Keitai KunKun cellphone smell tones. Pfaff, keep your snazzy ringtones, what you really need are odour tones which trigger when your mobile phone rings or an email arrives. Must be activated by the signal from the incoming call. Mind you, not sure it’s going to be much use when your phone rings in the middle of a crowded commuter train, eh, and you’re mashed up against armpit from Accrington? Is the first among the world! It is news universal design in…
Read MoreMonthly Archives: November 2005
Horse riding safety.
The Hit-Air Horse Riding Vest is an inflatable airbag vest which protects you if you’re thrown from yer horse. The Duke may not have needed one, but it looks pretty cool tech nonetheless. When the rider is thrown away from the horse for certain distance, an airbag contained in the vest inflates instantly to protect the body. With a pulling force of over 25 kgs, a coiled wire, connecting the saddle and the airbag vest, pulls a key out of…
Read MoreColorization by numbers.
A team of researchers at Hebrew University in Israel have developed what seems to be a fast and simple way to colorize black and white still images and movies. This may be good news or bad, depending on which side of the ‘art is art’ divide you come from. A major difficulty with colorization has been its labor-intensiveness. For example, in order to colorize a still image an artist typically begins by dividing the image into regions, and then proceeds to…
Read MoreTransparent screens.
Transparent Screens. Just love this group of Flikr folks with far too much time on their hands who create cool optical illusions with gadgets.
Read MoreLapgard.
Lapgard. Men, protect your testicular function and scrotal temperatures with this portable notebook computer heat shield. Also contains a multicore radiation barrier to screen out electro-magnetic waves and radiation from reaching your…ahem…precious little places. Too many jokes, not enough time. £24.99. Research has shown that sperm counts have dropped by almost a third in a decade, prompting renewed concerns about male fertility. A study of 7,500 men attending the Aberdeen Fertility Centre between 1989 and 2002 showed that average sperm concentrations…
Read MoreCard sharp.
The new Fujifilm DCR2–161 16–in-1 card reader and USB hub is certainly uber versatile, but I can’t help thinking that we poor consumers really shouldn’t have to deal with 16 different memory card formats for our devices, should we? If we had a bit more gumption we’d complain to to the manufacturers in a language they understand, by not buying into every crummy new format – you listening Sony? – and thereby force them to consolidate down to a more reasonable…
Read MoreListen to mother.
Magnetic Time. Listen to your Word documents or emails in audio MP3 format on your iPod, mobile phone or Pocket PC. The idea is pretty cool, but the price is a tad high at $54.99. SPACE: Will it take up much Space on my iPod (Phone/PDA)? No! We use 4-5 times ‘less’ space (per email or document page) than a typical song on your iPod. THE VOICE: Is the Voice like those tinny ones in bad sci-fi movies? No! Advances…
Read MoreThe LED Cap.
The LED Message Cap. Let the world know what you think, or maybe not. Perfect for the indecisive activist in your family. * Fully programmable: no cords, no wires, no software needed. * LED: 17 x 7 Dot Matrix * Memory: up to 6 messages, up to 256 characters on each message * Messages automatically stored when switched off * 4 scrolling message speeds *Power supply: CR2032 button battery * Red/ Blue / Green / White / Yellow / Pink LED…
Read MoreFingerprint mammal.
The Fingkey Hamster 2 fingerprint recognition device. What’s clever? Well it uses light to tell whether the finger is actually alive or not. Yuck. And since when has biometric equipment ever aligned itself with small furry brown and white critters? It is an upgraded version of the previous model adding a Nitzen’s new ‘Live Finger Detection’ technology. Live Finger Detection technology refers to that perceives whether something is a live thing or not by utilizing reaction to light. This model features Nitzen’s…
Read MoreWedding Day Survival Kit.
The Wedding Day Survival Kit. $49.95. Just about everything you may need if something goes horribly wrong. Except, of course, the groom. If he goes horribly missing, well…. The kit contains the following fast-fix tools: a toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, mints, drinking straw, pain reliever, antacid, hand lotion, emery board, clear nail polish, facial tissues, deodorant, tampons, adhesive bandages, hair brush, hair spray, bobby pins, interior mirror, lint remover, mending kit, scissors, safety pins, stain remover, static remover, super glue,…
Read MoreThe Baller Cheat pen.
The Baller Pen. They’re calling it the cheat pen, and for fairly good reason since each one contains a 6.5 inch retractable erasable sheet which can be marked with pencils, washable felt tips etc. Decidedly dodgy, doncha think? $7.50. * Secretly pass messages in class * Take down quick notes * Never forget a phone number or email addy * Quiz yourself by making flash cards * Study on the go without taking out all your notes * Make…
Read MoreMy Chinese factory tour.
In honour of President Hu of China’s state visit to London this week, I thought I would share with you peeps a short photo show of a recent visit I made to a Chinese printer factory in the booming Shenzhen economic area, an hour or so from Hong Kong on the Chinese mainland. Hopefully you may find it interesting to see how your electronics are being created at source. I found it genuinely fascinating.
Read MoreFast Act.
Fast Act. Anti chemical weapon weapon. Spray on, mop up. Good against VX gas, mustard gas, and other nasty stuff. Works within 90 seconds. Feel better now? Upon contact with FAST-ACT the agent is quickly adsorbed and then destroyed. The destruction is confirmed by changes in the NMR spectra (SBCCOM) and by inability to extract the agent from the powder (Battelle). In 10 minutes 99% of GD and over 99.9% of VX is destroyed. After 60 minutes 70-80% of HD…
Read More1000 top web design tools.
Web design tools. You want ‘em? We’ve got ‘em. Here’s the pick of the crop – if you can’t find it here, it don’t exist. Oh no! Web Developer’s Handbook. Unbelievably comprehensive collection of webmeister stuff. CSS References. Massive collection of tutorials; A-Z, beginner to veteran. The Best of the Web. Another absolutely huge collection of web design resources. The Layout Cookbook. 500 great layouts to help create your own customised design. Typography Crash Course. Fabulous round-up of tools for this oh so…
Read MoreGSpot.
GSpot. Having trouble playing video? Then use this clever free utility which analyses the problem and tells you what you need to do to correct it. Cool tool. Establishes what video codecs (audio and video) are required to play an AVI file. Determines whether these codecs are installed on your system. solates problems associated with these codecs. Simple operation – Basic use: “File > Open”, then read results
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