Fuji's glove camera

What will they think of next? At the recent Future Creation Fair in Tokyo, Fuji Photo showed off a prototype wearable digicam called Sign Operation Camera that it's working on. We're not talking about a mini cam you can wear around your neck but one that, quite literally, fits you like a glove. The concept uses the hand as an anchor, with the lens worn on the forefinger like a ring, the LCD display sitting at the back of the hand and the battery placed somewhere around the wrist. The shutter, interestingly, is triggered by finger signs such as making a V sign with forefinger and middle finger. Now if HP can customize a diamond-encrusted iPod for rapper Puff Diddy, we reckon it won't be long before the gloved one puts in orders for this Fuji shooter.

Price: N.A.
Availability: Still in concept stage
Device: Digital camera
Basic specs: N.A.

Sushi specs

Who says Germans have no sense of silliness? Berlin firm ic! berlin has designed eyewear with built-in chopsticks where the frame arms detach to double as utensils. Designer Ralph Anderl says his Sushi specs "fly out of the shops", which isn't so hard to believe given the Japanese's love for Chindogu (un-useless inventions). In that vein, why not double the lenses as soya sauce containers? However, we'll have to say no thanks to those Sushi specs unless you like your fish delicately flavored with a touch of hair grease. (Picture from Ananova Web site)

Price: US$330
Availability: Selected opticians in Europe, the US and Japan
Device: Chopstick-integrated eyewear
Basic specs: N.A.

Olympus Mju(µ)-mini

What is it about our continuing fascination with little things? We ooh'd over the card-sized Casio Exilims. Now we're ahh-ing over Olympus' shape-defying, Tom Thumbish offering--the Mju(µ) mini DIGITAL. While this is a stunning exercise in miniaturization, there's nothing minimalist about this Mju. Melding its signature weather-proof metal body with high-tech features, you get a 4-megapixel shooter that also packs a 2x optical zoom and 1.8-inch LCD display. And since metallic colors are now uber chic, this Mju Mini offers a Technicolor palette of silver, pure white, black, crystal blue, velvet red and copper orange. So now you have matching colors to go with your iPod Mini.

Click here for: front/back view | colors

Price: Tentatively US$349
Availability: From October
Device: Digital camera
Basic specs: 4 megapixels, 2x optical zoom, 1.8-inch LCD, TruePic TURBO image processor, movie recording function with sound, 16MB xD-Picture Card supplied, Pictbridge, 95 x 56 x 28mm, 115g

Kitty Speaker

Spotted at a Kitty Ex exhibition now touring Japan--Hello Kitty speakers. You'll either love or hate them, but there's no avoiding Kitty overload as Sanrio's most popular export prepares to turn 30 on November 1. In fact, a brigade of over 100 eclectic artists, designers and musicians from Japan and overseas have been paying tribute to this ultimate playmate, prolifically exhibiting works relating to the mute but cute feline, including Kitty speakers by Barnstormers founder David Ellis. Hello Kitty banzai! (10,000 years of life!)

Price: N.A.
Availability: Japan on exhibition
Device: Speakers
Basic specs: 50.8cm

Airconditioned motorbike

Rain or shine, it sucks to be a motorist. Those two-wheeled chariots just aren't designed to keep out the elements. Since you can now lay hands on a bike with an attached canopy, it only remains to invent a motorcycle with onboard airconditioning. Impossible? Enter Israeli inventor Glen Guttman whose solution is simply an electronic unit powered by a standard motorcycle battery. This funnels cold air through a connecting tube into a thermal undershirt worn under the motorcyclist's jacket. The special undershirt apparently distributes cold air evenly over the rider's entire upper body. So far, no one's mentioned what happens after you get off your bike, and start baking in all that extra apparel, undershirt included. Still, crash helmets off to an ingeniously cool idea (pun intended).

Price: N.A.
Availability: Beta trials in the US
Device: Airconditioning unit
Basic specs: Tubing, airconditioning unit, undershirt

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