The Red Ferret Journal

Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise. A new device called the Swimsense from FINIS will soon let swimmers monitor their aquatic workouts.

Powered by SportSense, this handy wrist monitor uses state-of-the art technology to automatically track the number of laps, total distance, calories burned, lap time, pace, and stroke count. After you’ve finished your workout, you can peruse your stats or check them out later on the FINIS website.

Another great feature of this fun gadget is it’s supposed to be able to distinguish between the backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle and butterfly stroke.You can configure it to your pool size and calorie calculations to personalize it with your specific gender, weight and age. Or upload it to your PC via USB and review up to 14 previous workouts using a free online workout viewer to track your progress. You can even sign up for a subscription Training Log to track your goals, create workout plans and store an unlimited number of past workouts for overall performance analysis.

This useful device will be available this coming holiday season for $200 US. Sounds like a great Christmas gift for your favorite athlete.

As odd as it sounds, Britain has launched a program to recycle chewing gum and “repurpose” it into tires, childrens toys and mobile phone covers.

A government initiative, which runs from August 18th through September 15th will encourage people to toss their used chewing gum into Gumdrop Bins that are being placed at locations throughout twelve towns in the UK that are participating in the Keep Britain Tidy 2010 Chewing Gum campaign.

Government statistics show that it costs approximately £150m a year just to rid of 3.5 billion pieces of gum irresponsibly disposed of in the United Kingdom. The colorful bins will stay in place for up to six months in some areas. Now if we could just have programs like this throughout the U.S.!

A new campaign in Hereford aims to recycle chewing gum into car tyres, children toys and mobile phone covers.

Tags: eco+gadget, chewing+gum+recycling

For those not-too-hot evenings when you want to sit and enjoy your garden, Slim Accent Solar Lights are a simple elegant way to enhance the mood. Whether staked to the ground or attached to your garden steps or bordering fence, a 4-pack of these will definitely brighten the view. Designed with safety in mind and state-of-the-art solar panels, just two hours of direct sunshine or a few more of indirect sun will light the area all night. And the weather won’t effect them either.

Installation’s easy and they turn off automatically during the day. These cool lights come with two bright LED’s per light and a rechargeable NiCad battery. These slim lights could add a little romance to a quiet evening of star gazing. US$54 for four.

Distinctive construction designed for high safety and illumination by pathways and steps. Low profile construction for high safety. Only 2 hours of solar charging will keep it illuminated all night. It charges by day and automatically turns on at night. No wiring needed. Comes with hardware and installation instructions for ground, rail and fence installation.

Tags: gadget, eco+gadget, slim+accent+solar+lights, garden+lights, eco+lights

If you’ve ever wanted to know how to build an eco-friendly battery, you’ll love the Enviro Battery Kit, made by Green Science. This cool do-it-yourself kit lets you use simple mundane things like mud, lemons and water to power a light, a watch or power up a music chip. It’s a great educational tool to help teach kids about all kinds of environmentally-friendly power sources and the science behind electricity and chemical reactions.

The kit includes parts like copper and zinc plates, connecting wires and a light tower with an LED lamp and detailed instructions that will guide you to create any of a number of experiments. The kit is suitable for children ages 8 and up – with adult supervision – but keep it out of reach of small children. It’s priced at just ~$14 from Amazon. Sounds like great fun for kids and parents too!

If you like to build things with your hands, here is a kit you will love. Learn the science behind the Power! Enviro-Battery uses natural materials like mud, lemons, and water to power a light bulb, a watch, and activate a music chip. Amazing, environmentally friendly science kit that includes detailed instructions so you can create many unusual batteries with fruit juices, vegetables, coins, utensils, and more!

Tags: gadget, eco+gadget, enviro+battery+kit, science+toy

A lot of folks are thinking about down sizing their homes these days, if that’s you then this EDGE house is a compact way to go. The award-winning EDGE, which stands for Experimental Dwelling for a Greener Environment, is a 320 square foot home designed by Wisconsin’s Bill Yudchitz of the design firm Revelation Architects.

Meant to show that we can live greener and better lives in smaller well crafted spaces, the EDGE house is a modular home complete with eco-friendly features that include rainwater collection, geothermal heating and cooling, air-to-air heat recovery, passive solar windows, and insulated external shutter doors that minimize night time heat loss. It comes with multi-functional furniture and two loft-type bedrooms. It’s simple construction allows it to be disassembled and moved as needed.

The EDGE has everything you need – a kitchen, bathroom, bookshelves and storage, and a cube-like central “living room” surrounded on two sides by floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors. Elegance in a small package.

Whether as a full-time residence or vacation home, the EDGE can run you between $60,000 to $150,000. But if you think that less is more, the EDGE may be just what you’re looking for.

Several details of this design make it unique to other prefab designs. The “kinetic facade” rain screen, which consists of tall louvred panels, can be closed over the passive solar windows to insulate the interior and protect the E.D.G.E. when unoccupied. It contains two lofts with full staircases, and the furniture is custom made for the house and is multi-functional. In fact, the dining room furniture transforms into a bed.

Tags: eco+gadget, edge+house, eco+house, tiny+house

If you’ve ever had to change a lock, you know what a hassle it can be. Now the Matrix Key System means you’ll never have to call a locksmith again. Designed by Australian locksmith Stuart Webb, this amazing system disables any lost or stolen keys and can be adapted to any type of lock, including doors, garages and padlocks. It also eliminates the ability to “bump” or jimmy your lock, giving you added security. The bottom line is that to change the lock, you only need to insert a new key into this system and it’s done.

Standard locks use pin tumblers of different lengths placed inside narrow chambers. Insert the correct key and the pins align, which allows the barrel to turn and the lock to open. Webb’s Matrix system lets the length of the pins change when you insert a new key. Each lock sold in this system comes with a series of keys – usually between six and twelve. Want to change the lock? Just grab the next key in the series, insert it into the lock, and viola! You’ve now got a new lock! How easy is that? More info and video here.

… we turned our focus to developing a 100% mechanical product that incorporated the 3 most important features;
* Disable missing keys – this was by far the biggest advantage electronic had over mechanical
* Standard design – it had to be compatible with existing locks and cylinders already in the marketplace.
* Bump-proof – lock-bumping is causing chaos in the Americas and has the same potential here.

Tags: gadget, matrix+key+system, bump+proof+lock, recodable+key

Cell phones and PDA’s put “reaching out” at our fingertips. But the hearing impaired find it difficult to use these because of the low bandwidth of the US wireless phone network. Low bandwidth affects the quality of the video that’s produced.

A team of engineers at the University of Washington are developing the Mobile ASL project – creating the first device to transmit American Sign Language (ASL) over U.S. cellular networks.

The engineers are working to increase image quality around the face and hands, optimizing compressed video signals for sign language. Researchers have been able to bring the data rate down to 30 kilobytes per second while still delivering intelligible sign language.The device also uses motion detection to identify if a person is signing or not, in order to extend the phones’ battery life during video use.

http://www.youtube.com/v/FaE1PvJwI8E

The new MobileASL system could be integrated with the iPhone 4, the HTC Evo, or any device with a video camera on the same side as the screen. A large field study of this device will take place at the end of 2010.

For this technology to exist in the immediate future, the MobileASL project is designing new ASL encoders that are compatible with the new H.264/AVC compression standard using x264 (nearly doubling compression ratios of MPEG-2). The result will be a video compression metric that takes into account empirically validated visual and perceptual processes that occur during conversations in ASL.

Tags: gadget, mobile+asl, mobile+american+sign+language, sign+language+video+phone

Anyone who’s ever had to draw a straight line freehand knows how tough that is. Now this will be a piece of cake with the Constrained Ball, a cool drawing aid by Korean product designer Giha Woo.

Attach any pen and you’ll draw like a pro. This simple device is fitted with a rubber gasket and provides control for the writer to smoothly draw straight across. It even measures the length of the line as you go with a measuring wheel. Made of a flexible rubber material, this cool gadget will let you draw vertical and horizontal lines, as well as 45° angles, perfectly. Where was this device when I was in school?

This invention is regarding a method to draw straight line without using ruler. Normally, ball point pen freely rolls in accordance with a ball that located at the tip of pen. This device is to apply a controlling condition to a ball in order to rolls to only one direction. Let’s draw a straight line with a ball that has restrained with directivity.

Tags: gadget, concept, constrained+ball, drawing+gadget

The Electric Potential Sensors (EPS) is the world’s first electrical heart sensor that works up to one meter (3.3 feet) away from the patient. Created and successfully tested by scientists at the University of Sussex, these wideband sensors can even detect muscle signals, eye movements and brain and nerve-fiber signals. Though still a prototype, researchers are working with smart technology company PassivSystems to determine if an in-home model is feasible. There are still commercial licensing and clinical trials to be done before that can happen, of course.

But the potential for this type of device is awesome. It could be used with the elderly as a self-administered tool to monitor vital signs and help them remain in their homes longer. Larger still, these hands-off sensors could be applied to the aviation, medical science, microchip manufacture and the automotive industries. They could start a exciting new chapter in research and monitoring possibilities.

The sensitivity of these sensors means they can also be used to detect muscle signals and eye movements and, in future, will be developed to detect brain and nerve-fibre signals. The EPS research group team, based in the University of Sussex’s School of Engineering and Design, is lead by Dr Robert Prance, Professor of Sensor Technology.

Tags: gadget, electric+potential+sensors, non+contact+sensors, health+gadget

Sewing may be a fast-vanishing art, but for those who enjoy it, threading a needle is about to get both easier and more stylish. The Little Helper puts a magnifying glass smack in the middle of the thread spool to help make slipping that thread through the eye simpler than ever. Even if you have good eyesight, you’ll appreciate this handy device. No more squinting and struggling to catch the eye of the needle or trying to hold a small magnifying glass in the same hand as the needle and the thread in the other. You know you’ve tried it!

For those of us who’s eyes aren’t what they used to be, this simple gadget could make sewing fun again. Imagine that! [Via Yanko]

Everyone at least once in a lifetime used a needle and thread. These wonderful ancient invitations of humankind have been serving contemporary people up to the present day. There is no such person who never tried sewing and faced difficulties in running a naughty thread through a small eyelet. Even people with good eyesight often have such problems.

Tags: gadget, little+helper, needle+threading+aid

Shopping at big box stores is getting more and more popular but walking through those large stores and storing different sized items can be challenging. This new Z-Cart makes shopping a breeze. Designed with different storage spaces for different types of products, the cart’s main body can hold different sized removable baskets and bags that sit on a basket hanger and it can easily expand.

If you don’t want to use the baskets then you can hang your bags on the bars and shop away. The Z-cart also has an optional rechargeable scooter that powers the cart and gives you somewhere to stand

Designed by Mete A. Mordag, this 21st century styled shopping cart comes equipped with stopping lights, brakes, and a small digital display that shows the battery level. An accelerator is fitted into the handle bars and the Z-Cart has infrared distance detectors in front and in back. Just imagine zipping around Walmart with one of these babies! [Via]

Z-Cart is designed to enable rapid shopping, especially in large supermarkets. The main body, which can hold removable baskets and bags in different sizes can also be expanded when needed.

Tags: gadget, z+cart, electric+shopping+trolley

Motorcyclists have long had issues with seeing what’s around corners during night time riding. BMW’s Adaptive Headlight technology, due out on their upcoming 6-cylinder engine K1600GT touring bike, will light up the highway, dramatically increasing bikers’ ability to see what’s ahead. This is the first time this kind of technology will be used on a motorcycle.

The difference is the angle of the headlight. This new technology will tilt the headlamp as the rider leans into a curve, lighting around the corner on the turn! Its Xenon projection light is centrally-mounted and rotates on its housing to keep the beam level. An on-board banking sensor provides data to the bike’s central computer, which helps control traction, an anti-lock braking system and the headlights.

This new headlight won’t blind oncoming motorists, a real plus for night-time road warriors. No word yet on price but look for this amazing technology in 2011 on BMW’s K1600GT and the 1600GTL. Night riding will get a whole lot safer -- and more fun too!