Miscellaneous Gadgets

When I was a kid, I had to do a self-portrait in the third grade. It wasn’t a pretty good likeness of me. If I wanted to do a self-portrait now, I’m certain it would be as good.

Perhaps this is why Jen Hui Liao invented a self-portrait machine. This device is designed to take a snapshot of the user, and then it will draw a picture of you.

You might wonder how this works. I’m not certain either, but if you thought that this device comes with some robot arm to draw for you, you’re half right. There is a robot arm, but the user actually handcuffs his or her wrist to it. You might want to check out the YouTube video after the jump to see it in action.

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For those of you who haven’t checked your calendars lately, this Saturday is the Fourth of July, that patriotic American holiday celebrated with fireworks. I’m sure most people in the U.S.A. know where they are going to spend their evenings that day, but Sega Toys Japan has figured out a way to put fireworks indoors.

This device is known as the Uchiagehanabi, and I have no idea what that translates to. It can projects the images of fireworks on the wall and the ceiling.

Some of the firework images are 1.5 meters wide, and it they have all the proper sound effects including the booms and dramatic suspense. They also have fifty-five patterns of various sizes and colors, and creative ways of making unique displays. Hopefully, you can make some very spectacular grand finales.

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Swiss Army's 32GB Laser Pointer is ideal for the corporate jungle.

Swiss Army Knives are always the standard in pocket knives. With high quality engineering, they are the desire of every camper and backpacker looking for a tool to use out in the wild. But sometimes, it’s a jungle out there in the workplace, but now the SwissFlash has you covered.

The SwissFlash 16GB Laser Pointer contains all the usual refinements of a Swiss Army Knife - namely the blade, nail file, screwdriver, scissor clippers, et al - but they a 32 gigabyte flash drive and laser pointer. This means that business types can not only bring their presentation on the drive, but use the pointer to provide proper emphasis as well.

Cost is a hefty $145, but how many times can you buy a piece of camping gear and have it deducted as a business expense?

Hat Tip - 7 Gadgets http://www.7gadgets.com/2009/07/01/16gb-swissflashknife/12703

When I first saw the Warn PullzAll, I thought that it was another version of the Rescue Reel. It would appear that the PullzAll doesn’t look like it was made for rappelling down buildings, but it could be used that way. In fact, it could be used for climbing up things.

As it is, the PullzAll can lift or pull 450 kg (1000 pounds) with a variable speed motor. According to the PullzAll web site, this is the ideal tool for anyone who needs something heavy moved such as “construction, pipe fitting, iron work, equipment and plant maintenance, farm and ranch use, auto shops, garages, machine shops, home improvement, hunting, camping, and more”.

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Just when I thought I was finished covering space tourism for the day, along comes a device that can simulate space tourism. I guess the $200,000 price for a ticket is just too much for some people, like me.

The Soyuz Chair is able to take the experience of a Soyuz rocket, and put it in the user’s living room. When the user sits in the chair, it can recline and I would imagine there would be some shaking and rumbling for blastoff. I believe the headphones are there for added realism.

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Have you ever been on your way to an important appointment, and stopped to smell your breath? Pretty impossible, isn’t it? I suppose you could use that trick where you breathe into your hand and sniff it, but the best you’re probably going to get out of that is the scent of your own hand.

This is why someone invented the Date Breath Checker, a technological way for you to check your own breath. All you need to do is turn it on, blow into it, and it gives you the readout.

The frowny face means that you shouldn’t have asked for the garlic and onions on the submarine sandwhich that you had for lunch, and the smiley face…well, you get the idea.

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Harnessing the power of the wind to travel is nothing new. America was discovered thanks to it, goods travelled all over the world for eons as a result of it, there’s even a super bowl of sailing in the world’s oldest athletic competition (the America’s Cup) which couldn’t happen as a result of the wind. And cargo ships are even considering using giant kites to travel on the wind as a green way to cut costs and save the environment while sailing the seas. So it’s nothing new. But toss in the ability to travel from the road straight into the ocean on the wind, and suddenly the “coolness factor” asserts itself. Especially when you can see an opening scene of a new Bond movie in it’s future.

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Projectors are getting pretty popular these days amongst businesses and consumers, and we are still not to the point where all of us can have a projector on our cellular phone for our video footage.

I suppose this is why the iJector was invented. All the user needs to do is stick their iPhone or iPod on the dock, and you can project them at a great brightness at up to 50 inch diagonal. The resolution has a low resolution at about 557 x 234.

It weighs in at about 120 grams and has dimensions of 195×145x96mm. The brightness level is at 20 lumens, and the lamp can stand about 30,000 hours.

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