Subscribe to Gizmag's RSS feed
Follow Gizmag on Twitter
Loz Blain
- Under the sea: Dubai's underwater hotel takes shape (114,564 Views)
- Canadian T-REX 3-wheel street racer (109,294 Views)
- The 3D air-mouse you wear as a ring (105,287 Views)
- The flying motorcycle - road-registered and available now (100,308 Views)
- Zero Pollution compressed Air Car set for U.S. launch in 2010 (99,087 Views)
All Articles by Loz Blain
The ECOS Harbinger - an electric, Euro-styled supercar for under US$90,000
By Loz Blain
02:52 November 20, 2009 PST
Building electric cars will come with its own set of challenges - but then, in other ways things are going to get a whole lot easier. With plenty of battery technology available pretty much off-the-shelf, and electric motors being incredibly simple compared with their combustion counterparts, there's not a lot stopping small, independent operators from building fun electrics and getting them to market as soon as they're approved for sale. And such is the case with the ECOS Harbinger - which truly could foretell a bit of a small-business revolution in electric sportscars. US$89,995 will buy you a 120mph, 150-mile per charge, 6 second electric supercar with Lambo-style looks and scissor doors to boot. Nice! Read More
Snowboarding through the summertime: the Snowtunnel
By Loz Blain
01:21 November 19, 2009 PST
The trouble with seasonal sports is that you've literally got to follow the seasons around the globe if you want to live your passion year-round. That, or let technology find a way to bring you your outdoor thrills indoors - like the Snowtunnel does. We've seen Dubai's lavish indoor ski slopes in the middle of the desert - now, this Aussie invention gives snowboarders the chance to cut a neverending icy edge for a fraction of the cost it takes to operate other indoor ski facilities. Sure, it'd be nothing like the feeling of dropping in, carving and jumping your way down a mountain slope, but the Snowtunnel looks like its own kind of fun. Read More
XOR's folding electric scooters: a new relationship with your wheels
By Loz Blain
23:07 November 18, 2009 PST
One of the fun things we've got to look forward to as electric vehicles become more and more common is a changing of the relationship we have with our wheels. The XO2 electric scooter is a fine example - it'll behave fairly similarly to a regular electric scooter on the road, but when you get where you're going, instead of parking it on the sidewalk where it's exposed to rain, thieves and vandals, you can fold it up and bring it into your apartment or office, and plug it in to charge. We talk a lot about the coming population explosion here on Gizmag, with billions more people to be crammed into our urban centers in the next 50 years. Devices like these seem tailor-made for the type of living we're inevitably moving towards. Read More
C-string makes your average thong look like grannypants (NSFW)
By Loz Blain
19:44 November 15, 2009 PST
Does this fit under our 'emerging technology' tagline? It's hard to say. It's certainly emerging from somewhere. Ladies, if you find a g-string too restrictive, or you're fond of wearing paper-thin dresses and waging an eternal war against the visible panty line, you now have the option of wearing the above device, which is called the CString. While there's no 'string' actually involved, onlookers can certainly 'C' just about everything, including an awkward rear aspect that looks something like a pencil clenched between the wearer's buttocks. This is one of those occasions when we should *all* be glad that this isn't a Gizmag road test. There are further photos in the gallery, but we'd struggle to call them safe for work. You've been warned. Read More
BMW brings back the six-cylinder motorcycle with its hottest concept bike ever
By Loz Blain
22:35 November 12, 2009 PST
BMW released stunning images this week of a new concept motorcycle that nobody saw coming, featuring the resurgence of an engine configuration we all thought was long-dead. In recent years Triumph has stamped itself as the master of modern triples, and now BMW has made a clear statement of intent that it's bringing the inline six back to the bike world. The Concept 6 showcases a brand-new 1600cc engine that's four inches narrower than any previous production six, and produces truly prodigious power and torque throughout the rev range. And it's housed in a cafe racer body that has to go down as the sexiest motorcycle design BMW have ever produced. Sensational stuff... We can has production model plz? Read More
Massive performance on land or sea - the amphibious WaterCar Python
By Loz Blain
22:22 November 10, 2009 PST
We've dealt with plenty of amphibious vehicles here at Gizmag, and they've tended to fall into two camps - practical but unexciting, or cool but nonexistent - at least in a production sense. So the WaterCar Python comes as a bit of a surprise, looking for all the world like a pimped-out pickup truck, but offering blistering performance both on land and water. With the right engines built in, this hot rod can make mid 12s at the drag strip, hit 60mph in 4.5 seconds, and burn up the highway at well past 120mph - and it's capable of more than 60mph on the water as well - a true performance boat once the wheels are lifted out of the way. Crazy stuff! Read More
Austrian composer simulates speech using... A piano?
By Loz Blain
23:54 October 7, 2009 PDT
Remember back in the 80s when Steve Vai used to make his guitar "talk" to David Lee Roth? That video clip is here, but be warned, Roth's bare butt peeking through the holes in his leather chaps is one of the LEAST offensive things in the clip. It seems things have become more refined in the last 20-odd years. This fascinating clip shows how Austrian composer Peter Ablinger has programmed a mechanically-actuated piano to reproduce recorded human speech. And yes, you can somehow understand it. Read More
The world's oldest hotel - open nearly 1300 years
By Loz Blain
02:19 October 2, 2009 PDT
It's said that less than one in five businesses started today will be around in five years' time - which puts this story into perspective. Hōshi Ryokan is a hotel and spa in Komatsu, Japan. It has been owned and run by the same family for 46 generations so far, and its famous hot springs have been refreshing and revitalizing its patrons for no less than 1291 years. Founded by a Buddhist disciple whose master had the springs' location delivered to him in a dream, Hōshi is the world's oldest hotel and also the world's oldest continuously-operating business. Read More
The GG Quadster - a four-wheeled, 167-horsepower quad bike for the road
By Loz Blain
21:34 October 1, 2009 PDT
Since the emergence of non-tilting 3-wheelers like the bizarre snowmobile-for-the-road Can-Am Spyder, and the abundance of attention they've received, this new class of novelty multi-wheelers seems to be gathering steam. The latest we've run across, thanks to a Gizmag reader suggestion, is the GG Quadster. This Swiss creation takes the 167-horsepower motor and electrics from a BMW K1200 sportsbike and puts it in a 4-wheeled chassis with sticky sports tyres and more machined billet aluminum than comes out of OCC in a whole week. At US$65,000, or around US$40k more than the Can-Am Spyder, you'll rarely see one on the road. But if you do, and there's a really tall black guy riding it, you might want to catch him for an autograph. Read More
Video: the state of the art in robot perception and dexterity
By Loz Blain
21:02 September 29, 2009 PDT
Don't watch the video after the jump if you've recently seen a Terminator movie - because it's becoming clear that if the robots come after us, there'll be no stopping them. The video shows an incredible array of three-fingered robot hand/eye co-ordination exercises, including throwing and catching, spinning pens, tying knots and dribbling a ping-pong ball. The Ishikawa Komuro laboratory at the University of Tokyo put these videos together to demonstrate the incredibly quick parallel processing they are achieving with a mix of visual and tactile sensory inputs. Astounding stuff. Sarah Connor, you're in deep trouble. Read More
Diapermotard? Ducati dips under US$10 grand to deliver its baby Hypermotard 796
By Loz Blain
22:58 September 28, 2009 PDT
Ducati's supermotard-on-steroids, the 1100 Hypermotard, has been terrorizing the streets for a couple of years now, a concept bike that became reality after it made a sensational splash at the 2005 EICMA show in Milan. Aimed at marrying some of the soft-suspension, short-wheelbase, low-weight feel of a motard with the grunt of a 100-horsepower L-twin motor and unmistakeable Ducati streetbike style, the Hypermotard is an absolute giggle machine. It's also fairly pricey though, which is why Ducati have just given it a much more affordable little brother. The Hypermotard 796 will sneak in under US$10,000, using a torqued-up version of the 696 Monster engine and boasting both less weight and a lighter clutch than the 1100. Read More
iNudge - try out this free, online music sequencing widget
By Loz Blain
08:22 September 24, 2009 PDT
More than a little reminiscent of Yamaha's bizarre Tenori-On, iNudge is a free online composition and sequencing tool that takes all the pesky music training out of making music. Playing with its neat grid interface, anyone can come up with funky little beats and make quirky electro tunes. It's a product of an age where musical talent can be completely divorced from the ability to manipulate strings, wind or membranes to get a desired sound - and it's a lot of fun. Have a try right here in your browser window, just click through. Read More
Video: Laser/smoke microphone promises the world's most accurate sound capture
By Loz Blain
06:41 September 23, 2009 PDT
The quest for ever more realistic sound reproduction seems set to move to a whole new level. Traditional microphones convert sound to electrical signals by measuring the deflections that sound vibrations cause in a diaphragm. But each diaphragm has its own weight, inertia and resistance, which colors the sound that gets recorded. So American digital audio pioneer David Schwartz, who invented the MP3 sound format, has come up with a novel new type of microphone that virtually eliminates the microphone's mechanical interference with the sound. The laser/smoke microphone uses a laser to measure the deflections that sound makes in a steady stream of smoke - which is virtually weightless. Prepare for a new wave of high-fidelity microphone technology. Read More
Anti-paparazzi lasers being fitted to the world's biggest private yacht
By Loz Blain
05:34 September 22, 2009 PDT
Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich rose from obscurity and successfully navigated the shady world of early Russian privatization to become one of the world's wealthiest self-made billionaires. His 40-man private army of security personnel make him one of the best-protected businessmen in the world, and when his private gigayacht the Eclipse is handed over in time for Christmas this year, it will be the largest (at a staggering 560ft) and most expensive (at US$1.2 billion) private yacht the world has ever seen. Security will be as tight as you'd expect, with missile defence and intruder detection systems - but the Eclipse's most notable feature is a privacy system that can detect the digital cameras of snooping paparazzi and blind them with laser bursts, ruining spy photos. Read More
The world's first floating, rotating (floatating?) hotel building
By Loz Blain
05:47 September 18, 2009 PDT
Antalya is a city of around 800,000 people on the Southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Like most cities in that region, it has played host to a revolving cast of empires over the centuries, from the Romans, to the Byzantines to the Ottomans and Turks. Nestled between a stunning coastline and majestic mountain ranges, it's known as one of the most beautiful cities in Turkey, and it's also the site of one of the world's most unusual hotels. The Hotel Marmara Antalya features the only fully rotating hotel building in the world - and the way they've done it is fascinating. Read More
Gizcast #11: bone conduction hearing implants, targeted chemotherapy and the electric car stampede that's storming Frankfurt
By Loz Blain
08:11 September 17, 2009 PDT
In this week's Gizcast, Geoffrey Baird speaks with audiologist Anthea Arkcoll about a new type of hearing aid that bypasses the ear altogether and uses bone conduction technology to send a direct signal to the auditory nerve. Then Loz Blain wraps up with some of the most interesting electric and green car concepts the Giz team are drooling over in Frankfurt, and a quick look at a medical device that could give doctors a new way to fight stubborn cancer tumours. Read More
Mission One sets electric land-speed record with production prototype motorcycle
By Loz Blain
05:20 September 15, 2009 PDT
Electric motorcycles, while economical, technologically fascinating and environmentally friendly, are unlikely to light a fire under the average petrolhead until they start tickling our inner hooligans... Which is why we're hanging out to throw a leg over the Mission One electric superbike. Fresh from its first run at the Isle of Man TTXGP, this battery-powered beast pulls power wheelies from faster than freeway speeds, handles like a dream and can top 150 miles on a battery charge. And the latest feather in the Mission One team's cap is a national AMA land-speed record for electric motorcycles. Product Manager and test rider Jeremy Cleland pushed a production prototype - with the same powertrain that customers will get off the shelf in late 2010 - to a top speed of 161mph (259kph) and a two-way land speed record of 150.059mph (241.5kph) in poor conditions and high winds at Utah's Bonneville salt flats. Excellent. Read More
Targeted chemotherapy - fighting cancer without the side effects
By Loz Blain
02:28 September 14, 2009 PDT
A Silicon Valley entrepreneur, after watching helplessly through his sister's painful and terminal battle with cancer, has spent the last 9 years working on a system that lets doctors cut off blood flow to tumors, isolating them from the rest of the body and allowing the injection of a targeted dose of high intensity chemotherapy. Since the chemo drugs aren't let loose around the rest of the body, the usual devastating side-effects aren't an issue - and the drug dosage at the tumor site can be safely administered at a much higher concentration than usual. The IsoFlow Isolation Catheter has just received FDA marketing approval in the USA. Read More
First ride: Honda's outrageous(?) DN-01 automatic sports-cruiser motorcycle
By Loz Blain
23:55 September 9, 2009 PDT
At a recent Honda test-ride day, I finally had the chance to throw a leg over what must be one of the oddest motorcycles on the market - the bizarre DN-01 "sports cruiser." The Dino's way-out looks don't particularly float my boat, but it's bristling with fascinating new technology, like Honda's 'Human-Friendly' automatic transmission (HFT), which operates as a CVT in Drive or Sports modes, but is also able to mimic a 6-speed manual box when you want to get some gumboot up it. Then there's the Combined Braking System (CBS) with ABS, which isn't quite as techno as the computer controlled Combined ABS system going into Honda's new sportsbikes, but it's still right at the pointy end of motorcycle brake technology. So how did it ride? Read More
Gizcast #10: The world's best boat design?
By Loz Blain
02:52 September 9, 2009 PDT
As the Gizcast breaks double figures, Michael Mulcahy speaks to Tony Armstrong of Austal, a West Australian shipbuilding company that's leading the world in the construction of fast ferries. Austal has just signed some huge contracts with the U.S. Navy thanks to its revolutionary trimaran ship design that delivers an almost miraculous set of benefits over traditional single hull and catamaran designs. Geoffrey Baird's also got a roundup of top stories from the Gizmag.com homepage. Presented by Loz Blain. Read More
Mind-reading brain probe could unlock motor control for quadriplegics
By Loz Blain
15:16 September 4, 2009 PDT
While Honda is taking a benign and non-invasive approach to the coveted brain-machine interface, British researchers are experimenting with a sensor array that is actually implanted in the brain. Dr. Jon Spratley's "multi-contact brain probe" is designed to be injected into the tissue of the brain with a fine needle, where it will sit, monitoring electrical impulses across the brain's motor cortex and relaying them wirelessly to an external device. Spratley believes the technology could unlock a range of bionic possibilities for quadriplegics, who could, for example, learn to control a wheelchair or computer mouse using the same brain commands that used to operate their arms and legs. Read More
Confederate's all-aluminium P120 Fighter Combat motorcycle
By Loz Blain
17:54 September 1, 2009 PDT
Harley-Davidson might have set the mold for the archetypical American motorcycle, but it's boutique brand Confederate that has taken it to the extreme. Confederate's Hellcat and Wraith are glaringly unique machines - all metal and carbon, nasty skeletal designs dripping with confrontational attitude. Now they're joined by the limited-edition Fighter Combat - a celebration of machined metal that looks like it's been chiseled from one hunk of polished aluminum for the next Terminator movie. But beyond its arresting looks, there's some interesting ideas on board. Read More
Possible cure for peanut allergy discovered: peanuts
By Loz Blain
01:22 August 31, 2009 PDT
Peanut allergies are very common - something like one in every 200 children will suffer from some sort of reaction, and while roughly 100 people per year die as a result, peanuts are still thought to be the most prevalent food-related cause of death. Certainly, for those afflicted, it's a huge annoyance to be constantly checking labels and asking at restaurants just to make sure. So it's good to hear that Duke University researchers are making progress on a cure - or at least a therapy for reducing the effects of peanut exposure. Read More
Video: Eric Giler demonstrates wireless electricity at TEDGlobal 2009
By Loz Blain
23:21 August 30, 2009 PDT
It's fascinating to think that while Edison and Tesla battled over the ascendancy of AC versus DC, most of the world didn't think this electricity thing was going to take off - I mean, who was going to spend trillions of dollars rolling out great coils of copper wire to bring this thing to the masses? Nikola Tesla was thinking along the same lines, and the Serbian genius's mysterious Wardenclyffe Tower was to be an experiment in beaming electricity wirelessly across the world, eliminating the need for a wired power grid altogether. But wireless electricity has been enjoying a cautious revival in the past decade - mainly at short distance and for reasonably trivial applications like charging cell phones and other battery-powered equipment. And as Eric Giler's great ten-minute demonstration at this year's TEDGlobal shows, wireless power seems very close to breaking through into the mainstream market. Read More
Four crucial resources that may run out in your lifetime
By Loz Blain
06:14 August 27, 2009 PDT
We're living in lucky times. Living standards - in the Western world, at least - are the highest in history. It's an era of relative peace and plenty that would amaze our ancestors. But it's not going to continue forever; we're already stretching many of our natural resources to their limits, and the world's population will jump from 6.5 billion to around 9 billion over the next 50 years. Get ready for a painful correction - here are four interconnected resources that are headed for a catastrophic squeeze within our lifetime. Read More
Terotech
- November 21, 2009 @ 19:38 UTC
