[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3A_lpEO0t8&hd=1[/youtube]
Kuraray Living and Hokkaido University have been working together to create a soft washable fabric woven with carbon nanotube coated fibers that produces heat when electricity is applied. So when it’s perfected, your electric blanket could get a lot less bulky.
Continue reading… “Heated farbric using carbon nanotube coated fibers”
Baca Architects ‘amphibious’ home
An “amphibious” home has been granted full planning permission and is set to be built on the banks of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire. The residential home designed by Baca Architects is an architectural feat that overcomes the threat of flooding by becoming a “free-floating pontoon” during a flood situation. “In an extreme flood, a 1 in 100 year event, the house can rise over 2.5 meters [8.2 feet],” Richard Coutts, director of Baca Architects. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Amphibious house floats above floods”
Dr James Dunbar checks a patient’s heart with the revolutionary vest.
Scientists have developed a new cardiac vest that can diagnose heart attacks as soon as they happen has been developed by scientists, a feat they say could lead to new ways of treating heart patients.
Continue reading… “Vest that alerts you of heart attack in minutes”
Power Felt
A Wake Forest University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials team has created a new thermoelectric fabric they call Power Felt. It’s constructed of “tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers,” though the final product looks and feels like fabric, and creates and electrical charge from changes in temperature–like, say, touching it with your hot finger, or sitting on it with your hot butt (hot in this case referring to temperature and thus wholly inoffensive science).
Continue reading… “Power Felt – thermoelectric fabric lets you sit on your phone to power it”
The rise in the use of smartphones and social media by consumers fueled the increase in identity fraud.
In 2011, nearly 12 million Americans were victims of identity theft, an increase of 13 percent over 2010, according to a report released on Wednesday by the research firm Javelin Strategy & Research.
Continue reading… “Rise in identity theft linked to smartphone use”
Google’s new Android-powered glasses
Futuristic Google spectacles that will stream your smartphone from your pocket directly to your eyes will go on sale by year’s end, according to reports from the New York Times.
Continue reading… “Google to sell ‘Terminator’ style smartphone glasses”
Obayashi Corp. is building the Tokyo Sky Tree and plans to build a space elevator by 2050.
Space elevators are one of the promising technologies of the future. Now a Japanese construction firm that specializes in the very tall could make them a reality. By 2050, so still pretty far on that horizon, but it’s a start.
Continue reading… “Japan to have space elevator by 2050”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA&hd=1[/youtube]
The Research Department at Japan’s Ministry of Defense has developed the world’s first spherical flying machine.
Continue reading… “World’s first spherical flying machine developed in Japan”
Braille Touch
Braille Touch, a new app that enables people to type messages on an Android or iOS touch screen without having to look down. The app is designed for people who are visually impaired, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t use it too.
Continue reading… “Braille Touch app could revolutionize texting”
David and Candice Knox spend about half the year together with a few weeks apart followed by a few working apart.
Candice and David Knox have been married for 13 years. They met at a seminar 20 years ago in Vancouver, British Columbia. The couple jokes they had to go through customs just to date. Little did they know four years ago when the economy tanked and Candice Knox got a job offer in Palm Desert, that the anniversary luggage he gave her 10 years ago would come in handy.
Continue reading… “Commuter marriages on the rise”
It’s no longer uncommon for people to work until 70.
In 1972, when Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine.
Continue reading… “Baby boomers in America enter new era of ‘work til you drop’”
The Orbit
New technology can make life’s most tedious tasks more interesting. Take laundry, for example. The Orbit is a waterless washing machine, which levitates your clothes and scrub them clean with dry ice in a matter of minutes.
Continue reading… “Orbit – waterless washing machine uses levitation and dry ice to clean laundry”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.