Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen a couple of prototypes that enable or at least emulate touch-sensitivity on everyday objects. But as wearable technology continues to flourish, we’re going to need a simple and portable solution. Augmented reality company Metaio thinks they may have an answer with Thermal Touch, a technology that emulates touch-sensitivity using “the heat signature left by a person’s finger when touching a surface.”

Right now the hardware needed to pull off the feat is quite bulky. In the demo video below, Metaio used a tablet, a standard camera and a rather large infrared camera. The company hopes that in the future, all of the necessary hardware can be included in a wearable device similar to Google Glass, like so:

Here’s the demo video:

Sorry zombies, I guess you’ll be stuck with voice commands. Good luck with that.

[Metaio via TechCrunch]

There are already portable battery packs that have solar panels for recharging. The Trinity is a new kind of portable charger that uses a different renewable source of energy: the wind. It recharges its 15,000 mAh battery through its built-in wind turbine. Although it’s quite promising, I don’t think you should support it just yet.

Trinity weighs just 4lb. and when collapsed it’s just 12″ long, so it’s fairly portable. It has three aluminum legs that can either stay in a tripod arrangement or lie flat. Inside Trinity is a 15W generator and its battery. The current prototype has a 5V/1A USB charging port, although inventor Skajaquoda is considering adding an additional 5v/2A USB port for more power hungry devices like tablets. Here’s where it starts to get iffy. Skajaquoda also added a miniUSB port that’s meant to charge Trinity’s battery… via an outlet.

Why would they add a way to charge the battery that doesn’t use the built-in wind turbine? If you’re going to plug it in to charge it you might as well get a conventional battery pack that’s much smaller. The only reason I can think of for the addition of the mini-USB charging option is that Skajaquoda isn’t confident about Trinity’s charging speed through the wind turbine. Commenters on the fundraising site are asking the same question: How fast does it charge through wind power? Sadly, Skajaquoda didn’t include that vital data on their Kickstarter page and on their pitch video.

Breeze on over to Kickstarter to find out more about Trinity. The device can be yours for a pledge of at least $249 (USD), but again I don’t think you should back the project yet. I’m not saying this is vaporware or a scam. It’s an interesting and promising invention,  but at the same time there are important details about it that need to come to light before you plunk down your hard-earned cash.

[via GadgeTell]

Portable printers are nothing new, but they’re usually as wide as A4 sheets. Because obviously they have to accommodate paper right? ZUta Labs looked at the problem differently. The most important part of a printer is the part that prints, i.e. the print head. So they took that part out of a traditional printer and made it fit on your paper instead of the other way around.

ZUta Labs’ PocketPrinter is a small robot that’s meant to go on top of the paper you want to print on.  It uses omnidirectional wheels to navigate on paper, a small ink cartridge and a battery that lasts up to one hour per charge. You can send a file to be printed from your desktop computer, but Zuta Labs is also working on mobile apps so that you can wirelessly queue files from your mobile devices.

There are significant tradeoffs to its size though. The PocketPrinter’s pace is a glacial 1.2 pages per minute. Also, the lone ink cartridge means you can only print in grayscale. ZUta Labs is planning to make a full color model in the future.

Command-P a browser window and pledge at least $180 (USD) on Kickstarter by May 10 to get a PocketPrinter as a reward.

Nokia has unveiled a new Bluetooth portable speaker that is very small but promises big bass. The speaker is called the Nokia MD-12 and it is about the weight of an apple.

It has an integrated vibrating actuator inside. This technology is able to create low frequency bass sounds when placed on most surfaces. The bass is stronger when the surface is hard, helping to produce low frequencies that you don’t expect from such a small device.

Power for the speaker comes from an internal rechargeable battery good for 15 hours of playback per charge. An integrated mic lets the speaker be used as a speakerphone on the go. If your device lacks Bluetooth, you can connect it via an aux input as well. Nokia also includes NFC tech inside for easy paring with NFC devices. The MS-12 will cost €39 (~$54 USD), and it will come in a variety of bright colors.

Many of us stock our photos only as digital copies, but a new company called LifePrint might get you back to printing photographs. The company’s eponymous device lets you print photos wirelessly wherever you are and makes it easy to share photos with other LifePrint users.

The printer works with iOS and Android devices and makes 3″ x 4″ photographs. You can print any image that’s on your camera roll to LifePrint, which means you can print the images you edited or downloaded from various apps. You can send photos to the printer over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or even a data connection through the LifePrint app.

For example, you can take a picture while you’re out and have a print waiting for you when you get home, or even have someone abroad within print your photo within a few seconds of capturing it. Couple that wireless capability with the printer’s battery – it can print up to 30 photos per charge – and you can even set up a mobile photo booth.

You can emulate LifePrint’s wireless features with a modern printer, a router and a bit of programming. But what makes LifePrint more convenient is the social network feature of its mobile app. It behaves much like Instagram where you can follow other users, except with LifePrint you can add the images of the people you follow to your printing queue. It’s a shame LifePrint can’t print out larger photos, because otherwise it would be a great way for artists and photographers to send free posters to their followers.

Thankfully, the LifePrint app lets you reject the photos shared by the people in your network without informing them of the rejection. You can also keep to yourself and stay out of LifePrint’s social network.

Take a photo of your browser’s lunch, apply some filters, and pledge at least $99 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a LifePrint printer as a reward. LifePrint will sell film packs in three variants: 10 prints for $20, 30 for $20 and 100 for $50. Shipping will be free for the $50 pack. A lot of consumers might be turned off by the price of the film, but I say that’s a plus. It’ll force them to think hard about the pictures they want to print. And it will give you a good alibi when your friends start asking why you didn’t print the selfies they sent you.

[via DudeIWantThat]