Turn OFF the Couch Potato mode - Its time to move ... UP

I guess many of you (myself included) associate Jawbone with their Bluetooth devices and portable speakers. However, seems they decided to explore the market with a different type of device. Their newest creation is called UP and it’s a wrist-worn gadget that tracks your sleep, diet and activities. The cool looking device works along with an application for your iPhone or iPad. An Android based software is also on the way.

As stated by Jawbone, UP is smart enough to routinely measure and store by itself, all parts of your activity. That includes calories burned, number of steps taken, distance, velocity, and active versus inactive time during the day.

The smartphone application can also help keeping you motivated and monitoring your diet. It offers different challenges to help maintain proper nutrition and fitness. For example one of the challenges might be to take 100,000 steps over a week, to replace sugary drinks with water for 10 days or to climb 2,000 steps. Another cool feature of the application is to track your sleep patterns and to wake you up at the best time depending on your natural sleep cycle.

According to Jawbone the Li-Ion polymer battery lasts up to 10 days. After that it will take about 80 minutes to recharge via USB port. The device is priced at $99 and is available at most of the major online retailers.

ASIMO

Just couple of days ago, Honda unveiled new version of their humanoid robot project called Asimo. First introduced in 2000 as an “automatic machine”, Asimo is now fully “autonomous” having the ability to make decisions based on its surroundings. The new version of the humanoid robot shows advancement in intelligence, dexterity and improved task-performance capability.

The Japanese hand sign for "I love you"

Asimo has high-level balancing skill, giving him the ability to run forward and backwards; walk and hop on one or two legs. With his compact multi-fingered hands the robot can pick up a bottle, twist off the cap and pour a liquid in a soft paper cup without crushing it. Asimo can also use his hands to communicate in sign language, which I find amazing.

Here is a video of his incredible skills. Enjoy!

Superheroes' arsenal

Good news for the superheroes out there, or at least the wannabe ones. 

Patrick Priebe, a laser hobbyist is designing some really cool gadgets such as the wrist-mounted mini crossbow, laser gloves and pulse laser gun.

The wrist crossbow is devised with pure mechanics, no electronic components. As shown in the video below its bolts can destroy any balloon, puncture through can of soda or break a light bulb with no problem. It also features an attached laser for better accuracy.  All in all, a really nice gadget to play around with or even use in a self-defense situation!

His other inventions are also really cool. Here is a video of the pulse laser gun in action. 

For more details and purchase information, visit Patrick’s website @ www.laser-gadgets.com

Peel-me-not

I assume you all know that most of the veggies and fruits we buy from the store are covered with pesticides, fungicides, insecticide and other not really healthy substances. On top of that there is a food sticker that is hard to peel off and leaves some nasty sticky residue behind itself. 

Well, to tackle all those problems, Scott Amron, a New York based electrical engineer came up with a revolutionary invention. He developed a new produce label sticker, which dissolves into organic fruit soap. You just need to use some water and rub the label.

All right, fewer chemicals on our fruits(after we rinse them). Check. Food label that is finally helpful. Check.

Now, that’s what I call “To kill two birds with one stone”!

Upcoming shoe gadgets v2.0

( ... continuing from the last blog )


Here are two more shoe gadgets that we might see in the near future :


The first one is the Embedded GPS – GTX Corp partnering with shoe manufacturer Aetrex are soon going to offer shoes that can be GPS tracked in real-time. Think about all the possibilities that will give us. The main customer target groups for the embedded GPS shoes are parents that would like to keep a track of their children. The technology can be also useful for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. You can keep track of the wearer’s location through an online portal. Scheduled to go on the market by the end of November, the shoes will be priced at $299 a pair.

The second gadget is a shoe device that can replace the white cane – Anirudh Sharma, a young researcher at Hewlett-Packard labs in Bangalore, India, has come up with a navigational tool for the blind. His device, named La Chal, will be built inside a shoe.

A vibrating feedback from the front, back or either side of the shoe could lead the way for a vision impaired person. A vibration on the front indicates they should go straight, a vibration on the right means they should turn right and so on. There will also be an obstacle detecting sensor that will work for up till ten feet away.

By utilizing an Android running smartphone application the user will be able to select his destination in Google Maps. After that it is only a matter of following the turn-by-turn directions.

While there is no info about when are we going to see it on the market, Sharma is planning to share La Chal’s schematics and application via the Aurdino community. Through a “Do-it yourself” project in Wikipedia, users would be able to make their own improves and updates on the system.

Hopefully this is what will bring the release date of the device closer!

Upcoming shoe gadgets

Everyone loves lightweight, comfortable shoes. However, what is the next step after you have created the perfect looking, comfortable sneaker? I know! Let’s beef it up with some gadgets!

In the next two blogs, I will bring to your attention couple of shoe upgrades that we'll see in the near future.

Let's start with the .....

Self-lacing shoes – Have you ever seen the movie “Back To The Future 2”? Well the shoes that Michael J. Fox was sporting there, might soon hit the market. Two different sources are coming up with a technology for self-lacing shoes.

The first is the well-known company “Nike”. According to their patented version “The automatic lacing system provides a set of straps that can be automatically opened and closed to switch between a loosened and tightened position of the upper. The article further includes an automatic ankle cinching system that is configured to automatically adjust an ankle portion of the upper.”

The second inventor is Blake Bevin, a California girl that came up with the project “Power Laces”.

It is interesting to see who will be the first to market the self-lacing technology. On a side note, my props go to Blake for the self-made prototypes, without having a multi-billion dollars company behind her back.