In-car DVD players and handheld game consoles
have proven a godsend to parents looking to avoid the regular cries of
“are we there yet?” from kids in the back seat. Similar to Toyota’s “Window to the World”
concept, GM’s “Windows of Opportunity” (WOO) project looks to advance
back seat entertainment even further. The project saw the automaker
giving researchers and students from the FUTURE LAB at Bezalel Academy
of Art and Design in Israel free reign to design applications that rear
seat passengers would interact with through their side windows, which
act as interactive displays. Read More
In order to measure their blood glucose levels,
most diabetics must perform painful finger-prick tests on a daily basis.
Hopefully, however, that may not always be the case. Scientists at
Rhode Island’s Brown University are now developing a biochip, that could
someday be used to assess the concentration of glucose molecules in a
tiny sample of saliva. Read More
These days, your average tech enthusiast
typically has at their disposal a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, and a
digital camera; and that's listing the bare minimum. That's quite a bit
of processing power and storage space spread out among different
gadgets. What if it were possible to link all those devices together
into one convenient package that uses all that computing power at once?
That's the idea behind one designer's concept for a Fujitsu Lifebook,
which would come with slots for a smartphone, digital camera, and
tablet, for them all to all work together as one super device. Read More
In addition to two powerful LED lights, the new
NAO headlamp from Petzl has a light sensor. The headlamp doesn't just
shine light, it measures ambient light to provide the ideal amount of
output. It also uses a few other smart design features to give you a
high-performing, convenient headlamp. Read More
cellCONTROL keeps mobile phones from working in moving cars
By Ben Coxworth
January 23, 2012
Don't want your teenage kids using their mobile
phone while they drive? Well, hopefully explaining the dangers to them
will do the trick. If it doesn't, however, you could always install
Scosche's cellCONTROL in your car. The device is activated whenever the
vehicle is in motion, and uses a Bluetooth signal to disable calling
functions, text messaging, email, app use and internet access on phones
within the car. Read More
Amateur or low-budget videographers who want to
smooth out their shaky handheld camera work have for some time now had
the option of using the Smoothee,
a simple rig made by none other than Steadicam. The product is intended
for use with pocket camcorders and smartphones, however, which kind of
leaves DSLR-users in the lurch. Well, those people now have a new
affordable stabilizing system of their own, in the form of the Cam
Caddie Scorpion. Read More
Roland and Fender have joined forces to create a
guitar called the G-5, that fuses a traditional Stratocaster body shape
with cutting edge digital music technology. Set to hit the shelves a few
months before either of the Auto-Tune guitars from Peavey and Parker,
the VG Strat G-5 offers similar alternate tuning at the turn of a knob,
a host of onboard digital guitar emulations and the chance to dial in
different pickup and signature guitar sounds, too. Read More
Apps that transform an iOS device into a portable DJ system (such as Algoriddim's djay
app) have been around for a good while now, but the restricted screen
space on small devices can lead to somewhat limited mixing
functionality. Budding party disc jockeys can get more control from
physical deck emulators like Numark's iDJ Live,
but those with an appetite for real-time mixing of music stored on more
than one device have now been catered for with the upcoming release of
the iRig MIX from IK Multimedia. This compact mobile mixer can auto
match the tempo from any type of audio source with the tunes on a
connected iOS device, features an extra input for an instrument or
microphone, and comes with four free music apps. Read More
Research into goshawk flight could inform the
design of next generation UAVS. Where prior research into bird flight
has focused on steady flight, new research from MIT examines the
patterns of birds adept at flying in "cluttered environments" to find
principles applicable to robot motion planning. It's research that might
one day find practical applications in engineering, including fast,
agile UAVs. Read More
FLORA - a platform for your wearable DIY electronics projects
January 23, 2012
A new platform for wearable electronics, known as
the FLORA, was announced by its creators Adafruit Industries on Friday.
Essentially a small, round, fabric-friendly circuit board that looks a
little like a flower, the FLORA will, when ready, be launched with a
variety of accessories and software. These will include, we gather,
controllers for iPhone, iPad and Android hardware. The FLORA is ripe for
wearable DIY electronics projects: announced modules include Bluetooth,
GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, compass, and, intriguingly, OLED. Read More
On its company blog, Sony has announced a spring
(or autumn if you’re south of the equator) refresh for of its VAIO line
of laptops. While the Z series, S series and E series will all receive
CPU upgrades along with various other component updates, the C series
changes are limited to updates of the cosmetic variety. Read More
When someone has gallstones, treatment typically
involves the removal of their gallbladder. This is usually done
laparoscopically, in a procedure known as a cholecystectomy. A group of
scientists from the Second People's Hospital of Panyu District and
Central South University in China, however, have created an endoscope
that they say is able to locate and remove gallstones while leaving the
gallbladder intact. Read More
Magura releases hydraulic rim brakes for road bikes
By Ben Coxworth
January 18, 2012
When most people think of hydraulic brakes on
bicycles, they probably picture modern mountain bikes with disc brakes.
As early as 1987, however, German bicycle component manufacturer Magura
was making hydraulic rim brakes for mountain bikes. These
featured the arms and rubber pads that we currently associate with
V-brakes and cantilevers, but they were hydraulically activated. Now, 25
years later, Magura has released an aerodynamic hydraulic rim brake
system for lightweight time trial and triathlon bikes. Read More
A group of researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute and Harvard Medical School, led by Bruce Spiegelman and Pontus
Boström, have discovered a hormone that mimics some of the results of a
workout by facilitating the transformation of white fat into brown fat.
While the purpose of the former is to accumulate excess calories, the
latter is used to produce heat. Irisin, named after the Greek goddess
Iris, could one day help address obesity and diabetes. However, there is
still a long way to go before the hormone is made into an actual drug.
Read More
Your iPhone won’t last forever. In fact, long
before it wears out, chances are that you’ll trade up to a higher model.
The designers at Italian companies Med Computer and Biomood apparently
figured that if the cover that you’re using on that phone is bound to
become obsolete anyway, why should it last forever? The result is the 100-percent biodegradable iNature soft iPhone cover. Read More
Eye control innovator Tobii introduced and
demonstrated its latest eye control technology at last week's Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Gaze interface for Windows 8 is said
to take advantage of the operating system's large tile layout to offer
users a superior interaction experience, that neither touch nor mouse
alone can provide. Read More
You have to feel sorry for the police officers
who are required to frisk people for guns or knives – after all, if
someone who doesn’t want to be arrested is carrying a lethal weapon, the
last thing that most of us would want to do is get close enough to that
person to touch them. That’s why the New York Police Department teamed
up with the United States Department of Defense three years ago, and
began developing a portable scanner that can remotely detect the
presence of a gun on a person’s body. The NYPD announced the project
yesterday. Read More
While it's true that we've seen some gorgeous
examples of modern amplification at Gizmag over the years, there's still
something very pleasing to the eye about those that proudly display
their tube circuit credentials, like the JoyVirtue TM-6 Tube-Amp AV Center.
It's not just about looks, though. In spite of many, many advances in
audio reproduction technology, enthusiasts still demand the warmth that
vacuum tubes seem to give to an audio signal. One of the first tube amps
I ever heard was an MC275 from McIntosh Laboratory way back in the
mists of a misspent youth. The company is now celebrating the Golden
Anniversary of its iconic amp with a very limited edition release. Read More
Power Bank two-in-one flashlight and phone charger
January 18, 2012
Though falling into that tiny category of things exhibited at CES 2012
that don't have an HD screen and aren't an iPhone peripheral, we did
want to briefly mention Poldera's Power Bank Energy Holder. A combined
LED flashlight and phone-charger, the Power Bank is one of those
unassuming devices that may not be a head-turner, but is a good idea
nonetheless. After all, if you have need of a portable phone charger,
why not have one that can do something else useful too? Read More
As evidenced by the popularity of motion controlled fitness games ushered in by the Wii and followed by the PlayStation Move and Kinect,
so called "exergaming" - the combining of exercise and video games - is
a field that has grown rapidly in popularity in recent years. But if
you don't want to shell out for a new console and already have an
iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, as well as a treadmill, elliptical machine
or exercise bike laying about, then the new Fit Freeway app is designed to make working up a sweat a bit more fun. Read More
Obtaining a high-quality 3D digital model of a
physical object can be a fiddly process, that often requires
considerable user input. German research and development company NEK,
however, is attempting to make things easier, with its OrcaM Orbital
Camera System. Users just place an object inside of its "reconstruction
sphere," then the system goes to work, automatically creating a
near-perfect three-dimensional recreation of the object. Read More
The Vortex: the world's first USB/MIDI Keytar Controller
By Paul Ridden
January 19, 2012
Noted rock vocalist and bass player Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and more recently Black Country Communion)
has often been quoted as saying that, for him, much of the 1980s was
just a blur. It's probably just as well, or he might have had a hard
time dealing with the emergence of the keytar - a strap-on keyboard that
has a little neck with a number of parameter-changing buttons on it.
Okay, I admit it, I'm not a great fan of the Jan Hammers and Jean-Michel
Jarres of this world, but those who want to emulate these digital music
innovators without digging deep for a Korg, Roland or Moog original can
now rejoice with the release of the world's first USB/MIDI keytar - the
Vortex from Alesis. Read More
Outdoor clothing manufacturers are determined to
solve the one problem that the world's ultimate insulator has:
ineffectiveness when wet. Sierra Designs and Brooks Range are both
introducing specially treated down jackets, that they claim work
effectively in both wet and dry conditions. Read More
It's another typical day in the office when your
co-worker conspicuously begins to play "Ride of the Valkyries" on high
volume. Before you can react to the strange shift in tone, you hear the
"thwip thwip" sound of a helicopter coming your direction, as if you've
stumbled into a cubicle version of Apocalypse Now. Next thing
you know, a bright light shines over your cube wall and in your face,
blinding you right before you spot two missiles launching straight at
you ... which then bounce off your chest since they're made of plastic.
You've just become the latest victim of the HELO TC Assault, the newest
toy helicopter from Griffin that includes Android support and twin
missile launchers. Read More
Scientists at the University of California, San
Diego, have created what they claim is the first self-propelling,
hydrogen-bubble-powered "microrocket" requiring no external source of
fuel. In the most acidic solutions, these micromotors can reach speeds
of 100 body lengths per second. It's claimed that the breakthrough could
pave the way (or rather line the esophagus) towards stomach-going
nanomotors which could provide imaging or precisely targeted drug
treatment. In addition to self-propulsion, the gut-rockets can be
steered, and made to collect and release a payload. Read More
Apple announces iBooks 2 and iTunes U educational apps
By Ben Coxworth
January 19, 2012
This morning at New York City's Guggenheim
Museum, Apple announced the launch of its iBooks 2 for iPad system. The
technology is intended to replace traditional paper school textbooks
with interactive digital textbooks, that students would access on their
own personal iPads. Educational publishers including Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will supply content on the iBookstore,
with most titles priced at no more than US$14.99. Mac users will also
be able to create their own digital textbooks, using the authoring tool,
iBooks Author. Read More
The sound and feel of modern music was changed
forever in the late 1990s when Antares launched its Auto-Tune pitch
correction technology. As well as putting some life back into flat
performances, the system was also used to great effect by the likes of
Cher and T-Pain to give a unique twist to vocal tracks. The company
announced its intention to bring the technology to the electric guitar
in May 2011,
sending shivers down the spines of purists everywhere. Now Peavey and
Parker have launched the first guitars to incorporate Auto-Tune for
Guitar and we've had the chance to take a closer look at the former's
AT-200 in action at Winter NAMM in Anaheim. The verdict: pretty
impressive. Read More
While the promised paperless office has yet to
eventuate, scanners are still a standard piece of equipment in most
workplaces – even if that workplace happens to be the road. With many a
road warrior these days packing an iPad in their arsenal, it’s not
surprising to see the release of the iConvert Scanner for iPad from
Brookstone. After slotting an iPad (1 or 2) into the dock on the top of
the device and starting the iConvert app, documents fed into the front
feeder slot can be scanned and appear instantly on the iPad’s display to
be saved as JPEGs in the device’s photo library. Read More
If you've ever picked up a Neighborhood Watch
newsletter and been astonished by the amount of crime in your community,
you might be very interested in a new social software start-up named
Village Defense. The software links neighbors to form a real-time
communication system - one phone call notifies all neighbors (by text or
phone) when a crime or suspicious activity is in progress. In the first
pilot study of the new system, the increased awareness, greater
availability of witnesses and shorter response times facilitated by
Village Defense saw crime rates drop 58% in the first year. Read More
Optimus Pad LTE becomes LG's first LTE-capable tablet
By Darren Quick
January 18, 2012
Since the release of the G-Slate and Optimus Pad
last year, tablet offerings from LG have been pretty thin on the
ground. Now the company has announced it will be releasing its first
LTE-capable tablet in its homeland next week. The Optimus Pad LTE is
powered by a Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and comes running
Android 3.2 (Honeycomb). It also features the same True HD IPS
technology that debuted on LG's Optimus LTE smartphone but with the 1280 x 720 pixel resolution now spread over 8.9-inches worth of display. Read More
OLED panel could switch between sunroof and light source
By Ben Coxworth
January 20, 2012
What if your car had roof panels that let you see
the sky during the day, but that lit the interior of the vehicle at
night? This is now a distinct possibility, thanks to work being done by
BASF and Philips. As members of a consortium assembled by Germany’s
Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the two companies have
created OLED panels and installed them in the roof of a car. When
switched on, the panels glow, lighting the cabin of the car – when
switched off, they simply go transparent. Read More
In the wilderness, few things are as important as
a fire. Unfortunately, getting a fire going - even with all the right
equipment - isn't always easy. Insta-fire makes it easier. The
fire-starting mixture burns hot and long enough to eliminate the need
for kindling and possibly even fuel. It's also versatile enough to light
in wet conditions. Read More
According to figures reported by the University
of Tennessee, even though 85 percent of a child’s learning is
vision-related, about 80 percent of American children have never had
their eyes tested before starting kindergarten. Even when tests are
performed, they are usually only capable of detecting no more than a
couple of conditions. Unfortunately, this means that vision-related
learning disabilities such as dyslexia can be missed, and may not be
noticed until they are well-established. Now, however, researchers at U
Tennessee’s Space Institute have developed a new type of vision-testing
system for young children, that could catch a variety of vision problems
while they’re still reversible. Read More
You may have already come in contact with the
work of techno-artist Yasuhito Udagawa (AKA Shovelhead) before and not
realised it. He has created many of the theme icons of major art,
technology and other exhibitions and shows over the last decade, and has
become far better known since his sponsorship by Nike. Shovelhead's
work is mesmerizing. A Japanese salaryman who found himself jobless in
1995 when the company he worked for went into bankruptcy, Yasuhito
turned to his passion for making models and his fertile imagination and
attention to fabricating the minutest detail have propelled him to the
brink of superstardom. Make sure you browse the extensive image gallery for this story. Spellbinding! Read More
Flaca stainless steel lamp is an exemplar of green design
January 20, 2012
As a founding member of Desk Lamp Fetishists
Anonymous, it was with great interest (read cold sweats) that I learned
about the stainless steel Flaca desk lamp by Mexico's Masiosare Studio.
Yes, the stainless steel is sexy, and the 6 W power consumption -
courtesy of twelve LEDs - ticks the green boxes, but most exciting is
the fact that the Flaca comes as a flat piece of laser-cut steel that
the user then bends into shape. We at the DLFA are nuts for flat-pack
tool-less assembly, you see. Read More
One of the biggest criticisms leveled at biofuels
that are derived from crops such as wheat, corn and sugar cane, is that
they result in valuable land being taken away from food production. For
this reason there are various research efforts underway to turn seaweed
into a viable renewable source of biomass. Now a team from Bio
Architecture Lab (BAL) claims to have developed a breakthrough
technology that makes seaweed a cost-effective source of biomass by
engineering a microbe that can extract all the major sugars in seaweed
and convert them into renewable fuels and chemicals. Read More
While you might think its lack of limbs might
limit how it gets around, snakes have actually developed several
different forms of locomotion. One of these is “rectilinear locomotion,”
and while most snakes are capable of it, it is most commonly associated
with large pythons and boas. Although it is the slowest form of snake
locomotion, it is also very efficient and allows the snakes to crawl
into tight spaces. It is these latter two qualities that appealed to
Georgia Tech researchers when developing a new all-terrain robot called
Scalybot 2. Read More
Japanese electronics manufacturer Cerevo might already be known to some readers for its Cerevo Camera Live.
Released in May of 2010, the video camera is able to stream content
live to Ustream, without the need of a linked computer. That's all very
well and good, but what about all of us with other makes and models of
video cameras who want to "go live"? Cerevo is now addressing them with
its Live Shell module. The device hooks up to an existing camera, then
sends its video and audio output directly to Ustream. Read More
First flight of Cessna Citation Ten prototype a success
By Darren Quick
January 19, 2012
What is set to be the latest addition to Cessna’s
Citation line of business jets made its first flight this week. The
Cessna Citation Ten prototype flew for more than two hours in the skies
over Cessna’s main manufacturing facility at Wichita, Kansas, with the
aircraft's stability and control, handling, autopilot and autothrottle
systems, engine operability and avionics all put to the test. Cessna
says all systems functioned as expected on the maiden flight, keeping
the Citation Ten on track for FAA certification in mid-2013, with first
deliveries planned for the second half of 2013. Read More
Simple, cheap microtweezers could be used to build new MEMS devices
By Ben Coxworth
January 19, 2012
In order to do things such as building microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
or grabbing individual stem cell spheres for analysis, scientists use
extremely fine-tipped tools known as microtweezers. While such devices
aren't a brand new innovation in and of themselves, researchers from
Indiana's Purdue University have developed a new type of microtweezers
that are said to be easier and cheaper to manufacture than their
conventional counterparts. Not only that, but unlike most similar
devices currently in use, they don't require heat, magnetism or
electricity to operate. Read More
Kepler spacecraft discovers tiniest solar system yet found
By Bryan Clark
January 22, 2012
Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission
have discovered the tiniest solar system found so far. The system
consists of a single red dwarf star, known as KOI-961 and three planets
which are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the radius of Earth. The planets are
thought to be rocky - like Earth - but orbit much closer to their star
making them too hot to be habitable. Read More
Husqvarna goes retro with 70s-inspired Concept Baja
By Darren Quick
January 22, 2012
Husqvarna has decided to go back to the 70s with
its Concept Baja. The retro-styled bike had its first debut at the 2012
Progressive International Motorcycle Show in New York last Friday as
part of the exhibition's 12-city tour across the U.S. Taking its name
from the famous desert race that's been run each year for more than four
decades, the Concept Baja radiates a 70s vintage vibe with a design
that echoes the company's off-road models from that era, but with a
modern touch most immediately evident by an LED-array headlight built
into the front number plate and an LED instrument display built into the
crossbar. Read More
We recently looked at one of the potential contenders in the US$10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, which as the name suggests, was inspired by the medical tricorder of Star Trek
fame. Now scientists have developed a new way of creating Terahertz
(THz) or T-rays, which they say could help make handheld devices with
tricorder-like capabilities a reality. Read More
PocketStrings takes guitar practice on the road
January 22, 2012
Guitarists don't like to be parted from their
guitars. Even as a rank amateur, I get a nagging itch in my fingers
after a couple of axeless weeks on the road. But guitars take up a lot
of space and they are expensive to haul with you on a plane, so I often
find myself seeking out music shops just so I can have a noodle. It's
exactly this kind of affliction that PocketStrings is designed to
address. It's not an instrument and it doesn't make a sound, but this
portable mock-up of the first four frets of a guitar could help you
satisfy the playing itch as well as giving beginners and more
experienced players a take-anywhere tool on which to practice chords and
build finger strength while keeping your calluses tough. Read More
Semi-human-powered flight project gets off the ground ... just
By Eric Mack
January 22, 2012
A Dutch mechanical engineer is working on realizing da Vinci's dream of human-powered flight,
with some help from modern technology. Jarnos Smeets is the driving
force between the Human Birdwings Project, which utilizes a combination
of gadgets including an HTC Wildfire S and a Wii remote. He claims to
have conducted his first successful test flight this week, even though
he didn't appear to get too far off the ground. Read More
Currently, brakes made from composite materials
tend to be expensive, and as such mainly just find their way onto high-performance cars
and motorcycles. That could be about to change, however. Researchers
from Michigan-based materials company REL and the Polytechnic Institute
of New York University (NYU-Poly) are developing aluminum composite
brake rotors for everyday cars. Not only should they be much easier to
produce than existing composite rotors, but they should also be 60
percent lighter than their iron counterparts, and last three times as
long. Read More
We've seen some pretty small cameras in our day,
but the “Eye of America” is certainly the largest. The 35-foot camera
can barely fit in a tractor trailer, and can capture photos so detailed
that it will put even some of the most the high-end of digital cameras
to shame. The giant camera is being built by photographer Dennis
Manarchy as part of his “Vanishing Cultures” project. For the project,
Manarchy plans to travel to all 50 states with a view to creating a
collection of photos and stories that “celebrates the full cycle of the
American experience.” Read More
AntiCrop expands your photos by creating more background
By Ben Coxworth
January 20, 2012
So, you don't like the way your head is almost
touching the top of the frame in that one photo? Or, perhaps you think
that shot of the horse in the field would look more majestic if it were
wider. Well, now you can insert a slot of sky above you, or a couple of
side columns of extra grassy field, using Adva-Soft's AntiCrop app. As
long as the background is fairly homogenous (sky, grass, sand, water,
etc.) the software will automatically add more of it, in whichever
direction you wish. Read More
We've been treated to a number of Fender stomp
boxes over the years - like the classic Fender Blender and BOSS
collaborations like the '65 Deluxe Reverb - but the iconic manufacturer
has never gathered all its tone tweaking know-how into one big bundle
... until now. The new Mustang Floor brings together dozens of effects,
amp modeling and computer interaction into one rather attractive
multi-effects unit. Read More
The past five to ten years have seen the birth of
microbotics. A whole range of components that are vital for building
robots, such as actuators, motors or batteries, became available in
micro-scale only fairly recently. Finally enthusiasts got what they
needed to put their own systems together, and the whole field benefited
from their work. But there are obvious limitations to scaling down
robots full of sensors, motors, and other mechanisms. That is, unless
you make the machines extremely simple, which is exactly what Ron
Pelrine of SRI International has done. His work on levitated microrobots
may have powerful implications for robotics, and is likely to bring us a
step closer towards fast, precise and affordable robotic systems
comprising thousands, if not millions of microrobots. Read More
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