Like MIT Media Lab alumnus Gauri Nanda, Jenny Chowdhury makes Web sites and gadgets at the intersection of industrial design and pop culture. Her most popular project so far is probably the Popularity Dialer:

At the elected time, your phone will be dialed and you will hear a prerecorded message that’s one half of a conversation. [Link]

She also came up with a cell phone version of Assassin, a puffin’ pony…

Meet puffin pony, the emphysema horse who smokes out of her tracheotomy hole. You wear puffin pony on your shoulder as a reminder not to smoke. When you go to get a cigarette out of your pack, puffin pony begins to wheeze and she shakes her head ‘no’… [Link]

… and a portable cell phone booth:

The portable phone booth, which I call the “Cell Atlantic CellBooth”, is a wearable object you can carry around with you and set up when you need a moment to talk . The deliberate nature of setting up the booth and standing in place while one talks enforces the idea that the call is important — not something to do while picking up the kids, working out, or driving. [Link]

(via Boing Boing)