The goal is to help visually impaired people move around more efficiently without physical aids.
head-up display. Two cameras mounted to a pair of glasses generate a three-dimensional image of a person’s environment and their place in it, displaying the information on a handheld Braille device.
Continue reading… “3D video glasses create maps for blind people”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IROoXFz5dj0[/youtube]
Hair salon Super Hair Seo in Nishinomiya, Japan is playing lucky host to Panasonic’s Head Care Robot, which is undergoing its first tests alongside hairdressers. The shampoo robot ‘offers a degree of comfort that users cannot experience with human hands.’
Continue reading… “Panasonic testing shampoo robot in Japan”
IBM has built a battery that needs oxygen to live.
In an effort to build a battery capable of powering a car for 500 miles, IBM has designed a battery that produces power by taking in oxygen and then recharges by expelling oxygen. Such a battery can be significantly smaller and lighter than traditional lithium ion batteries, providing a much longer life per square inch since it is driven by the outside air. (Video)
Continue reading… “IBM’s oxygen powered battery”
Snoozebox
We have seen tough, stackable, easy-to-transport steel shipping containers used for everything from a traveling restaurant to a mobile classroom to an off-grid house. But now , the British company Snoozebox has come up with yet another clever use for them – a modular, scalable portable hotel system made up of multiple tiered containers, that can be set up anywhere within 48 hours. (Video and pics)
Continue reading… “Snoozebox – portable hotel made from shipping containers”
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Ten years ago, offshoring manufacturing jobs to China looked like the perfect way to cut costs. But now companies that manufacture everything from computers to car parts are returning to the United States in growing numbers. The country needs to invest in more vocational and technical training programs so millions of jobless factory workers are equipped with the skills to benefit from this trend, say labor economists.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbmkGb5EH1c&hd=1[/youtube]
If you are worried about the safety rating of your child’s car seat maybe you should swaddle your child in a protective Kevlar cocoon. The Carkoon is a new child seat developed by British company Cool Technologies that wraps your child in protective Kevlar and a fireproof Nomex airbag upon impact. It even calls emergency services for you.
Continue reading… “Carkoon – car seat that envelops your child in a Kevlar cocoon upon impact”
Keyboard Flip-Flops
The Thailand shoe company, Kito, has designed the Keyboard Flip-Flops which quite literally put computer keyboards on your feet. Of course the keyboards don’t actually work, but they’re realistic enough to give onlookers a reason to take a second glance. Will you potentially look really stupid to the fashion forward? Yes, quite possibly. But for a price of just $1.20 a pair, a few weird looks is worth having the most hacker-friendly feet in your neighborhood. (Video)
Continue reading… “Keyboard Flip-Flops”
Futurist Thomas Frey: All the way back in March of 2004, working in his laboratory at the University of Southern California in San Diego, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, was working with a new process he had invented called Contour Crafting to construct the world’s first 3D printed wall.
His goal was to use the technology for rapid home construction as a way to rebuild after natural disasters, like the devastating earthquakes that had recently occurred in his home country of Iran.
While we have still not seen our first “printed home” just yet, that will be coming very soon. Perhaps within a year. Commercial buildings will soon follow.
For an industry firmly entrenched in working with nails and screws, the prospects of replacing saws and hammers with giant printing machines seems frightening. But getting beyond this hesitancy lies the biggest construction boom in all history.
Here’s why I think this will happen.
Continue reading… “Printable Houses and the Massive Wave of Opportunity it will bring to Our Future”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc7N7554M2o[/youtube]
Controversial genomics scientist and entrepreneur Craig Venter said last week at a conference on the future of energy at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. that biofuels made from algae that will be able to scale, and compete with oil, will have to be synthesized and will not come from nature.Venter said in an interview, “It’s pretty obvious that there’s nothing in the natural world to make the levels that are needed,” and he pointed to algae oil yield volumes needing approximately 20,000 gallons per acre equivalent of algae.
Continue reading… “Algae fuel that can replace oil will not come from nature”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2fV7BGl9M4[/youtube]
Terrafugia, makers of Transition — the world’s first flying car — has released video of a production-type prototype flying over Plattsburgh, N.Y. today. (Video)
Continue reading… “World’s first flying car goes for test flight”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOoFEKiK8A[/youtube]
These one-wheeled, self-balancing personal transport solutions, the fat wheeled eniCycle, the stylish and graceful U3 from Honda or the slightly scary prospect of the UnoMoto, have all shared more in common. They’ve all had somewhere for the user to sit. Inventist’s Solowheel is a little different – you ride this electric unicycle standing upright, like a Segway or skateboard. It has a useful carry handle and fold-away foot platforms, is gyro-stabilized and the Li-ion batteries offer a range of about 12 miles between charges. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Solowheel – self-balancing electric unicycle”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EgVHdTuE10[/youtube]
ET3, a licensing organization, holds a patent to Evacuated Tube Technology or ETT and say that with their tubes, you will eventually be able to get you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours and from New York to London in less than an hour.
Continue reading… “Evacuated Tube Technology – rewriting the rules of high speed travel”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.