Your's Web Tech Power Blog's: Mar 11, 2011

Friday, March 11, 2011

Latest Posts on Coolest Gadgets

Georgia Tech has taught Simon the robot to make certain we pay attention to it
This skyscraper harnesses the power of lightning
What the Fiik? It’s a motorized skateboard
The Wireless Luggage Finder – Let Your Luggage Find You
UFO Detector – Because You Want to Know When They’re Coming
Cheap Surprise Awesome Geeky T-Shirt Offer
Gadget Thumbnails for 09-Mar-2011

Georgia Tech has taught Simon the robot to make certain we pay attention to it

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:51 PM PST

One of the things that I have noticed about robots is that developing an actual functioning one is a lot of baby steps.

I seems like someone develops a good robot arm, someone else has a robot eye, and someone else has to figure out how to make a robot do some minor thing like snap its fingers. In the case of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, someone has figured out how to make its robot, Simon, get your attention.

Wow, it is hard enough to teach a child to do this properly. I can only imagine that its tricky to teach something that is electronic. You can watch the video here to see more on it.

Apparently, it can recognize when you are distracted from it, and it can wave it’s hand accordingly. Too bad they didn’t teach it to say “Yo” like Number 5 from Short Circuit. It has some sort of cameras to detect human inattention, and it has an “80 percent accuracy rating for spotting day-dreamers”.

I wonder about the other 20 percent. They are probably saying “hey, I was listening, you didn’t have to do that”. Anyway, I suppose that Simon is another way that we can make our robots become more “human”. I guess we all want that.

Source

Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Georgia Tech has taught Simon the robot to make certain we pay attention to it copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

This skyscraper harnesses the power of lightning

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:24 PM PST

This building is one of those concept buildings that I probably will never see built, but it certainly is downright useful.

This Hydra skyscraper is made of graphene, which is light, strong, and very conductive of electricity. You will note that this structure is one big lightning rod, and there is a lot of open space on this building.

My source says this is a giant Faraday cage, which can direct the electrical energy around and then into capacitors for storage of energy. Then, using electrolysis, the water below can be split into hydrogen and oxygen for a fuel cell.

This is a pretty good idea, and I have always wondered why we don’t just harvest the natural raw power of the lightning. After all, there are an average of 500,000 megawatts worth of electrical power in each one. According to my Source, that is about as much electrical power that the United States uses at any given time. However, you want to try and catch something that never strikes the same place twice?

The only way this would be efficient is if there was a thunderstorm going on, and we could somehow harness the energy from that through a lot of rods below or something. That’s what Dr. Frankenstein had to do, at least in the movies. I have no idea if the book is different, but it probably is.

Source

Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ This skyscraper harnesses the power of lightning copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

What the Fiik? It’s a motorized skateboard

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:04 PM PST

For some reason, I can’t seem to stop reporting on motorized skateboards. There’s the Scarpar, the GroundSurf, and now there is the Fiik.

The Fiik is electric powered with an 800-watt motor with off-road tires that is good for about 19 miles of riding time. I’m not certain what its top speed is, but it has three speeds of it. The tires are the big off-road kind, which means that this skateboard can do more than just sidewalks. I’ve got a video after the jump, and you will notice how this surfer uses it to get from wave to wave.

You will note the wireless controller that reminds me of some remote control toys. I would imagine that it is battery powered, and I hope that there is some automatic brakes in case the batteries in the remote fail. The brakes themselves are electric anti-lock.

I am not certain why it is called the Fiik. It doesn’t appear to be an acronym for anything, and I guess that all the good names are taken.

The cost is pretty big at $1,600, which is the cost of several ordinary skateboards, I’m sure. I would imagine that it would take some lessons to get the hang of this too. That will cost you some time, not to mention the possibility of a few injuries.

Source

Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ What the Fiik? It’s a motorized skateboard copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The Wireless Luggage Finder – Let Your Luggage Find You

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 01:04 PM PST

It's happened to me more than once, the last time was on a trip to Venice Italy, one of my suitcases was dropped into the Grand Canal, the other never showed up at the baggage claim. Did it ever make it on the plane? Who knows. I spent over 2 weeks in Italy in the one outfit I was able to dry on the radiator at the hotel. It was a great trip, but I sure didn't make any fashion statements.

Enter the Wireless Luggage Finder, an individually coded luggage tag featuring a built-in wireless transmitter along with a wireless key chain recognition device. So while you're waiting at the baggage claim, your key chain will sound, flash, and vibrate when your suitcase is within about 65 feet of you, and best of all, using a specialized photo sensor, it can actually sense your baggage in the cargo of the plane by measuring light, altitude and noise. Won't that make for a more pleasant journey?

The Wireless Luggage Finder automatically de-activates in the plane and then re-activates again on the luggage belt. The Wireless Luggage Finder is also suitable for tracking keys, cell phones, and more. It has an easily changeable 100 hour battery and works world-wide. Now if we could just do something about the airline food and flight delays.

Available for $24.95 from www.amazon.com

Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ The Wireless Luggage Finder – Let Your Luggage Find You copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

UFO Detector – Because You Want to Know When They’re Coming

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 08:38 AM PST

I know that like most of you, I often lie awake at night, pondering the heavens and the ends of the universe, sometimes these mental wanderings lead me to think about extraterrestrial life, I know, you too right? Often after that, I find it difficult to sleep for fear of being abducted and experimented upon by tall, thin gray men with large, vacant almond shaped eyes. You know they're out there, right?

Well, finally I can get some sleep because Edmunds Scientific has developed the UFO Detector. Now you can rest easy because you will know instantly when an unidentified flying object is hovering above your bedroom, giving you ample time to hide under your bed, thereby avoiding any unpleasant probing.

The UFO Detector can sense magnetic and electromagnetic disturbances and will alert you to their presence by flashing an LED light and beeping a piercing alarm. It is of course, an interesting conversation piece and is quite authentic in appearance, with some very high tech looking components inside a clear sculpted case. At the very least, it will have people asking, what the heck is that? In some cases it might be prudent to keep your secret.

So if you don't want to be one of the thousands worldwide who have undergone grueling medical experiments aboard alien spacecraft, the UFO Detector may be just what you need, that and some 9 volt batteries to keep the thing running.

Available for around $99.00 from www.amazon.com, some assembly required.

Introducing Foolish Gadgets because not all gadgets are cool

[ UFO Detector – Because You Want to Know When They're Coming copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Cheap Surprise Awesome Geeky T-Shirt Offer

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 08:12 AM PST

Our friends over at ThinkGeek are having another of their mega cheap random geeky T-Shirt deals, prices start from $5.99. Think Geek have a HUGE inventory of T-Shirts with prices normally from $15.99 so this is a cool deal if you need to fill your wardrobe with some surprise geeky goodness. Lasts as long as stocks do, get shopping.