The Muralizer Draws Art on Your Wall Automatically
“You plug it into your computer and load it up with the vector art of your choosing, hang it up on a string on the surface you want to draw on, and let it do its things. If it’s sold as a kit, it’ll be a couple hundred bucks and will require a bit of soldering, but it seems like a great way to add some cheap art to the blank wall of your choice.” 
Gizmodo
Interactive Wallpaper: The Living Wall Project
“Magnetic and conductive paint on the surface of the wallpaper combined with touch sensors, LED’s and Bluetooth technology will allow users to touch decorative elements of the wall to turn on lamps, adjust heating or activate a stereo.” 
PSFK
Micro-vehicle Imitates the Winged Maple Seed
“The new “robo-seed” can fly and hover stably using just its single twisting propeller. The researchers accomplished this by separating the carefully-shaped wing and body components of the device, allowing them to control the wing’s tilt (and the size of the helix-shaped descent) without throwing off the flyer’s balance.” 
Technology Review
The ear alarm to prevent falls
“The Ear Worn Activity Recognition Sensor, or e-AR as it is known, can be used to find out how stable the elderly are on their feet, by measuring the amount the patient sways. Wearers carry out a series of tasks such as walking, sitting and standing so that doctors can assess the patient’s risk of falling and when they are most at risk. This information can then be used to target help, such as extra care and home adjustments, to stop them falling.” 
BBC NEWS
Video gamers to play for ‘real’
“Real Time Race has been developing a system that places players side-by-side with the drivers in real races. The firm’s technology would map the circuit just before the race so the virtual track would match up to the one on TV. The video recording of the track would then be manipulated by the gamer during live coverage. This data would then be streamed to the player’s computer or straight to a television via the internet. “We can put you in your own car, within real TV coverage of a real race, and in real time against the professionals,” said Chris Leigh, the company’s head. ” 
BBC NEWS
ColorJive Helps Visualize Room Colors Before Painting
“Upload a picture of your room—an evenly lit photo works best—and begin applying colors from the available palette. You can use the enormous palette from COLOURLovers to access a nearly infinite color palette, though you may have a little trouble replicating it at your local home improvement store. If that’s the case, you can select from the official palettes of Benjamin Moore and Sherman Williams.” 
Lifehacker
New lease of life for newspapers
“The Newspaperclub team, all of whom have backgrounds working online, are creating a website that will allow people to design and print small runs of newspapers. The newspapers themselves will be printed at existing commercial presses. “This is actual physical stuff which for digital people is really exciting,” says Russell Davies, one of the founders of newspaperclub. The first edition the group printed was a collection of their favourite blog posts, pulled together as a Christmas present for friends. Recently the Cabinet Office asked them to produce an experimental paper covering just one postcode. Other requests have included producing a souvenir paper for a wedding. Newspaperclub is one of a number of new services moving us towards more personalized papers.” 
BBC NEWS
Wrapping Solar Cells around an Optical Fiber
“The advantage of a fiber-optic solar-cell system over a planar one is that light bounces around inside an optical fiber as it travels along its length, providing more opportunities to interact with the solar cell on its inner surface and producing more current. “For a given real estate, the total area of the cell is higher, and increased surface area means improved light harvesting and more energy,” says Max Shtein” 
Technology Review
New spintronics breakthrough paves the way to faster computing
“A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati have achieved control of the spin of electrons traveling on a wire by simply regulating an electrical voltage. This is a major milestone in the brief history of spintronics, the emerging technology that uses the spin of electrons to store and manipulate digital information with much higher speeds and efficiency.” 
Gizmag
I Hope That Someone Gets My Tweet In A Bottle
“Once you fill out and cast away your tweet, it goes into 140inABottle’s system for the next 1 to 90 days. That’s the key; just like a message in a bottle in the sea, the tweet won’t be delivered immediately, but rather at a random date in the next three months when it finds “land” (the tweet stream). But here’s the kicker: Your tweet (which is again, anonymous and being sent from the 140inabottle Twitter account) will be directed at someone completely random. Essentially, they will have “found” your tweet in a bottle and get to read it.” 
TechCrunch
PicTranslator Turns Your iPhone’s Camera into a Language Translator
“You just take a picture of the text you want translated, choose the language you want to translate from, and let PicTranslator work its magic. Once you know the (hopefully correct) translation, you can even ask PicTranslator to help you pronounce the foreign-language version.” 
Lifehacker
Futuristic workspace looks like a dinosaur egg
“Do you like to block the world out completely when you’re working at your desk? Copenhagen-based design team GamFratesi has created a prototype for a sleek, dinosaur egg-like work environment that they call Rewrite.” 
Boing Boing
Ghostwire: Augmented Reality for the Psychic Set
“Using the embedded microphone and camera, Bill Murray wannabes can scan their actual environment for ghosts and then pester them back into the grave by finding objects to appease them.” 
PSFK
Scrapblog’s QuickMix Is A Dead Simple Tool To Make Digital Scrapbooks
“QuickMix users can also tweak their scrapbook using the application’s online design tools, or access Scrapblog’s virtual marketplace to add additional stickers, backgrounds, music, video, and more. Scrapblog monetizes the site via this marketplace, which offers users premium stickers, backgrounds and images to decorate scrapbooks. After a scrapbook is created using QuickMix, the user has the option to print the scrapbook professionally and/or to share it online via Facebook or MySpace” 
TechCrunch
Pavegen: Energy Generating Pavement Hits the Streets
“Every time a rubber Pavegen stone is stepped on it bends, producing kinetic energy that is either stored within lithium polymer batteries or distributed to nearby lights, information displays, and much more. Just five slabs spread over a lively sidewalk has the ability to generate enough energy to illuminate a bus stop throughout the night.” 
Inhabitat
Cartogrammar: Revealing the Colors of our Landscape
“Andy Woodruff created a set of geographic heatmaps that represent the average colors of images taken on locations surrounding a specific landmark. In other words, the resulting maps reveal the colors that people on the ground should be looking at. Technically, these maps are based on the most recent 2,000 photos uploaded to Flickr that were geotagged within a specified bounding box. These were then averaged by hue.” 
Information Aesthetics
Award-winning ReNu personal solar-powered storage system
“The separate ReNu panel charges in nine hours when placed in direct sunlight or 20 hours in poorer light, and can then be used to power an iPod or iPhone dock or charger, or an LED lamp. The panel gives around eight hours of playback time, two full iPhone charges, or four hours of light, and does away with users having to expose their iPods or iPhones to direct sunlight while the charger does its work.” 
Gizmag
Facebook to launch memorial profiles of deceased users
“Facebook is to give people the option to “memorialise” the profile pages of friends and relatives who have died. The site invited family members to report when one of its users had died, to enable it to remove sensitive information such as updates and contacts. It has received complaints from users who have received reminders about dead friends or relatives through its “suggestions” feature, which is intended to help users find other people they might know. […] The site will require proof of death, in the form of an obituary or newspaper cutting. Once the profile has been transformed into a tribute page, only confirmed friends will be able to find and see it. The site will also prevent anyone from logging into the page, but will let friends and family leave remembrance posts on the message wall.” 
guardian.co.uk
Xerox Develops Ink To Print Circuits On Nearly Anything
“Xerox has developed an ink with which you can print circuits onto plastic, film, fabric, and nearly anything you can think of. From more durable, flexible electronics to nifty, wearable gear to cheap, throw away gadgets, the possible applications will be endless the day Xerox’s “silver bullet” ink hits the market” 
Gizmodo
The Next App Store: Inside Cars
“The store, which is still in the conceptual stages, offers apps that users can download on-the-move to the iDrive in their BMW or via Computer (apps are then transfered to the car system). Apps currently under development include: travel guides, geowikis, games, podcasts, Facebook, Xing, and Twitter. One of the unique features of mobile apps that will also apply to BMW apps is it draws on your location to deliver useful and timely information.” 
PSFK
What’s Next In Augmented Reality?
“At this week’s International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 09) in Orlando, Florida, leading researchers will present systems designed to push the boundaries of AR–allowing users to interact with and manipulate virtual data, share real and virtual space with others, and see real time information around them.” 
Technology Review
Broadband in a backpack
“Wireless communication expert Mike Outmesguine has demonstrated an easy way to produce a “Network Relief Kit” – an ultra-portable method of connecting to the internet from almost any location in the world. The entire kit can be carried in a back-pack, and offers a fast enough connection to watch videos on YouTube. Not without a price, however – data transfer typically costs between $3-$6 (£2-£4) per megabyte, payable to providers of satellite internet connections such as Inmarsat.” 
BBC NEWS
Real-time pricing error alerts for consumers to pounce on
“According to Apnoti’s creators, sudden price drops and fluctuations of up to 90%—usually due to retailer error—are a regular occurrence. To help their German users take advantage of these mistakes, Apnoti launched another purported web first: Preispanne.de (‘price breakdown’), a free email alert service for huge price drops. Users enter their email address and select which product categories they’d like to monitor. When a price drop of over 50% occurs, they will be immediately alerted by email so they can pounce on the super-bargain before the retailer has a chance to correct it” 
Springwise
Verizon lets viewers tweet & update their status on TV
“When we recently reported on Verizon’s sponsorship of the New York Mets’ interactive big screen, we noticed that the telecom giant is also bringing social media to the small screen, with a Twitter widget for its FiOS fiber optic TV service. The widget, freely available to all FiOS subscribers, is displayed on one half of the TV screen, allowing viewers to continue watching their favourite show while following a related feed or discussing it with their followers on Twitter. ” 
Springwise
Tagging the World
“The data tags, called Bokodes, include a tiny light-emitting diode, which directs light from the back of the tag through a printed pattern and then a lens. Rays of light coming from the tags vary in brightness according to your angle of view, allowing you to see different information depending on how you’re looking at the device. Future versions of the technology could be made reflective, so the LED would be unnecessary.” 
Technology Review
joshua kirsch: sympathetic resonance
“the piece uses the keys of a marimba, which is a mallet-percussion instrument of african origin, to create four and a half playable octaves. each of the 56 individual units which make up the instrument contain a different note as well as a yarn-wound mallet affixed to a rotary solenoid with notes triggered when someone plays the touch sensitive aluminum keyboard. the modular sculpture allows for different configurations each time it is installed. the units can stand alone on the ground or be mounted to the wall, and connected to the keyboard with any length of wire.” 
Design Boom
Human Brain Can Control Single Celebrity-Recognizing Neurons
“In each patient, the researchers found about five neurons that fired when the patient looked at an image of a certain person or object. A person might have, for example, a Halle Barry neuron, a Marilyn Monroe neuron, an Eiffel tower neuron, a Michael Jackson neuron and a spider neuron. Once these neurons were identified, the researchers wanted to know if the patients could control them by thinking about that certain person or object. To do this, Cerf and his colleagues hooked up the neuron-sensing electrodes to a computer that then displayed images representative of the person’s thought. When a patient’s Marilyn Monroe neuron became active, the screen would show an image of Marilyn Monroe.” 
Wired.com
The interactive 3D Virtual Autopsy Table
“The victim’s body is placed on an examination table under a CT scanner and/or MRI machine and processed using software developed by the researchers. A CT scan takes only 20 seconds and displays the bones, gases and any foreign objects in the body. A specially-developed technique known as quantative synthetic MRI allows for scanning of dead bodies and provides data on soft tissue. The software converts the layer by layer data sets provided by the scans and builds a 3D virtual visualization of the victim’s body. The visualization allows an examiner to look at a body in microscopic detail. Going inside the body is simply a matter of removing the virtual skin and muscle layers to reveal the skeleton and organs. The examiner can zoom in and out, view cross-sections using a virtual scalpel and control the level of layer transparency with relative ease.” 
Gizmag
rrripple: A Touchscreen-Friendly Hub For Storing And Securely Sharing Your Media
“The site has a slick and fairly unique design: everything is organized on a timeline, with an album for each day represented as a vertical column running up the screen. Each column is filled with thumbnails representing the photos taken on that day, which makes it easy to tell at a glance which album you want to jump to. Once you’ve chosen an album, you can hone in on the type of media you’d like to look at from that day, be it photos, videos, notes, links, or files. You can also use a slider at the bottom of the screen to control the zoom level, much as you would in iPhoto or a similar photo app. To add something to an album, you hit the ‘Post’ button in the upper right hand corner of the screen, which brings up a straightforward menu for uploading content.” 
TechCrunch
FIFA Earth: Visualizing more than 2 Million Daily Soccer Video Games
“The online “data visualizer” consists of 3 distinct live and interactive elements. “Fifa Buzz” shows recent Twitter messages that contain key words or hash-tags such as ‘Goals’, ‘Fussbal’, or ‘Soccer’, or any other number of searches such as players ‘Rooney’, ‘Benzema’, or ‘Xavi’ that relate to FIFA or football. These tweets are geo-located and time-coded and placed in real-time on a 3D football-shaped globe. “Live Competition” lists the total number of games played around the world (38 million and rising), number of goals, wins, losses, and draws, while it can also display the complete match history of every game played to date. Clicking through the “History” link of each team conveys a bar graph of past performance data. In “The World Plays”, countries are ranked accordingly to the play data.” 
information aesthetics
R1 Radio by Studio Il-Gu.Cha
“The R1 analog radio for the visually impaired uses a wheel structure to tune the radio, users can turn it on or off, control volume and choose a station by moving the radio or manually turning the individual wheels.” 
MoCoLoCo
Energy generating Murakami rocking chair powers its own light source
“Designer Rochus Jacob has harnessed all that wasted kinetic energy created by gently rocking in the chair and has used advanced nano-dynamo technology built into the skids of the chair to power a reading lamp above the user’s head. And the lamp shade itself is actually the light source – it’s created from OLEDs. Thankfully, the flat and bendable organic light emitting diodes don’t require much power to deliver enough light to make reading enjoyable.” 
Gizmag
MIT Is About To Revolutionize The Pop-Up Book
“According to the project page, “Popables” utilizes flexible, paper-based electronics to create “an interactive pop-up book that sparkles, sings, and moves.”" 
Gizmodo
GPS-enabled puzzle box opens only at Île-de-Bréhat, France
“Designed and built as a wedding gift for an old friend moving to France, the box incorporates an Arduino with a custom shield. A prominent button on the lid, when pressed, returns a distance, in kilometers, on the LCD display (if a GPS signal can be acquired), and counts button-presses up to 50 attempts. No directional information is provided, so the box must be moved about in order to triangulate the location it wants.” 
Make
Sony’s 360 Degree 3D Display Prototype: No Glasses Needed
“Still under development, the prototype is about 10.6-inches tall (and 5.1-inches in diameter). Sony doesn’t seem quite sure what to do with it at the moment, but says it’s considering various uses, like digital signage, or even a digital photo frame for the home. It only supports a 24-bit, 96 by 128-pixel stereoscopic color image right now, but you don’t need glasses to see the 3D effect.” 
Gizmodo
Magnetic leaves indicate levels of air pollution
“Measuring the level of magnetism of tree leaves could be a powerful tool to monitor the air quality of streets. A new study has shown that leaves along bus routes were up to ten times more magnetic than leaves on quieter streets. The magnetism comes from tiny particles of pollution, such as iron oxides from diesel exhaust, that float through the air and either stick to the leaves, or grow right into them.” 
Gizmag
KaChing Lets Investors See and Mirror Experts’ Trades
“Each time the investors make a trade, KaChing will automatically make the same trades for the customer. Customers can log on whenever they want to check their portfolio’s performance. They can send the investor private messages and receive alerts if the investor does something unusual. With the click of a mouse, customers can stop mirroring an investor.” 
NYTimes.com
Living Light
“The skin of the pavilion is a giant map of Seoul with the 27 neighborhood (gu) boundaries redrawn based on existing air quality sensors of the Korean Ministry of Environment—each shape in this new map encloses the air closest to one of the sensors. Then the map illuminates to become an interactive, environmental building facade.” 
Interactive Architecture dot Org
Smart Speed Bump Changes Shape for Safe Drivers
“Decano’s smart bump measures the force of impact from any oncoming vehicle, and falls flat if the automobile is moving at the speed limit or below. If the vehicle is going too fast, it will maintain its shape, bumping the car to slow it down.” 
PSFK
Touch Display Actually Lets You Touch Real Thingies
“The system uses transparent rubber, an overhead camera, and an LCD panel that emits polarized light. The camera detects the diffraction of light as it passes through the three-dimensional transparent rubber, interpreting your moves and the force you apply to its surface. According to Koike, you can apply this for many things. One example: A three-dimensional model of the brain for surgeons to practice on.” 
Gizmodo
Soft mobile morphing robots
“Researchers from iRobot and the University of Chicago discussed their palm-sized soft robot, known as a chemical robot, or chembot, at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems yesterday. It’s “the first demonstration of a completely soft, mobile robot using jamming as an enabling technology,” they write in a paper presented at the conference. The concept of “jamming skin enabled locomotion” is explained quite nicely in the video. The polymer used for the bot’s stretchy skin is off-the-shelf silicone two-part rubber. ” 
Boing Boing
24hr music app for the iPhone
“There’s only one display that shows the current time. Taking that time as a cue it streams in music that was “selected, arranged, composed and mixed by Soundwalk for Philippe Starck.” If you shake the app it shuffles the time and new music plays. And while some people might consider the way to manually change the time to be a bit of a pain, by placing a finger below the time and moving it upwards the hours, minutes or seconds can be advanced—though sometimes the time goes up, other times it goes down. They’ve made it difficult to get to a precise moment of a persons choosing. It’s a little strange but as part of the overall experience I love it.” 
DesignNotes
Diagnosing depression in less than an hour using an ‘ECG for the mind’
“The patient sits in a specially-designed tilt chair that triggers electrical responses in their balance system. A gel-tipped electrode placed in the individual’s ear canal silences interfering noise so that these meaningful electrical responses are captured and recorded,” the Monash researcher said. “The responses are then compared to the distinct biomarkers indicative of particular CNS disorders, allowing diagnosis to be made in under an hour” 
Gizmag
RFID Radio by Matt Brown
“The system is composed of a speaker with an RFID reader and laser cut paper radios with RFID chips inside. The radios themselves are designed by musicians, charities, brands, and designers. When the paper radio is placed over the speaker it changes the radio station to what the artist has chosen. Other noises and interactions can be programmed in as well.” 
Mocoloco
Using sonar to save power
“using the standard microphone and speakers that are built into most recent laptops, researchers from Northwestern and University of Michigan have developed a sonar system to detect when a user is near the computer. Why is this interesting? Well, the idea is that it can be used to turn your computer screen off as soon as you walk away, rather than waiting the typical 10 or 20 minutes for the screensaver to kick on. It’s a pretty neat idea, especially since it doesn’t require any extra components, however I wonder how much power the sonar system itself will draw.” 
Make
The crowd strikes back: fans remake Star Wars
“A new crowdsourced initiative invites fans to remake Star Wars. People can sign up on Star Wars: Uncut to recreate up to three of the 1,313 fifteen-second clips that make up the epic space film. They then have 30 days to film and upload their segment before the slot is offered to someone else. The 337 contributions submitted so far range from live action and animation to stop motion and cardboard shadow-puppetry. Submissions can be viewed on Star Wars: Uncut, side-by-side with the original” 
Springwise
‘Magnetic electricity’ discovered
“In September this year, two research groups independently reported the existence of monopoles – “particles” which carry an overall magnetic charge. But they exist only in the spin ice crystals. These crystals are made up of pyramids of charged atoms, or ions, arranged in such a way that when cooled to exceptionally low temperatures, the materials show tiny, discrete packets of magnetic charge. Now one of those teams has gone on to show that these “quasi-particles” of magnetic charge can move together, forming a magnetic current just like the electric current formed by moving electrons. ” 
BBC NEWS
The GlideTV Navigator is a mouse, keyboard and AV remote that fits in the palm of your hand
“The Navigator features a clickable touchpad that is mapped to your TV screen, providing precise cursor control, one-thumb scrolling, and single and double-click selection. Around the outside of the touchpad are directional buttons for two-axis navigation, and backlit AV buttons to control volume and playback. Dedicated Esc, Enter, Back, and Function keys round out the complement of buttons, which are found on the topside of the unit. Through the Windows-only GlideTV software, masochists can also make use of an on-screen keyboard, while an integrated search menu contains links to Google, Amazon Video on Demand, Hulu, Netflix and YouTube, to name a few.” 
Gizmag
Spotify’s CEO thinks big: packaged service promises ‘a trillion transactions’
“If we can transcend it so that, maybe you don’t actually have to pay for the music, it’s included in your data plan with your carrier or ISP or cable operator; it might be when you buy a new product, a TV screen, that you get one year of music included … devices like new Samsung TV screens, where they’ve got Linux built in, which allows you to do software on it – they’ve got YouTube built in, they might have Spotify built in” 
guardian.co.uk
Philips’ crazy Rationalizer bracelet / bowl concept is a mirror into your emotional well-being (video)
“The Rationalizer, a concept jointly developed by Philips and ABN AMRO, consists of two units aptly named EmoBowl and EmoBracelet. Intended for online investors working at home, the lights intensify and turn a brighter red when your emotions flare, offering what it calls a “mirror of emotion” to warn you that it might be good to take a breather and calm down before making any irrational financial decisions. A clever and surprisingly simple idea — flashiness aside, it looks like it’s just primary motivation is pulse detection” 
Engadget
Spigit Raises Capital for a Workplace Social Network
“Companies can choose which Spigit features they want to use. They can start blogs or wikis, run surveys or polls, or take it a step further with prediction markets, where employees invest virtual currency in ideas they like. Or, they can connect Spigit with other programs they already use, including Microsoft’s SharePoint or Web meeting software. Employees earn virtual currency based on how often they contribute ideas or comment on other people’s ideas and on the quality of their contributions. They can trade it for real rewards, like a television.”
NYTimes.com
WikiReader puts an offline version of Wikipedia in your pocket
“The device costs US$99 but being offline means that the content needs to be updated manually, like maps on GPS units. Openmoko has devised two methods to give users the latest information. Firstly, users can subscribe to purchase two new memory cards a year with the latest updates for a total of US$29 (plus taxes and shipping) per annum or visit the Openmoko shop for a free download (I know which method I prefer).” 
Gizmag
Seeing RFID on the cheap
“Rather than using an expensive set of test equipment to measure the magnetic field intensity, they just hooked their reader up so that it lit an LED every time their card was detected, and then captured it using a camera. This is pretty similar to the technique used to make the Roomba art. They were also able to show that (due to polarization) the orientation of the card with respect to the sensor changes how it responds.” 
Make
SourceMap
“Sourcemap is a tool for producers, business owners and consumers to understand the impact of supply chains. The site is a social network where anyone can contribute to a shared understanding of the story behind products. You can simulate the impact of manufacturing, transporting, using and throwing away products using their Life-Cycle Assessment calculator. This web-based tool uses linked data from geological and geographic resources. Each ‘Sourcemap’ can be used to help market socially – and environmentally – conscious products and to buy carbon offsets. Supply chains published on the site can be embedded in external websites, printed onto product packaging or linked through QR codes readable by camera phones.” 
visualcomplexity.com
Replicating nano structure of butterfly wings could lead to better solar cells
“Researchers have developed a technique to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, on a nano scale. They focused on the tiny nano-sized photonic structures that are found in the insects’ cuticle, and which give insects their iridescence – that slightly metallic sheen that also seems to shift in color depending on the viewing angle. By replicating the biotemplate of butterfly wings, the researchers hope to be able to make various optically-active structures, such as optical diffusers or coverings that maximize solar cell absorption” 
Gizmag
Some interesting projects (Part 2)
“The wall-mounted light switch[...] controls the lighting in the child’s room. Tio is soft and tactile, thus encourages user interaction. The character of ‘Tio’ displayed on the light switch encourages children to turn their lights off: Tio is happy when the lights have only been on for a short period of time. The longer they are left on, the angrier he becomes. This acts as an emotional reminder to turn the lights off… The recommended ‘lights-on time’ is influenced by the child’s age, their daily activities and the time of day. [...] Information (‘lights-on’ time) is sent wirelessly from the wall switch to a computer. The computer programme allows the child to track their lighting-use performance over an extended period of time. The child takes care of a ‘virtual tree’ by moderating their lighting-use performance. This engages children to make a personal contribution to reducing energy consumption”
Design with Intent
Transfer Digital Data Just by Touching Hands
“One of the concepts that caught our eye was Electric Field Communication. The idea — is to use the human body to transfer data between two devices. The example on display at CEATEC allowed a person to select an image from a pre-programmed mobile phone, place his hang against a computer panel, and witness the image immediately displayed on a screen”
PSFK
Heat Diode Paves the Way For Thermal Computing
“There’s no escaping the insidious effects of heat in microchips. But there may now be a way of controlling it. Wataru Kobayashi at Waseda University in Japan and a few friends have built a rectifier that allows a heat current to travel in one direction but not the other. [...] One obvious application is in heat sinks for microchips but some significant improvements will be needed to carry the kind of heat currents involved. But Kobayashi and co have bigger prey in mind. They say: ” Owing to the controllability of the heat current, the thermal rectifier can be utilized for future practical application such as a thermal transistor, thermal logic gates, and a thermal memory.”"
Technology Review
Living Identity
“Take the cover of the book and point it at your webcam and watch as the browser augments reality. Augmented reality isn’t anything new and we’ve seen it before, but the integration with Vimeo, Flickr, RSS feeds and Twitter really pushes this technology to the next level.”
FormFiftyFive
Virtual Street Games
“the ‘courts’ created by projected light; each court comprising a central playing area and two zones representing the other two locations. balls of light appear from the centre of each court – these projected images can be moved by players physically ‘touching’ them. the aim of the first game is for each location to gain points by moving as many balls as possible to the other locations. games last 90 seconds and 5 games make a series – through which the games increase in complexity as players become more familiar with the rules. the town or city with the most points at the end wins.”
PSFK
Operator-assisted web search in India & Uganda
“At the heart of the venture is a solar-powered intercom box that features a large green button. By pressing the button, a user is connected to an operator sitting in front of a computer. The caller asks a question and the operator does a web search to find the answer. Two Question Boxes are currently operational in the Indian state of Maharastra, where the first box was installed by California-based non-profit Open Mind in September 2007. In March 2009, the Applab Question Box service was launched in Uganda—tweaking the model by enabling callers to contact call centre operators from their own mobile phones. Both services log previously answered questions in local databases, speeding up responses to future enquiries and providing information offline in case of lack of connectivity. Queried topics range from crop prices and cricket scores to exam results.”
Springwise
Interactive piggy bank teaches kids about money
“The Ekomini Treasure Chest features a patented coin-reader technology and hooks up to a computer via USB, enabling children to keep track of their savings and learn basic financial skills. The Ekomini package gleans pedagogical credentials from resident educational consultant Dr. Daniel Racine, who designed a platform to teach kids how to plan for purchases by setting goals, completing tasks and comparing prices; as they get older, they can also learn the basics of investment. Ekomini also aims to introduce kids to social responsibility by explaining important causes and showcasing charities.”
Springwise
Tiny nuclear battery
“University of Missouri engineers are building a nuclear battery the size of a penny. Their aim is to develop a long-lasting power source for tiny sensors, actuators, and labs-on-a-chip. While nuclear batteries sound, er, problematic, they’re actually relatively common in larger form factors to power pacemakers and instruments aboard space vehicles.”
Boing Boing
Japanese suit that fights flu
“The suit is coated with the chemical titanium dioxide, which reacts to light to break down and kill the virus when it comes into contact with it, according to Junko Hirohata. The chemical is a common ingredient in toothpaste and cosmetics. The suit – which is indistinguishable from any other worn by Japan’s legion of “salarymen” – comes in four colours and styles, which are medium grey, charcoal, navy and a grey pinstripe.”
Make
Touchscreen tech goes 3D
“Each Lumino block has a pattern on its base that identifies its 3D shape, and the Surface table can read them using its four internal cameras that peer up at the acrylic top. That means the computer can build up a 3D picture of what lies on its surface. The Luminos can also make themselves known to the Surface when they’re stacked up, however. They are packed with fibre-optic threads that ferry the pattern of any block placed on top of another down to the screen. So, although a second storey Lumino isn’t in direct contact with the touch screen, the computer knows it’s there”
Futurismic
That’s him, officer – the Police sketch artist evolves
“The witness starts with a general description such as “I remember a young white male with dark hair.” Nine different computer-generated faces that roughly fit the description are generated, and the witness identifies the best and worst matches. The software uses the best fit as a template to automatically generate nine new faces with slightly tweaked features, based on what it learned from the rejected faces. “Over a number of generations, the computer can learn what face you’re looking for,” says Solomon.”
Gizmag
HotPrints Launches Totally Free Photo-Book Printing
“Where other photobook printing services cost around $20-$30, HotPrints sells its books for a mere $2.99 plus $0.75 shipping to the United States. Given the low price it’s little surprise that the service has started to get some significant traction, with over 20,000 books printed. And tonight, the company is sweetening the deal even more: HotPrints is now offering everyone one free photo book per month (you don’t have to pay shipping, either). The new free program is advertiser supported, which means books will come with removable inserts from sponsors (none of the ads will actually be printed alongside your photos).”
TechCrunch
Tiny Cameras Capture Albatross’s Feeding Secrets
“Tiny cameras mounted to the backs of black-browed albatrosses show that the animals, which hunt out at sea, may forage by following killer whales. The findings are just one example of a growing body of research using miniaturized cameras to reveal how animals behave in their natural environment. In this study, more than 28,000 pictures were taken from cameras on three albatrosses. The animals were tagged at a breeding colony on Bird Island, South Georgia earlier this year.”
Technology Review
My Book Elite & Studio: Portable Hard Drive+E-Ink Display
“According to Engadget their new My Book series of portable hard drives will come with a front facing E-Ink display that shows their label, and the amount of free space left on the drive. This way you’ll be able to see how much space your drive has at a glance, without wasting power on an inefficient display.”
I4U
Sony Shows Notebook With Bendable OLED Display At CEATEC 2009
“Sony shows at the CEATEC 2009 a nice design of a notebook that only has a bendable OLED display inside the covers.”
I4U
Brinno’s Digital Peephole Viewer lets you see who’s knocking at your door
“Simply press a button and the Digital Peephole Viewer gives you a clear, wide view of your visitor via an LCD screen. Another press and you can zoom in for a closer peek. It gets better though – unlike regular peepholes, this one doesn’t darken whilst viewing – so your visitor will never know you can see them. The Peephole Viewer compensates for low lighting and “fisheye” distortion, and is suitable for people of all heights. It is also ideal for people with failing eyesight as it affords a clear, wide view and a zoom-in function.”
Gizmag
future routers
“the ubiquitous device is typically a small box hidden away in people’s
homes, but these four new concepts aims to bring the device out in the open. the first concept is called ‘route o’clock’ and features a 24 hour clock which displays the internet strength throughout the day so users can plan their surfing accordingly. the next device is the ‘energy saver’, which turns off when not being used to conserve power. the router is activated by hanging your house keys on a hook. the third router design is called ‘hybrid’ because it combines a router and side table into a single piece. the final concept is ‘jelly fish’ a sea-creature inspired router, which acts as a social hub by forcing users to sit close
together when online.”
DesignBoom
Funai Touch Sensitive Image Projectors Could Arrive By 2010
“The “ultra-small color laser projector” allows for rotating, zooming and flicking through projected images with just a finger. It uses a new sensor that can determine the position of a finger along with the intensity of light on the projected area. Apparently not only is it capable of finger movement but it should be able to recognize gestures and hand waves.”
Gizmodo
Mercedes Prototype Automatically Slams on Brakes at Red Lights
“Using a smart intersection, the light essentially communicates with the car. And if the driver still isn’t responsive to, say, brake after several warnings of a red light, the car can stop itself. Mercedes-Benz admits that, though the technology is “almost there,” we’re still a decade out from its deployment. After all, every stoplight in America would need an upgrade to smart intersection status (for which there are no agreed standards). Plus, given that these intersections would cost money that would surely be lost through less tickets, it’s hard to imagine where the money will come from.”
Gizmodo
‘Time telescope’ speeds up optical transmission by 27 times
“A group of researchers at Cornell University have recently come up with the “time telescope,” a sophisticated system that can speed up optical communication by 27 times to an outstanding 270 Gbits/s by squeezing more information into a single flash of light and that, unlike previous solutions, does so in an energy-efficient manner. As the information enters the waveguide, it is combined with a laser pulse from a series of infrared lasers that vibrates the atoms of the waveguide. The vibration lowers the frequencies of the front of the light pulse and increases those in its tail, effectively compressing the signal. As a result, the pulse is “squeezed” but no information is lost in the process.”
Gizmag
Fisher-Price Easy Link Internet Launch Pad Heavy Discounted Again
“The Easy Link Internet Launch pad makes it easy for kids to visit preschool appropriate websites to play online games. The Fisher-Price Easy Link Internet Launch Pad connects to your computer via USB and when kids plug a character figure into the Easy Link Internet Launch pad, they are taken directly to that character’s website. Once a character is plugged in, kids are only allowed to visit pages on that website until they plug in a different character, keeping them away from unsafe websites and from getting into your computer’s files.”
I4U
Meet Seiko-chan, the balancing robot
“Ever wish you had a friend to unicycle with you? Well, I don’t actually know how to unicycle, but I still want one of these robots to follow me around.”
Make
Memory–Now in Handy Nasal Spray Form
“On each night after reading either an emotional or neutral short story, they sprayed a fluid into their nostrils which contained either interleukin-6 or a placebo fluid. The subsequent sleep and brain electric activity was monitored throughout the night. The next morning subjects wrote down as many words as they could remember from each of the two stories. Those who received the dose of IL-6 could remember more words.”
The Institute For The Future
PhotoSketch: better than sliced bread, Photoshop
“What if you could draw some stick figures on a screen and somehow magically create a beautiful image montage? Well, it’s possible. A group of students in China have created PhotoSketch, a project that does exactly what I just described: it takes a rough, hand-drawn sketch, scours the web for photos that match, and runs them through an algorithm, stitching it all together.” 
ZDNet.com
A Move to Curb Digitally Altered Photos in Ads
“Concerned that girls and women feel excessive pressure to live up to the digitally Botoxed and liposuctioned images of human perfection they see in glossy magazines, lawmakers in Britain and France are trying to push advertisers to get real. Under their proposals, ads containing altered photos of models would be required to carry disclaimers.”
NYTimes.com
Burst of Technology Helps Blind to See
“She is beginning an intensive three-year research project involving electrodes surgically implanted in her eye, a camera on the bridge of her nose and a video processor strapped to her waist. The project, involving patients in the United States, Mexico and Europe, is part of a burst of recent research aimed at one of science’s most-sought-after holy grails: making the blind see. Some of the 37 other participants further along in the project can differentiate plates from cups, tell grass from sidewalk, sort white socks from dark, distinguish doors and windows, identify large letters of the alphabet, and see where people are, albeit not details about them. ” 
NYTimes.com
augmented reality business card
“german designer jonas jager developed an unusual business card that uses augmented reality to display his contact information and samples of his design work. when held up to a web camera the card comes alive, showing a portrait of jager.” 
DesignBoom
Yes, There Is Such a Thing as “Free” Energy
“Broadcasters pump out tons of of RF from their big microwave towers, operating on the mere hope that some of the RF will hit a TV antenna and deliver unto someone the evening news. Since power demands for electronic devices continues to reduce (see Moore’s Law), those radio waves can now act as currents in a stream, turning the digital wheels inside small electronic devices. The catch is that the antenna harvesting the electricity has to be in line-of-sight with the microwave tower. On the bright side, the TV station (or cell tower or home Wi-Fi network) will never feel the burden of these added devices. It’s just RF that didn’t make it to its intended location.” 
Gizmodo
OmniZero.9 Robot: A Real-Life, 3.5 Foot Transformer
“OmniZero.9 transforms from a two-wheel scooter into bipedal humanoid form to carry its creator.” 
Gizmodo
Here and There
“The device works like a dedicated walkie-talkie between Mother and son, or husband and wife, allowing only you to read their diaries – creating the feeling of shared secrets and deep attachment. This shared diary is more playful and emotional in terms of understanding each other’s situations in a less obligatory way than sending direct messages back and forth. There are two modes that you can switch between on the device: “Here” and “There”. “Here” is your story box and “There” is his or her story box. In “Here” mode, you are also able to create your diary or message by taking photos and video, recording sounds and drawing on the touch screen. Once you switch to the “There” mode, you can browse and sample his or her diary by tuning the button.” 
Interaction Design Pilot Year
Honda’s LOOP and HELLO vehicle2vehicle and vehicle2driver infrastructure
“Some uncaptioned screen shots in the press image library suggest the pocket-carried LOOP device will be able to keep the owner updated remotely as to the battery status of the vehicle when it is charging and may also remind the owner when their parking meter will expire.” 
Gizmag
Court order served over Twitter
“The order is to be served against an unknown Twitter user who anonymously posts to the site using the same name as a right-wing political blogger. The order demands the anonymous Twitter user reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at a site called Blaney’s Blarney. The order says the Twitter user is breaching the copyright of Mr Blaney.” 
BBC NEWS
3D cryo-imager can identify a single cancer cell
“Prof. Wilson says that not only is the cryo-imaging system able to identify single molecules and count the number of cells in an organ, it can also pinpoint the exact location of cancer cells. The system can compare normal and abnormal organs and catalogue the effectiveness of different drug, gene and cellular therapies in preclinical testing, as well as focus on different areas of a specimen, for example the vascular or central nervous system.” 
Gizmag
Attn Nerdy Pervs: See Through Walls Using a Wireless Network
“The basic idea is straightforward. The signal strength at any point in a network is the sum of all the paths the radio waves can take to get to the receiver. Any change in the volume of space through which the signals pass, for example caused by the movement of a person, makes the signal strength vary. So by “interrogating” this volume of space with many signals, picked up by multiple receivers, it is possible to build up a picture of the movement within it. They were able to detect movement in a room to within a meter or so, which is pretty good.” 
Gizmodo
Rolling Robots Mimic Schools of Fish To Prevent Car Crashes One Day
“Nissan has been been studying schools of fish and how they avoid colliding with each other while swimming. They have come up with similar technology and put it in these three-wheeled bots—seven of them can travel together and avoid crashes by using laser range finders which measures distance from one another. Then they, like a good family of fishies, share the info with each other. The hope is to bring that communication to the cars of the future. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if the cars of our future looked a bit more like these little guys too.” 
Gizmodo
Interactive Fuzzy Light Wall
“Designed by Maggie Orth and Sam Bittman, IFM’s Fuzzy Light Wall consists of a matrix of capacitive sensors that dim lights on and off, illuminating colorful shapes with the soft touch of the hand. The installation hangs on a wall like any other piece of art, but unlike conventional artwork it changes color and pattern based on user interaction. IFM’s products consist of hand-woven and printed computer displays, integrated with proprietary drive electronics and custom software.” 
Transmaterial
Become a human antenna with your own carpet radio
“The carpet is constructed of looms from conductive thread and capable of transforming into an antenna. The carpet picks up the radio waves which the body receives, and makes them audible. To change a radio frequency you just walk on a carpet or sit or stand in a different position.” 
Gizmag
Sony Announces Development of High Frame Rate, Single Lens 3D Camera
“Captures left and right images simultaneously to deliver natural and smooth 3D images with no accommodation-vergence conflict. Eliminates the need for lens synchronization, ensuring easily accurate control of 3D zoom and focus functions. When polarized glasses are not used, viewers with still be able to see natural 2D images, as the disparity of the images for left and right eyes are within the range that human eyes can recognize as a blur. Realizes high quality capture of 3D content including fast-moving subject matter such as sports.” 
Gizmodo
My heart no longer beats
“Salina Mohamed So’ot has no pulse. But she is very much alive. The 30-year-old administrative assistant is the first recipient here to get a new artificial heart that pumps blood continuously, the reason why there are no beats on her wrist.” 
Futurismic
Aha Mobile Launches New Version Of Traffic And Road Entertainment iPhone App
“You can record and share your own personal traffic reports to help those around you, or listen to a customized traffic channels and reports (Imported from INRIX and Clear Channel) on the roads you travel. The app itself only has four buttons and is safe to use at speeds of 65 miles per hour or less. You can preset the roads into your app before you get on the road, so you can automatically access them without taking your eyes off the road to input the information.” 
TechCrunch
Geordi’s video-to-brain visor being built at MIT
“The implanted chip, according to the MIT team behind it, features a “microfabricated polyimide stimulating electrode array with sputtered iridium oxide electrodes” which is implanted into the user’s retina by a specially-developed surgical technique. There are also “secondary power and data receiving coils”. Once the implant is in place, wireless transmissions are made from outside the head. These induce currents in the receiving coils of the nerve chip, meaning that it needs no battery or other power supply. The electrode array stimulates the nerves feeding the optic nerve, so generating a image in the brain.” 
Futurismic
Touchless 3-D Fingerprinting
“By projecting patterns of light onto a finger and analyzing the image, researchers from the University of Kentucky are able to create a more accurate print than those made with ink or sensor plates. The researchers say the system is more efficient than traditional fingerprinting and significantly reduces the number of incorrect matches.” 
Technology Review
A new iPhone app provides opportunities for grassroots, participatory epidemiology
“Outbreaks Near Me allows users to pinpoint outbreaks that have been reported in their vicinity, and to search for additional outbreak information by location or disease. The app’s functionality includes the ability to set alerts that will notify a user on their device or by e-mail when new outbreaks are reported in their proximity, or if a user enters a new area of activity.” 
The Institute For The Futur
Hybrid Books From Publishers Like Simon and Schuster Add Video and Web Features to Reading
“On Thursday, for instance, Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King, is working with a multimedia partner to release four “vooks,” which intersperse videos throughout electronic text that can be read — and viewed — online or on an iPhone or iPod Touch. And in early September Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the television series “CSI,” released “Level 26: Dark Origins,” a novel — published on paper, as an e-book and in an audio version — in which readers are invited to log on to a Web site to watch brief videos that flesh out the plot. Some publishers say this kind of multimedia hybrid is necessary to lure modern readers who crave something different. But reading experts question whether fiddling with the parameters of books ultimately degrades the act of reading.”
NYTimes.com
San Francisco showcases city data apps
“A month since the launch of DataSF.org, a public archive of government data, Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced that the site will now showcase applications which manipulate that data to make it more useful and accessible to the city’s residents. Inspired by the success of Apple’s iTunes App Store and Facebook’s open developer platform (60,000 and 350,000 apps respectively), writes Mayor Newsom, San Francisco is encouraging democratic participation by “giving residents the tools to build the kind of government that works for them.” A number of apps are already online, with the new showcase expected to stimulate many more creations. Among those currently available, EcoFinder helps residents find out where their nearest recycling services are located, while Cabspotting—a project by the Exploratorium interactive science museum—displays a real-time map of cab locations in San Francisco.” 
Springwise
You are currently browsing the rb.trends weblog archives for the month October, 2009.
They are also available as an RSS feed.
