Instead of having the standard set of four wheels–two in the front and two in the back–like a regular skateboard, the STAIR ROVER has a total of eight wheels (earlier designs had as many as 12). The idea is that the pairs of wheels on either side can teeter-totter their way down the flight of stairs while the flexible deck keeps you reasonably balanced and in control.

The STAIR ROVER is the creation of London designer Po-Chih Lai. The current version is the eighth iteration and it seems to be the best one yet. Yes, it’s going to take some practice, but this means that you don’t have to get off your board to get down those stairs… going up a flight of stairs, however, is a different matter altogether.

[Source]

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Flying used to be a luxury. It used to be a privilege. Now, it’s not all that different from hitching a ride on the Greyhound, aside from the TSA molestations. What, then, can airlines do to revolutionize our experience?

The guys at Gizmag have put together a series of concepts for different seating arrangements that could one day find their way onto commercial aircraft. Some approach the “cattle class” end of the equation, trying to cram as many passengers as possible into as small a space as possible. Others increase your comfort for a radically increased price.

For my part, I’m surprised that airlines have already started adopting the Thompson Solutions Cozy Suite highlighted here. The staggered seating allows for more passengers (read: more revenue), fewer moving parts (read: less weight and, thus, less fuel), and no shared armrests (read: more comfort). It’s win-win all around, isn’t it?

I’ve heard that there are some airlines in China considering a standing room only plane for domestic flights. That can’t be safe, can it?

[Gizmag]

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Innovation is important. It really is. But when inventors start trying to reinvent the mudflap to erase any and all tiny inconveniences from everyday human life, it can really get a bit redundant.

As an example, see the Double USB from Yanko Design. Based on the idea that having to flip the USB plug every now and again to take a second stab at plugging in your USB-powered heated coaster is genuinely a problem, the tip of the Double USB plug is essentially exactly the same as the plugs of today, only there are two of those little white bits of connector plastic instead of one, and they’re spring-loaded. The one in the equivalent position to being upside down simply pushes back out of the way, allowing the other to complete the connection.

Sure, that may be a plus if you’re scrambling to plug in your iPod to your friend’s computer during a night of heroic drinking while they’re away, allowing you to replace their seemingly endless list of country music with more bearable tunes of your own. One stab and you’re in. But as with anything that contains moving parts and springs, it’ll wear down quickly and eventually break, leaving you without a cord, doomed to death-by-Q-tip when you can’t impose heavy music on your wimpy friends at their parties.

This is one design, Yanko, that I’m going to pass on. But show me a magical invention to stop me from plugging my headphones into the USB port when I’m not looking again and I’m there.

[Yanko Design via Wired]

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Having a big touchscreen really isn’t cutting the mustard anymore and that’s why you’re starting to see more of a push toward pico projectors. As adoption increases, so will innovation and that’s what we’re seeing today with a new “hot embossing technique” devised by the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Germany.

First, a bit of a primer on digital pico projectors. They say that there are two primary paths you can take. Traditional lenses use multiple glass magnifiers, resulting in a long and bulky contraption. The much more compact option is to create microlens arrays, but only plastic versions have been made so far. The bulbs in the projectors are capable of melting those plastic arrays.

The new hot embossing techique, however, is able to produce glass microlens arrays. These “high-refraction” arrays are said to be suitable for mass production and could bring the price of projection lenses to a tenth of their current cost. This could really help with the increase in adoption, encouraging more manufacturers to consider including pico projectors in their cameras, smartphones, and what-have-you.

Yes, the lens is only a small fraction of the overall cost and most pico projectors aren’t exactly the most suitable in anything more than a dimly-lit room, but this new technique represents a fairly sizable “baby step” toward more of these kinds of devices. Maybe the Seabird isn’t that far away after all.

[GizMag via Fraunhofer]

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Figure 4. Charging multiple devices at a distance

When I first heard about the idea of wireless charging, I thought that I could leave my cell phone just about anywhere near the charging device and the battery would magically get topped up. And then they crushed my dreams with the inductive charging system. Well, Fujitsu has just renewed my hopes again with its latest development.

Figure 2. Prototype mobile phones with built-in wireless power receivers

You see, it seems that the Japanese company is indeed producing a true wireless charging system. It’s not like the Powermat solution where you have to make physical contact with the charging mat and have a receiver attached to your device; this is actually completely wireless with no requirements for any physical connection. Sounds like the old Wardenclyffe tower Tesla had made nearly a century ago, although Fujitsu’s system won’t work at such great distances. “The drawbacks are that the method only works over short distances, and the power transmitter and power receiver need to be in alignment, so it is effectively no different than using a charging station with a wired connection.”

Fujitsu is saying that their wireless charging solution uses a “magnetic resonance method” that will allow it to charge multiple devices at the same time without having to be in physical contact with anything. The charger also happens to be more efficient, topping up batteries in 1/150th of the time. When will we see such solutions become commercially viable and affordable enough for the average consumer? Who knows, but this looks very promising. Let’s just hope JP Morgan doesn’t get involved.

Figure 1. Principles of wireless power transmission methods

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It was just a concept when we first heard about the Quirky Split Stick USB Drive earlier this year, but now the dual-wielding memory device has hit production and it is available for sale through the Quirky website for $24.99.

What’s the Deal with Quirky?

For those of you who are not as familiar with the Quirky business model, the idea is that an original designer proposes a product on the Quirky site and then solicits feedback from the community in how this product idea can be improved. This feedback can hit up the physical design, technical specifications, and any other of the finer details. Anyone who contributes positively to the creative process can then earn a portion of the profits to come.

Opening up the package for the Quirky Split Stick, we see the list of contributors. All of these people will be sharing 30% of the revenue generated through the sale of the product and this money is split up according to their level of influence. The original guy, Marc Zech, gets the biggest share, receiving almost three bucks on every sale.

This makes for a very interesting collaborative effort, because everyone involved wants the product to do well. And that’s where we find ourselves with the Quirky Split Stick.

Two Separate Drives, One Device

Unlike just about every USB flash drive on the market, the Split Stick is actually comprised of two separate drives. There is a slider in the center that you can push to either side, exposing the USB connector to each of the 4GB drives. The idea is that you can separate your work stuff from your home stuff… or whatever other separation you desire.

In addition to the home/work design that you see here, the Split Stick is also available with love/hate, plus/minus, look/lock, and dots/solid dots. You can also choose from black, pink or orange. You’ll also notice that the design of the slider mechanism has changed from the original concept and I think this “raised” switch is much more effective.

You’ll also be glad to hear that the Quirky community decided on a metallic body rather than a cheap plastic one. This helps to make for a nice, solid feel to the drive. The slider mechanism seems to be quite robust too; it’s not that flimsy at all.

Performance Testing

Running the “home” USB flash drive through HD Tune, I got the results shown here. The first 60% of the drive seems to sustain a reasonable read speed of about 18MB/sec, but this suddenly drops off to about 8MB/sec.

Thinking that this was an anomaly, I ran the same test on the “work” side of the flash drive and got very similar results. This can be a major hurdle for performance junkies, because the 17.7MB/sec maximum read speed isn’t even near the top of the heap. It’s worse yet that the speed gets cut in half about two-thirds of the way through.

For the real-world test, I tried dumping a 700MB video file onto the drive (write speed) and then I tried copying it back out (read speed) onto my computer’s hard drive. The write test took approximately 181 seconds, representing a speed of about 3.9MB/sec. The read speed took about 43 seconds, which works out to about 16.3MB/sec. That’s a huge discrepancy and it’s one that you should keep in mind if you are considering this drive.

Conclusion

So, is the Split Stick worth your consideration? The physical separation of your work and home lives seems like a good idea, but you could really achieve the same thing by having one larger drive with two folders in it. Nonetheless, this is an interesting idea.

From a value proposition, the 4GB x 2 Quirky Split Stick is $24.99 (it was $19.99 during the pre-order period). If you were to shop for a similar-sized 8GB drive, you could find something by SanDisk or Kingston for about $20. In this way, the Quirky offering isn’t really more expensive by comparison.

Unfortunately, the performance left much to be desired. The write speed was disappointing and the sudden drop in read speed at the 60% mark is disconcerting too. If Quirky decided to switch memory providers, they could have a great product on their hands.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

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Instead of latching a traditional Bluetooth headset onto your ear, you wear a pair of rings on your hands. One ring goes on your pinky finger and this acts as the microphone. The other ring goes on your thumb and it acts as the earpiece. Yes, this is the same universal hand signal among surfers for being gnarly.

To make the functionality even more whimsical (and possibly very usable), the way that you answer an incoming call is to make that characteristic “phone” sign with your hand. The two rings detect the increased distance between them and then they pick up the call. To hang up, close your hand back into a fist.

If we were to continue with this line of thinking, wouldn’t it make more sense to have accelerometers placed in the rings that would detect when you were hanging up your make-believe phone on a make-believe base station? You know, like pointing your hand downward with the phone-hand configuration intact?

Either way, this is very weird and still just a design concept. I wonder if anyone at Nokia, Motorola, or Apple is paying attention.

Source: TheDesignBlog

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You may have seen the “conductive” chargers for Wii Remotes, cell phones, and other similar products. These let you charge the devices without having to plug in a cable, but your product still makes physical contact with the charging board.

With the WiTricity wireless power solution, electricity can be sent over short distances using a technology similar to radio transmission. The resonant magnetic coupling can send enough power over the air to charge cell phones and run televisions a few feet away.

The actual technology isn’t there just yet, but they’re working on it. The goal is that we will eventually have a power transmitting unit somewhere in our room and it will be able to provide power to the electronics in the room, thus eliminating the need for multiple plugs and power bars.

WiTricity was founded by an MIT physicist and the goal is to produce a system that could be ready for the masses.

Source: Crunchgear

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