Ben Coxworth
On a regular analog watch, there’s a small pocket of air between the face of the watch and the inside surface of the crystal. On his new Ressence Type 3 watch, however, Belgian designer Benoit Mintiens has filled that space with a clear refractive fluid. As a result, its revolving indications appear to be projected right onto its domed crystal. You could almost think of it as the Magic 8 Ball of high-end timepieces. Read More
Revolights are an innovative form of bicycle lighting, in which rings of LEDs are clipped onto a bike’s existing rims, essentially turning the wheels into head- and tail-lights. Now that the Kickstarter-funded system has reached production, its creators have decided to offer something else – wheels with built-in Revolights. Read More
Last December, Liquid Robotics made headlines when one of its Wave Glider aquatic robots completed a “swim” from San Francisco to Australia. It marked the longest distance ever traveled by an autonomous vehicle of any type. The research/surveillance robot was part of a fleet of four that took part in the demo project. One of the others successfully reached Australia later, while the other pair are still on their way to their alternate destination of Japan. Today, the company announced its SV3 – the new-and-improved version of the existing Wave Glider robot. Read More
You probably don’t give a lot of thought to squid beaks, but they actually possess a pretty interesting quality. While the end of the beak is hard and sharp, the beak material gradually becomes softer as it nears the mouth. This means that there’s no abrupt boundary between the hard beak and the soft mouth, which could result in discomfort or injuries. Inspired by the squid, scientists at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University have now developed a material with the same qualities, that could be used to create more comfortable, less harmful medical implants. Read More
Like so many other illicit drugs, cocaine can be extremely, destructively addictive. Recent research suggests, however, that ridding people of such addictions may be as simple as zapping them on them scalp. In a study conducted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco, scientists were able to turn cocaine addiction on and off in rats via pulses of laser light to their brains. Read More
Cyclists just love their multi-tools. Unfortunately, given the emphasis that’s placed on keeping these tools small (and thus short), they usually provide very little leverage for tightening and loosening bolts. The Nutter addresses that problem by combining a multi-tool with something that most cyclists will be carrying with them anyway – a tire lever. Read More
Never before have I so wished that I could use a device for taking photos of that device. That was certainly the case with Photojojo’s US$30 Pocket Spotlight, however. It’s simply a tiny battery-powered array of 32 LED bulbs, that provide a source of soft, even light as an alternative to the harsh light of a flash. While serious photographers will already have proper lighting systems of their own, it’s a nice tool for all the point-and-shooters out there. Read More
Currently, wind turbines are inspected for damage in two main ways: someone stands on the ground below them and uses a telescope, or people use rigging systems to actually climb across them. Now, Oregon, Wisconsin-based Helical Robotics is offering an alternative – camera-equipped turbine-climbing robots. Read More
Thermoelectric materials, putting it simply, are able to generate electricity via differences in temperature. If thermoelectric felt were used to make a jacket, for instance, it could generate a current using the temperature gradient between the warm interior and cold exterior of the garment. Like many such promising technologies, however, the cost of thermoelectrics is something of an issue ... although thanks to a new process developed at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology, that might not be the case for much longer. Read More
There was a time when wooden-framed bicycles were quite the oddity. While you still don’t see them much in stores, it’s now not that unusual to come across models such as the Lagomorph or Renovo’s duo bikes on the internet. The Sawyer, however, is a little different – it’s a lowrider cruiser bike, that’s quite obviously built from flat sheets of beech plywood. Read More
