation, intellectual rigor, design and presentation.


Notes on the four sub-categories:

Preventive Measures
 From smoke alarms and MedicAlert bracelets to nannycams and cholesterol medication, products that take preventive measures anticipate personal security risks, and are therefore closer to an insurance premium than pieces of conspicuous consumption. What are new opportunities for products designed to take advance measures against the unwanted?

Self Defense
 The notion of self-defense straddles the line between defensive and offensive products: consider pepper sprays that fit in a purse and Kevlar bulletproof vests. What are the opportunities for new products that increase our physical safety, and how do we invent humane solutions that balance our need to protect ourselves against misuse?

Emotional Security
 Emotional security can be embodied in both low- and high-tech items, from blankies and teddy bears to cellphones and RFID child-tracking bracelets. The notion of emotional security is often subjective and qualitative, and relative to culture and the times we live in. What constitutes emotional security, and are there ways to provide it to people whose emotional states are different from our own?

Financial Security
 From fingerprint-enabled credit cards and PIN numbers to wallsafes and money belts, financial security on a personal level is inextricably tied to larger forces beyond the individual. What are the limits of personal financial security, and how can products push those limits to increase an individual’s financial security?


Judges are staff members of Core 77 and Popular Science. Intellectual property rights will remain with the designer, although Popular Science retains the nonexclusive right to republish any winning design in a future issue, a compilation article, or in a book or Website. Work must be original for the challenge, or a significant modification and extension of work already done.



It is quick and easy, start here:

1. REGISTER NOW
Registration is closed at this time.

2.DESIGN AND PREPARE
Do your designing, sketching, modeling, etc. then format your entry in the following way:

Create three jpeg images, 1024 x 768, at 72 dpi

The set of images must tell the story of the design at three scales:
- one image showing context
- one image showing object
- one image showing details, exploded view, etc.

Write a one page description of design (max. 500 words)

Write a one paragraph designer bio (max. 200 words)
3. SUBMIT YOUR WORK
Attach your files to an e-mail and send them to:
challenge@core77.com

**IMPORTANT**
Send your descriptive text as a separate text file. You can include the text in the composition of your images, but you should send it in seperately as well.

Include your registration number in the subject line of your email.

All done!