Posts in Future Tech

Biodegradeable cell phone covers

Juniper Foo | Dec 10, 2004

Here's a blooming good idea. Toss that old handphone cover onto a compost pile (or potted soil for HDB sky dwellers), and weeks later this morphs into a sunflower, thanks to a seed embedded in the cover. The idea, still under germination in the labs of the University of Warwick, biodegradable plastics maker PVAXX Research & Development and Motorola, seeks to ease the burden of recycling on our much-abused planet which faces some 650 million phones being sold this year alone. Why stop at flowers? We could soon be growing our own edible vegetables and bulbs all from discarded cell phone casings.

Image from the University of Warwick

Price: N.A.
Availability: Q2 2005
Device: Biodegradable polymer covers
Basic specs: N.A.

Filed under: Future Tech
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CyberCar

Juniper Foo | Dec 08, 2004

Fifteen European research centers have seen the future of motoring, and it is driverless. With 3,000 trial rides carried out successfully in the French town of Antibes, the CyberCar is slightly brainier than your autopilot airport cart, thanks to a pre-programmed route and a laser-sweeping device out front that avoids or stops at obstacles. Whether you're expected to get out and remove the offending hindrance isn't clear. But carjackers can kiss goodbye to nabbing this futuristic vehicle since there's no steering wheel to wrest control of. Then again, the golf cart-like CyberCar ain't no sweet-looking Toyota Lexus a la Minority Report.

Price: N.A.
Availability: Prototype
Device: Driverless car
Basic specs: N.A.

Filed under: Future Tech
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