Science fiction may well become reality with the development of a real life Iron Man
suit that would allow astronauts or extreme thrill seekers to space
dive from up to 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth‘s surface at the very
edge of space, and safely land using thruster boots instead of a
parachute. Hi-tech inventors over at Solar System Express (Sol-X) and
biotech designers Juxtopia LLC (JLLC) are collaborating on this project
with a goal of releasing a production model of such a suit by 2016. The
project will use a commercial space suit to which will be added
augmented reality (AR) goggles, jet packs, power gloves and movement
gyros. Read More
For many people, the word “robot” is likely to conjure up images of metal, mechanical men not unlike Cygan.
But instead of creating robots in our own image, the relatively new
field of “soft robotics” takes inspiration from creatures such as
octopuses, squids, starfish and caterpillars
for soft, flexible robots that could squeeze through small spaces. Such
robots could benefit from a new hydrogel developed at the University of
California, Berkeley that flexes in response to light. Read More
What’s better than as robot bartender
that can pour you a beer? How about a robot waiter that can see you
need a refill and comes over to pour you another one. Hema S. Koppula, a
Cornell graduate student in computer science, and Ashutosh Saxena, an
assistant professor of computer science are working at Cornell’s
Personal Robotics Lab on just such a robot. Using a PR-2 robot, they've programmed it to not only carry out everyday tasks, but to anticipate human behavior and adjust its actions. Read More
You would think that a little sub built almost 50
years ago would be sitting in a museum somewhere, but Deep Submergence
Vehicle (DSV) Alvin, which launched in 1964, is still going strong.
Owned by the US Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI), Alvin has completed a major US$41 million redesign
and refit. The revamped submersible set sail on Saturday aboard its
mothership R/V Atlantis for certification testing off the coast of
Oregon and California. Read More
If you want to haul gear on your bicycle, but you don’t want to buy a whole dedicated cargo bike,
then you might like Israeli industrial designer Ofir Yadan’s S-cargo
carrier. The two-wheeled device replaces a conventional bike’s front
wheel, temporarily converting it into a stuff-haulin’ tricycle. Read More
Is that label maker of yours just not turning
your crank anymore? Well, if you’re willing to do a little more fiddling
around, you might be interested in Tag on That. Billed as “the world's
first affordable Specialty Printer Machine,” the portable device
utilizes the same principles as industrial-scale machines, to print
words or images on just about any object that you can fit inside of it.
Read More
Lumigrids is a simple, clever and above all
useful concept that aims to improve the safety of cycling at night. The
device is an LED projector that fits on the handlebars of your bicycle,
projecting a square grid onto the ground before you. By looking at the
changes and abnormalities in the grid, the cyclist is able to easily
pick out potholes and other obstacles, helping them to avoid potential
crashes and falls. Read More
The FUMM offers a very interesting take on the
basic goal of propping a smartphone in a useful position. Instead of
being restricted to only certain devices or angles, its flexible arms
and nano suction pads offer a level of versatility not often seen in
similar products. Read More
Researchers at Stanford University have developed
a small "aircraft" that resembles a flying fish which can jump and
glide over a greater distance than an equivalent jumping robot. Using a
carbon fiber spring to take off, the jumpglider has a pivoting wing that
stays out of the way during ascent, but which locks into place to glide
farther on the way down. Read More
Since making the switch to Intel
processors, Macs have been able to run Windows perfectly well. In fact,
the MacBook Pro may just be about the best Windows PC on the market ...
at least according to Soluto, purveyors of a cloud-based PC management
service. Read More
When someone has a heart attack, it’s crucial
that they receive treatment as soon as possible. Emergency medical
technicians, however, are limited in how detailed of an on-the-spot
diagnosis they can make of a patient’s condition. This means that actual
treatment often has to wait until they get the patient to a hospital.
That could be changing, however, as a scientist with GE Global Research
is now looking into the use of “microbubbles” as a mobile means of
imaging the heart and possibly even treating it. Read More
Since making the switch to Intel
processors, Macs have been able to run Windows perfectly well. In fact,
the MacBook Pro may just be about the best Windows PC on the market ...
at least according to Soluto, purveyors of a cloud-based PC management
service. Read More
Carrying a full-size humidifier with you when you
travel isn’t particularly convenient. If you still don’t want to dry
out while sleeping in your hotel room, however, there is an option.
South Korea’s Amazing Grace is now offering a tiny humidifier that can
be placed in whatever bottle of water is close at hand. Read More
Today's cellphone market is highly focused on
smartphones. Android and iPhone have a stranglehold on the market, but
does that mean there isn't room for something different? Micro-Phone
certainly hopes so, as it is looking to bring its tiny GSM phone to
market with the help of crowd-funding service Indiegogo. Instead of
focusing on apps and other advanced features, Micro-Phone is focused on
making a device that is small enough to carry anywhere, while still
offering useful features such a locator. Read More
Not too long after its launch in 2005, you'd be
hard-pushed to visit any friends without being challenged to a round or
two of Guitar Hero.
Interest in learning to play a real guitar also blossomed, but many
found the transition from guitar-shaped controller to actual instrument a
difficult one, and perfectly good axes have been gathering dust ever
since. Irish company Sonic Ladder has now released some interesting
software called Riffstation that gives you the opportunity to break out
your much-neglected guitar and play along with your favorite bands to
onscreen prompts. Gizmag takes a look at what this software has to
offer. Read More
When it comes to setting the damping on a
mountain bike’s suspension fork, a bit of a compromise is involved. Set
it too hard, and the wheel will bounce off of every little bump in the
trail – set it too soft, however, and the shock will bottom out on the
big hits. It is possible to manually adjust the damping on the
fly, but that’s not necessarily something that all riders want to bother
doing. Magura is now offering a solution, in the form of its
self-adjusting eLECT electronic suspension system. Read More
R-Kaid-42 is a bespoke two-player wooden retro
console produced by Swedish design company Love Hultén. Built around a
custom PC rig, the unit assembles into an unassuming piece of furniture
for easy storage, and boasts over 20,000 playable titles taken from the
so-called "golden age" of arcade gaming in the 1980s and 90s. Read More
The ledge I'm standing on has a strange
existential duality. In the physical realm, it's a thin strip of red,
millimeters above the floor of a pristine white booth in a basement in
Shoreditch, London where the 3D tinkerers and technologists (of
everything from 3D film to 3D printing) at Inition keep their toys. In
the digital realm, which, thanks to the Oculus Rift wrapped around my
head, my senses have decided is the more real, the ledge is the only
thing between me and a 300-foot plunge ... Read More
There are plenty of interesting ways to deck out
your bicycle, but MonkeyLectric may have come up with the ultimate way
to make it stand out on the road. The company's new Monkey Light Pro is a
set of LED bars that attach to a bicycle wheel and can be programmed to
play colorful animations. Read More
For one hundred years Aston Martin has provided
car collectors and James Bond with an assortment of performance
automobiles. Now as part of its centenary celebrations, the bespoke
company from the UK has gone ahead and increased its Vantage’s advantage
with the new 565 hp V12 Vantage S. Read More
Concerned that youngsters are
showing a preference for video games at the expense of traditional toys,
Lego has reportedly
teamed up with the enemy, partnering with Sony to develop prototype
Lego bricks embedded with electronics that they’ve dubbed “Toy Alive.”
Read More
Located in Dutchess County, NY, the
LM Guest House is a 2,000 sq ft country retreat that boast a continuous
glass facade that was prefabricated off-site and erected in just two
days. The compact home also features a series of sustainable measures,
including the use of geothermal and solar power, solar shades and
recycled rainwater for irrigation. In an email interview, Gizmag spoke
to senior architect Katherine Chia from the New York based firm, Desai
Chia Architecture, to find out more about the design. Read More
The Pocket Tripod is an interesting
new stand and tripod for iPhone users. Instead of being a bulky device
that is hard to carry around, this one is able to fold up completely
flat and fit inside of a wallet. Not only can it fold up into a tiny
package, it can articulate into all kinds of positions, so it offers a
lot of flexibility. Read More
While you may think that standard
bandages already serve as sort-of artificial scabs, the fact is that
they mainly just compress and protect the wound – a scab, on the other
hand, actually helps it heal. Now, however, scientists are working on a
wound dressing that promotes healing in the same fashion as a scab. Read More
Many parents like to bring their
baby along while riding a bike, walking, and performing other outdoor
activities. Well, now skateboarders can get in on the action too, with
the help of the Longboard Stroller by Quinny and Studio Peter van Riet.
Read More
Most headphones are concerned with
blocking ambient noise to better accentuate the music being played. With
its new Momentum, X-1 Audio takes the opposite approach, opening the
ear up to ambient noise while still aiming to maintain crisp, clear
audio. The purpose of this sport-specific design is to keep runners,
cyclists and other athletes on busy roads safer and more aware. Read More
At first glance, the Nikon Coolpix A looks like a
typical, if slightly retro, compact camera. But, it actually contains a
large APS-C sensor, the same size found in most DSLRs. It also boasts a
relatively speedy f/2.8 18.5-mm fixed lens, which should enable it to
take photographs rivaling the quality of much bigger cameras. After
getting a brief pre-release hands-on with the camera, we've now had the chance to spend some quality time with it, to see if it lives up to the potential. Read More
Though it's the Korean firm's flagship devices
that tend to grab the headlines, Samsung also makes a fairly compelling
line of mid-low end devices. The latest of these was revealed today in
the form of the Galaxy S4 Mini. Like the S3 Mini before it, the mid-range handset presents a scaled-down version of its big brother, in both size and performance. Read More
The August Smart Lock is a new product by
designer Yves Béhar and technology entrepreneur Jason Johnson, which
updates the humble door lock for the "Internet of Things" era. The
device can be retrofitted to existing deadbolts and employs Bluetooth
Low Energy technology in order to pair with an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5,
and allow access for you and up to 10 of your iPhone-wielding friends.
Read More
If you're plans for a night out on the town
involve the consumption of alcohol, it's probably a good idea to include
strategies for getting home safely when the night is over. The Floome
pocket breathalyzer for smartphones from Italian start-up 2045Tech is
claimed to measure your blood alcohol content (BAC) with the same level
of accuracy as those used by law enforcement. If the system decides that
you're over the limit, there's an option to call a taxi. Read More
Concerned that youngsters are
showing a preference for video games at the expense of traditional toys,
Lego has reportedly
teamed up with the enemy, partnering with Sony to develop prototype
Lego bricks embedded with electronics that they’ve dubbed “Toy Alive.”
Read More
Friendly Gizmag readers, if Part One of our Realtouch review
left you feeling a little squeamish, it's probably best to click your
way right back out of this page, because Part Two takes us into even
murkier waters. In one of the better stretches I can remember in my
working life, I've been using this USB-controlled pleasure machine to
have amazingly realistic long-distance sex with girls on three different
continents. For a first iteration of an entirely new category of sex
toy, this thing is an absolute triumph. Roll up your sleeves and prepare
for a messy read. Read More
It has long been believed that detecting carbon
dioxide was one of the ways that mosquitoes target their human prey. But
the fact that mosquitoes tend to favor certain people over others
indicates that some other odor also plays a part in the attraction.
Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) have
genetically engineered mosquitoes to alter their sense of smell, which
could provide the understanding required to block the pesky pests'
attraction to humans. Read More
Located in Dutchess County, NY, the
LM Guest House is a 2,000 sq ft country retreat that boast a continuous
glass facade that was prefabricated off-site and erected in just two
days. The compact home also features a series of sustainable measures,
including the use of geothermal and solar power, solar shades and
recycled rainwater for irrigation. In an email interview, Gizmag spoke
to senior architect Katherine Chia from the New York based firm, Desai
Chia Architecture, to find out more about the design. Read More
Architecture studio Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP
has designed the “Optical Glass House” in Hiroshima, Japan, that aims to
acoustically protect residents from the main road outside, whilst
providing light and views for the residents within. The delicate glass
blocks belie the structure and a complex casting process is employed to
create the 13 ton (11.7 tonne) facade that shows-off the buildings
tree-filled courtyard and looks like a shimmering waterfall to the
outside world. Read More
It’s tricky business, comparing iPhone and Galaxy
smartphones. Too often the conversation disintegrates into
fingerpointing, one-upmanship, and sermons from the Church of the Holy
Fanboy. But when it comes down to it, we're talking about two great
smartphones. Some people will prefer one, some will prefer the other.
Who cares? The only important question is which is better for you? Let’s do our best to help you answer that, with our in-depth comparison of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Apple iPhone 5. Read More
When Drayson Racing Technologies and Lola Cars introduced the B12 69/EV last year, the electric race car promised to be one of the fastest of its kind. Six months later, it set a record at the Goodwood Hillclimb,
and it's now gunning for an even bigger record. Drayson announced this
week that it plans to make an attempt at an FIA electric land speed
record within a month. It will try to best the 175 mph (282 km/h) mark
that was set back in 1974. Read More
A team of scientists at Nanyang Technological
University (NTU) in Singapore has developed a new image sensor from
graphene that promises to improve the quality of images captured in low
light conditions. In tests, NTU claims it has proved to be 1,000 times
more sensitive to light than existing complementary
metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) or charge-coupled device (CCD) camera
sensors in addition to operating at much lower voltages, consequently
using 10 times less energy. Read More
Not long ago we reviewed Photojojo’s Pocket Spotlight,
a compact LED light source for use with smartphone cameras – or even
with stand-alone cameras, for that matter. While the Spotlight just
provides a single intensity of “white” light, the company’s new Kick is
considerably fancier. It can be remotely-controlled via an iPhone app,
and set to any color under the rainbow. Read More
When things aren’t going well, sometimes the best
thing to do is to break everything down and start from scratch.
Focusing on one thing you’re really good at isn’t a bad idea either.
That’s exactly what HTC did, by refocusing its product line on the
excellent HTC One. But now that it’s off to a good start, what’s next? Well, why not gradually expand into other areas? Like, oh, maybe phablets? Read More
Imagine if there was a voice in your head that
regularly threatened to harm you or your loved ones, or that even
ordered you to do so yourself. Awful as that would be, such auditory
hallucinations are one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia,
with approximately one in four sufferers continuing to experience them
even once taking anti-psychotic drugs. Fortunately, scientists have
recently helped some schizophrenics gain control of their condition, by
turning those voices into interactive avatars. Read More
Working with Minddrive mentors, a group of
at-risk teenagers has restored a beat up 1967 VW Karmann Ghia and
converted it to battery-electric power. The newly-painted and
freshly-buffed vehicle will shortly begin a rather interesting journey
from Kansas City to Washington. The car has been fitted with a device
that monitors social network traffic relating to the project and for
every tweet, like or share registered, battery juice points are
generated. If there's no social buzz, the car doesn't go anywhere. Read More
The Pocket Tripod is an interesting
new stand and tripod for iPhone users. Instead of being a bulky device
that is hard to carry around, this one is able to fold up completely
flat and fit inside of a wallet. Not only can it fold up into a tiny
package, it can articulate into all kinds of positions, so it offers a
lot of flexibility. Read More
While you may think that standard
bandages already serve as sort-of artificial scabs, the fact is that
they mainly just compress and protect the wound – a scab, on the other
hand, actually helps it heal. Now, however, scientists are working on a
wound dressing that promotes healing in the same fashion as a scab. Read More
What happens when you combine a popular first-person shooter like Call of Duty
with toy guns like Nerf? You get the Tek Recon, a new product that
takes what we loved about those blaster guns as a kid and mashes in some
modern twists that can only be delivered with the rise in popularity of
smartphones. It certainly looks like an interesting way for kids (or
adults) to get outside and play with their friends. Read More
If you were planning on snagging a 4th generation iPod touch,
you might now have a better budget model on your plate. Without any
fanfare, Apple quietly axed the older model, and replaced it with a
slightly stripped-down version of the current (5th generation) model.
Read More
Polar, the company responsible for all kinds of connected fitness products,
has just launched a new device called the Stride Sensor. It's designed
to allow runners to keep track of all kinds of key information about
their workout, and it does so without requiring any GPS signal. Read More
HP has unveiled what's described as the company's
first mobile All-in-One PC. Where your usual AIO dies as soon as you
unplug it from the wall outlet, the new ENVY Rove 20 has a built-in 62
Wh battery that allows the Windows 8 multitouch enjoyment to go on
without so much as a blip. Though the detailed specs have yet to be
announced, here's what we have been able to track down. Read More
Many parents like to bring their
baby along while riding a bike, walking, and performing other outdoor
activities. Well, now skateboarders can get in on the action too, with
the help of the Longboard Stroller by Quinny and Studio Peter van Riet.
Read More
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology
have produced a new kind of paper that repels a range of liquids,
including water and oil. The new paper shows significant promise as an
affordable and recyclable packaging material, but it's the paper’s
potential as an inexpensive biomedical diagnostic tool that has really
got the researchers excited. Read More
Luxury watchmaker Urwerk has revealed the latest
project in development at its U-Research Division. Like the company's
past haute horlogerie creations, the EMC will offer exceptional
accuracy and style, but with an unconventional twist. Calling it a
"mechanical smart watch," Urwerk says the EMC will include an electronic
mechanism that verifies its own precision and tells the wearer whether
the timing needs to be adjusted. Read More
Technically, the combustion engine in any hybrid
vehicle is a range extender, but the term commonly refers to
gasoline-fueled generators that are used to charge an electric vehicle’s
battery pack but aren’t used to directly power the wheels. This is the
set up used in “series” or “inline’ hybrids like the Chevy Volt, which differs from parallel hybrids like the Toyota Prius,
where the wheels can be driven by the electric motor or the internal
combustion engine (ICE). Researchers at the German Aerospace Center
(DLR) have developed a new type of range extender that can be powered by
a range of different fuels. Read More
Researchers at the University of Southern
California’s Institute for Creative Sciences (ICT) are developing a
virtual therapist that can identify signs of depression, anxiety, and
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Bringing together machine
learning, natural language processing and computer vision technologies,
the SimSensei project is aimed at helping military personnel and their
families, while reducing the stigma that is often associated with
seeking help. Read More
Most headphones are concerned with
blocking ambient noise to better accentuate the music being played. With
its new Momentum, X-1 Audio takes the opposite approach, opening the
ear up to ambient noise while still aiming to maintain crisp, clear
audio. The purpose of this sport-specific design is to keep runners,
cyclists and other athletes on busy roads safer and more aware. Read More
Despite half a century of rushing about the Solar
System, the Space Age has been a spectator sport for most of humanity.
On Wednesday, at a press conference at the Museum of Flight in Seattle,
Planetary Resources announced its plans to launch a crowdfunded version
of its Arkyd 100
space telescope satellite on Kickstarter that will allow donors to beam
back self-portraits from space and even control the telescope. Read More
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