Ford Figo
Ford Motor Co. (F) Friday began producing its first small car in India and its engines as the U.S. auto maker tries to challenge Suzuki Motor Corp. (7269.TO) and Hyundai Motor Co. (007380.SE) in this growing market for automobiles.
 

 
One important factor that can explain Avatar’s success at the box office is certainly the 3D experience viewers can have when they walk into the right movie theater. But what about watching Avatar in “4D”? In Korea, you can.

Acrylic microcapsules are filled with a paraffin wax that can absorb heat from buildings.

Building materials that absorb heat during the day and release it at night, eliminating the need for air-conditioning in some climates, will soon be on the market in the United States. The North Carolina company National Gypsum is testing drywall sheets–the plaster [...]

Bodywork could one day double as a car’s battery
Parts of a car’s bodywork could one day double up as its battery, according to the scientists behind a new €3.4 million project announced today.
Researchers from Imperial College London, UK, and their European partners, including Volvo Car Corporation, are developing a prototype material which can store and [...]

If you’re stealing a car these days, there’s a good chance you’re not bothering to actually pick the locks, but if you are, your job is about to get a little easier. A device called the Electronic Key Impressioner is inserted into a car door and scans the position of the tumblers inside. ..

My entire life, the ketchup packet has remained a constant. Its saw-tooth edge and slightly bulbous form, enclosing not nearly enough ketchup, is something that, like a grand oak of food package design, you expected never to change. Well, my friends, Heinz has taken the extraordinary step of replacing a product everyone has been satisfied [...]

Straight out of China comes “The Machismo!” – billed as “the world’s hottest cigarette lighter mobile phone.” Does that mean there’s more than one? Like, are there other, lesser, not-as-hot cell phones with built-in cigarette lighters? Nothing would surprise me after seeing this.
According to the product description on Chinavasion.com…

iPad wall
A Melbourne architectural firm, ClarkeHopkinsClarke, has created a mockup design of an ‘iPad wall’, a wall fitted out with hundreds of iPads.
 

The SiO2 coating on a filament of a microfiber. (The fissure was induced in order present an image which shows the characteristics of the coating.)
Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is [...]

SoundBite hearing aid
Single sided deafness affects around 200 out of every million people the world over. The loss of stereo hearing can prove dangerous when crossing the street, or other mobile environments. Sonitus Medical has developed a new device, SoundBite, that uses the natural conduction of teeth and bone to transmit sound to the inner [...]

Honda’s solar hydrogen station
Honda began operation of a next generation solar hydrogen station prototype at the Los Angeles Center of Honda R&D America. Designed as a single, integrated unit to fit in the user’s garage, Honda’s next generation Solar Hydrogen Station reduces the size of the system, while producing enough hydrogen (0.5kg) via an 8-hour [...]

A micrograph shows the surface of a light-activated catalyst that disinfects water even in the dark.
Getting access to clean drinking water is an ongoing problem for people in developing countries. And even cities that have good water-treatment systems are looking for better ways to deliver safer, cleaner water. Now an international research team has developed [...]

AirMouse
It’s no secret… Studies have shown that excessive mouse usage can cause repetitive stress injuries. Unfortunately for most of us, “excessive” can mean anything more than a few hours a day. Fortunately, however, there are alternative styles of mice out there designed to be easier on the hands and arms. One of the more interesting [...]

Knife and Fork Lifts
A knife and fork that weigh 1½ pounds each, the better to make you eat more slowly? Seriously?
This is quite serious, according to the Knife and Fork Lift’s inventor, Tom Madden. “Everybody approaches it as a joke,” he said, “but when you think about it, it does require you to eat [...]

Elastic water
Think Silly Putty, and you’ll probably have a very good idea what the brains at Japan’s Tokyo University have created. The new material, called Elastic Water, retains its Flubber-like consistency by mixing a few grams of clay and organic matter to H20, essentially binding the whole into a jelly-like putty.

Puff, puff, Puffin and away!!!

NASA is developing an aerial vehicle that will probably come as close to the personal jet-pack we were looking forward to.  The “Puffin” features Vertical Takeoff and Landing, an electric engine, and a face-melting top speed of 300 miles per hour.  They are already fine tuning its performance values for military use:
The rather [...]

Here’s how it works. Air is pumped into the columns and beams that support the structure, which are made of heavy material like that found in inflatable lifeboats. Air is also pumped into walls and roofs made of two layers of nylon about 18 inches apart when inflated. The air gives them stiffness and insulating [...]

Potechi Hand
Chomping chips at the comp again? Crumbs are the least of your worries, the oily residue that coats the keys can cause you to, er, slip up while typing up your work.  (Video and pics)
 

Electro-pulse cannon stops cars in their tracks
Today’s cars are so full of computerized electronics, one serious electromagnetic pulse could stop any car built after the mid-’70s in an instant. Canadian company Eureka Aerospace might be able to do that with its High-Powered Electromagnetic System (HPEMS). It’s a suitcase-sized electromagnetic pulse (EMP) cannon that immediately disables [...]

Mandometer
Dieters are used to measuring and even weighing their portions, but a new portable, computer-linked, electronic plate scale takes food intake monitoring to a whole new level.
 

Dow’s Powerhouse Solar Shingles
Dow Chemical is moving full speed ahead to develop roof shingles embedded with photovoltaic cells. To facilitate the move, the U.S. Department of Energy has backed Dow’s efforts with a $17.8 million tax credit that will help the company launch an initial market test of the product later this year.
 

I want a secret fort too!

The “Daily Shelter” by artist Ingrid Brandth is a dining-room table that converts to a secret fort: “At first glance it looks like an ordinary table. But for the one who knows its secret, it can be transformed into a shelter where one can hide from scary sounds, ghosts or [...]

Frooting amazing!

With the environment and sustainability firmly in mind the Dell Froot concept saves the planet courtesy two projectors: One for the virtual keyboard, and another for the monitor.Designed by Pauline Carlos as part of a sustainability contest sponsored by Dell, the Froot also uses a colorful case that’s constructed out of a biodegradable starch-based [...]

Your ordinary log cabin is laid out with lengthwise logs stacked to make its outer walls. Piet Hein Eek, charged with building a cozy recording studio for friend and musician Hans Liberg, did not make any ordinary log cabin.  (Pics)
 

HyrdoWell Village
Haiti is looking for help with their water supply, and this may be it. Providing water in remote and austere environments is a logistical nightmare.  In emergencies, water systems take too long to setup.  Bulk water is expensive and difficult to deliver.  Surface water is almost always heavily contaminated, resulting in death [...]