I’m no master chef, but I can whip up a half-decent meal or snack in the kitchen. One thing I’ve discovered that I have a great eye for is pouring things into a liquid measuring cup. It seems like something trivial, but nine times out of ten I can pour the exact amount needed without staying eye-level with the cup while pouring. Being able to do that can make things go just a little quicker when cooking or baking. If you don’t have quite the same eye for pouring things, here’s a little gadget that can help.
This Smart Measure cup has an LCD screen that tells you exactly how much liquid is currently in the cup. You can even program it to beep when a specific amount of liquid has been poured in. The cup can even be removed for washing, so you don’t ruin the LCD screen. If you spend a lot of time measuring liquids, this could be an invaluable tool. No word on pricing, but it should be available sometime this fall.
Here’s all I really know. There’s a laser. And it’s doing a pretty good job of following the contours of random Sharpie markings on a sheet of white paper. But then there’s some kind of sound mated to all the goings on. The YouTube page lists a bunch of people involved with what seems to be some kind of project… but details are scant.
It’s trippy, that’s for sure, which is why I’m writing about it. Lasers, some kind of software, trippy sounds… what’s not to like?
Fact: Hello Kitty is turning 35 this year. Fact: most guys reading this are hoping their girlfriends and/or daughters are nowhere near the computer. Yeah… keep them far, far away gentlemen, or you’ll likely be $500 lighter before you know it. And for what? An Exilim EX-Z2 with 12.1MPs and 3X optical zoom, nauseating amounts of cutesy pink, a bunch of Swarovski crystals and that little cat plastered all over the place.
Sure, it’s completely worth every penny. No, really, it is…
Student Dominic Hargreaves has been shortlisted for this year’s James Dyson Award and a chance to pocket a cool £10,000 for his design of a folding bicycle that neatly tucks within the circumference of both of its 26 inch wheels. It reportedly takes about 20 seconds to fold and unfold, though we suspect that overly enthusiastic nitwits will likely stump themselves on the origami-like process like so many drunken IKEA furniture assemblers.
Still, we hear that there are already a number manufacturers interested in bringing the prototype to market and rumor has it that the prince range would hover around $700.
Of course, you realize none of this is really interesting unless you watch the video, which we’ve included after the jump.
There’s already some pretty impressive progress being made and the video you see here can’t really be described with an adjective any weaker than “freaking insane”. Just watch it, it’s worth it. And if you’re into developing artificial intelligence algorithms, why not enter?
On the outside it may look like a non-descript industrial box, but Panasonic’s new ultra-accurate 3D profilometer has some pretty impressive technology to boast about on the inside. Thanks to a specially-developed new probe the machine can measure the surface of 3D objects, including microscopic pores at least 50µm in diameter, with an accuracy of ±0.15µm. When the object is being ‘profiled’ the probe touches it with a force of just 0.3mN, which is the equivalent to the amount of force caused by a mosquito landing, and the measurements are conducted at a blistering speed of 2mm per second.
Other advancements include improved anti-vibration performance thanks to Panasonic’s vibration analysis technology, since you don’t want the probe bouncing around when it’s doing detailed measurements, and an overall reduced footprint making the machine about 50% smaller than its predecessor. The new 3D profilometer will be available for order starting in October in Japan, and is expected to be quite popular in the automotive and electronics industries where high-precision components are essential.
I can understand the idea behind a robot dog since the real thing does have a tendency to leave fur everywhere, chew on anything and everything and require multiple trips outside to cover your lawn in ‘waste’, but a robot plant? Now that’s just plain lazy… but my kind of lazy! The Sega Pekoppa doesn’t need watering or nutrient-rich soil or even sunlight, just a set of 3xAA batteries to keep it alive. And unlike the real thing that just sits there and eventually dies, the Pekoppa will respond to your voice and actually move around thanks to a set of futuristic muscle wires. (Remember when those were the next great thing?)
Here’s a video of a bunch of people getting overly excited at what is essentially a moving stick, and if you’d like to be one of them you can get your own from ThinkGeek for just $18.
I’m not a fan of storing my credit card info with any of the online stores I frequent, though I can see the convenience of doing so. At this point I’ve just got my card number and other details memorized (expiration date etc.) but the QwicKey seems like a decent alternative for those who don’t trust their memory. It’s a USB card swiper that can be used to autofill credit card forms with just a swipe of your card. Convenient! But it also comes with custom software and it’s own security card that can be used to store and protect everything from login and password info to personal data for automatically filling out other types of contact forms and even bookmarked sites.
The card reader itself sells for just $49.95 but that includes a 1-year subscription to the company’s online service which gives you secure access to all of your data no matter what computer you’re using. After that the yearly fee is $29.95 plus another $29.95 for any additional users/profiles you want to add. And you were worried about some hacker robbing you.
There are many different ways to slice a pizza, probably even more than ways to skin a cat. Come to think of it, who skins cats? Anyway, it’s rare that you’ll actually end up with slices that are all equal in size. With four (or more) cuts, you’re not going to get them perfect. Most people could really care less, but if you’re a perfectionist, here’s a pizza cutter just for you.
The aptly-named Equalizer Multi-Blade Rocker Pizza Cutter chops up your pie into 8 perfect slices each and every time. Unless you don’t get it centered, then they’ll all be off slightly and you’ll have to start over and make a new pizza. Honestly, I think most people can do just fine without this thing. However, if you’re anal enough to care about perfectly-sliced pizza, then by all means, drop $190-$250 on one of these (depending on the size).
Related Tags: Kitchen Gadget
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By David Ponce
