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Tag Archives: Innovation

Japanese Man Makes Self-Stirring Pot That Uses No Mechanical Parts

By David Ponce on 05/28/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

Making some recipes requires fairly frequent stirring. We don’t really know why, but then again we wouldn’t be able to cook ourselves out of a paper bag. We can see however how annoying it could be to have to stay in front of a pot of food, stirring continually. Maybe Hideki Watanabe felt the same way when he designed the above pot which creates a vortex in the liquid without using any mechanical parts. It’s called Kuru-Kuru Nabe (aka the ‘Pot Round and Round’) and uses thermodynamics to create the stirring motion. Heating water rises but since the walls of the pot are specially shaped, it is simultaneously propelled forward. The result is a pot of liquid that not only stirs itself but tends to channel food and more importantly foam to the middle, compacting it in the process and reducing the chances of a boilover. Chances are it might not work as well with thicker concoctions, but would be fine for simple stews, soups and pasta.

The Kuru-Kuru Nabe is not a commercially available product just yet, but Watanabe is looking for investors.

[ Product Page (In Japanese) ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

Laser Spoke Project Measures Cyclists Power Output

By David Ponce on 05/24/12 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

Things have gotten to the point where you’re able to track a multitude of quantitative points when you go out cycling: your position, speed, and elevation for example. But one metric you don’t see is power output. Yet this is very useful for athletes who can use it to set a pace and to keep track of their overall fitness levels. Well, a project currently in the funding phase at IndieGoGo called The Laser Spoke Project is able to measure just that. Every bicycle wheel exhibits a certain amount of normal torsional flex when power is applied through the pedals. This device measures the flexion by shining a laser from the center hub of the wheel onto a fixed spot on the rim; any deviation from center indicates power in proportion to the amount of deviation, the reading of which is saved onto an SD card. Of course calibration is important since not all wheels are the same, but the company is not divulging how this is done. The do say that the device should work on all bikes and not weigh more than 150g when completed. If you want to be part of the Beta-tester group, you can score one now for $550. If you prefer to wait for the final version to be released then you’ll have to pre-order it now for $750. Of course that’s assuming the project reaches its $85,000 funding goal.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

The Leap Lets You Control Your Computer Minority Report Style

By David Ponce on 05/22/12 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

The motion sensing abilities of Microsoft’s Kinect are… adequate for a few things like playing games while being drunk. But it’s laggy and imprecise and it gets tedious having to compensate for this while playing. The Leap is a USB device the size of a deck of cards that creates an 8 cubic feet space in front of your computer and is able to track your hands with 200 times more precision than anything else out there. “Leap can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements down to a 1/100th of a millimetre.” In this space, your hands become the new mouse, moving things around with a degree of precision that only video can convey (so we embedded one below). It’s intuitive and quite simply fascinating. We mean it, if this thing takes off, mice could be a thing of the past.

Of course this kind of tech must be really expensive, right? Well, no. At all. The Leap is $70. So for the price of a regular mouse you can instead control your stuff like they do in movies. Yeah, from the future. It’s here. Well… almost here. The limited number of pre-orders will be delivered in December of this year or January of next. There’s a bit of waiting involved, but for something like this it’s totally worth it.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ BookOfJoe ]

Machine Can Make Up To 4 Layered Drinks In 20 Seconds

By David Ponce on 05/16/12 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

Working in a bar could get a whole lot more hands-off if LayerNation’s “El Tirador” machine takes off. It’s a contraception that makes it very easy to make layered drinks. You just have to load the bottles on top, put the shot glasses under the retractable straws and watch as it makes up to 4 drinks within 20 seconds. A touch screen lets you select what you want to make and yeah… that’s about it. You can watch the video below to see how it’s done, but it looks pretty slick. El Tirador means The Shooter in spanish, and the device was demonstrated last year at the Young Entrepreneurs Society network event in Delft. It’s also being tested in Europe and the company hopes it’ll be used to serve soccer fans their drinks during the Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

So there appears to be no immediate plans for commercialization stateside, but anyone interested in the tech is free to contact them for more information.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Techcrunch Gadgets ]

Nike Unveils TurboSpeed Suit, A Golf Ball Inspired Running Outfit

By David Ponce on 05/16/12 • Leave a comment!


By David Ponce

Golf balls are covered in dimples simply because this gives them an aerodynamic efficiency rivalled by no other surface texture. And now Nike has unveiled a running suit based off the same design: the TurboSpeed, which they claim can shave up to 0.23 seconds off a 100 meter sprint. That is huge. Just think that in the 2008 olympics, Usain Bolt won the race only 0.22 seconds ahead of third place and 0.20 seconds from second. Had either of the two other contestants simply been wearing the TurboSpeed they might have won. Nike’s suit, which is made from 82% recycled polyester fabric, is the result of twelve years (!) and hundreds of hours of testing in wind tunnels.

It doesn’t appear that it’s commercially available, as there’s talk that only the teams sponsored by Nike will have access to the outfit. These are the US, Russia and Germany. Bolt is sponsored by Puma. Walter Dix (third in ’08) on the other hand is a member of the US team and will be wearing it London. Will it be enough for him to overtake the champion?

[ DailyMail ] VIA [ NewLaunches ]

Worried About Being Snooped On? Here’s The Tinfoil Hat For Your Home

By David Ponce on 05/11/12 • 2 Comments

By David Ponce

You know, the thing about wireless network passwords is that they’re pretty darn secure. Provided you pick something other than “password” or anything equally inane, you’re not going to get hacked. But for some people, that’s just not enough. So some researchers at the Institut Polytechnique of Grenoble have developed a wallpaper that is able to block WiFi signals. It was developed in conjunction with the Centre Technique du Papier (The Technical Paper Center) and features a special pattern of geometric shapes traced in a conductive ink which contains silver particles. This design is effective at blocking some frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, namely that of typical WiFi signals. And if you don’t like the look of the designs, you can either paint it or cover it with your favourite flowered wallpaper or whatever it is you fancy. The rights to this products have been acquired by the Finnish company Ahlstrom and they wish to commercialize it by 2013 for roughly the same price as a regular wallpaper.

[ News Article (In French) ] VIA [ DVice ]

In The Future Everything Will Be Touch Sensitive, Courtesy Of… Disney?

By David Ponce on 05/08/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

The above video and the technology it describes is nothing short of revolutionary. Basically, Disney Research has developed a completely new way to use touch sensing technology, so that it becomes possible to make any object, any surface, even water or a human body, touch sensitive. They call it Touché. The way it achieves this is surprisingly simple to understand. Touch tech uses electric conduction (except for older resistive devices) as the basis for determining if an object is being touched. But current tech reads the sensors at one frequency, making the tech binary in nature: either something is being touched, or it is not. What Disney Research did was start scanning across several frequencies to determine a “touch profile”, a signature disturbance in the electric current that they then assigned to several different gestures, like grabbing a door handle, or putting a finger in a bowl of water or even touching your own hands together. Each application needs to be “trained” and the profiles assigned in advance, of course, but the possibilities this opens up are pretty awesome. The video gives some examples, our favourite being a touch sensitive couch that turns the TV on when you sit, dims the lights when you lay back, and turns everything off if it senses you fell asleep.

Of course, none of this is about to hit the market, but if the tech is there and operational, it’s just a matter of time until we start seeing it.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ Technabob ]

New Nanotextured Glass Could Usher Water Repellant, Self-Cleaning Gadgets

By David Ponce on 04/30/12 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

A team of researchers at MIT has developed a method for turning regular glass into something far, far more awesome: glass with arrays of conical micron-scale surface nanotextures, rendering it self-cleaning, non-glare, and non-fogging. Better yet, the method they have used could potentially be scaled to produce this glass at an acceptable cost for widespread use, from building windows to optical devices, and of course, to gadgets.

So how does it work? Roughly, it’s a process that involves applying several layers of photo resistive material to the glass, then etching away with a laser. As you can see in the scanning electron microscope picture above, the glass ends up being coated in microscopic cones that are five times as tall as their base width of 200 nanometers. And as demonstrated in the two pictures after the fold, this renders the surface superhydrophobic (a lot like stuff in this article), meaning water just bounces off it as if made of rubber. It’s also non glare because the cones create a surface that makes it impossible for a ray of light to bounce off and into our eyes.

… Continue Reading

ADAPTRAC System Regulates Bike’s Tire Pressure On The Go

By David Ponce on 04/18/12 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

Whether it’s motor sports or human powered wheeled sports, a lot is riding where the rubber meets the tarmac. Decisions need to be made about tire pressure, with tradeoffs usually unavoidable. Mountain bikes face many different types of surfaces, so are very sensitive to this. Soft tires are great for rocky stretches of trail, where grip and absorption is better. Hard tires are preferable on flat surfaces, to go fast. Usually, a middle ground is chosen and the rest left up to fate. But the ADAPTRAC system changes all that:

ADAPTRAC is a multi-component system comprised of special patent pending hubs, a dual control valve and a C02 power pack/regulator. Tire pressure can be raised or lowered while riding with a quick press of the finger on the handlebar control toggles. Actual tire pressure is displayed on analog gauges mounted on the handlebars. The system utilizes 12x142mm rear and 15mm front axle standards – wheels can be removed as you would normally. ADAPTRAC uses readily available, rechargeable C02 tanks ranging from 4 to 20 ounces so you can carry only what you need. You can now tune your tire pressure to the trail – in seconds!

There’s no price just yet, as the system is in its final prototype stages. However, a price will be announced shortly after the system is presented this week at the Sea Otter Classic Expo in Monterey, California.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

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