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July 2009 - Technology Trends

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  • Measuring

    Digital Ruler “This wooden, yet digital, concept ruler combines “values of a traditional ruler, with advantages of a digital interface.” I think it still needs lines, but how cool is it that it sets the zero point wherever you start...
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  • Event projection

    uchiage hanabi fireworks projector “this small device aims to mimic the audio and visuals of a real fireworks show, for enjoying at home. the projector has fives lenses that project the visuals tracking the fireworks as they ascend towards your...
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  • Printing batteries

    Printable batteries to make light work of embedded electronics “The research, led by Prof. Reinhard Baumann of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems, obtained these innovative cells by making use of a silk-screen printing...
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  • Woven cameras

    Flexible “camera” fabric “MIT researchers developed light-detecting fibers that could eventually be woven into a “fabric camera.” Instead of counting on a single lens, the new system would use a web of the fibers as a distributed...
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  • Asking your friends

    You Put Your Aardvark In My Twitter “Aardvark is a question an answer service with a twist. Instead of services like Yahoo Answers where the anonymous masses try to answer your questions (resulting in mostly spam), Aardvark sends questions to your...
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  • Medical robotics

    Robot Crawls Through Veins to Kill Heal You “A new robot, just one millimeter in diameter, can crawl through your veins to treat arterial blockage or deliver targeted medication. Developed by researchers from Israel’s Technion University,...
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  • Investing in digitizing books

    Pay to digitize a book, share in its future sales “In addition to the regular USD 1.95 price for a downloadable copy of a digitized book, subsidizing it through the Invest in Knowledge program costs an additional USD 28.05—not too much more than...
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  • Electromagnetic learning

    Magnetic ‘Thinking Cap’ Improves Learning “Boyd put 30 people into a machine that sent electromagnetic waves into their premotor cortexes, a brain region associated with learning motor skills. Afterwards, test subjects used a joystick to track a...
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  • Smile tests

    Facial Recognition Measures Smiles For Customer Service “The Keihin Electric Express Railway Co. in Japan is scanning the smiles of employees every day to improve customer service. The facial recognition system detects eye movements, lips, wrinkles...
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  • Audio space

    Prototype system enables the visually impaired to ‘see’ the world with sound “Once developed, this is how it will work – as you move around, the sounds received via headphones will alter and the stereo audio system will enable you to interpret...
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  • Motion tracking (concept)

    Portable Movement Analysis Unit by Ricardo Sa Freire “There aren’t any portable devices to analyze body movement. Most of them are giant lumbering machines that require whole rooms. A portable device opens doors to numerous commercial applications...
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  • Internet smells

    Fragrance abuse – the next internet phenomenon “The i-Aroma is loaded with 6 base oils and attached to a PC via USB cable. The volunteer connects the PC to the Internet and special courses designed by astrologist Ryuji Kagami or aroma therapist...
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  • Shape memory alloys in robotics

    A Robotic Bat Built from Smart Materials “We’re using an alloy that responds to the heat from an electric current. That heat actuates micro-scale wires the size of a human hair, making them contract like ‘metal muscles.’ During...
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  • Making up stories about things

    Significant Objects: Rob Walker gets literary about stuff “Walker and collaborator Joshua Glenn round up some great fiction writers, purchase a few cheap used objects from thrift shops and garage sales, then hand one to each writer. The resulting...
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  • Augmented reality messaging

    TwitARound: Augmented Reality Tweets in the City “TwittARound is an augmented reality Twitter viewer on the iPhone 3GS. It shows live tweets around your location on the horizon with the video see-through effect allowing you to see where the tweet...
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