Create-a-phone

Everyone now a days has a cell phone. You can often hear people complaining about how their battery is always running low or its not loud enough. Well Motorola now has the answer to that with their make it yourself phone. Now you have the capabilities to make your phone whatever you want.

If you don’t take many pictures then you can take the camera out and swap in a bigger battery for lasted life. Cracked display, but you can’t afford a new phone? This freedom will make a phone actually fit every users needs. It will also be a huge hit with technology based clients that have been tearing apart computers and adding their own parts since the dawn of electronics. This phone also gives people the freedom to make it part of you buy adding different designs on each block you put together.

 

Powering Wearable Electronic Devices

Within this decade there have been numerous innovations with technology and electronics. One of these innovations is computers or electronics that are made to be worn on the human body. Yet, there have been difficulties in powering these devices and still keeping them light and flexible.  Researchers from KAIST, headed by Byung Jin Cho,  are developing a thermoelectric (TE) generator from glass fabric that will be able to generate electricity from the heat given off from the human body. There are currently TE generators out on the market but they are either low-powered or too bulky and heavy to be anything more than a nuisance to carry around. Cho and his team are developing a TE generator that will be designed to be light and flexible in order to create the most efficient mobile electronic and produce the maximum power output while keeping the loss of thermal energy at a minimum.  The glass fabric of the generator is held together by a mixture of pastes made from inorganic material that was designed by Cho and his team of researchers.  Cho believes that this technology will create a new generation of generators that could be installed in more up-scale devices.  For more information on the new and improved TE generator read this article posted in ScienceDaily.

Image from ScienceDaily

Filtered fun

For over 100 years, the East River in New York has been avoided by swimmers due to the extensive amount of pollution it has received  from the city. The East River is only one of many polluted bodies of water in populated areas across the world. There have been many attempts to clean up bodies of water such as the East River, but only one such idea managed to catch the attention of TIME, who added it to their top 25 inventions of 2013.

Diagram: pluspool.org

+ Pool is a project funded by Kickstarter that is expected to be completed by the year 2016 and involves a giant, plus-shaped pool (imagine that) that floats around in the middle of the East River. Yes, it sounds like a stupid idea, but that isn’t all there is to it. Not only will the pool allow swimmers back in the river by enabling them to swim in the + Pool, but it will also help to filter the river and continue to keep it clean as long as the pool resides there.

The reason for the plus shape is so that different activities can take place separately, but simultaneously, to entertain both those who want to exercise and those who want to have fun. It includes a “Kid’s pool, Sports pool, Lap pool and Lounge pool.” Those behind the idea hope that New Yorkers will soon change all their preconceived notions about the East River.

 

Bellabeat: Prenatal Tracking

Bellabeat is new app and attachment for your iPhone. It allows mothers to track their child’s heart beat and offers other statistics and help all through your smartphone. It costs almost double what most home ultrasound machines cost but it is worth it. You can share your child’s heart beat with your friends though social media. Even allow your mother who lives three states away a chance to hear her grand child’s heart for the first time. You can also track how often the baby moves.

Some might be skeptical of this product since it is ran through a cell phone. Most think the radiation given off by the phone would damage they baby in the womb. This is not the case since the highest point of radiation is when a phone is in a call and using the signal. Also you don’t have to hold your phone to your belly to use this app.

 

 

Biometric Alternatives for Passwords

Keeping track of all the passwords for numerous websites can be a hassle and even impossible at times. So why not find a more convenient and efficient way to keep an individual’s information private and secure?  In an article,covered by CNN, it is discussed that instead of using passwords to access an individual’s account the use of  specific traits and behaviors that make every person unique is the next step. The mainstreaming for this technology is still years away because of privacy concerns and getting it to work in the current systems. Yet, a few traits and behaviors are still serious candidates for identification.

cdn.ndtv.com

Each heartbeat has a distinctive ECG, electrocardiographic signal, and the technology that is able to read that signal has already been developed. What is in the stages of production is the Nymi wristband, pictured above, that will allow access to the multiple devices by detected the individuals heartbeat and confirming their identity.  Another identifiable behavior is an individual’s gait and  researchers have been working on technology that will recognize that gait and identify who the individual is.  With the right software, they believe that someone’s phone, for instance, will be able to identify the owner just by sensing their walk.  For more alternative biometric entries read this article.

Hydrogen Reactor

Have you ever been in a tight spot where you need electricity but could not get it. Most would use a standard generator in this position, but those are noisy and leave emissions caused by the fuel they consume. Brunton has an answer for that.

This is Brunton’s Hydrogen Reactor. It uses a mix of hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity where ever and when ever you need it. If you are inside it doesn’t give off smelly toxic emissions that other generators do, but will give you enough power to finish the task at hand. It is small and compact for ease of use and provides a truly unique way to power up by rechargeable hydrogen power.

There is not a price on it yet, but hopefully it can be affordable for everyone. It would not only make life easier, but would also provide a cleaner work environment. It would also be a good tool to have around if you are an outdoorsman because you could take it on a camping trip and not worry about hurting the environment or scaring off animals.

Powered by gravity

When we think about sustainable energy in the modern world, the first things that usually come to mind are gigantic solar panels. While obtaining energy from sunlight has become a wide-spread reality and proves to be quite useful, solar panels have their downsides in obstacles such as overcast weather and tremendous expenses. There is, however, another type of ground-breaking energy form that has been around for quite some time and governs our every-day lives in more ways than we realize: that is, gravity.

The concept of using gravity as a source of power is a lot simpler than it may sound at first. A recent project led by a couple of engineers, which was originally meant for entry into a contest to develop an LED light that eliminates kerosene use, is also a wonderful explanation of the idea of generating electricity using the power of gravity.

Diagram: deciwatt.org

The invention is called the GravityLight. When the GravityLight is hung on a vertical surface, its user fills the included GravityLight bag with weight, such as rocks or any other objects with sufficient weight, and hangs the bag on the weight hook. The weight of the bag, pulled downward by gravity, then pulls the weight strap through a series of mechanisms inside the GravityLight for about 30 minutes, during which the GravityLight is illuminated. There are no batteries or any sort of fuel involved.

The GravityLight is expected to sell for around $6-$7, but its creators hope to lower that number even further. The reason this invention is so innovative is because it is much more affordable than any alternative and will be able to illuminate homes in areas where there is no electricity, such as in third-world countries. The GravityLight is so innovative, in fact, that CNN named it as one of their top 10 inventions of the year 2013. Currently, the GravityLight is being distributed for trial testing and is expected to be on the market soon after.

Wireless Electricity

Imagine a life where there are no cords or wires pathing a way from the outlet to your electronics. A life where you do not have to worry about being out of luck because you forgot to charge your phone or computer. Dr. Katie Hall, Chief Technology Officer at WiTricity, is developing a technology that will allow an electronic device to receive the electricity it needs in order to charge or run without any cords or wires.

witricity.com

WiTricity is a coil that will emulate the purpose of a power cord.  When a power source is connected to the WiTricity coil it will act as a resonator and induce a magnetic field throughout a certain distance of space. When in range of the magnetic field, the coil in the battery of  the electronic will generate a current that will transfer power from the WiTricity to the device allowing it to charge or run.  WiTricity has already been tried and proven successful in giving power to cell phones, laptops, and TVs.   In the article, Dr. Hall’s describes her goals for the future of WiTricity that not only include everyday household objects but also anything from electronic cars to medical equipment.  If WiTricity is developed with an increased range of the magnetic current and can be as universal as a WiFi router then the generations to come will never know the chore of using cords or wires to power their electronic devices.

Computers in contact lenses

We’ve all seen those futuristic movies where a cyborg uses bionic vision to rapidly search through internet databases, hands-free and on the spot, or use heat vision to stealthily locate the enemy. Although this may not seem to be very realistic in our world today, it actually may not be too far off, and possibly even available to the average consumer in the very near future.

Recently, engineers have been working on contact lenses that have similar capabilities to those of Google Glass, though obviously without the clunky, visible hardware. Not only would users be able to browse the internet and use mobile phone apps right before their eyes, literally, but they would also experience enhanced visual perception. Another significant advantage these contact lenses would bring about is a more facilitated and innovative way to monitor health. Contact lenses themselves sit on the surface of your eyes, hence the name, and only remain there because of the presence of bodily fluids. The lenses could pick up vital health information from these fluids and send it directly to doctors. Babak A. Parviz, a writer for IEEE Spectrum, explains this in detail in his article on the contact lenses and the progress he and his students have made in developing and testing prototypes.

Photos: University of Washington

Another more recent IEEE Spectrum article by Evan Ackerman discusses an emerging gadget similar to Google Glass, but with better resolution, a larger screen area, and more features. This piece of eye wear couples with special contact lenses that “hack” the eyes and enable more realistic augmentations. The augmented reality we only see in movies will soon be more of a reality to us than ever.