Another USB gadget for heating/cooling drinks

Here's our weird Japanese gadget of the day.

We have one of those little USB things that heats your cup of coffee but what about when you have something you want chilled (like ice tea maybe)?

The Green House GH-USB-CUP2 (catchy name huh?) does both at the flip of a switch.

Careful though it gets hot: heating drinks to 104 degrees (or cooling them to 59).

What does it cost? 2,780 Yen (about $26.50)

(via akihibaranews)

French invent artificial mouth

French researchers have invented a new artificial mouth that mimics the the first steps of digestion - chewing, saliva release, and food breakdown.

The goal is to create a mouth that could become part of a robotic taste tester designed to increase our understanding of flavor and improve food quality.

They tested the mouth by setting it at different speeds and feeding it pieces of apple, they then compared the pieces to ones chewed by a real person. Doesn't sound like much fun to me.

I wonder what conclusions the mouth will reach? "English food is too bland" and "the French use too much Garlic" perhaps.

(via newscientist)

Crazy lenny stress tests portable GPS and VHF

"Crazy Lenny" the Mad Mariner has stress tested a few portable GPS and VHF handhelds: the Garmin GPSmap 76c, the Lowrance iFinder H2O, the Raymarine Ray 101, the Uniden Voyager, and the Uniden MHS 350.

How were they stress tested? dropped them a few times, tossed them around in a cooler of ice and live fish, threw them overboard into a couple of feet of salt water, drove a trailer and boat over them, handed them to a bunch of kids with instructions to break them, and then finally flushed then down the toilet.

A week later he tested them and they all still worked.

(full review at madmariner)

Pet porthole is particularly pointless

Boing Boing posted about this $30 pet porthole from Hammacher-Schlemmer.

That is the last thing I would put in my fence: I don't want my dogs to see what is going on outside the backyard - if they see things (mailman, UPS truck, someone walking by, a cat) they bark, I don't want the little *bleep* barking all day.

(via boingboing)

Continue reading "Pet porthole is particularly pointless"

Ticketime - are these guys on drugs?

This has to be the craziest idea I have seen all day, and I have just spent the last 12 hours trying to find stuff to post here on ShinyPlastic.

The ticketime concept from Yanko Design is a combination boarding pass and watch. First you use it as a boarding pass, then the little seethrough magnetic watch part is set to show the time of your return flight, you keep the little watch as a reminder of when you need to be back at the airport for the return flight, when you get back to the airport you use the watch as your boarding pass for the return flight.

Do they think people don't already have watches?
What happens if people lose their magnetic watch, or it is stolen?
Isn't it just easier to print your return boarding pass online or at the airport?
What happens if the time of the return flight changes and it is delayed or canceled?
What happens if you change your return flight?

I give this idea 10/10 for drugged out stupidity.

(more at yankodesign)

Continue reading "Ticketime - are these guys on drugs?"

Soundwalk wearable speaker system

You may be worried about the damage ear buds do your hearing, and you may be looking for an alternative, but please do not buy the soundwalk: you have awful taste in music and I don't want to listen to it.

Yes, now you can subject everyone nearby to whatever musical masterpiece is currently in your playlist. Whether it is Miley Cyrus or Nine Inch Nails I can guarantee your choice will annoy someone.

The soundwalk is coming to the Koreannovation in New York soon, a whole show just for wield Korean stuff that we thought the Japanese had a monopoly on.

(via gearlog)

Brainwave reading headset

The New Scientist reported on a headset that can read people's brainwaves. It is powered by thermoelectrics and solar panels and can transmit brainwaves over wifi.

"A lightweight battery-free headset can continuously monitor human brainwaves, and is powered by body heat and sunlight.

The portable electroencephalogram (EEG) device resembles a set of headphones. It could provide wireless monitoring of patients at risk of seizures, have cars or other machinery respond to stressed users, or provide new ways to interact with computer games."

(more at newscientist)

Personal bad breath detector

Do you worry about bad breath? ever go to kiss someone and have your horrendous halitosis reduce them to tears? does your wife or significant other keep hinting by ging you mints or gum?

If so then you might need this $19 "kiss me" personal bad breath detector. It detects gases on your breath and has 5 leds to display various levels of grossness.

(via slipperybrick)

Japanese USB Face Mask

My wife always has bad allergy problems when she visits Japan, especially at this time of year, but she puts up with it because she doesn't want to wear a mask. The Japanese however don't care how silly they look as long as their face mask protects them from germs and allergy causing stuff.

The latest in high-tech Japanese face masks is this USB cooled one with a built-in fan. Just plug it into your laptop USB port and enjoy cool fresh air blasting into your nose and mouth at 1500rpm.

All that high tech and it only costs 2480 Yen (about $24).

(via dvice)

Continue reading "Japanese USB Face Mask"

ASIMO robot to conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

"Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot will focus attention on the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s (DSO) nationally acclaimed music programs for young people in Detroit by conducting the orchestra as it performs “Impossible Dream” to open a special concert performance with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma at 8 p.m, Tuesday, May 13.

Honda hopes ASIMO’s appearance will draw attention to the DSO’s music education programs, and particularly the DSO’s effort to encourage and support involvement of children in Detroit."

Detriot is a crumbling inner city wasteland that needs major help to rebound from a downward spiral of neglect. I'm not quite sure if a robot conducted classical music concert will make a difference or if it is just a way to distract people from the city's real problems.

USB Hygrometer and Thermometer

The Gadgeteer has reviewed the Brando TEMPer Hum USB Hygrometer and Thermometer, a USB device that is supposed to tell you the temperature and humidity.

"So the conclusion to this review is that I really can't recommend the TEMPer Hum USB Hygrometer / Temperature sensor. I know for a fact that it doesn't measure temperature correctly, and that leads me to guess that it doesn't measure humidity correctly either. In the mean time, I will hope that Radio Shack and analog hygrometers are accurate enough to trust. As long as I one or the other doesn't drop below 45% for any length of time, I'll hope that safe enough for my wooden instruments."

Sounds like it doesn't work very well.

(Full review at the-gadgeteer)

When traffic lights and pedestrian crossings aren't enough

Are you too scared to cross the street? think a car is going to ignore that big red stop sign and hit you? wish there were some way to make sure cellphone distracted soccer moms would know you were crossing?

Well now there is! designer Hanyoung Lee has designed a virtual wall of plasma laser beams that separate the crosswalk and the traffic. Hmm, I wonder what that would cost across every intersection in a major city? and how much of our precious oil-generated energy would they consume?

What next? virtual laser domes to go above people scared that the sky will fall on them?

(more at yankodesign)

Knife-Proof Clothing (from Japan, of course)

Madre offers a range of clothing that they claim is knife proof but still looks like normal clothes.

The clothes are offered in various styles and colors and the range includes undershirts, sweatshirts, and coats, and you can even get it embroidered (who wants one with "go on , knife me, I dare ya!" on the back?).

This superhuman ability to resist knife attacks doesn't come cheap: $800 for a sweatshirt, so wannabe superheroes and vigilantes had better start saving.

(Madre, via I4U)

Clone your Kitty

"Genetic Savings & Clone", a pet cloning company, has announced the first commercially produced clone, a kitten called Little Nicky that cost it's new owner $50,000.

Little Nicky is a clone of (unsurprisingly) a cat called Nicky who died aged 17.

For your $50k "GSC will provide you with a video of the cloning process, birth of your clone, presentation party and dinner as a personal keepsake and remembrance. Your video will be provided in either VHS and DVD format."

7 people have signed up so far at $50k each to get a clone of their cat, and it isn't clear how many more have signed up for Genetic Savings & Clone's storage service where for $295 to $1395 (plus $100 a year) you can get your pets DNA stored.

Oh, and if your pet dies suddenly they have instructions to put your pet in the refridgerator (don't freeze it) and arrange for a biopsy immediately.

Hmm, we love our dog Buddy, but probably not to the extent of $50k, especially when there are so many good dogs and cats being euthanized every day in animal shelters. So if your pet dies don't give 50k to Genetic Savings & Clone, donate some money to your local animal shelter and get a new pet that would otherwise be killed.

Genetic Savings & Clone (via slashdot)

X-Files Guy creates Gadget

Dean Haglund (one of the 3 geeks from the X-Files that got his own TV series that was a flop) has become an inventor:

He has created a device that draws heat away from the CPU on your laptop.

No, not a little fan (Schulyer Wheeler invented the electric fan in 1886), the X-Files guy invented one of those gel pack things (like doctors and nurses use for reducing swelling instead of a bag of peas) but here's the clever bit: it eliminates condensation, which for obvious reasons is a "good thing" as computers and water don't mix.

One word of warning guys, don't chill it too much then use it on your lap with your laptop: I imagine frostbitten balls are very unpleasant.

Probably coming to an infomercial near you soon (or alternatively available for $19.99 (via paypal) on chillpak.com.

Solar Powered Backpack

One downside to the wonderful new gadgets coming out these days is that they all seems to chew through batteries faster than our dog chews through treats.

Voltaic have a solution with their Voltaic Solar Powered Backpack: it has 3 solar cells on the back connected to a 2200mAh 7.2v battery pack so you can recharge your gadgets while out and about.

The Voltaic Solar Powered Backpack comes with an AC and car charger for when the sun isn't enough, and includes a set of adapters for many common phones, 7 universal DC adapters plugs to replicate the chargers of many PDAs, MP3 players etc, and if all else fails there is a car charger adapter that lets you use your gadget's existing car charger with the Voltaic.

The Voltaic was announced months ago for pre-order but is now shipping and costs $229.

Unusual Slappa Case Review

A while back we reviewed some Slappa CD/DVD cases.

Livedigitally has now posted their review of the same cases, but they approached the review process a little differently:

They poured coffee on it, they poured raw eggs on it, they sat on it, they squeezed it, they stood on it, they dropped it 50 feet, and finally (probably after smoking something they shouldn't) they covered it in lighter fluid and set fire to it.

Kids, don't try this at home.

Livedigitally Slappa Review

Hands-Free.... Umbrella

In Japan (surprise, surprise) there is now an umbrella with a twisty handle that can be wrapped around your shoulder for hands-free operation.

This would actually be useful to me.... on wet and windy New York days like today it is a real pain in the -bleep- to walk the dog, holding a leash in one hand and both an umbrella and a poop bag in the other hand.

Oh, and on the popgadget page linked below, am I the only one that thinks it is dangerous wrapping an umbrella around the shoulders of a small lightweight child on a windy day???

(popgadget via ubergizmo)

USB Sushi Drives

Today's addition to wierd USB device hall of fame are these sushi shaped USB drives.

The drives come in 32mb and 128mb flavors and are currently available only in, surprise surprise, Japan.

Prices are $60 to $80, but I think I will be waiting for a fish head shaped 2gb drive.

(via solidalliance)

Hovering Vacumn Cleaner

Shiny Shiny (no relation) found an interesting gadget: a Vacumn cleaner that uses a (presumably sealed) air filled cushion to reduce the apparent weight to the user and make it glide smoothly over your carpet, hardwood floors, or swimming pool :)

The Airider vacuum cleaner will be available in the UK soon and it sounds fast:

"1400-Watt Thermal protected high-speed fan motor, creating 192 MPH high velocity airflow for maximum suction at base of hose, Air rider having higher Air Watts cleans more dirt. Thermal cut-off protects your motor from overheating "

Airrider Systems

(via Shiny Shiny)

Dream Machine

What would you like to dream about?

According to CNN a Japanese company has a new gadget that will let you dream about anything you want: program in a picture, music, and keywords, and go to sleep.......

Hmm, sounds a bit suspect to me.... it will be interesting to hear if it actually works: according to the article it had a 22% success rate.

More from CNN

Blog you Vedy Much!

The Award for biggest online buzz of the day has to be the alleged return from the dead of comedian Andy Kaufman, announced in his new blog, and coming soon to a Starbucks near you!

Conspiracy theorists have long thought that Andy faked his own death in 1984 and would reappear on the 20th anniversary of his "death".... Im sceptical that this really is Andy but it doesn't matter if it is Andy or a hoxer as it's a great joke either way.

The spirit of Andy Kaufman lives on in this surreal use of a blog.

http://andykaufmanreturns.blogspot.com/

Eye Jewelry Bad

Various news organizations and gadget sites reported recently on the new procedure developed in the Netherlands for implanting jewelry into your eyeball.

We told you the BBC reported that this can be very dangerous and could cause bleeding and scarring, and now the American Academy of Ophthalmology has come out against the procedure:


"My concern would be that it might cause foreign body granuloma or scar tissue," said Academy spokesperson, Wayne Bizer, D.O., a comprehensive ophthalmologist from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. "The implant could also allow bacteria to get beneath the conjunctiva causing a serious vision-threatening infection or possibly erode the sclera, the white part of the eye." Dr. Bizer added removing the implant may prove difficult if any of these problems are present.

Full Press Release

Chip Head

NYTimes reports that the FDA has given approval for a company (Cyberkinetics Inc) to implant a computer chip into the brains of 5 paralyzed people that will hopefully enable them to operate a computer by thought alone.

Maybe in 5-10 years we will all be controlling embedded processors in everything we use by thought alone.

Update Slashdot is reporting on this now.