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Enter the Dot Matrix: 3D Printers Go Mainstream
Posted on June 22, 2012 | 1 CommentBy Talia Beechick Imagine this: you’re shopping online for that perfect something. You find it, pay for it, and confirm the order. Behind you a large printer whirs to life, humming and vibrating (and maybe emitting some cool strobe and fog effects). In 60 seconds the printer door pops open with your new purchase gleaming, and still warm to the touch. While many might write off this scenario as a sci-fi pipe dream, a growing subculture of hobbyists sees this as the inevitable future for 3D printers (sans the fog... -
Tech Briefing: Singing Gloves, Inhalable Caffeine, and Edible Bottles
Posted on June 14, 2012 | No CommentsBy Vivian Cheng, Luke Quarto, Talia Beechick Project DIVA Professor Sidney Fels and a team of electrical and computer engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a pair of gloves that can read hand gestures and convert them into song and speech. The Digital Ventriloquized Actor (or DIVA) is designed to replicate human speech through hand gestures. The hope is the gloves will facilitate communication for those who cannot communicate verbally. Each hand gesture the user makes is read as a different sound. Each glove has different, discrete... -
Hot Threads: Canadians Create Threadlike Batteries, eh
Posted on June 12, 2012 | No CommentsBy Vivian Cheng As a general rule people like flexibility. We want to be flexible physically, we want our schedules to be flexible, and we even want our technology to be flexible. Fortunately, a group of scientists from the Polytechnic School of Montreal have come up with just the thing to satisfy our growing need for flexible, versatile tech. They’re developing a flexible battery that can be woven right into your clothing. Although flexible and wearable batteries have been made and tried before, the battery that the Polytechnic School of... -
Wrist Watch: Is the WristQue the future for “smart” buildings?
Posted on June 1, 2012 | No CommentsBy Vivian Cheng It is the classic winter dilemma: the temperature is 26 degrees outside (around -3 for all you metric fans), but step inside and it’s sweltering. When you try to fix this by peeling off your sweater, it becomes a little too chilly. Keep the layers on, and you start sweating. Now multiply this by everyone in the building, each with their own temperature preference, and you’ve got a real problem. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is working on a project that could potentially offer a solution. WristQue,... -
Dropping the Soap: Iron-Infused Suds Could Make Oil Cleanup a Cinch
Posted on May 30, 2012 | No CommentsBy Vivian Cheng When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig collapsed in 2010, oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico far faster than federal officials had predicted. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s estimates grew from 5,000 to as much 19,000 barrels a day of leaking black crude. With that much oil flowing into the water daily, coming up with an environmentally friendly way to clean up the oil was a challenge. Although the oil was largely dispersed, it came at a cost. Most solutions – particularly those involving cleaning up... -
GPS Enabled Shoes Help Keep Track of Alzheimer’s Patients with Satellite Sneakers
Posted on May 28, 2012 | 3 CommentsBy Sam Parker Technology once used to locate missing children now helps families of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. The GPS Smart Shoe, created and designed by GTX Corp CEO Patrick Bertagna, utilizes Global Positioning System (GPS) software and cellular devices to track the steps and movement history of its wearer. Bertagna originally formulated the idea during the Elizabeth Smart case in 2002 to help locate missing children, but in the past ten years the uses of the technology have evolved. He chose to design a shoe for dementia patients to... -
The GB&U: Solar Lamps, Fatty Chemicals, and Getting Roasted by a Camry
Posted on May 17, 2012 | No CommentsBy Corey Conley The Good: Solar Lamps We’re not talking about the kind they sell at Home Depot, we’re talking about the kind that can bring light to the 1.3 billion people living without electricity. Currently the lion’s share of these people turn to good, old-fashioned fire to light the night, with all its attendant expenses and hazards. Fuel burning light sources are expensive, cause fires, generate pollution, and worst of all aren’t very bright. It’s an odd fact that the world’s poorest pay the most for each lumen of light.... -
Crap We Want
Posted on May 3, 2012 | No CommentsBy Rachel Flynn The world is full of crap. Most of it is not worth having. Some it is. Here are this month’s picks for…crap we want! Clocky, the running alarm clock made by Nanda Clocky is the perfect solution for the snooze-abuser. Clocky allows the snooze to be hit only once before rolling from its bedside perch to land somewhere else in the room, all while blaring an alarm. The only way to turn Clocky off is to get up and find him. Each day, the diabolical wheeled clock... -
Tech Briefing: 500 km/h Chinese Train, Brain-like Computer Chips, Use Your Hand as a Credit Card
Posted on March 5, 2012 | No CommentsBy Corey Conley and Beatty Jamieson Chinese Train Travels Over 500 Km/hour A new passenger train was tested the last week of December that can reach speeds of 500 kilometers per hour, roughly 310 miles/hour. The train was built by China’s largest train maker, CSR Corp Ltd, and is modeled after an ancient Chinese sword. While a speedy train as this is a huge accomplishment, it doesn’t ease fears of potential harm to passengers. This past year has been a dangerous one for Chinese train passengers with a collision between... -
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Mazda, Carrier IQ, and Siri
Posted on March 1, 2012 | No CommentsBy Corey Conley Good: Mazda’s Skyactiv Technology Mazda has made “Zoom Zoom” a key part of its identity. Mazda cars and even their SUVs usually rate higher on the fun-to-drive scale than the competition. However, the flip side of all that zooming is a less than impressive rating on the miles-per-gallon side of the equation. With strict new federal mileage requirements coming down the pike, Mazda saw the writing on the wall. But rather than gamble on some pricey hybrid tech, they turned their attention to improving their conventional gas...