New Kind Of Egg Tells You When It’s Done July 31, 2006
By David Ponce
You know that mankind has reached either a new height of sophistication, or a new low of stupidity when it feels the need to manufacture food that tells it when it’s cooked. In this particular case, experts at the British Egg Information Service have developed an egg stamped with a special thermochromic logo that becomes visible when the egg is ready. All you need to decide is whether you want your eggs soft, medium or hard-boiled.
The eggs are slated to hit the supermarket shelves this fall, though likely only in Britain.
Of course, it remains to be seen how well this works, and how much agreement can be reached within the egg aficionado community.
[Smart Egg Article] VIA [Digg]
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo!
$10 Hand-Held Braille Writer
By Andrew Liszewski
A group of four mechanical engineering students at Johns Hopkins University have come up with a cheap hand-held braille writer as a result of a class project that challenged them to create such an instrument for under $50. Computer-based and even typewriter-style braille writers are typically far more expensive and far less portable than what these students were able to create.
The hand-held braille writer is completely mechanical and the students estimate the device will cost about $10 each if mass-produced. It uses 6 buttons that can be pressed to produce any of the embossed patterns that make up a braille letter, number or punctuation mark. The device is used with a traditional braille slate that has a series of rectangular cells that blind persons typically use a stylus with to punch up to 6 indentations one at a time. The student’s hand-held device can punch up to 6 marks at once which remarkably speeds up the braille writing process.
[$10 Hand-Held Braille Writer] VIA [medGadget]
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo!
Princeton UHF Video Transmitter
By Andrew Liszewski
Tiny FM transmitters used to deliver music from a portable audio device to your car’s stereo system have existed for many years now and a quick walk through the iPod accessory section of any Apple store will show they’re more popular then ever.
However this is the first transmitter I’ve seen capable of broadcasting both audio and video to a television set. From Princeton Japan comes the PCK-UAV video transmitter that has a basic set of RCA hook-ups and will broadcast the video and audio signal on the UHF band. I don’t think the device allows you to set a specific channel so it seems you’ll need to be able to tune the TV set to the one the PCK-UAV uses. And while I can’t imagine you’ll be enjoying amazing picture quality, this could work out as a handy solution in certain situations.
The Princeton PCK-UAV will be available in Japan in the next month or so for about $70. Does anyone know if these devices can be legally used in North America?
VIA [New Launches]
Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth
By Andrew Liszewski
Large companies having secret research labs is by no means a new thing but these days they seem more open to showing the public what they’ve been working on even if the technology is far from ready for the average consumer. No doubt we can thank Google Labs for this trend.
Microsoft’s own Live Labs has just released a look inside a new piece of software they’ve been cooking up called Photosynth. The idea of the program is pretty simple. Looking at regular 2D photos is boring so why not assemble a collection of photos of a particular place, person or object into a kind of 3D interactive version? This won’t really work for photographers who just grab a single far away photo of something but if you’re the type who loves to take plenty of detail shots this could prove interesting.
The software basically analyzes a group of images and looks for similar distinctive features across photos. When a particular feature is found in multiple images the 3D positional data can be calculated and the photos can be arranged in an interactive manner like in the above screenshots allowing you to pan around and zoom in or out on certain areas. A more practical use of this technology as suggested by Microsoft would be to grab a photo of a landmark with your cameraphone and then via image analysis similar to what Photosynth uses the name of the place as well as more info could be instantly found online.
Photosynth is not currently available for download but a public beta version is apparently in the works.
[Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth] VIA [Ars Technica]
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo!
Watur - The Waterfall Door
By Andrew Liszewski
So I’m not really sure what’s more unusual here, the design of this door or the fact that it’s actually available for sale.
Designed by Daniel Harper the Watur is an actual functioning door but instead of being built of glass or wood it’s made of constantly falling water. There is an actual frame to the whole thing which supports the catch basin at the bottom, the sprinklers at the top and of course the door handle. From what I can see the best part of the Watur will come at the end of a hard day when you get home from work, slam the door and then need to spend 10 minutes mopping up the floor.
If you think the Watur door is the perfect accessory for your pad you can order one for $2000. Custom sizing is also available but comes with an additional cost.
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo!
Did you vote? July 28, 2006
The clock has started and the Mobility Today Podcast was nominated for the Best Mobile Podcast! This is great news and we appreciate everyone\’s time and support to nominate us. Now we need your support for the home stretch! Voting has started and will go thru to August 11th..
We would greatly appreciate your continued support in making the Mobility Today Podcast the winner of the best Mobile Podcast award!
Show your support and vote now
Click here to advertise on thousands of blogs including mine
Slice-o-rama - Vegetable Table Saw July 27, 2006
By Andrew Liszewski
So right now it’s unfortunately more of a functioning concept than anything but designer Oliver Beckert’s Slice-o-rama is a standard wooden cutting board that also includes a built-in circular saw with adjustable metal guides.
The saw blade is the same kind used for removing casts so it won’t cut fingers but it will cut harder materials which I guess includes vegetables. While it’s not available for sale anywhere the Slice-o-rama concept does seem like a pretty simple do-it-yourself project for those who find using a knife too time consuming.
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo!
A Laptop Stool
By David Ponce
This is a special beechwood stool that was apparently designed by Konstantin Grcic explicitly for laptop users. We’re not too sure how appealing it might be to anyone, as it doesn’t have any backrest, and requires you to, well, saddle up. We can’t imagine it scores too many brownie points in the comfort department.
Nevertheless, there you have it. A stool for laptop users.
[Laptop Stool] VIA [Gizmologia]
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo!
The LogiNoki, A Mouse With An LCD Screen
By David Ponce
If you don’t see the sheer brilliance of adding an LCD screen to a mouse, perhaps you should be elsewhere, reading about cute puppies instead. See, gamer/hacker extraordinaire Jani ‘Japala’ Pönkkö has managed to fit the screen of a Nokia 6610 into the back of a Logitech G5 laser mouse, and called it The LogiNoki. It requires the addition of three wires and is only capable of displaying 1 frame per second, but that’s enough for pictures and general stats. The additional wires are connected to a parallel port which feeds the info you choose to display.
For a blow by blow of how he did it, follow the linkola.
[The LogiNoki] VIA [TechEBlog]
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo!
Sony Wireless RF Speakers
By Andrew Liszewski
Here’s a simple set of compact speakers from Sony that can also function wirelessly allowing you to listen to your music anywhere within a 150 foot range of the base transmitter. The speakers are powered by a rechargeable Ni-MH battery (I have no idea how long the battery is rated for) while the base unit plugs in with an included adapter.
The speaker uses a 900MHz RF wireless system and has a manual tuning knob for optimal reception. I’m a bit surprised because given the speaker is made by Sony I would have expected them to cook up some completely new and proprietary wireless protocol that was incompatible with anything other than Sony products, but thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case.
The Sony Wireless RF Speakers are available directly from the Sony Style online store for $99.99.
[Sony Wireless RF Speakers] VIA [The Red Ferret Journal]
Original Article syndicated via RSS from OhGizmo! | older posts »