Posts Tagged eco gadgets
The Water-Scraper: I would live on it without a huge eco-disaster
Posted by admin in Future Concepts on March 10th, 2010
In case you don’t want to live in this Gyre Floating city, you might want to live in this building here, which has been known as “waterscraper” or “seascraper”. I believe that the formal name is the hO2+ scraper.
It is an attempt at making a skyscraper underwater, but I think we can emphasize the word “scrape”. After all, those weird tentacles that come out of this structure look like they are “scraping” the water. From what I have read, it sounds like these tentacle things are there to harness the power of wave energy as well as balancing out the structure itself.
Not only does it have a self-contained energy source, but this structure could probably get food from fish and gardens. In short, I could live here, and that whole Waterworld scenerio wouldn’t have to happen. And if it did, then my home would slowly float up, and I probably would not notice if the ice caps melted slowly enough.
This Water-Scraper is the recipient of a Special Mention from the 2010 Skyscraper Competition from eVolo. If nothing else, then I think the creator of this deserves the Grand Prize, and some company who is willing to build this superstructure. I don’t know when we would possibly see this in real life, but I’m thinking sometime way in the future, hopefully not out of necessity.
Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ The Water-Scraper: I would live on it without a huge eco-disaster copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
See the original post:
The Water-Scraper: I would live on it without a huge eco-disaster
Waterpebble tracks water used
Posted by admin in Future Concepts on March 10th, 2010
I’m one of the many who’s a bit notorious for just letting too much water go down the drain. It’s not that I mean to, it’s just when I’m half awake in the morning, I’m not that worried about water consumption. If you’re not ready for a device that just shuts off the water when you’ve used too much, then this Waterpebble is a nice happy medium. Instead it goes for a subtle approach.
It has 3 different shades of lights, one is green, then there is red and yellow. You can pretty much guess which colors mean what. The red means you need to get your tail out of the shower, the yellow means you should speed things up a bit and the green means you’re in the clear. It sits right next to your drain and just keeps track of how much water goes down it. Right now this is a concept design by Paul Priestman.
Source: CraziestGadgets
Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ Waterpebble tracks water used copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Originally posted here:
Waterpebble tracks water used
Solar Racer Kit
Posted by admin in Kids Gadgets on March 1st, 2010
There are few better ways to spend an afternoon than building your own miniature racer and then getting to test it out. It’s even better since this little car runs on the power of the sun, which means you won’t have to worry about switching out batteries constantly. It’d be a great project to do with kids or just for yourself. Just make sure that the kids are age 8 or over.
The car comes in a total of 8 different pieces and comes with a handy instruction manual. It doesn’t mention if you’ll need any fancy tools to put it all together. Since it does come in so few parts though, hopefully it will be pretty basic to piece together. Usually they say so if you’re going to need anything out of the ordinary, besides things like screw drivers. You can purchase it for £7.45 or about $11 through the Ethical Superstore.
Source: Envirogadget
Cool Gift Idea: Digital Picture Frames, check out our reviews.
[ Solar Racer Kit copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
See the rest here:
Solar Racer Kit
Solar Racer Kit
Posted by admin in Kids Gadgets on March 1st, 2010
There are few better ways to spend an afternoon than building your own miniature racer and then getting to test it out. It’s even better since this little car runs on the power of the sun, which means you won’t have to worry about switching out batteries constantly. It’d be a great project to do with kids or just for yourself. Just make sure that the kids are age 8 or over.
The car comes in a total of 8 different pieces and comes with a handy instruction manual. It doesn’t mention if you’ll need any fancy tools to put it all together. Since it does come in so few parts though, hopefully it will be pretty basic to piece together. Usually they say so if you’re going to need anything out of the ordinary, besides things like screw drivers. You can purchase it for £7.45 or about $11 through the Ethical Superstore.
Source: Envirogadget
Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Solar Racer Kit copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Here is the original:
Solar Racer Kit
Landport Solar-Powered Speakers
Posted by admin in Audio Gadgets on February 26th, 2010
Apparently these oddly shaped speakers are Japan’s very first set of active speakers that are solar-powered. These look more like a cryptic scroll than a set of speakers, but they are speakers. They’re also speakers that will help you become just a little more eco-friendly. After all, every little bit helps. These flat speakers are shaped just right to give you the sound you need and suck up all the sun they’ll require to keep up and running.
Once the Lithium-ion battery has managed to get a full charge, the speakers will run for a full 8 hours continuously. The 19.5cm by 11.2cm by 5cm speaker can be connected to your iPod or MP3 player through the stereo mini input. It weighs 290 grams and will be released in Japan sometime this coming March. At that time it’ll be priced at 5,250 Yen or right around $58.
Source: TechFresh
Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ Landport Solar-Powered Speakers copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
See the rest here:
Landport Solar-Powered Speakers
Philips Sustainable City Lights concept project
Posted by admin in Future Concepts on February 25th, 2010
What you are seeing here is the Sustainable City Lights concept project from our friends at Philips.
Yes, Philips has given us many terrific products in the past few decades, and I cannot help think that this one seems really obvious.
You see, our streets just have to be lit at night, right? Of course, these streetlights have to be powered by something, so why not the power of the sun? Well, for one thing, streetlights only come on at night.
However, streetlights don’t do much during the day except make themselves vulnerable to an ever-abundant energy source known as the sun. Therefore, I see absolutely no reason why streetlights can’t just have solar panels on streetlights that absorb energy during the day so they can be used at night.
Of course, I am certain there has to be something with my logic, or else we would be doing this already. Perhaps you can’t get that much power during the day to last you through the night, especially when there are times of the year when the days are shorter.
Of course, I’m speaking as someone who might not know any better. I hope Philips work out the kinks that I am thinking of associated with this particular project.
Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ Philips Sustainable City Lights concept project copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Read more from the original source:
Philips Sustainable City Lights concept project
Gyre Floating City for inhabiting the oceans
Posted by admin in Future Concepts on February 13th, 2010
Come on, it’s Friday, and you know that you read tech blogs so you can dream about technology like this.
This Gyre (that’s what it’s called, but I don’t know how to pronounce it) is one of those concept drawings that will probably never be made into reality. But if the world really is getting as overpopulated at some people are saying, then we will have to live in the ocean. After all, the Earth is seventy percent water, and we’re only living on the thirty percent.
This floating city will have just about everything including shops, hotels, restaurants, and other recreation areas. Gyre has the space equivalent of 40 football fields, and can support two thousand inhabitants.
Of course, someone will have to power all of these things, right? The plan is to use a combination of solar power, mixed with tidal and wind. Rainwater will have to be collected for water, but I’m not certain what the source of food will be.
I wonder what it would be like to live in this city? Well, I suppose that one day we will find out if the ice caps melt and we have to live out in the ocean like in Waterworld. Gyre certainly looks better than any city from that Costner flick.
Coolest Gadgets UK – For all your UK centric tech and gadget news.
[ Gyre Floating City for inhabiting the oceans copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Excerpt from:
Gyre Floating City for inhabiting the oceans
The Wearable Telecommunicator is like having a little friend on your shoulder
Posted by admin in Future Concepts on February 13th, 2010
Imagine if Jiminy cricket in Pinocchio was a robot, and he would be on his shoulder like you see in this picture. Granted, Steven Spielberg sort of did that in A.I., but the Wearable Telecommunicator is a reality.
The Wearable Telecommunicator has been developing experimental technology for a robot that is operated by a remote user so he or she can see, hear, and even gesture through the shoulder-mounted robot.
There is a video after the jump, and you can see the user of the Wearable Telecommunicator with virtual reality goggles. You know, the type that we all thought would be wearing by now back in the early nineties.
So I guess this is some way for a person to be in two places at the same time. In other words, the human can talk to someone new at a party, and the robot can chime in any time.
You know what it reminds me of? The scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker has Yoda on his back during training. As I recall, R2D2 was in that scene, so I suppose what we are seeing with the Wearable Telecommunicator is a cross between the bossy micromanagement of Yoda and the helpful metal companion of Artoo.
Of course, this technology is still under development, hopefully we will never see an age where everyone has one of these robot parrots on their shoulder.
Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ The Wearable Telecommunicator is like having a little friend on your shoulder copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
View original here:
The Wearable Telecommunicator is like having a little friend on your shoulder
To get the energy out of your kids, use the sOccket Ball
Posted by admin in Kids Gadgets on February 4th, 2010
Does anyone think that it is strange that we live in a world where we must conserve all the energy we can, but children have energy to spare? Fortunately, the sOccket Ball has figured out a way to harness the power of children’s play.
That’s right, the sOccket ball. Don’t ask me why this product name is so odd, with its usage of capital and lower case letters, but here is how the device works.
Inside the ball is an inductive coil system, which is the same device on those flashlights that you can shake to recharge. If kids play with the ball for about 15 minutes, then they will have enough energy to power a normal LED light for about 3 hours.
This technology is similar to the Playpump, a device that has playground equipment connected to a generator. I’m beginning to think that every kid’s game can be turned into some energy harnessing device.
There is one slight problem with the sOccket Ball: it is not a regulation soccer ball. Yeah, it has a different feel and weight of a normal soccer ball, but this ball is designed for little children playing, not big league matches. This isn’t the World Cup sOccket ball, for crying out loud!
Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ To get the energy out of your kids, use the sOccket Ball copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Read more from the original source:
To get the energy out of your kids, use the sOccket Ball
The Solar Powered Bottle Boat Kit
Posted by admin in Kids Gadgets on January 28th, 2010
Although you probably couldn’t pay me to go near water as cold as it is outside, eventually it will warm up again. At least I’m pretty sure it will. Once that happens you might want to pick up one of these Solar Bottle Boat Kits to give you something to do while you’re near some water in the middle of the summer. It’ll give you something to play with, plus the joy of knowing that you built it yourself.
The boat uses a solar panel on the top to keep itself powered. Don’t worry all of the technology that goes into the kit is completely waterproof. It’s all made with water usage in mind. All you need to get that’s outside of the kit is a plastic soda bottle. There are a total of 3 different boat designs for you to choose from. The kit comes with a solar panel, wires, motor, propellers, tape, shafts and other various odds and ends. You can purchase the kit for $24.95 from the Solar Sphere.
Source: EnviroGadget
Cool Gift Idea: Digital Picture Frames, check out our reviews.
[ The Solar Powered Bottle Boat Kit copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Read the rest here:
The Solar Powered Bottle Boat Kit