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Good Thinking
Green-thumbed robots: the future of sustainable precision agriculture?
19:10 March 26, 2009 PDT
March 26, 2009 When consuming your five a day of fruit and vegetables, have you ever stopped to consider the back breaking labor and significant resources involved in their production? According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratories (CSAIL), the robotic, computerized answer to minimizing these factors could be just around the corner. Students at the laboratory have undertaken a project that utilizes robots to take the thinking and manual labor out of producing specialty crops such as fruit and vegetables. Read More
Vertical farming with seawater
By Darren Quick
04:03 March 24, 2009 PDT
The saying used to go, ‘only in America’, but in recent years it might be truer to say, ‘only in Dubai’, especially when it comes to architectural wonders. Buildings that would be unfeasible just about anywhere else seem to regularly spring from the ground in the oil rich emirate. The next eye-popping construction to grace the skyline could be a seawater vertical farm that uses seawater to cool and humidify greenhouses and to convert sufficient humidity back in to fresh water to irrigate the crops. Read More
Whisky - Demon drink becomes sound financial investment
By Matt Kennedy
20:19 March 22, 2009 PDT
If you could resist drinking it, you may just find that hanging on to a few bottles of fine single malt could not only make a sound investment but one which is more interesting than boring old stocks and far more reliable than wine. At Bonhams in Edinburgh, their second ever dedicated whisky auction has not only shown that there's a strong market for rare whisky, (with 95% of all lots sold) but that the big boys of the auction world are taking it seriously. Read More
Milli-Grip - a new take on the shifting spanner
By David Greig
00:06 March 20, 2009 PDT
March 20, 2009 When you think you have come across all the tools that could possibly add any value, along comes a new one to the ranks. The Milli-grip spanner, from HTM Products of Sussex, is a "must have" for the home handyman. It is an adjustable spanner that fits metric nuts and bolts from 2mm through to 32mm, in 1mm increments. Through its ratchet system, it eliminates the slippage problems (and associated skinned knuckles) inherent in the traditional shifting spanner/wrench, with its worm-gear operation. Suitable for use by both left and right handed people, the Milli-grip can be adjusted to a precise fit with just one hand in a fraction of the time required with the old shifting spanner. Once locked onto the nut or bolt, it will not alter its setting during use. Read More
The new Space toilet is a high-tech diaper
By Darren Quick
20:40 March 10, 2009 PDT
While the thought of rocketing into space might make some people want to soil themselves, going to the toilet in zero gravity is a very real problem for space faring astronauts. Until now the solution has been to strap themselves onto a toilet that is similar to traditional western style but employs a vacuum cleaner-like machine to suck the wastes away – doesn’t sound too pleasant does it. Now it seems the Japanese are approaching the problem from a different tack with Pink Tentacle reporting that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has teamed up with engineers from the private sector to develop a next-generation space toilet that is designed to be worn like a diaper. Read More
Six weird and wonderful things people have built with Twitter
By Tim Hanlon
19:32 March 9, 2009 PDT
For the uninitiated, Twitter is a "microblogging" service that invites you to share what you're doing with the world in 140 characters or less - and it's currently taking the world by storm, with everyone from Scoble to Shaq on board. Its charm is that its usefulness is entirely open to interpretation - while many just don't get it (including Google's CEO), some use it purely for self-promotion, others to connect with their peers, others to tap breaking news long before mainstream media covers it, and then there's the subset of users that like to build or hack devices to use its API. Read on to meet six devices (of varying usefulness) that use Twitter to communicate with their human overlords. Read More
Internet Communities organize to take on Global Economic Crisis
By Mike Hanlon
02:58 March 7, 2009 PST
March 7, 2009 Suppose the internet existed in 1929. How might the Great Depression have been different? The Internet is a tool of global communication. If it had been available in the 1930s, the downturn and subsequent restructuring that became the Great Depression could have occurred faster and more efficiently, yielding less suffering. Eighty years later, we are on the brink of such an economic turning point… how can we utilize the Internet to help prevent the suffering and hardships experienced in the 1930s? This is the question being asked on communities all over the internet, and it is the inspiration for a new website. Read More
The Smart phone - Maxwell Smart that is
By David Greig
17:16 March 5, 2009 PST
The vision of Agent 86 mumbling into his shoe is one of the most endearing images from the slapstick 60s spy series Get Smart, but an Australian scientist who has built a working version of the shoe phone using 21st century technology sees serious applications for this kind of device in the medical field. Read More
The coffee cup for a zero g situation
By Karen Sprey
21:24 March 3, 2009 PST
Astronauts may have the very cool job of floating around in space, but when it comes to grabbing a caffeine fix, they are faced with the decidedly uncool prospect of drinking out of aluminum bags with straws. Donald Pettit was on Space Shuttle mission STS-126 when he decided enough was enough and came up with the idea of an "On-Orbit Coffee Cup" designed to hold liquid in zero gravity situations. Read More
The anti-mirror... and more
By Darren Quick
22:24 March 2, 2009 PST
You could be forgiven for thinking Andrew Hicks is obsessed with his own reflection, but it’s the mirror itself which attracts the interest of this mathematician from Drexel University, Philadelphia. Hicks has used computer algorithms to generate a mirror that produces a mirror image that isn’t a mirror image, making it possible to read reflected text normally. Read More
Sliding House plays Hide-and-Seek
By David Greig
20:56 February 26, 2009 PST
Known as the Sliding House, this unique piece of architectural lateral thinking was designed by London-based practice de Rijke Marsh Morgan. The brief was for a self-build house where the client could grow food, entertain, enjoy the landscape and basically retire in peace. The outcome was three buildings arranged along a longitudinal axis, with a garage set perpendicularly, off to the side to create a small patio... and one hell of a surprise. Read More
IBM Innov8 v.2: serious gaming helps tomorrow’s business leaders
By Karen Sprey
04:14 February 26, 2009 PST
Pilots, the military and emergency services have been using simulations for years to teach skills in a risk-free environment where otherwise lives might be lost. Video gaming isn’t new either - the CEOs of many of today’s big names such as Yahoo and Google grew up on a diet of avatars and role-playing. But it’s only recently that business simulators and advanced video gaming have merged to form ‘serious games’ like IBM's Innov8. IBM has announced v.2, a new version that helps students and professionals hone their business and technology skills in a compelling, familiar video game format. Read More
GlobalTag combines GPS, RFID and SatComs for worldwide supply chain visibility
By Mike Hanlon
16:47 February 19, 2009 PST
UPDATED IMAGES Numerex and Savi have announced a technology partnership to co-develop what would be the first asset and shipment monitoring device that combines Global Satellite Positioning, active Radio Frequency Identification and Satellite Communications. The hybrid ST-694 GlobalTag is being developed to provide continuous seamless monitoring and precise location information of assets regardless of their physical location. Read More
Smart Lite CFL replaces the bulbs not the ballast
By Karen Sprey
21:42 February 17, 2009 PST
Compact fluorescent lights (CFL) are a smaller version of their long established big brothers which, despite some drawbacks such as a small amount of mercury content, have gained serious ground in recent years as an energy-efficient alternative to conventional incandescent globes. CFLs reduce carbon emissions because they convert electricity into light more efficiently and also last up to ten times longer, but the globe still reaches its used by date long before the base (ballast) section that connects it to the power socket. 3E Technologies has identified this as another wasteful aspect of the process that could be eliminated and its solution is the Smart Lite - a two-piece CFL which allows the bulb to be removed from the ballast and replaced with a simple ‘insert and twist’ operation. Read More
Solving the global food crisis: vertical aeroponic farm grows food out of thin air
By Loz Blain
01:14 February 17, 2009 PST
More than 50% of our planet's massive human population is concentrated into urban centres - and on current estimates, that's likely to be as high as 80% by the year 2050, a year many of us will be around to see. So the challenge facing today's forward-thinking architects is how to create positive outcomes out of a crushing space constraint. Going upwards, in projects like Eugene Tsui's Ultima Tower and the London Vertical Village concept, seems to offer some practical solutions to the living space conundrum - but what about feeding all those people? Vertical Aeroponic Farming seems to be an idea whose time has come - it will let us use land, nutrients, power and water much more efficiently than ever before, while delivering a quality-controllable, year-round and emissions-positive food source for urban communities. Eric Vergne's Dystopian Farm is a design study that examines how a vertical farm might use the latest in agricultural and architectural technology to feed the cities of the future. Read More
No more arguments: the self-closing toilet seat
23:18 February 5, 2009 PST
Archeological evidence suggests that flush toilets complete with wooden seats for that extra bit of comfort have been with us for almost five thousand years, so it's likely that domestic arguments over who left the seat up began sometime soon after. That's a long time to argue, but this age old question might soon become redundant if this self-closing toilet seat reaches the market. Designed by a group of students from the Skjern Technical College in Denmark, the Intelli-Toilet automatically shuts the seat after it's flushed without the need for any extra energy sources. Read More
UNIX time set to hit 1234567890
By Tim Hanlon
23:41 February 2, 2009 PST
While some of you might remember the Chinese Olympic Games kicking off at 08:08:08pm on 08/08/08, here's one for the developers (or just plain geeky) in our audience. At 11:31:30pm UTC on Friday, February the 13th, "UNIX time", that is, the number of seconds since midnight UTC on January 1, 1970, will reach 1234567890. Read More
Comment on Gizmag with your Facebook account
By Tim Hanlon
00:38 January 31, 2009 PST
In our ongoing quest to make commenting on Gizmag as easy as possible, we've implemented Facebook Connect, so now you can comment on our articles using your Facebook account. Just click the "Connect with Facebook" button in the "Post a Comment" area beneath an article, and regale us with your savvy commentary, safe with the knowledge that no one will be able to impersonate you, or accuse you of not being who you say you are. Read on for a list of the articles that have generated the most discussion on Gizmag. Read More
The Playpump – innovation and inspiration conspire to solve myriad problems
By Mike Hanlon
23:30 January 27, 2009 PST
The Playpump is a playground merry-go-round that uses the boundless energy of children to pump water out of the ground. More than 1000 such pumps have been installed in schools in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia and apart from bringing joy to children, and providing easy access to clean drinking water for the local community, the simple installation of the playpump has catalyzed improvements in health, education, economic development and even gender equality. The PlayPump system also provides one of the only ways to reach rural and peri-urban communities with potentially life saving public health messages. Read More
New ‘net ideas: job auctions and a lift sharing service for parcels
By Mike Hanlon
00:00 January 26, 2009 PST
While many are still waiting to see the depth of current, perhaps unprecedented, economic upheaval, it’ll been interesting to see how much impetus this newfound economic climate has on change to the traditional supply chain. The internet will ultimately connect everyone with everyone, and hence with traditional intermediaries (wholesalers and retailers) currently curtailing the value-added services they offer, the climate might well add massive impetus to change in the way we buy goods and services. Two UK-based web sites thriving in the current climate are eGenie and stuff2send - one connects customers directly to tradespeople, while the other does the same for courier services. Viewed from another angle, eGenie is a job auction website and stuff2send is a lift sharing service for parcels and packages and both will result in lower costs to the consumer. Read More
Waterproof Books
By Mike Hanlon
23:18 January 25, 2009 PST
January 26, 2009 Now here’s an idea we hadn’t come across before – waterproof books. Apparently they’ve been around for a while, but we figure if we hadn’t come across them, and we are constantly looking for new ideas to make life easier, more efficient or more fulfilling, quite possibly our readership might not have encountered them either. If for no other reason than experiencing the brain twisting experience of being afraid to get a precious book wet, even when you know it’s okay, maybe give it a try. Read More
MWV's alternative to clam shell packaging
By Darren Quick
21:04 January 25, 2009 PST
No doubt many readers are still nursing injuries sustained on Christmas morning as they tried to free a new toy or gadget from the impenetrable fortress that is clamshell packaging. Such packaging has even spawned a device specifically designed to combat the finger slicing clear plastic and a number of big name manufacturers including Sony and Microsoft have jumped on the bandwagon to rid the Earth of this unnecessary burden. One of the best alternatives we've seen made an appearance at CES 2009, with MWV packaging showcasing the latest version of its environmentally friendly, paperboard-based Natralock security packaging solution. Read More
Encyclopædia Britannica to incorporate user-generated content
By Mike Hanlon
20:21 January 23, 2009 PST
Encyclopædia Britannica the world’s oldest English-language encyclopaedia (since 1768), is to make significant changes to its editorial model, allowing readers to edit its entries. Unlike its popular user-generated internet competitor Wikipedia, the company will retain its 100 full-time editors and 4,000 expert contributors and each article will have a detailed history with changes and who made them. “I think the future is likely going to be that in every media segment there has to be a symbiotic relationship between editor and reader,” Britannica 's president, Jorge Cauz told the Times newspaper. Read More
The most popular Gizmag articles for 2008
By Tim Hanlon
21:41 December 28, 2008 PST
We've just pulled the statistics on the ten most popular articles for 2008, and as expected, a wide range of weird and wonderful things made the list - from the electronic contact lens to the cheeseburger in a can. Read on for the full list. Read More
The impact of the economy on family stability
By Mike Hanlon
16:35 December 27, 2008 PST
The Christmas holiday period coincides with a spike in domestic violence, suicides, partnership dissolution and the initiation of divorce proceedings in Christian countries. This year, the economic situation will add more stress as security is high on the agenda of basic human needs and a plummeting of couple's net worth seemingly has dire consequences on family stability. Indeed, remarkable new research from the U.K. Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) concludes that there is a direct relationship - for every unexpected 10% fall in housing prices, an extra 5% of couples will split up. Throw in all those share portfolios that have shrunk in value and there's good data to suggest we should not make any rash decisions this holiday period! Read More
Rex Alfie Lee
- November 9, 2009 @ 12:19 UTC
