Its Electronica

The Microvision Laser Pocket Projector is one interesting laser projector, offering up to 100″ of screen real estate no matter where you are. It uses a vibrating mirror to bounce pulses of red, green and blue laser light in order to paint a WVGA (848 x 480 resolution) image that measures 100″ diagonally in a dark room, but should you be in a bright room instead, the screen size must be reduced to a mere 12″ due to technical issues. This nifty little presentation tool measures 0.26″ x 0.79″ x 1.57″ and is roughly the size of standard cell phone cameras. Microvision has hopes to include it in cell phones sometime down the road in addition to other portable devices. I wonder how much one of these will cost, let alone the impact of the device’s battery life.

A cursory glance of the latest Fords, Chevys, Toyotas and cars available from any of the other big automakers in any given year reveals little in the way of truly new or revolutionary features. A redesigned cupholder here, a different color backlight on the instrument panel there, but when you think about it, there is really not a whole lot of difference in the the basic four wheels, four doors, gas-powered car that you can buy today from those our parents, or even our grandparents drove.

So I am hoping the Big Three pay attention to this little number coming out soon from RinSpeed–the sQuba. If an electric two-seater that can drive right into the water and dive to a depth of 10 meters sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, it should. Rinspeed boss and designer Frank M. Rinderknecht is a Bond fan, and was inspired 3 decades ago by the submersible Lotus Esprit designed by Q branch in The Spy Who Loved Me, and the sQuba is the result. The primary difference, of course, is that Bond’s Lotus was just movie SFX, but the sQuba actually works.

That said, there are a couple differences–dare I say compromises–that had to be made to bring the submersible car off the big screen and onto the road and/or water. Unlike Bond’s Lotus, the sQuba dives underwater with the top down, meaning you get wet. Bring your own dive mask, but the sQuba does include integrated air tanks and regulators behind the headrest. Also, you better not be in too much of a hurry to get anywhere underwater, as your top speed is about 3 km/hour. That also rules out diving anywhere you might have to deal with even the slightest current. On the surface, you can manage 6 km/hr.

So, if you’re the kind of person who happens to drive by large bodies of water that are clear enough to enjoy the underwater view, don’t have any appreciable current, and you often feel like impressing the attractive Soviet spy in the passenger seat, and you’re both in the habit of wearing wetsuits when you go out for a drive, then this is the car for you.

OK, so I’ll admit, it’s not the most practical ride in the world. But what can I look forward to in my next new car from Detroit? A sunroof with an integrated cupholder? Downloadable customized “your door is ajar” messages for 99 cents each? Please, people–it IS the future. At least Rinspeed is trying.

Recycling is good. When you separate glass, paper and cans you know they’re going to a happy place, but what of the organic waste; the pizza crusts and the caviar that has passed its use-by date? Apartment dwellers can dump these slops into the Nature Mill, a kitchen-cupboard composter.

The upper chamber does the work: waste decomposes and the heat generated by microbes sterilizes the compost. A motor then tips the now nitrogen rich mixture into the lower bin, ready to be added to the window box. A carbon filter, good for up to five years, eliminates odor.

The standard model is available now for $300, and the pro model, shipping in March for $400, adds stainless steel construction, a lockable box and a “vacation mode” which kicks the Mill into action periodically, instead of leaving it running continuously. There’s also a Pet-Friendly” version, with these quite excellent instructions:

Ideal for up to 2 large dogs, or 4 cats, rabbits, hamsters, snakes, ferrets, or other small animals.

Not recommended for horses or other large animals.

Product page [Nature Mill via Oh Gizmo!]

Who doesn’t want to dry themselves with a nice, warm towel? The Private Resort Towel Warming Shelf does the trick, although you have to cough up $119.95 for one of these in your bathroom.

This compact heated shelf keeps towels comfortably warm, dry, and within easy reach while saving valuable floor space. Heat from the rails rises up through stacked towels and accumulates for maximum thermal retention and dispersion throughout the whole towel, so bath linens are pleasant to the touch whenever you use them. The efficient 65 watt dry heating element draws as little power as a standard light bulb so it can be left on continuously and can’t leak like oil-filled or hydronic towel warmers. The rack can also be used to dry damp hats and gloves in chilly winter weather, or to aid drying of bathing suits or delicate articles of clothing. The shelf also has a non-heated bar for hanging towels or other bath items. Commercial grade steel tubing stands up to years of use and has a polished chrome finish. The illuminated power switch tells you at a glance that the shelf is operating.

Well, there’s not much use of this in spring, but at least grab this before the next winter arrives.

A brilliant group of people have developed an online game designed to help the environment and fight poverty in the real world by turning game rewards into real-life help for social and environmental causes: Glupod - the first Video Game to deliver direct emotional fulfillment to the player.

The game, called Glupod, will debut worldwide on May 30. Glupod players will be able to provide food for a starving child in Africa, protection for a whale species going extinct or offset carbon emissions and help fight global warming. In a nutshell, Glupod gives gamers a variety of real-world causes to choose from and enables them to convert their in-game winnings into actual help for that cause.

For more detail please watch the below video and visit official Glupod website. Enjoy the game!

Meet Weemie, the first glupod angel, Katrina and Melina, and see how the three of them can make this world a better place.

Link

Posted Feb 25th 2008 9:58AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: cellphones

Why is Nokia always trying to outdo everyone with its fancy-schmancy concepts and designs? Why can’t they just get in line and keep it simple? We may never know the answer to those questions, but what we do know is that the company is presenting a new concept device called the Morph that would be right at home… in the year 3000. The unit is included in the MoMA’s “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition catalog, and boasts the ability to stretch and flex to almost any shape a user could think of. The nanotechnology-based device would deliver transparent electronics, self-cleaning surfaces, and the malleability to transform into any number of configurations. Of course, the actual technology required to put this together is years or even decades away, though Nokia expects to see some of these innovations making their way into high-end products within seven years. See the device doing its thing in some photos after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Sony has just announced the Cybershot DSC-H50, a 9.1-megapixel camera with 15x Carl Zeiss optical zoom, a UV hard-coated scratch resistant 3-inch LCD and comes with an IR remote.

The DSC-H50 also features Super SteadyShot, NightShot, D-Range Optimizer, smile recognition, face detection and has an advanced sports shooting mode that will offer shutter speeds up to 1/4000 of a second with continuous auto-focusing.

The DSC-H50 will be available beginning in May and is expected to retail for $400.

Via [I4U News]

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Retro Sweet Hamper

You can have this for ?29.99

Sanrio is creating a massively multi-player online role-playing game (mmorpg) called Hello Kitty Online Game.

Applications for the BETA are now closed and those of us that applied have been asked to create a video saying why we should be chosen. So, I took a few minutes and filmed a video of myself.

I imagined a game of pure unadulterated cuteness without any violence or anything scary, but apparently, there will be monsters. According to their website:

“This game is not just about fighting monsters - there are many activities for players to choose from. Aside from the monster-filled adventure areas, players can dig for ore in a mine, or range the forests to pick fruit from trees. Farming allows you to plant, grow and harvest your own crops; be sure to take good care of your crops so you will have a good harvest, and if you have a healthy farm you can even show it off to your online friends! You can use many other skills like cooking, tailoring, making furniture, and building houses. Commerce with other players will allow you to make a living and - perhaps - even get rich!”

I’m alright with monster-filled adventure areas as long as I can avoid them and just harvest my crops and say hi to Badtz-Maru every day.

“Not only do you have the ability to own a house, but you can arrange it with whatever furniture you want. You can also own pets. When certain monsters are defeated, they may drop “pet cards”, that once used will give the player that particular monster as a pet. As a special treat for players, some Sanrio characters may also become your pets. It is certainly fun to watch them follow you around, but they will also be helpful to the players in various ways, such as for item storage.”

I like the idea of having a trail of pets following me everywhere. Maybe it might be worth it to fight a few monsters if they end up my pets in the end.

Here are some screen shots:

Via: little. yellow. different. – Hello Kitty gets an MMORPG

Remember the Six Million Dollar Man TV series many years ago? That dude was fitted with all sorts of bionic stuff, and he really had it going on with bionic woman. I wonder whether they share oil instead of spit while engaged in some hot tongue action, but I digress. Six million bucks doesn’t really amount up to much these days no thanks to inflation and a rapidly falling dollar - and many people are already decked out in jewelry and other accessories that cost way more than that amount. Still, it would be nice to see humans being fitted with bionic body parts which feel just like the real thing, offering superior athletic performance minus the side effect of steroids. This bionic arm is currently in development at the John Hopkins University courtesy of a contract offered by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

As we know, such research will be very costly - which is why DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program has received additional funding apart from the initial amount required. These extra funds will target the most advanced medical and rehabilitative technologies for military personnel injured in the line of duty. So far, two prototypes were unveiled in Phase 1 where the fully integrated prosthetic arm could be controlled naturally while offering sensory feedback and allowing for eight degrees of freedom. This is already a quantum leap as the level of control provided is beyond that of the current state of the art for prosthetic limbs which have less than half the amount of degrees of freedom of movement. Each Proto 1 limb system also comes with a virtual environment used for patient training, clinical configuration, and to record limb movements and control signals during clinical investigations.

As for the second prototype which was unveiled in August last year, it was a vast improvement, featuring 25 individual joints which come close to emulating the natural speed and range of motion of the human limb. I can’t wait for future iterations to be used in real life.

Source: Gizmag