Hasta La Gadget!

A few months ago I talked about a Kickstarter project called the LightUp, an electronics kit for kids and newbies. Instead of wires or solder, LightUp uses magnets to connect the modules together. It turns out that there’s already a very similar product out on the market. It’s called littleBits, and it already has a growing number of modules and a healthy community.

Like LightUp, littleBits uses color-coded modules that easily snap together using magnets. Each module also has screen-printed labels that identify its parts. Unlike LightUp, littleBits uses the polarity of magnets to prevent you from sticking a module to another module the wrong way.

The modules are separated into four types: power, input, output and wire. The first three are self-explanatory, while the wire module is used to extend or branch out your circuit. Each type has multiple variants. For instance, there’s a USB and a coin battery power module, a button and a light sensor input module, an LED and a DC motor output module and more.

Head to littleBits’ online shop to order a kit. The base kit costs $99 (USD) and comes with 10 modules. You can also buy more modules separately.

Check out the littleBits website and their YouTube channel to see what customers have built with the kits.

[via Make:]

You can convey a lot of things through touch. You can give a sympathetic hug, a joyous high-five or an angry punch. But Disney Research Pittsburgh came up with an interactive installation that can transmit sound using the human body. The sound will then be heard when a carrier touches someone’s ears. This means you can transmit a verbal message through touch.

The researchers call their invention Ishin-denshin, after a Japanese idiom that describes “unspoken mutual understanding.” Ishin-denshin consists of a microphone connected to a computer’s sound card. There’s also a thin piece of wire connected to the microphone’s cable and wrapped around its metallic casing. The microphone is set to start recording when it receives sound with an amplitude above a preset threshold, presumably so it won’t record ambient noise.  The recorded loop is sent to the computer, which converts the sound into a high voltage but low current electric signal and sends it to the thin piece of wire. The signal is then transferred to the person holding the mic, who can then pass it on to someone else via touch. The signal can be passed to multiple people before it’s directed to someone’s ear.

I wonder if it’s possible to make a visual version of the Ishin-denshin.

[via Disney Research & New Scientist via NOTCOT]

Taxi cabs transport us wherever we need to go – to work, when parking is
a chore; from a bar or restaurant after we have had too much to drink;
out to get groceries when no car is available; and to the airport when
preparing to jetset. Most cab users ultimately end up taking a variety
of personal belongings on board. And while trying to load them in a
rather small space, it becomes fairly easy to leave objects behind,
particularly after a long night of drinking, and perhaps even a bit of
backseat PG13 activity with a date!

Livescribe pens are popular and powerful recording tools, but they only work with Livescribe’s own notebooks. A new product called the iSketchnote can’t record audio, but it presents a cheaper and more intuitive way of recording your drawing or writing. I think it can also be a good way to introduce luddites to the wonders of technology. By technology, I mean the iPad.

The first model of the iSketchnote will be an iPad cover. The back of the cover has an array of sensors where you’ll place any A5-sized paper or notebook. The iSketchnote pen is just a normal pen except it has a ring-shaped magnet embedded inside. When you fire up the iSketchnote iPad app and start writing or drawing, you’ll see your work get copied in real time on the iPad. When you’re done, you can replay the recording and share it online right from the app.

The final version of the iSketchnote app will also let you change the colors of the ink, support multiple layers and more. The company behind iSketchnote also hopes they can make their device compatible with popular writing apps like Paper and Evernote. But the iSketchnote can actually work even without the iPad, but you’ll need to supply an SD card so it can store data.

Pledge at least $149 (USD) on Kickstarter to get an iSketchnote as a reward. But before you pledge note that the first batch will only be compatible with the iPad 3 and later. The company behind iSketchnote did say that their technology already works with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Android, but they’re focusing on the iPad for now.

According to one technology engineer, machines could take the place of humans within sales, call center and customer service positions within the next five years. That’s a scary thought, isn’t it? Do his predictions hold water, though?