Archive for July, 2008
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Being totally invisible could bring some nasty benefits to most people. You were probably asked to think what you would do if you somehow got lucky and stumbled upon some cloaking device that would rend you invisible. I won’t talk about this things here. However, I do want to let you know that total invisibility will soon be possible in the real world.
DVice informs that researchers at Imperial College London are trying to create a cloaking blanket to hide objects in visible light. This is going to be pretty difficult since the visible light has a small wavelength which makes it difficult to work with. Researchers need to channel the light in specific ways if they really want to cloak something.
In order to build such a cloaking device, the scientists over at Imperial College London will be required to use “some clever nanotechnology,” as John Pendry, one of the scientists working on the technology told the Discovery Channel.
Pendry explains that the implied nanotechnology may work like a mirage, which, is a form of cloaking found in nature. But the blanket won’t be forming any temperature gradient as a mirage does to shroud things; it will be using a mixture of silicon and silica, causing visible light to make an about-face, resembling a mirror.
The British team of researchers is quite confident that they would eventually come up with a true cloaking blanket within the next few years.
Posted in News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Ever since astronauts got to fly into space, many earthlings started dreaming of flying around in 0 gravity and see the Earth from outer space, and eventually get to other planets. The first two “dreams†are already possible and one provider of private space flights is Virgin Galactic.
Space pioneers Richard Branson and Burt Rutan presented earlier this year the WhiteKnightTwo which is the aircraft that will launch SpaceShipTwo into suborbital space. Yesterday, in the Mojave desert north of Los Angeles, the two designers got to test the top-secret aircraft, which will first serve as a flight simulator next month for select pilots who will learn to launch private citizens into space. The WhiteKnightTwo has a 140-foot wingspan and should be ready for flight testing at the end of September.
DVice informs that SpaceShipTwo is the vessel in which the first group of space tourists will ride. The attached vessel will first be carried to 50,000 feet by WhiteKnightTwo before it blasts into space on its own. The smaller private-jet-sized six-passenger/two pilot craft is only70% complete thus far, but it would be ready for a test flight later this year.
WhiteKnightTwo is said to be entirely constructed out of carbon fiber composite. Virgin Galactic claims that the first commercial flights will occur some time in late 2009 or early 2010, with the first passengers being Richard Branson and his family. The 2.5-hour space flight is scheduled to include five minutes of weightlessness before the ship reenters the Earth. The estimated cost per passenger is around $200,000.
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Monday, July 28th, 2008
Webcams often come in spherical shapes, and this looks to be the standard for entry-level and mid-range models for now. Every once in a while, designers like to play around with different concepts, which may end up as commercial products if the design is doable, simple and appealing. One such example comes from the Flynn Product Design team that has recently unveiled this hi-resolution Bluetooth Web Camera.
Look! It’s my Webcam creeping around the table, following my every move! This spidery cam is designed with ABS and Polypropylene. It might even be unappealing to those who suffer from arachnophobia. The little creeper design seems to have been already approved by Philips and it comes with interesting features such as improved camera angles. The outstanding flexibility is made possible through the integration of a ball and socket joint connecting the base and body units. It also includes a hi-resolution sensor that can snap photos at 5 MP and stream at 2 MP, if your so-called broadband can support it, that is. Those of you who find the camera a bit awkward, you might consider it useful to take the Bluetooth USB Dongle and connect it with other Bluetooth-enable devices.
Unfortunately, Philips didn’t care to provide any release and price info.
Posted in Funny Gadgets | 3 Comments »
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Wouldn’t it be cool to store your important phone conversations so you can use them at a later date, whether for sentimental purposes or as proof in a law suit? Now it is possible to do just that with the IOCELL Contents Phone.
IOCELL Contents phone integrates a hard disk drive to record conversations. The recorded conversations can be played at a later date in computers and on the Internet. The new phone implements high end grade functions and an elegant design to suite any kind of atmosphere. IOCELL intends to shift the paradigm of the wire telephone market with their new phone model.
Here are some key features that come with the IOCELL Contents Phone:
ㆠRecord conversations immediately with a push of a button ; voice messages and text messages can also be recorded and the phone can also be programmed to record everything.
ㆠEasy to manage due to synchronization of Caller IDs and a telephone directory
ㆠRecorded conversations can be saved and played in computers , all devices that support MP3 playback, and streamed over the Internet
ㆠConference call function through integrated speakerphone
ㆠAutomatic emergency calls
ㆠSet background music during telephone conversation
ㆠMusic on hold support
Posted in Phone Gadgets | 3 Comments »
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Nowadays, everyone can afford at least an LCD monitor, because they got cheaper by the year. You can even buy a 37†LCD HDTV at a decent price and don’t worry, prices are still dropping, so in a couple of years we might be able to buy huge LCDs at affordable prices. I’m sure you all know the LCD’s benefits and weaknesses, that’s why we still have to choose among plasma displays, SED, OLED, FED and laser projector displays, besides LCDs.
Wouldn’t it be cool if there were some technology that featured all the LCD benefits but, without the annoying downsides? That’s exactly what Microsoft thought. The Redmond giant already has a division that came up with plans for a technology that is to eliminate the downsides of the LCD panels.
The division envisioned a telescopic-pixel design that should be working as follows: each pixel has a tiny doughnut-shaped mirror and an even tinier disc-shaped one. The mirrors move when they need to let light through, as opposed to the liquid crystals that twist and untwist in an LCD. Since the light passes through fewer materials, the telescopic display wouldn’t need a backlight as bright as an LCD’s, saving energy. The mirrors are more nimble than crystals, too, improving reaction time. Finally, the design is simpler, meaning that there’s a strong possibility, should this technology ever enter mass production, telescopic TV could end up being cheaper than LCD sets.
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