Paul Ridden

Common sense should be enough to tell us that getting behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol is not a particularly good idea, but still there are those who stupidly risk life and liberty by driving home after the party. When trying to convince such people to call a taxi, friends are often faced with a call for proof that the would-be driver is unfit to drive. Instead of analyzing a user's breath to determine alcohol content, the BreathalEyes app for iPhone detects involuntary eye movement in a similar way to field sobriety tests undertaken by police patrols. Read More

Contrary to celluloid legend, Marty McFly did not invent the skateboard in 1955. Street surfing actually originated a little later and has gone from a few home brewers mounting some roller skate wheels onto the underside of a plywood board to an international sport which challenges both the creative ingenuity and physical capabilities of its participants. The design and structure of board and components have improved greatly over the years, but there appears to have been little headway in feeding back vital performance data to riders. Designer and manufacturer of military grade tracking technologies Edgetrak and performance board producer wefunk have now joined forces to fill the void. The newly-formed Stealth Division has just put the finishing touches to a new operational prototype longboard called the Mach1, the first deck in the world to feature built-in telemetrics. Read More

The closing of the year is a great time to reflect on recent events. Regular readers will already know that musical instrument development is a bit of a passion of mine, and 2011 has been a great year for innovation. Join me, if you will, for a quick retrospective look at some of the tech we've been treated to during the last 12 months, ending with a recent take on an old classic - the Crap-o-Caster. Read More

Music lovers wanting to listen to digital music files on the move are pretty much spoiled for choice these days, whether keeping things personal with players like the Cowon C2 I reviewed earlier in the month, or sharing with friends using something like the FoxL v2 wireless loudspeaker. If commercial designs don't really appeal, though, there is another route - you could always build your own. Matt Keeter's Fab Boombox is just such a device, designed and built for a final class project and featuring laser-cut, snap-together panels housing stereo speakers (said to be loud in a quiet room and quiet in a noisy room), a custom main control board with an MP3 decoder and a 9V battery power source. Digital music is fed into the player via an SD card slot, with the user controlling playback on a touch-sensitive interface. Read More

In my part of the world, quad bikes (or ATVs) are everywhere. They're great for dropping in and out of the fields to check the vines, as well as hitting the road or dirt track for a bit of well-earned fun. Although there are quite powerful examples, for the most part quads are unlikely to generate the same kind of drool as, say, a Ducati superbike. That's certainly not true of Lazareth's Wazuma V8F - which is built around a 250 horsepower Ferrari 3 liter V8 engine, features a BMW gearbox and sports customized Brembo braking and Momo rims. As you've probably already worked out, though, this unique beast of a quad doesn't come cheap. Read More

Electronics enthusiast Miroslaw Sowa and programmer Vsevolod Zagainov - both from Montreal, Canada - are currently busy putting the final touches on a new button-based, guitar-shaped sound machine called the Tabstrummer. In the same way that tablature notation has allowed players like me (who are unable to read score) to learn new songs, this new MIDI instrument allows folks who'd like to play a guitar, but for whatever reason can't, the opportunity to easily create some chord-strumming music. The instrument allows chord shapes to be assigned to clicky buttons on the short neck, which can then be recalled and played as a song by simultaneously strumming or picking the virtual strings. Read More

Just when you think that USB Flash storage can't possibly get any smaller, a company pops up with something so tiny that you're going to need the corded fob to make sure you don't lose it. Dutch promotional product manufacturer Deonet - maker of a diamond-studded Golden USB memory stick and an FSC-certified, maple-enclosed Eco Wood drive - has announced just such a portable storage solution, and is the latest to claim the title of the world's smallest USB stick. Read More

Since its initial launch five years ago, the T3 Motion's stand-up electric three-wheeler has been snapped up by law enforcement, security and military concerns in nearly 30 countries. Shoppers who have looked on with envy as Mall security whizzes past in pursuit of a shoplifter can now rest easy. T3 Motion is responding to what it describes as pent up customer demand and will launch a consumer version called the T3 Power Sport. It won't come with the frightening fire power of the T3 Non-Lethal Response Vehicle, but it will have a top speed of 12 mph, a range of up to 40 miles and will be available in a range of colors and custom paint job or logo options. Read More

When it comes to big screen all-in-one computers, Apple's iMac seems to rule the roost. PC users have plenty of choice at smaller screen sizes but there's a bit of a gap at the 27-inch end of the space-saving format. ASUS has finally introduced its ET2700 All-in-One PC Series to fill the void. Available with up to Core i7 processing power and up to 2TB of onboard storage, the new AIO models are also said to be the first in the world to offer 10-point multi-touch display interaction. Read More