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Gadgets & Ideas Gadgets that may seem to only exist in science fiction are actually for real. Just picture those old movies from the 80's like Terminator and the Aliens series. Think of the costumes they wore. Have we got a suit for you! Called exoskeletons, this robotic assisted suit does in fact exist and may prove to be quiet helpful. We'll tell you about inventions that haven't made it to the supermarket shelf...or even to the production line.. but are really happening. There's the 3-D printer that can create objects like an inkjet printer - but in 3-D. The Sc ramjet that will be able to travel from Sydney to London in 2 hours. A Smart Bra that measures and controls your bounce, the Power Tower; a huge tower that runs off solar energy to power entire cities. And of course there's teleportation. Another idea that has long appeared in the realm of science fiction is invisibility. We still can't make people invisible but a group in Japan is attempting to do the next best thing, designing a system to make people appear see through, optical camouflage. Aerogel...it feels like styrofoam, is extremely super-light and super-incredibly insulating. It's also a weird glowing blue and can be used to catch comet dust. Music lovers can get inflatable speakers and a wah wah peddle that's not actually a peddle! Batteries flat again? Try a battery that never needs replacing. Yup, they're designing batteries that just slip under your skin to charge up your watch, mobile phone...anything. All you do to recharge it is eat. But do we really want something inside us that requires the same food as we do? How about just a battery powered by sugar? A new digital camera, designed to keep an on going digital record of your life has been designed by Microsoft. The SenseCam is a badge size camera that can take up to 2000 pictures a day. Some mobile phones currently feature cameras, radios and keyboards, to make them more than just a device that sends and receives calls. But a German mobile phone company is developing a phone that can smell for you too!! Researchers in the UK have made a biodegradable phone cover that you can grow a plant from! The nTAG is a device worn around your neck at a conference to help you network with other conference goers. Instead of taking test with a pen and paper, schools in Australia may one day use remote controls called Clickers. When you think of ringing bells, maybe you think of weddings, churches or annoying alarm clocks. The first thing that pops into your head probably isn’t a star light years away, but researchers have found that a star called Alpha Centauri B rings like a bell. When you think of ringing bells, maybe you think of weddings, churches or annoying alarm clocks. The first thing that pops into your head probably isn’t a star light years away, but researchers have found that a star called Alpha Centauri B rings like a bell. Background Notes A brief synopsis of each of the gadgets items in our shows and links to our references.
So what do you do when you can't utilise biotechnology to solve problems? Use mechanics! The field of robotics promises much for the physically handicapped and Gizmo has previously run several stories of machines which will bring new freedoms. One of these is the Power Assist Suit from Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Japan. Initially developed to aid nurses in lifting immobile patients, electronic sensors monitor the user's muscles and trigger the hydraulically operated suit to boost strength by more than 50%. This idea has been taken further by the American military to introduce such technology to soldiers in combat environments. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is funding a US$50 million project known as 'Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation'. The human body is unsurpassed in the complexity of its design, performance and efficiency, but there are definite limitations to what we can achieve with a frame that's around 6 ft high - we can only carry so much weight, jump so far or run so fast before we reach our physical boundary. Machines that overcome these limitations have been with us for centuries, but we are only beginning to explore the possibilities of augmentation - extending our existing capabilities through wearable robot exoskeletons to create superhuman strength, speed and stamina. For the aging population - this could prove quiet interesting. References
Return to top. Sugar power batteries are able to run on food scraps. Inside a wallet sized battery, a colony of E. coli bacteria produce enzymes that break down carbohydrates (sugar). The cell then sustains redox reactions that create a voltage that can be used to a power a circuit.
Return to top. Loudspeakers come in heavy,
cumbersome boxes that provide an air enclosure to absorb unwanted vibration
and give a fuller sound. But now two companies, SoundTube Entertainment
in the US and Ellula Sounds in Leicestershire, UK, reckon an inflatable
box will do the job. A speaker driver is mounted in a flat, rigid board
bonded to a large bladder. When the bladder is inflated, it expands
to form a box shape resembling a speaker cabinet. The bladder has several
chambers so that the whole thing won't collapse if one is punctured.
At the end of each gig, a vacuum pump sucks out the air.
Return to top. Wah Wah is the distinctive sound of rock guitarists; generally, they use a pedal to distort the guitars notes up and down the frequency range. A Japanese company, however have developed wah wah lips or the Mouthersizer. A camera is mounted on a headset and is aimed just inside the musician's jaw this is linked through a computer to the amplifier and does the same job as a pedal. How? Facial recognition in the computer analyses the shape of the mouth and shadows inside the mouth and changes the note accordingly. So when the musician is smiling it is a different to an open mouth and a varying degree in between these facial expressions. Has been tested with a group of 20 musos and they said it was easier to learn and had more precise controls than a wah wah pedal. Reference
Return to top. If you left the last James Bond film asking "Where can I get one of those invisible cars?" you might be interested to hear about a group of researchers that has developed a way of making almost any object seemingly invisible, using a technique they call 'Optical Camouflage'. This group has worked out a way of making people disappear by recording what's behind them and then projecting that image onto the person, seemingly allowing an onlooker to see right through someone. For the projected image to show up clearly, even in daylight a special type of cloth called retroreflective material needs to be used. Unfortunately at the moment you still need to carry around a video camera and a projector and it only works when you are looking from the right point of view, but it might not be too long before becoming invisible is possible. Reference
Return to top. Question: When is a bra a
smart bra? Plastics are polymers (very long chained molecules). The intelligent polymers discovered at the University of Wollongong can do things that other polymers can't, like generate or respond to electricity. Kerry Ann Bowles from the Biomechanics Research Lab at University of Wollongong thought about using intelligent polymers in bras when studying breast motion during exercise. Firstly the polymers needed to be put into fabric so she worked with the Intelligent Polymer Research Unit at UoW and CSIRO's Textile and Fibre Technology division to develop the Smart Bra.
Fabrics with intelligent polymers in them are called technical textiles. Other uses for them are in knee sleeves that have been trialled with AFL players. The intelligent knee sleeves activate a buzzer when the intelligent polymer in them stretches a certain amount. In the future, fabrics with intelligent polymers in them could be used in shirts that monitor heartbeat or other electrical signals, instead of the electrodes that are used now. References
Return to top. The SenseCam is a small digital camera, designed to be worn on clothing, that takes up to 2000 pictures a day. The SenseCam is a way of keeping a continuously increasing record of where you have been and what you have been doing. The images can be stored in a computer and can be later searched to find information from any given day. Information such as a phone number you saw but didn't write down. With the SenseCam you could go back through the photos until you found the picture containing the phone number. The SenseCam can be linked to a number of different triggers. It can be programmed to take a picture at set time intervals or by the wearer manually pressing a button but it can also be set up so that changes in light, sudden movements or even possibly changes in heart rate will cause it to take a picture. The SenseCam is still in the prototype stage and microsoft are already looking at a wide range of different triggers. The SenseCam could also prove invaluable in situations where there is a lot happening and important things might be forgotten. Take a car accident as an example. In such a situation there are often discrepancies between the memories of different people involved. If one of the people involved, or even nearby, was wearing a SenseCam then the pictures could be used to work out exactly what happened. Just think for a minute about a situation where a SenseCam could have helped you remember something. I bet it doesn't take long to come up with quite a few. Reference
Return to top. We all know that mobile phones today do more than just send and receive calls. Cameras, keyboards and radios are some of the additional features that are commonplace on many current handsets. But a German mobile manufacturer is close to putting the latest extra device into production phones – an electronic nose for smelling odours and gases. The 'mobile nose' is actually a ceramic sensor chip, with loads of very small structures that can only be seen with hi-tech electron microscopes. Siemens, the company developing the technology, say that the sensors are able to detect even the tiniest levels of gases, despite being only one millimetre in size. There are several safety applications for the new chips, such as detecting gas leaks, sensing increased smoke levels from a fire and alerting users if poisonous gases without a smell are nearby. Phones fitted with the micro-sensors could also be a great personal hygiene tool: they could tell you if you had bad breath or some serious body odour action! Who would have thought a mobile could be lifesaver when you're preparing for that dream data? Reference
Return to top. The N-tag is wearable technology that helps people increase the productivity of their networking at business related gatherings. Basically it is an interactive name badge that is worn around the neck, the nTAG can provide conversation starters by prompting the wearer with some information about other people wearing nTAGs. As the wearers approach each other, information is transmitted between the nTAGs with infrared sensors. The information can relate to your work, beliefs, ideas and even hobbies. Reference
Return to top. Biodegradable Mobile Phone Cover Mobile phones can do a lot of things these days, they can take pictures and send e-mails but we may actually be able to use our phones in the future to grow our gardens. Researchers from The University of Warwick in the UK have developed a mobile phone cover that is totally biodegradable. What makes this even better is that the cover has a flower seed imbedded into it, so when the phone cover breaks down a plant will grow from it. The researchers hope to ultimately make all the parts of a mobile phone biodegradable. Reference
Return to top. Some schools and universities in the US are using a new method of taking test. Instead of using pen and paper, the students are using remote controls which they call clickers. The teacher puts up a multiple choice question on the screen in front and the students select an answer using their clicker, then instantly the student find out whether they’ve got it right or not, and the teacher gets instant feedback as to whether the class actually understands the class material. It’s very similar to asking the audience on ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’. Unfortunately, clickers only work with multiple choice questions, so if it was a written test, then you’re stuck with your pen and paper, and your poor teachers are stuck with marking them all one by one. Reference Return to top. When you think of ringing bells, maybe you think of weddings, churches or annoying alarm clocks. The first thing that pops into your head probably isn’t a star light years away, but researchers have found that a star called Alpha Centauri B rings like a bell. Stars have sound waves caused by gases moving around. These sound waves bounce around inside the star making it pulsate which causes changes in the light emitted from the star. Dr Tim Bedding of the University of Sydney and his colleagues used telescopes in Australia and Chile to measure the changes in light from Alpha Centauri B. Measuring these changes helped to determine what the star is made of, how hot it is and even found that it sounds like a ringing bell. References
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