Archive Category: Gadget
Real Life Star Trek Medical Tricorder
UC Berkeley Professor of Bioengineering Boris Rubinsky and colleagues have just developed a handheld medical imager that looks just like the medical tricorder in Star Trek!
New handheld medical scanners coupled with regular cell phones resemble "Star Trek" tricorders and could see what ails you with a push of a button.
The invention, using off-the-shelf cell phone technology, would allow medical scanners to boldly go where none have gone before — to the aid of the roughly three-quarters of the world’s population currently without access to ultrasounds, X-rays and other imagers used for everything from detecting tumors to monitoring fetuses.
Greenpix: Giant Solar-Powered LED Wall in China
Behold the Greenpix Zero Energy Media Wall, a gigantic LED wall completely powered by solar energy!
Gizmodo has the story:
Greeting visitors attending the Xicui entertainment complex near the site of the games is a 20,000 square foot wall of computer-controlled LEDs, the largest of its kind ever built. Better yet, the wall manages to power itself completely using only the sun.
The GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, designed by Simon Giostra & Partners and Arup, uses thousands of solar capture cells attached to each of its glass panels to charge up during the day and then release dazzling light shows at night. It’s the first time perforated photovoltaics laminated in glass have ever been used in a building in China, but if all goes off without a hitch, it most certainly won’t be the last.
Link | Greenpix website | YouTube video at Technabob
How Its Users Help Nokia Innovate
Remember
the brouhaha when Apple
told a third-grader to get lost when she wrote a letter to Steve Jobs
about her ideas to improve the iPod?
Well, compare that to how Nokia treats its users' suggestions:
Nokia researchers didn't quite know what to expect when, in March, 2007, they posted a mobile phone application called Sports Tracker on a company Web site that is open to the public. The program, still a work in progress, was designed to let runners and cyclists take advantage of the global positioning capability included in some Nokia models. Users can record workout data such as speed and distance, and can plot routes.
The response to Sports Tracker was overwhelming. Eventually more than 1 million people downloaded the program and used it for sports the developers never dreamed of, such as paragliding, hot-air ballooning, and motorcycle riding. More importantly, the users avidly provided criticism that Nokia (NOK) then used to make improvements. Based on reader feedback, for example, developers added the capability to create online groups where users can share favorite routes and even photos they took along the way. "People were misusing the application in creative ways," says Jussi Kaasinen, a member of the team at Nokia Research Center in Helsinki that developed Sports Tracker.
You've heard of user-generated content? Sports Tracker is an example of how Nokia has begun experimenting with user-generated innovation. That's the premise behind Nokia Beta Labs, a Web site where the Finnish handset maker lets users test the latest smartphone software. Instead of people recording silly Web cam videos for YouTube or inventing frivolous advocacy groups on Facebook, they can help make the mobile Internet more useful.
The photo above is Sam from Accra, India Ghana, who sketched his dream phone
in open studios set up by Nokia's design team where users can submit their
best ideas.
Link: Article at Business Week by Kerry Capell | Nokia Beta Labs website - via Core77
R2-D2 Projector is Super Swell!
This has got to be the ultimate gadget for Star Wars lover: the R2-D2 Projector, complete with built-in DVD, iPod dock, and Millenium Falcon remote control!
Link - via Star Wars Blog | R2-D2 Projector in Action video
Keyboards May Be Dirtier Than a Toilet Seat
UK Consumer group Which? conducted the test that showed keyboards may actually be dirtier than a toilet seat:
Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office’s toilet seats.
Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson said a keyboard was often "a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut".
During the Which? tests in January this year, a microbiologist deemed one of the office’s keyboards to be so dirty he ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned. It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria - five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time, the research found.
A Functional Wrist-Mounted Flame Thrower
(YouTube Link)
The first 30 seconds of this video is a clip from one of the X-Men movies, and the rest is footage of an explanation and demonstration of this marvelous gadget.
Happy 50th Birthday, Conveyor Belt Sushi!
Wouldn’t you know it, the conveyor belt sushi is 50 years old this month!
Yoshiaki Shiraishi (1914-2001) opened the first conveyor belt sushi Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Osaka in 1958. The concept has revolutionised the Japanese food culture, with thousands of conveyor belt sushi restaurants operating around the world.
According to Wikipedia, Yoshiaki was inspired to invent the conveyor belt sushi after watching beer bottles on a conveyor belt in an Asahi brewery.
Link | Wikipedia entry on Conveyor Belt Sushi - Thanks Jee!
(Photo: mstephens7 [Flickr])
Star Trek Bottle Opener
Open your beer with the starship Enterprise! This item should be in stock by the end of June, but you can preorder now. Link -via Gizmodo
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+SU$300,000 Watch That Doesn’t Tell The Time
Clever: Designing a luxury timepiece
Very Clever: Incorporating pieces of the sunken Titanic - what a gimmick!
Genius: It doesn’t even tell the time … and sells out within 48 hours of its launch at $300K a piece!
Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome’s newest watch, "Day & Night," made from oxidized steel salvaged from the Titanic, doesn’t tell the time. Oh, it has two complex tourbillons (devices that counteract gravity and other perturbing fource that affects the accuracy of the watch) all right, but the watch can only tell whether it’s day or night:
The company’s chief executive, Yvan Arpa, cited statistical studies to explain how the watch better reflects the time-philosophy of today’s wealthy.
“When you ask people what is the ultimate luxury, 80 percent answer ‘time’. Then when you look at other studies, 67 percent don’t look at their watch to tell what time it is,” he told Reuters.
He added that anyone can buy a watch that tells time — only a truly discerning customer can buy one that doesn’t.
And here’s the best part: The watch sold out within 48 hours of its launch.
DIY Personal G-Force Meter
Chris of PyroElectro Microcontrollers has a DIY guide post on how to make your own Personal G-Force Meter:
The main application of the accelerometer is either for sensing tilt or sensing acceleration. For this application A G-Force meter for my car will be made to see how many "G’s" I pull while driving.
I drive like a grampa, so I’m sure my Personal G-Force meter will flatline near zero: Link - thanks Chris!
Micro GPS Device to … Track Snail Mail!
GPS
is a nifty and useful tool - I have a TomTom GPS navigation for Christmas that really helped me get around (I get lost easily).
But apparently, there are some really weird GPS tools out there, like this one: the Micro GPS Mail Logger, a GPS tracking device to track your mail as it makes its way through the snail mail system! The device is for "evaluating your delivery service’s reliability and efficiency"
The product costs $695.95, which of course, you risk losing every time you use it. Link - Thanks Greg Bryant!
The Leave Me Alone Box
(YouTube link)
Turn the switch on, and the hand comes out to turn it off. That’s all this machine does! And you can have one of your very own. Link -via Boing Boing
Anti-Teen Loitering Device: Is It Torture?
The Mosquito is an electronic "anti-teen loitering" device that emits an annoying sound akin to a mosquito buzzing in your ear that can only be heard by teenagers and people in their 20s (who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ear).
After selling 1,000 units in the United States, the company that sells the device is now being criticized for torturing teens!
"It’s horrible, loud and irritating," said Eddie Holder, 15, who sprinted from his apartment for school one morning covering one ear with his hand to block out the noise. The device was installed outside the building to drive away loiterers. "I have to hurry out of the building because it’s so annoying. It’s this screeching sound that you have to get away from or it will drive you crazy."
The device has roiled civil liberties groups in countries where it’s in use, including England, Australia and Scotland. England’s government-appointed Children’s Commission proposed a ban. That group describes it as a weapon that infringes on the basic rights of young people and claims that it could have unknown long-term health effects.
The $1,500 device has also been challenged in some American cities and towns that have proposed installing it, with some criticizing the tactic as needlessly cruel.
Others, however, have praised the Mosquito:
"We’d have crowds gather in parking lots, and there’d be the usual trash talk, then you’d have fights," said Rick McGee, the school district’s emergency services manager. "Now, there’s no confrontation at all; they just get aggravated and leave within a few minutes."
No words on the effectiveness of the original anti-teen loitering devices, Mozart and Kenny G, as compared to the newfangled device: Link - via Boing Boing
The 10 Most Baffling Computer Gadgets Money Can Buy
If you have an extra USB port on your computer, someone will sell you something to plug into it. Cracked has a list of ten real products that are good for a laugh, if nothing else! Pictured is the USB Eye Massager. Link -via Digg
Christiaan Postma’s Clock
That gibberish on a blackboard is actually a clock, made by Dutch industrial designer Christiaan Postma. He used over 150 individual clock mechanism to spell out the hour!
Link - via CrunchGear
To get a full appreciation of how it works, see this Flash animation of the clock in fast forward.
Greenhouse Eneplug: AC to USB Charger
Hey, this is pretty spiffy if it indeed works: Greenhouse Eneplug which lets you charge your USB powered gadget directly from the AC power outlet.
Not yet available, but you can pre-order it for May: Link - via GeekAlerts
Inflatable Toast Mattress
Some things in life are so ridiculous yet so awesome that they leave us breathless. This may just be one of those things: behold, the Inflatable Toast Mattress!
Breakfast in bed? No, breakfast is bed! Link - via Fabulist
(Yes, yes, it’s late for an April Fool’s joke post but come on, it was funny. And someone should really make it.)
Homemade Coffee Printer
If you are envious of people who can do latte arts, then buy yourself some parts from eBay and build yourself a coffee printer for your home! (Results may vary from those in the video).
Link [youtube video] - via Hacked Gadgets
The Bulbdial Clock
The Bulbdial Clock . . . has no hands, just one pole in the center of the clock. Towards the outer rim we find three light sources of varying heights which revolve around the pole casting shadows on the dial. As you can see in the above image, the light sources are each attached to special rings, which rotate around the pole. There’s the innermost ring that rotates once per minute, analogous to a “second hand”. Then follows the middle ring, which completes a rotation once per hour and casts the “minute hand” shadow. Ultimately, the outer ring rotates once every 12 hours, casting the “hour hand” shadow. You can use the Bulbdial Clock as a conventional sundial or you can mount it on walls for a more convenient way of telling time across large spaces. The Bulbdial Clock solves all the problems posed by the sundial, but comes with one little issue of its own: it doesn’t work in bright light environments.
Via Cool Gadget Concept
The 3D Camera
This is the camera I’ve always imagined Blinky, the three-eyed fish from The Simpsons, would use:
Behold the 120 Tri-lens from Chinese camera manufacturer 3D World. I won’t even pretend that I understand how it works (like why it needs the 3rd lens to capture a stereo photo - aren’t two lenses enough? I have 2 eyes and I see in 3D … )
Links: Impact Lab has the spec | Like Cool has more pics | Original website [down when I tried it] - via The Bad Rant
Cure for the Boring Toilet Paper: Innovations in Toilet Paper You Can Buy on the Web!
Chalk up another benefit to teh Interweb: ordering online can relieve you of the doldrums of white toilet papers! For instance, take the Sudoku puzzle toilet paper to the left. It’ll surely help you while away the time …
Here’s a neat article at our pal mental_floss: Innovations in Toilet Paper - via Miss Cellania
Chopstick Canoe
Pink Tentacle reports:
A former city employee in the Fukushima prefecture town of Koriyama has built a 4-meter (13-ft) long canoe from thousands of used disposable chopsticks recovered from the city hall cafeteria. Bothered that perfectly good wood was going to waste after a single use, Shuhei Ogawara — whose job at city hall involved working with the local forestry industry — spent the last two years of his career collecting used chopsticks from the cafeteria. An experienced canoe builder, Ogawara spent over 3 months gluing 7,382 chopsticks together into strips to form the canoe shell, to which he added a polyester resin coat.
Hi Volt Antivirus: Tesla Coil Protection for Your Laptop
Here’s the newest from Tesla Downunder, the designer of the Tesla coil "Eye of Sauron" anti-automobile theft device we featured previously on Neatorama: the Hi Volt Antivirus to "protect" your laptop!
Link - Thanks Tesla Downunder!
European Inventors Show
If you missed the 36th International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, Switzerland last week, Wired has an overview of some of the odder inventions on display. The vertical hot-air grill shown above, invented by Heina Gruber of Germany, is supposed to provide healthier meals and save space. I’m not sure if his invention received funding at the show, but if he’s going to push the healthy angle he might want to hire a model and fill the device with something other than greasy German meats at the next exhibit.
Link [Wired]
Funny Farm Machinery Warning Labels
Doug of HolyJuan blog has a nice compilation of farm machinery warning labels with funny captions.
I Lol’d heartily at a few of them (Dancing with Heather Mills, Hah!) and I bet you would too. Head over yonder: Link
The Dimple Machine
Ladies! Want some beautiful dimples that nature has forgotten to give you? Fret not: check out this invention by one Isabella Gilbert:
The device consists of a face-fitting stpring carrying two tiny knobs which press into the cheeks.
From the Oct 1936 issue of Modern Mechanix
Bizarro: The iHand
iMac, iPhone, iPod … it’s only time before someone comes up with the iHand! Here’s what Dan Piraro of Bizarro envisions it to be.
For more Bizarro, check out Dan’s blog and website.
Guitars from Old, Busted Video Game Consoles
TechEBlog has a neat compilation of functional guitars made from video game consoles (Nintendo FamiCom, NES, Sega Dreamcast and Genesis). Them are geeky musicians!
This one is the MegaDriver, made from a broken SEGA Genesis console.
Link - Thanks Alex_B!
Phony Shirt to be Manufactured
Think Geek displayed an April Fools Day ad for a product that didn’t exist. The Personal Soundtrack Shirt has a built-in speaker and can play various mood themes to make your real life as dramatic as a movie. The item proved to be so popular that they are now scrambling to produce a real shirt!
Looks like we’re the fools here. The Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt was originally an April Fool’s Prank… but due to overwhelming positive response and hundreds of e-mails screaming to “make the damn shirt already” we’re putting this item in to production ASAP. Keep in mind our army of robotic factory monkeys are a bit slow, and it might take them some time to make the real version of this nifty product. Also although we’ll try to keep the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt as close as possible to what you see here, the final version might deviate slightly in appearance, features or price. Capiche?
No word as to when it will be available, but you can sign up for an email notification. Link -via Geek Like Me
Surprise! iPod shuffles for Neatorama’s Top Commenters
Quite a while ago we had a little surprise for three of Neatorama’s top commenters. It’s our way of saying thank you for participating and making the blog better by commenting. Back then, I dropped a hint that we would do it again (at an unspecified future date) - and to qualify this time, you’d have to be a registered user on the blog.
Well, folks, it’s time. I’d like to congratulate ted, Ali S., and Justin for winning a brand new Apple iPod shuffle 1GB (or $50 by PayPal if they live outside of the US).
Here’s a screen shot of the Top Commenters for March 2008:
(Yes, other people had more comments than Ali S. and Justin, but they weren’t registered users as of the time I write this post - sorry guys!).
We’ll do this again, but like last time, I won’t tell you when. It’ll be unannounced - because it’s not a ploy to boost up commenting (the last time we did this, there was a brief spike in comments, which then leveled off as I suspected it would). It’s simply a "thank you" for Neatorama’s most loyal readers/commenters. And yes, the next winners will also be registered user of the blog (Register here - it’s fast and easy).
By the way, everyone has an equal chance of winning - the top commenter list is updated (reset) on a monthly basis.
Congratulations again to the winners and thank you everyone for reading and commenting on Neatorama!
