Hasta La Gadget!

In the future, when quadcopters develop a hive mind and eventually come after us with their machine guns and tasers, they’ll be able to rub salt in our lethal wounds by playing catch with our heads, thanks to a project by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

As you can see, we can still laugh at the silly robots because it takes three of them plus a net to throw and catch a ball. That said, these playful guys not only believe in teamwork, they’re also smart and quick on their rotors. They use a trajectory algorithm to calculate the path of a ball in real time as it is thrown to them. They can also learn by trial and error and improve their aim and they can quickly stabilize after every maneuver to avoid slicing each other to pieces and ensure that the net is at the right position.

I guess this means that in the future you won’t be able commit suicide by jumping from a high place anymore.

[via Boing Boing]

If you’ve had a loved one with advanced Alzheimer’s disease, you likely know what sundowning syndrome
is, even if you’ve never heard the term before. Alzheimer’s patients
with this syndrome either don’t sleep at night or wake up after a short
sleep and may create havoc, waking up caregivers and disturbing others
in the home, possibly for hours. But a care center in New York City has
an innovative program for night owl Alzheimer’s patients, that lets them
‘play,’ while their caregivers sleep….

It’s pretty common for big groups to go out and eat together, and then split the tab afterwards. But the process of splitting up the bill can be pretty tedious, since someone usually has to break out the calculator (or calculator app) and add up the amount that each person has to pay.

But not with the Go Dutch Bill.

It’s a billing system that automatically churns out split-able (is there even such a word?) receipts so each member of the group can just grab the tab with their order and pay for it accordingly. It’s an extremely fun and novel concept, even though we’ll probably never see it come to light because it might be pretty complex to apply in practice.

But I’d love to be wrong on that one because this concept is totally awesome.

Go Dutch Bill was designed by Szu-Yu Liu and is up for the 2012 iF concept design award.

[via Yanko Design]

Scarves are meant to be worn so you can keep your neck warm and comfy when the elements are being particularly harsh. But aside from their functional purposes, they’re also great for making fashion statements whenever you want to.

If you’ve run out of ideas for shapes to fold your Origami Scarves into, then give it a rest and show off your love for food with these nom nom Scarves.

They’re 100% acrylic and 0% eatable, and they come in two delectable designs: Bacon and Eggs, and Sushi. Don’t get them if you’re on a diet though, because you’ll probably find yourself chowing down on more bacon than you should.

The nom nom Scarves are available from ThinkGeek for $29.99 (USD) each.

[via Gadgets Matrix]

Halloween is still a month away, but I think it’s never too early to begin stocking up on ideas for awesome and unique costumes. At least this way, you can avoid dressing up as a slutty whatever if you don’t find anything good at the costume rental shop anymore.

But did you ever think of making up an entire costume by using balloons? Yeah, I figured you didn’t too. But the guys from Balloon Distractions did, and they ended up looking pretty awesome.

They came up with Buzz Lightyear and Ninja Turtle costumes that were put together using twisted-up balloons and the results are nothing short of amazing.

Check out Buzz Lightyear, who can really go to infinity and beyond (until someone comes along to pop his balloons):

And here’s a balloony Michaelangelo who likes to yell, just because he can:

[via Geekologie]