As power-plug concepts go, the practical aspects of this plug with a built-in finger-hole are rather disappointing. After all, with Euro-style two-pronged plug, how hard is it really to yank it from the wall? What saves Seungwoo Kim's design, and elevates it into the category of awesome, is its Tron-like ring of light.
By day, it's just another plug, albeit a plug with a hole. By night, the inside surface of the ring lights up thanks to an electroluminescent strip, casting an eery, annoying but nerdily fantastic blue glow across the room.
The idea is that it will help you find and unplug the thing in the dark, but that seems like a flawed idea. First, having your plugs lit all night long in case you might need to unplug them seems wasteful. Second, what happens once you have unplugged it? You're plunged into darkness as rudely as Jeff Bridges was plunged into a virtual computer world.
This didn't stop the Universal Plug, as it is called, from winning an iF Concept Design award. I guess the judges are huge Tron fanboys, just like us.
The Tron Tug [Yanko]
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