Smack Attack Steering Wheel Drum Kit: Drum & Drive

Do you love drumming your fingers on your car’s steering wheel while you drive? If Gregor “G-Man” Hanuschak has his way, soon you can actually make drum sounds when you tap on your steering wheel. G-Man invented Smack Attack, a steering wheel cover with 8 touch sensitive sensors.

smack attack steering wheel drum kit

The Smack Attack needs to be connected to an iOS device to work. From its mobile app you can set what samples will be triggered for each sensor. You can download more samples as they become available from the Smack Attack website or you can load your own sounds. You can play along with music, play solo or – get this – play together with other Smack Attack users.

While its maker suggests that using the Smack Attack could help you from falling asleep at the wheel, it could also just distract you from the task at hand – driving.

Ready to go on tour? Pledge at least $149 (USD) on Kickstarter and you’ll qualify for one of the first Smack Attack units if it gets funded.

[via Hacked Gadgets]

Space Monkey Online Storage Service: Crowdsourced Cloud

If you have even just one important digital file, you owe it to yourself and that intangible bundle of electricity that you hold dear to sign up for a cloud file storage service. Many of them have entry level services that offer a few gigabytes of storage for free. Of course they’ll happily sell you more space if you need to back up more data. But a small startup called Space Monkey wants you to trust in other users instead.

space monkey cloud storage

Space Monkey is a backup service that will offer 1TB of both local and online storage for $10 (USD) per month. The local storage is straightforward – you will simply use a complementary app to back up your files to the Space Monkey computer (pictured above), as if you were using an external drive. The online storage is where Space Monkey gets eccentric. Instead of setting up expensive and complicated datacenters, all Space Monkey subscribers act as each other’s datacenters. Bits of your data are encrypted and scattered among the Space Monkey computers of other subscribers, and vice versa.

It’s like the reverse of Bittorrent. In theory, the more subscribers that join Space Monkey, the more collective storage you all have and the more secure your data will be. And because they don’t have to setup datacenters, that also means less expenses and maintenance on the part of Space Monkey. Clever eh?

Is it just me or does the name Space Monkey just not fit into the product? They should’ve called it Data Offcenter. A pledge of at least $119 on Kickstarter lets you sign up for a 1 year 1TB subscription with Space Monkey.

If you’re not that familiar with online storage I highly recommend you shop around first. I can see what Space Monkey is getting at but there are dependable and affordable cloud services out there like CrashPlan or Backblaze. Or as I said earlier, try a free service first like the ones offered by Dropbox and Google to see if it’s good enough for you.

Electronic Girlfriend Coat Hugs You When Nobody Else Will

This interactive, electronic coat called the Riajyuu isn’t the first time people have attempted to give clothes that all-too-literal human factor. Remember the Like-a-Hug jacket which gave the wearer a good old squeeze every time someone ‘liked’ his or her posts on Facebook?

It’s all well and good until people stop ‘liking’ your stuff and you’re back to begging for hugs from willing strangers. I kid, but what makes the electronic girlfriend coat different is that you don’t have to do anything to earn hugs except wear it.

Electronic Girlfriend

The Riajyuu Coat was created by students from the University of Tsukuba. It’s more than just a jacket that hugs you, since it has also been programmed to whisper sweet nothings to you as you wear it.

The coat comes with a belt around its mid-section, which tightens to simulate the hug. As for the whispering part, it comes with a pair of headphones that lets its wearer listen to a high-pitch voiced woman talking and apologizing for being late – just like a real girlfriend might. Obviously a real girl does more than just hug and whisper, but keep in mind that coats do have their limitations.

Hardware engineer Hikaru Sugiura explains: “The concept of this device is everyone can get the feeling of having a girlfriend.” It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t think a coat can ever take the place of a real live girl. I think that much is obvious.

[via Kotaku via C|NET ]

Creepy Baby Masks Turn Adults into Big Babies

If you think that there’s no way baby masks would be anything but adorable, then think again.

That’s what I thought before I saw these masks by artist Landon Meier of Hyperflesh. And now that I’ve seen them, let me just say that they’re creepy as heck – even creepier than those scary clown masks that have haunted your nightmares ever since you were a kid.

Lifelike Baby Mask

I think the creep factor is brought about by the fact that the masks are designed to fit adults. That means they’re huge and, when worn, will turn anyone into a big, lumbering baby. The expressions don’t help either. Meier created three based on a baby’s common expressions: happy, crying, and disgusted. Suffice it to say, they all still look extremely creepy. There’s no other word for it.

Lifelike Baby Mask1

They’re pretty expensive, too. Each mask is priced at $350(USD) and they can be bought over at Hyperflesh.

[via This is Why I’m Broke via Incredible Things]

Still a Doll? It’s Barbie Without the Makeup and Lipo

I remember that it caused quite a stir when Mattel decided to manufacture Barbie dolls with more realistic bodies. By that, I mean an average-sized chest, a slightly wider waist, and with a couple more inches (doll-inches, that is) added to her hips.

Artist Eddi Aguirre decided to go with that idea but took things a little further by using Photoshop to reveal the real face of Barbie. So here she is, minus the makeup and looking like she aged ten years overnight:

No Makeup Barbie

I don’t think braces can be covered up by makeup, but hey, maybe Eddi’s just trying to show what she would look like if she didn’t get her teeth capped. Here’s a closer look at Barbie’s face. I guess it’s true what they say about makeup damaging your skin if you put too much of it on or keep it on your face long enough.

No Makeup Barbie1

Barbie isn’t the only overly dolled-up doll on the market. The one below happens to be one of her many plastic friends, and Eddi has decided to re-do her face and body if she didn’t go for the lipo.

No Makeup Barbie2

It’s highly unusual art, but it leaves you with some food for thought afterwards.

[via Behance]

Smart Han Food Tube Turns Your Favorite Food into Push-ups

And this single image, my friends, is why I love Japan…

smart han 1

What you’re looking at here is the latest food innovation since the potato chip picker-upper. The Smart Han comes from Japan’s Takara Tomy, and provides you with a whole new way to look at food – by putting an entire meal in a tube! Or as they like to call it “Rice & Material!” And yes, they even make Doreamon and Hello Kitty versions!

 

smart han 2That’s right, just fill up this ingenious gadget with rice and any food material you want, snap it together, and come lunch time, you can squeeze your lunch into your mouth. Extra win! Just look at all the places you can eat your lunch that you never thought of!…

smart han eating

And in case you can’t figure out what sort of foods you’d like to turn into a Push-Up pop, they’ve provided an array of suggestions up on their website. Me, I’d like to fill it with lime Jell-o. Or maybe chocolate pudding.

smart han 3

It might take some work to find these here in the states, but I’m sure that someone like the Japan Trend Shop or White Rabbit Express can help you out if you’re in the mood for some totally tubular food.

smart han 4

USB Toilet Speaker: Probably Sounds Like Crap

We’ve featured some strange stuff inspired by toilets in the past, but this is definitely one of the more unusual ones I’ve come across. As far as I can recall, this is the first speaker I’ve come across that looks like a toilet.

toilet speaker

This craptastic speaker plugs into your computer’s USB port for power, and the 3.5mm jack for sound. Now why on Earth you’d ever want this gadget is beyond me. I suppose if you’re a plumber, you might buy one, but that’s about it.

Thankfully, the USB toilet speaker is only available in Korea at present, so you don’t have to worry about one of your co-workers replacing your Bose with one of these while you’re out on vacation. Oh damn, you can buy them here.

Neonisin is Toothpaste You Can Swallow

Toothpaste doesn’t sound like the most palatable thing in the world, but some people have taken it upon themselves to come up with the right formulation to make it edible. It’s called Neonisin and it’s going to be available in Japan this summer.

Neonisin

The active ingredient in the edible toothpaste is Nisin, which is a peptide that’s harvested from lactic bacteria. This is often found in soy bean curd. Natural flavoring, plum extract, mint oil, and corn-based thickeners are then added into the mix to create the toothpaste. In some ways, I guess you could say that Neonisin is basically just a tofu toothpaste – or Tofupaste for short.

Neonisin1

When released, Neonisin toothpaste will be cost about $8.90(USD) for a 2.5 ounce tube.

[via RocketNews24 via Food Beast]

Japanese students invent hugging coat

A group of Japanese students from Tsukuba University have invented a jacket that can be the substitute for girlfriend. At least it can be a substitute for a girlfriend who likes to hug you. The students have invented a coat that can give you a hug when you need it.

hug-coat

The device is known as the Raiju Coat, which translates to Fulfillment Coat. The jacket uses a pair of robotic pinchers and a pre-recorded voice to go along with the hugging experience. The jacket also uses motors that are attached to the back to operate the fake arms that are controlled by computer through a USB connection.

The person using the jacket wears headphones that transmit audio from the attached computer. The prerecorded sentences that the system says as it hugs you include “I’m sorry, were you waiting?”; “Watch your back!” (in a cute way); “Guess who?”; and “Blind side!” Apparently, it hugs you from behind.

The voice used for the sentences comes from Yu Shimotsuki, who is a Japanese voiceover artist known for work in adult-themed video games. The students have no plans to release The Girlfriend Coat commercially at this time. Check out the video below to see the hugging jacket in action.

[via Japan Daily Press]


Japanese students invent hugging coat is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook Home ‘Airplane’ ad brings one traveler’s News Feed aboard — literally

Facebook Home 'Airplane' ad brings your friend feed aboard  before takeoff, anyway

Sure, Facebook had a weird ad with Blink-182 for the HTC Status, but its sneak peek at its newest TV spot for the First and Home is on another level. Posted today on its Facebook profile, the campy piece literally brings one traveler’s feed to life inside the cabin of his flight during boarding. We won’t spoil the goods for you, but it’s interesting to see Facebook’s first thrust at marketing this skin and smartphone combo out to the masses. Catch the full clip after the break.

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