The studies of university research and the growing number of startups are in constant search of inventions that improve our lives, or simply make it more comfortable and less tiring. Here, then, the most interesting news presented these days.
1 – G-Tag: a gadget to find objects thanks smartphone
Daily life is increasingly hectic and for some strange reason we always lag behind our roadmap. Therefore it is not unusual to be out of the house in a hurry and have to immediately go back because we forgot something fundamental. Research by the insurance company Esure revealed that on average each person loses at least 15 minutes a day to try one or more lost items. Car keys, wallet, house keys themselves become unavailable just when it is inconvenient, so some people have thought of a simple and intelligent way to facilitate the search, in the home and beyond. It’s called G-Tag and is produced by the German company Gigaset. It’s a great little accessory much like a keychain that emits a Bluetooth signal detectable from our smartphones. With the app you can find the object combined following the directions on our phone but you can also set an alert when certain items leave our range, allowing us to leave home what we need. Did you happen to forget your car keys on the table or on the counter of a bar or a restaurant? With G-Tag, you are alerted straight from local avoiding further problems. It has a range of 30 meters guaranteed, ideal for indoor use, but is also equipped with a GPS function, which allows for example to find the car in a parking lot, memorizing the position at the time of the stop.
2 – Hudway Glass: a display on the windscreen of the car
The technologies involving augmented reality are not only engaging device manufacturers such as Google Glass, but for years are the focus of investment and research of the major car manufacturers. They were announced several models of luxury cars equipped with windshield interactive, able to display information while driving, as the screen of the navigation system, to avoid the driver having to take his eyes off the road. Is called HUD or head-up display, but it is a prerogative of the price means often inaccessible to most people, and for this reason up to now there has been a fairly wide spread. But now, perhaps, things change: a California startup, the Hudway, presented his project called Hudway Glass, a very simple device to be applied to the base of the windshield of our car really interesting and cost of just $ 50. The fundraising campaign started on Kickstarter and 300 thousand dollars required were soon met and exceeded. Hudway Glass consists of a medium from which opens a small transparent screen on which images are reflected from the display of our smartphone, allowing you to view all the information directly from our browser. Is positioned on the dashboard thanks to the 3M adhesives that provide manufacturers, are easily removable and do not cause damage to the surface, but are tough enough to have passed a test of use during a rally race.
3 – The artificial skin can “feel”
A professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University, Zhenan Bao, spent about ten years trying to develop a material that imitates the ability of the human skin to bend and regenerate, but would also be able to send to the brain the sensation of touch, temperature, and pain. As written on Science , his work has passed a new milestone, successfully replicate a capacity of touch, or to distinguish the different pressure that is applied as between a handshake or a caress. The success achieved by the teacher, helped his team is remarkable: “It’s the first time a flexible material, similar to the skin, is able to detect the pressure and to forward it to the nervous system,” said Zhenan Bao. The team developed the electronic components flexible, thanks to the collaboration of researchers at Xerox, a company specializing in technology, using a printer to deposit circuits flexible plastic. The next step will be the development of new sensors to replicate such as the ability to distinguish hot from cold, but require further research: the touch is in fact made up of six different brain mechanisms and only one responded positively in the experiments of the Stanford team .
4 – Lumen: the torch that works with the human warmth
The search for alternative energy sources is one of the top concerns of today’s science, and when it comes to devices that require very little power it is possible to find alternative solutions by exploiting what we have already available. It happened for example with old dynamo on bicycles, used to turn on a small light that illuminate the road at night, and it happens thanks to another ingenious invention launched on Kickstarter. Lumen is a mini torch meant to be used for example as a key ring, able to function without the aid of any type of battery, but simply by exploiting the heat of our body. It works with a technology called TEG, composed of small bars ceramics can we produce electric current due to the temperature difference between the top and bottom. It is therefore sufficient that the sensor detects the difference between the ambient temperature and the temperature of the hand (36-37 degrees) to turn on the LED light, and in the event that it is produced excess energy the device is able to be sequestrated in a small escort. The investment required on the Kickstarter page was modest, just $ 5,000, but within days they were collected over 120 thousand, and the basic version that sells for $ 35 has already moved quickly. There are four in all versions of Lumen, the differences are in the material used for the body, which can be aluminum or titanium in the version most valuable, and in the presence of a bar phosphorescent, useful to make visible the small device even in the dark.
5 – tires thanks to intelligent sensors and algorithms
One of the subjects most wear on our vehicles have tires, which often require more maintenance checks and other mechanical parts that seem far more complex. It is not uncommon for someone to forget to check the pressure and wear of their tires, because according to experts of the sector should use a control at least once or twice each month. To avoid unpleasant surprises a team of researchers from the school Sant’Anna, united in an interdisciplinary group of the Institute of Communication Technologies, Information, Perception, he has devised a solution. SmartTyre, that’s his name, is an “intelligent” because it is able thanks to the presence of sensors to collect data on the state of the tires, doing analysis and calculations in real time to communicate to the driver problems. It is equipped with an alarm system which is activated in case of imminent risk: “If the rubber is cut or deformed, for example – the researchers said – want to stop to avoid risks and to replace the tire.” Even insurance companies are interested in these devices, thanks to them it is possible to reduce the risks of policies, and therefore can be proposed to those who mount this technology a price advantage.
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