Chindogu was created by Japanese artist Kenji Kawakami in the 1990s, who describes these inventions as “un-useless.” He coined the term chindogu using a combination of the Japanese words chin, meaning “strange” or “odd,” and dougu, which means “device” or “tool.”
Interestingly enough, I’ve often sought after these inventions on a day-to-day basis without realizing
Recently, for a project concerning University of Glasgow, I was searching high and low for the renting of a 360-degree camera. Although it may be an obvious choice, this previous version of the Chindogu practice is quite telling. Going down to an elementary proof of concept is now always the worst way to go about it, and worst comes to worst, strapping a few phones to my head with videos playing is a fundamental correct approach to solving the issue.
This is an excellent example of the simplicity of great design.