Cramming for a test can make even the brightest minds feel like a pile of mush: Words start blending together, and after scanning pages and pages, it can be tough to tell when concentration falters and thoughts begin to drift. But the good folks at Open Colleges have managed to make neurology engaging and easy-to-process with a cool clickable map of the brain.
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Like many of us, Terry Burton and Jinna Kim find themselves witnessing – and contributing to – the slow but inevitable death of paper books. The husband and wife team decided to make a functional artwork that bridges the gap between eBooks and their ancestors. Their eBookmark not only lets you save a book page, it also lets you specify the paragraph where you stopped. How does it work? With a minimalist touch interface, of course.
The eBookmark has a balsa wood body. Inside are LEDs, a touch-sensitive strip, a battery and an Atmel 8-bit processor. It also has a switch up top for pointing out either the left or right page and can be extended to accommodate larger books.
I know that Terry and Jinna made the eBookmark as an artistic statement, but it would’ve been nicer if it had a motion sensor that caused the LEDs to turn on only when the book is opened. If you’re actually looking for a more precise bookmark, check out this bookmark by Fred & Friends.
[via 7 Electrons via Hack A Day]
Over the years we’ve seen a variety of concepts for portable augmented reality devices, but it seems as if Google Glass opened the floodgates for AR devices that are worn like eyeglasses. Case in point, the Japanese telecommunications company NTT Docomo, which recently showed off not one but four ideas for glasses with an AR interface.
The first interface that NTT Docomo showed off was a projector that mirrored the display of a connected mobile device. The player appears to float in front of you and you can still see what’s in front of you in the background of the window. That in itself isn’t particularly revolutionary or practical, but when paired with sensors it turns into a really neat product. For instance, Docomo imagines a combination of a head-mounted camera and a face recognition app that shows you information about the people you meet.
The other two concepts were more exciting: the real-time translator that I talked about a couple of weeks ago and an external projector that can detect the size of the object that you’re using as a display surface. When used with a ring-shaped accessory, the glasses will also be able to detect your hand, allowing you to manipulate the projection as if it were a touchscreen.
There you have it, another exciting look at the future of augmented reality, and perhaps fashion as well. Out of all the concepts I’ve seen, the one I really want to own would still be the Sixthsense concept from back in 2009. I wouldn’t mind looking like a dork for that.
[via DigInfo TV via BitRebels]
Technology has made it a whole lot easier to keep in touch with friends, family, and other loved ones. Unfortunately, it takes a little of the personal aspect away because this same technology lets people do stuff on their phones, instead of doing it in person. Take birthday greetings, well-wishes, or presents as examples. Instead of a phone call, an actual visit, or a creative present, what you get instead is a text, an email, or an e-gift card.
It’s not that those things are bad, but it would’ve been better if the person made more of an effort to connect with you on a personal basis. Even if they’re hundreds of miles away, it can be possible, with a little bit of effort and a whole lot of help. Eager to extend such help is Bond, which is a service that lets people send curated gifts with a few taps on their iPhone.
Founder and CEO Sonny Caberwal explains: “I always have great intentions to send a gift or write a heartfelt letter, but they tend to get lost in the craziness of my day. Most e-commerce is focused on selling me products, but I needed a place that would help me follow through on those good intentions. So I created BOND to do just that.”
Indeed, that’s what Bond does. It’s a step up from Amazon, since instead of generic gift cards, you’ll be sending presents with handwritten notes. Actually, they’re written by a robot named “Giles,” but he has excellent penmanship. It’s the next best thing to shopping for an actual present and mailing it out yourself.
You can check out what Bond has to offer by downloading their app from the iTunes App Store.
[via Laughing Squid]
There’s just something about getting actual mail versus email. With the former, you get to touch it, manipulate it, and pin it on your wall or stick it on your fridge for good measure. With the latter, all you can do is look at it on your computer or mobile device, and print it out, if you want an actual physical copy.
The thing is, not everyone has the time to go out and mail an actual postcard, or fire up Photoshop or Illustrator to customize their own. So for that, there’s the PhotoCard app by Bill Atkinson, who happens to have been one of the members of the original Apple Macintosh team, and developed the popular Mac applications, Hypercard and MacPaint.
The app features a neat and easy-to-use interface that lets users create and design their very own personalized postcards that will be printed out and sent via postal mail. Users can choose to upload their own images or use the ones in the app’s image library. They can then add their personal messages and “stickers” to the card and choose to have it printed and mailed (for a small fee, of course.) For those of you who prefer things digital, you can electronically send images for free.
PhotoCard can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store.
[via Laughing Squid]
The touch-friendly interface of Windows 8 led to the rise of portable computers with touchscreens. Those that run Windows 8 often have decent specs, enough to run modern PC games. The problem is that almost none of these games are optimized for touchscreens. GestureWorks wants to help solve that problem with Gameplay, a Windows 8 app that lets you make virtual controllers for PC games.
Yep, that’s Skyrim on a touchscreen. GestureWorks Gameplay has a simple drag and drop interface. You can make d-pads, joysticks and buttons of different sizes and colors, then map them to mouse buttons or keyboard keys. It also lets you map gestures, so you don’t have to fill up your screen with buttons.
As shown in the video, another convenient feature of GestureWorks Gameplay is that you can share controllers with other people. This means you may not even have to create a virtual gamepad; just download someone else’s configuration and you’re good to go.
Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik loves this app and uses it on his Surface Pro. I’d rather use physical controllers to play games, but as an iPad owner I know how convenient it is to play games on the go or in bed. GestureWorks Gameplay seems like a decent compromise for Windows 8 gamers. The app will launch on November of this year, but you can try and enter the open beta by registering on its website.
[via Engadget]
One of the biggest challenges in rolling out a electric vehicle charging system in cities around the world is where to place the chargers and how to wire them into the electric grid. Some interesting wireless electric charging devices are expected to land in New York City in early 2014 from a company called Hevo Power. The coolest part about these wireless charging systems isn’t the fact that they don’t need wires, but rather that they hide in plain sight looking like manhole covers.
Hevo CEO and Founder Jeremy McCool says that the idea to hide his wireless EV charges as manhole covers came to him while walking down the streets of NYC. He said:
I was walking down the street, pondering how wireless charging could be deployed. I was standing at 116th and Broadway, and I was looking down and saw a manhole cover. And thought, that’s the ticket. There are no cords, no hazards. Everything can be underneath the manhole cover.
That realization is where the idea of the company’s wireless charging systems came from. Hevo plans to roll out the charging systems in Washington Square Park in early 2014. The initial wireless chargers will be usable by a pair of Smart ForTwo EVs operated by NYU. The wireless charging technology from Hevo uses resonance charging rather than inductive charging used by other EV charging systems.
Hevo Power says that inductive charging is inefficient, but it’s resonance system uses coils in the vehicle and the charging plate connected with capacitors that resonate a specific frequency. That resonance technology minimizes energy losses, and allows energy to transfer at a faster rate and across a wider gap. The Hevo wireless charging system has three components including the power station that can be bolted to the street or embedded in the pavement. The receiver has to be connected to the EV battery system and a smartphone app is used to help drivers line the vehicle up on the charger to start charging.
Hevo’s current system is classified as a Level 2 charging station providing 220 V and up to 10 kW of energy. The system can produce more than 10 kW of energy depending on the application. Hevo is talking with major companies that operate large vehicle fleets including Pepsi, Walgreens, and City Harvest to potentially use the system for larger fleets of electric vehicles.
[via Wired]
Some people spend more than what they can actually afford. A lot of financial advisers recommend keeping a list of every purchase, so that each expenditure can be reviewed afterward. Most people start out okay but eventually forget a few days later.
An alternative? Level.
Level is a lightweight budget management app that links to the user’s bank account. Once it’s hooked up, the app will then calculate how much the user can spend in a day given their income. It shows the “spendables” left for the day, keeping users in check before they swipe their card or buy something that they don’t really need.
The cool thing about Level is that it also automatically detects fixed expenses. Over a hundred top banks in the US are supported by Level, so you’ll most likely be able to find your institution on the list.
Level also recommends and encourages saving, and we all know that’s not a bad thing. The app is available for free from the iTunes App Store, and an Android version is currently in development.
[via TNW via Laughing Squid]
Google Maps has been adding an ever-increasing amount of Street View imagery to its service allowing you to actually see the streets you’ll be driving, biking and walking on when you’re going somewhere. I think most of us probably use Street View imagery more to see our own houses or to see if we were caught on the Street View cameras more than anything else. One of the cool things that Google has been doing is allowing some businesses to offer interior views to prospective customers.
Lamborghini has announced that it has teamed up with Google Maps to offer an exclusive interior view of its museum located in Sant’Agata Bolognese. You may not ever get to travel to Italy and see the museum firsthand, but you can explore both floors and all 1500 square meters virtually from your smartphone, tablet, or web browser.
Inside the museum, Lamborghini has all sorts of famous cars from its street-legal car line, as well as prototypes, limited editions, and racing cars. One of the coolest features is that you can actually check out the interior of some extremely limited edition Lambo models including the Reventon, Estoque, and Sesto Elemento.
Click this link to check out the full 360-degree view.
Like many people out there, I’m a big fan of the video streaming service Netflix. It’s a great place to find something to watch when nothing is on TV and I can use it to catch up on TV series that I might’ve missed seasons of in the past. Back in September, word surfaced that Virgin Media in the UK had agreed to offer Netflix on its set top boxes to subscribers. At the time, I wished Netflix would do the same thing in the US and apparently they’re in negotiations right now to do just that.
Word surfaced that Netflix is currently in talks to make its streaming service available on US cable providers’ set top boxes. Making Netflix available on those boxes would mean that users wouldn’t need to switch inputs or launch an application on different device to watch Netflix streaming video.
Netflix has reportedly been in talks with several pay-TV providers in the US. Reports indicate that these talks are in the early stages but two of the providers said to be in talks with Netflix are Comcast and Suddenlink Communications. One thing delaying the negotiations according to some reports is the fact that Netflix is insisting the cable providers use its technology designed to improve the delivery of streaming video. Netflix believes this to be a critical component of service to allow viewers to get the best quality possible.
While one might think that cable and satellite providers would see Netflix as a major competitor, offering the service through their delivery channels could increase the likelihood that customers will stick around instead of just going for a raw bandwidth provider.
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