CrunchGear

CrunchGear

Link to TechCrunch » Gadgets

Design Competition Yields Bikes Of The Future

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 06:04 PM PDT

Oregon Manifest 2011 opening day portraits.

Oregon Manifest, a nonprofit located in Portland, has been running a competition over the last few months in which students and pro teams work to create a next-generation city bike. This isn’t about speed (like the McLaren Venge) or concept design (like the Vienna Bike), but rather about creating a bike that provides the maximum amount of utility for someone looking to ditch their automobile.

These innovation-from-competition events are really blowing up; there have been lots lately aimed at creating everything from mega-efficient cars to electrically-powered aircraft. This one had 34 entrants who mostly had some variation of a cargo bike with electric assist, but they all varied in execution. I have to agree with the people’s choice, though, a collaboration between IDEO and Rock Lobster (pictured).

You can see the other winners here (I like the campus bike and the two-seater), but the Faraday, as the IDEO-Rock Lobster bike is called, really just hit me right in my future bone. Minus some of the slightly retro trappings, I can picture thousands of these crowding the streets. The design is just that well thought-out.

The front wheel has a hub motor powered by that battery underneath the seat there. The battery can be quick-charged at an outlet and are actually the same kind found in the Chevy Volt. The porteur-style front rack has been brought into the 21st century with a removable flat-rack that attaches or detaches in seconds by means of spring-loaded bolts, and the fronts of the support tubes conceal a pair of LED headlights. The rack is mounted on the frame, not the fork, which improves stability. I’ve always been a fan of paniers but this works nicely as well. Reminds me of this bent-wood bike basket. Core77 has a nice design diary for the project, and IDEO has a page for it as well.

It does have some design issues to work out: it’s rather tall, the seat-handlebar relationship is off, and it needs a more potent braking system. But there’s still a weird sort of elegance to the design.

A bike like this for a decent price would go a long way toward replacing cars for many people in the city. Human-powered, compact, and simple, yet able to go long distances and carry groceries. It’ll be a while before they’re really affordable, but the promise of the electric-assist bike, already taking effect elsewhere in the world, seems destined to come to our shores as long as there are people creating things like the Faraday and the other entries to the contest.

[second image source: BikePortland.org]

Turning The iPhone Into A 350x Medical Microscope For Under $50

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 03:17 PM PDT

04

Using the iPhone (or any mobile smartphone or tablet device, really) for medical purposes isn’t a new thing, but it’s nice to see the applications people cook up. Just recently at Disrupt we saw Smartheart, and apps like Skin Scan are decentralizing some simple self-monitoring tasks like melanoma detection.

We’ve also seen lots of physical additions to the iPhone camera. You can get wide-angle lenses, telephotos, and even a 12x microscope lens. But a team of researchers at UC Davis has one-upped the competition by making the iPhone into a 350x microscope for very little money. Now you’ll be able to send people Instagrams of your blood cells.

It should be said right off the bat that this isn’t something that only the iPhone can do. But it’s the go-to device for proof of concept stuff like this for obvious reasons. The technique can be generalized to other devices later.

The project is actually quite a simple little hack. They use a 1mm ball lens and attach it to the outside of the iPhone lens array with a rubber sheet and some tape. The little lens technically only offers 5x magnification, but the way it focuses creates a tiny in-focus area that can resolve details down to about 1.5 microns. The field of view is very small and there’s distortion to deal with, but by combining the in-focus areas of several pictures you can get a clear enough image to identify cell types, make counts, or even take spectroscopic readings.

Take a look at these images: the ones on the top were taken with a full-on commercial medical microscope, the ones on the bottom are from the iPhone setup:

There’s obviously a major difference in quality, but the difference in price is even greater, and high-quality microscopes aren’t very mobile.

Essentially it’s one more step towards a tricorder. With a general-purpose CPU, modular inputs, and a versatile imaging unit, the smartphone is useful for far more than calling friends and playing Angry Birds. It may not be a mobile clinic, but in areas where money and electricity are hard to come by, an iPhone could be a valuable diagnostic tool. Extending the “senses” of our devices via cheap components and elbow grease could seriously empower decentralized medical care.

You can read the whole paper here. Funding for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation.

The Ultimate Fanboy Mashup: Apple’s Siri Meets Portal’s GLaDOS

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 12:46 PM PDT

gladosiri

Oh, be still my beating heart.

Boiling down two fanboy-filled worlds into an amalgamation of concentrated glory, a guy evil genius named Jeff Heimbuch has mashed up the demo video of Apple’s new virtual assistant Siri with the voice of Portal’s malevolent machine mistress, GLaDOS.

Comments about the meaningless of one’s activities? Check. Weight insults? Check. The only thing missing is the false promise of cake and a controversial crack about whether or not the end-user is an orphan. (Oh, and for those unfamiliar with the Portal world: yes, she’s this mean to everyone.)

Sadly, such a mashup lives on only in cleverly edited videos (and that special place my consciousness goes to after I’ve drifted off to sleep) for now. While customizable voices are undoubtedly on every iPhone 4S buyer’s Nerdgasm trigger list, it’d be markedly un-Apple-like for Apple to implement any time soon (not to mention incredibly formidable to implement at all, given the complexity of Siri’s speech engine.) Some day!

Print Your Own Padlock

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 12:29 PM PDT

scaled.Profile4_display_medium

This project on Thingiverse is just about amazing. It’s a complete lock and key set made entirely using open source plans and a printed on a Makerbot. It can only be opened using the right key (or, given it’s made of plastic, a lighter) but it’s the engineering that clearly counts here.

Again, all items are printable except for the springs which I removed from ball-point click pens (thankfully my wife is still putting up with disassembled pens around the house). This one is a little more complicated but it still works and makes a good desk oddity. If you were to glue the “Top”, “Retainer”, and “Lid” in place, the only way to get this lock open without the key would be to break it. But, what is the fun if you can’t take it apart?

You can even build a unique key for every lock but filing down the internal pins. Why would you want to build one of these? Because you can.



Cybook Odyssey E-Reader Shows Arrives With Touchscreen, Web Navigation

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 12:14 PM PDT

odyssey01

This probably won’t affect the e-reader wars over here in the states much, but I can’t say no to a handsome device like this. And when they put Homer on the screen as well, that’s just icing on the cake. The Cybook Odyssey, from French e-reader maker Bookeen, has a trick or two up its sleeve that I hope our US devices will learn one day.

The Odyssey sports what Bookeen calls the high speed ink system, or HSIS. They describe it vaguely in a comment: Bookeen has long worked to improve the performance of E-Ink screens as part of the hardware (processors …) than “on the software (firmware optimization).” So I’m guessing they’ve basically overclocked a Pearl screen from E-Ink and made it much more quick to refresh. That’s really handy for showing moving images — you can animate page turning and buttons, that sort of thing.

It also makes for a more useful web browsing experience. You can actually move the page around and you don’t have to wait for the sluggish e-ink refresh rate to catch up. It’s not perfect, but it could be handy. There are lots of books you can get via the web on Project Gutenberg and Google Books that would be accessible this way.

The dragging thing isn’t entirely new, of course. You can see me dragging around a PDF on the latest Kobo e-reader here (about 3:30 into the video). The Odyssey’s version looks a bit smoother, and of course it works on the web, not just books.

Anyhow, it’s a nice-looking little device. No pricing yet, but it will be Europe-only.

[via The Digital Reader]

HP Confirms There Is No Way Touchpads Shipped With Android

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 11:29 AM PDT

hp-touchpad-android-600x476

The head of HP’s open source initiative, Phil Robb, took umbrage when Touchpad lovers found Android running on some HP Touchpads and clamored for the source code. Robb, who is in charge of handling open source software and distribution for the company, said there was never an Android made for the Touchpad and there is no way it could have shown up on the Touchpads, even through factory error.

RegHardware quoted him as saying:

“We have confirmed that HP never authorised the distribution of any version of Android on the HP TouchPad,” he told coders.

“From a review of our manufacturing process, we believe that all TouchPad units have been shipped out of manufacturing with the WebOS operating system only, and that no TouchPad units were shipped with Android, even by mistake.”

Android currently works on the Touchpad thanks to the efforts of a large group of programmers and hackers, but Robb confirms that HP had little, if anything, to do with the ports.

Huge Military Blimp Getting Ready To Fly And Spy

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 10:43 AM PDT

float_bd2_2-660x492

Call me unimaginative, but I always thought blimps were best suited for sporting events and alternate history fiction. The US military would beg to differ, if this pearly-white behemoth is any indication. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Blue Devil Block 2, a floating surveillance platform that could soon appear at war-torn combat zones the world over.

These photos come courtesy of Wired’s Danger Room, and at first glance, the airship doesn’t live up to its namesake. It’s neither blue, nor particularly menacing, but the Blue Devil is downright massive: it’s 370 feet long from end to end, making it nearly double the size of the Goodyear blimp.

This whale is slated to carry an array of wide-area cameras and eavesdropping equipment into scenic Afghanistan by the middle of next year. Once it reaches its destination, the Blue Devil will hang 20,000 feet in the air and starting spying. An onboard supercomputer will process all the information, which will then by relayed to our friendly forces below.

The Blue Devil has been in the works for a long time, as most military projects tend to be. Interestingly, Danger Room notes that it’s one of two airship-related military projects in the works, which is probably two more than any civilian would’ve expected.

CEATEC 2011: Panasonic’s Assistance Robot And Awesome RoboticBed In Action (Videos)

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 08:04 AM PDT

HOSPI-Rimo

We’ve already shown you Panasonic‘s cool hair-washing robot on video, but the company is currently showcasing two more robots at the CEATEC 2011 tech exhibition in Japan: one is the so-called HOSPI-Rimo (an assistance robot that we covered two weeks ago), the other model is aptly named RoboticBed.

The video below shows the HOSPI-Rimo (Remote Intelligence and Mobility/pictured above) in action at CEATEC 2011. To recap, this medical, mobile robot is supposed to make it easier for bedridden patients to get in touch with doctors or family members who are living far away (“virtual visits”):

The so-called RoboticBed, which made its debut in 2009, is actually pretty awesome.

It’s essentially a bed that can transform itself into an electric wheelchair and vice versa. Panasonic says the newest version show at CEATEC 2011 is “more practical” and safer than previous models:

Via Robonable [JP]

CEATEC 2011: Panasonic’s Shampoo Robot Up Close And Personal (Videos)

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 06:06 AM PDT

Picture 1

Panasonic took the wraps off a new version of it’s super-strange (and awesome) hair-washing robot at the CEATEC 2011 tech exhibition that currently takes place in Japan (the first version is about one year old). The robot handles the entire process of hair washing autonomously: wetting, shampooing, conditioning and drying.

The new version washes your hair with a total of 24 (instead of just 16) fingers. Panasonic also says they improved the scanning system (the robot scans the head’s shape before it does its magic), allowing for a better “experience”. The old model also lacked the conditioning and drying functions.


Users can get their data (preferred washing method, shape of the head) stored to save time when getting their hair washed next time.

These videos show Panasonic’s robot in action (at CEATEC 2011):

Via Robonable [JP]

Samsung And Google Postpone Nexus Galaxy Launch Hours After A Leaked Demo Video Drops

Posted: 07 Oct 2011 05:36 AM PDT

samsung-nexus

Oh well. Where’s that iPhone 4S pre-order link? Samsung and Google decided that “it is just not the right time to announce a new product” and postponed the scheduled Nexus Galaxy/Prime and Ice Cream Sandwich debut. The two companies were supposed use the CTIA stage next Tuesday to unveil the next-gen superphone and Google’s latest Android incarnation. But that’s not going to happen per a joint statement released this morning.

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

This takes the event off the books for next Tuesday, October 11th. The mobile world was expecting the big unveiling of the Nexus Galaxy (or Prime, if previous rumors are believed). Details leaked yesterday concerning the so-called superphone that places a 1.2GHz CPU, backed by 1GB of RAM at the core. The phone is said to include an NFC chip, 32GB of storage and a 5MP camera with a 1080p recording mode. Of course none of this was confirmed. Next Tuesday was going to be a big day for mobile nerds.

Eric Schmidt previously stated that Google would launch Ice Cream Sandwich by November. Hopefully Google stays true to its word and the Nexus Galaxy/Prime event will be back on the books sometime this month.

But fear not. A leaked demo video hit the interwebs today that might satisfy your Ice Cream Sandwich craving. It’s hard to tell if this is the real release or just a clever Android 2.x launcher, but we’re leaning more towards the former. The video doesn’t have any glaring goofs or obvious flaws. The OS shown is silky smooth, the animations are right, and there’s certainly a Honeycomb feel throughout the whole thing. If that video is indeed Ice Cream Sandwich, current Android owners might want to hold off jumping on the 4S bandwagon. A beast is nearly upon us.