Hasta La Gadget!

The innovators behind the OnGARD Security Door Brace and SMART Dummy
Camera are looking to you to invent the next big advancement in home
security devices, and are willing to pay big bucks for your best idea.

Instructables member KlockworkKevin made a generator attachment for his bicycle. Even though he mostly used scrap parts for the generator, he was able to avoid making the whole thing an eyesore by hiding it in plain sight. When not in use, the generator is neatly hidden under KlockworkKevin’s patio table:

When he’s ready to burn some calories and charge some batteries, he just flips the table on its side and attaches his bike:

Here’s a demo of the generator (turn your volume down before you play it):

Wouldn’t it be awesome if all gym equipment worked like this? Head to Instructables to read KlockworkKevin’s walkthrough.

[via Inhabitat]

Motorola dropped some jaws this week, when Advanced Technology and Projects Group chief Regina Dugan revealed the company’s tinkering on digital tattoos, week-long implanted electronics that could free you from the tyranny of remembering passwords. Dugan – a former DARPA head – described the tattoo as perfect for a wearables market targeting users that don’t actually bother wearing watches any more, instead turning the body into a walking authentication token. She also namechecked mc10, a company not unfamiliar to SlashGear, as the brains behind the flexible tattoo-tech, but just what’s inside?

Cambridge, MA, based mc10 calls the tattoo “epidermal electronics”, and has in fact been working on the concept for some years now. The idea is relatively straightforward: rather than rely on the user carrying a device, or remembering to strap one on each morning, the technology is temporarily bonded to their skin.

That bond has another advantage, since the responses of the wearer’s skin can also be used to collect health data. The tattoo is made up of various sensors and gages, such as for tracking strain in multiple directions (how the user is flexing), EEG and EMG (electrical impulses in the skeletal structure or nerves), ECG (heart activity), and temperature, as well as light and other factors. In total, it’s a mini-lab for your arm, the side of your head, or anywhere else on the body.

Like NFC chips, the mc10 epidermal electronics get powered up from an external electricity source, using the embedded wireless power coil. It’s a similar system to the wireless phone charging Nokia and others have implemented in recent handsets, and it powers the tattoo’s transmitter. That’s all layered onto a sheet of water-soluble plastic that gets laminated to the skin; in fact, it can even be disguised with a regular temporary tattoo pattern, opening the door to potential branding and such.

Once they’re in place, they’re incredibly resilient. The tightly coiled structure of the electronics means that, even if the tattoo is stretched or twisted, the connections won’t break. It’s also waterproof, which means that even if you’re swimming or in the shower, the tattoo won’t be affected.

However, epidermal electronics don’t just have to stop at being biometric keys for your laptop and your Netflix account. Studies using the technology have found that they can also track muscle movements around speech, when applied to the throat, potentially turning the tattoos into half of a wireless hands-free kit. Since you don’t actually have to speak out loud, it could pick up sub-vocal commands, too. Alternatively, they can even track brain signals with enough accuracy to control a computer, which might mean simply thinking about making a call and having your nearby smartphone place it. Similar sensors have been used to fly remote-control planes and drones, something mc10 is working on replicating with its more compact tattoos.

They were some of the possibilities mc10 co-founder Ben Schlatka spoke to us about last year, when we talked to him about the advantages of persistent sensing. The company is also working with the US army on embedded electronics in battlefield clothing, which could collect energy and convert it into electricity to power the gadgets soldiers carry.

“Imagine a kids’ fake tattoo that can sense how our bodies work: data from the heart, the brain, muscles, body temperature – even hydration levels,” Schlatka told us. “When a sensing technology conforms to the consumer and not the other way around, it can capture more insights for longer periods of time without discomfort or distraction.”

Motorola isn’t the only company intrigued. Back in April, mc10 announced it had closed a new $8m financing round, taking the company’s total Series C funding to $18m. Exactly which investors have come on-board is yet to be confirmed, though mc10 did say that it now has backers across its consumer, digital health, and medical devices divisions.

Whether Motorola will actually release a wearable using mc10 technology remains to be seen; the Google-owned company still needs to prove it has a solid foot in the smartphone market, though the new Moto X could address that. Still, it’s clear that the digital tattoo is capable of further breaking down the boundary between users and their devices. If Motorola can leverage that, alongside Google’s own ongoing research into wearables like Glass, it could be the differentiator the company needs from the increasingly crowded Android market, not to mention finally silencing the critics who doubted the wisdom of the smartphone company’s acquisition in the first place.

IMAGES: Dr Todd Coleman; mc10

What’s inside Motorola’s digital tattoo? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

What happens when you take a standard home video camera and enable it to
a customized video and alarm management platform built from the ground
up?. You get an easy-to-install, souped-up home surveillance system
offering a boatload of features that’ll help you keep an eye on people,
things, and pets. Check it
out and see for yourself.

If you drooled at the PS Vita hack we saw last year that allowed for Remote Play via PS3, check this out. Sony may have found a solution to the PS Vita’s languishing hardware sales and intrigued more Sony faithful in one fell swoop. The company has acknowledged that they will require PS4 games to support Remote Play, with some exceptions. In other words, you’ll be able to stream most PS4 games from the console and play them on the PS Vita.

The feature was confirmed via Twitter by Shuhei Yoshida, the President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios. When asked if PS4 games will use the Remote Play feature, Yoshida responded, “Yes, it’s true unless the game requires specific hardware like the camera. It will be great to play PS4 games on PS Vita.”

This is awesome news. It’s so awesome that you have to wonder why Sony didn’t boast about it more during the announcement of the PlayStation 4. I’m pretty sure they mentioned it in passing, but remember, Nintendo boasted about this exact same feature on the Wii U, and rightfully so. Obviously PS4 gamers will have to buy a PS Vita to enjoy Remote Play, and the Vita’s rear touchscreen can’t fully make up for the lack of R2 and L2 buttons. But still, this is a blessing for gamers who have to share their TV or don’t have enough space for a TV in their room.

If this takes off and more people buy the PS Vita, perhaps that will help push more publishers to release games on the handheld. I’m not entirely sold on this feature; we obviously haven’t seen it in action, we don’t know how the PS Vita’s battery will hold up with Remote Play, etc. But it’s one that I personally have been hoping for ever since the PS Vita was released, so I guess we’ll just have to be hopeful and wait until its big brother comes out this Holiday.

[via Shuhei Yoshida via Siliconera]