As long ago as 1807 – and possibly up to 200
years earlier – many artists used an optical device known as a camera
lucida to help them in sketching subjects. A controversial theory even
suggests that some of the famous Old Masters created their masterpieces
not by sketching freehand, but by using such gadgets. Now, two art
professors are trying to bring the camera lucida back, in the form of
the low-cost portable NeoLucida. Read More
The Conran design firm was recently asked to re-imagine an everyday item by BBC Future.
Its designers picked the digital camera, and the resulting concept
certainly is different. The Conran camera does away with the typical
protruding lens and instead features a large hole through the middle,
surrounded by an array of small camera sensors. It also lacks an LCD
monitor and is instead designed to wirelessly connect to a smartphone.
Read More
Given a set of problems related to space
exploration and a 48-hour deadline, 9,000 people in 80 locations around
the world created over 600 solutions. The International Space Apps
Challenge, sponsored by NASA and other international space agencies,
offered up massive amounts of data and other resources to teams of
hackers who responded with creative solutions. The public now has the
chance to view these solutions online and vote for their favorites on
each project's official page. Gizmag set out to find the best projects
related to data visualization and education, space exploration and
satellite inventiveness, green technology, and remotely-operated
vehicles. Read More
Almost since the beginning of their existence,
robots have taken inspiration from one of nature's wonders: insects.
Technological limitations typically prevent these robots from matching
the small size of their many-legged muses, resulting in gargantuan
examples like Festo's BionicOpter dragonfly. In stark contrast is
Harvard's RoboBee, which is the first in the world to demonstrate
controlled flight by an insect-sized robot. Read More
Dubbed Springtime, this bike-ready
picnic kit from Dutch designer Jeriël Bobbe contains everything that one
could need for a pleasant lunch in the park. Read More 
There aren't enough stop motion
animation films starring light fittings, in my opinion. Until today, I
only knew of one: Luxo Jr, by Pixar. Hyperion is the second, and it stars the eponymous insectoid light fitting, designed by Paul Heijnen. Read More 
Researchers at the KTH Institute of Technology in
Sweden have developed a smartphone application that converts simple
melodies into notation. The app, which is available now worldwide,
provides a simple and effective tool for getting that melody out of your
head and into written, shareable form. Read More
Here's an interesting piece of interior design.
Challenged by a client to refurbish a tiny studio apartment in Paris,
architect Betillon/Dorval‐Bory was asked to pay special attention to
lighting due to the limited daylight available in some parts of the
apartment. Its response was unusual, to say the least. High-performance
lighting was installed at one end and, in one sense, deliberately awful
lighting at the other. Named Appartement Spectral, the design breaks
every rule in the book, yet the effect is striking – and it's all down
to street lighting. Read More
When it comes to keeping tabs on the location of
aircraft, radar has long ruled the roost. But radar range is limited,
and long-haul planes become untraceable when passing over oceans and
large deserts or polar regions. By equipping orbiting satellites with
instruments that listen in on ADS-B signals, scientists think that it
should possible to track aircraft over the course of their entire
journey, and with the launch of Proba-V, they're ready to put the idea
to the test. Read More
For most people, experiments involving a home
microwave typically don't go much further than inflating a marshmallow
like a balloon or reheating leftovers in plasticware – both with messy
results. For metallurgists though, microwaves are sometimes employed to
efficiently process metals, which is how researchers at the University
of Utah found themselves using a secondhand kitchen appliance in their
lab. Their resourcefulness paid off recently, when the team discovered a
method for creating solar cell material with just a few basic
ingredients and an old microwave. Read More
After a long day at work, the last
thing most folks want to do is lug a 100-pound ball of drooling, pent-up
energy around, all the while shoveling and hauling its feces. But
that's exactly what dog owners have to do every day. The Smart Dog Leash
aims to make the process a tad smoother by storing every item that
you'll need to walk your dog safely and sanitarily. Read More
ARINE
A shadowy design outfit (shadowy in
the sense that the majority of its website does not yet appear to be
live) called Dezien has published images of an interesting concept
bicycle dubbed Levitation that charges the cyclist's mobile devices… and
electric car, apparently. Read More
Android pops up in the strangest places.
Smartphones and tablets are the most obvious places to find Google’s
open-source OS, but there are also Android-based cameras, cars, and even fridges. The latest craze is Android gaming consoles.
Emulator-maker BlueStacks has just announced one of its own – which it
will give you "for free" when you sign up for a monthly subscription.
Read More
Bridge specialist Knight Architects has announced
that its novel design for a footbridge in Paddington, London is to go
ahead. The hydraulic Merchant Square Bridge will raise and lower like a
traditional folding Japanese fan. Read More
Anyone that looks at press releases with any regularity will no doubt have felt the onset of re- fatigue,
induced by the weight of new products which claim to "rethink,"
"re-imagine" and "redefine" things (but seldom do). So while we're a
little dubious of the claim that Rainshader "reinvents" the umbrella –
it is still a canopy on a stick, after all – at least there's no denying
that there is actual innovation in evidence. Apparently the
helmet-shaped Rainshader doesn't turn inside out in the wind, drip on
people, or poke them in the eye. Read More
For the first time, quantum cryptographers have
successfully transmitted a quantum key from a fast-moving object – a
Dornier 228 turboprop. The experiment involved sending a secure message
from the aircraft to a ground station via laser beam, and can be
considered a significant step toward the creation of a network of
“unbreakable” satellite data transmissions. Read More
Players of the Forza and Gran Turismo race series
understand that every little advantage counts when working to trim lap
times. In game, details like tires, camber angles, damper settings, plus
engine mods are just a few of the tuning tricks to enhance a racer's
performance. But deep down, budding racers know that such sops to
realism are nothing compared to a full-scale F1 simulator. Luckily for
them Costco UK and FMCG International have a solution – a US$116,650
full-scale F1 simulator. Read More
There can be little doubt that people love their
mobile devices. But, by leaving them high and dry at the most
inconvenient of times, this love generally doesn't extend to the
batteries that power said devices. New microbatteries developed by
researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
that measure just a few millimeters in size, yet are powerful enough to
power a mobile phone may be more likely to inspire a little love. Read More
After a long day at work, the last
thing most folks want to do is lug a 100-pound ball of drooling, pent-up
energy around, all the while shoveling and hauling its feces. But
that's exactly what dog owners have to do every day. The Smart Dog Leash
aims to make the process a tad smoother by storing every item that
you'll need to walk your dog safely and sanitarily. Read More
It’s sometimes easy to forget that for all their
human-like qualities, robots are in fact machines. While some systems
allow them to recognize basic objects, they still don’t necessarily make sense
of what they’re looking at – they might see and recognize a box, for
instance, but what does the presence of a box suggest to them? Now,
researchers at Massachusetts-based engineering firm Aptima are
developing a system known as Cognitive Patterns. It allows robots and
humans to collaborate on building the robots’ understanding of the
world, thus allowing them to operate on their own more effectively. Read More
Some of the most desirable items for collectors
are those with historical significance that tell a story. RR Auction has
a whole raft of such items set to go under the hammer as it hosts a
major sale of space and aviation memorabilia from the past century. Each
one is a bit of history and each one tells a story, but since we can’t
go through over 800 stories, we’ll look at ten of the standout items
from the height of the Space Age that you can buy – if your pockets are
deep enough. Read More
Just like other parts of the body, the retina
needs oxygen in order to survive. If it doesn’t receive enough – should
its blood supply be restricted, for instance – permanent blindness can
result. Therefore, the sooner that doctors know if a patient’s retina is
receiving insufficient oxygen, the better the chances that they can
take action in time. Soon, they may be able to use tiny injectable
robots to get them the information they need. Read More
After a long day at work, the last
thing most folks want to do is lug a 100-pound ball of drooling, pent-up
energy around, all the while shoveling and hauling its feces. But
that's exactly what dog owners have to do every day. The Smart Dog Leash
aims to make the process a tad smoother by storing every item that
you'll need to walk your dog safely and sanitarily. Read More
Android pops up in the strangest places.
Smartphones and tablets are the most obvious places to find Google’s
open-source OS, but there are also Android-based cameras, cars, and even fridges. The latest craze is Android gaming consoles.
Emulator-maker BlueStacks has just announced one of its own – which it
will give you "for free" when you sign up for a monthly subscription.
Read More
Bridge specialist Knight Architects has announced
that its novel design for a footbridge in Paddington, London is to go
ahead. The hydraulic Merchant Square Bridge will raise and lower like a
traditional folding Japanese fan. Read More
Anyone that looks at press releases with any regularity will no doubt have felt the onset of re- fatigue,
induced by the weight of new products which claim to "rethink,"
"re-imagine" and "redefine" things (but seldom do). So while we're a
little dubious of the claim that Rainshader "reinvents" the umbrella –
it is still a canopy on a stick, after all – at least there's no denying
that there is actual innovation in evidence. Apparently the
helmet-shaped Rainshader doesn't turn inside out in the wind, drip on
people, or poke them in the eye. Read More
For the first time, quantum cryptographers have
successfully transmitted a quantum key from a fast-moving object – a
Dornier 228 turboprop. The experiment involved sending a secure message
from the aircraft to a ground station via laser beam, and can be
considered a significant step toward the creation of a network of
“unbreakable” satellite data transmissions. Read More
Players of the Forza and Gran Turismo race series
understand that every little advantage counts when working to trim lap
times. In game, details like tires, camber angles, damper settings, plus
engine mods are just a few of the tuning tricks to enhance a racer's
performance. But deep down, budding racers know that such sops to
realism are nothing compared to a full-scale F1 simulator. Luckily for
them Costco UK and FMCG International have a solution – a US$116,650
full-scale F1 simulator. Read More
There can be little doubt that people love their
mobile devices. But, by leaving them high and dry at the most
inconvenient of times, this love generally doesn't extend to the
batteries that power said devices. New microbatteries developed by
researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
that measure just a few millimeters in size, yet are powerful enough to
power a mobile phone may be more likely to inspire a little love. Read More
After a long day at work, the last
thing most folks want to do is lug a 100-pound ball of drooling, pent-up
energy around, all the while shoveling and hauling its feces. But
that's exactly what dog owners have to do every day. The Smart Dog Leash
aims to make the process a tad smoother by storing every item that
you'll need to walk your dog safely and sanitarily. Read More
It’s sometimes easy to forget that for all their
human-like qualities, robots are in fact machines. While some systems
allow them to recognize basic objects, they still don’t necessarily make sense
of what they’re looking at – they might see and recognize a box, for
instance, but what does the presence of a box suggest to them? Now,
researchers at Massachusetts-based engineering firm Aptima are
developing a system known as Cognitive Patterns. It allows robots and
humans to collaborate on building the robots’ understanding of the
world, thus allowing them to operate on their own more effectively. Read More
Some of the most desirable items for collectors
are those with historical significance that tell a story. RR Auction has
a whole raft of such items set to go under the hammer as it hosts a
major sale of space and aviation memorabilia from the past century. Each
one is a bit of history and each one tells a story, but since we can’t
go through over 800 stories, we’ll look at ten of the standout items
from the height of the Space Age that you can buy – if your pockets are
deep enough. Read More
Just like other parts of the body, the retina
needs oxygen in order to survive. If it doesn’t receive enough – should
its blood supply be restricted, for instance – permanent blindness can
result. Therefore, the sooner that doctors know if a patient’s retina is
receiving insufficient oxygen, the better the chances that they can
take action in time. Soon, they may be able to use tiny injectable
robots to get them the information they need. Read More
Laboratories that deal with dangerous chemicals
devote a lot of time and money to ensuring the work environment is safe.
Since many toxic substances lack a noticeable smell or color, the trick
is finding a detection method that alerts employees to their presence
as quickly and clearly as possible. Scientists at the the Fraunhofer
Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies may have found
a simple answer to that problem in the form of a protective glove that
immediately changes color when it comes into contact with hazardous
materials. Read More
During the past year, the phablet has gone from
object of ridicule to legit new product category. You can give all the
credit to Samsung, and its surprisingly successful marketing of the Galaxy Note.
Like any successful product, the Note has rivals – eager to take a
piece of its pie. Let’s see how the most significant non-Samsung
phablet, the LG Optimus G Pro, compares to the Galaxy Note 2. Read More
A number of companies have been working on modular backpacks and messenger bags
that can grow and adjust around different trips and purposes. One
designer seems to feel they haven't been taking things far enough. The
new RukSak hangs 10 different modules on a multi-day backpack, making
for dozens of different configurations and uses. Read More
Kicking off with the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer
(GOCE), which was launched in March 2009, the European Space Agency’s
Earth Explorer missions are intended to provide a greater understanding
of the Earth and the interactions between various natural Earth
processes. “Biomass” is the seventh Earth Explorer satellite to get the
nod and will provide and accurate picture of the amount of biomass and
carbon stored in the world’s forests. Read More
When it comes to fishing rods, there’s no true
one-size-fits-all solution. But angler Terry L. Manley believes he has
come up with a system that (literally) extends the suitability of a rod
for a variety of conditions. The patent pending Multifunctional Rod
Foundation (MRF) System – a.k.a. the “Adjust-A-Butt” – allows the length
of the rod to be altered in less than a second as well as amplifying
vibrations to improve sensitivity when the fish are on the bite. Read More
Outdoor music festivals are notorious for a lot
of things, one of the biggest being the amount of garbage left behind by
the concert-goers. In an effort to get music fans to clean up after
themselves, while also providing them with half-decent temporary
shelter, the Glad Company recently experimented with a combination
tent/big garbage bag, known as the Glad Tent. Read More
If that great night on the town turns into an
after-hours party at a friend's house and you want to show off your
Digital Disc Jockey mettle, the odds of you happening to have a Numark iDJ
about your person are pretty remote. You may well have an iPhone
packing IK Multimedia's DJ Rig app, but what are the chances you've also
remembered to bring an iRig MIX?
Korea's JD Sound is busy readying its PDJ portable stand-alone DJ
system and music production studio for US release, which puts everything
you need to get your groove on into one fairly pocket-friendly unit.
Read More
Stitches and staples may be on their way to
becoming a thing of the past, thanks to a developing technology known as
laser tissue welding. Now, a new gold-based solder has been created,
that could make tissue welds in regions such as the intestines much
stronger and more reliable. Read More
If you work with machinery, engines or appliances
of any type, then you’ve likely experienced the frustration of hearing a
troublesome noise coming from somewhere, but not being able to
pinpoint where. If only you could just grab a camera, and take a
picture that showed you the noise’s location. Well, soon you should be
able to do so, as that’s just what the SeeSV-S205 sound camera does.
Read More
The rumor mill has been spinning for quite some time about an Amazon smartphone.
What the rumor mill was lacking – as it often does – was detail. Today
we might have a bit more of that, with a report that Amazon is working
on two smartphones and an audio-only mobile device. Read More
ARINE
Given that people such as myself already have a
tendency to mistake streamlined car-top boxes as whitewater kayaks, it
shouldn’t come as a surprise that someone has gone and done the obvious –
made a roof box that converts into a boat. Instead of serving as a
kayak, however, the Boatbox can be rowed like a dinghy, or even fitted
with a small motor or a sail. Read More
A shadowy design outfit (shadowy in
the sense that the majority of its website does not yet appear to be
live) called Dezien has published images of an interesting concept
bicycle dubbed Levitation that charges the cyclist's mobile devices… and
electric car, apparently. Read More
Designing a fuel station and fast food outlet may
not seem to be the most thrilling of projects, but for Georgian
architect Giorgi Khmaladze, his design may just put the Eurasian town of
Batumi on the map. Khmaladze is currently in the final construction
phase of building a new fuel station and McDonald’s premises in the
seaside city of Batumi, Georgia. Read More
Is it possible to measure people’s levels of
happiness based on the online data they produce? The team behind
Hedonometer thinks so. Conceived by Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth at
the University of Vermont’s Computational Story Lab, the software
powering the platform, which recently went live, not only measures human
happiness but does it in real time, too. Read More
SheerWind, a wind power company from Minnesota,
USA, has announced the results of tests it has carried out with its new
Invelox wind power generation technology. The company says that during
tests its turbine could generate six times more energy than the amount
produced by traditional turbines mounted on towers. Besides, the costs
of producing wind energy with Invelox are lower, delivering electricity
with prices that can compete with natural gas and hydropower. Read More
Volkswagen’s GTI has been a part of the hatchback
landscape since 1974. For almost forty years the GTI has stretched its
talents from sedate 3 or 5-door family runabout to the toasty 250 hp
all-wheel-drive WR32. But now Volkswagen is set to tease followers with
an excessively warm 503 horsepower concept – the Design Vision GTI. Read More
Lockheed Martin has released a video of ADAM, its
high energy laser (HEL) system, taking out a rocket from a range of 1.5
km (0.9 miles). Slowed down, the 300-fps video clearly shows the laser
beam striking and tracking a point towards the front of the rocket,
before destroying it mid-flight. Read More
Micro UAVs that have the ability to slip into
tight spaces, including inside buildings, have wide ranging military and
search and rescue applications. To reach their full potential, however,
these UAVs are going to need to learn how to land in rougher areas that
don't always have a horizontal surface to touch down on. One team of
scientists has begun taking a huge step towards accomplishing just that
by developing a quadcopter with a mechanism that allows it to land on
walls or ceilings, stay for a while, and then take off again. Read More
Millions of years of evolution has resulted in
plants being the most efficient harvesters of solar energy on the
planet. Much research is underway into ways to artificially mimic
photosynthesis in devices like artificial leaves,
but researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) are working on a
different approach that gives new meaning to the term “power plant.”
Their technology harvests energy generated through photosynthesis before
the plants can make use of it, allowing the energy to instead be used
to run low-powered electrical devices. Read More
One of the major anticipated applications for
robots is in care for the elderly and helping them with daily tasks.
This means that robots have got to adapt to human lifestyles, not the
other way around, because granny can’t be expected to program the robot
or rearrange her house to suit the machine’s limitations. The Carnegie
Mellon University Robotics Institute’s Lifelong Robotic Object Discovery
(LROD) project aims to address this by developing ways to use visual
and non-visual data to help robots to identify and pick up objects so
they can work in a normal human environment without supervision. Read More
Whatever your tipple of choice is,
from water and pop to whiskey and rum, they all come in bottles, though
the aesthetic appeal of these bottles differs greatly depending on the
brand. The Satechi Touch USB LED Lamp gives new life to these empty
bottles by turning them into a base for a table lamp. Read More
Electrostimulation: It doesn't sound
like the most relaxing thing in the world, but a French company is
hoping to change this impression. The VEINOPLUS Sport is one of the
latest devices to use this method for providing post-workout muscle
recovery. It's designed to provide all the benefits of an active
recovery without the negatives. Read More
NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn and
Chris Cassidy are preparing for a six hour spacewalk to fix the latest
ammonia coolant leak on the International Space Station. Read More
LeapFrog has revealed its latest product aimed at
improving the literacy of youngsters, the LeapReader. The pen-like
device follows on from the Tag Reading System
and works with a library of more than 150 reading, activity and
audio-books, to teach children not only how to recognize and say letters
or words, but also how to write them. Read More
Whatever your tipple of choice is,
from water and pop to whiskey and rum, they all come in bottles, though
the aesthetic appeal of these bottles differs greatly depending on the
brand. The Satechi Touch USB LED Lamp gives new life to these empty
bottles by turning them into a base for a table lamp. Read More
Olympus has decided to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of its classic PEN F camera by launching its latest digital
successor, the PEN E-P5. But, while the new Micro Four Thirds shooter
bears more than a passing resemblance to the original PEN F, its retro
good looks house modern features including a 16 megapixel Live MOS
sensor, 5-axis image stabilization and built-in WiFi capabilities. Read More
Electrostimulation: It doesn't sound
like the most relaxing thing in the world, but a French company is
hoping to change this impression. The VEINOPLUS Sport is one of the
latest devices to use this method for providing post-workout muscle
recovery. It's designed to provide all the benefits of an active
recovery without the negatives. Read More
NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn and
Chris Cassidy are preparing for a six hour spacewalk to fix the latest
ammonia coolant leak on the International Space Station. Read More
Over the past few years, we’ve seen iPhone attachments that let you do things like prop your phone up, attach a lens, or even use it as a bottle opener.
The problem is, you can generally only put one of those attachments on
your phone at a time. The XiStera, however, combines a whopping eight
functions in a single gadget. Read More
Smartphones, tablets and laptops are great when
you're sitting on the couch or running around the city, but they aren't
as great in the wilderness where cellular service disappears and bright
sunlight renders LCD screens near-illegible. The Earl is a tablet
designed to skirt around those shortcomings and keep you connected in
the deepest of backcountry terrain. The "backcountry survival tablet"
navigates you across the land, keeps you in communication with your
crew and lets you know what weather lies ahead. Read More
They may look somewhat bulky and a bit like
someone wandered out of an avant garde theater, but a pair of concept
pieces developed by students and the Royal College of Arts in London
allow wearers to fine tune their senses of sight and hearing. Called
“Eidos,” from the Greek for "form," "essence," "type," or "species," the
system uses sensors and computer processing to select sensory input and
alter it for applications in sport, the arts and medicine. Read More
For anyone who ventures deep into the great
outdoors, it's possible that a real life-or-death survival situation
could occur. A new product called the KODIAK is a wristband designed for
people who may be faced with such a situation, as it comes with the
tools needed to fish and start a fire. Read More
If you've ever thought that the rider platform of
an electric scooter is just crying out for a solar panel, you're not
alone. California renewable energy veterans Mike Donnell and Tony
VanMeeteren have spent the last four years working on some
PV-panel-packing, adult-sized, emission-free electric scooters called
SES, and are now moving toward mass production. Read More
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