Friday marked the launch of the London Design Festival with the writing of the words “LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2010 IS NOW OPEN” on the set of Audi production line robots which have been placed in Trafalgar Square.

Even though I missed the opening line, there were plenty of messages which came flooding through from their website. You can log on and submit a message of your choosing, with it randomly being selected through a lottery type system. It is then written, recorded and played back both online and also on the LED type display which surrounds the installation. Take a look at the video below and the picture above to understand how it works.

London Design Festival – Outrace – Audi Robots from Richard Stowey on Vimeo.

If you are in London between the 16th and 23rd of September, then go and take a look. Apart from it being crowded with tourists who are probably wondering what on earth it is, it’s a chance to see some production environment machinery in real life. The London Design Festival also has other events on in London this week. A full schedule can be found by going to the London Design Festival website.

It’s also worth checking out some of the designers other collaborative work: Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram

Image Outrace – London Design Festival 2010 by Richard Stowey, on Flickr

The end of the year usually gets me thinking about the future and this year is no different. Current technology and the demands for unique content seems to be growing at an ever increasing pace, and nothing shows this more than the accelleration of mobile devices with their app stores. Apple iPhone App Store, Google Android Market, Blackberry App World, Nokia Ovi Store, and everyone else who is following suit at the moment. But where does this app business all lead? And what does it get us?

The manufacturers have provided and are building on the platforms, and it’s up to the users to create the content, for themselves or for other users. The greatest solutions and answers permiate their way to the surface and become the most well known and widely used.

So, what does the future hold for the app?

The movies depict a future of robots being delivered to our houses, as in iRobot or A.I. and arriving as a close representation of our human selves, capable of everything we can throw at them. Capable of cooking, cleaning, administering medication, mending and making things… but how long would the development and perfection of all of these things take? How long would the development of all the apps in the iPhone store have taken if Apple developed them all before the release of the iPhone? Well, probably a lot longer than it has taken.

Perhaps all we need is numerous organisations to develop the framework, build the platforms, invent the language and create the rules which can be the blank canvas for others to use as a test bed onto which they can throw their ideas. Robot owners can download their applications, test and rate them and provide feedback. Survival of the fittest.

A competitive environment similar to the app store environment of the moment, but with robots and applications which use their motor and processing capabilities, will throw up interesting results.

So, what will happen for the future? How long will it be before robots are available to everyone, like mobile devices are today. Will there even be a time when everyone has their own personal robot assistant? Only time will tell!

Photo by alliewiki