Good Thinking

Chris Peacock may not have reinvented the wheel, but he’s definitely reinvented the cup. The British inventor has created handSteady, an ergonomic cup to help people with health conditions (such as tremor, joint pain and Parkinson’s disease) to have their drinks without undergoing a nerve-wracking, socially-awkward challenge.  Read More

First responders such as firefighters or police officers are often faced with a difficult situation – they need to get into a building as fast as possible, yet it’s unsafe for them to just blindly run in without knowing what hazards await them. Some groups are attempting to address this problem by designing reconnaissance robots, although such devices can be expensive and/or complex. Boston-based Bounce Imaging, however, is putting the finishing touches on something a little more simple to use – a throwable smart ball.  Read More

What would you do if your 12 year-old son announced that he’d like to dress up as the armor-clad Emile character from the game Halo: Reach for Hallowe’en? While many parents might just take a cursory look for a cheap, ready-made costume, that’s not what Steve Sobchyshyn did. Instead, he spent an estimated 150 hours and a couple of hundred bucks building his own from scratch. The end result, we’re sure you’ll agree, was well worth it.  Read More

The SIM cards that fit into those tiny slots in your cell phone and tell your cellular network to whom your calls are to be charged come in four different sizes. With the only real difference between them the amount of excess plastic on which the circuitry is housed, MicroSIMcutter's new SIM card cutter can cut either mini- or micro-SIM cards into the nano-SIM form factor, allowing a user switching phones to recycle their existing card.  Read More

When South African craftsman Richard Van As lost most of the fingers from his right hand in an industrial accident, he decided to try and create a prosthetic finger to regain some of his lost mobility. In order to bring this about, Richard recruited the help of Washington State native Ivan Owen, after being impressed with the latter's mechanical hand prop which he had posted on YouTube. The result could be a boon to amputees everywhere.  Read More

As input methods like the Gauntlet, Kee4, ASETNIOP and the back-type prototype from AlphaUI effectively demonstrate, there are many novel ways to enter text into a computer system. I'll wager that few (if any) Gizmag readers would consider using a set of drums to type out messages, though. But that's precisely what Alec Smecher has done. He readily admits that it's not the most practical typing solution but it is helping him to hone his skills as a bucket banger.  Read More

The shirt button is so simple, cheap and effective, there's really no reason to change or replace it ... but one designer saw a tad more potential in this ubiquitous piece of daily fashion, adding in a whole new function. Now the shirt button can secure two things at once. With help from an added groove on its side, the Button 2.0 fastens both your shirt and headphone cable.  Read More

It's a positive thing that we're all different; that humanity isn't made up of automatons who all have the same wants, needs, and desires. Unfortunately while each of us can furnish our homes in whichever way we see fit, the same isn't true of our places of work. Those who work in offices generally have to make do with whatever furniture is provided, even if it doesn't suit their individual needs. Providing options is therefore a good strategy, and XTable from Holmris offers nothing but options.  Read More

This year’s James Dyson Award provided potential entrants with a pretty broad brief – develop a problem solving invention. The international jury has now whittled down the 501 entries received from university students hailing from 18 countries around the world to 15 finalists. We take a look at the projects still in the running to claim a slice of the £20,000+ (US$32,385+) prize pool up for grabs.  Read More