RviroS Latest Gadgets and Technologies

They said it couldn't be done. When we first wrote about the almost invisible tree house to be built in Sweden by Tham & Videgard, 899 commenters thought it was computer-generated eye candy, impossible to build, and death for birds.

But the architects built it, one of six units in a "Treehotel" which recently opened 40 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. The four-meter glass cube looks as spectacular in reality as it did in the rendering. Kent Lindvall, co-owner of the TreeHotel, has been quoted as saying: "Everything will reflect in this -- the trees, the birds, the clouds, the sun, everything. So it should be invisible nearly in the forest". And for the birds, According to Designboom, Lindvall says that a special film that is visible to birds will be applied to the glass. 

 The units are constructed from sustainably harvested wood and have electric radiant floor heating and "a state-of-the-art, eco-friendly, incineration toilet"

Losing weight is an uphill task for obese individuals, because the catch behind maintaining a diet schedule is to keep yourself motivated on not taking extra calories for weeks together. Lack of motivation is where the difficulty lies; it is here that people often lose control – but with the Autom, a robotic coach for your assistance, you’ll never think of extending your hand toward that extra bit of food. Autom is a tiny robot, and he's getting closer than ever to availability. His whole job? To coach you to lose weight... that's right, Autom is a dieting robot. You start off by entering the details of your diet, fitness level, and exercise into Autom's databank, and then he sits on your countertop and has daily 'conversations' with you -- which we assume are full of a lot of reassuring aphorisms and 'go get 'em' talk. Developed by Cory Kidd (who built the first iteration by hand) while studying at MIT, Autom is set to go into trials in the US sometime next year with a major insurance company. Now, we're all for healthy living, and everyone knows we love robots, but we're inclined to take a pass on Autom... if only because we can't stand to hear the truth 100 percent of the time. If you hit up the source link, you can see a video of the little guy in action. A video of an earlier version of Autom is after the break.

 Head mounted displays still have something futuristic about them, and Brother’s offering, the so-called AiRScouter, is no exception. The company today unvieled [press release in English] the newest version of the HMD, which was first shown to the general public in 2008 (and once again in 2009). Back then, the AiRScouter was unnamed and had a different design. In fact, the device is still in prototype stage and labeled by Brother as “Retinal Imaging Display”. Brother expects the AiRScouter to be mainly used for augmented reality applications. The new version offers better image quality than the previous one and allows to attach a micro camera. The AiRScouter is expected to be ready to be tried out by attendees of the “Brother World JAPAN 2010″ expo that will be held in Tokyo in September. Brother says it will “launch” the device in fiscal 2010, which (in Japan) ends in March 2011.

As our demand for power intensifies with our need for better consumer electronics, companies such as Brother Industries Ltd need to develop a new power source that will last much longer. That’s where new vibration-powered generators come in – they look like normal batteries, all you need to do is shake them to charge.  The faux-batteries are from Brother Industries, and inside the AA and AAA-sized shells you’ll find a capacitor and an electromagnetic induction generator. Shaking them will charge the capacitor enough to juice low-power gadgets. The example given is remote control, which needs around 40 to 100mW of power. The battery can put out up to 180mW, so while you won’t be using these to power a camera-flash, a quick shake to get the TV remote going again would work just great. In fact, you could just build this in to a remote and forget the batteries altogether.  Preserving of environment is quite important nowadays and we have seen many gadgets that can help us with that. We already know that disposable batteries are a bad solution because they can be toxic for the environment. With these new rechargeable batteries, they may help us preserve the environment whilst at the same time creating power.

Pandigital’s award-winning line of scanners have been acclaimed for their ease-of-use and excellent performance. The scanner does not require any expensive or confusing software and employs a new twin-roller feeding system to ensure that the photos are scanned evenly each time. Further optimizing the quality, images are scanned at up to 600 optical dpi for resulting scans that have a crisp and clear 3800x7200 24-bit color depth resolution. In addition to being able to scan images onto the included SD memory card, the scanner accepts other popular memory cards (SD, MS, MS Pro, MMS, XD) and can also be connected directly to either a Mac or PC computer via its mini-USB port. Weighing in at less than a pound at only 13.79 ounces and measuring only 10.59(L) x 1.73(H) x 2.32(D) inches, the Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter is incredibly portable and can be taken nearly anywhere to quickly and simply preserve images. Pandigital is making it easy for consumers and business professionals to scan photos and documents as large as 8 ½ x 11-inches directly to an SD card with its new Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter. The scanner doesn't require a PC—users simply plug it in, insert their photo, and scan photos onto an included SD card with the touch of a button. The Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter can also be connected to a MAC or PC via miniUSB. The scanner supports other popular memory card formats including MS, MS Pro, MMS, and XD as well. The scanner is quite portable, weighing just 13.79 ounces and measuring 10.59 x 1.73 x 2.32 inches. Scanning and digitizing your photos and documents has never been fun.  Even with the advent of one-button scanning you still have to wait for the software to load, the hardware to do its thing, and then properly categorize and file away your precious digital memories.  However, Pandigital has found a better way.  Their new Personal Photo Scanner/Converter will write photos and documents directly to your portable memory without the “middle man” (software) getting in the way.

 

The fan is called the Dyson Air Multiplier and resembles the design of a magnifying glass. In the base is an brushless electric motor which pushes air upwards into the loop where it is amplified 15 times. The air seeps out of the ring and is actually an extension of the AirBlade technology the company developed for its hand dryers a few years ago.

In terms of throughput the Air Multiplier can generate 405 litres of air a second, but is also highly adjustable allowing you to get just the right level of air flow unlike standard fans that usually just have a few preset  speeds. The other big advantages are it is much safer due to a lack of fast moving blades and is much easier to keep clean. Noise levels are also thought to be minimal when compared to standard fan designs.