Invention -- Engadget

invention posts

Planet's smallest model train set revealed to macro lenses, microscopes (video)

by Darren Murph posted Oct 26th 2009 at 8:21AM

New Jersey's own David Smith is enjoying his 15 minutes right about now, as the world is finally talking about his model train set. You see, this model train set isn't just any model train set. No -- it's probably the world's smallest, most ridiculous and most awesome all at once (all at once). The so-called James River Branch community has been in the works for months on end, and the $11 working locomotive is 35,200 times smaller than a real one. Of course, the moving trains are really just attached to the top of a rotating tube, but you can certainly pretend you never heard that spoiler if you'd like. Check the video after the break -- the kid in you will thank us.

Continue reading Planet's smallest model train set revealed to macro lenses, microscopes (video)

Mizzou's nuclear battery to power things smaller than your brain can imagine

by Darren Murph posted Oct 10th 2009 at 11:52AM

Oh yeah, everyone loves the extended battery, but are we really kosher with the added bulge? A team of boffins at the University of Missouri certainly aren't, as they've spent the last good while of their lives researching and developing a new nuclear battery that could be used to power devices much smaller than, well, most anything. The radioisotope cell, as it's called, can reportedly "provide power density that is six orders of magnitude higher than chemical batteries," and while some may question the safety of this potentially volatile device, the liquid semiconductor (used instead of a solid semiconductor) should help ease concerns. The current iteration of the device is about the size of a penny, and it's intended to power a variety of MEMS systems. Now, if only these guys could find a way to make a standard AA last longer than a week in our Wiimote, we'd be pleased as punch.

[Via BBC, thanks Jim]

NTT DoCoMo's eye-controlled music interface evolves at CEATEC (video)

by Darren Murph posted Oct 6th 2009 at 4:08AM

NTT DoCoMo's R&D labs are amongst the busiest in the world, and here at CEATEC the company is showing off a development that it has had in the oven for quite some time. The difference now? Elegance. The eye-controlled music interface that we first spotted in mid-2008 is being showcased yet again here at the Makuhari Messe, but instead of having a short straw-drawing employee stand around with an absurd amount of headgear on, this year's demonstrator was equipped with little more than a special set of earbuds, a few cables and a swank polo. Put simply, the contraption watched subtle changes in eye movements and altered the music accordingly. A look to the right moved the track forward, while a glance to the left went back a track. The demo seemed buttery smooth, but there's still no telling when this stuff will go commercial. Still, progress is progress, and there's a video after the break showing as much.

Gallery: NTT DoCoMo's eye-controlled music interface evolves at CEATEC

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo's eye-controlled music interface evolves at CEATEC (video)

Hurry! Universal Invention of the Future just $10.50 on eBay

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 25th 2009 at 8:13AM

One man's junk is another man's treasure -- that's the bromide behind eBay. And sometimes if you look hard enough you can find a device that changes everything. An invention so magnificent, so unknowable, that its discovery alone could "make you feel good all over the world" without even making a bid. The prototype pictured above has universal purpose: it can inflate helium balloons when it detects hot lava, find gold floating in the sea, or let you know when a horse wakes up with the Swine Flu. Really, the choices here are limitless. And for just $10.51, the "Universal Invention of the future" is yours -- hurry, just 8 hours left. Check the video treasure after the break, you can thank us later.

Continue reading Hurry! Universal Invention of the Future just $10.50 on eBay

Teen invents pen-sized pico projector while your kid's busy beating up honor roll students

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Jun 3rd 2009 at 2:47AM

Life can sure be confusing for a teenager in this fast-paced techno-world we live in. Without the proper guidance, a kid could find himself unplugging someone's life support, or going to jail for borrowing the neighbor's WiFi. Hell, if old man General Tommy Franks (retired) has his way you won't even be able to hang out behind the Safeway and enjoy a six pack with your fellow juvenile delinquents without being tracked via GPS! So it warms our hearts when we do hear of a youngster that's bucked the odds and done something constructive. For example, a 13-year-old named David Baker has received a patent for his Light Beam Delivery System, a pico projector that fits in a pen casing, and works by combining three RGB lasers with an optics assembly that creates a light ray that is then shined through a rotating disk to the screen. "When the light goes through the lenses," he explains, "they take each light pixel and shine it onto a screen or wall. The lenses run back and forth until it fills the screen. This process repeats 30 times per second to make it appear as though you're looking at a solid image and not a series of pixels, and you have the image projected." And where did he find the inspiration for all of this? "I was sitting in church thinking about how to make projectors easier to handle and I just thought of it," he says. Here's to daydreaming during mass!

[Via About Projectors]

Video: Terrafugia's flying car lifts off

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Mar 19th 2009 at 6:31AM

We've had a lot of fun with Terrafugia over the last year or so, but we weren't exactly holding our breath in anticipation of the Transition's maiden flight. That said, we're definitely psyched to hear that the "roadable aircraft" went airborne in a super-secret test flight that took place in the early hours of March 5th at Plattsburgh International Airport. The vehicle left the ground for a good thirty-seven seconds, traveling some 3,000 feet. At a press conference today, the company's CEO Carl Dietrich remarked that "with this achievement, Terrafugia has set the stage for personal aviation." Which, considering how folks light up I-95 on an average workday, might at first blush seem somewhat unsettling -- but to each his own, right? According to the company, more than forty people have put down the $10,000 deposit for the new aircraft, which -- if all goes according to plan -- will be hitting the road sometime in 2011. Videos after the break.

[Via Slashdot]

Continue reading Video: Terrafugia's flying car lifts off

MIT concocts wearable "sixth sense" device, Bruce Willis is like "what?"

by Darren Murph posted Feb 5th 2009 at 1:32PM

We've nothing but respect for the researchers, engineers and all around brainacs that call MIT home, but unless our minds are simply too feeble to grasp the connection here, we can't figure how this "sixth sense" device actually relates to one of Bruce Willis' most well known films. At any rate, what we do have here is a wearable device that is comprised of a mobile projector, a webcam and a cellphone -- a package that was thrown together for around $300. Once strapped on, signals from the webcam and projector are relayed to internet-connected smartphones in order to project data onto basically any backdrop. Somehow, the device can even "take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger." The actual hows and whys seem to be a mystery, but if we had just developed a gizmo as ripe for commercialization as this, we'd probably keep most of the secrets under wraps as well.

[Via Blorge]

IBM develops computerized voice that actually sounds human

by Darren Murph posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 8:46AM

If there's one thing that still grates our nerves, it's automated calling systems. Or, more specifically, the robotic beings that simply fail to understand our slang and incomprehensible rants. IBM's working hard and fast to change all that, with a team at the company's Thomas J Watson research division developing and patenting a computerized voice that can utter "um," "er" and "yes, we're dead serious." The sophisticated system adds in the minutiae that makes conversation believable to Earthlings, and it's even programmed to learn new nuances and react to phrases such as "shh." The technology has been difficulty coined "generating paralinguistic phenomena via markup in text-to-speech syntheses," and while exact end uses have yet to be discussed publicly, we can certainly imagine a brave new world of automated CSRs.

Researchers achieve new efficiency record of blue OLEDs

by Darren Murph posted Dec 23rd 2008 at 3:55PM

Ever since Sony's XEL-1 hit the market, pundits have pointed to the (comparatively) short-lived blue OLED material as its biggest hamstring. Researchers have been toiling around the clock in order to bring the blue lifepsan in line with its green and red siblings, and now it seems like a team of Gators are that much closer to the promise land. Reportedly, a gaggle of whiz-kids from the University of Florida have "achieved a new record in efficiency of blue organic light-emitting diodes, and because blue is essential to white light, the advance helps overcome a hurdle to lighting that is much more efficient than compact fluorescents." Franky So (pictured) and his diligent crew were able to reach a peak blue OLED efficiency of 50 lumens per watt, which is halfway to his goal of at least 100 lumens per watt. Hurry it up, folks -- CES is just around the corner.

[Via Physorg]

South Korean scientists claim development of "true blue" for OLED displays

by Darren Murph posted Nov 24th 2008 at 3:52AM

It's no secret that OLED gurus have had the toughest time improving the life of blue luminance to match the lifespans of its red and green counterparts, but a team of South Korean scientists have purportedly stumbled upon (or developed, as it were) a breakthrough "true blue" material that can "accelerate the development of next-generation organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays." Up until now, scientists have been able to create highly efficient green and red OLED materials, but the inability to make a true blue OLED material was really holding things back. So, now that this little hurdle has been hopped, how's about we get some big screen OLED HDTVs out to the people?

[Via OLED-Info, image courtesy of Universal Display]

Korean geniuses invent lithium batteries with eight times the juice

by Samuel Axon posted Nov 13th 2008 at 7:28AM

Oh, what wondrous things come from the land of Korea -- dancing emotional robot humanoids, oxygen-emitting robot plants, and multiple 24-hour StarCraft channels. It's all good, and we dig robotics and televised gaming, but this latest invention could be our favorite if it pans out. Professor Cho Jae-Phil and his team at Hanyang University have replaced the graphite in lithium batteries with a certain kind of silicon, which we're told can store eight times the power. No word on what the batteries have actually been used for yet, but it stands to reason they could eventually make it to consumer electronics. Now you see why we're willing to say this might be better than 24-hour StarCraft. Say it with us: 48-hour StarCraft.

Intersection sensor activator puts an end to cyclist discrimination

by Samuel Axon posted Nov 7th 2008 at 3:42PM

You're a good person with noble motivations -- you ride a bicycle instead of driving because it's healthy and it doesn't have a disastrously negative impact on the environment. We salute you, but not all of society appreciates your virtue like we do. In a sinister and systematic oppression of cyclists (we're absolutely certain it's intentional), many traffic lights are governed by sensors in the pavement that give a green light only after they've detected the change in inductance when a large metal car pulls up. Before you take up arms, though, take a look at this recently-patented device that sends out a signal that fools the sensors so cyclists don't have to wait for a car to unwittingly play good Samaritan -- we suppose we'll try this out just in case before we incite a violent revolution.

[Via Core77]

M-25 portable fuel cell takes home $1 million Pentagon prize

by Darren Murph posted Oct 7th 2008 at 3:03PM

Unfortunately for you budding energy stars out there, the Pentagon's latest contest is over, so you've no choice here but to grit your teeth and applaud both DuPont and Germany's Smart Fuel Cell. Out of the 170 teams vying for the $1 million prize, these two managed to impress the most; the winning gizmo was the M-25 portable power system, which is already being sold to the US Army for "limited use in the field." Contestants were tasked with creating a new wearable power solution to juice up energy-hungry military gear (GPS units, night-vision goggles, head-mounted PMPs, etc.) without weighing soldiers down, and the winning device combined "DuPont's direct-methanol fuel cell technology with SFC's fuel cell and battery system." Yeah, we're totally expecting a PSP / DS compatible version of this before the holidays.

[Via FuelCellWorks, thanks Adam]

Epson stirs pot, conjures up 4-inch high-res LTPS LCD

by Darren Murph posted Aug 27th 2008 at 8:22AM

It's one thing to take good pictures. It's another to show 'em off on a good display. Epson Imaging Devices has just made official its new 4-inch high-resolution LTPS LCD, which is featured in the forthcoming P-6000 / P-7000 photo viewers. The diminutive display has an 80-degree viewing angle (from all sides) and covers 94% of the Adobe RGB color gamut. Built upon the Photo Fine Premia technology, Epson is hoping that this newfangled screen will find its way into digital cameras and PMPs so owners can be proud of playing back photo slideshows on the go. Funny thing though -- we're never told just how "high" high-resolution really is. Is the sky the limit, or what?

[Via Physorg]

Ear-A-Round headsets keep tabs on cows, make farming easier

by Darren Murph posted Aug 6th 2008 at 8:02AM

In no way are we insinuating that farming is ever "easy," but a new headset designed for cows could make cattle herding a much less stressful experience. The Ear-A-Round headsets are the product of a project involving the USDA and MIT, and essentially, the GPS-infused devices would transmit stereo sounds directly in a bovine's ears in order to guide and direct his / her movements. Strange though the head-worn gizmos may look, the built-in solar panel should keep it juiced up and ready to dictate on command, giving farmers the ability to track and herd from the comfort of their computer desks. The overriding goal here is to "improve animal distribution on the landscape," though we can think of quite a few other positives to having such a robust virtual fencing system.

[Via Core77]