The idea of underground generators for making electricity has been thought up by 2 students named James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk. The idea works by using small dynamos under the floor which when walked on the movement is converted to electricity. As can be expected, there isnt a huge amount of energy created by doing this, but just 1 step can power a 60 watt light bulb for a second. Mix this with thousands of people walking and you could generate a nice amount of energy that would save other sources.
No word yet on if this will go any where, but I do like the idea and by putting something like this in a busy city where there is lots of movement could help shave off a few % of the electricity needed to be generated from a power station.
Now they just need to put it in the roads too so that busy roads can also generate power.
In Car Breathalyzer will not allow the car to start if intoxicated
Nissan have created an in car breathalyzer which prevents the car from being started if the person driving is over the limit. The sensor is required to be used before the car starts and will not start until a person under the limit is tested. This is a nice step forwards and helps those driving know if they should drive, and prevents them if they shouldnt. Of course it could be bypassed by having someone else use the breathalyzer… but hopefully all those under the limit would be smart enough to say no to a request like that from a drunk person.
Toyota have also been working on a system, but this time it uses sweat sensors on the steering wheel which take blood alcohol reading while driving. Using this information with a mixture of steering patterns and a test on your pupils while driving it could be set to immobilise the car while driving.
These systems should be available over the next couple of years and might one day become standard in cars to help prevent dangerous driving while intoxicated.
The Sykmedia Pro is a 3 Axis gyrostabilised camera mount which allows you to tilt, pan and roll your camera. The unit is built to attach to RC flying planes, zeppelins or helicopters and allows for stable video recording of what is on the ground. As can be seen in the demonstration it seems to work quite well although a little bit of shakiness can be seen on one of the Axis which I believe has been fixed by now. Another video of a similar Skymedia Pro system can be seen after the jump.
With the weather not knowing what it is doing most of the time, it is handy to have one of these ambient umbrellas. On the handle is a ring of LEDs which glow according to the weather. The umbrella picks up the weather reports via a wireless network, GSM I believe, and just a glance at the handle of the umbrella can indicate if you should think about taking it with you for the day. Its not a bad idea, although predicting the weather is still questionable… so I guess they have preventions in place to stop you taking legal action when you get soaked when it told you it would be dry.
Radio Controlled Shark for the bath or swimming pool
This RC shark looks quite cool. It comes from Hammacher Schlemmer and is 2 feet long and has a range of 40 feet. It can go down under the water to 9 feet deep. The remote control is also waterproof allowing you to swim with the 2 foot long shark. The controller can make the shark move left, right, up, down, forwards and even backwards. The battery for the shark lasts around 15 minutes per charge. Two sharks can be used at the same time to freak out those in the pool by the use of 2 radio frequencies. You will need to specify which frequency you want when purchasing.
It looks like good fun and would be quite entertaining if you could sneak it in to a local swimming pool. Product Page Via: Gadgettastic
DataWind PocketSurfer 2 – Worlds Fastest Handheld Internet Device?
The PocketSurfer 2 is produced by DataWind and measures 152×75x15mm and weighs just 174 grams. Full internet access is available on the large 640 x 240 colour VGA screen. Pages will fully load in 7 to 9 seconds. As well as having a nice screen, fast speeds and being quite small, the PocketSurfer2 has a full QWERTY keyboard along with bluetooth connectivity. Battery life will keep the device going for 5 hours. The price of the device will be $379 and should be available today on Amazon.
As can be seen in the picture above, the iPhone Bluetooth Headset has been unboxed. It also looks quite cool too. On the iPhones screen you will see the charging level of both the iPhone and the bluetooth headset which is quite a handy feature. Also there is a charging cable for when traveling which uses a MagSafe connector. Apple are starting to stock the headsets around the US in their stores and they are selling for $129 with the charging base. Thats about 4 times what I would expect to pay for a bluetooth headset.
Project a large image or movie on to any surface from your mobile
Tiny projectors such as the PicoP Projector will start appearing in Motorola mobile phones. Microvision signed a deal with Motorola which will now see integration of tiny projectors in to their mobile phones. The projector is named the PicoP and it is a miniature laser projector which is capable of WVGA resolution running at 854 x 480 pixels. Dont go expecting cinema quality screens, but do remember this technology fits in to your pocket and can display a screen a lot larger then your mobile phone screen which will make playing games and watching movies on your phone more enjoyable.
I am unsure yet when the projectors and moto phones will be integrated, but considering that Microvision already have a working model I expect it to not be too far away.
Thieves will have no chance with the violent steering wheel
A guy from Ohio has created a secure steering wheel which when touched it violently spins around making the car impossible to drive away. I am guessing it could also break your wrist depending on how powerful the motor that controls it is. With it being custom built there is no information if any of the car companies would use or want something like this in their cars.
Buffalo have created a nice 56GB solid state drive. It measures just 57×89x14mm which is quite small. This is a great step forwards for solid state media although at this capacity it does come at a price. It will set you back $828 which is a tad higher then I would want to spend, but no doubt prices will drop as capacity increases further.
When I got my first rice cooker last year I thought it was cool. It still gets used several times a week. Sanyo decided that the regular rice cooker was boring and decided to go and make a Gold version. It is actually built out of die-cast aluminium. The price tag is a tad higher then the $60 mine cost. This one weighs in at $1074. Heck, I like rice, but I wouldnt fork out over a grand for the privilege of making it easier.
The rice cooker is called the ECJ-XP10 and is nicknamed the Takumi Jyundou Odoridaki or in English Maestros Pure Cooker Dancing and Boiling. Thats quite a mouth full I think.
USB Flash Drives come in many shapes and sizes these days. The latest one I came across today was the Hamburger version which has a 2GB storage capacity and can transfer data at 8MBps. It supports USB 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and 2.0, so however old your PC is you should be ok. The drive has at least 10 years of data retention and it can be written to 1 million times. I think that will suffice as in 10 years 2GB will be laughed at just like my PSION 128K flash disk 10 years ago. It is named Freshly Baked and looks quite cool.
The freshly baked (not really) drive will cost you $59.99 from Vavolo.
Trimble have introduced the Nomad which is a rugged PDA with an 806 MHz Processor. The Nomad has more protection then your average PDA which allows it to go under water for 30 minutes with out getting damaged. Also it can experience drops (extreme drops), vibrations and temperature changes.
As well as having all that protection, there is a fair bit crammed inside this casing. It runs Windows Mobile 6 which can be run constantly for 15 hours on its battery. 1GB of flash memory can also be included. Connectivity wise the Nomad has Bluetooth 2.0, wifi running on 802.11b/g. Also GPS is included and also a digital camera. The screen is a 3.5 inch VGA which has an LED backlight and a transreflective screen. The specs look great and is definately worth looking in to should you be out looking for a rugged PDA. Prices range from between $1699 – $2499.
Back at the Paris motor show of 2006 a flying car was on display. As the car is unveiled it starts to float in the air and circle around the audience. No doubt you will guess how this is done, but if you are feeling a little slow today then after the jump is the explanation as given on Top Gear.
Philips have created the drag and draw which is demonstrated above. It is a device which uses laser and light to project an image on to a wall. To get the image to appear you mix up colours in the colour bucket on the floor. Once you have your desired colour you paint on to the wall. Also, by pretending to cast a spell on the wall the image will be put in to a background and animated bringing it to life.
