A series of innovative kitchen product blueprints have been produced by US design students, winning plaudits for their rethinking of traditional kitchen objects.The 15th annual Student Design Competition, sponsored by the International Housewares Association, yielded a range of innovative designs and saw first place awarded to an inventive fruit bowl.Louisiana University student Sarah OBrien earned first place for a flexible fruit bowl that expands and contracts, offering separate compartments for each piece of fruit and promising to reduce bruising and over-ripening. And in second place was Noah Balmers KitchenSync product, providing a stationary dock that allows recipes stored on a home computer to be accessed without printing them or bringing a laptop into the kitchen. Celebrity-endorsed recipes are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, with many choosing to download individual recipes rather than buy entire cookbooks. While printing off recipes will suffice for some, homeowners aspiring to a more hi-tech kitchen could warm to designs like the KitchenSync helping them to glance up at recipe details as they work over the real kitchen sink.