Category Archives: Products

Open Source 3-D Printing

Hod Lipson and Evan Malone of Cornell University have cooked-up a cheap DIY 3-D printer – the Fab@Home – that they believe could lead to the widespread use of fabrication machines by hobbyists and experimenters. Fabrication machines, or fabbers, operate on the same principle as inkjet printers, but instead of squirting out ink onto paper, they squirt plastic or other materials into three-dimensional shapes. Commercial systems average around $100,000, but you can build Cornell’s Fab@Home for about US$2,300 worth of off-the-shelf parts.

Use the Force

What geek wouldn’t want to be a Jedi?

Behold Project Epoc, a wireless headset developed by Australian start-up Emotiv Systems. The electrodes embedded in the set read your brain waves, figure out what you’re thinking and, yes, allow you to bend objects on the screen to your omnipotent will.
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Let’s be clear, though: Epoc isn’t anywhere near as easy as picking up a control pad and learning to play a game. The software uses adaptive learning to figure out what your brains’ electrical signals look like when you’re thinking about lifting, pushing, or rotating objects. That takes time (which is why Dave used the headset and not me).

Still, I think I’d be willing to sacrifice an hour of my life for a taste of the Jedi’s power. The effect is amazing, after all – c’mon, this is mind-control people!

Ok, this is not yet available and needs quite a bit more to make consumers demand them – but if it can do what they say that is interesting start. Project Epoc

Engineering Quiet, Efficient Planes

Fly Silent, Fly Cheap by Jeffrey Winters, Mechanical Engineering magazine:

In all, the design changes would amount to a startling reduction in the amount of sound produced on takeoff and landing. The Cambridge-MIT team estimates that a landing SAX-40 would create less than 65 decibels of noise at the perimeter of the airport—about the same level as background noise. Transformed in this way, airplanes would be relatively neutral parts of the urban environment, rather than nuisances.

But there’s a side benefit: fuel efficiency. The same design elements that cut back on noise also reduce fuel consumption. With less energy lost to creating turbulence, more power would be devoted to moving passengers.

Asimo Robot: Running and Climbing Stairs

ASIMO Brings Engineering to Life at the Dream Factory:

The Dream Factory is an educational initiative organized by Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd (HUM) in association with The Science Museum to provide inspiration and a greater excitement about the subject of engineering. Aimed at Key Stage 3 students (ages 11-13 years), each workshop has been specifically designed to explain a basic engineering principle and show how this is then used in Honda’s leading edge technology. ASIMO joins Punk Science presenters from Discovery Channel’s Scientific Show and the HUM team to help inspire over 500 local school children.

Car Elevator (for parking)

Interesting photos of a NYC parking garage with elevators and the looks of a fancy mall not a garage. Cars are driven onto a palet and then the automated systems take it from there. Parking as a Destination:

The project is the work of AutoMotion Parking Systems, the American subsidiary of Stolzer Parkhaus of Strassburg, Germany. Stolzer Parkhaus has built 28 automated garages in 11 countries since its first, in Kronach, Germany, in 1996. The software and hardware that moves the cars around in the garages were adapted from systems that store materials in warehouses.
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“Lasers check that the car is aligned,” Mr. Milstein said, and determines that it is not one of the trucks or S.U.V.’s too big for the garage. The driver locks the car, takes the keys and picks up an electronic card from a nearby machine. A large door closes behind the car; motion detectors ensure that no children or pets are left behind.

Then the pallet holding the car slides below ground level, into two subterranean floors of storage. “It’s simple — park, swipe and leave,” Mr. Milstein said. The returning driver pays — using a credit card at a machine, or handing cash to the human “parking concierge” in a booth. The machinery retrieves the pallet holding the car, which rises to ground level, pointing toward the exit. You unlock the doors and drive away.

“You get your car in under three minutes,” Mr. Milstein promises. “It’s as easy as an A.T.M. or E-ZPass.” Rates will be comparable to conventional parking in Manhattan, he said, about $400 a month. For the driver, the advantages of an automated system go beyond convenience and speed. The car remains untouched and unopened, and with the parking area ostensibly off limits.

Engineering is cool. Related: The High Cost of Free Parking

Water Jacket

Four youths design India’s first water jacket:

Four engineering students, have designed a water jacket, a wearable vest capable of holding water that when strapped to the body, provides a cushioning effort to the wearer by distributing the weight of the water evenly.

“About 20 kg of water can be stored in this jacket – 10 in the front chamber and an equal volume of liquid in the back chamber. The chambers are designed to maintain a balance in the body so that no part of the body gets strained,” says T R Neelakantan, one of the innovators, who was recently awarded National Innovation Foundation’s (NIF) fourth national awards by President A P J Abdul Kalam in New Delhi.

The other three contributors are Balaji T K, Kunal Kumar and Arun Rosh, all students at the S R M Engineering College, Chennai.

VirtuSphere

The VirtuSphere platform consists of a large hollow sphere that sits on top of a base and allows the sphere to rotate 360 degrees. Wearing a wireless, head-mounted display, users can step inside the sphere to fully interact in immersive virtual environments. The VirtuSphere enables 6 degrees of freedom – one can move in any direction; walk, jump, roll, crawl, run over virtually unlimited distances without encountering real-world physical obstacles.

VirtuSphere systems are made to client specifications and typically include an easy-to- assemble sphere, a base platform that enables it to rotate, a head-mounted display, 3D sensors, sphere rotation trackers, a computer, device drivers and 3D software applications.

See videos of the sphere in action

Digital Pen

Cool gadget –Logitech io2 Digital Pen. Take notes on paper and then dock the pen in your computer and have the notes captured in your computer. It can convert your handwriting to digital text as though you typed it in. You can also import drawings and sketches from the pen as jpg, gif, png etc. files. It seems the pen only works with their paper which seems like a bad design for customers, but those interested in gadgets might like it.