Hasta La Gadget!

[image from Flickr user pin-add]

Self-checkout lanes are usually a quick way to buy a few things at the grocery store, but what if you want to pick up some fruit or any other item without a barcode? Toshiba is happy to help, using a new automatic checkout system with built-in cameras that can tell exactly what you’re buying. No more flipping through a list of twenty different types of pears; this system can identify different variations in the variety of fruit just by looking at it. When first installed, the system checks the image of the product against a built-in database, asking the user to select which item they’re trying to buy, with the most likely results on top. While going through this with a large number of shoppers, the recommendations get better and better.

This kind of item recognition is no simple task. According to Keiji Yanai, a scientist at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo quoted in an article in New Scientist, a system like this is much more difficult than facial recognition. Because the objects are so similar (a Pink Lady apple versus a Golden Delicious, for example), it introduces that much more difficulty in choosing between them.

Toshiba hopes to be saving you the valuable 30 seconds it would have otherwise taken you to page through a menu by bringing the system to market within the next three years.

[via PopSci, New Scientist]

This may look like just about the coolest Android device to date, but it’s easy to look cool when you’re just designing a totally conceptual piece of technology. Nevertheless, flexible digital displays are potentially the wave of the future, and we think Android would be a natural fit for such a display.

Andrew Namminga, a Californian designer, whipped up this beauty, in which the top half of the display is a traditional Android interface and the bottom half is a customizable widget screen.

We’d love to be able to just dig out this thing from our pockets like a crumpled piece of paper to check e-mail and Facebook feeds, but this is a long way from reality. Pretty neat to look at and imagine, though.

Via The Design Blog

Dear super creepy people: Great news. We’re one step closer to all getting invisibility cloaks. Scientists have created small cloaking devices capable of bending light around objects. Objects of a similar nature have been created in the laboratory, but they only worked with microwave rays–useless, since we can’t see them anyway.

Last year, scientists managed to cloak nearly visible light, but the affected area was 30 microns–that’s roughly a third the width of a human hair. The current size of the cloaked object is still pretty small–about three-quarters of an inch–but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Scientists managed to cloak that three-dimensional object against white light and red and green laser.

And that’s just the start. As one of the scientists told the press, “”there is actually no limit on the size of the cloak.” The cloaking device was created using calcite prisms with crystals measuring around three-quarters of an inch. Larger prisms can created a larger cloaked area.

The aforementioned scientist again,

The cloaks can be readily scaled up to hide larger objects. It really depends on how large a calcite crystal we can find in nature. According to the literature, the largest calcite crystal has a scale of 7 meters by 7 meters by 2 meters (23 feet by 23 feet by 6.5 feet). Such a crystal would enable the construction of an invisibility cloak that can conceal objects a few meters wide and at least 40 centimeters (16 inches) high.

HP is trying to make more products that can compete with companies like Apple or Google. However, it’s hard to compete with a huge product like the iPad, so the company are taking a new approach. HP created two new tools that were designed for teachers and can even be used for businesses or personal use.

The Digital Sketch and Pocket Whiteboard are part of the new HP Digital Learning Suite line. Both are tablets, but not the typical variety. The Digital Sketch allows teachers to freely move around their classroom, while still being able to access their desktop computer and the files on it. The Pocket Whiteboard allows teachers or students to turn any flat surface into a virtual whiteboard for projects or notes.

Both products’ prices will vary on how many are ordered, along with other factors may also apply. The Pocket Whiteboard will be available later on this month, while the Digital Sketch will come out next month. No word on if they will be sold at retail stores or solely via HP.

Via ZDNet