Hasta La Gadget!

If your job is being a mythbuster, well, you’re bound to have awesome stuff in your workshop. Tested visited Adam Savage in his shop and found some ridiculously awesome technology, like a 1981 1GB hard drive that weighed 75 pounds. More »

A group of researchers at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan have figured out how to make an off-road wheelchair. They created a robotic wheelchair that can use its wheels as legs, thanks to its four-wheel drive and its two axles.

The wheelchair has built-in sensors that determine how to navigate the surrounding terrain. All the rider needs to do is point the joystick in the direction he wants to go and the wheelchair will figure out how to get there. It’s also kind enough to keep the seat level at all times even when moving on uneven ground. Finally, the wheelchair also has stabilizers that it can use to rotate in place, meaning it can easily turn 180º even in tight spaces.

I foresee a future X-Games division for walking wheelchair tricks.

[via DigInfo.TV via Ubergizmo]

As gadgets become more and more compact and portable, one thing that continues to stand in the way is the limitation of current battery technology. Just think of how the majority of space and weight inside your tablet or smartphone is its battery pack, and they still often run out of juice before you’re done for the day. As companies continue to work on improving battery life, and decreasing consumption, it would be nice to be able to generate more power when you need it. One conceptual device hopes to help a little bit, by harnessing the energy you expend when you walk or run.

While industrial designer Toby Blake’s Kinetic Charger concept isn’t the first such gadget, it’s definitely one of the more stylish and compact attempts to create a kinetic-energy storage device. The small USB charger would simply clip onto your beltline or a pocket, and would harvest energy you expend as you move around throughout the day, using reverse electrowetting technology.

Blake envisions that each one could store up to 4 watts of power, and you could connect multiples together to increase available energy levels.

Now there are probably some practical challenges that would limit the effectiveness of such as small kinetic-capture device, and there’s really not much room inside of it for a supplemental battery pack to store that energy in either. Still, it’s a cool design, and I’d love to see it come to market someday.

[via EcoChunk]

For most of us with smartphones, a desktop calculator is a relic of days-gone-by. But I still like the convenience of having one around so I don’t have to bother to dig around for the calculator app on my phone. Here’s a fun idea for a calculator that gives you one more reason to own one – you can design your own buttons for it.

The DIY Calculator is just that – a blank slate that you can draw any design you want on. Just get out your pens, pencils, crayons or any other drawing instrument and go to town on the blank sheet of paper on the front of the calculator. I think I’d draw mine with letters instead of numbers, so I’d know exactly how to key in “800813S.”

You’ll still have to put the buttons in the right spot for them to work – but at least they include a template that ensures you don’t end up mixing up your division and multiplication keys. The DIY Calculator will sell for just £6.99 or $8 USD, and will be available soon from both Mustard and Perpetual Kid.

A lot of the technology we enjoy here on Earth started out as tech created for the space program. NASA has a very cool robot working on the International Space Station right now called Robonaut 2. New technology that has spun off from the Robonaut 2 program has been unveiled that could help astronauts exercise while in the weightlessness of space – and could possibly help paraplegics on Earth to walk again.

The technology is called the X1 robotic exoskeleton and was developed in cooperation with NASA and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. The exoskeleton weighs 57 pounds and can be worn by humans to help assist or inhibit the movement of leg joints. By inhibiting movement, the exoskeleton could also provide resistive exercise.

The exoskeleton is worn over the legs with a harness that reaches up the back and around the shoulders. It offers 10° of freedom in the joints with four motorized joints at the hips and knees along with six passive joints that allow for sidestepping, turning, pointing, and flexing the foot. The system offers multiple adjustment points allowing the X1 to be used in a variety of ways. For instance, the exoskeleton could be used to help astronauts carry heavy gear on the surface of other planets and could possibly be adapted to military transport use here on Earth.