Join Writhing Umbilical Cord iPhone Charger
Umbilical cord and iPhone are two things I couldn’t possibly see landing in the same sentence, much less a gadget article’s title. However, I should have known that the iPhone is capable of bridging all sorts of weird gaps. The media artist Mio I-zawa has managed to create the strangest iPhone accessory I’ve come across. Instead of plugging your iPhone into the usual cord, just imagine hooking it up to a squirming umbilical cord.
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Your next Wi-Fi signal provider: Flying robots
I’m sure that many of you have had the problem of losing a Wi-Fi signal for your laptop. Instead of using the access point at your local library or coffee shop, have you considered flying robots?
This is SMAVNET (Swarming Micro Air Vehicle Network), a project from Swiss-based lab EPFL, and I have included a video of their progress after the jump so you can see how it works. The robots themselves are these boomerang shaped miniature planes that have to be thrown to be launched. The user then monitors their formation, and they will form an ad hoc network.
I am assuming that they work by having one robot bouncing a stable Wi-Fi signal to the other, until you finally have five bars of signal quality.
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Levytator takes escalators to a whole new level
I’m sure you have noticed that using an escalator can traditionally take you up or down, and in a straight line.
The Levytator (pronounced like levitate-or) is designed to take escalators to all sorts of dimensions. As you can see in this picture, these escalators are very curved.
There is a video of this technology after the jump so you can see it demonstrated. You can see that an escalator can be put along a structure, and how one of these can go up, down, around curves, and even make flat moving sidewalks.
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Alarm clock literally starts the ball rolling
We have reported on many cool alarm clocks here, and many of them involve making the user do some activity in order for them to get up in the morning.
For example, the Flying Alarm Clock, which has a propeller device on it that you are going to have to catch and place back on the clock itself, should you want any Snooze time.
This one is merely a concept, at least for now. I don’t believe it has a name just yet, but for the sake of comparison, let us call it the rolling alarm clock. After all, the concept is similar to the Flying Alarm Clock, but instead of a propeller flying toy, it starts a ball rolling.
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Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2 exoskeleton
I thought I would celebrate the release of Iron Man 2 on DVD and Blu-ray today by reporting on a real-life iron man exoskeleton.
This is the XOS 2 from Raytheon Sarcos, and it is a lot more bulky than the armor from Mr. Tony Stark. It actually reminds me of the power loader suit that Ripley wore in Aliens.
The suit is able to boost the user’s strength. You can see here that the wearer is punching through several layers of wood like a karate master. It is also designed to make a 170 pound weight feel like ten pounds.
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LED Escape Light shows you exactly where to go, emphasis on exactly
Emergency lights are quite necessary in case of a fire or power outage, but it isn’t always clear which way you should run.
This is a concept known as the LED Escape light, and it allows the victim of an emergency to actually see where to run. It has a “portable LED electric torch which will feature an integrated projector to project a map so that you can find your way out accurately”.
I have an idea of how to improve on this. What if there is a way to project images of the green silhouettes that you see in this picture. Maybe they can be moving across the walls with some working projector lights.
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R2-D2 Vacuum Cleaner
They say that a picture speaks a thousand words, and what you see on the right hand side is just about right. We’re looking at what looks like everybody’s favorite astromech droid at first glance, the venerable R2-D2. Well, upon closer inspection, you might notice that Artoo (as he is affectionately called) has a vacuum cleaner attachment connected – what does it all mean? The answer is pretty simple as it is obvious, Agent Spiff’s imagination has come up with a vacuum cleaner which has been modified so thoroughly on the outside, it looks as though the real R2-D2 is standing there right in front of you. Of course, this is but a Photoshop job, but imagine the possibilities of an Electrolux Artoo. After all, if you have a R2-D2 Droid Edition for a smartphone, why not a vacuum?
Source: Technabob
Windoro robot can do Windows
Sure, many people have Roombas and other related products for cleaning up their floors, but very few robot products do windows.
In fact, this Windoro product could be the first of its type that I have ever seen. It was developed by South Korea’s Pohang Institute of Intelligent Robotics (PIRO), and it was shown off at IFA Berlin 2010.
Windoro uses both water, detergent, and rotating pads to clean the glass on both sides of the window. Apparently, these sides of the robot window washer are held together by the neodymium magnets.
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