Dorm room equipped with "black technology" goes viral

A space capsule-like dorm room equipped with "black technology" was featured in GIFs, short video clips without sound, that went viral recently on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter equivalent.

The smart room was remodeled by four design majors born after 1995 from the School of Art and Design, Beijing Institute of Technology. Song Shantai, Huang Xiaofeng, Lin Yunan and Deng Yadong used highly advanced "black technology" such as projection keyboards, remote-controlled trash cans, and sensors.

With projection keyboards, they can type on any surface where an image of the virtual keyboard is projected. The words they type will be shown on the screen of any mobile phone connected via Bluetooth, saving them the time and hassle of having to turn on their computers. "Basically, we can replace computers with tables," Song said.

Different from the normal trash can, the four-wheeled one is on call 24/7. It was designed by Huang, who installed the chassis of a remote-controlled car on the bottom of the garbage bin, enabling it to "drive" itself to wherever it is needed.

Sensors are also used in many creative ways here. With temperature sensors, they can use their mobile phones to check the room temperature and turn on the air conditioning when they are absent from the room. Installed with door and window sensors, a circle of LED lights on the ceiling will turn on automatically and curtains will close themselves when someone comes back in the evening.

"The use of so-called 'black technology' is actually inspired by our demands in daily life," Deng said. Taking "future technology" as the theme, they decided to remodel their room and make it look more like the future when they moved into the new dorm earlier this year.

Inspired by Star Wars, a space opera film, they installed blue LED strips on the edge of the ceiling and beds, wallpapered the room with black environmentally friendly material, and covered the floor with a gray reflective material, turning the dorm into a miniature space capsule.

"I am surprised that art students can create something so high-tech. I also want to have a try in the future," said Li Danmeng, a graduate student from the university's School of Optoelectronics. "It shows that students in our university can apply what we have learned to daily life."