Verbal directions given by GPS navigation systems can be hard to hear in a noisy car. That's why researchers at the University of Utah are developing a navigation system that communicates driving directions through a tactile interface:

The researchers say they don't want their results to encourage dangerous and distracted driving by cell phone users. Instead, they hope the study will point to new touch-based directional devices to help motorists and hearing-impaired people drive more safely. The same technology also could help blind pedestrians with a cane that provides directional cues to the person's thumb.

"It has the potential of being a safer way of doing what's already being done – delivering information that people are already getting with in-car GPS navigation systems," says the study's lead author, William Provancher, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah.

Link via Popular Science | Photos: Nate Medeiros-Ward/William Provancher, University of Utah

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Eduard Khil, the 70's era Russian singer who became an Internet sensation several months ago, finally made a public performance. Here he is singing (lip synching) his trademark song when...Darth Vader, a gorilla, and Snow White show up. It gets weird pretty quickly.

via Urlesque

Flickr user MrsWoman knitted this wig that will make any man look cool, like The King. Sadly, she doesn't provide any instructions on how to make your own. But at her site, you can examine similar crafts that she's made.

Link via The Presurfer | Crafter's Website

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The Levytator is a free-form escalator that can bend and curve as needed by architects. It operates on one continuous loop, so there's no need for redundant conveyors moving in opposite directions:

Unlike traditional designs, where redundant steps move underneath those in use, the Levytator utilises a continuous loop of curved modules, which can follow any path upwards, flatten and straighten out, and descend once more, all with passengers onboard.

The system can be arranged in any configuration – as a DNA-esque double helix in a science museum, for example – and also offers several practical advantages at a cost that is similar to a conventional unit.

Link via Geekosystem

Leaf carving involves cutting away at a leaf until it reveals an image. This is a craft practiced by Nature's Art, a studio in Hengshui, China. At the link, you can view several other examples as well as instructions on how to make your own.

http://www.longal-craft.com/leaf-carving-art.html via Make | Photo: Nature's Art

Artist Serena Malyon used Photoshop to add a tilt-shift photographic element to sixteen works of Vincent Van Gogh. Her images give the impression that viewers are looking miniatures. Link via DudeCraft | Artist's deviantART Profile

In 1919, after the close of World War I, Germany was assessed 226 billion marks in reparations payments against its foes. On Sunday, that nation will pay its final installment of this bill:

The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.[...]

"On Sunday the last bill is due and the First World War finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany," said Bild, the country's biggest selling newspaper.

Most of the money goes to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany was made to sign the 'war guilt' clause, accepting blame for the war.

Link | Photo: State of Virginia

The Cube is a new skyscraper in Birmingham, UK, that contains a parking garage. Drive your car inside, stop, and get out. Lifts will carry and shift your car around to an open slot. So there's no need to go driving around looking for an available space. At the link, you can watch a BBC video of the machine in action.

Link via DVICE | Screenshot: DVICE

Craig Smith modified his car to look like it had Borg (that's a Star Trek species) implants:

My wife went to visit family this weekend. So left by myself, something geek-like is bound to happen. I started cutting and forming plastic sheets, assembling doo-dads and modifying my car. The result is a car where "...resistance is futile." Completed? Heck no. There is a lot of fender left and a lot of car beyond that. Don't worry, items are SECURELY fastened with brackets and screws. Last thing I want is my nanites attacking the car behind me.

It sort of looks like Seven of Nine's ocular implant, don't you think?

Link | Images: Craig Smith and Paramount, respectively

Raytheon, a US defense contractor, has made great strides in developing effective exoskeletons. Its new model, the XOS 2, recently went on public display in Salt Lake City. Dave Freeman of CrunchGear was there for the demo:

Sarcos has been working with automation for years (including the fountain at the Bellagio), and the XOS2 uses hydraulics to enable a wearer to lift massive amounts of weight without feeling the strain. More importantly, the person wearing the suit can lift these weights repetitively without feeling the strain. The XOS 2 has a quite impressive 17:1 lifting ratio, so when the person wearing the suit lifts 170 pounds, they only need to exert enough force to lift 10 pounds.

At the link, you can watch two videos of the XOS 2 in action.

Link | Product Site | Photo: CrunchGear

Previously on Neatorama:
Infantry Exoskeleton Carries 200 Pounds
Powered Exoskeleton Can Lift 220 Pounds
Functional Exoskeleton for the Disabled

The Estonian start-up company Fits.me has designed a mannequin that can alter its shape so that it can try on clothes for you. The design is being marketed to online clothing retailers because they can't offer customers the opportunity to try on clothes personally:

All told, the robot is capable of replicating 2,000 body shapes. When a retailer signs up with Fits.me, they first send in their clothes. Each size is placed on the robot, which then cycles through all the body shapes it knows. (Think of the scene at the end of Terminator 2, when the T-1000 is being melted down.) While that's going on, a camera is taking pictures of each permutation. This photographic log is then stored in an online database. Once you go online and type your measurements into the retailer's site, it calls up the photo corresponding to your precise body type and clothing size.

Link via Popular Science | Photo: Fits.me

Steven Leckart of Wired gathered photos of and information about six gadget prototypes that have been preserved long after the products developed from them became ubiquitous. These include the first push-button phone, dating back to 1948:

In the late 1940s, switchboard operators already had a more efficient push-button setup that used tones instead of electrical pulses to signal each digit. So Bell Labs engineers set out to adapt that system for customers. Gutting a Western Electric 302 tabletop rotary, they installed a set of ten 3-inch metal reeds. Pressing a button plucked a specific reed, producing a unique sound. Thirty-five test units were deployed to phone company employees’ homes in Media, Pennsylvania, but the yearlong trial was a bust. Moving or bumping the phone warped the reeds, and any static on the line—or even talking—while dialing caused interference. Push-button phones didn’t become consumer-ready until 1963, when solid-state electronics replaced the reeds, generating foolproof digital tones.

Link via GearFuse | Photo: Dan Forbes

Initial news reports indicated that the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs had designated Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist, to make first contact with any aliens that arrive at Earth. Dr. Othman asserts that this report completely misunderstood her role at the UN:

Othman sent the paper an e-mail saying, "It sounds really cool but I have to deny it." She will be attending a conference next week, but she'll be talking about how the world deals with "near-Earth objects."

If aliens were to arrive in Earth orbit, who do you think should make first contact?

Link via Sci Fi Wire | Image: Fox

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YouTube user dmalford1 built a R2D2 simulator that is large enough for an adult human to fit inside and drive it around. It makes appropriate light flashes, sound effects, and has a rotating dome.

via Geekologie

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The Cleverlys are a quintet of Bluegrass performers from Arkansas. Here they are with their cover of the 80s hit "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles.

via View from the Porch | Band Website