Curvilinear Camera
The researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign have became highly successful in devising a eyeball camera. The curvilinear camera is a synthesis between human eye and 3.5x single-lens reflex (SLR) zoom lens – Higher zoom will be integrated in the future. Continue reading… “Curvilinear Camera – Much Like the Human Eye but with a Zoom”
When kids say fun and games, most parents are not happy. They are not happy that the learning progression is not in process during such activities, and their stand seems much justified. But that is, except in the case of two indoor games. One is the famous board game- Scrabble. Scrabble has been highly popular for decades now. Its bundles of fun for the children and the parents are happy as it helps build a voracious vocabulary. Yet another is the Rubik’s Cube. In the 1980s, people who could solve the Rubik’s Cube were considered geniuses and the faster they could do it, the better. Now what if these two were clubbed together ?
Continue reading… “Scrabble + Rubik’s Cube = The Scruble Cube”
DAVID GARCIA STUDIO is an experimental architectural platform and has put forth some pretty awesome and thought provoking creations including this circular walking book case. From the site:
The Archive Series are investigations on space and books, aiming to blur the borders between art and design. Clearly non functional, they aim to appeal to the senses, creating a narrative which more often than not, reaches the absurd…
Like many ideas, waterproof notepads seem like a good one initially. If you’re a driver, and you’ve ever gotten in an accident in the rain, you know how tricky it is, to jot down your co-accidentee’s information on a wet car trunk, with a wet pen, on a wet piece of paper, with water trickling down your nose.
This is not the reason however, for which Mark Knudsen came up with a waterproof notepad. What M.Knudsen claims, is that he kept having these fabulous ideas, while in the shower…
Continue reading… “Aquanotes For The Shower Thinker”
Not many of us realize this, but refrigerators are household appliances that play a much more important role than we give them credit for. Imagine if refrigerators would not have been invented; how we would preserve groceries and dairy products. The rectangular shaped, multi compartment refrigerator allows us the comfort of storing our food supplies for weeks on end in pristine condition. Ever since its inception, refrigerators have maintained a traditional shape and operated on the same mechanics. Innovations have largely been restricted to features such as auto-defrost. The University of Central Lancashire and online supermarket Ocado have come up with a concept for a new age refrigerator that marks a step ahead in refrigerator technology…
Continue reading… “A Self-Cleaning Fridge Concept”
Researchers have figured out that data can be stored in bacteria, and that a single gram of bacteria can store more information than 450 2-terabyte hard drives! This storing and encrypting information in living organisms is called biostorage, and students at Hong Kong’s Chinese University are using E. coli to test the possibilities of how we store information in the future.
Continue reading… “E. Coli Bacteria Could Become Our Next Computer Hard Drives”
Armoured vehicles will use a new technology known as “e-camouflage” which deploys a form “electronic ink” to render a vehicle “invisible”.
Highly sophisticated electronic sensors attached to the tank’s hull will project images of the surrounding environment back onto the outside of the vehicle enabling it to merge into the landscape and evade attack.
Continue reading… “Invisible Tanks Could Be On Battlefield Within Five Years”
The Kitara Synth-Guitar
“I’m a big fan of electronica,” Zarimis said, “but the band format is missing. It’s usually people sitting at desks or tweaking knobs behind the scenes.”
Unlike keytars, which remain keyboards, or MIDI guitars, which are “too temperamental,” his Kitara keeps the frets but replaces the strings with an 8-inch multi-touch display. Inside is a polyphonic synthesizer, with 100 default sounds and 6 effect, each of which can be assigned to different ‘strings.’
(video after jump…)
Continue reading… “Kitara Synth-Guitar”
The Sphero, from Orbotix
The Sphero, from Orbotix, is one of the toy hits of CES 2011. Like the AR Drone, the toy hit of CES 2010, you control the Sphero with your smartphone (a remote control app is available for iOS and Android). Your phone connects to the Sphero via Bluetooth, and to control the ball you can use a virtual joystick or the accelerometer (simply tilt your phone). In our brief hands on, the Sphero proved a little tough to control, but we’ll chalk some of that up to the dying battery.
Continue reading… “Sphero Lets You Play Ball with Your Phone”
The same company that introduced the postage meter 90 years ago has announced it will launch a free digital mailbox in 2011 that will allow customers to pay multiple bills online without remembering more than one password.
Pitney Bowes’s multi-platform Volly will allow consumers to receive, pay and organize all their bills with bank-like security. In addition to bill-related features like a pay calendar and reminders, customers will also have an option to opt in to catalogs and coupons from the companies of their choice…
Continue reading… “New Digital Mailbox Will Let You Receive, Pay & Archive Multiple Bills”
An object that is invisible to sonar.
In one University of Illinois lab, invisibility is a matter of now you hear it, now you don’t. Led by mechanical science and engineering professor Nicholas Fang, Illinois researchers have demonstrated an acoustic cloak, a technology that renders underwater objects invisible to sonar and other ultrasound waves.
“We are not talking about science fiction. We are talking about controlling sound waves by bending and twisting them in a designer space,” said Fang, who also is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. “This is certainly not some trick Harry Potter is playing with.”
While materials that can wrap sound around an object rather than reflecting or absorbing it have been theoretically possible for a few years, realization of the concept has been a challenge. In a paper accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters, Fang’s team describe their working prototype, capable of hiding an object from a broad range of sound waves…
Continue reading… “Newly Developed Cloak Hides Underwater Objects from Sonar”
We all own many different cool gadgets and items that are important to us either for the utility they provide or perhaps because of an intimate or personal reason. Whatever the reason is, we really hate it when someone comes and touches our personal belongings and worst yet…steals them.
In order to avoid such mishaps and unfortunate events, we have gathered here a great collection of different Anti Theft Gadgets and Bizarre Designs that are meant to help individuals make their devices and belongings less attractive, appealing or desired to a normal bystander.
The following aren’t guaranteed to deter thieves or work colleagues from getting at your gadgets but are meant as additional things to make them think a second time before getting at your personal stuff…
Continue reading… “5 Clever Anti-Theft Gadgets”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.