Hasta La Gadget!

The Elements iPad app is one of the best alternatives to the traditional periodic table. But a mobile augmented reality company called DAQRI is working on something more interactive and intuitive. The company calls it Elements 4D, a set of building blocks that make learning about the elements fun and easy.

Elements 4D has a total of six wooden blocks. Each block face is dedicated to a single element. When you view a block face or faces through the Elements 4D iOS app, the block comes to life, showing a virtual representation of the elment. In the image above you see carbon and gold being represented. The app also shows additional information about each element, but its best feature is demonstrating chemical reactions. Simply by putting two block faces side-by-side, you’ll see what chemical compound they become, if any. It’s a virtual chem lab. You’ll need lots of blocks to make meth.

Pledge at least $25 (USD) on Kickstarter to get Elements 4D blocks as a reward. Note that you have to pledge at least $75 to get all six blocks. Aside from being expensive, another significant downside of Elements 4D is that it currently only has six blocks. That’s just 36 faces, but we know of 118 elements. I guess DAQRI can release more blocks in the future, but then that would add up to hundreds of dollars. I’ll stick to The Elements app for now, but Elements 4D is a great example of the educational application of augmented reality.

[via The Next Web]

Move over, NFC. Uniqul is getting ready to unveil a new payment system that utilizes facial recognition to process payments. You can set aside your credit cards, debit cards, and checkbooks, too, because all you’ll need to pay for stuff when you shop is your face…and that’s already attached to your body.

Uniqul’s payment system links a person’s face with their bank account so that they’ll only have to gaze into a camera when they want to pay for something. No muss, no fuss, and no worries that come with lost or stolen cards.

Here’s how it works: stores are provided with a Uniqul tablet for their check-out counters. These tablets will take the customer’s photo and analyze the biometric data to locate the person in the database. After pressing an “OK” button, the payment is processed and the customer can go on his or her merry way.

Uniqul’s system is protected by military-grade algorithms, so nothing to worry about on that end. The system will be launching soon in Helsinki, Sweden.

[via Dvice]

Sometimes, I get the feeling that digital artwork lacks the personal touch that you find in traditional artwork. You can’t really see the strokes the artist made on the canvas, for one, and any errors or misplaced strokes are quickly edited out.

If you’re a fan of watercolor art and want to get the best of both worlds, then you might want to consider getting the WaterColorBot.

The WaterColorBot was conceived by 12-year-old Sylvia Todd in collaboration with Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. It’s basically a robot that turns digital vector artwork into actual watercolor paintings. All you need to do is feed the bot with a digital file of the image, and it will then set out to work to create a watercolor replica of that image.

The ‘bot is dubbed as a “friendly and educational art robot” and has high potential for STEM and STEAM education, especially as a means to get younger people interested in robotics and technology.

The WaterColorBot is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, where you can get one of your very own with a minimum pledge of $295(USD).

[via Laughing Squid]

There are plenty of apps which let you use your iPad like a piano, but to be honest, playing on a toucscreen is just not the same as using a tactile keyboard. And while Ion has been making a wired iPad piano keyboard for a while,  it’s not exactly the type of thing you’ll throw in your backpack.

Now, there’s a Kickstarter project which hopes to provide a high quality piano keyboard, built into a protective cover.

Miselu’s C.24 Music Keyboard adds a two octave wireless piano keyboard to your iPad. It connects wirelessly to your iPad using Bluetooth Low Energy, and transmits CoreMIDI data over Bluetooth.

The keys fold neatly into a cover that’s about the same thickness as the iPad itself, and acts as a stand for your iPad when opened up. Anti-polarity magnets give the keys the sense of weight, and infrared emitter/detector pairs capture key presses. The keyboard supports MIDI velocity data and monophonic aftertouch as well. Best of all it’s compatible with any iOS app which supports CoreMIDI, which means you’ll be able to play tunes with many apps out of the box.

There’s also a capacitive ribbon controller along the top edge of the keyboard which allows you to shift between octaves as well as to provide analog expression data for things like pitch bending.

The C.24 also has an expansion bay which will allow for the addition of things like knobs, faders, sliders and other controls, and will be releasing an open standard for creation of these add-ons.

A pledge of $99 (USD) or more will get you in on the first batch of C.24 iPad Keyboards – $50 less than the price that later backers will pay. Delivery is expected to start this November – assuming the project reaches its funding goal by August 8.

This looks like a much more serious bit of hardware than the Ion Piano Apprentice, and well worth a look for traveling electronic musicians.

[via Gear Hungry]

This isn’t the first time someone hooked something up to Facebook, so that it performed a specific action every time a ‘Like’ or post is recorded on the linked social network account. For example, there’s the Like-a-Hug jacket that gave its wearer a hug every time someone ‘Liked’ his or her post on Facebook.

The B-Day Chair, which is the product of a collaboration between Outback Steakhouse and Brazilian ad agency Lew’Lara\TBWA, functions in a similar manner.

Instead of giving away hugs for every ‘like’ received, the chair hugs (or fondles?) the person seated in it every time someone scrawls a birthday greeting on his or her wall. The birthday celebrant is supposed to sit on the chair and sign in to his or her Facebook account with the attached tablet.

From that point on, you can expect the hugs to come as the birthday greetings roll in.

The tablet takes a picture of the celebrant every time he or she receives a hug, which can be posted on their Facebook timeline to bring about more greetings and hence, more hugs.

[via Walyou via Incredible Things via Geekologie]