Hasta La Gadget!

You find the strangest stuff over on Etsy sometimes. Like this mask which envisions a hybrid between Batman and Bane. The artist who made it likes to call it “Batbane.” I just like to call it straight-up weird.

Grab the Batbane mask for about $163(USD) from Ministry of Masks if you’d like to be the biggest freak in town.

When Gotham is in ruins, you have my permission to take this mask off your head.

It’s impossible to truly master typing on a tiny touch screen, hence the existence of peripherals like laser keyboards or this iPhone case. But what if your smartphone could use any surface as a keyboard without the help of additional devices? That’s the idea behind the Vibrative Virtual Keyboard.

The software was invented by Florian Kräutli, a Cognitive Computing student at the Goldsmiths University of London. It uses the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer along with a program written by Kräutli to detect which letter has been pressed based on the vibrations made when the user “types” on a flat surface.

Presumably, the app needs to be trained each time it’s used on a different surface or by a different user. I think that even Kräutli himself would admit that the app is unusable as it is. Even without the lag I think it would be far more useful when there are fewer keys involved, perhaps while playing a mobile game. I’d rather have this technology on my phone. Still, the demo does show us just how smart our mobile devices have become.

[via NOTCOT & CNN]

I don’t why it is exactly, but my 11-year-old son has a serious aversion to bathing regularly and using deodorant. I’m sure he’s not the only pre-teen boy out there who can’t carve the time out of their busy schedule of video games and backyard football for a shower. Luckily, he will eat all the candy you put in front of him, so this Deo edible deodorant candy may be just the ticket – assuming he doesn’t mind smelling like a girl.

The Bulgarian manufacturer of the candy claims that it tackles body odor from the inside out. The candy is made using geraniol, which is the type of alcohol found in rose oil. According to the manufacturer of the candy, as a person sweats that particular alcohol evaporates through the skin leaving your skin smelling like roses.

According to scientists, we already know that eating lots of food like garlic or curry can change the way a person smells. That means that this candy could work, but scientists say we would need a placebo-controlled study to determine if the candy is actually effective at eliminating body odor from the inside out.

[via ABC News]

In case you haven’t noticed, everything is a remix. Good artists and inventors stock up on influences and material from other sources. If you’re a musician or if you want to make your own sound effects or if you just want something to listen to when you’re wasted, you can compile sounds wherever you go with the Kaleidoloop.

The Kaleidoloop was invented by Critter & Guitari, maker of the popular Pocket Piano synthesizer. The Kaleidoloop lets you record sounds and then manipulate those sounds on the fly. The sounds are recorded as .wav files on an SD card (the Kaleidoloop comes with a 256MB SD card). It also has a 3W speaker so you can listen and tweak the sounds you recorded on the go.

Here’s a trippy explanation of the Kaleidoloop:

You can order the Kaleidoloop directly from Critter & Guitari for $299 (USD). I wish they’d come up with a cheaper version; I’ll only use it to record my friends’ favorite expressions and a laugh track so we can pretend we’re in a sitcom.

[via DudeIWantThat]

I haven’t watched a horror movie in years. The last time I did, I screamed my head off and kept imagining weird faces and dark figures where there were none for months afterwards. I am, however, trying to lose weight, although I think I’ll stick to traditional exercises despite these new developments.

And by ‘new developments’, I mean the one uncovered by a recent study that the University of Westminster did, which was commissioned by UK video rental company LOVEFiLM.

So what’s the connection between losing weight and watching scary movies? Apparently, there’s a lot. Because of your body’s reaction when you’re watching something that could scare the living daylights out of you, you might end up losing weight more quickly because of your fear. Apparently, you can burn as many as 113 extra calories by watching 90 minutes of stress-inducing horror flicks. As a matter of fact, a single viewing of The Shining burned off 184 calories.

According to physiologist Dr. Richard McKenzie: “As the pulse quickens and blood pumps around the body faster, the body experiences a surge in adrenaline… It is this release of fast acting adrenaline, produced during short bursts of intense stress (or in this case, brought on by fear), which is known to lower the appetite, increase the Basal Metabolic Rate and ultimately burn a higher level of calories.”

Sounds like torture. Personally, I’ll stick to my diet and exercises for now because I don’t think I can stomach all this horror just to ‘scare away’ the calories.

[via Blastr]