Archive Category: Gadget
High Noon
Mounted on a 9″ marble base is a small brass cannon, and above that a magnifying glass. The positioning and focal length of the lens would be designed to light the cannon’s fuse. The placement of the sundial suggests that the device was used to mark the arrival of the noon hour (on sunny days).
This intricate device was custom-made for someone living at a latitude of 59 degrees, 55 minutes, 20 seconds. My guess would be that the recipient lived somewhere in St. Petersburg, but other locations are possible.
Link.
Addendum: Some additional searching has revealed that devices such as these were known as “sundial cannons” or “noon cannons.” The best description/photos I’ve found is at this pdf by the British Sundial Society.
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share:  email
this 
|
| Neatorama Shop » Shop by Character & Theme » Pirate Store | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more stuff from the Pirate
Store » 
|
||
USB Computer Prankster
Forget the whoppee cushion. Pranking has gone hi-tech with this USB Computer Prankster that will turn caps lock on and off, make random mouse movements, and type out random text:
Handily, the Prankster features a time delay setting, so that after installing it, you can make your getaway safely before it startmisbehaving.
The Prankster is highly annoying, but itll never activate the Enter key or close or save documents, so it’s mostly mischievous, not super-dangerous.
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Perfect Coffee Cup
Using a new, high-tech material, German scientists Klaus Sedlbauer and Herbert Sinnesbichler have developed a coffee cup that will keep your drink at the optimum temperature for drinking. Phase change material (PCM) was already in use as a building and clothing material because of its temperature-regulating capability. Now it will keep your coffee from going cold!
CM is able to absorb and maintain heat or cold for long periods of time. It melts when warmed and solidifies when cooled. Different PCMs have different melting points. If a hollow-framed mug were filled with PCM that becomes liquid at exactly 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit (the ideal drinking temperature for warm beverages) and the mug’s reservoir filled with a warm beverage, the PCM would absorb excess heat, bringing the liquid down to drinking temperature and keeping it there long enough for you to enjoy your coffee.
Sedlbauer and Sinnesbichler are looking for a manufacturer and distributor for their coffee cup. Link – via babycreativeblog
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Virus Rickrolls Jailbroken iPhones
An Australian computer hacker named Ashley Towns has created a virus that … rickrolls jailbroken iPhones:
The Australian programmer who claims to have created the world’s first Apple iPhone virus as a prank has told Computerworld he does not regret writing it.
The worm, ‘Ikee’ changes iPhone owners’ wallpaper and replaces it with a photo of ‘80s pop star Rick Astley and the message “ikee is never going to give you up”.
Twenty-one-year-old Wollongong resident Ashley Towns, said he created the virus out of curiosity and boredom.
“I had just formatted my iPhone and it told me to set the password in bold, big letters and I wondered how many people have actually done that," Towns said.
“So I ran a scan on my [Optus] 3G network and there was 26 phones running the service that’s vulnerable, and out of that 26, 25 hadn’t changed their passwords.”
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Remote-control Bowling Ball
At one time or another, everyone wishes they could control a bowling ball after it leaves his/her hand. The RC900 remote-control bowling ball makes that dream come true! A weight in a threaded shaft inside the ball determines its direction, and the user controls the weight. The purpose of the ball is to give young children a bit of success as they learn to bowl, and to help disabled people paticipate in the sport. Don’t even think of sneaking the RC900 into a competition! Link (with video) -via Gizmodo
|
Comment (11)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Funny T-Shirts | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Outrageously
Funny T-shirts »
|
||
Virtual Cow Butt
Veterinarians have no choice when they need to check a cow for pregnancy or infection. The standard procedure is to stick your arm up the cow’s rectum. The technique is difficult to teach to veterinary students because, well, it’s dark in there.
That’s why veterinarian and computer scientist Sarah Baillie has created the “Haptic Cow,” a virtual, touch-feedback device that mimics the feeling of real bovine anatomy, placed inside a fiberglass model of a cow’s rear end.
“With this technology, students can feel something that feels like the inside of a real cow, but I or another instructor can be following their movements on a monitor,” said Baillie, who teaches at the Royal Veterinary College in London. “This means we can say, ‘Come back a bit or go left a bit.’ It actually means you can direct them.”
Not only can professors follow a student’s exact movements and critique the technique, but they can also keep track of how much force is being applied. If a fledgling vet gets too rough and exceeds the number of Newtons considered safe by experienced vets, virtual Bessie will belt out a cautionary “Moo-oo!”
(image credit: Sarah Baillie/Royal Veterinary College)
|
Comment (8)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The iPhone Log Dock
Photo: woodtec
Because you can’t out-tech the sleek iPod and iPhone, it’s much better to go low-tech when showcasing Apple’s coveted gadgets. Behold, the log dock by Woodtec:
Again from Woodtec, the dual iPhone/iPod docking log takes the single log dock and adds room for another device. Now you can charge your iPhone and iPod simultaneously via a single length of tree limb. Unsurprisingly, as there’s more wood and an extra connection, the dual dock comes in at a higher price but for something so unique, $119.00 is surely money well spent.
Zoombits got more on wooden iPhone accessories: Link – Thanks Dave!
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Simultaneous Translation Glasses
Photo: NEC
NEC is developing a gadget that will translate spoken words into text displayed on a user’s eyes:
The prototype device called a “Tele Scouter” is a glasses type display that translates the foreign language being spoken by a partner and projects the translation onto a tiny retinal display.
The device mounted on an eyeglass frame consists of the retinal display, front-mounted camera and microphone, but doesn’t perform the translation itself. Rather the microphone picks up the conversation and transmits it to a portable computer worn on the user’s waist. This computer in turn transmits the information to a remote server, which is responsible for carrying out the heavy processing of converting the speech to text, translating it and sending it back to the wearable parts of the system to be displayed on the retinal display.
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Rolling Skis as a Personal Mobility Device
Photo: Robonable
This is Nissan’s prototype for a personal mobility device. Just step on to the footpads and lean in the direction that you want to go:
The device has two foot boards, both of which are balanced on two wheels. The device’s tilt sensors detect when you shift your weight to turn, traveling at a maximum rate of about 5kph. The foot boards have handle bars attached to help you maintain balance, and can be connected in a variety of positions or separated.
When separated, the device only moves forwards and backwards. To turn, you simply lift and turn your leg as if you were wearing stilts. The overall effect is one of ski-less skis.
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Playable Electric Guitar Shirt
(YouTube Link)
The Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt isn’t just a t-shirt. You can actually play music on it. Use a magnetic pick over the string markings and press down on the frets with your other hand. There’s also a volume nob and an amplifier that fits on your belt.
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Science T-Shirts (Geektastic!) | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Science
T-Shirts » |
||
Robot Alarm Clock Flees From You When You Try To Turn It Off
(YouTube Link)
Vadim Ryazanov built a robot that rolls away from you as you reach for it. He calls it “Mr. Wake.” As soon as the alarm goes off, an IR sensor on the robot turns on. The robot is programmed to move in the opposite direction of any object moving toward it:
Now, to give you idea how Wake works: Alarm clock mechanism I used has 3 contacts, Plus, Ground, and Alarm, which goes high when alarm goes off. This was really fortune for me, as I had only to connect the grounds and use this Alarm pin as analog input (Could not use it as digital as clock runs on 1.5V) and it workes just fine. So, whenever Alarm pin goes high, my code picks this up and switches Mr. Wake from “standby” to “alarm” mode, which makes him switch on IR leds and red LED in Magic Button on, read ambient reading from IR transistors and wait till the reading inceased above ambiant one, which means something is aproaching from above (I have the detection only from above, where clock and Magic Button are.
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Magic Wand For Levitation
Wingardium Leviosa! The spell from Harry Potter may be fun to say while using the Fly Stick Van De Graff Levitation Wand, but it’s not exactly required. See this and nine other cool levitating objects for the home at Gajitz.
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Wearable Hummingbird Feeder
If you’d like to see a hummingbird’s beak just millimeters from your face, this wearable hummingbird feeder is for you:
Hit play or go to Link
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Retractable Speed Bumps
Mexican firm Decano Industries has developed a speed bump that remains in place when a vehicle that is moving too quickly is about to drive over it, but retracts when a slow-moving vehicle approaches. Christ Hawley writes in USA Today:
“With this speed bump, people will feel rewarded for obeying the law,” says Carlos Cano, the company’s president.
The technology is relatively basic: The speed bump is formed by two steel plates that form a triangle sticking out of the pavement. When a car tire touches the plate, a patented device under the triangle measures the force of the impact.
If the tire’s impact is gentle enough — that is, if the vehicle is traveling slowly — both plates immediately collapse into the ground under the weight of the car.
Link via DVICE | Image: Sergio Solache, USA Today
|
Comment (12)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Alien Jaws
Quite possibly the best Halloween prop ever.
via UniqueDaily.
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Unicycle-Riding Clown Finds Cell Phone Users Inattentive
Researchers at Western Washington University wanted to test how alert cell phone users were of their surroundings compared to the general population. So they dressed a student as a clown and had him ride his unicycle around campus:
The observers asked walkers if they had noticed anything unusual, and for those who didn’t, they asked specifically if they had seen the unicycling clown. Even when directly asked, the cell-phone users were less than half as likely to notice the clown as those listening to music players or single individuals without any electronics. People who walked in pairs were the most likely to see the clown.
“So it’s not the conversation that’s the problem; it’s not an electronic device that’s the problem,” Hyman told LiveScience. “It’s something about a cell phone conversation is where the problem is.”
He speculates, as do other researchers, that when talking to someone in person you both can modify your conversation based on the environment, so if a clown, say, pops up you can both look up. “That’s not the case with the cell-phone conversations,” Hyman said.
Link via Gizmodo | Image: Ira Hyman
|
Comment (9)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Mood Tail
Here’s a nifty little gadget sure to get you some attention, should you dare to try it on.
|
Comment (22)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Port-A-Pint Portable Beer Glass
Port-A-Pint Portable Beer Glass – $7.95
Don’t go unprepared to your next party. Forget those clumsy disposable cups, bring your own portable beer glass. The Port-A-Pint Beer Glass pops open in seconds with a flick of your wrist. From the Neatorama Shop: Link
|
Comment (9)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Bladeless Fan by James Dyson
[YouTube - Link]
A stylish new fan has been creating a buzz in the world of technology.
In this clip, inventor/engineer James Dyson, famous for his vacuum cleaners (you may have seen his commercials with his vacuum that can round corners), introduces his latest product, the bladeless air multiplier fan. It uses a system of low pressure area and suction device in the bottom to create a smooth, continuous flow of air.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (18)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
T-Qualizer
Yep, a t-shirt with a fully functional graphic equalizer embedded on the front. It changes with the music around you, and even reacts to conversation! $39.99 from Think Geek. Link -via Everlasting Blort
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Food & Drink » Offbeat Mints & Candies | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Offbeat
Mints & Candies » |
||
DIY Halloween Popup
Make your own scary character that pops up out of trash can to scare trick-or-treaters! Instructables user Back Roads shows you how to create this prop that uses compressed air. Link -via Lifehacker
|
Comment (0)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Stone Cold Ice Tray
Stone Cold Ice Cube Tray – $7.95
Here’s one for your next party: the Stone Cold Ice Tray that makes ice shaped like the moais of Easter Island! Perfect for your tropical drink.
From the Neatorama Shop: Link | More cool and unusual ice trays
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Rovin’ Pumpkin
You may recall the Dalek Pumpkin from 2006, the Snap-o-Lantern from 2007, and the Dark Detecting Jack-o-Lantern from 2008. The fertile minds at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have announced their Halloween pumpkin project for 2009, and it’s a winner!
The Rovin’ Pumpkin’ is a simple robotic pumpkin, and a close cousin of the Snap-O-Lantern. Silently, it sits on your porch– camouflaged amongst the humble squashes.
After a minute, its green eyes start to glow, and it creeps… moving about one foot to the left… and stops. The eyes go dark again. It fades into the darkness. And it waits.
After several minutes and several steps, it reverses direction, and begins to creep the other way. Hopefully before it falls off of your porch.
The Rovin’ Pumpkin is made from Lego parts, a small motor, LEDs for eyes, and a pumpkin. Instructions and a video are included in the article. Link
|
Comment (0)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Bringing Back Polaroids
The Impossible Project is a worldwide effort to restart and reinvent and save instant photography – their aim to re-start production of analog instant film for vintage Polaroid cameras in 2010.
Personally I love the instant photography as it gives a really unique effect it’s impossible to gain from other photography effects.
This is a really clever campaign backed by the likes of Urban Outfitters and Wallpaper.
Polaroid is transforming itself from an analog Instant Film Production Company to a global Consumer Electronics and Digital Imaging company.
Production of analog Instant Film stopped in June 2008, closing the factories in Mexico (Instant Packfilm production) and the Netherlands (Instant Integral production).
Link – via cakeheadlovesevil
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
A Table That Attaches to Your Steering Wheel
Driving is boring and it takes time out of your busy life. Why not multitask and use your driving time more productively? With the Laptop Steering Wheel Desk, you can eat, use a computer, read, do your nails — whatever. What could possibly go wrong? On sale at Amazon.com for $23.23. | Link
|
Comment (9)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Glass Harmonica
Listen to French artist Thomas Bloch demonstrating a glass harmonica, or armonica, at the Paris Music Museum. From Wikipedia:
Benjamin Franklin invented a radically new arrangement of the glasses in 1761 after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by Edmund Delaval at Cambridge in England in 1758.[6] Franklin, who called his invention the “armonica” after the Italian word for harmony, worked with London glassblower Charles James to build one, and it had its world premiere in early 1762, played by Marianne Davies.
In Franklin’s treadle operated version 37 bowls were mounted horizontally on an iron spindle. The whole spindle turned by means of a foot pedal. The sound was produced by touching the rims of the bowls with moistened fingers.
|
Comment (8)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Shopping Cart Chair
It might not be comfortable or all that functional, but this shopping cart chair is just undeniably cool. It can even work as a wheelchair if necessary. Instructables can tell you how to make one of your very own.
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
M-Cups: Measuring Cups Shaped Like Matryoshkas or Russian Nesting Dolls
M-Cups Matryoshka (Russian Nesting Doll) Measuring Cups
This is a clever one by Carl Mitsch of Fred Studio: a set of measuring cups shaped like matryoshka (babushka or Russian nesting dolls). They’re cute and functional! And perhaps best of all, they nest inside of one another so they don’t take up much cabinet space. At $11.95 each, they’re the perfect gift for those who love to cook … and who knows, maybe you’ll get dinner out of it, too.
From the Neatorama Shop: Link
|
Comment (4)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Geeky Wristwatches: The Pricey and the Cheap
The beautiful Casio Databank 2888JA over at Tokyoflash – pre-order at $112.28; (R) The cheaper yet still geeky chic Cal-Q-Tek 2000 Calculator Watch at the Neatorama Shop – $14.95
I have a soft spot in my heart for geeky wristwatches. Maybe it’s all those childhood conditioning (Dick Tracy’s wrist phone, anyone?) but when Tokyoflash came out with their limited time offer of the Casio Databank 2888JA, I’m all over it. It’s a bit pricey, so for the budget-conscious geek, may I suggest our retro-fun Cal-Q-Tek 2000 wrist watch over at the Neatorama Shop?
Links: Casio Databank 2888JA – Thanks Paul! | Cal-Q-Tek 2000 Calculator Watch
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Complimenting Scale
Photo: VoluptuArt
Does your bathroom scale flinch whenever you walk by? Maybe you need a replacement that is a bit more accepting of your body image issues. These handmade scales by Marilyn Wann offer compliments such as ’sexy’, ‘ravishing’, and ‘perfect’ instead of numerical weight measurements.
Product Page | Link via Foolish Gadgets
|
Comment (11)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Shop by Character & Theme » Pac-Man Store | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more stuff from the Pac-Man
Store »
|
||
-
Your purchase helps support the blog - Thank you!
