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Category Archives: Gadgets
SnapPower Charger: A USB charger in a coverplate – no wiring
SnapPower Charger Overview
Powerful 1-amp USB charger built into an outlet cover plate.
Charges any USB device (phones, phablets, tablets, hotspots, etc.) and eliminates the need for bulky wall warts.
Installs in seconds over any standard outlet in your home.
There’s no wiring to mess with, and no batteries to sort out. Just bring a screwdriver and a good attitude.
For renters, this solution provides convenient wall charging that can be taken with you when you move. If you move out, just pop the old cover back on.
They’ve made 1/2 a million on their Kickstarter from the 35K they wanted
via SnapPower Charger: A USB charger in a coverplate – no wiring by Jeremy Smith — Kickstarter.
Anova Precision Cooker – bluetooth sous vide device
At $179 this is considered the best value for money sous vide circulation cooker, which means you can put it into any container and get it to go for you. However, at CES 2015 they announced a wifi version, which will allow you to adjust the temperature and timing away from home, which I think is worth waiting for.
Anova Culinary | Anova Precision Cooker.
B55 Connected – This is how Breitling does smart watches
Must-Own Dongle for Travelers, Upgraded Earbuds, and More Deals
Very cleverly put together USB hub and ethernet USB adapter for travellers
Must-Own Dongle for Travelers, Upgraded Earbuds, and More Deals.
‘Cloaking’ device uses ordinary lenses to hide objects across range of angles
To build your own device
Purchase 2 sets of 2 lenses with different focal lengths f1 and f2 (4 lenses total, 2 with f1 focal length, and 2 with f2 focal length)
Separate the first 2 lenses by the sum of their focal lengths (So f1 lens is the first lens, f2 is the 2nd lens, and they are separated by t1= f1+ f2).
Do the same in Step 2 for the other two lenses.
Separate the two sets by t2=2 f2 (f1+ f2) / (f1— f2) apart, so that the two f2 lenses are t2 apart.
‘Cloaking’ device uses ordinary lenses to hide objects across range of angles : NewsCenter.
Drones being used for package delivery by criminals
In November 2013:
There have been local reports of a mini helicopter drone dropping 250 grams worth of what is thought to be cocaine onto a Brazilian prison. According to Brazilian news source Globo, the prison, Centro de Detenção Provisória 1 is 60 miles north of São José dos Campos and currently holds 1,605 prisoners.
São Paulo’s secretary of Corrections claims that at 10am on 7th March, the drone dropped the package onto the prison yard. The prisoners are said to have crowded around the parcel making it impossible for prison officers to gain access to the mysterious load until later that day when a search of each individual cell had to be carried out.
Drone drops supposed cocaine package into São Paulo Prison | euronews, world news.
Now, May 2014:
A Lithuanian self-made drone detained in Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region last week was used for smuggling cigarettes into Russia, Oleg Dzhurayev, the press service chief of the Kaliningrad border department of the Russian Federal Security service, told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.
A Russian-Lithuanian criminal group used the self-made drone aircraft for illegally smuggling cigarettes across the Lithuanian border into Russia. Dzhurayev said huge boxes with cigarettes had been found inside the drone when the border guards detained the aircraft on Lithuania’s border with Russia. He did not rule out the drone could have been used for other purposes, including unlawful actions in Russia’s territory.
Lithuanian drone detained in Russia last week was used for cigarette smuggling
Pibow Rainbow – Raspberry Pi Case
Raspberry Pi case
The case is crafted out of seven unique layers with a transparent top and base. Each layer is laser cut from colourful high-quality cast acrylic and once stacked they securely contain a Raspberry Pi while leaving the primary ports, including the CSI camera port, accessible.
Airider – floating vacuum cleaner
Heat the base of a snowboard and it’ll go faster
Acoustic Cloaking Device Hides Objects from Sound | Duke Pratt School of Engineering
It’s an invisibility cloak for SONAR!
It doesn’t look like it can be used for ships or subs though, as it’s in the shape of a pyramid…
Acoustic Cloaking Device Hides Objects from Sound | Duke Pratt School of Engineering.
DIY Radar
But today we can use the good stuff that, until recently, was only available to military: radar. In this post we will discuss how radar works, commercially available small radar devices, and where to learn more to help make it easy to add radar to your next project.
via Guest Post: Try Radar for Your Next Project.
There are several different types of RADAR explained: Continuous Wave (CW) Doppler, Impulse, Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW).
Most important bits you can get for around $10,-.
Programmable Bluetooth Button | Griffin Technology screws up total awesome :'(
Tthis amazingly awesome, wonderful and fantastic human interface device, whcih allows you to scroll, scrub, glow and click completely fails because you can only use it on Mac. Who uses Macs any more?
http://store.griffintechnology.com/laptops/powermate-bluetooth
ProJet 4500 – full colour 3d printing
The industry’s only continuous tone full-color plastic 3D printer
Combine the Power of Vibrant Full Color With Durable Plastic Materials
The ProJet® 4500 gives you the power to make ready-to-use, flexible, strong parts, colored pixel by pixel, with superior surface quality. This office-friendly 3D printer is quick and efficient, and features intuitive operation controls, so you can ensure high productivity and cut operating costs.
via ProJet® 4500 | www.3dsystems.com.
Build a Cheap Home Automation System in 10 Minutes with Ninja Blocks
Home security and automation are rarely mentioned in the same sentence as the word cheap, but it’s totally possible if you’re willing to do a few things yourself. We checked out a $200 DIY kit called Ninja Blocks, and were able to get a home automation and security system up and running in about 10 minutes.
Electrode recreates all four tastes on your tongue
Signals that reproduce the four well-known major taste components – salt, sweet, sour, bitter – are transmitted through a silver electrode touching the tip of the tongue. The taste receptors are fooled by a varying alternating current and slight changes in temperature controlled by semiconductor elements that heat and cool very rapidly.
Wireless Device Converts “Lost” Energy such as WiFi signals into Electric Power
Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels.
The device wirelessly converts the microwave signal to direct current voltage capable of recharging a cell phone battery or other small electronic device, according to a report appearing in the journal Applied Physics Letters in December 2013. (It is now available online.)
It operates on a similar principle to solar panels, which convert light energy into electrical current. But this versatile energy harvester could be tuned to harvest the signal from other energy sources, including satellite signals, sound signals or Wi-Fi signals, the researchers say.
http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/wireless-device-converts-lost-energy-electric-power
This is bad news for energy companies, great for the environment
Fact or fiction: What affects Wi-Fi speed? | Macworld
bibitel Sim Skin for cheap mobile roaming
These guys have a sticker SIM card which you stick over your existing SIM card. Once you’re roaming, it intercepts the call and re routes it to it’s own services. These are way cheaper than the roaming costs of the company you are using. Once you’re back, you are using your own provider.
MIT team shows system that tracks people through walls better than wifi triangulation
A team of researchers at MIT have been working this year on a system that can track people through walls with impressive accuracy using radio waves. The team showed the system earlier this month. IDG News Service made a video of the demo, which took place at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The system is still in a proof of concept stage but the team spoke with reps from wireless and component companies during an open house recently. The system was developed by Professor and CSAIL Principal Investigator Dina Katabi and PhD student Fadel Adib. The technology uses low-power signals to track human movement and to decipher motions behind walls. Adib said their accuracy is higher than even state of the art Wi-Fi localization.Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-mit-team-tracks-people-walls.html#jCp
http://phys.org/news/2013-10-mit-team-tracks-people-walls.html
Avegant Virtual Retinal Display
Avegant has produced this device, a wearable prototype he simply calls the Virtual Retinal Display for now. It could be most closely compared to the Oculus Rift, a full-field wearable display that presents a 3D image to the wearer. However, where the Rift cunningly relies on a single LCD panel and some simple optics to work its magic, Avegant’s product actually projects two discrete images directly onto the retinas of the wearer — as is not-so-subtly implied by the name.
http://reviews.cnet.com/wearable-tech/avegant-virtual-retinal-display/4505-34900_7-35828603.html
Freaky but awesome, based on military tech but supposed to be much more relaxing for the eyes than lcd tech, it has xga resolution.
D2 Pilot Watch | Garmin
Direct-to and Nearest buttons that utilize a worldwide airport database
Altimeter with adjustable baro setting and compass
Displays multiple time zones with Zulu/UTC reference
Various timers and vibrating alerts for inflight task reminders
Wirelessly receives flight plan from Garmin Pilot™ and controls VIRB™
Huwei SD Card takes SIM card for HSPA+ 3G
pmd camboard pico gesture technology
This system is like the leap motion, but has a 3d spacial interface, giving you an extra axis and more control. It also follows your whole finger instead of the fingertips. pmd technologies