It is hard to say which would be scarier: waking up to an earthquake, or to being trapped inside of a jumbo coffin-like contraption containing your bed and emergency supplies.

Wang Wenxi developed and patented this bizarre panic-room bed prototype, which drops a top and side on your snuggly shelter when disaster strikes (or, in certain variants: drops you down into a solid shell, with the lid folding over the top after your fall).

Food, water, masks and fire extinguishers are contained in the bed frame as well, and the structure itself is designed to take a beating as well as loads from above. Of course, there are a lot of criticisms one could level at this design, including: it would be difficult to move the bed inside of a home to begin with, and one could be injured by the closing operation (say you like to sleep with your feet hanging off the edge).

Then, assuming one survives, how long will the air inside last, or will you slowly suffocate your in your modern sarcophagus to be found years or centuries later by curious archeologists? If all else fails, perhaps the patent holder will find success at a different scale, designing animal traps instead of human shelters.

The post Vault 101: Freaky Earthquake-Proof Bed Locks You Inside first appeared on Gajitz.

The recent trend of doomsday prepping is a paranoid, and sometimes even laughable, affair. It’s on par with the belief in a zombie apocalypse. It is, however, more practical in that it requires things like food stockpiling and various forms of training. In the chance of an apocalyptic event, this multi-purpose jacket doesn’t just make you look crazy – it keeps you alive.

It’s a design by recent Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Marie-Elsa Batteux Flahault. She calls this ensemble the On The Edge jacket; of what, were not sure – the world or your sanity. Besides presumably blocking UFO tractor beams, it carries a multitude of functions. There’s a visor for eye protection. Parts of the collar and surrounding areas inflate for a floatation device. Its fold-out orange flaps alert those around you to the impending (or your own mental) demise.

At its most practical, the waistline unfolds and turns into a NASA blanket-style wrap, and the hood contains diagrams on how to use the drawstring as a food trap. At its most crazy, one of the sleeves contains a switch blade, most likely for use with fighting off all the post-apocalyptic rape squads, and the same diagram shows how to use the drawstring for self-defense.

Flahault’s personal philosopy almost perfectly reflects that of the jacket. “For me the jacket is the image of a movement,” she said in a recent Dezeen interview. “All kinds of equipment could be featured in the jacket. I chose the jacket to show this principle but the way I see it, it could be applied to a whole range of objects.”

The post Survive an Apocalyptic Event With This Multi-Tasking Jacket first appeared on Gajitz.

This kit is something that should be in every traveler’s pack. The Traveler’s Paper Kit was designed by Jaeyong Lee, Jongwon Baek, Seonju Ryu, Sooji Park and Yeonjung Lee as a lightweight survival kit that takes up virtually no space but performs a staggering number of functions.

Sort of like a map, the Traveler’s Paper Kit starts out folded up into a tiny parcel of paper. Unfold it and you will find a solar compass with a star chart on the reverse side, a small paper cup, several position markers, a tiny wastebasket, a reflective card that can be used as an SOS signal, a spoon, a finger-pressure chart for alleviating pain through traditional Shiatsu methods, a paper for taking notes, and a few matchsticks.

The kit, a 2012 Red Dot Award winner, allows travelers to be prepared for a wide variety of unexpected situations. The components are all paper and simply pop out of the larger piece of paper when needed, making the kit an extremely lightweight and convenient piece of survival equipment.

Because all of the gadgets are simplified, they require no power and very little preparation. The entire kit is made with recycled paper, reducing its potential environmental impact. According to the designers, carrying an emergency kit becomes even more important when you have traveled several times without incident since the likelihood of encountering some kind of trouble increases when we become complacent.

The post Paper Survival Kit is a Lightweight Multi-Functional Travel Tool first appeared on Gajitz.

Snowboarding in remote locations can be full of danger, even for people who know what they’re doing. The team at Signal Snowboards came up with a clever way to keep snowboarders safe on the slopes without weighing them down. The Survivor Split is a snowboard that breaks down into skis, a shovel and a wood saw to help you stay safe and mobile if the worst happens.

The video above shows the entire manufacturing process along with a demonstration of the snowboard in real-world conditions. In addition to the shovel and wood saw, the board has a compass, thermometer and fire-starting flint built in. The bottom of the board is painted bright orange and features a prominent “SOS” to signal for help if you were ever to get stuck on a mountain.

According to the guys who tested the board out, steering is a little different on the Survivor Split because of the interior edges, but they were able to use it just like any other board. And as an added bonus, after separating the board into pieces the guys were able to use the skis together as a snurfer, a narrow type of snowboard with an attached rope for steering.

The post Survival Snowboard Keeps You Alive Until Help Arrives first appeared on Gajitz.