Toothpaste doesn’t sound like the most palatable thing in the world, but some people have taken it upon themselves to come up with the right formulation to make it edible. It’s called Neonisin and it’s going to be available in Japan this summer.
The active ingredient in the edible toothpaste is Nisin, which is a peptide that’s harvested from lactic bacteria. This is often found in soy bean curd. Natural flavoring, plum extract, mint oil, and corn-based thickeners are then added into the mix to create the toothpaste. In some ways, I guess you could say that Neonisin is basically just a tofu toothpaste – or Tofupaste for short.
When released, Neonisin toothpaste will be cost about $8.90(USD) for a 2.5 ounce tube.
If you have been following nerd news at all, then you know that Bill Gates has issued a challenge through The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They are offering $100,000(USD) to the person who can come up with the best idea to improve on condom technology.
That’s not as easy a task as it sounds, but our pal Joerg Sprave at The Slingshot Channel is on top of things and came up with a solution that could one day make condoms easier to apply. There are a few kinks to work out first though.
This slingshot is pretty good at applying a condom at point blank range. They just have to work on the whole distance thing. Plus, this has got to hurt when applied to an actual person.
Ever wanted a robotic hand? Well unless you’re a Terminator, or this guy, you probably don’t have one. Well, thanks to 3D printing, and the wonders of Kickstarter, you can soon own your own robot hand without breaking the bank.
Initially developed under the Anthromod project we mentioned last year, Christopher Chappell and Easton LaChapelle’s robot hand is now available for order via a Kickstarter campaign. The humanoid hand is designed to offer six degrees-of-freedom, including full movement of the thumb, four fingers and wrist. The arm is controlled using tendons, which are moved using five servos. The current design uses ABS plastic, but they are hopeful that future iterations will be produced using nylon, which is biocompatible, and safer for use in prostheses.
They’re targeting a sub-$1000 (USD) pricepoint for a completely functional robotic arm, significantly less than robotic arms being sold for medical and research purposes today. During the Kickstarter campaign (which runs through 5am EDT on 4/10/13) you can get a kit with complete electronics for the forearm, hand and fingers for £270 (~$411 USD). For £300 (~$467 USD), you can get a fully-assembled version, and for £600 (~$914 USD), you can upgrade to a version with a wireless control glove.
While fitness sensors are cool, there are plenty of other uses for remote sensors. These environmental sensors allow you to keep track of indoor spaces in your home.
CubeSensors can record environment conditions and send them to the cloud, which will allow you to access them via any mobile device. An app sends you notifications about how to better tailor your environment for better productivity or comfort. Each cube can sense temperature, humidity, noise, light, air quality, barometric pressure, and even vibrations.
They can be used at home or at the office, and are designed to be relatively unobtrusive. The CubeSensors will be released this summer and are available for pre-order for $250(USD) for a pair with their base station, or $350 for a set of four. Additional cubes retail for $99 each. You can reserve your set for just a $10 down-payment.
Whether it’s that extra push when you are climbing a hill, or you just want to cruise along with minimal effort, electric bikes have come a long way from their humble beginnings. Now, BMW has released the details of their upcoming e-bike, which looks pretty interesting.
The electric Cruise bicycle weighs 44lbs and has a pedal assist that’s capable of driving the bike 15.5 mph for a maximum range of 53 miles. The battery is mounted on the bike’s down tube, while its 250W Bosch motor is under the bottom bracket, which should give it a very low center of gravity, improving overall stability and maneuverability.
The bike offers with disc brakes and four modes of power assistance. Torque sensors will tell when the rider is delivering more power on hill climbs and contribute more power to assist the ascent to maintain speed. It’s also got a detachable computer showing speed, battery life and other information.
BMW plans on releasing only 1,000 bikes in Germany to test the market. There’s no release date yet and no price, but hopefully, if it’s successful, a more widely available BMW e-bike will be made.
This isn’t the first time that someone tried to reinvent the toothbrush. Remember the Rolly rolling toothbrush, where you were supposed to pop one into your mouth and chew to ‘brush’?
The T2T Tongue to Teeth toothbrush takes a page from Rolly, only the T2T is meant to be mounted on your tongue.
The Tongue to Teeth toothbrush is meant to help people freshen their breath and brush their teeth when they’re on the go and can’t use their hands, ie. like when they’re driving or walking to their next meeting after lunch. The T2T has been designed to be disposable and has toothbrush built into it, so you really don’t need to do anything else except slip it over your tongue and lick your teeth.
I wouldn’t recommend this to people who have poor gag reflexes. It doesn’t look like the most comfortable thing to put over your tongue either. I don’t even want to think about sizing issues; I highly doubt one sizes fits all. I mean, what about the people with tongues that are fatter than the average?
The sun can get pretty intense depending on where you live. If that is a concern for you, then you should check out this band, which will hopefully help keep you from getting singed from the sun.
The UVeBand will allow you to sunbathe without worrying to much about getting sunburned. This slap-on bracelet will monitor solar exposure, and vibrates whenever you need to apply more sunscreen. It will start working after you’ve applied your first layer of sunscreen, and it will automatically turn itself on. Vibration alerts will be sent to your smartphone every 15 minutes. The band keeps track of UVA and UVBs, and uses the solar power to operate its circuits.
The UVeBand was launched as a Kickstarter project, seeking to raise £80,000 (~$120,000 USD) by April 7, 2013. You’ll have to pledge £8 (~$12 USD) to get yours.
Police departments all around the world use breathalyzers to test drivers who are suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. These are those little devices that a driver blows into that is able to detect how much alcohol has been consumed. Now, a startup has arrived on Indiegogo with a gadget called the Breathometer, described as the world’s first smartphone breathalyzer.
The device is designed to plug into the audio jack on smartphones, and allows drivers to determine when they have had too much to drink and should take a cab. The user blows into the breath analyzer portion and the percentage of alcohol is displayed using a companion smartphone application.
The device is compatible with the iPhone running iOS 5.0 and higher or Android devices running version 2.3 and up. A pledge of $50(USD) will get a Breathometer by November 2013. Pledging more money will allow you to get the device earlier. Early adopters who pay as much as $100 can have the device by July of 2013. The project was seeking $25,000 and raised over $33,000 with 31 days left to go at this point.
Now here’s another weird beauty treatment that might just overshadow Kim Kardashian’s gruesome-looking blood facials. No blood is going to be drawn or injected when these facials are done, although your face will be covered with a towel and set on fire in the middle of the whole process.
I kid you not. It’s called the Huǒ liáo treatment and it’s currently gaining a lot of traction in China. The procedure involves covering the victim’s person’s face, legs, and other treatment areas with a towel soaked in alcohol and a ‘special elixir.’ It is then set ablaze for a few seconds before it dies out.
According to the people behind it, the burning process stimulates the skin and treats dullness, sagging, and wrinkles. It doesn’t look like the safest or sanest thing to do, but then again, when have women been sane when it comes to beauty?
If you’ve played any of the Mass Effect games, then you’re familiar with the series’ Medi-gel. It’s a potent salve that instantly cures wounds and restores health, regardless of the source of the damage. It can even be administered remotely! It does have one crucial flaw: it’s not real. But two college students from NYU-Poly have invented something similar to this miraculous substance.
The product is called Veti-gel, a plant-based gel that can stop bleeding and hasten blood clotting, supposedly regardless of the size of the wound. It was invented by Joe Landolina and Kenny Mai, two junior college students at New York University. In fact, in 2011 Landolina and Mai were still calling their invention Medi-gel. I don’t know why they changed it though.
Tech News Daily spoke with Landolina and reports that the gel “jump-starts the clotting and healing process so quickly that even wounds to internal organs or major arteries are able to close up instantaneously.” Landolina was even quoted as saying, “One of my other colleagues … he went to a bonfire. One of his friends fell into the fire and got second-degree burns. He put the gel on, and the next day is [sic] was healed[.]“
Apparently the gel’s plant-based polymers turn themselves into a replica of an animal tissue component known as the Extracellular Matrix or ECM. The ECM has many functions, one of which is related to healing wounds. Once applied, Veti-gel forms a tight seal around the wound and helps with clotting and healing. In the short video below, Veti-gel is applied on a 3″ incision is made on a piece of raw pork loin that’s been pumped full of blood. Aside from being very gross, the video also shows how fast the gel does its job.
Because we live in an amazing world, it doesn’t surprise me that there are already substances similar to Veti-gel. One is called QuikClot and the other is called Floseal. But according to Tech News Daily QuikClot requires that you apply pressure over the wound for several minutes, whereas Veti-gel can fly solo. Floseal on the other hand is partly made from bovine gelatin. Veti-gel is made from plants, which are not as adorable as cows and oxen and thus can be harvested without remorse. Just kidding. Kind of.
But don’t be reckless when you’re assaulting the Reapers just yet because Veti-gel is still in development. Also because there are no Reapers. Landolina and Mai have started a company called Suneris to further work on and market their invention. Maybe these geniuses can make the Omni-tool real as well.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
