Katie Fehrenbacher
Articles by Katie Fehrenbacher
Bike-mounted smog sensors
We're not sure we really want to know the large degree of pollution we suck into our lungs everyday, or that unfortunately our bedroom window remains just over a bus stop causing our own imminent urban emphysema. Well we do, but we'll be forced to move to Alaska when we see the exact numbers. But that's what the British Urban Pollution Monitoring Project is testing out, bike-mounted smog sensors which monitor carbon-monoxide levels at locations throughout a city. To advertise and recruit bike-riding volunteers, the project places pollution sensors around the city which texts passersby explaining the pollution-level at their exact location. The project is a collaboration of environmental scientists at a range of universities and the group is looking to gain a manufacturing contract to make the pollution sensors. [Via The Feature]
Sharp's big ol' e-dictionary
We admit that we're impressed with the Sharp PW-C8000 dictionary's massive info access, using 71 different dictionaries and publications, including the Encyclopedia Britannica, which Sharp claims is the largest collection of data for a handheld electronic dictionary (hey, they said it, we're just blindly repeating it). But we can really do without the PW-C8000's other claim-to-fame feature that it's the first electronic dictionary to be able to connect with a TV to display data and pictures. Do we really need to see dictionary data on the telly? Well, certainly not when Surreal Life's on.
PlayStation milking stool
This is what happens when the Swiss multi-task, though milking cows and playing Grand Theft Auto sounds a bit rough. Actually we don't even know if the controller works, but the stool is part of an exhibit of retooled milking stools currently in San Francisco.
PlayStation milking stool
This is what happens when the Swiss multi-task, though milking cows and playing Grand Theft Auto sounds a bit rough. Actually we don't even know if the controller works, but the stool is part of an exhibit of retooled milking stools currently in San Francisco.
Remember the sci-fi fake window?
Fake computer-windows are the ubiquitous dated sci-fi gimmick that movies like Total Recall have forever banished to the schlocky prop room. Though maybe your own DIY version could work for a kitsch-themed party — or maybe not. But we're going to ignore the suggestions of the creator of The Virtual Windows project who asks "Where do you want to live today?" because we think that if you're gonna make fake window scenes, then by nature, they should be as fake as possible, since there's no way anyone will ever mistake the scene for the real outdoors. We're thinking along the lines of a Mad Max apocalyptic desert scape, or a creepy Willy Wonka-type playland. The crafty inventor uses 8 15-inch LCD panels connected to nVidia Quadro PCI video cards and an application that cycles the scene every 15 minutes. Nice, but we're thinking we'll just slap a window-frame around our $50 TV and call it a day. [Via TRFJ]
Windows ghettoblaster mod
This isn't the first time we've seen ghetto blaster modding, but we have to say the beauty of its sheer obsessive-compulsiveness brings a tear to even our cynical eye. Take one 80s-style Hitachi TRK-8200HR boombox, add the Fujitsu Stylistic 1200 Tablet PC, run some Windows 98, and jimmy the software to mimic the blaster's controls. The result lets you blast Run-DMC and take e-notes on the reactions of passersby. [Via TRFJ]
Grand Arts: The Scrambler airbrush
One of our very first memories involves a Gravitron, a wad of chewing gum and a very unhappy seat mate with long, flowing blonde locks - thus began our love/hate affair with shoddy county fairs and carnie culture. So when we came across recent work produced by the Grand Arts, a non-profit art space/studio in Kansas City, all those funnel-cake-eating, Zipper-riding memories started flooding back. An artist at Grand Arts created the Good-Time Mix Machine Scrambler Drawings that uses the trusty ol' Scrambler, which they say was one of the first non-wheel rides in the 50's, then-named the "grass-cutter", to airbrush a massive canvas. The artist attached a gas-powered spray mechanism to the passenger seat of one car, which is connected to a bucket of paint that rests on the car floor. When the cars are in motion the artist uses a remote control to control the spray on the canvas and creates the geometric scrambler drawing—sort of like a giant spirograph. The artist has also used classic pinball machines to create pinball motion drawings, and the idea behind marking the paths of rides/machines is kind of infectious — we started to wonder what else we could slap some paint on and stick a canvas under? The Grand Arts studio might be one of the few reasons anyone should visit Kansas City, but since we'll probably never get there ourselves, we'll be thinking of the hidden airbrush opportunities during our next county fair visit.
BuyMeABeer.com: SMS pints
We know etiquette dictates that when someone buys you a drink, you buy em one back, but we've always been a fan of the "yeah, I'll get the next round" trick, followed by the swift disappearing act into the crowded pub. But in London the beer exchange is getting all texty (well for one company), so you'll now be able to send a friend a drink voucher over the phone with BuyMeABeer.com. The site uses Corney and Barrows bars, which with 11 in the greater London area you probably won't have too much of a problem stumbling into one sooner or later. You can buy a SMS-voucher ranging from a $200 Dom Perignon to a $5 Kirin, and the receiver of the voucher just shows the bar staff the cellphone SMS message (what happens if they forward the text to someone else?). We just hope that service doesn't take up a drink reminder service so when we stiff our English friends we'll receive an SMS-IOU. [Via Textually.org]
The Bod Pod says, "Yes, you're fat"
With a name like Bod Pod we were expecting something like an iPod vital signs app (plug in the stethoscope FireWire and MP3 your heartbeat!), but no, its really a large pod intended to measure a user's body weight and fat ratio at a highly accurate degree. We can definitely skip knowing the intimate details of our own fat ratio, but other unashamed users gear up in a bathingsuit and goggles (even though there's no water used), shut the door tight (not for the claustrophobes among us), and 5 minutes later the air displacing technology and the pod's sensors calculate the user's exact body/weight/fat ratio. So maybe you're not willing to spend $115,000 on personal humiliation, but the Bod Pod is really meant for hospitals and health centers where, for whatever reason, highly accurate body mass info is needed. [Via PopGadget]
Creepy crawly blanket
You've might have to be a real shlob to think a "robotic blanket sculpture" would be warm, comfy and dare we say, snuggly, but yes, that is what we were thinking when we first checked out the robotic blankie. All we can say is read the fine print, since the blanket is equipped with a wireless receiver, a PIC microprocessor, and a camera that detects the bodies lying beneath it. When the bodies beneath the blanket move, the blanket uses pressure sensors to creep around and squirm across the moving users. We know this would be a perfect plot device for some low budget horror flick, so with that known we vow we will never sleep in the same room as the thing, let alone sleep under its shuddering weight lest it decide to smother its human master.
"Let them use cellphones"
At first the idea of empowering those in need with a cellphone sounds a little like a "let them eat cake" mantra, but a Bangladeshi bank Grameen has started giving cellphones to the local needy to enable them to start a roving cellphone service actually does makes sense since they can start a business and (the thought is) hopefully give up all that begging. And it seems to be working too, there are already 75,000 women known as "Phone Ladies" using Grameen cellphones to offer service to a country with a very low ratio of phone lines to people. These could even turn out to be the new city center phone booths in more places than Bangladesh, given that those dinosaurs seem to be heading straight for the landfill just about everywhere.
Canon's new $50 PIXMA iP1500 photo printer: we'll take 5
OK, so it's not exactly the P.Diddy-diamond-encrusted-iPod of the photo printer world. But the Canon PIXMA iP1500 is a solid $50 photo printer and PC Magazine gives it a stellar review. If we had kids and they were going off to college, we'd buy them this. And when they spilled the keg all over it, we could just buy them another one. On second thought, maybe we wouldn't make such good parents after all.
No in-flight WiFi for British Airways
We were really hoping that a New York-London flight was going to get the next WiFi in the sky since we don't seem to be jetting off to Munich too often, but the CIO of British Airways says that they're going to wait and see how Lufthansa's experiment with putting WiFi into their jets works out before make a commitment. He says the current technology is still too immature and costly and complains that Boeing and Airbus need to build the WiFi platform with the initial construction since grounding planes for a 10-day WiFi installation is way too costly for airline companies already competing in a cut-throat industry. Fine, destroy our wistful dreams of blogging from 40,000 feet—you want some cheese with that whine?
The New York Times schools us on retro tech
As usual the New York Times explains a trend just around the time it's finally dribbled down to Hot Topic shoppers. Hmmm, retro gadgets!? Kids are doing the darndest things these days. We do like the guy who bought and actually carries around the brick-sized Motorolla DynaTac phone, which is almost as nice as the Saved By the Bell Zach Morris cellphone we found on eBay. The article also includes those Pokia's handsets that everyone was loving a couple months ago, along with people who buy the old NES Systems and Atari 2600s (guilty), and two precocious kids (15 and 16!) who started the company Facade Computer to put new computers in vintage casings. If those teenagers aren't the sons of insanely wealthy programmers then we're going to start feeling real bad about our high school years spent watching 120 Minutes—how's that for nostalgia?
MP3Run: We know you've been waiting
We pointed out the upcoming release of the MP3Run awhile back, so now we'll properly follow-up with an announcement of the actual release of that MP3 player for the ultimate jogging set that comes with a special Bluetooth module that attaches to your shoe and keeps track of your speed and how much ground you've covered (come on, we know you're crazy excited to measure you're running skills in this late-Summer heat). Philips released the product at the Factory Convention Center in Amsterdam, along with some other iron man type goods like the Go Gear Wearable Camcorder which combines a MPEG4 camcorder, 2 megapixel camera, and an MP3 audio player in one, along with the Streamium TV, a 23-inch LCD TV that can wirelessly stream video, music, photos and all that multimedia stuff off your PC's hard drive. Somehow using the MP3Run sounds like a good way to develop athletic OCD, or maybe it's just us, since we really don't want to know how slow we've been going all these years.
Faster fast food
We're always less than excited when someone invents a technology to replace common sense; cue Pittsburg company HyperActive Technologies Inc., who is selling a service called "HyperActive Bob". It uses rooftop cameras and software to monitor customer influx at fast food joints; the bigger the car the more food expected to sell. We guess it just takes a very complicated "system" to prevent explaining "when you see more cars on the screen, then you'll probably be selling more food" to fast-food employees nationwide, but we're going to be very disappointed if the system predicts SUVs are going to be feeding more than one or two people—seriously, have you ever seen someone driving one loaded down with more than the driver and maybe a kid in the back?
Robotic foosball
We're getting a little tired of all the robot vs. human games out there, but hey, we guess robotic foosball (that's table football for those that haven't visited a frat lately, or table soccer for those who haven't visited America lately) is just one more to add to the mix. German roboticists at University of Freiburg connected the rods on one side of the table to motors and an electronic control system, which they say can beat 85% of casual players; we don't know if it's sadder to play foosball against a robot, or to just play foosball at all. We were thinking of getting Bobby Fischer's take on the whole subject of robot competitors, but we're not sure he can receive calls from inside that Japanese jail cell.
Tap on, tap off
Gaudy control panels and bulky remote controllers are so five minutes ago, so French start-up company Sensitive Object developed a technology to turn any object into an input device, it's kindof like a tactile universal Clapper, well sort of. Tapping the rigid surface of objects like tables, windows, or chairs, can change channels, control PCs, or answer phones. The technology uses sensors and a process called "time reversal acoustics" (most likely doesn't reverse time, but we're looking into it) to hook up the chosen object to the receiving device. We're thinking this might solve the problem of our perminently lost TV remote, since it's a little harder to misplace the dining room table. This picture shows their showroom in Paris, where they've turned the display window into a giant light switch.
Remote rocking chair
We're not exactly sure what the reasoning behind remote rocking chairs is, other than scaring the crap out of ol' granny, but since it's coming out of the Ars Electronica festival it must be cool, right? Maybe not, but that never stopped us before. The remote rocking chairs hook up 2 chairs to a PC running some control software, and both chairs get a tilt sensor and linear motor. When you make one chair rock, the other chair responds by rocking along with it. The picture's a little hard to see, but the wooden chair looks more than a bit uncomfortable, which spastic rocking could only make that much more painful.
Korea's cellphone universities
We remember when it was a big deal that universities started wiring up their dorms with high-speed Internet connections (we were so happy that we could download that Christmas South Park clip). American universities are still trying hard to stay on the proverbial cutting edge, with campus-wide WiFi and stuff like Duke's free iPod handout (thanks, guys), but when it comes down to it, no one can compete with what they're doing in South Korea. Seoul's Sookmyoung Women's University already has a fully-functioning mobile campus where students use their mobile phones with built-in ID card to enter libraries, check out books and look up personal records, and in lecture halls students can just hit a button to record their attendance at lectures. We guess that's just par for the course in the country with the largest per capita Internet users, though we're more than just a little jealous that our college days are long past.