Hasta La Gadget!

Neil Young has been talking up his forthcoming high-fidelity music service and music player for a few years. That service and the player will now be launching via Kickstarter and it is called PonoMusic. That is a horrible name, each time I see it I think PornoMusic and hum bow-chica-wow-wow to myself.

The device, made by Arye, is said to use zero feedback circuits and a digital filter to stop unnatural pre-ringing. I’m no audiophile, so this is Greek to me. I assume that means it sounds really good. The music player will have a substantial 128GB of storage and the triangular design looks really uncomfortable to carry in a pocket, so it’s probably best used in a backpack.

The 128GB of storage should be enough to store 100 to 500 high-resolution albums. Storage expansion is possible using memory cards. The high-resolution music service promises tracks from top labels and independent labels. The PonoPlayer (bow-chica-wow-wow) will sell for $399(USD), but the price will be discounted for pre-orders.

Young is launching the triangular player on Kickstarter on March 12.

[via Computer Audiophile]

Many gesture detection devices, including the Kinect and the Leap Motion, use infrared cameras to sense movement. They also have dedicated chips that process the data from the cameras. These components are power-hungry, especially if they’re turned on at all times. Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a gesture detection device that uses 1,000 to 10,000 times less power than its counterparts.

Bryce Kellogg, Vamsi Talla and their teacher Shyam Gollakota call the device AllSee. Instead of cameras and infrared light, it measures how the user’s hand affects ambient TV signals: “At a high level, we use the insight that motion at a location farther from the receiver results in smaller wireless signal changes than from a close-by location. This is because the reflections from a farther location experience higher attenuation and hence have lower energy at the receiver.”

The signal can also come from a dedicated RFID transmitter such as an RFID reader; future models may even use ambient Wi-Fi signals. The researchers even built prototypes that used TV signals both as source of data and as source of power, eliminating the need for a battery or plug.

Wave at your browser and go to the AllSee homepage for more on the device.

[via DamnGeeky]

Washing clothes shouldn’t be rocket science, but you’d be forgiven for thinking that when you look at the controls of modern washing machines. So when cloud services company Berg set out to create a prototype for an Internet-connected washing machine, they didn’t want to smarten it up just so it can tweet which socks you prefer. Berg knew that smart doesn’t mean needlessly complex.

Berg’s Cloudwash prototype is built on four premises. The first one is that, for all the intricate settings on conventional washing machines, most users only ever use a handful of them. That’s why Cloudwash only has a few, easy to understand physical controls.

The first set of options lets you choose from your three most used wash settings. You’ll then use its companion app if you want or need to tweak these settings. Which brings us to Berg’s second premise: the early examples of smart appliances are not really smart.

Berg noticed that the current crop of Internet-connected appliances mainly have two ways of distributing controls or options. Some smart appliances have all of their controls thrown to a mobile app, rendering the appliance nearly useless if you don’t have a mobile device on hand. On the other end are appliances that come with a touchscreen or mobile device tacked on, with few if any remote controls.

Berg opted for a middle ground. The Cloudwash app has all of the controls and options so you can control everything remotely if you wish, but the most used controls are also on the machine itself.

Berg’s third premise is that Internet-connected appliances should be able to adapt to your lifestyle. That should be part of why they’re called “smart.” Thus the second set of controls on Cloudwash lets you delay the washing machine’s final rinse.

This can also be adjusted through the mobile app, so you don’t have to hurry home to take out your clothes before they get wrinkled. It’s about making the machine adjust to you and not the other way around.

The third set of options includes a button to toggle notifications, but the other two buttons are more interesting. They’re manifestations of Berg’s fourth premise: subsidized washing machines might become a thing, just like what Nestle did to coffee machines with Nespresso.

See, you can set the two buttons to either send a reminder on your phone that your conditioner or detergent is running low. Or you can use them to make one-click purchases. Berg thinks that online retailers like Amazon or laundry product manufacturers may be willing to give away free machines or at least subsidize them to reel in customers.

Check out Berg’s case study on the Cloudwash for more information. I think its mobile app is a bit over designed and cluttered – there’s a freaking washing machine calendar, and it still uses vague washing machine terminology. I also don’t want a future where my appliances are cheap but will only work with a certain brand of detergent or brand of popcorn (because what else will it ultimately lead to?). But I do love the attempts to make machines more user-friendly and flexible.

[via Gigaom]

Fujitsu has rolled out a prototype tablet that has a cool bit of tech inside. The tablet has haptic sensory technology inside that allows you to feel images on the screen. Users are able to feel smooth or rough textures depending on what is displayed on the screen.

The tablet uses ultrasonic vibrations to create a cushion of high-pressure air between the finger and the screen. That air acts like a cushion and makes the screen feel very smooth. Depending on what image is on the screen, the vibrations can be rapidly cycled to create the feeling of a rough surface.

Fujitsu is showing the tech off at Mobile World Congress 2014 with several images that do things like allow the user to feel the skin of an alligator, pluck virtual strings on a harp, or feel the sensation of opening a combination lock.

The burgeoning small scale 3D printing industry is focused on producing plastic or metal objects. A small team of makers led by Gerard Rubio hopes to turn the spotlight on a more practical material: fabric. The OpenKnit is a work-in-progress open source printer that automatically knits thread to create clothing based on digital templates.

The printer is powered by an Arduino Leonardo and can control three needles at the same time. Like the pioneering RepRap, the OpenKnit printer itself will have parts that can be 3D printed to further save on costs. Gerard says the printer should cost around $750 (USD) to build.

Aside from the printer itself, OpenKnit also has a companion program called Knitic that can be used to design clothes. Knitic was developed by Mar Canet and Varvara Guljajeva, who used their experience from hacking old electronic knitting machines to create a user-friendly program for designing clothes. Finally, there’s Do-Knit-Yourself, a “virtual wardrobe” where people can share their designs. Think of the site as the Thingiverse of clothing.

Obviously, all three parts of the OpenKnit project are still in their infancy, and the clothes that have come out of it are not much to look at. But I hope the project takes off and democratizes fashion, because that industry badly needs a wake up call. Check out the OpenKnit website to learn more about the printer. Makers should head to Gerard’s Github page to find out how they can replicate the device.

[via Gadgetify]