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Monday 23 June 2014

TASTY TECH EYE CANDY OF THE WEEK XIV


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Tasty Tech Eye Candy Of The Week (Jun 22)
By Tracy Staedter,
Discovery News, 22 June 2014.

From a bulletproof car to an aerial sports drone to an electric Harley to an aerodynamic World Cup ball, this week, it's all about the action.

1. Bruise Pants

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Bruise Pants were designed by students at London's Imperial College and The Royal College of Art, who were inspired by British paralympian skier Talan Skeels-Piggins, who said he does not often know when he is hurt. The pants contain pressure-sensitive plastic film loaded with coloured dye that rises to the surface upon a sharp impact. The size and darkness of the colour provides an indication of how badly the area might be injured.

2. Bulletproof Car

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The Shield DR3 doesn't just have a bulletproof shell and windows, but everything about this car is built to withstand gunfire and even IEDs. For example, the "cockpit" is made from carbon-fibre composite, Kevlar and a ballistic gel that work together to withstand a rocket hit. Chimney-like channels divert the energy from a bomb. And it has a second drivetrain that deploys if the primary one becomes disabled. Where is James Bond when you need a driver?

3. Sharp's Free Form Display

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With its new Free-Form Display, Sharp is showing that computer screens don't have to be rectangular. The electronics company has found an alternative way of organizing the circuits on liquid crystal displays. Any shape could be possible, including oval, round, squiggly. Sharp says it plans to commercialize irregularly shaped displays in 2017.

4. Fish Washing Machine

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No soap is required for this laundry. With the Pecera Robot Fish Washing Machine, tiny robotic fish nibble and suck away the dirt from clothing without damaging the fabric. The concept was developed by Korean designer Chan Yeop Jeong for the 2014 Electrolux Design Competition.

5. Quadrotor Sports Drone

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Go-Pro cameras are nice and all, but what if you want an aerial view of yourself in action? Get the AirDog. The tiny quadcopter drone pairs with a wrist-worn device to follow you around. A GoPro camera is attached to the drone with a gimball mount that rotates smoothly 360 degrees. A smartphone app lets you adjust a variety of settings, including altitude and camera tilt.

6. Electric Motorcycle

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This week, American motorcycle company Harley-Davidson introduced its first electric motorcycle, the LiveWire. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, the LiveWire generates 75 horsepower and can go from zero to 60 m.p.h. in four seconds, topping out at a speed of 90 m.p.h.

7. World Cup Ball

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This year's World Cup ball, the Adidas Brazuca, was tested at NASA Ames' Fluid Mechanics Laboratory to ensure the ball was supremely aerodynamic. Here, smoke and lasers are used to reveal the airflow pattern, which indicated the Brazuca would offer a more predictable flight path than the 2010 Jabulani, which knuckled at 50 miles per hour.

8. Fire Phone

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This week, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos presented the company's first smartphone, the Fire Phone.

9. oPhone

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Get your sniff on with the odourific oPhone, which lets a person transmit a scent across the Internet. In fact, the first-ever transatlantic "scent message" was transmitted this week between New York City and Paris by the oPhone's inventors, David Edwards Rachel Field.

10. Jammer Coat

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Because the CHBL Jammer Coat is woven through with “metallized fabrics,” it behaves like a Faraday Cage and block all radio waves, Wi-Fi and cellular transmissions. It was developed by Austrian design firm Coop Himmelb(l)au and comes with many built-in pockets for multiple handheld devices.

Top image: Adidas Brazuca. Credit: NASA's Ames Research Centre.

[Source: Discovery News. Edited. Top image and some links added.]


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