For many who ride trains for the commute to work, the journey begins when the train doors open and everyone piles in fast in an effort to snag one of the few remaining seats.
But if designer Jiang Qian’s idea comes to market, we could see people dashing for one of his game straps rather than a seat.
Qian’s design transforms the straps you find in train cars – the ones that you cling onto to help stop you tumbling onto someone’s lap – into a screen-equipped gaming device.
“But what if I become too engrossed in a game? I’ll miss my stop,” some of you may be thinking. But Qian has thought of that – as the train pulls into each stop, the screen will momentarily display the name of the station. Clever, eh?
The game switches on as soon as the passenger grasps the strap and can be played using one of the two buttons located at its base.
Qian suggests that simple games like Tetris or pinball would be ideal for use with his Strap Game, which he designed as part of a project looking for novel ways of getting more people to use public transport.
Equipping train cars with such high-tech straps would be an expensive proposition for any transport company, but you can bet they’d be popular. Of course, most people have smartphones loaded with games these days, but Strap Game would provide a fun alternative when you can’t be bothered to get your phone out.
“Our life is full of pressure,” Qian says on his webpage. “We are searching for an excuse to relax and entertain ourselves, so Strap Game is one of these excuses.”
So if you saw one of these on your train or bus, would you go for the seat or have a play?
[Source: Tree Hugger via Penn Olson]
