Electronics News
News: New Smart TVs Know What You're Watching, Help Serve You More Targeted Ads Online
Behavioral ad targeting companies are diving deeper into the realms of your subconscious with a new approach to serving adverts to you online—and they're using your television.
News: Copycat Apple Stores Emerge in China (Don't Let Them Fool You!)
It's no secret that Apple has retail stores in China, along with a large amount of Premium and Authorized Resellers. But a recent post by blogger BirdAbroad has caused quite a commotion in the world of all things Apple, claiming that in her home city of Kunming, there is another breed of Apple Store locations... "Un"Authorized ones.
News: Japan's Flying, Tumbling Reconnaissance Sphere Soars at 37 MPH
Flying orbs. At first, you might think of the Tall Man and his army of flying sentinel spheres, equipped with zombie brains and a mini-arsenal of saw blades, drill bits and shooting lasers. But these flying orbs weren't conceived from the evil mind of a superhuman mortician—they were designed by Fumiyuki Sato, a researcher at the Japanese Defense Ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute—for something other than deadly deeds.
News: FakeTV Keeps Burglars Away by Mimicking Television Light and Scene Changes
In the last decade, burglary rates in the United States have fluctuated little with over 2 million burglaries each year. In 2009, nearly three quarters of all burglaries were from residential properties, with over sixty percent being forcible entry. But we all know burglars don't like confrontation—they prefer breaking into apartments and houses when its owners are away. And that's why it's a must for apartment dwellers and homeowners to be on the defensive, even when they're not home.
News: Revolutionary "Light Field Camera" Lets You Focus After the Picture Is Taken
Focusing has always been a problem with photographers, and even with today's digital cameras it's not easy. The most obvious problem is trying to accurately focus on the subject before exposure. Next, you have to choose the correct aperture size in relation to the depth of field, and make sure you're using the correct exposure. Then there's lens aberrations, where a certain ray of light does not converge to a single focal point in the desired image, resulting in some light leaking away from t...
Coming Soon: Spy Video Glasses with Real Time Streaming to... Facebook?
Lady Gaga and Polaroid's upcoming Grey Label Camera Glasses can record video and snap pictures, but who really wants to show the world what they're up too on those mini LCD screens? It's nothing more than a fancy gimmick between a pop star and a failing company. Isn't the intention of camera glasses to capture things around you as they are? Drawing attention to yourself with clunky video-displaying eyewear kind of defeats the purpose, but that's why they're "fashion" glasses and not practical...
News: The World's First Teensy, Weensy 3D Printed Bikini
For the hefty price of $200 and up, you can be the proud owner of the world's first 3D printed bikini. And not just the first bikini, but reportedly the first functional and affordable item of ready-to-wear 3D printed clothing on the market. Created by Continuum Fashion, the N12 3D printed bikini is revolutionary because it addresses the technical challenge of creating flexible "textiles" with 3D printed material. The bikini is made of a material called Nylon 12, which is entirely waterproof.
Tactile Communication: The Tickle-Me iPhone & Remote French Kissing
In recent years, communication has become more intimate with the advent of applications like Skype and FaceTime, but what about the longing for actual physical contact? What if you could feel a loved one's hand, or even exchange a kiss? Impossible, right?
News: New Biometric Device Steals Fingerprints from 6 Feet Away
Dactyloscopy isn’t going anywhere. Forensic science has much relied on fingerprinting as a means of identification, largely because of the massive amount of fingerprints stored in the FBI’s biometric database (IAFIS), which houses over 150,000 million prints. And thanks to the departure of messy ink-stained fingertips, biometric analysis isn’t just for solving crimes anymore.
Amazing Invention of the Day: The Fastidious Icky Goo Scooper
Outstanding advancements in medicine and super creepy Androids aren't the only jaw-dropping inventions out there. Every once in a while, an incredibly random—and at first glance, seemingly useless—device comes along and strikes a chord of strangely deep satisfaction. Behold, the SWITL, a mysterious goo-scraper robot hand created by factory equipment manufacturer Furukawa Kikou: From what I can glean from a very rough Google translation, it sounds like the SWITL was developed for food producti...
News: The Stupid Orchestra
How can an orchestra be stupid, one may ask? Well, when musically measuring a toaster next to a cello, one device certainly comes across as inherently… dumber. Think 200 vintage vacuum cleaners, blenders and washing machines assembled into a whirling, ringing, humming cacophony of daily function. It's not exactly music to the ears, but a kind of robotic harmony is formed.
News: Print Yourself in 3D
Since the early genesis of the brilliant Microsoft Kinect hack, inventive applications have been popping up nonstop. One of the most fascinating projects to surface recently falls within the realm of 3D printing. "Fabricate Yourself"—a hack presented at the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference in January—allows users to pose in front of an Xbox Kinect, which then converts a captured image into a 3D printable file. What does this mean exactly? Think Han Solo trapped in carbon...
Size Matters: World's Largest Touchscreen Hacked Together with Ordinary Hardware
It's gigantic! It can handle over 100 simultaneous touch points! It has a curvature of 135 degrees! And best of all, it is not the newest, insanely expensive gadget to hit the market. Instead, this touchscreen was hacked together with a bunch of PCs, video cameras, projectors and cheap infrared illuminators at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands. It works like this: "The cameras, illuminators and projectors are all placed behind a large, cylindrical screen (formally used as a 3D t...
News: Mind Screw! Shifting Reality = Endless Interior Decor Possibilities
You have two choices for keeping your living room looking fresh: A. constantly update the decor by tripping out on acid—NOT recommended—or B. paint your living room white and get two video projectors. Created by Mr. Beam:
News: The Camera of the Future (According To Lady Gaga)
Lady Gaga made an appearance at this year's CES to present what she claims to be "the camera of the future": a pair of photo and video capturing sunglasses, designed by Gaga for Polaroid. Though more of a novelty gadget than a useful camera, the GL20 camera glasses could potentially turn your face into a real life facebook feed.
News: The Anti-Cheater Hidden Camera Wall Hook
WonderHowTo loves gadgets. We also tend to enjoy getting our hands (just a little bit) dirty. So, naturally, Brando's Wall Hook Coat Hanger Camcorder is the latest gadget to excite. Disguised as a coat hanger, the device is actually a camera triggered by motion detection. And paired with the see-all glass doorknob, your significant other ain't getting away with nothing...
News: When Will the iPad Be Paper Thin?
Below, designer Chris Woebken's Flicflex isn't a new concept (Woebken displayed it at MOMA in '08), but still amazingly cool. And still not on the consumer market. Watch his paper thin, magazine-like "page turning": "Opening a letter, unfolding it and feeling the texture of the paper is a very tactile experience compared to receiving an e-mail. On top of the content itself, the behavior and micro-interactions adds a level of engagement to the medium. Flicflex explores the possibilities of fut...
News: Rabbit Ears = Free HDTV
The New York Times reports on the perks of opting for digital TV antennas vs. paying for cable TV. With the exception of the occasional spotty signal, young viewers are finding antennas are the preferable choice, considering savings add up to half the usual cost for cable TV and internet access.
News: World's First Super Soaker, the 4.4 Pound Cell Phone, and More
Wired posts a gallery of the original models of now iconic devices, with some fun tech-fetish facts. Did you know the first cell phone weighed a whopping 4.4 pounds? Or that the world's first super soaker was invented completely by accident? Examples below; click through for Wired's complete gallery.
News: Man Builds Camera as Big as His Dog
Gil Adam, a student of Industrial Design in Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel, has created a 3:1 scale model of his favorite plastic camera, the Holga. While the camera is just a model (non-operational), it's pretty fun to see the oversized object next to Adam's face, and his dog.
News: The World's First Digital Camera
Born in 1975, the world's first digital camera used a standard cassette tape to record images, rather than today's standard data cards.
News: No, It's Not an App. It's a Japanese Soft Drink.
Shiny, pretty touchscreen vending machines have finally gone mainstream in Japan. My only question is... what's taken so long? The vending machine business can be quite lucrative (location, location, location), so all the more reason to make the interface as aesthetically appealing and user friendly as the iPhone AND as smart as a robot (read below). Features (translation via YouTube):
News: Can Your Camera Take 48,000 Foot Wide Photos?
Apparently the Canon 7D can (with a little help from GigaPan, of course). Via WonderHowTo World, Canon EOS 7D:
News: Wicked Cool Futuristic Roll-Up Screen (Thickness of a Human Hair!)
Sony has developed an ultra-thin, flexible OLED screen, capable of wrapping tightly around an object as narrow as a pencil (a diameter as small as 4mm, to be exact). The full-color display is 80-microns-thick (or 80 millionths of a meter- that's the size of a human hair!).
News: Multitouch Skin Transforms Any Surface Into a Touchscreen
Coming soon! Popsci reports that a multitouch skin that can make any surface a touchscreen will be released this summer.
News: Fascinating Drawing Machine Illustrates Never-ending Story
The Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus is a project developed by Julius von Bismarck and Benjamin Maus. The drawing device illustrates a never-ending story through the use of 7 million patent drawings (linked by over 22 million references). Scroll past the instructions to go straight to the video demonstration.
News: Chick Gets KO'd at 1000 FPS
Production Company Action Figure shot footage of their entire team being punched in the face. Shot with an ultra high speed, hi-def camera (called the Phantom), everybody's face face fat is pretty gruesome looking at 1000 FPS. Amazing camera = amazing footage!
News: $2500 Camera Wows Planet Earth Quality Macros
Insekten!, test shots using Canon macro lenses and the Canon 5D Mark II, by YouTube user Powermaennchen.
News: Make your own Air Conditioner
Time to prepare for that upcoming insufferable summer heat. For real. This tutorial actually works.
News: Make a motion triggered spy cam
Admittedly, we've been quite hot on Kipkay lately, but can you blame us? This guy just keeps rolling out the wild inventions and bold pranks!