Time is critical when rescuers are alerted to a swimmer in trouble, a surfer who’s taken a dive or a yacht guest who has fallen overboard. We’ve seen a number of crafty assistance devices over the years that are designed to help keep waterbabies afloat, such as the life preserver-dropping Pars flyer and the U-Safe from Noras Performance. The Dolphin […]
Remote Controlled Life Buoy
Genesis Translator Pocket Sized
The Langogo Genesis is a hand-held pocket translator, smaller than a smartphone, that uses noise-cancelling microphones to translate between more than 100 languages, while offering you a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot while you’re traveling. We’ve been using one for the last few weeks. Surely, I told our esteemed editor, a review of a travel-ready translation device would require me to take […]
Using Sunlight To Harvest Fresh Water From The Sea
In many arid coastal regions, a great quantity of valuable fresh water is lost into the atmosphere every day, as it evaporates from the surface of the ocean. This situation prompted scientists to create a new hydrogel that’s highly effective at capturing moisture from the sea air, and then releasing it as fresh water. Developed by a team at the […]
Boring Phone
How healthy our digital habits are is the subject of much debate right now, with even Apple and Google building “digital wellbeing” tools into their mobile operating systems. Now there’s the BoringPhone, a crowdfunded device designed so you spend less time staring at a small screen in your hand. The BoringPhone is essentially a fairly simple Android handset – the […]
World’s Largest Underground Bike Parking Center
Rotterdam-based studio Ector Hoogstad Architects is behind the creation of the world’s largest bicycle parking center. The enormous project is part of a grand scale redevelopment of the Utrecht Centraal Railway Station in the Netherlands and boasts an innovative layout that manages the flow of both pedestrians and cyclists. The user-friendly project includes the construction of a multi-story bicycle parking […]
Autonomous Shuttle Bus Begins Australia Trial
EasyMile’s EZ10 self-driving shuttle buses have already been trialled in Singapore, California, Switzerland, and Finland. Now, one has also entered use in what is being called regional Australia’s first automated vehicle trial. The EZ10 is being utilized in the government of New South Wales’ BusBot program, which is taking place in that state’s city of Coffs Harbour. That program began […]
Daimler Gives Truck A Virtual Look Into The Future
Development engineers at Daimler Trucks are hitting the road with a mobile vehicle simulator that will offer truck drivers a sneak peak at upcoming technologies. The team will drive the specially kitted out Mercedes V-Class to motorway rest stops along major traffic routes around Stuttgart, Germany, gauging driver opinions about systems Daimler is currently working on. The idea behind the […]
Bacteria Makes Cheaper Graphene?
Incredibly thin, flexible, strong and electrically conductive, graphene has the potential to revolutionize electronics and materials. One of the main hurdles though is that it’s tricky to manufacture on large scales. Now researchers at the University of Rochester have recruited bacteria to make the stuff, which is cheaper and faster than current methods and doesn’t require harsh chemicals. Graphene production […]
Novel Travel Guitar
The Ascender hasn’t been designed to be a cheap replacement for your studio guitars, it has premium written all over it. The patented mechanism hidden inside the body allows the guitarist to lock the neck to play, and unlock for travel. Guitars are already pretty portable instruments. You just throw one in a gig bag and you’re all set. But […]
Snail Slime Inspired Strong Glue
The promise of reusable sticky things, from Post-it Notes to Blu Tack, has never quite been fulfilled. They’re just never quite as sticky the second time around, or the third. But now, a team of engineers from University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University thinks it has an answer, inspired by one of nature’s great stickers, the humble – and slimy […]