Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

This concept from Ennova Direct is a USB flash drive with all kinds of fanciness goin’ on. On top of the drive is an OLED screen that incorporates a biometric fingerprint scanner to keep all of your stuff secure. The screen can also be used as an “interactive interface that allows the user to select specific files and initiate specific functions.”

Although it’s just a concept at the moment, Ennova seems to actually get around to producing what they file patents for. They’ve produced a flash drive with a retractable USB interface as well as a flash drive with integrated Bluetooth, so it’s at least reasonably likely that we’ll see this sometime in Q1 of 2010.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ OLED-Display ]

By Evan Ackerman

Remembering and entering passwords in anything is a major hassle, which is why everything should have seamless biometric identification built in. Failing that, KDDI has come up with a gesture based system that at least eliminates annoying number codes. Using an accelerometer, the phone looks for a specific pattern of movements as you bring it up to your ear. These movements depend on things like arm length, muscle structure, and patterns such as holding methods and other habits. According to KDDI, the error rate is only 4%, which is easily good enough for casual use.

As far as I can tell, there’s no reason why something like this couldn’t be implemented into any phone with an accelerometer, even without KDDI’s fancy arm length etc. analysis software. You just have to turn the phone on, and shake shake shake it in a particular way, and it’ll unlock. KDDI eventually plans on taking this technique a little further, allowing you to use specific motions to run programs or unlock your porn folder.

[ Tech-On! ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Designed by BERU f1 systems, the Factor 001 training bike is chock full of Formula One racing technology which makes it one of the most advanced bikes ever built. Besides the requisite made-to-measure one piece carbon fiber frame and ceramic brakes, the Factor 001’s real secret weapon is its built-in accelerometers that monitor the bike’s lean and other physical factors like wheel speed, torque levels and crank cadence. It will even have a biometric monitoring system for keeping tabs on the rider’s physical condition like body temp, respiration rate and even ECG data. All that for roughly $30,000, depending on the options you order. (That’s the starting price.)

But all that information the bike is gathering is no good if you can’t study it later on. So for an additional $8-10,000 you’ll be able to buy the Factor 001’s custom software package that allows the data to be uploaded to a PC and analyzed in order to improve your performance. Needless to say you have to really want to wear that yellow jersey to be shelling out this kind of money for a bike.

[ BikeRadar.com - Formula One experts use car technology to build bike ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might seem odd for a company like Victorinox to exhibit at CES, I mean you’d expect to see them at the local Gun n’ Knife show instead, but their line of SwissFlash knives have evolved from simply a flash drive embedded into a pocket knife, to a full-blown office-friendly tool. And their latest model, the Presentation Pro, comes with a flash drive up to 32GB in size that’s now protected by a biometric fingerprint sensor for keeping your confidential documents private.

But it’s also designed to serve as a handy presentation remote, since it comes with bluetooth and a set of emulated left and right mouse buttons. So the knife you probably already carry in your pocket for opening plastic blister packs can now control your exciting PowerPoint slideshows as well. And for pointing out specific items, they’ve even crammed a laser pointer in there too. At the moment the SwissFlash Presentation Pro doesn’t appear to be listed on the Victorinox website, probably because it isn’t for sale just yet, but prices range from $164.95 for the 8GB model up to $329.95 for the 32GB.

[ Victorinox ]

By Luke Anderson

It’s really nothing special to find a safe that is opened with a key, since most safes will open with either a key or a combination lock. Now what if that key is a USB key? That would certainly change things up a bit. This interesting BioMirage Coffer is the first safe that I’ve seen that not only uses a USB key to open, but will also open up to the touch of a finger.

The primary method of unlocking will no doubt be the biometric scanner, as it would be the easiest method. The USB key is mainly there as a backup measure in case the scanner goes out, or you accidentally lose your hand. It seems like a cool replacement for your average storage safe, but the $580 price tag makes it highly impractical.

[ Syba ] VIA [ TechViva ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Well here’s a real pick me up. I can’t think of a better way to put a smile on your face than by wearing a watch that continually reminds you how much time you have left on Earth. The concept ‘watch’ was created by Timex and is actually more like a patch you wear on your skin that processes biometric information about your key health factors including fitness, stress, nutrition, sleep and even your environment. All of that data is then factored in as the Index Watch makes an educated guess as to how much time you’ve got left. On the plus side, it would serve as a fantastic motivational tool when it comes to diet and exercise if you could see the days and months being added to your life every time you got up off the couch. Not to mention seeing the days disappear with every Twinkie.

[ Timex Life Index Watch ] VIA [ Gearfuse ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As far as I can tell, this Hardbox external drive case serves two purposes. (Besides of course backing up your data.) For starters, if you don’t want a desk full of ugly external hard drives (some aren’t too bad) you can stick it on a nearby shelf alongside your copies of Moby Dick, Treasure Island and the hardcover Harry Potter tomes where it should somewhat blend in. Then, as an added bonus, it might actually keep your hard drive safe from particularly stupid or poor-sighted burglars who don’t realize that one book on the shelf with the blinking LEDs isn’t a book at all. Unlikely, but you never know.

The enclosure supports 3.5 inch SATA I or II drives and connects to your PC via USB. It doesn’t have a fan, but instead uses the fake page detailing on the edges as a heat sync, keeping it extremely quiet. The power supply is built-in so the AC cord doesn’t require a large transformer on the end, but that does add to the enclosure’s overall size. On the back you’ll find a physical write protection switch as well as a ‘Backup’ button for manually starting a backup of your data. It also includes scheduling software so you can set the backups to happen automatically on a regular basis.

While the bright red spine isn’t that appealing, the rest of the enclosure seems not too bad. Though I’m not sure if the $300 price tag (315,000 KRW) includes a hard drive or not.

[ SAROTECH Hardbox ] VIA [ AVING USA ]

By Luke Anderson

So we’ve all seen those cheesy action flicks where someone needs access to a restricted area and is forced to chop off the finger of some corporate executive to do it. After all, a fingerprint reader can’t know if the finger is alive, can it? This one from Futronic can.

While they don’t go into great detail about how the technology works, they assure us that their FS88 fingerprint scanner will reject a digit that’s not attached to a living person. It also rejects popular fakes made from Play-Doh, rubber and other materials. I can’t say that I have anything so sensitive that someone would actually try cutting off my finger to get to, but it’s still pretty cool to think that it wouldn’t work. No word on pricing or availability.

[ Futronic ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ve been wondering for some time why we use cool technologies like biometric scanning for securing digital files, yet we rarely see it for physical storage units. I no longer have to wonder, as Frontgate has cooked up a small safe that is protected with a fingerprint scanner.

The box is so secure that it is indorsed by the NRA firearms saftey intrusion program, so apparently it’s safe for holding your gun. Just reading that made me picture rolling over at night, swiping my finger and having the safe pop open so I can grab my gun and mow down a line of zombies. Yes, that was but a small peek at what goes through my mind at any given point. It rarely makes sense, but I found it relevant.

[ FrontGate ] VIA [ UberReview ]