Posts tagged Gadgets
Solar powered screen extends battery life by 20%.
French company SunPartner have developed a 300 micron thick transparent layer able to be added above or below a regular touchscreen which can harvest energy from sunlight.
The low cost panel uses stripes of standard thin-film solar cells alternating with transparent film. It then adds a layer of tiny lenses that spread the image coming from the screen to make the opaque stripes disappear and to concentrate rays coming in from the sun.
The company say the panel is currently being tested with a ‘number of manufacturers’ and they hope licensing deals to follow which will see phones using the technology come to market in 2014.
FDA approved pill turns your body into a password.
Motorola have shown off a pill which enables the user to transmit authentication passwords to a range of devices through their body, including phones, computers, cars or door locks.
The pill is powered by stomach acids, and according to the FDA it would be safe to swallow 30 of the pills every day for the rest of your life, although the pill lasts about two weeks before it “needs to be replaced”.
Crew to dig up unsold Atari stash in desert.
A documentary crew has been given approval to dig up a site where up to 20 full dump trucks worth of Atari 2600 consoles and games were buried in 1983.
The bulk of the site is thought to contain as many as 3.5 million copies of the game E.T., which is often referred to as the “worst game of all time” and one which may have begun the great video game crash - claims which the game’s creator argues against. Atari reportedly paid $22 million for the rights to the make the game in an effort to beat rivals to market, but after giving developers only a month to get it to market it was very poorly received with gamers.
There’s also speculation the site contains other consoles, PC’s, and prototypes of the Atari Mindlink controller.
Flying car hits Kickstarter.
The “B” is a remote control car with rotors embedded within it’s wheels, along with a 720p camera and microSD slot for recording video.
When I first saw this pic I assumed the wheels turn flat to allow it to fly, but actually the rotors are embedded horizontally in the wheels, allowing it to just lift-off while driving along or sitting still.
Check out the video here at the Kickstarter page.
Video: NailDisplay gives you a “see through thumb”.
The NailDisplay is envisaged as being a permanently mounted display on a users thumbnail, giving the wearer a variety of different ways to interact with technology.
In one scenario the display shows the user what’s showing on a touchscreen behind their nail, solving the problem of trying to use a small display like on an iPod Nano, with a large thumbnail blocking the screen.
In other scenarios the display allows the user to see an imaginary interface on the users hand or arm, allowing their body to be effectively used as a touchscreen to control music or other apps via a smartphone. It also allows for swiping and other gestures in mid-air.
Video: ‘PediPower’ energy harvesting shoe.
A team at Rice University has shown off their energy harvesting shoe, designed to take energy normally wasted when the heel of a shoe strikes the ground, instead turning it into useable energy to power medical devices or other low energy gadgets.
The PediPower hits the ground before any other part of the prototype shoe. A lever arm strikes first. It is attached to a gearbox that replaces much of the shoe’s sole and turns the gears a little with each step. The gears drive a motor mounted on the outside of the shoe that generates electricity to send up to the battery.
“It may be worth looking into having both the heel and the ball of the foot produce power, especially if this shoe could be used while running,” Armada said.
The students expect the project to be picked up by another team at Rice in the fall, with the hope they can refine the materials, shrink the size and boost the power output, all of which will get PediPower closer to being a commercial product.
“If we could prove that we could produce some usable power, store it in a battery and discharge that battery on a mobile device or an MP3 player, then we could prove this device works,” Armada said. “Now the next team can come in and make it smaller and lighter without sacrificing power.”
LG showing off 5 inch flexible screen for smartphones.
LG will be showing off their latest flexible and unbreakable 5 inch OLED display at this weeks SID display week in Vancouver.
The plastic display will be shown off alongside other 5 inch and 7 inch HD Oxide TFT panels which have a bezel that’s only 1mm wide, allowing for smartphones and small tablets with virtually no frame or border.
Supermarket terminal lets you choose your own music to shop to.
New Zealand supermarket Pak ‘N Save is installing the touch terminals at all of its 50 locations, allowing customers to que up music from the supermarkets own database to play while shopping. To avoid misuse of the system, once a song has been selected it can’t be replayed for a couple of hours.
Retailers have been accused by psychologists of pumping out high-tempo music to encourage impulse purchases.
But Jules Lloyd, brand director at Pak ‘n Save’s parent company Foodstuffs, said research showed customers were happier shopping when they were listening to their favourite music.
“And we are all about giving our customers the best experience whilst in store.”
Could Dekko be the killer app for Google Glass?
Dekko claims to turn the real world into an operating system, bringing images, information, and animations into the world using augmented reality through Google Glass.
It’s hard to explain exactly, so check out the video!
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