Saturday, July 17, 2010
Impress Your Date With A Car Of The Future
Want to impress your friends and possibly score a girlfriend? How about purchasing this sweet-ass “Fastlane” car of the future? You can “Buy It Now” on eBay for a cool $15,000. But before you push the button: It’s not really a car. It’s a shell designed to fit on top of a Pontiac Fiero. Which is not included in the auction. So, yeah. It was designed for Universal Pictures by concept car maker Trans FX for use in a movie or something. I know it can’t actually go anywhere, but I still think I want it. I’ll just use a flatbed trailer to tote it to the bar and then slide it off into a parking spot. Then I’ll proceed to get some lucky lady extremely drunk and ask if she wants to see my fancy sports car from the future. Hopefully she won’t notice there’s not a goddamn thing inside and will still make out with me while we’re sitting on the pavement inside. What, where’s my sense? I’ll throw a tarp down. I may even add a boombox for some makeout tunage.
Aptera Hybrid Now Accepting Pre-Orders
The Aptera hybrid is actually being produced. You can put down your $500 deposit now, and see your car in about a year. It hits 60 mph in ten seconds, and is governed at 95 mph. It comes in two versions. The all electric version ($26,900) has 120 mile range, and is plugged in at night. The Hybird version ($29,900) has an efficient gasoline powered generator that achieves over 300 mpg. Not bad. I want one. Mostly because I’m growing fond of the planet and want something that makes me feel like I’m in the Jetsons. Not because I wanted a flying car or to live in the future — I just wanted to hump the nuts and bolts loose on Rosie the Robot Maid.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
THIS PHONE IS AMAZING!!!!
Now THAT’s a touch screen …
Sure, the iPhone’s touch screen capability is super cool. And if previous reports proved true, a Newton Touch may be just over the horizon, then touch screen may be the interface of the future. Microsoft surely thinks to, having announced the SURFACE last year as a tabletop interface for hotels and other corporate concerns.
LG/Philips is on the touch bandwagon as they are set to rock CES with Multi-touch Screens that recognize input from either a touch of a finger or more precise writing instruments.
In addition to it’s multi touch capability, the screens also feature built in software for handwriting recognition, split screen displays from up to 3 sources, and transflective backlighting for outdoor use. But here’s the wild part … the technology can split light from the panel into separate paths, which can show three completely different images to people standing at different angles relative to the display. Yikes!
Available in ranges from 32 to 84 inch models, the Philips Multi Touchy displays use infrared image sensors that recognize two separate touch points as well as gestures. The result is a 1080p HDTV display which can be used for shopping malls, airports, public areas and home theater of the rich and famous.
Singularity Toilets
Perhaps your toilet will look something like this award-winning, sleek Russian toilet, dubbed the Mrs. Hudson and designed to look like a drop of water. Could be a prop from the original Russian version of Solaris. Discerning readers will no doubt recognize it as a larger version of the glass pipe they bought on Haight Street or maybe in Chelsea.
Then there's the combination toilet/washing machine, for a future world where you live in a tiny room and every piece of furniture has at least 4 uses. Fahad, Inc. describes it thusly:
LG cellphone transforms from handset to headphones
LG has announced its Design the Future competition winners, one of which was this Hi-Fi cellphone that also doubles as headphones. Supposedly when it’s folded up, it can fit into a slot in a laptop or your pocket. Unfold it and you have a fancy pair of stereo headphones.Pretty nice. If this design concept ever finds its way to the real world, it could be a winner. LG could do itself a huge favor by thinking outside of the box and actually offering up some items like this one.
The Keyboard of the Future
The keyboard: a basic necessity for the computing world, and the main way in which we control our electronic devices. From cell phones to the keypads we call remotes, perhaps even one day to our automobiles, the keyboard is an essential in the electronic world, and thanks to Art Lebedev Studio’s the keyboard has taken a very futuristic turn.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Window Phone
This new Window Phone is the concept mobile phone, which is able to transform its appearance like a window as per the weather. The phone is designed as a thin, clear and transparent plastic sheet, which remains clear during a sunny day, becomes humid during a rainy day and takes a dump outlook during a snowy day.
turn your body into a touchscreen interface
We present Skinput, a technology that appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as an input surface. In particular, we resolve the location of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always available, naturally portable, and on-body finger input system. We assess the capabilities, accuracy and limitations of our technique through a two-part, twenty-participant user study. To further illustrate the utility of our approach, we conclude with several proof-of-concept applications we developed.
new medical technology
Future Dog Tags
Tommy Morris knows the challenges of battlefield medicine. As a front-line medic with the Army's Third Infantry Division in 1993, he struggled to treat the soldiers under his care in war-torn Macedonia. Frustrated by rainstorms soaking through paper medical reports, he vowed to bring medical recordkeeping into the digital age. "I kept thinking, There's got to be a better way," recalls Morris, now 38 and chief information technology officer at the Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center in Fort Detrick.In 2001, Morris created that better way by designing a new software product called BMIST, which allows medics to enter casualty information into a handheld device. Short for Battlefield Medical Information System-Tactical (and pronounced "bee mist"), the software allows medics to generate an electronic health record about a soldier for later retrieval by frontline doctors or a stateside hospital. In addition, it acts like a medical textbook, so medics can look up diagnostic and treatment information in a combat zone. Already, BMIST software has been licensed to military departments and civilian hospitals in the United Kingdom. Pilot programs are being set up in France and Canada. First responders in the United States are also using it to record medical information on victims of disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
But BMIST is only one of several advances revolutionizing the management of patient information. Since 2005, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command has experimented with the Electronic Information Carrier. The EIC is a dog-tag-size wireless data device worn by soldiers that can store up to two gigabytes of data--literally thousands of pages of records. Rather than having to search through a soldier's uniform for information on blood type or allergies, medical personnel can easily access that information up to 30 feet away with the electronic dog tag.
At the same time, all the military branches are adopting an all-digital medical information system through an initiative called Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA). Its goal is to electronically track the illnesses, allergies and prescribed medicines of all 9.2 million service members and veterans. When these advances are combined, medical workers will have access to the complete health records of even unconscious soldiers. This will allow them to determine whether a person has been exposed to a chemical agent, and it will also prevent deadly drug interactions. Over the past five years, AHLTA has identified and resolved more than 200,000 potentially life-threatening drug conflicts.
But Morris believes these benefits are only the beginning. He foresees integrating BMIST with a sensor that will automatically alert a doctor when a veteran's pacemaker is malfunctioning--"like in Star Trek," he says. And medics in the near future will be able to wave a handheld BMIST device over a wounded soldier, save the patient's vital signs on an EIC, and take comfort in knowing that the medical chart will follow the patient for the rest of his life.
Smart Pain-BlockersFor over a century, doctors have treated seriously wounded soldiers with morphine, all the while knowing the narcotic's downsides. It impairs breathing, reduces decision-making abilities and, if taken over time, can be addictive. But three years ago, researchers funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) reported a remarkable alternative: a nonaddictive pain-blocker. While investigating the biochemical origins of pain, they developed an experimental drug--actually, a synthetic antibody known as RN624--that inhibits a molecular pain messenger called nerve growth factor. The powerful antibody keeps the brain from receiving pain messages sent by nerve endings surrounding an injury. And the drug is long-lasting; a single dose can block pain for several weeks. Best of all, it has no addictive side effects.
"A wounded soldier may get one dose on the battlefield that can take care of any pain until he's evacuated to a hospital days later," says Brett Giroir, MD, deputy director of DARPA's Defense Sciences Office in Arlington,
While some of the military's medical initiatives are years away from fruition, they have astonishing promise. At DARPA, it's hoped that an ambitious four-year, $48 million Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program will result in the creation of artificial human arms and hands controlled by brain waves. Already, researchers have found success with primates. At the University of Pittsburgh, scientists taught a monkey to feed itself using thought-generated impulses picked up by the electrodes of a prosthetic arm. "The monkey was able to move the robot arm out, grab a zucchini chip and bring it back to its mouth just by thinking these motions," says Col. Geoffrey Ling, MD, program manager of DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. "It was phenomenal."
The next goal is to adapt the technology to people, says Dr. Ling, and scientists are conducting the first human trials with paraplegics and patients who have Parkinson's disease. DARPA's timetable calls for completing a working prosthetic arm and hand by the end of the year that will look, feel and perform like natural limbs. Two years later, it hopes to apply for
Having served as a military physician in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dr. Ling knows the urgency in bringing these advances to life--"for the good of the troops," he says. But he also knows that medical breakthroughs born of war aid all humanity: Blood banks, penicillin and reconstructive surgery all emerged from past conflicts. "Perhaps thought-controlled prosthetics will be one of the miracles that comes out of the war in Iraq," says Dr. Ling. "In adversity, there's opportunity."
Volkswagen’s Cars of the Future
What will the future vehicle look like? That’s the question that Volkswagen asked to their top engineers and their answer is the Volkswagen 2028 concept vehicles. The results are as interesting as they are fun, and propose personal vehicles unlike any seen before. The Volkswagen cars we’ll be driving 20 years from now will be sustainable, tailored to fit personal needs and bring a whole new driving experience to the road.
They begin with one simple idea: to make vehicles as friendly as possible, and as easy to drive. To that end, they have produced 3 concept vehicles, and have updated the little VW Up!. The vehicles shown range from the Room, a family vehicle; the Ego, a two seater; and the One, a single rider urban vehicle.
All of them are fitted with technologies which are staples of science fiction, but are not quite possible yet – at least not in the mass produced scale which is required for them to be economically feasible. Think fully electric vehicles powered by the sun; vehicles that drive themselves, fitted with an all encompassing internet; cars that can tell the mood that you are in, and which are able to speak to other cars in the road.
It is a bit too far fetched, and at the same time, extremely exciting look at what the future will look like. Now if we could now start focusing on how the cars are made.
Motorola KRE-8 –
This may very well be one of the weirdest designs I’ve ever come across and I’ve come across some doozies while researching. But I still think the concept idea of this “handset” is brilliant and given the chance I’d love to test it for real. The designer Jose Tomas DeLuna’s whole inspiration when designing this handset was to thrill the audiophile who loves mixing and playing around with their music. The handset also manages to combine what can only be construed as Nintendo Wii style functionality with a mobile phone. It uses sensors and accelerometers to figure out the gestures like - Instrument Mode (guitar, drums, violin), Mix Mode and Record Mode which is a full circle for creating music. It even has a touchscreen display (of course) which makes it simpler to adjust and edit files. It supports GPS and music created on the KRE-8 can be tagged with co-ordinates as well. There are not too many words to describe this handset but Stupendous does come to mind first.
Nokia Morph
Nokia’s Morph may be exactly what the future of mobile technology could be like. The idea is a joint nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Center (NRC) and the University of Cambridge (UK). Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to comfortably even wear the device stylishly on their person. Of course this is not something we can hope to see for a few more years, but wouldn’t you like to?