What’s a natural way to keep tabs on your aging parents without the tinge of big-brother? This cabinetry embeds a one-to-one dedicated video-conferencing link between grandparents and their grandkids, so they can chat as often as they’d like, just by opening a door.

Inspired by the filmmaker Errol Morris’s interrotron, the video camera is concealed behind a half-silvered mirror, so you’re looking directly eye-to-eye. A light box provides perfect facial illumination, and the door even glows when the other person is nearby. Thanks to my collaborator Sean Salzberg, who is now a technologist in NYC.