Talk to the hand via HandTalk

There may come a day when telling someone to "Talk to the hand" won't intimate you're turning a deaf ear to what the other person has to say. Quite the contrary. Designers Bhargav Bhat, Hemant Sikaria and Priya Narasimhan have in hand a prototype gadget called HandTalk, which essentially is a phone for the hearing impaired. This wearable glove device detects the motions and gestures used in sign language, translates these into audio, then plays this back on a cell phone or mobile device.

Recently showcased at the Meeting Of The Minds expo at Carnegie Mellon University Center, the mobile software app can reportedly detect 32 words to date--a mere drop in the ocean of the hearing impaired's vocabulary. But it's a start, and one the team hopes to expand by integrating pressure sensors and accelerometers to augment the flexor strips on the glove's digits. Hopefully, too, this turns out to be more than just vaporware, unlike a certain glove camera.

Via Tech Pin | Photo credit: Carnegie Mellon University Center

Personal rocket copter for your commute

With US$4 gas prices looking like a permanent fact of life, consumer interest in jetpacks and other forms of personal air transport might soon go from whimsy to reality. That seems to be driving the engineers at Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana, whose latest project is the Libelula Rocket Helicopter.

Don't laugh. This may look like something from a 1950s sci-fi movie, but its creators have already produced a Rocket Belt built to custom specifications. The personal chopper could be also be more reliable than its full-size counterparts because, Dvice says, "by using tiny rocket motors at the tips of the rotor blades, the Libelula eliminates the torque which makes a tail rotor necessary in a conventional helicopter".

There are other potential advantages over the jetpacks we've seen, including price. We assume that the Libelula will be at least a tad cheaper than the Rocket Belt, which goes for US$250,000--that's crazy money to pay for anything, let alone something that can fly for only 30 seconds at a time. Then again, the way prices at the pump are going, it might be worth another look.

Via Crave CNET

Transmit data through your skin with Firmo

Science just got weirder. And we're not talking about that mid-1980s flick Weird Science where two teenaged boys use a computer to design the perfect woman; not surprisingly a Frankensteinish sex kitten (Kelly LeBrock in the skin). The buzzword here is "skin" since this one's rooted to your derma. Grown right out of a Japanese petri dish, Firmo is NTT's idea of a device that transforms the human body into its own truly personal area network (PAN), allowing users to communicate with devices just by touching them. The Japanese telco giant, however, prefers to call this HAN or human area network.

The gadget in question is a card-sized transmitter that cloaks the body with a weak AC field so that when this comes into contact with a compatible receiver, it is translated into signals that can be read by the device. The potential applications are far-reaching, from making payments (putting paid to contactless payments?) to activating your music player with a single touch. Frankly, the idea of being constantly charged up raises goose bumps on what this might do to our organs in the long run.

For the cutting-edge snobs, Firmo is not cheap. A set of five transmitters and one receiver goes for 800,000 yen (US$7,620). So much like the placards you see on retail shelves showcasing breakables, it's see but no touch, at least for now.

Via RBB Today | Photo credit: NTT

Watch 14 hours of movies with Sony's tiny fuel cell

Granted it's still in prototype stage, but Sony's latest micro-sized hybrid fuel cell nevertheless offers a sneak peek at what to expect of batteries in mobile devices in the coming years. The tiny fuel cell measures a handy 50 x 30mm, thanks to its combination of a Lithium-polymer battery, fuel cell and control circuit, with methanol as the fuel. A pump regulates the fuel supply to cater to the device's power needs.

According to the Japanese company, 10ml of methanol can provide almost 14 hours of 1seg TV viewing on mobile phones, which is pretty impressive for such a small fuel cell unit. 1seg is a digital audio-video broadcasting technology used for mobile devices such as cell phones and the PlayStation Portable in Japan.

But given how slowly fuel cell-powered devices are trickling into the market, we reckon it'll be some time before a commercial version of Sony's hybrid fuel cell is even introduced.

Via TechOn Nikkei
Photo credit: TechOn Nikkei

Just be careful not to hit the wrong keys

Look closely--well, not too closely. That's not one of those rollup keyboards stuck to the lap of this guy's pants. It's actually sewn into the fabric, creating what designer Erik De Nijs calls the Beauty and the Geek jeans, according to GeekAlerts.

Not only that, but this conceptual garment also includes speakers built into the knees, a pocket for mouse storage in the back, and a joystick controller behind the zipper (don't ask). The only thing that's missing is a nocturnal version that glows in the dark.

(Thanks to fellow Craver Natali Del Conte)

Via Crave CNET

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