Conceptual Gadgets
In our ongoing quest for the coolest gadget we come across a fair few gadgets that are just concepts. Some we hope will become reality whilst others we hope stay on the drawing board, in this section of CG we report on both.
Tobii’s Lenovo Laptop – Keep your Eye on it!
I am a firm believer in the less is more theory, but I probably dont mean it like you think. I believe that the less I HAVE to do the MORE time I have to do all the other stuff I want… I really enjoy gadgets that do things for me. I am waiting in breathless anticipation for the washing machine that will iron my clothes and a self cleaning refrigerator. Yup, my favorite gadgets are those that help me do less, and now that Tobii Technology has teamed up with Lenovo and come up with a laptop that doesnt require you to use a mouse – or a keyboard, well, lets just say the future looks bright.
To use the Lenovo laptop you just need your eyes. The process seems relatively user friendly, you simply sit in front of it and after a thirty second calibration test that consists primarily of following several dots around with your eyes you’re done, and the laptop will go through the paces that your peepers suggest, look at an icon,voila! information about that icon. If you are reading, the text scrolls as needed. It’s an unencumbered way to interact with your laptop, and one that could be ready for consumer applications in as little as 2 or 3 years.
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Even Time is Better…In 3D
KickStarter continues to gain momentum as more and more pledges get fledgling products launched. One of the latest hits takes a creative and modern approach to telling time. The Manifold Clock is on the verge of production. Its unique design is not only artistic, but accurate. It will start a conversation or keep you on time for work.
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Fujitsu Lifebook 2013 merges all the gizmos
If there is something about concepts that are worth exploring, it is because the mind is freed to enjoy total creativity without having to be bogged down by “details” such as the limitations of physics laws and the like. A concept that works can normally be found in science fiction movies and series, such as Star Wars and Star Trek, never mind that sound travels through space for us audience. The Fujitsu Lifebook 2013 is another idea that has taken on a totally different dimension, where it will function as a meeting point for many of today’s individual gizmos that we carry around with us.
Most of us already own a digital camera, have a smartphone, a tablet, and a notebook – what happens when you need to travel? Packing for all of that gear alone does take up a fair bit of space and luggage weight quota, so Prashant Chandra decided to get creative and envision a future that merges all of these into a single package, using all the shared computing power simultaneously to boot.
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Razer Project Fiona PC Gaming Tablet
Razer takes on the portable gaming market yet again with another device that is sure to generate a whole lot of interest this CES – their Project Fiona PC Gaming Tablet. This particular concept is still in the prototype stage, so you will find many of the specifications being under wraps, just like how the Razer Switchblade was treated at last year’s edition of CES as well. Project Fiona will wave away casual gamers, considering how it packs enough firepower to handle the most popular PC games of today without missing a beat, sporting an intuitive control setup that we will look at in greater detail after the jump.
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Hovering car racetrack apparently not as real as we want it to be
When you hit the jump, you are going to see a viral video that looks quite neat. Not to be too much of a spoiler, but it features tiny hovering cars on a miniature racetrack.
It certainly looks real, and if you wanted to create a hovering vehicle, then the liquid nitrogen tanks that you see inserted in these miniature racers would be the way to go. Liquid nitrogen is both superconductive and magnetically repellant, so it can make objects float if you manipulate it right. The problem is that there is way too much evidence supporting that the video is a fake.
Continue reading » Hovering car racetrack apparently not as real as we want it to be
In some alternate universe, this is the iPhone
Now that we have just started the new year, people tend to get nostalgic over the last year. While I was thinking about the passing of Steve Jobs, I started thinking about what might have been.
Sure, Jobs gave us the iPhone, but this Apple prototype dates a quarter-century before its unveiling. In 1983, a designer named Hartmut Esslinger created this landline phone with a touchscreen.
Esslinger’s creation was never put into production, but he did design several other products that were a hit for Apple. After the jump, I am going to describe an alternate history where the landline iPhone became the ultimate gadget.
Continue reading » In some alternate universe, this is the iPhone
MIT student develops self-balancing unicycle with the Bullet
You remember all that hype that came with the Segway about a decade ago? I believe that it was supposed to revolutionize pedestrian travel in the big city, but the city streets are still full of walkers with only the occasional Segway.
An MIT student named Stephan Boyer created this homemade self-balancing unicycle which he calls the “Bullet”. Yes, if you have problems balancing on a unicycle, the Bullet could be your solution.
Of course, the Bullet cannot steer, at least at this present time. It does go backwards and forwards, though. You can watch a video of this after the jump if you want to see it in motion, just a little warning though, there is no sound.
Continue reading » MIT student develops self-balancing unicycle with the Bullet
Human Birdwings getting closer to their dream of a semi human powered flying device
The Human Birdwings is an interesting project for building a semi human powered flying device, and it is making some good progress.
Using the accelerometers of a HTC Wildfire S and a Nintendo Wiimote, Jarnos Smeets, a mechanical engineer from the Netherlands, has created some wireless wings.
Smeets has studied how birds actually fly, and created a machine to best replicate the flapping of their wings. There is a video of it after the jump if you want to see his progress.
Continue reading » Human Birdwings getting closer to their dream of a semi human powered flying device
