inventions

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Mesmerizing: Keepon Dancing Robot

Engadget turned up a fun story today about a little yellow robot who just can't stop dancing. The robot is named Keepon (pronounced "Key-pong" though I prefer to think of him as "Keepon Dancing") and is developed by Hideki Kozima (with dance-programming by Marek Michalowski). Looking a bit like two tennis balls plus eyes and a nose, Keepon is capable of dancing along to music. Because his two eyes are actually cameras (and his nose is a microphone), Keepon is able to interact with his environment,... READ ON

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More Than Meets the Eye: The Coolest CD/MP3 Player We'll Never Own

Check out the clever Transforming music player from design genius Yong-Seong Kim. Like a mini-music system that couldn't figure out what it wanted to be when it grew up, this concept player readily transforms from a pocket MP3 player to a CD player with just a couple of clicks of the frame. Apparently, Kim had the idea while playing with a "dangerously cool" butterfly knife. And while the design is nothing short of brilliant, OhGizmo is stressing the fact that this is just a concept... READ ON

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Tornado Power, Shape-Shifting Planes and Why You Look Like Your Spouse

Under my Thumbprint On shows like CSI, detectives have to scour a crime scene to pick up seemingly insignificant clues about the criminal. But, if a new fingerprinting technique pans out, all those clues could be one place. Traditional fingerprinting techniques have a tendency to negate forensic clues and possibly damage the prints. However, a gelatinous tape designed by researchers in London will pick up the print and test chemicals from it, providing clues about diet, gender and lifestyle. For example,... READ ON

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The Priceless Potty, the Jiffy Boob Job and the Squid/Octopus Hybrid

The $19 million toilet Okay, we never really expect the government to be too fiscally responsible, but it's still hard to fathom this. NASA announced last week that they're shelling out $19 million to buy a Russian toilet system to use in space. And that was a bargain. They explain that a toilet in space is like a water treatment plant on earth, so they saved big by buying the Russian model instead of building their own. The toilet, to be installed on the American side of the International Space... READ ON

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A Brief History of Dental Floss

Let's talk about floss of another variety:... READ ON

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Peanut Butter Diamonds, Air-Conditioned Shirts and On-Demand Amnesia

Tiffany's? More like Jif-any's!: Researchers at Edinburgh University have created a way to make diamonds out of most carbon-based materials, including peanut butter. They create an oddly-named "stiletto heel effect" by squeezing material between the tips of two diamonds, creating pressure greater than at the center of the earth. Besides making diamonds out of sandwich dressings, the scientists also say they could turn oxygen into red crystals. Kind of makes me wish I had held out for more than a cupcake... READ ON

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Since I can't stop writing about inventions...

... and since you can't buy the Inventions back issue at the online store (it's one of my favorites, but sold out, unfortunately), I figured I'd do another post from Maggie Koerth's wonderful cover story. This one's on Band-Aids and the ridiculous reason we have them. Enjoy! Earle Dickson, his clumsy wife, and the story of the BAND-AID (IN CASE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN): It's that thing that usually sports a lovely dinosaur print while clinging to the knees of tow-headed grade-school ruffians. BAND-AIDS are... READ ON

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Praise for the blind man who invented cruise control

THE INVENTION: Cruise control's that (wonderful, wonderful) thing that helps you avoid speeding tickets. Yup, everybody loves cruise control. Unlike many of the other ignored inventions, this handy accessory does get some acknowledgement. Unfortunately, that's only when it's either impossible to find on that little stick that turns on the blinkers, or when it's broken. WHO TO THANK: a blind man. No, seriously! His name's Ralph Teetor, and he spent his whole life... READ ON

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Paul Otlet's "Universal Book" and Other Amazing Notions

Paul Otlet was an information scientist working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He designed various systems of cataloging and connecting information, including systems that expanded upon those are broadly used today (for example, Otlet's Universal Decimal Classification significantly expanded on the Dewey Decimal System). Among Otlet's credits are the inventions of the term "link" for the notion of documents referencing each other, and his vision of a rÃ©seau ("web") of human... READ ON

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Short Circuit Drum Circle

Check out this amazing, interactive drumming robot from Georgia Tech. The creation, designed by Director of Music Technology Gil Weinberg and his grad student Scott Driscoll, uses "computational power and numerical algorithms to listen, analyze and improvise." Sadly, he's already better than most of the kids from my high school jazz band. Link via... READ ON