Wearable Electronics

23:58 June 24, 2009 PDT

The Solar Light Cap won't let you get caught in the dark

New Zealand-based company 2C is selling a range of solar powered LED caps that charge up during the day to provide light at night. All the energy gathering, light-emitting technology is located in the semi-flexible pre-bent beak of the caps including the solar panel and the NiMH battery used to store it. Read More

Along comes a spider - UREWERK UR103T watch

01:34 June 24, 2009 PDT

URWERK hasn't done anything to damage its reputation for avant-garde timepieces with its latest addition to the UR103 range. The UR103T keeps time by means of four rotating satellites that sweep past the minute arc at the bottom of the face and there's also a "control board" on the back which includes a 43-hour power reserve indicator and a chronometer for accurate time-setting. Anyone who can guess what the "t" designates deserves a prize - it's not "titanium" or "timepiece", but "tarantula", a reference to the arachnid inspired aesthetics of the watch mechanism. Read More

Metal detecting sandals delve the depths of fashion

23:00 June 16, 2009 PDT

Hellooo ladies - it's the Metal Detecting Sandal

Are you a beachcomber who is sick and tired of lugging around a hand-held metal detector as you search for buried treasures? Well, your prayers have been answered with these Metal Detecting Sandals that can pick-up objects buried up to 2-feet underground. Read More

OLED data glasses give wearers an eyeful

By David Greig

20:11 June 4, 2009 PDT

OLED data glasses developed by German students at the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden

You don't need to work for the secret service or as a jet fighter pilot to appreciate the sheer convenience – and craftiness – of being able to grab hold of crucial information, without so much as lifting a finger or batting an eyelid. Students at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany are developing a pair of interactive data eyeglasses that can project an image onto the retina from an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) micro-display, making the image appear as if it's a meter in front of the wearer. While similar headwear only throws up a static image, the students are working on eye-tracking technology that allows wearers, with just the movement of the eyeball, to scroll through information or move elements about. Read More

Concept bra to help Japanese women on the hubbie hunt

02:27 May 19, 2009 PDT

Feed the bra a wedding ring to stop the countdown clock

“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

Titanic-DNA Tourbillon Steampunk a la Grande

By Mike Hanlon

18:45 May 12, 2009 PDT

Titanic-DNA Tourbillon Steampunk a la Grande

We love the thinking behind Romain Jerome's manufactured authenticity and its legend DNA blends, so it's not surprising that we also love the irreverence of the Tourbillon Steampunk A la Grande. It's an exceptional timepiece featuring intensely accentuated physical characteristics, distinctive bolts, an anchor-shaped off-centred oscillating weight, 6-sided screws, Roman numerals, characteristic paws, a tourbillon, the collection’s trademark rust, along with a number of springs and rivets…. the result is a fascinating blend of apparent anarchy and undeniably noble charm. Read More

Golden-i Bluetooth headset with virtual PC display

23:04 May 11, 2009 PDT

The Golden-i Bluetooth headset: you never leave work without it

Mobile phones and laptop computers have made traditional 9-to-5 workdays a thing of the past for many workers. That ability to work from any location, however, can be a double-edged sword. The flexibility to be freed from the office also means that work is increasingly encroaching on people’s recreation time, as they find they are never really off the clock. That situation looks set to worsen, or improve, depending on your perspective, with the introduction of the Golden-i from Kopin Corporation. The Golden-i is a Bluetooth headset that provides a 15-inch virtual display with a hands-free, natural-speech-recognition interface for wireless remote control over a range of devices including mobile phones, PCs, company networks and wireless systems. Read More

Jawbone boosts noise suppression with PRIME Bluetooth headset

22:00 April 23, 2009 PDT

Jawbone PRIME promises 5x better call clarity

Aliph has announced the latest addition to its sleek Jawbone line of Bluetooth headsets - the Jawbone PRIME. The new unit gets enhanced "NoiseAssassin" suppression technology compared with previous generations, delivering 6 to 9dB of improvement when holding conversations in noisy environments. Attention has also been paid to optimizing the headset's performance in windy conditions, with Digital Signal Processing techniques applied to reconstruct distorted low-end speech frequencies in winds up to 10 mph. In a market segment where aesthetics plays almost as big a role as functionality, Jawbone PRIME also ushers in a new range of colors and several earbud options designed to deliver a better fit. Read More

Glacier's W200 Wearable Computer

01:37 April 10, 2009 PDT

While laptops have ushered in the era of mobile computing, their form factor still dictates the need to use a desk, table, or at the very least, a lap. Other handheld units are easier to use on the move but would be even better if we had another appendage, given that one hand is rendered useless through the need to hold the device. The solution - wear your computer. This example for Glacier Computer - the new Ridgeline W200 wearable computer - combines the same features of a standard computer with a device that straps to the wrist to provide hands-free operation while retaining full access at all times. Read More

The watch of many faces

By Anne Hanrahan

06:07 April 7, 2009 PDT

While we've seen our share of obscure and unusual watch designs, we're always on the lookout for the next innovation that might catch on in the world of wrist worn timepieces. This example may not prove to be the next Swatch, but the customizable OLED "UNI watch" concept by Takemura Ori definitely caught our eye. Read More

Taser AXON wearable surveillance kit – to protect, serve and record

22:33 March 24, 2009 PDT

Dashboard cameras mounted on police vehicles have proven their worth in backing up courtroom testimony by providing a video record of incidents – as well as giving reality cop shows a veritable wealth of real life footage. Now a new product from Taser International, the company responsible for the electroshock weapon that bears that name, takes the idea one step further by capturing video and audio of incidents from the visual perspective of the responding officer. Read More

Apple's new talking iPod Shuffle

23:20 March 12, 2009 PDT

Call it anti-social if you like, but a lot of people listen to portable music players to avoid being spoken to. This hasn’t stopped Apple adding a new VoiceOver feature that speaks song titles, artists and playlist names to the latest iPod shuffle while also shrinking it to nearly half the size of its predecessor. The third generation Shuffle can store 4GB (around 1,000 songs) worth of music in a unit that is smaller than an AA battery. This reduction in size has seen the controls moved from the unit itself onto the included earphone cord - an immediate issue if you don’t happen to like Apple’s earphones. The featureless aluminum design includes the usual built-in stainless steel clip for wearability, but the feature sure to get the most interest is VoiceOver. Read More

The Blancpain 500 Fathoms watch

By Mike Hanlon

21:15 February 11, 2009 PST

Just a few weeks back, we wrote about an exhibition celebrating the Blancpain 50 fathoms watch, one of the most desirable technological boys' toys of the last half century. Now, on the eve of the Baselworld 2009 watch show, Blancpain has released details of the new 500 Fathoms watch. That's right, it's water-resistant to ten times the depth of the 50 fathoms and will now take you safely to 1000 metres depth and back. Quite appropriately, it comes equipped with a helium decompression valve which is vital when diving in a closed environment. Read More

Romain Jerome's Moon Dust-DNA watch collection (with real moon dust)

By Mike Hanlon

20:37 February 1, 2009 PST

Romain Jerome's Moon Dust-DNA watch collection (with real moon dust)

When Romain Jerome decided to differentiate itself from the other 600 Swiss watchmakers by creating a series of watches with "Titanic-DNA" containing steel from the Titanic, we speculated the undisclosed future "DNA of Famous Legends" series might contain inaccessible materials such as bits from the Space Shuttle, the Concorde, famous guns such as the AK-47 or perhaps famous warships.” Bingo! The second legend in the series will incorporate moon dust as well as fragments of the Apollo XI and Soyuz space shuttles and the International Space Station ISS. Read More

Bagtv: techno chic or fashion faux pas?

23:40 December 23, 2008 PST

It may not be the most logical example of a two-in-one product we've ever seen, but Bagtv will almost certainly score you some points in the novelty department. As the name suggests, this line of handbags incorporates a 7-inch LCD screen into the design so that you can watch DVDs, Mpegs and view photos while you're out and about in the urban jungle. Read More

Solar sunglasses: making the most out of the summer sun

21:05 December 18, 2008 PST

The Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses (SIG)

They may or may not set the fashion world alight, but these solar power-generating sunglasses designed by Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong deserve top marks for ingenuity. As well as providing UV protection from the sun, the concept employs dye solar cells integrated into the lenses to power your portable electronic devices. Read More

Sony Ericsson's first collection of Bluetooth watches for women

01:32 October 27, 2008 PDT

Sony Ericsson's first collection of Bluetooth watches for women

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

iBangle wearable design concept

19:57 October 26, 2008 PDT

Apple has a well deserved reputation for churning out slick designs and is equally adept at keeping us guessing as to what's around the corner. Designer Gopinath Prasana is one aficionado who has decided not to wait and see, instead coming up with his own take on what the iPod of the future might look like. Dubbed the iBangle, the concept design turns the iPod into a wrist worn, aluminum bracelet complete with an adjustable air chamber on the inner face that can be inflated to ensure a snug fit. Read More

Solar-powered G-Shock Rose Gold Series watches launched

23:29 October 22, 2008 PDT

Casio has added to its well-known G-Shock collection with the introduction of its premium Rose Gold series. The new line of watches combine shock-resistance characteristics with self-adjusting atomic timekeeping technology and a mini solar panel for extended battery life. Read More

Smart fabrics and the future of healthcare

By Kyle Sherer

22:56 October 22, 2008 PDT

Smart Fabrics: Context is developing wearable sensors that could detect RSI

You don’t often hear fashion mentioned in the same sentence as cutting edge medical technology (unless you watch Grey’s Anatomy), but shirts that double as health monitors are just one type of garment under consideration in the emerging smart fabrics industry, a market that is estimated to be worth over €300 million, with a growth rate of roughly 20% per year. Read More

GrandCliff Double Retrograde Skyscrapers wristwatch

02:49 October 14, 2008 PDT

GrandCliff Double Retrograde Skyscrapers wristwatch

Ultra-contemporary timepiece designs can sometimes let aesthetic considerations get in the way of actually being able to tell the time, but Swiss watchmaker Pierre DeRoche has struck a sophisticated balance with it's latest offering - the GrandCliff Double Retrograde Skyscrapers. Read More

Gresso's limited edition 192Gb USB pendant

22:40 September 24, 2008 PDT

Gresso's limited edition 192Gb USB pendant

The latest high-end tech offering from Gresso is a cleverly designed USB Flash drive pendant that incorporates three separate 64 Gb memory sticks into a single unit made from 200-year-old African Blackwood with diamond and gold trimmings. A limited run of 99 pieces has been announced for the ENIGMA collection, but prospective buyers will have to dig deep. Read More

Nooka adds to unconventional watch range