Gizmo Watch

Since the 1950 researchers have been trying ways to created Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that can be as subtle in flight as the maple tree seed. Based on the spiral flight the seeds take when they fall off a tree, researchers from the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering have finally managed a micro-unmanned aerial vehicle. Inspired by the Maple seed and mimicking it in useful aspects the engineers behind the Micro-UAV term their creation as the “world’s smallest controllable single-winged rotocraft.”

General Electric (GE) has revealed a low cost, ultra-portable ultrasound scanner to make Ultrasonography more affordable and convenient for patients. Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric showed the Vscan (as they call the med device) at the Web 2.0 Summit. Shaped like a flip-up phone, the white colored devices show an ultrasound image on the top flipped screen, while the lower half shows the control keys. There is no real word on Vscan’s price yet, but Immelt believes the device is so conveniently beneficial that it can be regarded as the ‘stethoscope of the 21st century.’ Because in the present scenario it is a matter of making clinical decisions faster and better, we definitely need such portable med gadgets that can fill the void and actually make the difference in lives of the patients. patients.

Via: CNetAsia

We’ve been spectators to all kinds of sculptures made out of scrap. But like us even Nike wouldn’t have thought that shoes could be made in all kinds of scrap. Wires, metal sprockets, nuts, bolts, circuits, just name it and it is there, brought out from the landfill and fixed in for a shoe. Master sculptor… hmm… artist Gabriel Dishaw is the brain behind these unthinkable contraptions.

These sculptures are part of Gabriel’s shoes series the JUNK DUNK, using his favorite classic sneakers silhouettes for base, the lad’s got hold of the art to get the final outcome to be massively detailed and finely done. Nike will be impressed to see their logo on the tongue and the back of these junky sneakers that have all kinds of scrap all over, and the soul of the shoe built from circuit boards. Follow the link to see some of the other amazing sculpture made in scrap by Gabriel, the Queen Bee, Shiva, Guardian, Angel and the Little Boy to name a few. Follow the break for more images of the sneakers.

Concept designers can give us real treat at times. Case in point is this PS3 Motion Controller by Miguel Duarte. Sony may be working on the Motion sensing Magic Wand controller for PS3, but Miguel with his interesting concept has made us believe the lines we can expect the Magic Wand to be made in, hope that isn’t pushed much?

A cool variation of the PS3 Wand controller, this PS3 Motion Controller concept is a similar handheld device like we have seen the PS3 Wand controller to be in the demonstration videos, but the difference is in the size. The Motion Controller is slightly smaller than the actual Wand, but comes with an adaptor to allow two users toonnect two Magic Wands together to create a full PS3 controller similar to the dual shock controller we’ve all so embraced.

Computer peripherals - haven’t they become novel and all-pervasive in all aspects? You still doubt, then get set to embrace this button-less Bluetooth mouse Apple’s got ready and shipping for us. Dubbed the Magic Mouse, actually justifying the name, the mouse adapts Apple’s multi-touch technology to do away with the buttons and give all beginners and pros a new looking and ergonomically exciting mice to play with. Selling for a price of £55 approx. $90, and powered by two AA batteries for extended battery life, the Magic Mouse requires the user to control it with gestures similar to what Mac users are already used to, clicking and scrolling with the fingers. Magic isn’t it? More images of the mouse after the jump.

If Philips Emotions Jacket let you feel the emotions of the character onscreen, this chest worn device, a finalist at the Consumer Electronics Association’s annual i-stage competition lets you feels various sensations from the game in real life. Created by Immerz, the KOR-fx as it’s called, is based on acousto-haptic technology and works using the resonance of the chest cavity to create various sensations, so when there is some ghastly noise in the game you feel it in a vibration on the chest, as if you were actually experiencing it, or if you are enjoying some music you actually feel the same resonance you would get from a live concert.

According to Immerz president and CEO Shahriar S. Afshar:

What goes on is you have pretty faint vibrations that are delivered to the upper corners of your chest, and depending to the context of the sound you are listening to, the emotions are heightened.

The KOR-fx device is in the beta testing stage for now, but Immerz are hoping to have a final production product in place to go to their manufacturers in Taiwan and China. So in case you’ve liked the concept, just take some life from there.

Via: MassHighTech

The technique of generating autostereoscopic 3D images has been around and is being used in displays, but still getting them into mobile devices has been a discomforting task. But now with a new thin-film technology developed by 3M, the cellphones could be done to show images in 3D and that too viewable without the need for special glasses.

The developed technology referred to as Vikuiti 3-D is based on prism-shaped reflective structures stuck behind polymer film with tiny microlenses in front. These components steer light through a LCD display placed ahead of the film. There are two light-emitting diodes on either side of the film which allow the light to pass, letting it hit the waveguide that strikes the light back on the film to make the light be steered in two different directions. This is how two different images are created for the viewer’s left and right eyes, making him believe that he’s seeing two images at the same time.

Different computer interfaces have been resurrected to help us enjoy the way we interact with computers. While touch interfaces have been the most experimented with and also the most exciting to use, Clayton Miller has enhanced upon the same in his 10/GUI project. Doing away with the limitations of multitouch, some that we have reported as religious users, Clayton has separated the touch interface from the display and has placed it below the display and the keyboard, something like a large touchpad we have on laptops. This graphical user interface is a proximity sensitive pad which is used as the interface wherein the user can utilize all fingers for the multitouch experience. Hit the jump for the video and more on the concept.

Taking a leaf from Asus’ dual screen e-book reader, Spring Design has gone a stride forward by doing this e-book reader and tablet hybrid. The Alex reader, as they call this Duet Navigator device, features a 6-inch monochrome electronic paper display on top and a 3.5-inch color LCD display on the bottom. Combining the best from both technologies, Alex runs Google Android, allowing the user to browse the web either through Wi-Fi or 3G.

The web and multimedia content can be enjoyed on the LCD display, while for prolonged readings the content can be transferred or saved to be read on the electronic paper display. Alex makes provision for an SD card slot so the storage is no issue here, while the headphone jack and built-in speakers make the content more exciting. Alex can be expected by the end of the year but we have no word on price yet, and even we wanted to know it.

Via: OhGizmo/Dvice

Camera manufacturers are into some kind of megapixel warfare. Everyone’s trying to outpace the other with a higher MPs and better performance cameras. Continuing the trend, Canon has unveiled the new 16.1 MP EOS 1D Mark IV D-SLR camera, which is touted as a high-speed multimedia performance monster with an APS-H CMOS sensor from the maker itself.

For all photographers used to capturing split second moments in high-res, and videos in full HD, the MP EOS 1D Mark IV features a 3-inch display Dual DIGIC 4 Image processing 14-bit analogue to digital (A/D) conversion and is good to capture images at 10 frames-per-second, as well as delivering the widest ISO range ever to be featured in a Canon camera.