Subscribe to Gizmag's RSS feed
Follow Gizmag on Twitter
Good Thinking
Unique navigation aid for the visually-impaired
By Jude Garvey
21:18 October 7, 2008 PDT
Another interesting entry from the Create the Future Design Contest, the Navigation aid for the Blind uses existing technology in a very clever way. It consists of a headset which has an audio transducer and a built-in microphone and uses GPS, obstacle detection technology and speech recognition to safely guide the wearer to their destination. The wearer simply states the destination address into the microphone and the technology does the rest, guiding and directing the user safely through the streets. Read More
A-style: harmless nipple-slip or unfair tactics
By Mike Hanlon
00:20 October 7, 2008 PDT
The A-style brand image is a masterfully clever logo. It is driving a young company to international recognition and once you’ve realized what the innocent A signifies, its symbolic nature leaps out at you. Beginning with street level buzz marketing tactics, the Italian A-style logo has systematically used the most cost-efficient marketing methods to develop an international awareness using its provocative imagery. Over recent years we have seen the rise of savvy street brands with defiant brain-slapping names such as Pornstar and FCUK, but A-style has pushed things several notches up the "i-can't-believe-they-can-get-away-with-that" scale. Originally commercially invigorated with street stickers and stencils, A-style has used street-level buzz marketing to grow to international prominence and is now sponsoring global televised sport to deliver its in-yer-face branding. Does it press your buttons? It’s designed to do so! And prepare for more subversive marketing, as it’s clearly very effective . Read More
Obama '08 gets a (useful!) iPhone application
23:43 October 2, 2008 PDT
The words "politics" and "tech-savvy" haven't always sat comfortably in the same sentence, but the Obama '08 iPhone Application is evidence that things are set to change on the campaign trail. Refreshingly, the app is more than just a trendy stunt from the Democratic Nominee's camp, taking advantage of several of the iPhones' capabilities with a range of tools that could actually be useful for those wanting to get involved. Read More
MIT researchers harness tree power to fight wildfires
23:33 September 29, 2008 PDT
While specialist fire-fighting crews, squadrons of trucks and water-bombing helicopters all play an important role, access to reliable and timely information on fire behavior is among the most critical of all the tools used to combat wild fires and prevent the loss of life, livestock and property damage. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers are now working on a system that uses energy from the trees themselves to power a network of temperature and humidity sensors that act as remote weather stations to aid in fire management. Read More
Lead Me Not Into Temptation
By Jack Martin
03:05 September 24, 2008 PDT
September 24, 2008 Impulse control is becoming increasingly important on a personal and global scale for solving problems as diverse as obesity, smoking, compulsive shopping and even global warming. But if appealing to our intellect rarely works, what does? Psychologist Dr Max Sutherland looks at the issue and writes that rather than engage the mind in combat, take advantage of how it works. Don’t shop when you’re preoccupied or hungry, do good deeds after, but not before, shopping. And shop well in advance. Another fascinating article full of psychological tips to help control impulses and resist temptation. Read More
Power Dam: wireless, plug and play power management concept
By Emily Clark
17:56 September 22, 2008 PDT
Arizona State University student Travis Andren's entry for the Sustainable Technologies category of the Create the Future Design Contest is a plug and play system designed to combat the phenomena known as “vampire power” or “power leakage”, which causes power loss through plugged in appliances. Read More
Asia Online – the world’s most significant literacy project (and internet investment opportunity)
By Mike Hanlon
01:17 September 22, 2008 PDT
September 22, 2008 We’ve all dreamt of going back in history, knowing what we know now. Imagine it was the start of the internet all over again – to be able to make all the right moves because you knew how the web would be monetized, the importance of search and how to leverage it, which business models would work, and which ones wouldn’t. Asia Online appears to have manufactured itself that exact scenario in Asia with its new self-learning statistical machine translation language technologies which it is focusing on Asian languages – as the knowledge-deprived populations of Southern Asian countries adopt the internet, Asia Online looks set to play a huge role by providing information in the language of choice for the dozens of previously information-disenfranchised population groups – groups which will make up roughly half of the internet user base within four years. Viewed from another angle Asia Online’s work is about information empowerment. “Our goal here is to eliminate information poverty”, says CEO Dion Wiggins. Read More
Flatshare Fridge could save big arguments
By Emily Clark
22:30 September 21, 2008 PDT
Anyone who’s ever lived in a share house knows the disappointment of finding their tasty leftovers devoured by a greedy roommate, only to have them deny all responsibility. This great idea dubbed the Flatshare Fridge is a concept designed to eliminate arguments by providing separate food storage spaces for each household member. Read More
Create the Future Design Contest: re-thinking the wheel
22:09 September 18, 2008 PDT
The NASA Tech Briefs Create the Future Design Contest began in 2002 as a platform for encouraging innovation in product design among engineers, entrepreneurs, and students around the globe. The 2008 competition is open until October 17, but already this year's entries have produced some very thought provoking product ideas and we'll be exploring some of the standouts in detail over coming weeks. The first cab off the rank is an attempt, in fact two attempts, to do what else but reinvent the wheel. German student Caspar Schmitz has designed a castor with an additional axis that could see your shopping trolleys glide over bumps instead of grinding to an abrupt halt. Also in Caspar's portfolio is the transformable wheel chair, an application of "the transformable wheel", a concept which allows a wheel made of flexible plastic to take on an ellipsoid shape when circumstances require a lower center-of-gravity. Read More
Storm Safe hurricane shelter
By Emily Clark
17:54 September 15, 2008 PDT
Recent horrific weather conditions in Northern and Central America have seen many people displaced, injured and even killed - most recently by Hurricane Ike. While early evacuation is always the best option, it can't hurt to have a plan B along the lines of the Storm Safe, a floating, hexagon-shaped hurricane shelter made from heavy aluminum plate that's designed to protect you in the event of a large storm. Read More
Sharp's solar LED street lights incorporate seismic detection
17:29 September 9, 2008 PDT
The argument for switching to solar-powered street lighting seems very clear cut: they run on sunlight, emit no CO2 emissions, provide an off-the grid source of lighting during in an emergency situation and use efficient LED-based light which tends not to attract insects. Sharp Corporation has announced plans to roll-out two new models of solar-powered LED street lights in the Japanese market and these have the added bonus of in-built Seismic Motion Sensors which detect earthquakes of five or greater on the Japanese seismic scale and respond by switching to full illumination for two nights. Read More
The first Kitahaus relocatable living and office pods
By Jack Martin
02:41 September 6, 2008 PDT
September 6, 2006 As technology evolves, our ability to create remarkable, sustainable temporary living and working environments has grown considerably, as can be evidenced by Gizmag stories on relocatable structures such as the off-the-grid home, the Sphere House, the Nackros Villa, the Free Spirit Sphere, the LoftCube and the first mobile hotel room. Two years ago we wrote about the KitaHaus Pod which is designed as a stand-alone accommodation or temporary office and can also be interlinked to create unique temporary or permanent living and working environments. The KitaHaus legs are adjustable so it can be situated in almost any site including normally unusable sloped and wooded areas. The first built Kitahaus pods are currently going into Elleray Prep School in Windermere, UK as three classrooms and the designer is now seeking JV partners wishing to create eco-tourism resorts. Read More
Vinturi – the instant wine aerator
By Jack Martin
07:28 September 1, 2008 PDT
September 1, 2008 The world will consume 25 billion litres of wine this year, which makes the Vinturi a very important invention. That’s because most wines needs to “breathe” – a bottle of wine drunk within a half hour of opening will not taste as good as one which has been allowed to aerate for an hour or more. Decanting wine speeds up the aeration and oxidation process, but not like a Vinturi – operating on Bernoulli's principle (as the speed of a moving fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases), the Vinturi does what decanting will do in an hour in the time it takes to pour a glass. At US$40, the tiny Californian invention may well destroy some time-honoured rituals, but it’s a killer product in a thriving industry Read More
Criminal Liability for Non-Aggressive Death
By Jack Martin
02:05 August 27, 2008 PDT
August 27, 2008 The crime of manslaughter exists as a 'catch-all offence' to punish those who are blameworthy in causing the death of another but whose culpability falls short of that required for murder. Manslaughter is an extremely broad offence and it has a difficult task in ensuring that all those who warrant punishment for 'non-aggressive' deaths are convicted. Simultaneously, it should not be too broad in covering those who do not warrant punishment for such deaths. There is little consistency in whether a particular dangerous activity leads to liability for a specific offence or for the generic offence of manslaughter when death is caused. This new book, entitled “Criminal Liability for Non-Aggressive Death” examines the current law and includes a variety of perspectives on the subject with chapters on specific modes of killing as well as issues that permeate all areas. Read More
New functionality for Zoombak A-GPS locators
By Emily Clark
04:43 August 5, 2008 PDT
Following the release of the basic GPS Locator product earlier this year, Zoombak has begun its roll-out of additional functionality with the release of "Mobile Location Requests", a feature that lets users find their Zoombak in real-time from any cell phone. Read More
Engadget HD on Vampire Energy - don't shoot the plasma
By Tim Hanlon
21:56 July 30, 2008 PDT
July 31, 2008 Yesterday we showed you GOOD Magazine's data on Vampire Energy, but Ben Drawbaugh from Engadget HD didn't like the look of it. Using a Kill A Watt, he measured the standby draw of a 60-inch Pioneer Kuro plasma to be 20 Watts - that's an annual cost of $20 (based on a price of $0.11 per kilowatt-hour) - far from the $159 figure that GOOD Magazine claimed. Read More
The Kill A Watt identifies your biggest energy consumers
By Tim Hanlon
21:46 July 30, 2008 PDT
July 31, 2008 GOOD Magazine have you wondering how much power your HDTV consumes? Simply plug it (or any electrical device) into the Kill A Watt and the LCD display will tell you the drain of the device in Volts, Amps, Watts, Hz, VA or kilowatt-hours (kWh) Read More
GOOD Magazine on Vampire Energy
By Tim Hanlon
01:30 July 30, 2008 PDT
July 30, 2008 Power wastage associated with standby modes in consumer electronics devices makes up a staggering 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and costs the average household the equivalent of one months bill every year. GOOD Magazine has dubbed this wastage "vampire energy" and assembled a compelling graph that shows the average yearly cost of standby modes in common household devices - with the increasingly common plasma TV costing a whopping $159.76 per year to leave on standby. Read More
Six-month anti-piracy strategy delays Dark Knight piracy for just 38 hours
By Darren Quick
04:21 July 29, 2008 PDT
July 29, 2008 Warner Bros. devoted six months to an unprecedented anti-piracy strategy for the release of "The Dark Knight", and have deemed the 38 hour period between the film's premiere screening and its first appearance on file-sharing sites to be a success - keeping bootleg DVDs off the streets as the film racked up a record-breaking US$158.4 million on its all important opening weekend. Read More
Protect your HDTV with TV Armor
By Darren Quick
01:00 July 29, 2008 PDT
July 29, 2008 While shelling out for a big-screen HDTV gives you a nice big picture, it also provides a nice big target for common hazards like the infamous flying Wii controller. TV Armor screen protectors are clear plastic screens that come in a range of sizes to fit TVs from 30-52 inches, protecting them from scratches, fingerprints, marks, splashes and household projectiles. Read More
Hirsch Electronics' versatile building security solution
By Jude Garvey
17:27 July 14, 2008 PDT
Increasingly, building managers and government organizations are finding they have to adopt more sophisticated security systems to protect their employees, customers and buildings from security threats. Recognizing the need for flexibility on this arena, Hirsch Electronics has manufactured the Verification Station- a high-security, multi-purpose biometric system which allows a building administrator to select and change at will the means of entry to a building if the security situation is heightened. Employees may be required to use smart cards or fingerprints or they may have to use a number of authentication processes, perhaps their finger and smart card or their finger, smart card and identification code. Read More
Novel approach to car stereo theft-prevention
By Emily Clark
23:15 July 10, 2008 PDT
Instructables is a website dedicated to supplying information from members on how to complete a vast array of DIY projects. One of the more unusual, but potentially useful, ideas is to hide your fancy new car stereo with a crappier one in order to ward off would-be thieves. Read More
DNA Barcode initiative
By Mike Hanlon
15:59 July 5, 2008 PDT
July 6, 2008 Barcoding is little more than half a century old, yet it has permeated every corner of civilisation. Barcodes enabled machines to recognise objects, and was the first viable technology for enabling computers to track vast systems. Barcodes saved money and time in every area of logistics, but more importantly brought order so that we could measure and analyse very large and complex systems. Now, in an ambitious initiative scientists want to apply this concept to life by using DNA - nature's unique barcode of every species of animal, plant and microbe - to create a vast library of every living organism on the planet. Such a global DNA barcode database would prove invaluable in numerous ways, from identifying new species of organism and monitoring biodiversity to detecting fraud. Read More
Reptile friendly tunnel improves road safety for the cold blooded
By Emily Clark
23:23 June 25, 2008 PDT
A new tunnel designed by multi-disciplinary consultancy firm Scott Wilson will allow reptiles to pass under the road at a UK airport to ensure their safety. The tunnel was created with the reptiles’ biology in mind, providing a warm and inviting space to enter using LED lighting and heating coils. Read More
New technique lifts fingerprints off cleaned guns
By Mike Hanlon
17:46 June 23, 2008 PDT
Wiping the gun clean has long been considered best practice for villains but may soon become a quaint custom that will ultimately prove fruitless. Researchers have developed a method to ‘visualize fingerprints’ even after the print itself has been removed by measuring the corrosion of the surface by deposits from the fingerprints. The technique can enhance – after firing– a fingerprint that has been deposited on a small caliber metal cartridge case before it is fired. The technique promises the ability to reopen many cases and solve cold cases around the world because the “underlying print never disappears” according to the scientists. Read More
Freedom Glen
- November 25, 2009 @ 02:47 UTC
