Good Thinking
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New beer tap pours beer four times faster and increases keg yield by 30%
July 19, 2005 Beer is big business - the world consumes 150 billion litres of beer annually and in America alone, beer is a US$78.1 billion dollar industry accounting for 54% of all alcoholic beverage sales in dollars. Which is why the TurboTap is such an important invention - the oddly-shaped elongated beer tap pours beer four times faster than existing beer taps at the same time as increasing keg yield by up to 30% and reducing training time to roughly 60 seconds. By increasing the number of customers that can be served in a given time by bar staff, the TurboTap can significantly increase throughput at peak times, and reduce staff numbers across the board. For the customer, it will mean shorter queues and a perfect beer every time. It’s a classic case of recognising the important problem and the founder of TurboTap, 31-year-old Matthew Younkle did just that in seeking out the technology to pour a faster, more consistent beer. (read more...)
RFID Wal-Mart Compliance Kits Unveiled
July 15, 2005 RFID is an important technology for the future and with major purchasers such as the US Department of Defense and America’s largest retailer Walmart mandating the use of RFID by its suppliers, the clock is ticking to embrace the new technology for many suppliers and indeed, for everyone in retail, logistics and supply chain management to assess the technology. This week Baltimore based Barcoding Inc. released several RFID kits that will allow companies to comply with the Wal-Mart mandates as well as investigate the technology for future use in their own supply chain. Currently there are three main reasons why companies are purchasing RFID technology: they are complying with customer mandates, they are evaluating the technology for their own use, or they are preparing for the future. Barcoding Inc. has created three kits, each addressing one of these reasons. There’s also a useful downloadable 10 page overview of RFID. (read more...)
Optimus Keyboard by Art.Lebedev
July 16, 2005 Moscow-based design studio Art. Lebedev may be Russia’s largest design house but it didn’t quite expect the reaction it received when it posted its latest creation, the Optimus keyboard. The keyboard uses OLED technology so that every key is a stand-alone display showing exactly what it is controlling at that moment. Accordingly, you can switch from language to language, or program to program and the functionality of the key will be reflected in the image it shows. If the response to the company’s web site posting is any indication, the keyboard is already a runaway hit, with 230,000 page views and an average two emails a minute from people wanting the keyboard. In brief, the keyboard is likely to become available in 2006, will be OS-independent and “will cost less than a good mobile phone.” It will be open source (a software developers kit will be available) and companies can OEM the keyboard. Indeed, there may even be an ergonomic version. (read more...)
Commercial Flash Mobbing
July 15, 2005 Now this isn’t a gizmo, but it is a very interesting twist on using new media in a clever new way. Several of America's most talented and intriguing rock and hip hop music artists will perform in a series of free, up-close-and-personal "flash concerts" for fans across America this summer -- but there's only one catch, they're keeping the details secret. Ford Motor Company in collaboration with Sony Pictures Digital have created Fusion Flash Concerts, a series of ten free unannounced-until-the-last-minute concerts performed by hot and emerging music artists in secret locations across the USA. All 10 acts are announced to "Insiders" at the last minute and you can be an insider if you visit the promotion's web site and register all your details. Now Flash Mobbing isn’t new – but using it for commercial ends is a new spin on the anarchic beginnings of the trend. Fusion Flash Concerts is a commercial take on the underground "flash mob" phenomenon. Flash mobs are instant gatherings of large groups of people who are notified via emails or text messages just prior to the event taking place, and simultaneously converge on a set location. (read more...)
LED Emergency & Smart Light
July 6, 2005 Are we just suckers for a gadget or is this US$30 multi-tasking rechargeable LED flashlight a really good idea? Plug the Sentina (that's what it's called) into any power outlet and it charges itself during the day, sensing when darkness falls and becoming a nightlight. If the mains power should fail during darkness, the Sentina can be unplugged to become a torch with eight hours of emergency flashlight power. Finally, the Sentina is also a motion detector and can be set to switch on when someone enters the room. Apart from being handy to light the way in an otherwise darkened house (the light stays lit for one minute), the motion sensing will alert you to any movement in your room giving it useful functionality in a host of situations. (read more...)
The intelligent, multiple-play lottery ticket
July 5 2005 The ability to embed intelligence in a credit card has long been worthwhile, but thanks to Moore’s Law, we’re set to see the rise of some very intelligent extended-play scratchcards, lottery tickets, casino games and disposable credit-card-sized promotional games. Electronic Game Card Inc. (EGC) is a listed US corporation that has developed a unique pocket sized multi-play digital game platform with applications far broader than the logical "instant" lottery or disposable versions of slot machines and casino games. The battery-operated credit-card sized devices can be programmed for just about any purpose, including in-store floor-traffic generation, customer retention, driving incremental sales, creating membership benefits, generating product trials, brand building, building a database of qualified leads and driving online traffic. But while the prospects are bright for the electronic game card in the world of general commerce, it is the product’s disposable slot machine guise that is most likely to score immediate success. (read more...)
How Renault F1 uses Advanced Digital Manufacturing to enhance competitiveness
July 3, 2005 Renault’s Formula 1 team has made massive headway in recent years, coming from a distant third place in the 2004 Formula 1 constructors title to dominate the 2005 title to date. Now before you skip over this story thinking it’s about motor racing, it’s not – it’s about Advanced Digital Manufacturing. Renault’s F1 budget is considerably less than Ferrari or Toyota yet it has won six of ten races this year. Earlier this week it was revealed that the team had installed a Sinterstation Pro SLS rapid 3-D printing, prototyping and manufacturing system at its Advanced Digital Manufacturing (ADM) Centre in Enstone, England. This is the first of these systems to be installed in Europe and Renault has found that it has reduced the time taken to manufacture a part for the F1 car by an incredible 90% - quite an advantage in a world where a tenth of a second a lap can make the difference between winners and losers. (read more...)
Audi Q7 SUV portal signs prospects by the thousand
July 1, 2005 Multiple medium promotional campaigns using internet sites as the campaign hub continue to grow in functionality and capability and response, as the world penetration of internet connectivity trends towards ubiquity. Accordingly it has been interesting to watch the surge in traffic to Audi's online Broadband portal, “Q7 Globe” - it's the biggest multi-channel marketing project ever undertaken by the company for the launch of a new model and although the Audi Q7 SUV will not have its premiere until the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, the "Q7 Globe" online portal has already signed up 110,000 prospects. (read more...)
Hands On Luggage passport prevents bag tampering
June 27, 2005 UPDATED WITH TRAVELLERS "PEACE OF MIND CHECKLIST" - The plight of Australian tourist Schapelle Corby seems to have struck fear into tourists around the world that they could face long jail terms by being innocently convicted of crimes whilst on holidays. Corby was recently sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian jail after being found guilty of smuggling 4kg of cannabis from Australia amidst common knowledge that the Australian airline industry has an entrenched drug smuggling problem and raising fears the world over that passenger bags could be tampered with. With the Corby appeal in full swing, innovation think tank BDi realised that several of the concepts and projects that they were working on could be brought together to form a solution to luggage tampering and theft. The first part of this project is now being launched - the HandsOn Luggage Passport. (read more...)
Island Republic of Mauritius to become first “unwired” nation
June 22, 2005 The promise of ubiquitous high-speed wireless networking seems a long way off for most of us, but not for everyone. The tiny South West Indian Ocean island of Mauritius will later this year become the first country in the world to deploy a complete nationwide high speed wireless network and in so doing will attempt to lure a greater share of the World’s cyber business to its idyllic tropical location. (read more...)
The Office of the Future - the skills you will need
June 17, 2005 Reskilling, upskilling, telecommuting, downsizing, redundancy … changes in the workplace are all a bit scary unless you have a high tolerance for uncertainty. According to new research the office of the future will be increasingly mobile, with technology enabling employees to perform their jobs from virtually anywhere. The Office of the Future: 2020 research study warns that greater control over where and how people work won't necessarily translate into more free time. Forty-two percent of executives polled said they believe employees will be working more hours in the next 10 to 15 years. (read more...)
New York Public Library begins lending MP3 Audio Books over the internet
June15, 2005 The New York Public Library has launched a digital audio book collection allowing cardholders to download audiobooks from the Internet, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, further progressing the public’s embrace of portable audio and the convergence of media. The 700 title collection includes fiction, narrative nonfiction, business, biography, self-help, and language instruction which library members can play on portable devices, CD players, or via their PCs and laptops. Check-out is much faster than with real books and does not need a visit to the library after sign-up. NYPL cardholders simply enter in their existing card number and a 4-digit PIN. Up to ten digital audio books, or a combined total of ten e-books and digital audio books, may be on loan at one time. After 21 days, the materials are automatically checked in and made available for other users. And if the requested title isn't immediately available, users can place a hold on it and will receive email notification when it becomes available. (read more...)
“Flight Recorder” for Industrial Machines
June 14, 2005 When machine on a factory production line fails, plant engineers must react quickly to keep production loss to a minimum. Now a newly developed Internet-based platform can support service processes remotely, collecting and analyzing all relevant machine data to facilitate troubleshooting and shorten response times in the event of a defect. The data stored in the system can also be used for preventive maintenance in that it identifies machine operation irregularities. Like a flight data recorder, the software registers every movement of a machine or system, creating a comprehensive load profile of the machine. (read more...)
World’s fastest inkjet printer – three pages a second!
June 12, 2005 Brother Industries is demonstrating the world’s fastest inkjet printer at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan –a prototype designed to demonstrate on-demand printing capabilities. The new technology is a variation on inkjet technology that reorients the printhead with the paper and removes the need for it to move laterally, making the process more efficient , much smaller and blazingly fast – at a journalist demonstration last week the printer produced around 170 pages per minute. Brother sees the technology being used in on-demand printing – as the world goes completely electronic, this type of technology will enable personalised printed newspapers e.g. your hotel might have such a machine hooked to a system that can have your local newspaper from Bogota printed and delivered to your room overnight when you’re at the conference in New Orleans. The paper would be printed according to your interests in a personal profile and combine, for example, the main news and the full local finance, business and sports section but not the womens, real estate, home improvement ad infinitum sections. (read more...)
New lighting system transports sunlight to where it’s needed
June 10, 2005 The great architect Louis Kahn once said, "A room is not a room without natural light. Natural light gives mood to space by the nuances of light in the time of the day and the seasons of the year as it enters and modifies the space." The ambience of a sunlight-deprived room can now be significantly enhanced thanks to an ingenious new sunlight-transportation technology developed by Swedish company Parans. The novel approach overcomes the provision of natural light to rooms in a building that would otherwise be deprived by collecting sunlight with outdoor light-collecting SkyPort panels, transporting the light by fibre-optic cable known as SunWire and delivered to the required spaces via light emitting luminaries known as Bjork. (read more...)
Next Generation Knovel Library: cool new tools plus over 700 Science and Technical References
June 6, 2005--At the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference which opened in Toronto (Canada) yesterday, Knovel, a leading provider of Web-based information services for engineers, scientists and librarians, announced the availability of the next generation Knovel Library, a streamlined full-text science and technical reference and online database with new powerful and intuitive search and productivity tools. Knovel's new Web-based platform is the third generation of the Knovel service which transforms information into actionable intelligence by integrating software tools with content. Very cool! Highly recommended. (read more...)
World's First Steel and Aluminum Joining Technology Using Friction Heat
June 2, 2005 Mazda has developed the world’s first direct spot joining technology to join steel and aluminum. Mazda has applied for more than 20 patents related to this process which was first employed in 2003 in the development of the Mazda RX-8 sports car that used friction heat to join separate aluminum sheets. The technology has evolved, and will be used to join the trunk lid and bolt retainer for the all-new Mazda MX-5 sports car that is scheduled to go on sale in Q4. The technology contributed significantly to Mazda’s vehicle weight reduction “gram strategy” program during the development of the MX-5 sports car, as well as lowering costs. (read more...)
Ingenious Tile Laying Tools
May 26, 2005 ExacTile and GuessLess are two ingenious new inventions that make tiling much easier and advanced tiling far more accessible to the Do-It-Yourself marketplace. Both products reduce tile wastage, significantly cut the time required in laying tiles and enable far more complex patterns to be layed. The Intellectual Property on both tools is being offered for sale by Portugeuse innovation company Bdi. (read more...)
Xerox Searches for Best Unpublished Novels; All Storytellers Who Enter 'Aspiring Authors' Contest Will See Their Work in Print
May 6, 2005 The 500 year-old book publishing industry looks set for some digital shake-ups given our story on Momento's high-quality, one-off coffee table books and now this latest offer from Xerox. Xerox Corporation is kicking off the Xerox Aspiring Authors fiction contest designed to stop the cycle of rejection letters that keep so many from seeing their work in print. The grand-prize-winning novelist will receive 100 published copies of his or her story, US$5,000 in cash, and a possible opportunity to launch a new literary career. In addition, Xerox will demonstrate the power of on-demand book-publishing technology - which makes it cost-effective to digitally print books in quantities of one to 1,000 - by printing a free paperback copy of every novel entered. (read more...)
Join the debate on May 7 - What is to be done with THE CORPORATION?
May 6, 2005 The landmark film "The Corporation" has moved beyond the realm of documentary filmmaking to become the toolkit of an emerging movement that is questioning the very foundation of "business as usual" for corporations around the world. It is also it moving beyond mere analysis of the problem, to become part of a case study on the social impact of documentaries. An interesting and important on-line debate will take place on May 7 to bring people together to question "what happens next?" The three arguments to be debated are reform, regulate or rewrite - should we REFORM (make corporations run better, reward good management, make better business practices good business), REGULATE (introduce more democratic governmental controls and hold corporations accountable for their planetary misdeeds or REWRITE (change the legal constitution and eradicate corporate personhood). This is an important debate as it could influence the very fabric of our society. Be there! (read more...)
The world's most dynamic e-business marketing, design and consulting agency
May 5, 2005 It’s the world's most dynamic e-business marketing, design and consulting agency. It provides distinctive clients with groundbreaking business strategies and cutting-edge designs to aggressively and creatively compete in the ever-changing economy. Their consulting ideas will entice and excite you. Their professional design solutions will give you the confidence to succeed. And their web site will make you think they know what they're doing. Their office is really modern and they've got nice computers and stuff. If you ever saw it, you'd say "Wow, cool office. These guys are legit." They have really smart people who are always thinking up totally cool stuff. They have a meeting room with a big, round, expensive table and when you hire them, they spend lots of time sitting around the table having meetings. Their female staff members are all hot, so, even if there's nothing to meet about, they'll sit and flirt with them, and charge you for the time. When one of their new-age marketing gurus or design experts or consultants has an idea, the rest of them look at him or her with serious expressions and write stuff down on paper. They also have one of those dry-erase boards on the wall, and take turns making flow-charts and brain-storming and talking about "injecting creativity into market positioning," and cool stuff like that. It’s the hottest new company in the digital space and every Gizmag reader will instantaneously recognise it. And their name is ... (read more...)
Create your own coffee table book
May 4, 2005 A new web-based service that offers personalised single-copy high-quality coffee-table books could give the humble book a new life in the digital age. Books have been the principle medium of knowledge distribution for five hundred years until the coming of the internet and the digital distribution of words, sound, images and video. With the arrival of the Digital Age, the book has lost some of its allure, being seen as low-tech in a high-tech age although it remains the most user-friendly of all mediums. In offering everybody the ability to produce a one-off or very-short-run book of premium quality at a cost-effective price, Australian-based Momento has redefined the short-run book publishing market and opened up myriad new and exciting publishing opportunities. Already the service is being used by companies, photographers and artists as short-run portfolios, as special “this is your life”gifts for loved ones and retiring employees, baby books and the overwhelming favourite … wedding albums. The coming launch of the service to professionals will also enable photographers and communications companies to offer sizes up to A3, leather binding … and professional value-added services. (read more...)
Rolex Seeks Entries To 12th Worldwide Awards For Innovative Projects
May 2, 2005 The Rolex watch company is calling for entries from around the world for the 2006 Rolex Awards – the 30th anniversary of this international, biennial initiative. Enterprising individuals of any age, nationality or background are invited to apply to the 12th cycle of this philanthropic programme that was created in 1976 to support groundbreaking projects in science and medicine; technology and innovation; exploration and discovery; the environment and cultural heritage. (read more...)
First integrated touch screen for digital signage
April 28, 2005 ActiveLight will launch a 40 inch touch screen LCD integrated touch screen at the Digital Retailing Expo in Chicago on May 18, 2005. Designed for use in digital signage installations, the TActive is well suited for a variety of industries, including retail, financial, airport and restaurant applications. The TActive supports multiple video inputs, features 1280 x 768 high resolution and high quality video performance, and offers a 170-degree or better viewing angle. With the appropriate software the display can be used in both portrait and landscape modes, and allows the whole screen or just parts to be touch sensitive. (read more...)
The Corporation DVD House Party - the new Tupperware
Good Company Communications, the grassroots organizer behind the hit film The Corporation has come up with a novel DVD House Party Campaign that coincides with the long-awaited release of The Corporation DVD. The controversial and insightful film, THE CORPORATION raised some interesting questions about the future of a world dominated by companies that would be classified legally insane if they were humans, yet are afforded all the same protections and rights as humans. It’s hard not to see the film and wonder, “what do we do now?” Now there is an answer. Beginning immediately people across the World will be partying with a purpose: to strategize solutions and activate a public confronted by an increasingly corporation-dominated world. You can take part too! Prospective party hosts and guests can go via www.TheCorporation.com or directly to www.HelloCoolWorld.com to locate or register a party in their area. The beauty of the house party model is that it’s fun, easy to organize and effective in making a difference - all from the comfort of your living room. (read more...)
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