By Andrew Liszewski

A group of researchers at the University of Tokyo, led by professor Takao Someya, have developed an organic electroluminescent display that can be stretched and folded like rubber. The new ‘displays’ were created by spraying a layer of carbon nanotubes with a fluoro-rubber compound that results in a conductive material that also happens to be stretchy. At the moment the 10cmx10cm prototype has a resolution of just 256 monochrome pixels, allowing it to display basic imagery, and it’s good for about a thousand folds before the display starts to degrade.

This new material actually makes me wonder if the ‘soft screens’ that Arthur C. Clarke mentions in some of his later works are not that far off, and I’m sure the NBA has to be excited at the prospect of being able to run advertisements on the actual basketballs during a game.

[ The Mainichi Daily News - Researchers develop EL display that can stretch like rubber ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re running around with a P&S camera grabbing shots of friends and family at a party, then white balance and proper color calibration are probably not that important to you. But if you’re shooting RAW images with a DSLR in a studio environment, there’s a good chance that white balance is something you’re worried about. And if the term ‘gray card’ means anything to you, you’re probably going to find the SpyderCube as tempting as I do.

It’s a spectrally neutral 3D cube that’s painted white, gray (true 18%) and black allowing you to correct color temperature issues and accurately adjust shadow and highlight detail when you’re processing your RAW photos. But it also features a ‘black trap’ hole that’s not affected by light from your flash, providing you with a true black reference, as well as a chrome sphere on top for capturing specular highlights.

The SpyderCube also comes with a threaded post allowing it to be mounted to a tripod, as well as a short lanyard for hanging if that’s more convenient. And even at $59, I think it’s a pretty solid investment for any photographer, professional or hobbyist.

[ SpyderCube ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we started early on Sunday watching highlights from the 2009 Hexapod Dance-Off (aka the best thing ever), decided we’d much rather have robot babies than real babies, gave some weird looks to a robot that follows your eyes, were horrified by a sheep shearing robot, embraced our laziness with a point ‘n click fetch robot, were kinda impressed with Nao humanoids playing soccer, got creeped out by an underwater robot with giant claws, slept safely inside a conceptual robot that turns into a tent, were sad to see the multiple kill vehicle get cut from the DoD budget, watched a consumer telepresence robot pouring drinks, got slightly titillated by my girlfriend since she is now an actual cyborg, and ended up appreciating the idea of a modded Roomba that prints on the floor and cleans up after itself.

So far this week we’ve posted about a marshmallow toasting robot, Japanese Kondo robots, and some lovely but inefficient Roomba cleaning patterns.

Last week’s Bot With Stuff, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

There’s no question that CPR saves lives, however, Sudden Cardiac Arrest still accounts for some 350,000 deaths annually in the US alone. And that’s because the average rescuer is only able to perform effective chest compressions for about 2 minutes before tiring, which is far shorter than typical emergency response times of 8 to 10 minutes. But the LifeBelt, developed by Thomas Lach of Deca-Medics Inc., is a compact, lightweight device that allows CPR compressions to be performed with about half as much force, meaning a rescuer can do them for longer, increasing the likelihood of resuscitation.

The LifeBelt attaches to the victim in less than 15 seconds, and it includes an intuitive readout that warns the rescuer if the compression depth is too deep or too shallow, so they know they’re doing it properly. At the moment the LifeBelt appears to only be a fully-functioning concept, as it won the grand prize in the 2008 Create The Future Design Contest, but hopefully that success means it will eventually be a real product available to the public.

[ Deca-Medics - LifeBelt CPR ] VIA [ Medgadget ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sure, your car always looks clean and your lawn looks immaculate in the Summer, but have you ever wondered just how much water your garden hose and nozzle actually uses? Probably not, unless you’ve already got one of these Water Watch nozzles that feature a built-in dial measuring your water usage in gallons (up to 100 gallons before rolling over) that also automatically zeroes after each use. And besides just making you feel guilty, the Water Watch spray nozzle pictured on the left also includes a dial allowing you to switch between 8 different spray patterns, from soaker to mist, that each use less and less water.

Both nozzles are available from E3Living.com, with the 8-Pattern Sprayer going for $17.95 and the Fan Sprayer going for $12.95.

[ Water Watch Spray Nozzles ] VIA [ Home Improvement Ideas ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s time to make your desktop PC work a bit harder for you with this multi-function 3.5 inch jack-of-all-external-storage replacement bay from Brando. It’s got a built-in card reader that accepts almost every flash card format short of Compact Flash, an e-SATA port and Molex 4 pin power port allowing you to connect a variety of external SATA drives and even its own built-in 2.5 inch SATA HDD enclosure that can be easily removed or docked as needed. Now obviously with a price tag of $49 a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive isn’t included, but if you’re constantly moving around a lot of data via an external drive, this could at least help keep your desk a bit tidier.

[ UNITEK 3.5" Multi-Functional Bay ] VIA [ Plunder Guide ]

By Shane McGlaun

There haven’t really been many breakthroughs in printing technology since the laser printer and ink jet printers hit the market. The last interesting thing to happen in the printer market was the Kodak printers that offered ink that was much cheaper than other brands.

Xerox announced a new breakthrough in multifunction printing technology yesterday that uses solid inks. The new printer line is the Xerox ColorQube 9200 series and the printers promise to reduce the cost of printing color pages by up to 62% compared to color laser printers without losing any quality.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Shane McGlaun

Ever wonder why computer monitors are typically black, silver, or beige? No? Well I have wondered why most computer gear is the same color before, I guess no one likes to rock the boat or maybe those colors are cheaper to produce. I’d like to have a nice Ferrari red LCD, but alas I have a silver and black Dell.

Samsung has announced new LCDs for computer users that feature the firm’s Touch of Color design. The monitors have a clear acrylic neck to make them seem to be floating says Samsung. The three models include the P2070, P2370, and P2370HD.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

When it comes to coffee tables, don’t cheap out and get a 2-dimensional version like I did just to save some money. You might think you’ve gotten a bargain, but when you get home you’ll soon realize that your magazines, coasters and even TV remotes all require that third dimension. Instead, go with something like this Stereovision concept table by John Nouanesing which is designed to look like an anaglyph image. Sure you’ll need to wear those 2-color glasses to get the full effect, but 3D is all the rage right now isn’t it?

[ Stereovision ] VIA [ TrendsNow ]