Tactile Glove Lets Hearing And Vision Impaired Send Text Messages !

For those of us to see and hear without difficulty, then the Lorm hand touch alphabet may be unfamiliar unusual form of communication. But for many people ,it is essential. Now, thanks to a new device, Lorm users iwill be able to communicate via SMS.

Designed by Berlin-based Design Research Lab, the mobile Lorm glove allows person to  send and receive text messages via a tactile feedback. The glove used textile pressure sensors at different points located on the palm of the glove corresponding to the Lorm alphabet to construct words and sentences. Also letting the hearing and vision to communicate more freely via mobile text messages and e-mail, the developers also claim the device makes reading e-books easier.

You can see the Mobile Lorm glove in action in the video below.

Top Ten Electronic Gadgets - 2012

1. Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet

...first ever LCD writing tablet!

So much fun, you won't want to put it down! This is like having a notepad to doodle and write on - in electronic form! This gadget is still at the top of the list, for the second year in a row!

 

2. Watch, Camera & Camcorder

...all in one!

Watch Camera/camcorder - HQ 640 x 480 pixel 30FPS. Genuine Sphere Gadget Technologies branded product. Built in 4GB flash memory. USB compatible.

Sphere Gadget Technologies designed this spy camera and camcorder concealed in a wristwatch. Great for convenience (nothing to hold) and for getting those videos that some might not want you to have. 640 x 480 pixel HQ resolution video quality, with 4GB internal flash drive storage for three hours of video recording.

3. Ultrasonic Sensor Parking Alert

...for help with parking.

Very cool... an ultrasonic sensor will detect the distance of a car from the wall and help you get it into the right spot every time. These little gadgets have become uber-popular as of late.

4. Mighty Mini Laser

...a portable laser light show...

 

OMG I wish we'd had these in the sixties! That would have saved so much time and trouble! Yes, I worked with a light show company for a while. Lots to do! But now you can have a light show generator gadget in your pocket, turn it on, enjoy, and impress your friends. Very cool.

5. Mini Laser Stage Lighting Projector

...red and green.

Another way to fill your room with light. These things must be especially popular this year as two of them are in the top ten! This unit offers laser lighting in red and green for performers. If your room is large enough it can fill the room with light. Very impressive display!

6. Optical Finger Mouse

...2-button Ergonomic, USB, 800dpi.

For that price, I'd say this would make a fantastic stocking stuffer! It looks like something that would be fun to try out. It must also be a trendy gadget since it is in the top ten.

7. Powerful Green Laser Pointer

...5mw 532nm Astronomy Powerful Green Laser Pointer

This points a green laser beam at whatever you want to point out, and is a cool tool especially for teachers. I can think of other uses as well. Personally, I'm not a teacher, but I'd still have fun with it.

8. 8X Monocular

...Ruby Coated Lens 20mm, Heavy Silver Body.

The one person who reviewed this monocular stated "It is indeed the coolest item on Amazon." That could be. This works like a pair of binoculars, but is small enough to fit into your pocket. Awesome!

9. A Covert Coin

...looks like a real quarter but contains a secret compartment.

I don't understand why the covert quarter is number 9 on the list when it won't hold the micro SD card. The half-dollar will, so why isn't it in the top ten instead? Apparently these faux-coins are popular anyway.

10. Motorola H720 Bluetooth Headset

...lightweight bluetooth!

This fits over the ear, not in it, and has great sound quality. Definitely a worthwhile product.

Below this box are some items that were on last year's list. Most are still very popular.

Roku XDS Streaming Player 1080p

...instant access movies on your TV via high speed internet connection!

Watch movies on TV via your internet connection with this easy-to-install device. It downstreams from Netflix, Amazon video on demand, and other sites and via wireless high definition video works with any TV. Sets up in only five minutes!

Apple iPod touch 64 GB (4th Generation)

This is the 64 gig with capacity for about 16000 songs, 80000 photos, or 80 hours of video. With a single charge there's 40 hours audio playback or 7 hours of video. 3.5" widescreen display.

Franklin Spelling Corrector

...an ingenious way to learn to spell the right way!

Very helpful for those who need help with spelling, crossword puzzles, students writing papers. Connects to the computer via USB. Includes Rolodex databank, calculator, and six word games. Displays up to sixteen characters.

SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer with Embedded Thermal Printer

...doesn't this look like fun for anyone who needs to do a lot of shopping?

Who ever thought grocery shopping could be so much fun? Attach this gadget to the fridge and when you run out of something, press a button and say what you need, be it milk, bread or spaghetti sauce. It has state-of-the-art voice recognition, 2500 pre-loaded items, a built in printer that requires no ink (it is thermal printing), and includes three rolls of paper for printing your lists. It works with four AA batteries.

I-Pen Digital Pen Writer Ipen Optical USB Mouse Input Device

...use it like a mouse with a computer!

This little gadget has two modes: mouse and pen. In mouse mode it acts exactly like a computer mouse should - fast, point and click action! But put it in pen mode and you can write notes on web pages that will still be there later, draw, write letters that will be transformed into typewritten text, and save reminder notes - or email them later. This pen is lightweight and small, ideal for laptop users. It has a standard mouse driver and standard USB connection - just plug in and play. Use on any surface; no pad required.

Wireless In Car FM Transmitter with Remote

...listen to your mp3 collection while driving in the car!

Wireless gadget that plugs into the car's cigarette lighter plug. Turn on the stereo and tune to the same frequency and you'll be able to listen to your mp3 collection via your car's stereo! The LCD display tells the volume and the name of each song.

Ninja Remote Stealth Television Gadget

 

This tiny keychain gadget can be used as a remote control with up to five hundred television brands. Provides master power on/off, volume, mute, channel changer, and audio/visual inputs. Easy to use - just point and click. Great stocking stuffer!

EZ-FIND! 25 Item Wireless Electronic Locator

...just what everyone needs!

I'll bet you know someone who constantly loses things. I do... and this is what I will get him! It can track up to twenty-five easily misplaced items including wallets, cameras, remote controls, pets, keys, and gameboys. EZ-find tags have an on/off switch and attach with keyrings or adhesive. Each item is assigned a number. When something is lost, press the number and you'll hear the tag beeping. Tags have low-battery features and you can buy replacements separately.

The Kindle

...couldn't end this list without mentioning the Amazon Kindle!

Electronic book readers are the rage, and threaten to take over the publishing industry. They are easy to carry and fun to read. There's no eyestrain, no piles of books, no bookcases collecting dust. You can carry and entire library full of books on your Kindle. I am a huge Kindle fan, can you tell? Very popular with anyone who loves to read, including teens.

Google’s Project Glasses – One Day !

A team within Google[x] group started Project Glass to build an amazing new innovative way of using glasses, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.

Things You Should Know About Electronics

Electronics, as the name suggests is a subpart of science and technology. A controlled motion ofelectrons is maintained using different mediums. Electrons are referred as the subatomic particle which carries a negative charge and revolves around the nucleus in well defined orbits of an atom. Electronics differs from electricity which deals in the distribution and generation of electrical power.

The electron control function is exhibited by using semiconductor devices. These devices are basically the electronic components which influence the properties of the electrons. The knowledge of these semiconductor devices comes under Physics and the study of Electronics is considered in Electronics Engineering. Other electronic components include the capacitors, resistors, diodes,transistors etc. which affects the electrons and their associated fields. These components are connected together to form a closed loop called a circuit. The circuits could be single or integrated in nature. This circuit builds the path for the electric current to flow.

The circuits and components are usually divided into Analog and Digital Circuits. The difference between both these circuits lies in the continuous range of voltage as opposed to discrete levels of voltage in digital circuits. Examples of analog circuits include Vacuum Tubes, Transistor Amplifiers, Operational Amplifies and Oscillators. Examples of digital circuits are Computers, Electronic Cocks, Programmable Logic Controllers and Digital Signal Processors.

Thermal Management is very necessary in Electronics. The heat generated in the circuits should be controlled in order to ensure the durability and reliability of the device. It is an important phenomenon which needs to be taken care of. There are many cooling techniques used which includes the use of Heat Sinks, Fans and Water Cooling. The concepts of convection, conduction and radiation of heat energy are utilized by these coolant devices.

Another aspect of is the electronic noise. Noise is defined to be an unwanted disturbance which interrupts the normal functioning of a device. These noises could be created electromagneticallyor thermally. The noises can be controlled by reducing the operating temperature of the circuit. There are also few noises which cannot be removed and eliminated due to the lack of physical properties. Such noises include the Shot Noise.
The study of circuits is very crucial in Electronics. It involves a lot of calculations like solving linear systems, finding the voltage at a particular node or current through a branch network. Electromagnetic Field theory is also an important area of study in Electronics.

Electronics Engineering involves designing of circuits using building blocks like power supplies,semiconductors and integrated circuits. Great emphasis is also given on Electronic Design Automation software programs. Many companies contribute in building this software for exampleOracle. The electronic systems are designed and produced using the EDA tools. It is also called CAD that is computer aided design.

Electronics is a very demanding and successful branch of study. The knowledge in this area manifests the career of many individuals as it covers broad aspects of information. New trends are acknowledged and updated which mainly involve the implementation of technology.

Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower !

Chicago-based firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill (AS+GG) has officially been announced as the design architects for the Kingdom Tower that is to be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Initially planned to stand one mile (1.6 km) high and be called the Mile-High Tower, the building was scaled down after soil testing in the area in 2008 cast doubt over whether the location could support a building of that height. Now the building will stand over 0.62 miles (one kilometer) tall, which will still allow it to overshadow the 2,717 ft. (828 m) Burj Khalifa to claim the title of the world's tallest building.

 

The Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of Kingdom City, a 57 million square foot (5.3 million m2) development located along the Red Sea north of Jeddah, which is known as the traditional gateway to the holy city of Mecca. The entire development has been budgeted at US$20 billion, with the Kingdom Tower alone costing approximately $1.2 billion to construct and covering an area of 5.7 million square feet (530,000 m2).

 

The building will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, as well as 12 escalators. The elevators serving the observatory will travel at 22 mph (36 km/h) in both directions. At level 157, a sky terrace roughly 98 feet (30 m) in diameter intended as an outdoor amenity for use by the penthouse floor extends from the side of the building.

 

The exterior wall system is designed to minimize energy consumption by reducing thermal loads, while a series of notches on the building's three sides create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from direct sunlight and provide outdoor terraces.

 

The three-sided tower rises from a three-petal footprint design with aerodynamic tapering wings that help reduce structural loading due to wind vortex shedding. Gill says the tower's sleek, streamlined form was inspired by the folded fronds of young desert plant growth.

"With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground - a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it," added Smith.

While the building's exact height isn't yet known, when completed AS+GG claim it will be at least 568 feet (173 m) taller than the Burj Khalifa, which was also designed by Adrian Smith when he was at architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). At SOM, Smith also worked on the design for the Pearl River Tower, while AS+GG also recently won an international competition to design China's Wuhan Greenland Center.

 

AS+GG says design development of the Kingdom Tower is underway, the foundation drawings are already complete and construction is set to begin 'imminently."

Top 10 Amazing Accidental Inventions !

Louis Pasteur once said, "chance favors the prepared mind." That's the genius behind all these accidental inventions - the scientists were prepared. They did their science on the brink and were able to see the magic in a mistake, set-back, or coincidence.

No. 10 - Saccharin

Saccharin, the sweetener in the pink packet, was discovered because chemist Constantin Fahlberg didn't wash his hands after a day at the office. Prepare to get icked. The year was 1879 and Fahlberg was trying to come up with new and interesting uses for coal tar. After a productive day at the office, he went home and something strange happened. He noticed the rolls he was eating tasted particularly sweet. He asked his wife if she had done anything interesting to the rolls, but she hadn't. They tasted normal to her. Fahlberg realized the taste must have been coming from his hands -- which he hadn't washed. The next day he went back to the lab and started tasting his work until he found the sweet spot.

No. 9 - Smart Dust

Most people would be pretty upset if their homework blew up in their faces and crumbled into a bunch of tiny pieces. Not so student Jamie Link. When Link was doing her doctoral work in chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, one of the silicon chips she was working on burst. She discovered afterward, however, that the tiny pieces still functioned as sensors. The resulting "smart dust" won her the top prize at the Collegiate Inventors Competition in 2003. These teensy sensors can also be used to monitor the purity of drinking or seawater, to detect hazardous chemical or biological agents in the air, or even to locate and destroy tumor cells in the body.

No. 8 - Coke

There are many stories of accidentally invented food: the potato chip was born when cook George Crum (yes, really his name!) tried to silence a persnickety customer who kept sending french fries back to the kitchen for being soggy; Popsicles were invented when Frank Epperson left a drink outside in the cold overnight; and ice cream cones were invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. But no food-vention has had as much success as Coke. Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton was trying to make a cure for headaches. He mixed together a bunch of ingredients -- and don't ask, because we don't know; The recipe is still a closely guarded secret. It only took eight years of being sold in a drug store before the drink was popular enough to be sold in bottles.

No. 7- Teflon

After all the damage they've done to the ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are persona non grata. Back in the 1930s, however, they were (pardon the pun) the hot new thing in the science of refrigeration. Young DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett was working to make a new a new kind of CFC. He had a theory that if he could get a compound called TFE to react with hydrochloric acid, he could produce the refrigerant he wanted. So, to start his experiment Plunkett got a whole bunch of TFE gas, cooled it and pressured it in canisters so it could be stored until he was ready to use it. When the time came to open the container and put the TFE and hydrochloric acid together so they could react, nothing came out of the canister. The gas had disappeared. Only it hadn't. Frustrated and angry, Plunkett took off the top of the canister and shook it. Out came some fine white flakes. Luckily for everyone who's ever made an omelet, he was intrigued by the flakes and handed them off to other scientists at DuPont.

No. 6 - Vulcanized Rubber

Charles Goodyear had been waiting years for a happy accident when it finally occurred. Goodyear spent a decade finding ways to make rubber easier to work with while being resistant to heat and cold. Nothing was having the effect he wanted. One day he spilled a mixture of rubber, sulfur and lead onto a hot stove. The heat charred the mixture, but didn't ruin it. When Goodyear picked up the accident, he noticed that the mixture had hardened but was still quite usable. At last! The breakthrough he had been waiting for! His vulcanized rubber is used in everything from tires, to shoes, to hockey pucks.

No. 5 - Plastic

In 1907 shellac was used as insulation in electronics. It was costing the industry a pretty penny to import shellac, which was made from Southeast Asian beetles, and at home chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might turn a profit if he could produce a shellac alternative. Instead his experiments yielded a moldable material that could take high temperatures without distorting. Baekeland thought his "Bakelite" might be used for phonograph records, but it was soon clear that the product had thousands of uses. Today plastic, which was derived from Bakelite, is used for everything from telephones to iconic movie punch lines.

No. 4 - Radioactivity

Two words that you don't ever want to hear said in the same sentence are "Whoops!" and "radioactive." But in the case of physicist Henri Becquerel's surprise discovery, it was an accident that brought radioactivity to light. Back in 1896 Becquerel was fascinated by two things: natural fluorescence and the newfangled X-ray. He ran a series of experiments to see if naturally fluorescent minerals produced X-rays after they had been left out in the sun. One problem - he was doing these experiments in the winter, and there was one week with a long stretch of overcast skies. He left his equipment wrapped up together in a drawer and waited for a sunny day. When he got back to work, Becquerel realized that the uranium rock he had left in the drawer had imprinted itself on a photographic plate without being exposed to sunlight first. There was something very special about that rock. Working with Marie and Pierre Curie, he discovered that that something was radioactivity.

No. 3 - Mauve

Talk about strange connections - 18-year-old chemist William Perkin wanted to cure malaria; instead his scientific endeavors changed the face of fashion forever and, oh yeah, helped fight cancer. Confused? Don't be. Here's how it happened. In 1856 Perkin was trying to come up with an artificial quinine. Instead of a malaria treatment, his experiments produced a thick murky mess. But the more he looked at it, the more Perkin saw a beautiful color in his mess. Turns out he had made the first-ever synthetic dye. His dye was far better than any dyes that came from nature; the color was brighter, more vibrant, and didn't fade or wash out. His discovery also turned chemistry into a money-generating science - making it attractive for a whole generation of curious-minded people. But the story is not over yet. One of the people inspired by Perkin's work was German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, who used Perkin's dyes to pioneer immunology and chemotherapy.

No. 2 - Pacemaker

 

This list wouldn't be complete without at least one absent-minded professor. But it's not flubber clocking in at No. 2, it's a life saving medical device. That pacemaker sewn into a loved one's chest actually came about because American engineer Wilson Greatbatch reached into a box and pulled out the wrong thing. It's true. Greatbatch was working on making a circuit to help record fast heart sounds. He reached into a box for a resistor in order to finish the circuit and pulled out a 1-megaohm resistor instead of a 10,000-ohm one. The circuit pulsed for 1.8 milliseconds and then stopped for one second. Then it repeated. The sound was as old as man: a perfect heartbeat.

No. 1 - Penicillin

 

You read this far into the list looking for penicillin, didn't you? That's OK. As one of the most famous and fortunate accidents of the 20th century, penicillin belongs at No. 1 on this list. If you've been living under a rock for the past 80 years or so, here's how the popular story goes: Alexander Fleming didn't clean up his workstation before going on vacation one day in 1928. When he came back, Fleming noticed that there was a strange fungus on some of his cultures. Even stranger was that bacteria didn't seem to thrive near those cultures. Penicillin became the first and is still one of the most widely used antibiotics.