Join Move accessory attaches the iPod/iPhone to your clothes
A while ago, we covered a certain iPod nano accessory known as the iStick. Its purpose was to lock your iPod nano on your clothes, so you could listen to your tunes while jogging or whatever kinetic activity you were doing.
That was back when iPod nanos were thin and slender, but now there is a new accessory for the iPhone or iPod simply known as the Move. It is designed to hold your iDevice to your clothes without velcro, straps, clips, or magnets of any type.
It works by putting half of the Move behind your clothes, and attach the other half to your iDevice. These two pieces can then snap together to form a secure place for your iPod or iPhone to travel along with you on your attire.
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Dave Forbes’ LED-TV Lab coat set for Burning Man
I’ve seen attempts at mixing displays with clothing before, and they usually end up being a stiff screen on loose clothing.
Yeah, it isn’t really a good fit, but Dave Forbes has created a 160 x 120 LED video coat that somehow plays video all over. You can watch a video of it after the jump, and you can see how it works.
You can see that it is pretty DIY, and is essentially circuit boards and LED flex boards hot glued to a lab coat material. The video feed stems from the iPod, and you can see that there are knobs for adjusting the color, brightness, and even a way of toggling it to black and white.
Dave Forbes plans on wearing this coat at Burning Man in the summer. He will have to change the batteries every hour or so, though.
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Apple and WiTricity team together for wireless charging
I have to thank my wife for sending me the Source for this story. She sent the Source link via IM with a message that read “Have you heard about this wireless extension cord?”
All I could think about was: “How can you have a wireless extension cord?” That’s like an oxymoron. This is the magic of WiTricity, based on wireless charging research from MIT.
The idea is pretty simple: a circuit converts standard AC electricity to a high frequency and feeds it to a WiTricity source, like the flat rectangles that you see on the left in the photo. A WiTricity device tuned into the same frequency as the source can get power through “resonant magnetic coupling”. As you might have imagined, it is good for lighting, television, computer, not to mention video and audio components without plugging anything into the wall. I got a video from the WiTricity Showcase after the jump.
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Project Mimicry uses sand to create a virtual landscape
I would imagine that one of the hardest things in real life to imitate in 3D computer graphics is stone.
Some of you might remember the canyons in Cars that looked like fins on an Impala, but what if you really want a more realistic virtual canyon landscape? With Project Mimicry, all you need is sand and a special sensor.
This is one of those technologies that you have to see to believe, which is why included a video after the jump so you can see it in action. You can see the top-down sensor lights that create a most colorful world of sand, and how shaping the sand changes its digital counterpart.
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NASA has a way of turning urine into a sports drink
Remember the opening shot of Waterworld where Kevin Costner pees into a cup, puts it through a machine, and drinks it? Would it greatly surprise you to know that NASA is working on giving this technology to the astronauts?
The process uses forward osmosis, which is “the natural diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane from a solution of a lower concentration to a solution with a higher concentration”. This allows you to urinate into a bag, and then use the syringe attached to the receptacle bag to turn your liquid waste into a sugary electrolyte drink.
That’s right, you can turn your pee into Gatorade! I’m not certain whether I want to be the first to drink this. Some of you are probably finding this entire subject matter to be “gross”, and I think that is a perfectly human response. I would imagine that someone has to go against their natural instincts and actually try to drink the filtered urine.
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The Aid cane helps track of vital signs
I think it is a huge stereotype that senior citizens don’t deal well with technology, but this tech cane can do some very helpful things.
The cane, which is known as the Aid, has a built-in navigator that provides the user directions to a certain location. So if you get lost, this cane will point the way home.
Additional features include monitors for the user’s pulse, blood pressure, as well as body temperature. These important numbers are displayed on the LCD screen on the cane’s clasp. It even has a button for sending out an SOS in case of emergency.
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The future of eyeglasses
In the future, our glasses could help us see better in a different way. I’m talking about using some electronic technology on the glasses.
Some Oxford researchers are working on some frames that have cameras mounted on the edges, along with lenses studded with lights. This allows the users with macular degeneration to see a simplified version of their surroundings. They also have some other interesting features like face detection, tracking software, position detectors, and depth sensors.
If you think this is cool, I found another concept set of eyeglasses that can do yet even more. This one is under development by Rosalind Picard of MIT and Rana el Kaliouby at the University of Cambridge, and their glasses have a tiny camera as well. The difference is that this camera has a tiny computer that will “read” someone’s expressions. It will even tell if someone is responding negatively or positively by a flash of a green or red light that only the user can see.
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Change your bike’s gears, with your mind
Lately, I have been teaching my son to ride a bicycle, and it reminds me of my days of awkward bike riding. I remember that I had a hard time with changing the gears, but what if I could do it with my mind?
Parlee Cycles is apparently working on a concept bicycle made of carbon fiber that does just that. It is part of Toyota Prius Projects, and it uses a helmet equipped with neurotransmitters to read a wearer’s brainwaves. A wireless transmitter attached to the bike’s seat post gets the signal, and changes the gear.
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