Category: ideas

Skateboarding Shreding


No cutting. No camera magic. Just pure skateboarding…
Can somebody develop a body suit that would give us more protection, but allow for these kinds of unrestricted movements?

Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Cost

circuit

Georgia Tech Develops Inkjet-Based Circuits at Fraction of Time and Cost
Researchers from Georgia Tech, the University of Tokyo and Microsoft Research have developed a novel method to rapidly and cheaply make electrical circuits by printing them with commodity inkjet printers and off-the-shelf materials. For about $300 in equipment costs, anyone can produce working electrical circuits in the 60 seconds it takes to print them.

Tactile 3D Touchscreen

Disney Research shows off a process it calls “rendering 3D tactile features on touch surfaces.” For the project, the researchers used an electrovibration-based display and a new algorithm developed in-house to allow the human hand to feel the textures of objects as presented on the screen.

See also: Technostalgia: 20 Misty Memories of Personal Computing

The algorithm maps the frictional forces between the screen and the user’s finger to the surface contours of the virtual 3D image presented on the touchscreen. This dynamic allows the system to adjust to various virtual surface sensations on the fly, rather than offering canned sensations as some tactile touchscreen feedback experiments have demonstrated in the past.

This tactile touch system works on everything from map topographies, animals and any number of 3D-rendered objects.

Smartphone controlled Sphero 2.0

Sphero
Available for $129 from Amazon.ca, the second generation of the company’s game offers subtantial improvements over the first Sphero. It’s faster and more nimble; the dual LED setup can create thousands of light combinations; its Bluetooth sensor is more accurate, its motor quieter and its battery longer-lasting. More importantly, Orbotix has released dozens of self-contained games, many using augmented reality, to add some visual fantasy to what could otherwise be misconstrued as a remote-controlled Hot Wheel car without the stripes and logos. Controllable via Android and iOS (it’s also compatible with iPod touch), and easily paired over Bluetooth.

Charging tips for laptops…

Laptop
Keeping Your Laptop Plugged in All the Time Will Kill Its Battery Faster. So put “the 40 to 80 percent battery-status workflow into practice.” “The ideal would be that the laptop would only charge 80 percent,” Buchmann says, “and if you had to travel, you could push a button before you travel to charge it to 100 percent.” A quick DIY solution is to measure how long it takes to go from 80 percent to 40 percent then set a timer. Do the same thing as it charges from 40 percent to 80 percent. If it saves you money and keeps your battery healthy, it’s worth it.

Iron Adjusts to all Fabrics Automatically

smartiron

Siemens has introduced a new steam iron station to the market that uses an automatic program to ensure optimal results – regardless of the fabric involved. When the new station – the SL 45 sensorIntelligence antiShine – is in the i-Temp setting, it combines the temperature with the appropriate amount of steam. As a consequence, any fabric, from delicate to course, is handled properly. Another new feature is the antiShine function that can be selected separately. This function offers special protection for dark and delicate fabrics.