We cast a wide net over all types of new and
emerging technologies here at Gizmag.com - some save us time, some keep
us connected, some help us stay healthy and some are just plain fun, but
at the core of what we cover are those discoveries and innovations
which have the potential to impact the fortunes of the human race as a
whole and make a difference to the future of our planet. So with the
calender having rolled over into another year, it's an ideal time to
take a look back at some of the most significant and far-reaching
breakthroughs that we saw during 2011. Read More
Last month U.S. Military, government and industry
officials witnessed a demonstration of a new missile warhead casing
material at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Dahlgren,
Virginia. The material, known as High-Density Reactive Material (HDRM),
is the result of collaboration between the Office of Naval Research
(ONR), NSWC Dahlgren and NSWC Indian Head Divisioncan and can be
employed within existing designs, but with added destructive power. Read More
New GreenZero chargers eliminate vampire power drain
By Darren Quick
January 3, 2012
The spring-loaded PumPing Tap concept
that would eject electrical plugs from an outlet when not actively
drawing electricity attracted a fair share of criticism from readers
when we looked at it earlier this week. Bracktron has come up with a
more practical solution with its line of GreenZero chargers that detect
when the device being charged is unplugged or fully charged and
automatically shut off to eliminate stand-by – also known as vampire
power – consumption. Read More
Chrysler has launched its new 300 Luxury Series
with what it has dubbed “the most luxurious and fuel-efficient Chrysler
flagship ever.” Coupling a ZF 8HP45 eight-speed automatic transmission
to a 292 horsepower, 3.6-liter aluminum Pentastar V6 engine, the 2012
Chrysler 300 Luxury Series sedan gets 31 mpg (7.5 l/100 km) on the
highway and 19 mpg (12.4 l/100 km) in the city, for a combined fuel
economy figure of 23 mpg (10 l/100 km). Read More
While large offshore turbines can be very
effective at harnessing the power of the wind, they do pose at least one
challenge – how do you get them out into the ocean? One option is to
bring them to their deployment site on board a ship, partially
assembled, then put them together on location. Doing that kind of work
on the pitching deck of a ship can be challenging, however, and requires
crews to stay out at sea longer. Another option involves towing them
from shore in their final, vertical orientation, but this requires an
uninterrupted channel of deep water, and limits the speed at which they
can be transported. Now, Norwegian company WindFlip is developing an
alternative method that can accommodate shallow water, while allowing
for relatively high transport speeds and a minimum amount of time spent
putting the turbines in place. Read More
In the TV series Max Headroom, one of
the sources of security for hardcore news videographer Edison Carter was
the fact that his camcorder was constantly transmitting a live
audio/video feed back to his co-workers at Network 23. If anyone
attacked him out in the field, his colleagues would know about it, and
would have the attack recorded on tape for the police. Well, given that
we're now probably at about the time in history when the series was set,
perhaps it only makes sense that we may soon be able to get a
smartphone app that does pretty much the same thing as Edison's camera.
Its working name is, appropriately enough, Help! Read More
Contrary to celluloid legend, Marty McFly did not
invent the skateboard in 1955. Street surfing actually originated a
little later and has gone from a few home brewers mounting some roller
skate wheels onto the underside of a plywood board to an international
sport which challenges both the creative ingenuity and physical
capabilities of its participants. The design and structure of board and
components have improved greatly over the years, but there appears to
have been little headway in feeding back vital performance data to
riders. Designer and manufacturer of military grade tracking
technologies Edgetrak and performance board producer wefunk have now
joined forces to fill the void. The newly-formed Stealth Division has
just put the finishing touches to a new operational prototype longboard
called the Mach1, the first deck in the world to feature built-in
telemetrics. Read More
When you think of headphones, no matter what
comes to mind, it's likely a set that fit inside or on top of your ears.
There is another way however - headphones that transmit sound through
your cheekbones using bone conduction. Initially developed for military use, we've seen a few examples of this technology before in headphones, waterproof MP3 players and even mobile phones and the latest to cross our desk - Aftershokz Bone Conduction Headphones - will be on show at CES next week. Read More
"Repair It Yourself" shoes make cobbling easy
January 3, 2012
The Repair It Yourself (RIY) concept by Design
Academy Eindhoven graduate Eugenia Morpurgo is a canvas shoe designed to
be as repairable as possible. It's a design that not only addresses the
shortcomings of traditional shoemaking, but also poses questions as to
the sustainability of our consumer habits. Read More
New "scalable effects" warhead demonstrated in flight test
January 2, 2012
Aerojet has conducted a successful demonstration
of its "scalable effects" warhead. The recent flight test was carried
out at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico using Lockheed
Martin's new Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System-Plus (GMLRS+). As the
name suggests, the scalable effects warhead allows the user to select
the explosive yield of the weapon depending on the nature of its
intended target. Read More
Felis catus, the domestic cat. They've
been our companions for thousands of years, but if you're a cat looking
for some comfort, distraction or just some new playthings, there's never
been a better time to be alive. We recently looked at some fun apps for your cat to play with
on your iPad or tablet, but if you're not inclined to let your feline
loose on an expensive piece of modern computing equipment, read on.
Whether your furry fleabag is a pampered Persian or an ear bitten moggy,
Gizmag's top 10 cat gadgets have been compiled with Puss's pleasure
(and yours) in mind. Read More
With the announcement of the successful testing
of a sophisticated Pneumatic Cooling System (PCS) by Lockheed Martin and
industry partner Marotta Controls in December, the highly versatile
Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) weapons system is a step closer to
deployment in the field. Read More
Soundmatters has announced a new speaker designed to bring some low frequency oomph to its portable foxLv2 Bluetooth
and non-Bluetooth brethren. The new foxLO, which Soundmatters calls
“the world’s first palm-sized hi-fi subwoofer,” plugs directly into
foxLv2 speaker’s subwoofer output but will also work with other branded
portable speakers, such as the Jawbone Jambox, thanks to the inclusion of a 3.5 mm full pass-through output. Read More
As any avid biker will tell you, motorcycles have
a lot of advantages over cars - they use less fuel, accelerate faster,
are more maneuverable, can be parked in more places, and don't
incorporate the weight of extra seating for passengers who are
non-existent on solo commutes. As many other people will tell
you, however, motorcycles also leave their occupants open to the rain
and cold, and can potentially tip over and scatter those occupants
across the road. That's where Lit Motors' C-1 comes into the picture.
It's a proposed fully-enclosed two-passenger electric motorbike that
uses an electronically-controlled gyroscopic stabilizing system to stay
upright when stopped, or even when struck from the side in an accident.
Read More
The privilege of working under the open sky is
reserved for just a few lucky professions. For the less fortunate
majority, spending their working hours surrounded by gloomy office
landscapes, the soothing sight of clouds drifting through the sky is
unattainable. Setting up office cubicles in the open would do the trick
but it's hardly a practical option, especially in places where the
weather cannot be trusted. Fortunately, researchers from the Fraunhofer
Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), based in Stuttgart, Germany,
know what else can be done to bring a little outdoor comfort to the
office-bound. They built a dynamic luminous ceiling which allows office
dwellers to gaze at clouds without ever leaving their desks. Read More
The PINOKY ring turns your plush toys into soft robots
By Jan Belezina
January 4, 2012
Bringing your childhood memories back to life has
never been easier, at least when it comes to your plush friends. Toys
that were never designed for movement can now be animated thanks to a
simple ring-like device called PINOKY designed by a group of researchers
from Keyo University, the University of Tokyo in frames of the Igarashi
Design Interface Project. Simply snap the ring around a plush toy’s
limb, or any other plush extremity for that matter, and marvel at the
sight of your favorite childhood friend waving at you vigorously. Read More
Turns out we aren't that different from other
apes after all. Our primate cousins at a handful of zoos love to use
iPads to combat boredom just as much as humans. Zookeepers say that the
device is perfect for orangutans, and many have been taking part in
guided touchscreen interactions with all sorts of apps, including music,
games, movies, cartoons, art, painting, drawing, photos and videos. The
orangutans have been playing with the iPads for the past several
months, and now a U.S. charity is hoping to round up more of the tablets
so the apes can Skype with orangutans at other zoos. Read More
Logos Decagon: the infinitely extendable modular tent
January 4, 2012
The Decagon Link Station is a modular tent system
by Japanese camping firm Logos. The various tents, canopies and tunnels
of the Decagon range can be selected and connected as needed for a
bespoke tent tailored to the specific needs of the user. Campsite
etiquette notwithstanding, there's no theoretical limit to the size and
complexity of the final assembly. Read More
Portal boxes let you reach inside the screen
January 4, 2012
Thanks to touchscreens and motion controls, we're
able to interact with anything with a screen like never before; but
this still leaves that glass barrier between us and the virtual world
that we see behind it. We can't just leap into our televisions or
computers like Mike Teavee in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
and we certainly can't jump into the same space as someone else on the
other side of the world. Now though, thanks to one design student's
Portal boxes, we can at least reach our hands behind the screen along
with another person connected to the internet, and interact with a
virtual world together. Read More
The Kinectimals video game lets players
pet a virtual pet on their TV screen, but Tokyo-based software engineer
Taylor Veltrop has gone one step further. By pairing a Kinect sensor, a Wiimote, a treadmill and a Nao humanoid robot
together, Veltrop has cobbled together a teleoperation system that
allows him to groom his real life feline friend remotely. Read More
Viruses can enter the body via a number of
pathways and while scientists have known how to block the main one used
by viruses such as HIV, Hepatitis C, Dengue Fever and West Nile virus
for some time, these viruses are able to bypass this main pathway to
replicate and cause disease via a second pathway by hijacking an enzyme
known as endomannosidase. Now an international team of researchers has
determined the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme
endomannosidase, opening the door for new treatments to a variety of
deadly viruses through the development of inhibitors that block this
bypass route. Read More
If you’ve ever so much as stepped into a chicken
or swine barn, you’ll know that they can be very, very smelly places.
When vented outdoors, the air from these buildings does more than just
make the area stink – it can actually be a major source of air pollution
and greenhouse gases. Fortunately, however, researchers from North
Carolina State University and West Virginia University have created a
system that not only helps clean the air going out of the barns, but it
heats up the air coming in from outside. Read More
AOC, the makers of a range of USB monitors including the16-inch E1649FWU USB monitor,
has upped the screen size for its latest USB-powered offering. The new
e2251Fwu boasts a 22-inch LED backlit display and receives both power
and signal solely through a USB connection. The single USB cable
connection is designed to make hooking yourself up with a dual- or
multi-monitor setup a simple plug-and-play affair and appeal to those
looking to take a second monitor on the road to accompany their laptop.
Read More
In factories where products are mass-produced,
it's extremely important to know how long the human workers take to
perform certain tasks. This not only allows the pace of the assembly
line to be set, but it also allows factory owners to identify
time-wasting problems such as superfluous movements, overly frequent
tool changes, or impractically-located components. Typically, workers
are periodically timed by a stopwatch-wielding supervisor, or using a
timer that they start and stop themselves. A new wearable time-keeping
system, however, promises more accurate readings. Read More
For some time now, scientists have assumed that
dinosaurs’ tails didn’t simply drag on the group behind them, but were
instead held out to serve as a counterweight for the giant reptiles’
heavy front ends when running. More recently, however, researchers from
the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that modern-day
lizards also use their tails to control the orientation of their bodies
when leaping through the air. It’s a discovery that could be applied to
devices such as search-and-rescue robots, and in fact already has been.
Based on their observations, the UC Berkeley team created a small,
tailed robot known as Tailbot. Read More
BreathalEyes app tells you if you're too drunk to drive
By Paul Ridden
January 5, 2012
Common sense should be enough to tell us that
getting behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol is not a
particularly good idea, but still there are those who stupidly risk life
and liberty by driving home after the party. When trying to convince
such people to call a taxi, friends are often faced with a call for
proof that the would-be driver is unfit to drive. Instead of analyzing a
user's breath to determine alcohol content, the BreathalEyes app for
iPhone detects involuntary eye movement in a similar way to field
sobriety tests undertaken by police patrols. Read More
We've heard of experimental contact lenses
that can non-invasively monitor the blood sugar levels of diabetes
sufferers before, but where prior research relied on chemical reactions
inducing color-change in the lens, new joint research by the University
of Washington and Microsoft Research aims to incorporate electronics
into such lenses to report blood sugar levels wirelessly. Gizmag spoke
to Desney Tan, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research Connections, to
find out what sets this work apart. Read More
The AMP Jeep Grand Cherokee, to be unveiled next
week at the North American International Auto Show, is a 100 percent
electric-drive vehicle with all the cargo space and utility of a true
SUV. AMP trades out Jeep's V6/V8 powertrain for a combination of two
Remi electric motors and a 37.6 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery.
Because the motors are direct drive, the electrified Grand Cherokee does
not require a transmission. The motors combine for 152 kW (203 hp), and
the model will travel about 80 to 100 miles (129 to 161 km) per charge.
Read More
Of all the colorful characters in the motorcycle
world, few polarize opinion as strongly as Sweden's mysterious "Ghost
Rider." It's not hard to see why - with five DVDs full of heinous
traffic law violations, including 300 km/h (180 mph) wheelies, police
baiting and near-suicidal top speed time trials around the Swedish
freeway system, he's probably the most famous flaunter of road rules the
world has ever seen. And now, his most famous steed, a 499-horsepower
turbocharged, naked Hayabusa, is being given away through a website
lottery. Only ridden to church on Sundays, it's the perfect practical
getabout to take down to the shops. Read More
The North American International Auto Show
(NAIAS) 2012, which kicks off in Detroit next Monday, will see Volvo
unveil its XC60 Plug-in Hybrid Concept car that it describes as “an
electric car, a highly economical hybrid and a powerful high-performance
car all rolled into one.” At the press of a button, the XC60 Plug-in
Hybrid Concept can switch between Pure electric mode, Hybrid mode, or
Power mode, which combines the power of the 280 hp gasoline engine with
the 70 hp electric motor to propel the car from zero to 60 mph (96.5
km/h) in 5.8 seconds. Read More
Over the past few years an unlikely material has
found its way into wetsuits: limestone. One would think that using rock
to create rubber might cause a wearer to sink, but the porous yet
closely-packed cells found in a limestone-based rubber is said to make
the wearer more buoyant. De Soto Sports, a San Diego-based company that
makes clothing and gear for triathlons, developed its own brand of
limestone-based rubber, GreenGoma, to use in its wetsuits. Starting with
the 2012 line, which first hit stores this past fall, all of the
company's T1 wetsuits are made with GreenGoma, which eliminates the use
of petroleum products in the line. Read More
This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas is fast approaching, and the North American wing of Japanese
photography giant Fujifilm is celebrating with the launch of 19 new
digital cameras. Our team on the ground will be nudging through the
crowds to get a closer look at some (if not all) of the new cameras on
offer, but here's a quick spec overview to whet your appetite. Read More
Mogees turns any rigid surface into a musical instrument
By Jan Belezina
January 6, 2012
Mogees is great news for all the air guitarists
out there. This tiny device, built by Bruno Zamborlin for his Arts and
Computational Technologies PhD project, offers a whole new way of
expressing yourself musically, even if you don’t have the slightest idea
how to play an instrument. Mogees, or a “Mosaicing Gestural Surface,"
is based on a simple contact microphone that turns any hard surface into
a musical interface for triggering audio samples. What sets Mogees
apart from other interfaces of this kind is that different types of
touch stimuli generate different output. Simple gestures like
scratching, rubbing or tapping can produce a surprising array of sounds
worthy of a serious experimental music set up. Read More
About a year and a half ago, the International
Cycling Union – the organization that sets the rules for bicycle racing –
announced that it would allow the use of disc brakes on cyclo-cross
bikes. This was good news for off-road racers, who were willing to
accept the slight weight penalty of disc systems in exchange for the
performance advantages that they offer over traditional rim brakes. As a
result, we’re now seeing various disc-equipped competition-level
cyclo-cross bikes entering the marketplace. However, what does this mean
for all the perfectly-good bikes out there that were made before the
announcement? Well, it turns out that they can be converted to hydraulic
discs, thanks to something known as the Parabox system. Read More
From iDevices, the iPeople behind the iGrill,
comes iShower - a battery-powered, Bluetooth-enabled, water-resistant
speaker for what its makers charmingly refer to as "aqua-centric
environments." The iShower can stream music from any Bluetooth-enabled
Apple or Android device, apparently to an impressive range of up to 200
feet (60 meters). Well iNever. Read More
Scientists have reached a major milestone in the
field of stem cell research. A team at the Oregon National Primate
Research Center (ONPRC) say their work has led to the first successful
birth of three chimeric monkeys - monkeys developed from stem cells
taken from two separate embryos. Read More
Who says all the good stuff has to be announced
at CES? It's just a few days before the show, and Nikon has taken the
wraps off its newest flagship DSLR - the Nikon D4. The 16-megapixel
camera has been optimized for “speed and precision,” with a number of
new features to make the camera both faster and to improve its overall
image quality over its predecessor. The D4 has an ISO range from 100 to
204,800, allowing it to capture crisp photos in exceptionally low-light
situations, a faster shutter speed that allows it to capture photos at
10 frames-per-second, and the ability to capture 1080p high definition
video. Read More
Logitech Cube is part mouse, part PowerPoint clicker
January 6, 2012
When is a cube not a cube? When it's a Logitech
Cube. That is, a mouse and presentation device which, though called a
Cube is not a cube. You follow? Here's the thing: when you put it on a
desk it behaves like a mouse, but when you pick it up it automatically
goes into "Presenter Mode" for navigating PowerPoint presentations like a
pro (because without one, PowerPoint is really, really hard). But it's
the Cube's in-built gestures (all both of them) that separate it from
the herd. Warning: this article contains unavoidable double entendres.
Read More
In recent years, worries over global climate
change caused by excess atmospheric carbon dioxide have led to a number
of technologies all aimed at the same thing – capturing human-generated
CO2 at the source. These have included the use of things such as edible sponges, molten salts and bacteria,
to name just a few. Now, a group of scientists are claiming success
with a process that has achieved “some of the highest carbon dioxide
removal rates ever reported for humid air” ... and it uses a common and
inexpensive polymer. Read More
Hyundai will be giving its new multi-purpose
vehicle concept its world premiere at Auto Expo 2012, which kicks off in
New Delhi, India on the weekend. Based on Hyundai’s “Fluidic Sculpture”
design language, the “Hexa Space” – also codenamed the HND-7 – is
powered by Hyundai’s 1.2-liter “Kappa” turbocharged GDI petrol engine
paired with a six-speed automatic transmission and features eight,
hexagonally shaped seats that “fit together like puzzle pieces” to
enable multiple configurations, including a limosine layout. Read More
Eton (hand) cranks out new self-powered products at CES
By Darren Quick
January 8, 2012
While insufficient battery-life can be annoying
in most mobile devices, getting cut off from the outside world because
your radio has run out of juice can be much more serious. This is why Eton
has been producing various devices powered by hand-turbines and solar
panels for some time now. Today’s CES Unveiled saw Eton demonstrating
its latest FRX line of self-powered radios that come in three flavors –
the FRX 3 and FRX 2, which both sport a solar panel and hand turbine,
and the FRX 1, which features just the hand-turbine. Also on show was
Eton’s new Rukus portable Bluetooth sound system, which comes in
battery- and solar-powered versions. Read More
Research into developing insect cyborgs for use as first responders or super stealthy spies has been going on for a while now. Most research has focused on using batteries, tiny solar cells or piezoelectric generators to harvest kinetic energy from the movement of an insect’s wings
to power the electronics attached to the insects. Now a group of
researchers at Case Western Reserve University have created a power
supply that relies just on the insect’s normal feeding. Read More
Eco Wave Power developing two new wave-power devices
By Paul Ridden
January 8, 2012
Israel's Eco Wave Power is just entering the
second phase of proving its new wave energy harvest and conversion
system that's claimed to produce cheaper energy than existing coal-fired
power plants. Energy is captured by the influence of rising and falling
waves on two proprietary float designs called the Wave Clapper and
Power Wing, which are installed on existing, stable structures. The
floats are said to be capable of gathering energy from both high and low
waves, which is fed through undersea cabling to a land-based power
plant for conversion to usable electricity. Read More
Now you don't necessarily need to own a “Smart
TV” in order to get Android apps on your television. Always Innovating
will be showing off its HDMI dongle at CES this week, a compact device
that can turn any HDTV into a Smart TV. Essentially Always Innovating's
HDMI Dongle is a portable version of a set-top box. The device is based
on the Texas Instruments Cortex-A9 OMAP 4 ,which can run from 1GHz to
1.8GHz depending of the configuration, and offers 1GB of RAM as well as a
micro SD card for local storage. Read More
While driving from Quebec to the United States, a
Canadian citizen named Martin Reisch suddenly realized the fear of
every world traveler: he'd completely forgotten his passport at home.
Going back for it would've meant several hours extra driving time, so
using a little quick thinking and a huge amount of luck he pulled up to
the U.S. border holding an iPad showing a full-sized image of his
passport that he had taken five years previous and had saved to a
Dropbox folder. After what must have been a nerve-racking five minutes
while border officials looked over the document, Reisch was amazingly
allowed through into Vermont, even receiving a "Happy Holidays" from the
border officer for the trouble. Read More
Douche bags at ski hills aren't a new phenomenon.
Whether it's the aggressive adrenalin junkies yelling at you from the
lifts in hopes you'll fall in glorious YouTube-ranking fashion or the
rich folks in $5,000 fur-lined one-piece ski suits, they're everywhere.
Now there's a new kind of a Douchebag that is designed to actually make
your ski day more fun. Douchebags in this case is simply a clever (it
got your attention, didn't it?) name for a newly launched ski
accessories company whose first product is a feature-filled ski bag that
should make getting to and from the slopes - whether it be flying and
shuttling to an exotic resort or just driving to your local hill -
easier and more efficient. Read More
What if you could read on your Kindle for three
months straight? SolarFocus will be showing off a Kindle case at CES
this week designed to do just that. Called SolarKindle, the case has a
solar panel built into its front that allows you to charge your Kindle
poolside, or while you're involved in other outdoor activities,
delivering three months of reading time and over 50 hours of reading
lamp use on a single charge. Read More
Cameras and iControlled helicopters take flight from Swann
By Enid Burns
January 7, 2012
An iPhone app and a camera take flight in the new
remote control helicopters from Swann. Three models include i-Fly Micro
Lightning, Sky Eye and Black Swan. The i-Fly Micro Lightning lets you
control the helicopter via an app for the iPhone, iPod or iPad. The Sky
Eye and Black Swann models house a camera capable of taking still and
video images. Read More
Radar system could detect people who fall onto train tracks
By Ben Coxworth
January 6, 2012
Although you may never have seen it happen
yourself, it isn’t all that uncommon for large objects – including
people – to fall onto the tracks at subway or railway platforms. While
security personnel viewing CCTV feeds will catch some of these
accidents, the cameras’ shots are sometimes obscured by people, poor
lighting, or even the trains themselves. The results can range from
lengthy delays in rail service, to fatalities. Now, however, researchers
working on a project for the Université Lille Nord de France have
developed a system that uses radar to automatically detect and identify
objects that fall onto the tracks. When installed at a platform, the
system could then shut off power to the tracks, and notify oncoming
trains. Read More
Salmon ... they’re good to eat, provide a
livelihood for fishermen, are an important part of their ecosystem, and
now it seems that they can store data. More specifically, their DNA can.
Scientists from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and the
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have created a
“write-once-read-many-times” (WORM) memory device, that combines
electrodes, silver nanoparticles, and salmon DNA. While the current
device is simply a proof-of-concept model, the researchers have stated
that DNA could turn out to be a less expensive alternative to
traditional inorganic materials such as silicon. Read More
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