Wireless
Wireless, battery-less system designed to alert users to windows left open
If a storm rolls in while you’re at work, and you’re wondering if you left your bedroom window open, you can tell via an internet connection – if that window is equipped with a contact sensor. Ordinarily, such sensors require electrical wiring, and a battery or mains power. A new window system developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, however, works without wires, and draws its power from the environment around it. Read More
Implantable medical devices are becoming more common everyday. The problem is that no matter how sophisticated the devices are, most still depend on batteries for power. One solution to this is for the power source to remain outside the body and to beam the power to the device. However, that has its own difficulties because wireless power can’t penetrate very far through human tissue ... until now. Read More
Nokia has announced a new range of cylindrical, wireless speakers for use with its Lumia smartphones, which have been created in partnership with audio specialist JBL. The range is the first of a collaboration between the two companies and was inspired by a previous series called Play 360°, which was also cylindrical. Read More
Silicon Valley-based Design to Matter (D2M) is aiming to provide the legions of Instagram users with an alternative to viewing their shots on a phone, tablet or PC. The company’s Instacube is an Android-powered digital photo frame to which users can wirelessly push their Instagram stream over Wi-Fi. Read More
Connectify, a company known for software that can turn your computer into a wireless hotspot, is at work on a new project called Dispatch that will turn all internet connections available to your device into one glorious (and hopefully faster and more stable) stream of high-speed bandwidth. Read More
Little Printer now available for pre-order
BERG's Little Printer, a box-sized device announced last November, is ready to ship. The pint-sized printer, which connects wirelessly to the Internet, takes inspiration from traditional halftone lithography as well as pixel art. It gathers its user-defined content via a cloud-based system to deliver a personalized mini newspaper with puzzles, friend’s birthday reminders, weather info and messages from friends appearing alongside the daily news. Read More
Taking a pill seems like the easiest thing in the world. Pill, glass of water and swallow, right? For many people, however, it isn’t that simple. For them, it’s very easy to take the incorrect dosage at the incorrect time. To help prevent this, Proteus Digital Health of Redwood City, California has developed an ingestible chip that can be embedded in pills and other pharmaceuticals. Read More
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been a major hazard for Coalition and NATO forces in Afghanistan for over the past decade. The toll that they’ve taken in lives and equipment has been terrible, but the U.S. Army hopes to alleviate some of this with new vehicle and body blast sensors shipping to Afghanistan in August 2012. These sensors, built jointly with Georgia Tech Research Institute and the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force are part of wireless information network designed to aid doctors and engineers by collecting blast and pressure data from the vehicles and soldiers themselves. Read More
Parrot certainly has tried to pack as much technology as possible into its first pair of wireless headphones. Alongside the standard Bluetooth connectivity, the company’s new Zik headphones feature active noise cancellation technology, a touch panel on the right earpiece, a head detection sensor, bone conduction sensor, five microphones and, in a headphone first, integrated near field communication (NFC) technology. Read More
The inclusion of a floating lamp, bed or just about any appropriately-sized household object in a room is almost certain to be received with open-mouthed wonder and demand closer inspection from the curious minds of young and old alike. Add the wireless transfer of power into the mix and you're guaranteed to have a winner. Such is the case with 18 year-old Chris Rieger's LevLight. It's not exactly huge, doesn't break any new ground in a technical sense and is more functional than flashy. Nevertheless, the floating LED is quite the visual feast. Read More