It aint over til the fat lady sings, a wiseman once said. That man may have to append that theory to “it aint over til the fat lady sings, rubs gel on her throat, then sings again.” That’s because scientists at Harvard and MIT are hard at work on a vocal cord gel that will be used to give stricken folks their voices back.
The synthetic gel, known as polyethylene glycol (PEG), is super flexible and actually acts a lot like real vocal cords. How does it work? Well, you have to, um, inject it, eek, into your damned vocal cords. Ok, that sounds like an unpleasant process but the results are very pleasant indeed. It restores the voice by mimicking the elasticity of vocal cords and helping restore vibration.
This is ..read more
Posted in: Safety, Sound
Tech keeps getting smaller and smaller, as we all know. However, researches at University of Michigan may taken the tiniest great leap yet. They have designed a one-cubic-millimeter sized computer. Wow, right? As of right now, the researchers are intending it for optical use. You heard that right. They wanna stick it in your eye. Our collective cyborg futures are almost upon us!
This thing stuffs a pressure sensor, memory, thin-film battery, solar cell, wireless radio, and low-power microprocessor all into one very small container. It uses an advanced form of “sleep mode” that is found in cell phone and laptops. It is nearly always asleep unless when needed. This conserves energy because, in case you hadn’t realized, changing batteries in an eyeball can be tricky. Not that that matters, ..read more
Posted in: Concept Design, News, Other Products
Thanko has already made a splash with their Spy Necktie. Now the company is back with a USB-powered face mask that also doubles as a, well, kitten mask.
The mask is either USB or battery powered and acts as an air circulator, gas mask or personal fan. The kitten face is just for aesthetics but it will certainly get you noticed, if that’s what you are going for.
The mask is available now and can make the cat fan in your life very happy for a reasonable $24. Meow.
Posted in: Accessories, Other Products, Thanko
Withings has brought blood pressure monitoring into the 21st century with their iPhone-enabled monitoring device. The company is best known for a series of connected scales, but have now branched into the weird world of mobile-phone related medical devices.
This is the world’s first iPhone-enabled blood pressure monitor. Here’s how it works. Plug the arm band into your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone, download the free app and start the process. All of your information is stored on the cloud online so no worries on that front. This is a good thing, since it was worries that caused you to need a blood pressure monitor in the first place.
It is available now at around $129.
Posted in: Mobile Phone Technology, Other Products, iPhone Integration
Nick Dangerfield’s new PlayButton personalized MP3 player is an odd duck. It clips on to your lapel to let the world know what you are listening to. How do they know? Because it’s branded with the album cover.
That’s right. This MP3 player is just one album. Consider it a new way to buy album. 8 albums are already available for $30 a pop but Dangerfield suggests that a more proper price would be around $15 to make them more competitive with other formats. It’s up to the particular band though, he says.
Pretty simple and neat concept. Plug in your headphones and you are good to go. There is no shuffle functionality, however. Snatch some up here.
Posted in: Accessories, Other Products, PlayButton
SenseBridge has released their innovative Heart Spark pendant. This neat little gadget blinks along with your heart beat, letting the world know you are a human and not a vampire. Sure, we’ve had some cool jewelery in the past, but nothing that stopped vampires from spreading!
How does it work? The pendant has a wireless receiver and gads of LEDs tucked in to it’s circuitry. It senses the movement of your heart beats, and blinks accordingly. This is a simple concept but is sure to illicit “awww”s and “wtf”s in equal measure. Either way, that’s cool!
It’s $69 and available now. Go get em tigress.
Posted in: Accessories, Intelligent Clothes, Other Products, SenseBridge, Wearable Tech
Brookstone is no stranger to this site. They’ve done it again with their Remote Control Pillow, the pillow that doubles as a remote control. Now you can relax into the couch potato stratosphere.
This universal 6-in-1 remote control is nestled snugly inside of a pillow. The buttons are on the outside of the pillow and it even allows you to shut the remote functionality off for when you want to lay down without accidentally muting your episode of LOST. Not bad, right?
So let’s recap. It’s a pillow. It’s a remote that controls up to 600 devices. It’s both. It’s only $30. Avoiding the real world just got a whole heck of a lot easier.
Posted in: Brookstone, Pillows
The war for glove supremacy has been raging for a while now, and now German company Sensosolutions has issued yet another volley. The appropriately titled Sensoglove has been called the “World’s first digital golf glove.” This very well may be true.
The $89 SensoGlove comes packed to the gills with sensors. These sensors purport to continuously read your grip pressure, helping you golfers(and would-be stranglers) out there get the best grip you can get. The data comes back to you in real-time on an included 1.2 inch display screen. The gloves then warn you if you are gripping too tight or making any of the other million mistakes a golfer can make. It even shows which fingers are committing the odious error.
It is available now and could be just the thing ..read more
Posted in: Gloves, Sensosolutions, Sports, Wearable Tech
Recon Instruments is planning to put a heads up display inside ski-goggles. We’ve been waiting for eyewear display’s for quite some time now. It’s about time this long-time video game feature is finally going to make its way into real world products. The system works by integrating a GPS-linked heads-up display system(HUD), and ski goggles.
Recon Instruments is reportedly developing the technology right now, and if they can stay on track, a heads-up-display set of goggles will be be on sale next fall between $350 to $450. The device will be able to tap into your cellphone via bluetooth, and if your phone has a GPS chip, you’ll be able to see where you’re at on a small map, and where your fellow snow pals are and where you’re ..read more
Posted in: Display, Eyewear, Eyewear Display, GPS, HUD, Recon Instruments, Sports, Wearable Tech
