Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Bites / Kitchen Gear Porcupine Pan: Smart Design for Idiots Like Me
Posted by Steve Haruch on Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 7:54 AM
This happens to me a lot: I put a sauté pan in the oven in order to continue cooking its contents; I take the pan out of the oven carefully, wearing an oven mitt; I turn around to do something else; I grab the panhandle with my bare hand because I've forgotten that the thing just came out of the oven; I say things that aren't nice.
But what if the pan could tell me it's too hot to pick up? Tara Mullaney has designed a pan that does just that, though not in so many words: When the pan gets too hot to handle, quills made from "the shape-memory alloy Flexinol" (I'm taking this information on good faith) rise up and warn you that this is no place for a bare hand. Mullaney's a recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute, and the Porcupine pan is just one of a series of everyday objects that respond to the current state. She's also designed a tea cup that shivers when the tea's gone cold.
(Via Core77.)
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