Women

‘Nice Cup In Bra’ - the world's weirdest golfing accessory?

By Darren Quick

21:19 November 16, 2009 PST

There seems to be a rush on inventive underwear this week with our second - and even more impractical - example coming from Triumph International Japan, who twice a year unveil a concept bra that highlights a popular trend or draws attention to social issues. Earlier this year saw the Konkatsu Bra designed to help Japanese women on the hunt for a man. The latest bra is designed to appeal to the growing numbers of female golfers in Japan looking for a unique way to practice their putting. Read More

Researchers ease monthly burden for world's poorest women

By Sandra Arcaro

16:16 October 25, 2009 PDT

For most women the obligatory monthly visit that is the menstrual cycle is a quietly endured and discreetly dealt with occurrence. Feminine products in every size, shape and color, and available for purchase from supermarkets to public restrooms, lessen the burden. But contrast this reality with that of women living in impoverished countries for whom these commonplace hygiene products are unaffordable luxuries. This glaring discrepancy has prompted Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), together with researchers from North Carolina State University, to create affordable, quality sanitary pads to ease the lives of millions of women who, for several days a month, know another kind of period pain. Read More

‘Mixed reality’ patient helps medical students with intimate exams

By Sandra Arcaro

17:47 August 12, 2009 PDT

Routine physical examinations of a more intimate nature may become a little less awkward and a little more precise according to a team of engineering students from the University of Florida. The team's design of a ‘mixed reality’ human patient could be the answer in managing this delicate aspect of bedside manner. The mixed reality human is named Amanda Jones and she exists, in both virtual and physical form, as a life-sized cyberspace image on a flat screen, and as a mannequin with a prosthetic breast. Her purpose is noble: to help train medical students to conduct intimate breast exam procedures. Read More

Concept bra to help Japanese women on the hubbie hunt

By Darren Quick

02:27 May 19, 2009 PDT

“Concept” and “bra” aren’t two words you’d typically expect to go together too often. After all, a bra is the epitome of simplicity. As Seinfeld's George Costanza once remarked, “Two cups in the front, two loops in the back. How do they do it?” Well, Japanese lingerie maker Triumph International has complicated the humble undergarment with its concept “Konkatsu bra” – a bra that is designed to help Japanese women search for husbands by proudly declaring they're on the hunt. Read More

Orbita Sparta Mini watchwinder - one for the ladies?

By Karen Sprey

01:09 April 27, 2009 PDT

As the name suggests, automatic or self-winding watches wind themselves using a moving weight mechanism inside the watch. All well and good if you are wearing your watch everyday, but if you happen to have a collection, you'll often find yourself faced with the fiddly task of manual winding and resetting features like perpetual calendars - a difficult job for large unwieldy fingers (men) and delicate fingernails (women) - which is where watchwinders come in. This one, the Sparta Mini from Orbita, is for the ladies. Read More

Barbie at 50: revered and reviled

By Karen Sprey

05:48 March 17, 2009 PDT

Barbie turned 50 this month but she doesn’t look a day older than at her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959. Sure, she’s copped some flak along the way for being empty-headed and ‘tarty’, and reinventing herself to conform to current fashions, but essentially she’s still as glamorous as ever, not to mention technologically savvy. Read More

Sony Ericsson's first collection of Bluetooth watches for women

By Emily Clark

01:32 October 27, 2008 PDT

Have you ever missed a call while frantically searching for your mobile in the bottom of your handbag? Sony Ericsson has followed on from the MBW-150 Bluetooth watch range with the announcement of the MBW-200 series, the first from the company designed specifically for female consumers. Read More

GPS platform shoes feature hidden safety compartments

By Emily Clark

19:06 August 22, 2007 PDT

August 23, 2007 These shoes are certainly not going to compete with the likes of Jimmy Choo or Manolo Blahnik in the fashion stakes, but could they be a safety boost for women? With an inbuilt GPS, an audible alarm system and storage for your valuables the Platform 001 sandals could definitely be beneficial in protecting against muggings or to locate ladies in the case of emergency. Read More

The Electrolux condenser tumble dryer uses steam to make ironing easier and saves on dry cleaning bills

By Mike Hanlon

May 17, 2007 One of the most universally despised chores, ironing is a killer-app opportunity. With this in mind, household appliance innovator Electrolux has introduced a new type of condenser tumble dryer that cleverly uses steam to make the job of ironing easier. Iron Aid is a unique technological innovation, with special steam cycles that will reduce, or even eliminate, the need to iron, saving the hassle and time associated with this chore. The design uses steam to reduce and remove wrinkles and creases, to deliver ready-to-wear clothes. Up to five wrinkle free shirts can be produced in just 20 minutes and the Iron Aid can refresh and de-odorise even “dry clean only” garments and will refresh a silk or wool suit in 20 minutes. The product was released in Europe earlier this year, achieving its projected annual sales figures for 2007 by the end of March. Like we said, ironing is a killer-app opportunity, and this product appears to be a contender. Read More

The 1955 Dodge La Femme

By Mike Hanlon

May 8, 2007 It’s the earliest example of automotive marketing to women we have seen (correspondence here please) – it’s the 1955 Dodge La Femme complete with a Sapphire White and Heather Rose color scheme. Half a century later, women buy half of all new cars, yet it was a very bold and ultimately unsuccessful (only 2500 were made) marketing initiative aimed at was thought to be a promising new niche market. The La Femme was basically a Dodge Custom Royal Lancer with a feminine paint palette and a special gold “La Femme” script on the fenders. The vehicle’s interior was graced with special tapestry upholstery bearing pink rosebuds on a pale pink background and pale pink vinyl trim. A rectangular purse matching the car’s interior was a standard La Femme feature, stowed in a special compartment built into the back of the passenger seat. Each purse came complete with matching compact lipstick and cigarette cases, a lighter and purse. Also standard was a raincoat, rain bonnet and umbrella in the rosebud pattern that was stored in a compartment behind the driver’s seat. Hey, this would sell in droves today!! Read More

Women, Not Men, Are Primary Electronics Consumers

By Mike Hanlon

March 6, 2007 From politics to technology, women have played a vital role in shaping today’s society. Some of these achievements and other various tidbits are being highlighted during International Women’s Day on March 8. In regards to the technology spectrum, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reports that women are the primary consumers when it comes to wireless gadgets and gizmos. According to CEA officials, women are outspending men in electronics purchases US$55 billion to US$41 billion. The trade organization also reports that women influence 90 percent of consumer electronics purchases which amounts to a lot of money when factory-to-dealer sales of consumer electronics are projected to exceed US$155 billion in 2007. Read More

The Little White Purse by Saab

By Mike Hanlon

February 20, 2007 Targeted promotional opportunities for premium brands often makes for some strange bedfellows, and resulted this week in premium aerospace and automotive brand Saab releasing ‘The Little White Purse.’ Created by Fashion designer Osman Yousefzada, the purse was designed as an innovative way to keep a woman’s keys stylishly at hand. It banishes those clumsy key-fumbling moments so you look fashionably efficient while stepping into your car, home or workplace. According to Saab, on average a woman wastes one day each year fumbling around for keys in the bottom of her handbag, which does seem a lamentable waste of time. The clever design means the purse can be worn as a necklace, attached inside a handbag, or around a wrist where it could no doubt double as a weapon should the need arise. Read More

Ohmibod - the first iPod acsexory

By Mike Hanlon

November 20, 2006 Sexuality is common to us all. Like music, it is a universal language that can overcome all barriers, so, maybe they can be combined? . Developed using a team of 500 beta testers, the Ohmibod is a music-powered vibrator that translates tunes from any MP3 player (actually any audio source so iRiver, Creative, Zune etc will all work too) into vibrations. Offered as an “acsexory” aimed squarely at the world’s largest selling personal entertainment device (the Apple iPod), the aim of the slick marketing exercise is to make vibrators socially acceptable. The timing couldn’t be better as personal entertainment devices are selling at more than 50 million units a year, roughly half of them to women, so the world’s first audio player acsexory might be a killer app in the making. There’s an online Club Vibe (which users can join anonymously), centred on enhancing the OhMiBod experience, and sharing OhMiBod Playlists and experiences. Now we haven’t tried it, but those that have are being very complimentary on the Ohmibod blog Ohmiblog, writing things like, “I’ll never listen to the Black Eyed Peas in the same way again”, and “the perfect travelling companion.” Considering the various forces at play in reaching the desired result, we’d suggest that rather than using music designed with other things in mind, there’s also the prospect of a whole new genre of music designed to create the sustained frequencies and rhythms for a successful outcome. Though OhMiBod is not endorsed by Apple, OhMiBod’s creator, Suki, previously worked in product marketing for the company and it shows. “The idea of approachability was carried through the entire development and design of OhMiBod - its name, packaging and website,” says Suki, whose goal is for women to feel as comfortable buying an OhMiBod as they do buying an iPod. Read More

Optoacoustic Technology for Early Cancer Detection

By Mike Hanlon

November 8, 2006 A new and very promising Laser-Ultrasound-Nanotechnology combination that detects malignant breast tumors one-fifth the size found with conventional technology has attracted U.S. Federal funding totalling US$3.8 million. The new federal funding will support Phase II research into breast and prostate cancer detection using laser optoacoustic imaging technology developed by Fairway Medical Technologies. Read More

First Bionic Arm fitted to a female patient

By Mike Hanlon

September 15, 2006 The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), demonstrated its remarkable engineering and rehabilitation science know-how earlier this week by introducing Claudia Mitchell, the first woman to be successfully fitted with RIC’s Bionic Arm technology. The most advanced prosthesis of its kind, the RIC neuro-controlled Bionic Arm allows an amputee to move his or her prosthetic arm as if it is a real limb simply by thinking. The arm also empowers patients with more natural movement, greater range of motion and restores lost function. Using key learnings from the first successful Bionic Arm recipient, former power lineman and double amputee from Tennessee, Jesse Sullivan, RIC’s Bionic Arm initiative leader Dr. Kuiken and his team also have made significant advancements in the area of sensory feedback so that the patient can actually feel if they are touching hot or cold objects. We have excellent pictures and copies of Dr. Kuiken’s presentation to the media available in the image gallery. That's Claudia at top right in the main pic, the bionic arm bottom right, the nerve ending connections at top left and Dr. Kuiken and the first Bionic Man, Jesse Sullivan at bottom left. Read More

First private female spaceflight participant set to launch to the International Space Station

By Mike Hanlon

August 30, 2006 Thirty-nine year old Iranian-born entrepreneur and Ansari X-Prize title sponsor, Anousheh Ansari, has been officially named to the Soyuz TMA-9 primary crew and will become the first private female spaceflight participant. Following in the footsteps of the three previous Space Adventures private cosmonauts, Ansari will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 14 en route to the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Expedition 14 crew members: NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. Mrs. Ansari began her cosmonaut training earlier this year in preparation for a future orbital spaceflight with Space Adventures but with a Russian Medical Board deeming Japanese businessman Daisuke Dice-K Enemoto unfit for space flight, Ansari will become the first private female astronaut, two days after her fortieth birthday and achieve an ambition she has harboured since childhood. In her quest to fly in space, Ansari kickstarted the private spaceflight industry by creating the US$10m X-Prize competition, which was awarded in 2004 to Bert Rutan. “By reaching this dream I’ve had since childhood, I hope to tangibly demonstrate to young people all over the world that there is no limit to what they can accomplish,” said Anousheh Ansari, chairman and co-founder of Prodea Systems. Prodeo is Ansari’s latest venture, focussing on digital home technology. Go Girl !!!! Excellent image library. Read More

OSIM releases US$600 horseback riding exercise machine

By Mike Hanlon

August 15, 2006 Singapore’s Osim is in the business of making a range of high quality exercise and health related machinery and it certainly didn’t take the company long to come out with a rival for the Panasonic Joba which has been under development for several years and captivated Gizmag's female readers when we first wrote about it in early 2005 because it’s a perfect machine for maintaining a trim figure. The OSIM iGallop appears to work in exactly the same way as the Joba, working on the body’s core to shape and tone the tummy, hips, seat and thighs. It’s a zero impact exercise machine, and works the body by requiring multidirectional movements to maintain balance, with this constant balancing engaging certain muscle groups, and helping to improve balance, coordination and posture. The new iGallop starts shipping today at Brookstone, and the really good news is that it comes in at US$600, waaay less than Panasonic’s US$2000. Read More

The bikini that tells you when it’s time to turn over

By Mike Hanlon

July 29, 2006 The modern two-piece swimsuit or bikini was invented circa 1945 in Paris, and was subsequently named after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific where the French were testing nuclear weapons. It took another decade or more for the swimsuit to move into regular usage though, with most recognising sex siren Brigitte Bardot’s appearance in the movie “And God created Woman” as the catalyst which saw it accepted into modern culture. Apart from getting significantly smaller, the bikini hasn’t evolved much in its 60 year reign of popularity, selling more than 30 million units a year in the United States and presumably hundreds of millions across the planet. Now a new simple function offered by Solestrum is pointing the way for the future of useful wearable technology – despite some untrue claims elsewhere in the media, the US$140 bikini offers the wearer real time UV readings on a belt-mounted read-out. The belt is the entire unit, and is made from a smart fabric that detects UV and transmits to the display. Next month, Solestrom will release a new version of the suit, which emits a beep at the UV level programmed by the user. Read More

Instant Man in Your Glove Box

By Mike Hanlon

July 27, 2006 It’s a sad fact but despite thousands of years of civilization, it just takes a bit of frustration on the roads and otherwise law abiding citizens can get very ugly and threatening. A poll in the UK shows that nearly one in three female motorists admit to having been the victim of road rage or intimidation when travelling alone, which is why new UK car insurance company Sheilas' Wheels is offering a new device that aims to make women feel safer when driving alone after dark. 'Buddy on Demand' is a blow up man that inflates at the flick of a switch if and when a passenger is needed. It is designed to help women deter road-rage attacks, car jacking and intimidating behaviour by other motorists - especially at night - by giving the appearance of two silhouettes in the front of the car, instead of a single, female figure behind the wheel. The 'Buddy on Demand' was designed and created by Inflate, builders of the Office in a bucket and a range of other remarkable inflatable structures. Read More

Women dominate mobile phone gaming

By Mike Hanlon

June 30, 2006 As personal computer and mobile telephones have become ubiquitous, there have been few surprises in the way the cookies have crumbled, but one that seems to fly completely in the face of logic is the attraction that the female gender has for computer games. Women represent 59% of all U.S. consumers who play games on a mobile phone and these findings concur with the overall demographic makeup of Internet gamers, where women are the majority due to their penchant for online trivia and card games. Men, on the other hand, hold the majority among gamers who play intense action and role-playing games, and there is not a comparable group of male users in the mobile gaming space. A new research study entitled "Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home" concludes that women are the foundation of the gaming market, and the industry needs to cater to their preferences. John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates believes, "Women generally spend little on gaming even though they like to play games … the industry just needs to find a game they are will to pay for." Read More

Electric Cinderella Shoes with built-in stun gun

By Mike Hanlon

May 10, 2006 The Electric Cinderella shoes idea began as part of Simona Brusa Pasque's thesis at the Interaction Design Institute in 2002 and was inspired by a beautiful woman who Simona interviewed for her thesis who wanted to be able to “intimidate her intimidators.” She wanted to be empowered without losing her femininity, to have the freedom to be sexy without fear. The shoes certainly achieve that, offering 100,000 volts of high fashion stun gun power which can be activated by a control on the matching necklace. The weapon is hidden and when the wearer taps on the matching necklace an electric spark is displayed in the transparent tip, warning the would-be assailant to back off. The weapon is designed for a one time use, in case of emergency, by breaking the tip of the shoe. The shoes have now evolved through several prototypes with earlier versions exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2005 in Los Angeles, at Nemo Museum, Amsterdam, and at Pica Museum in Perth, Australia with the latest incarnation getting its debut outing at the recent CTIA Wireless Fashion Show in Las Vegas. “I believe this type of capability is a dream of many women and it is my intention to bring it to market,” Simona told Gizmag. Simona is seeking "the right business partners." Excellent images! Read More

The new Blancpain Women Collection

By Mike Hanlon

April 14, 2006 Ever since 1930, Blancpain has been firmly convinced that women are well able to appreciate the know-how and the magic of mechanical horology. The Blancpain tradition of feminine Haute Horlogerie timepieces is thus no recent development, but instead boasts a rich and diverse history. Over the past 75 years, Blancpain’s numerous achievements in this field have included the first ladies’ self-winding wristwatch, the smallest round movement and more recently the world’s thinnest perpetual calendar. From an initial role as a purely functional object, the wristwatch has become a piece of jewellery or an accessory accompanying a particular clothing style. This graceful transformation has proved fundamental to contemporary watchmaking. While the Blancpain ladies’ models created in the past can lay claim to many world firsts, Blancpain has never dedicated an entire collection to women. Accordingly, and for the very first time and coinciding with the arrival of spring, Blancpain is revealing how it has imagined and developed its approach to feminine mechanical timepieces. Far from being mere reductions or adaptations of existing men’s watches, the three first models making up this collection were specifically developed to meet the expectations and desires of contemporary women. The hours of the BLANCPAIN WOMEN collection are exclusively feminine. Remaining steadfastly faithful to its roots in the Vallee de Joux, Blancpain has endowed each of its women’s watches with a meticulously hand-finished and decorated mechanical self-winding movement. Nonetheless, the Manufacture is now exploring an entirely new path by creating a collection that is completely innovative in terms of its aesthetics. Read More

Bluetooth headsets for Women

By Mike Hanlon

April 5, 2006 It may be a ridiculous over generalization but women are different to men. They like things different and they like different things and they make up half of the consumer market give or take a percentage point or three. We thought it was silly that it had taken a quarter century for the world to deliver a left-handed mouse for the 16% of mollydookers in the world, but when we saw BluePearls had announced a small, elegant Bluetooth headset aimed at women, it suddenly seemed obvious that not everyone wanted to dress up like R2D2. The headsets have interchangeable colour panels and are claimed to be the smallest and lightest on the market at just 7.9 grams. Read More

iBuzz: Feel the Music in a Whole New Way!

By Mike Hanlon

March 29, 2006 Firstly, let us be clear - this is not a premature April Fools Day joke. As Apple Computer celebrates its 30th birthday, we are reminded yet again that technology continues to touch us in the most amazing ways. First the iPod revolutionized the way we hear music. Now the iBuzz is attempting to change the way we feel music. We’ve written about a number of MP3 players using bone conduction (here and here and here and here), we’ve seen an iPod docking keyboard, an iPod docking baby stroller, the iDog, the iPod compatible wallet, the iPod compatible bed, the iPod docking iChair speaker system (very cool actually), the iPod TuneBuckle for your belt, not to mention dozens of ipod compatible cars. But even the iLounge Toilet Paper Dispenser with iPod Dock could not prepare you for this – the weirdest iPod accessory we’ve ever seen – by a country mile! Read More

Sports bra monitors heart rate with built-in heart monitor

By Mike Hanlon

December 23, 2005 We’ve written a lot about heart monitoring and the advances in monitoring technologies over the last few years, reporting on Adidas’ Project Fusion, the BodyBugg, Garmin’s system for cyclists, Dual Sports combined heart rate monitor and MP3 player and Polar’s RS200sd Running Computer. With the exception of the first two, all of these monitors require the wearing of a chest strap and while this is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable enough for men, it creates much more of a problem for women. Now there’s an answer from heaven - a heart sensing sports bra. Read More