Hasta La Gadget!

One of the cool technologies from the Iron Man movies is the computerized take on the Avengers’ butler Jarvis. The Ubi computer can’t be sarcastic and exchange witty banter, but it might be the closest we can get to Tony Stark’s A.I. servant.

Ubi – short for Ubiquitous Computer – is an Android 4.0-based personal assistant device that docks into a power outlet. Similar to Apple’s Siri, you can ask Ubi to search the Internet for information, call someone on your contacts list, record memos, set alarms etc. But the Ubi has a much greater potential than its iPhone-constrained cousin, mainly because of its open platform and its hardware (which might allow for it to be sarcastic and witty some day.)

The Ubi has an 800MHz ARM CPU, 1GB RAM, RF, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a USB port, temperature, humidity, air pressure and ambient light sensors. It also has more ways to communicate compared to Siri. Aside from its synthesized voice, Ubi also has different colored lights and can even be set to send emails and text messages.

Pledge at least $189 (USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser to reserve a Ubi unit. Now someone needs to do a Kickstarter project for Tony Stark’s armor.

[via Werd]

Sweating is part of the summer. No matter where you are, especially with the heatwaves of this year, you’ve probably sweat quite a bit over these last few months. If you tend to sweat a lot from your pits, and would like it to stop soaking your clothes, you could always microwave them so that they completely stop sweating.

miraDry uses microwave energy to zap your armpits and kill off 22,000 to 30,000 sweat glands in that area, reducing the amount of sweat that you generate when you get hot. It’s supposed to work in 90% of patients and reduce sweating by 82%. The effect is supposed to last for a year, but you’ll need a couple of sessions for this to work well.

Aside from evaporating your sweat glands, it will also evaporate some of your cash as this procedure costs $3,000. For some reason, it doesn’t sound like a good idea to mess with you body’s biological processes this way. What happens if you overheat? Sweating is a nature’s way of cooling us down.

[via DVice]

I’ve seen some wacky vending machines over the years, and there’s no indication there’s an end in sight to the world’s obsession with buying inappropriate stuff out of machines. In this particular case, we have a vending machine that dispenses dishes.

Why, you may ask would you do this? Well, this machine isn’t loaded with fragile Bone China. It’s actually filled with Corelle dishes which are designed to be chip resistant. Hence, this was actually part of a guerilla marketing stunt to show off how durable these plates are.

I’m guessing the machine has one of those foam pads at the bottom like they have in machines loaded with glass bottles filled with liquids. Though It would be pretty impressive if it doesn’t. Even more impressive would be a bottom tray loaded with concrete and nails sticking out of it, though I’d assume that’s not the case here. Regardless, buying a whole set of dishes this way would be a huge pain in the butt, never mind how to carry them home, but at least it gets the marketing point across.

[via DesignworkS (JP)]

Every time is Super Mario time with this spiral clock featuring characters and icons from Nintendo’s timeless platformer. You might find it hard to tell the time on this clock because of its pseudo-asymmetrical look. That’s all I see when I look at this thing.

Warp-pipe to Etsy and pay $25 (USD) to get the clock. Seller BackStreet Crafts also sells other geeky clocks and spiral clocks.

[via it8bit]

In November of 2011, we talked a bit about a soft, flexible robot that was powered by compressed air. The Harvard University team that designed that soft and flexible robot is back with an updated version of the same air-powered robot that can camouflage itself. The camouflage properties can allow the robot to blend into its environment.

Just like the robot from last year, this soft and flexible bot moves when compressed air is pumped into cylinders in the legs. The camouflage system takes cues from those found in cephalopods such as the octopus and squid. In the current design, dye is pumped through small channels inside the robot to quickly allow it to blend into its environment.

According to the researchers working on the project, cold or hot fluid can also be pumped into the robot to allow it to thermally hide itself from heat sensing cameras. The robot currently uses an external reservoir for the dye, but researchers developing the robot say in the future it could be integrated inside the robots body.

[via BBC News]