Student invents genius kitchen gadget to help people with 1 arm
SINGAPORE -- It seems obvious, but household chores can be challenging for people who have one arm.
Loren Lim, an industrial design student at the National University of Singapore, has come up with a set of kitchen attachments that are aimed at helping people accomplish tasks such as washing the dishes and chopping vegetables.
He calls it the Oneware, and it's a set of attachments that you can lay over the sink or at the prep area in the kitchen.
The largest attachment is for washing dishes. It's mainly a perforated silicone layer that grips dishes so users can apply pressure while scrubbing one surface. The rubbery surface flexes to accommodate rounder surfaces when you flip the dish over too.
Another attachment features two sets of teeth that hold onto veggies so you can chop them safely with one hand.
Lim told Mashable it took about a year to research and develop his product, dubbed the Oneware. The prototypes were quite different to the final version, he said.
An earlier version of the dish-washing segment looked more like a half-filled balloon, he said. It worked well to accommodate a dish sitting on it, but ended up becoming slippery when wet.
And before the chopping board's design was finalised, an earlier version featured a row of nails to pierce fruit and vegetables. It would've held onto the food, but posed a safety risk in the kitchen, he explained.
The Oneware isn't ready for stores yet, but it's already won Lim a bunch of top awards from global companies.
Dyson gave him the James Dyson Award in Singapore this year, offering him the chance to represent the country against 22 other winners across the world.
He said the £2,000 ($2,590) he got from that award will go towards his efforts in making Oneware a commercial reality eventually.
You might be able to buy it in Ikea soon
Lim is also getting a leg up from another big retailer. Since he won Ikea's Young Designer Award for Singapore this year, he's bagged a trip to HQ in Sweden to chat about his product.
As it is, the Oneware already looks like it's come straight out of an Ikea catalogue, with its clean lines and unassuming grey and white coloured design.
With some luck, perhaps you'll see the Oneware in a store sooner than you think.
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
