When you get home from work, the sight of your dog wagging its tail to cuddle up at your feet might be the most stimulating emotion anybody would cherish. But what if your chair does the same thing? Sounds creepy, right? You’ll probably not agree with me if you see designer Anders Huus Living Chair Number 1.

Being called the LC1, this  chair combines furniture design with robotics in the simplest way possible. The gadgets carefully hidden under its ash and copper wires have light, time and life sensors which instantly react to light changes and movements around it. The chair rotates around itself throughout the day and comes to a standstill to wiggle loyally and invite you to take a seat when you approach it. At the same time, the chair also closes up as the lights get dimmer and opens up when the area lightens up. It is these properties that bring the chair to life and give us feeling that it has a life of its own.

In today’s world where most of us are loners, it is a great feeling to have somebody waiting for you at home to comfort you. Doesn’t matter even if it is a chair because all we need is a lively companion.

Via MoCoLoco

‘Almost all the water bodies around the world are polluted and need cleansing’. Most of you would surely agree with me on the statement and so does the Chinese industrial designer Ye Yao; otherwise, he would’ve never created the WatCleaner. Frontrunner of the “Excellent Works” designation in Japan Design Foundation International Design Competition, 2007 this robotic machinery cleans up polluted water.

The WatCleaner comprises sensors underneath that detect fish and monitor basic water pollutants like garbage and oil. The absorbent socks located on its roof absorb oil, cleanse it and store it in replaceable oil bags fitted for the purpose. The garbage taken along with water into the integrator is diverted into a bin; and the clean water is sprayed out into the water system. Not just this, this marvel machine is capable of transmitting signal information to land based controllers in places where the WatCleaner cannot perform its job alone.

Considering the amount of water pollution around the world, I appreciate the designer for his wonderful creation, but how many WatCleaners would it take to clean up the water on earth! Moreover, would WatCleaner clean up the germs the garbage brings along with it? Wondering over these questions, let’s wish WatCleaner gets bigger and better to wipe earth’s water resources off its pollutants!

Via BlueLivingIdeas

In line with the 2009 Earth Day celebration, NASA led an online poll asking people’s opinion as to what they consider as NASA’s greatest achievement over the last 50 years. The voting was open for one week. The GPS garnered the highest number of votes at 3,280 votes against the 2,408 votes earned by the second-placer: the system for diagnosing the reduction of the ozone layer.

GPS allows a device to accurately locate a point anywhere in the world. Other benefits include tracking the movement of tectonic faults, measuring sea level rise, and making air travel safer.

According to the U.S. space agency, the GPS may appear to be simple but it actually holds massive scientific knowledge about the movement and the changes in the earth. “The precise navigation with the GPS satellites would be impossible without an ultra precise knowledge of the earth’s rotation,” says NASA. The GPS, too, has become so popular and quite ubiquitous that it can be managed, handled, or operated from a car or a mobile phone.

The third place with 2,313 votes went to the advances made in weather forecasting. With information from satellites, it is now possible to anticipate the weather in a certain place by determining the current weather of its neighboring areas.  Satellites and sensors can also now predict storms a week in advance.

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Via NASA

Robots are being used in many different environments — ranging from laboratory clean rooms to industrial warehouses and chemical plants to kitchens to… and the list keeps going on and on. It might be a long time before the human security guard is replaced by the mechanical kind, but robot developer tmsuk Co Ltd and security company Alacom Co Ltd unveiled “T-34” to accompany them. This innovative security robot captures criminals by throwing a net on to them.

Operated remotely with the help of a mobile phone, T-34 looks like a small-wheeled toy but is laden with sensors that can immediately detect anything awkward in the building it’s guarding. Capable of moving silently at a maximum speed of 10kmh, the robot is visible on the screen of the mobile phone of its operator. With all these amazing features, T-34 has its share of flaws. It doesn’t have a bulletproof body, which is probably necessary while tracking down intruders. Over this, in a joint statement given by its creators it was revealed that the security sensors could set off false alarms but examining the location with the robot would lead to more efficient operations.

Since this is the first such robot created by the companies, I think there is still scope for improvement in the model and wish it would soon net all the burglars down.

Source: The Age/Zimbio

Most of the discoveries in science are unforeseen, just like this one! A Princeton led batch of researchers has discovered a new type of laser when they spotted an unpredicted beam of light while working with a quantum cascade laser. This new laser is less sensitive to temperature changes and needs less power compared to the traditional laser beams.

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are a new generation of miniature lasers that measure 3 millimeters in length and are ten times less thick than human hair. Though made of hundreds of layers of diverse semiconductor materials, they are only a few atoms thick and run well even at lower currents thus making them appropriate for use in the futuristic industrial sensors and medical devices.

The researcher and originator of the laser, Kale Franz expects his discovery to open a new arena to improve laser performance. Therefore, probably very soon in the future, we will see devices running on this novel nanotechnology invention saving some power and space. All the best, QCL!

Source: TechRadar

If you had been wondering if one could ever create a heart, an artificial heart, the French scientists have already created one. Call it the plastic heart, for it uses pig tissues and polymer and works just like the real heart does. Scientists used technology, which is usually used in satellites and airplanes.

The prototype hearts beats just like a normal heart and inbuilt sensors regulate the rate of heartbeat and also blood flow. In fact, the prototype heart uses tiny sensors which are usually used to measure air pressure and altitude in satellites etc. The product has been tested in animals and the result looks promising. However, the heart seems to be a lot expensive for a person’s mental well-being.

If you are ready to pay a whopping amount like 200,000 dollars, you may perhaps like the idea if getting a heart transplant. Nevertheless, with time and research, the prototype plastic heart will definitely become better and cheaper. This is a step in the right direction, and would help millions of heart patients worldwide. For now, be ready with a cheque for $200,000.

Via: Engadget

A gadget that could help you look for things you seem to have lost or misplaced would be definitely preferred by many. The Loc8tor does the job of finding things that are misplaced with the help of two tags and a locating pad. However, there is a catch. You will need to attach the tag that you think will be lost or misplaced so that the pad detects where the object, which is tagged, is located.

You could however go ahead and buy 4 different tags and at the push of a button the Loc8tor will beep and even flash when the tagged object is found. Once you start moving in the right direction the pitch and frequency of the beeps will increase and give you the signal of finding your lost object. There are also color-coded lights, which alternate between red, green and amber depending on the direction you are moving and depending on how correct the direction is.

Loc8tor can detect things within a range of 400 feet and will guide you till you are at the distance of one inch from the object, which means even if you are dead blind; it will take you to the tagged object. However, if only the designers could have provided a feature to search for more objects, or if they had provided many more tags, things would have been a lot better. The Loc8tor costs £49.95 .

Via: GajIt

Clemens Winkler, a German art and design student has created a unique and innovative concept product called the Interactive Table Cloth. The tablecloth has 3 layers and records everything that happened at the table in decipherable signs. In fact it apparently creates a sign on the surface of the time that has passed by. Unexpected marks appear when interaction with the tablecloth takes place.

For example, placing of a coffee mug, a dinner, the movement of hands etc elicit the appearances of marks. However, it records only the last interaction with the table and the designer used conductive yarns, which are controlled by a LilyPad unit, and he has also used the thermo chromic ink, which changes color when exposed to different temperatures.

The designer went ahead to place sensors all over the tablecloth in order to reveal a predetermined pattern when any interaction takes place and thus leaves a ’sign of time’. It would be interesting if the concept becomes a product, for the design involves more technology than any gadget would, and thus, it appears on our gadgets page!

Via: Talk2MyShirt/ClemensWinkler