The Ripple faucet 28 Feb 2008

Designed by Smith Newnam and Touch360 Studio, the "Ripple" is an interesting spin on the humble household faucet. On top of its disc-shaped surface sits a small metal ball. When you move this ball around, an array of electromagnetic sensors detects its position and adjusts water pressure and temperature accordingly. As you can see in the image above, hot and cold water flows from two separate channels, meeting in the middle to form the perfect mix. Don't worry about scalding yourself though - the water in the hot water channel isn't actually hot until the point that it hits the basin thanks to "flash heating" (and besides, the faucet's surface also glows red or blue to give you a visual indication of how hot or cold the water is).