By David Ponce

Sadly, it’s not a jolt of electricity but rather a more gentle vibration that discreetly points out that you’re standing in a less than optimal manner. This is bad for you as it can cause aches, can damage your heart and lungs, and lead to gastrointestinal issues. So now a pair of suspenders specially modified with conductive elastics, an Arduino Pro Mini, a battery, and said vibrator all combine to create an on-the-fly posture corrector. The sensor fabric changes its electric resistance as it stretches and the software continually monitors this, encouraging you to maintain the right tension, which is associated with the right posture.

There appears to be a crude prototype at the moment, though we’re finding no signs of a price or availability.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Geeky Gadgets ]

By David Ponce

Let’s talk about serving sizes. You pick up a box of cookies and smile as you notice it’s 160 calories per portion. Not so bad. Then you frown when you notice that “a portion” is two cookies! What is that? Who eats two cookies? People eat cookies by the sleeve, my friends. And so nutritional information based on arbitrary portion sizes are misleading. So are electric cars’ range estimates. No two people drive alike, and driving habits are the end-all/be-all of EV range. If you drive like my father, you can probably drive coast to coast on one charge. Drive like me and… well you get the idea. EV range estimates will eventually learn your habits and get more accurate, but by then you’ve already bought the damn car.

Enter the EV Profiler.

As you can imagine, it’s a device crammed with sensors whose job it is to determine how you drive over a statistically significant period of time. How hard you brake/accelerate, how many hills you climb, how many pedestrians you drag for how many miles, etc. The data is uploaded to servers nightly and after about a week you get a report that allows you to make a more informed decision on whether going green is really the thing for you.

You can rent the EV profiler for $25 a week, or $82 per month either directly from the company or from a car dealer that carries them.

[ EV Profiler ] VIA [ Gizmag ]