Driving distractions, primarily by cellphones and other electronic devices, are associated with up to 25 percent of U.S. car crashes, according to a report released on Thursday.

The study by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), a nonprofit group that works to improve traffic safety, assessed research from more than 350 scientific papers published since 2000.

It showed that drivers are distracted up to half the time and that crashes caused by distractions range from minor damage to fatal injury. Cellphone use raises the risk of crashing, but texting is likely to increase crash risk more than cellphone use.

via Gadgets tied to 25 percent of car crashes: report – Technology & science – Wireless – msnbc.com.

Pretty cool – the world is your PCB board!

Silver pen allows electrical circuits to be handwritten on paper and other surfaces.

There’s quite a few ways to turn your pc into a motion detector, the most common seems to be using a webcam and flash.

This works well, but here are a few ways to do it differently:

This is the DIY way

Turn Your PC Into a Motion Sensing Security Device with .NET.

NB the ultrasonic sensor in above article can now be found at Parallax inc here

This guy hooked up his PIR motion sensor to a logitech mouse to simulate the mousepress and turn his monitor on.

The Go!Motion is a complete expermenters tool, so not so good for the kiosk market but interesting nonetheless. It costs $135,-

Circuitgizmos.com has a USB PIR motion detector for $44,99. It looks like it’s pretty basic and still quite DIY.

The KSL Embedded Glob-x USB PIR sensor goes for $55,- and looks most like a plug and play product. It comes with some lovely software to set the sensitivity and what actions to perform when triggered.

Which is a shitload cheaper than the JVC KD-AVx77 (EUR. 600,-) or KW-AVX840 (EUR 500,-). It’s a two DIN unit and there’s not so much functionality as the JVC’s have – it only has 4 apps which are limited but Pioneer say they will be adding more.

Pioneer’s AppRadio delivers iPhone integration, automotive and audio bliss for $400 — Engadget.

Features:

Welcome to Usb.brando.com.

The German Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration recently reported the development of a camera with a lens attached that is 1 x 1 x 1.5 millimeters in size, which is the size of a grain of salt. At about a cubic millimeter in size, this camera is right at the size limit that the human eye can see unaided. The camera not only produces decent images but it is also very cheap to manufacture…so cheap in fact that it is considered disposable.

Resolution: 250 x 250 @ 40Hz

New Disposable, Medical Camera Is the Size of a Grain of Salt | Singularity Hub.

The evoMouse is the evolution of the computer mouse.

With the evoMouse, your finger is your pointer and there is no more pushing around a physical mouse.

The evoMouse works on nearly any flat surface and requires very little space. It tracks effortlessly to your comfortable and natural movements.

With the evoMouse, you can perform common mouse operations using only your fingers. You can control the cursor, click and select, double-click, right-click and drag with basic hand gestures.

The evoMouse also features multi-touch functionality including scroll, rotate, zoom, forward and back. The evoMouse can even be used for handwriting recognition with your finger or a pen.

The evoMouse is easy and convenient to set up and use with almost any desktop or laptop computer. It connects via Bluetooth or a standard USB port.Because it allows natural movements and doesn’t require pushing around a physical object, the evoMouse may help reduce repetitive stress injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

via ++CELLUON ++.

A Japanese inventor has found a way to convert plastic grocery bags, bottles and caps into usable petroleum.

Plastic bags are, of course, made from petroleum to begin with, but it is not the same kind of petroleum that is used in fuel. In order to turn home waste into home power the machine heats up the waste plastic and traps the vapors created in a system of pipes and water chambers. Finally, the machine condenses the vapors into crude oil, that can be used for heating on the home level

via New invention can turn your plastic bags into fuel at home.

inPulse is the perfect hacker accessory – a fully programmable Bluetooth SmartWatch.

inPulse is totally customizable. Our SDK can get you saying ‘Hello, Watch!’ in 5 minutes! Dive deeper and create your own app running right on top of our embedded OS. Code in C and get control over the OLED display, Bluetooth connection, vibrating motor, button, timers, interrupts and more.

via Get inPulse and Hack Your Watch | Hack inPulse: Features.

My current jawbone has a worse speaker than the Jabra and the earpiece holder doesn’t work so well for me. Now they have a new system to hold it in your ear which hopefully works better, but they’ve addressed all the other niggles I had AND added an accellerometer! oh, and you can see the battery level on your iphone, next to the battery indicator of the iphone.

The price: $129,- for all this bluetooth headset goodness.

Shake the Baby! Jawbone’s Newest Headset Likes it Physical.

Waterproof, windproof matches burn in heavy rain and even while wet! Match will not go out until chemical has burned out, then stick can be doused in water to completely extinguish the fire Match sticks are 2 3/4 inches long for added safety to keep from burning fingertips

via REI Storm Proof Matches at REI.com.

FPV = first person viewer. These guys put on a headset and fly their UAV’s or drive their cars whilst looking from the vantage of the vehicle. This page tells you about the planes and aircraft and other equipment it recommends.

Getting Started in FPV.

13 functions, you can program it by pressing your old remote whilst holding it to your wand.

ThinkGeek :: Magic Wand – Programmable TV Remote.

Only $14.99

ThinkGeek :: Star Wars Lightsaber Laser Pointer.

$99,- of awesome

Razer | For Gamers. By Gamers.™ | Online Store – TRON® Gaming Mouse Designed by Razer™.

These things are ruggedised and for the price they aren’t expensive at all…

GoPro Official Store: Wearable Digital Cameras for Sports.

Israeli researchers have created the tiniest-ever optical gyroscopes, as small as a grain of sand, but still maintaining the keen accuracy of their counterparts hundreds of times larger. Optical gyroscopes are generally used for navigation in airplanes, ships and satellites, in which they track movement without reference to external navigation points, by measuring the vehicle’s rotation rate and linear acceleration. This is called inertial navigation. It’s extremely accurate but, up until now, only possible in gyroscopes and weighing two to three pounds.

They only need to set their position once, quickly, and then they can remember where they are for quite some time.

via Nano-Gyroscopes Will Let Cell Phones Navigate Indoors, Underground | Popular Science.

This system uses a laser and a webcam to scan an item, which can then be printed with the cheap Markerbot 3D printer, or other printers.

MakerScanner – open source 3d scanning.

India unveils prototype of $35 tablet computer – Yahoo! News.