Product Inspiration

LED light bulbs, while great, still fall behind other light bulbs in the amount of light they give off, and in the ugly color of light that is emitted. Well, that may soon be a thing of the past, as researchers have recently shown that a nanocrystal coating applied to the outside of the bulb both increases the amount of light given off, and turns it into a much more natural color.

Its been said that LEDs will eventually replace all other light bulbs, but I’ve always been skeptical given the ugly colors and weak light output of the models so far. If this new technology proves to be both true and cheap enough to mass-produce, I may be proven very wrong in a few years.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/nanocrystal-coating-led-lightb ulbs.php

As many people know, GPS systems work great in open outdoor spaces, but perform very poorly indoors and in urban areas. There are quite a few different methods to mitigate this problem in development or available now, and here’s a new one: Each light bulb in a commercial building flickers at a specific frequency, and a handheld gadget reads the frequency of the flicker, and determines its location.

Frequency-modulated light communication has been tossed around for a little while now, but other than theory and research projects, we haven’t seen many useful civilian applications to date. The concept is a great one, as there are light bulbs all around us, and in theory we could make a mesh network intranet using light bulbs that talked to each other.

What do you think, will this light-based communication paradigm ever gain significant ground, or will it remain a novelty for years to come?

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2008/02/lightbased_hospital_gps_for_ lost_patients.html

With recent advancements in the manufacture of nano-size coatings and particles, there is a growing number of products which offer “self-cleaning” capabilities. Some of these products are simply hydrophobic (repels water), so that no sticky liquids collect on the surfaces. Others incorporate nanoparticles of silver to kill any bacteria which land on them. In particular, these silver nanoparticles have made quite an impact, and are now in everything from door handles to pens to infant shoes.

These particular products use nanoparticles of titanium dioxide, which reacts with light to break down any organic material. So far, the nanoparticle coating has been applied to bathroom fixtures and windows. Much like the silver nanoparticle boom, I bet we will see a bunch more applications where titanium dioxide particles are used to keep surfaces clean, such as on cars, patio furniture, and even perhaps clothing.

Where else would it be nice to have a self-cleaning product?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4696434.stm

http://corporateportal.ppg.com/NA/Glass/ResidentialGlass/Homeowners/Pr oductInformation/SunClean/

Years ago, fiber optics were touted as the ‘next big thing’ in digital communication, and plans were made to bring optical fiber connectivity into every house. Unfortunately, these high quality glass fibers are quite expensive, and the effort fell short of its goals because of this high cost.

Recent advancements in plastics quality and manufacturing has opened the door for plastic optical fibers which provide the same optical data transmission capabilities at a fraction of the cost. A new European initiative is underway to get such plastic optical fibers made and ready for mass deployment.

If this effort is successful, we could see a reinvigoration of the 20 year old effort to get optical connections to all homes and buildings. For us rural-yet-technologically-inclined folks, this is music to our ears.

http://www.physorg.com/news119110397.html

This handheld device acts as x-ray vision, allowing you to see through walls and boxes and get a glimpse of what’s on the other side through its LCD screen. In yet another great example of biomimetics, the developers used lobster vision as the inspiration for this gadget, and use X-ray reflection to create an image.

There have been a few other interesting devices in the last few years which claim to give the same ’see through walls’ ability, such as this x ray scope which uses RF reflection and refraction for building the images. While the lobster vision device seems like it may have better image quality, the dangerous nature of x-rays will probably keep it out of our civilian hands indefinitely.

http://www.poc.com/emerging_products/lexid/default.asp via therawfeed

Unlike conventional glow in the dark material, this new stuff doesn’t need any exposure to sunlight or artificial light to give off useable light for over 12 years. It uses microspheres which house some radioactive gas to produce the light. Luckily, the sphere construction prevents rupture, so there’s no worries about getting accidental exposure to unwanted radiation.

A while back, electroluminescent materials were the new ‘big thing’, and while they provided a cool lighting effect for a low price, they still need power to run. If the claims hold true for this material, we could have a very useful and widespread tool for emergency lighting and safety markings in a few years.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/new_light_glows.php

Technorati : betavoltaics, glow in the dark

Every kid eventually learns that chocolate bars and pant pockets don’t mix. At some point, we all have probably left one in either the car, our pocket, or some other hot place for too long, and when we finally open it, the chocolate has melted and turned into a puddle of brown muck.

This Japanese company has made a real slick way of (ideally) preventing this frequent occurrence by adding a temperature sensing sticker to the box. This sticker changes color according to the temperature of the air around it. While temperature-affected color changes are nothing new (some of you may remember hypercolor shirts), I think it is still an underused tool for making cheap and innovative new product features. For example, why can’t I glance at my thermostat from across the room, and tell how hot it is by what hue of red or blue it shows?

http://inventorspot.com/articles/chocolate_bar_stickers_tell_when_8515

Technorati : chocolate, sensor, temperature

While small, wirelessly connected webcams are nothing new, this small camera is actually powered by the soul-crushing white light that comes from the long fluorescent lights which are standard in pretty much every business in the world. Actually, its not powered by the light itself, but rather the magnetic field that these bulbs emit.

Recently, a client of ours almost terminated a project because the cost of connecting the new device to an outlet (or running new electrical wiring) to the gadget’s location was too high. While we were able to solve the problem in a different way, this could have been a great alternative.

Seeing how these lights are so pervasive (and more importantly, identical) across the world, its rather safe to assume that any gadget which connects to them can be installed in basically any business or government. So then, this could be a great development platform for making new powered devices which can be connected to the ceiling. The identical nature of these bulbs could be a great way to get around having to supply different power adapters for each country. Even further, the concept of using some existing magnetic field to power new sensors and add-on electronics could be applied to a bunch of other applications as well.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/12/03/symbiotic-camera-cad.html

Technorati : magnetic field, webcam, wireless

This is a great example of a technology moving from one industry to another. Contactless temperature sensing has been around for a long time (we have one here PCDworks to check the temperature of molten metal when we’re making prototype castings), and its used in all kinds of industrial applications where you can’t get close enough to the hot stuff without burning your hand (or melting the thermometer). This gadget uses the same technology to provide an easier-to-use thermometer to diagnose fevers and other childhood ailments. Taking a fully developed technology from one industry and applying it to another is one of the best and easiest ways to make an effective new product.

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20071121/kidz-med-thermofocus/

Technorati : temperature, thermometer

Although lots of wearable displays have been coming out lately, most make you look somewhere between clueless and insane. Finally, we’re starting to see some (that are past the concept stage) which are both a wearable display and are somewhat discrete. This particular model is for athletes, and displays the heartbeat and a stopwatch in the corner of the glasses. Hopefully more heads up displays will move towards less obtrusiveness while still being useful.

http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12807&feedId=tech_r ss20