Hi-tech Frontier

MIT researchers weave "flexible camera" out of fiber web We've seen liquid camera lenses and cameras shaped like an eye, but a group of researchers from MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering are now taking things in yet another shape-shifting direction with a so-called "flexible camera" that uses a special fiber web instead of traditional lenses. Those fibers are each less than one millimeter in diameter, and are comprised of eight nested layers of light-detecting materials, which the researchers are able to form using an extrusion process like that used to make optical fiber for telecommunication applications. Once woven into a fabric, the researchers say the "camera" could be anything from a foldable telescope to a soldier's uniform that gives them greater situational awareness. Of course, they aren't saying when that might happen, although they have apparently already been able to use the fiber web to take "a rudimen...

Datawind bringing UbiSurfer, PocketSurfer3 to the US Remember Datawind's PocketSurfer and PocketSurfer2 handheld internet devices? Ever see one out in the wild on this side of the pond? Well, Datawind is hoping that it'll have better luck with its new PocketSurfer3 and UbiSurfer devices, which are both now apparently officially on track for a US release. The PocketSurfer3 (pictured above) is a fairly modest update to the PocketSurfer2, with it adding an improved screen and updated UI and, most perhaps importantly, a lower $249 price tag that also includes a year of free cellular usage (up to 30 hours a month). The UbiSurfer, on the other hand, is a more traditional netbook-style device (check it out after the break), although it harkens back a bit to the pre-Atom days with a 7-inch screen, 1GB of storage, 128MB of RAM and an unspecified, presumably low-power processor. The good news, however, is that it includes the same year of free service as the PocketSurfer3, and packs an e...

PRIME hand injury diagnosis system takes hold of innovation prize It may look like little more than a pegboard and a force meter at present, but the PRIME hand-strength measuring device has already won first place at the IShow innovation showcase. Its magic lies in the custom software loaded onto the appended PDA, which makes it possible to accurately and repeatably diagnose hand and wrist injuries that doctors currently test for by squeezing and prodding. The Rice University students responsible for the Peg Restrained Intrinsic Muscle Evaluator have applied for a patent and are planning to commercialize the device, so we'll be looking for it on the next episode of House.

TV TrickleSaver Cuts Your Power Bills By Cutting Power To Your Home Theater You may think you’re being eco-friendly by shutting off your TV whenever you leave the room, but don’t forget about the peripherals you have connected like DVD players, receivers and gaming consoles which may still be drawing power even when in standby mode. The TV TrickleStar does the remembering for you though, and will automatically switch on or switch off all peripheral devices whenever your TV is turned on or off using “inbuilt current sensing circuitry.” It’s just $34.95 available from the TrickleStar online store, and it seems like one of those investments that will be worth it in the long run.

Oregon Scientific +ECO Clima Control Builds a Greener Weather Station Yes, I’m showing you the backside, but that’s the part that sets the Oregon Scientific +ECO Clima Control apart from the droves of other personal weather stations. You can use the solar powered +ECO Clima Control to “monitor the current temperature and humidity in up to four locations within the home and outdoors, using remote wireless temperature and humidity sensors.” The +ECO Clima Control’s rechargeable battery will operate for up to three months on an 8-hour charge, and other features include:* Future weather forecast with graphical icons: Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Cloudy, Rainy and Snowy* Radio-controlled clock and calendar (that’s the fancy way of saying it’s an atomic clock)* LED backlight and mold alert alarm.

Sonos CR200 remote control's product page reveals capacitive screen, $349 price tag Looks like Sonos has put up a staging page for its CR200 remote control along with all the specs you could ask for, and a handful of low resolution pics to boot. That 3.5-inch VGA LCD display indeed is a touchscreen, and better yet, it's capacitive. It's also a good bit smaller and lighter than its CR100 ancestor, only 2.9 x 4.5 x 0.7 inches in size and six ounces in weight -- you can probably give thanks to the aluminum case for at least some of that weight loss. Price is just a hair below $350 and that drops to $290 when you get it as part of the Bundle 250. The "add to cart" function doesn't quite seem to be working, but it can't be long now, right?

Sony's latest DVDirect camcorder-to-DVD recorder creates AVCHD DVDs with 5.1 sound It's some 60 percent smaller in size, but other than that Sony's new VRD-MC6 DVDirect looks and acts an awful lot like the previous VRD-MC10 and VRD-MC5: it can take 1080i video with 5.1 audio off your Handycam's drive or Memory Stick and shoot out an AVCHD DVD that plays back on compatible Blu-ray drives like the PS3. If you're not into the all-Sony seamless end-to-end HD experience, you can also bring in SD video over FireWire, composite, or USB to churn out regular old DVDs with automatic chaptering and custom menu backgrounds, or you can go totally old-school and just drop in an SD card full of photos and MP3s to generate a slideshow. Yeah, it's not nerd heaven and you won't be editing Oscar-winners here, but at $230 it's a pretty painless way for everyone else to archive and share their videos. Ships in September.

NC State gurus build remote control bats, freak out Dukies and Tar Holes Micro-aerial vehicles, or MAVs as they're called in the elusive underground, are far from new, but a team from NC State University is hoping to advance the field with an all new critter. The Robo-Bat is a remote controlled creature that relies on a super elastic shape-memory metal alloy for the joints, which is said to provide a full range of motion while enabling it to "always return to its original position -- a function performed by many tiny bones, cartilage and tendons in real bats." The crew is also utilizing other "smart materials" in the muscular system, giving it the ability to react in real time to environmental changes such as sudden wind gusts. Ideally, this bionic chiropteran would be used to chivvy those who dare step foot on Franklin Street or inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, but in less malicious situations, it could help well-meaning scientists get the bottom of that whole ...

GlobalSat GD-101 Is Another Glorified Compass At some point along the way the development of GPS devices split into two distinct paths. On one side you’ve got complicated touchscreen devices with maps of every road on the continent that can plan out the easiest route from point A to point B, and on the other side they’ve actually been simplified to what are essentially glorified compasses, like the GD-101 from GlobalSat. It forgoes the colorful touchscreen for a simple monochrome LCD display that features a digital arrow capable of pointing in one of 16 different directions. The idea is to set a destination you’d like to remember, like where you parked your car, and the GD-101 will easily guide you back, complete with detailed info on how far away you are. And it’s not that I think these types of devices are a bad idea or anything, I just think they could benefit from a price tag of around $30-40, instead of the roughly $80 they’re currently selling for online.

DSS surveillance tech from Japan makes George Orwell upset We take a break from reporting on the impending doom of the human race to bring you news of the latest innovation designed specifically for making our pre-apocalypse lives miserable. Japanese firm DSS is now offering to snap video cameras and ankle sensors -- yes, the same kind that convicts under home arrest have to wear -- onto your employees for the ultimate in workplace surveillance. Sure, you might find out Bob in accounting takes a really long lunch, but do you really need to spend $20,000 and piss off your entire workforce to prove that? Just stalk his Tweets and Facebook status updates like a good old-fashioned employer would do.

Erase-o-Matic Is The Costly Way To Destroy Data Are you one of the paranoid people out there that’s deathly afraid of someone recovering data off an old CD or hard drive? Sure, if you store sensitive financial records, you aren’t really going to want to just chuck it out without so much as a format. However, you probably won’t need to go so far as to purchase a special tool for destroying all of the data. If you’re bound and determined to obtain such a device, then let me introduce you to the Erase-o-Matic. This little sucker is going to get rid of your data for good. Rather than physically destroying the media, it uses powerful magnetic waves to do the dirty work. All you have to do is slide your disc, tape or any other magnetic media through the device and toss it in the trash. Since it uses Rare-Earth Magnets, it doesn’t have any need for electricity, which is great, I guess. So how much will this thing set you back? Just $400. Now you might think that is a rather high price, but y...

Tiny, printable batteries promise to change the face of obnoxious greeting cards forever Researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS in Chemnitz led by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Baumann have unveiled tiny, printable batteries that they hope to put into production for pennies apiece. The new battery prototype is primarily composed of a zinc anode and a manganese cathode that can be screen printed and covered with a non-printed template cover. Each mercury-free battery weighs less than one gram, and can individually produce about 1.5 volts of electricity. By placing several batteries side by side, however, up to 6 volts can be generated. The institute has already produced these little power houses in the lab, and hopes to see them into production by the end of the year. The batteries have a relatively short lifespan, making them suitable for applications such as powering greeting cards. All we can say is that this battery would have made the card we got t...

Sega Toys makes indoor fireworks infinitely safer, to Elvis Costello's dismay Lovers of pyrotechnics everywhere have always struggled with the quandary: what to do on a rainy day? Well, firebugs, get a load of this: Sega Toys Japan has heard your prayers and answered 'em in the form of the Uchiage Hanabi. This is essentially a projector that displays "fireworks" on the walls and ceilings, with realistic movement and sound. And if that weren't enough, you can create your own fireworks and program your own shows. Now you can have Bastille Day, every day, in the privacy of your apartment! Out August 1, with a list price of $168.

DARPA contractor shows off tiny robo-hummingbird UAV We've seen plenty of tiny UAVs (or NAVs -- Nano Aerial Vehicles -- as they're also known), but none quite like the robo-hummingbird that's been in development at DARPA-contractor AeroVironment for the past couple of years. While we haven't heard much about it during that time, the company recently completed its most advanced prototype to date, dubbed Mercury, and it's taken advantage of the opportunity to show off all the progress it has made. As you can see in the video after the break, the bot is able to fly about and hover in place by mimicking the wing movement of a real hummingbird and, of course, be controlled completely untethered. What's more, the firm says that the final version will actually look like a real hummingbird as well, and be able to be controlled from up to a kilometer away -- even inside buildings, where a hummingbird won't look at all out of place.

BluAnt Wireless' S1 speakerphone reviewed, is well liked BluAnt, maker of many fine Bluetooth accessories launched the S1in the recent past and CNET's taken some moments to review it. Sure, we've seen gazillions of speakerphones that attach to the visor in your car but this one adds a fairly low price -- roughly $69 -- A2DP support for streaming your tunes, voice answering, and multipoint connectivity to the mix. CNET liked the price, tiny size, and the call quality, but were down on the volume rocker's stiffness, and the fact that S1 doesn't announce the incoming caller's info. We're all for music streaming and answering a call by speaking to it, but if you drive a convertible, you may want to look for something in the higher end that'll handle all the wind noise.

Bushnell Golf FXi Weather Forecaster Everything I know about golf I learned from the movie Caddy Shack, so while inclement weather can possibly lead to the best round of your life, there’s also the very real chance of something terrible happening while wandering around with what is essentially a bag full of lightning rods. So before you head out on the links, you’ll want to make sure the weather’s going to play nice for 18 holes, and that’s where the Bushnell Golf FXi enters the picture. It receives constant weather updates for over 16,000 golf courses in the U.S. via a wireless USB transmitter attached to an internet-equipped PC, and displays them on its monochrome LCD. The weather data itself is provided by AccuWeather.com and includes everything from current, RealFeel and forecasted high and low temps, morning, afternoon and evening forecasts for up to 3 days, the UV index and even wind speed and direction. And as an added touch, the backlight on the display changes color to reflect...

Retro Ipod Nano Sticker If you are a teenager, you must be has at least a gadget in your room. There are a lot of gadgets that you can find like a notebook, mp5 players, and iPod. Ipod is a product from Apple which you can find with several series, designs, and colors. Ipod is the multifunction gadget because you can listen to the music, watch your favorite video, and save your favorite pictures. You ever heard your friend said that your iPod nano is so last year. You should know that you can make your friend change their opinion because you can make your iPod looks more beautiful by using the iPod sticker. You can get retro iPod nano sticker and you should apply it to your iPod nano. Retro sticker is not always has a mold pictures but it can be so modern and cool. You also can get iPod nano 4G sticker with the retro pictures. This retro sticker is a colorful sticker with a pop star picture. ##CONTINUE## So now, as you already knew the tool to make your iPod looks more gorgeous and cut...

Sonos CR200 remote control has a touchscreen, at last And here it is. After we unearthed the Sonos CR200 in a FCC filing, out comes the first pic. As we expected, it's a portrait controller and is said to include a touch-screen which makes an on-screen QWERTY keyboard a lock for searching by artist, album, or song titles. Goodbye scroll-wheel! If you own a Sonos, then you know this is the best thing to happen since, well, buying your Sonos... just so long as it's not priced for $399 like the CR100 it replaces.

Sony's newest remote control ships with a Z200iR compact music system It's not often that a remote control becomes the centerpiece of a product launch, but man, would you look at that. That's the remote for Sony's NAS-Z200iR, a WiFi-enabled shelf audio system with slot-loading CD and iPod dock. The Z200iR is DLNA-certified so it works with any DLNA device in your home including NAS boxes and of course, your PC or Mac. The re-chargeable remote features a 3.5-inch LCD display that gives you full control over sourced media including Internet radio, integrated AM/FM tuner, or devices connected via the Z200iR's USB or audio-in ports. The sound comes courtesy of a pair of independent, 20-watt speaker enclosures with double neodymium magnets used to drive the bass. A simpler, WiFi-less CMT-Z100iR system will launch first in July with the Z200iR headed to Europe in mid September. Sorry, no prices announced so no joy.

Jabro Go 6400 and Pro 9400 with capacitive touchscreen base redefines overkill, want Here's what you get when a manufacturer tries to justify a $199 price tag on its newest headsets. The Jabra Go 6400 (pictured above) and Pro 9400 look to be standard noise-cancelling Bluetooth and DECT headsets, respectively, with a multifunction button to answer/reject/redial/mute calls and adjust the volume. However, these headsets are paired with an industry first touch-screen base for call management. The 2.4-inch capacitive LCD displays caller ID, call records, and lets users switch between their mobile, desk, and corporate softphones via a spin of the carousel. Fun sure, and exceedingly geeky, but hardly worth the $199 to duplicate functions already built-in to the headsets or accessible via the displays on the devices it connects to. Then again, these are aimed at office professionals (read: corporations) when they launch in September and $199 is nothing when you're spending someone else...