Product Inspiration

As most of your already know, there is a LOT of R & D resources being put into ethanol these days. Here’s one development in particular that seems a good candidate for success. Like other promising methods, it can take a huge range of feed stocks (from food processing by-products to sewage waste), and does the conversion through specially engineered bacteria that consume the processed feedstock and excrete ethanol. Unlike some other promising methods though, this system is both cost effective and immediately ready for deployment.

http://www.wired.com/cars/energy/news/2008/01/ethanol23

Technorati : bacteria, ethanol

This system, which has been in the works for a few years now, harnesses wind power to save fuel costs for big ocean-going shipping vessels. A large kite-like sail is attached to the ship, and provides extra power to get the boat across the ocean in less time and fuel costs. The first of these sails (which are being developed by multiple different companies) will set sail this year.

Here’s my two favorite things about this technology:

1) Its practically ‘money for nothing’- the system pays for itself in 3 years, and the user reaps the profit for every year thereafter which it is still functional.

2) It borrows from the older version of the same product. While it doesn’t happen often, sometimes the best innovations for a current product (intercontinental shipping) may be inspired by an outdated design (sailboats) of the same product.

What other products could be improved by applying older design aspects to the current form?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/go_fly_a_kite_from_your_ship.p hp

Here’s another great technology from the movies that’s been made into reality. It uses a focused microwave beam to remotely disable a speeding vehicle, allowing the police to stop a fugitive’s car with much less risk than the typical tire puncturing tools.

The beam of microwave radiation is aimed at places where the car’s electrical system is exposed to the outside environment, such as the headlights, antenna, and exposed nuts and bolts. The microwave energy then overloads the circuit, damaging the wires or central processor. It works from 10 to 50 feet away in just 50 nanoseconds, and is not harmful to people.

Future plans for the device are to shrink it from 200 to 50 pounds, and to increase the range up to 600 feet. While I can’t think of much practical use for this technology aside from a tool for both cops and robbers alike, maybe there are other places where we need the ability to remotely kill some electronic system. Remote bomb diffusing, perhaps?

GPS tracking is becoming more and more widespread each day. In the last 6 months or so, a plethora of consumer tracking gadgets have come out for people such as concerned parents to keep tabs on their children. This new upcoming gadget fits inside an envelope, and tracks the movement of the envelope through the postal system.

It will be very nice once the GPS tracking function shrinks in cost and size enough to be stuck into practically anything- think about how great it would be to find your lost keys, phone, or wallet by logging onto the internet and checking its location. Actually, applications are already out for GPS-equipped phones to do exactly this, but there are some serious drawbacks (drains your cell battery, and does not work much of the time).

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/21/gps-letter-logger-promises-to-keep- tabs-on-mail/

Technorati : gps tracking, mail

It seems that ever since the Nintendo 64 rumble pack came out, all kinds of gadgets have been adding the vibrate-to-get-attention function as a way to silently grab someone’s attention. From cell phones to children’s toys, this tactile form of feedback is a very effective way to capture someone’s focus when sound is either inappropriate or ineffective.

This particular product uses ground-facing sub woofers on police patrol cars to shake the ground and alert people to get the heck out of the way. In today’s age of crowded streets and loud car stereos (which also shake the ground, but that’s another gripe altogether), this is a great way to get attention in a somewhat discrete way.

I predict that more and more gadgets will add vibrate functions to grab our attention- wouldn’t it be nice if your radar detector shook your steering wheel instead of blaring its awful alarm sounds?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/21/police-rumbler-grabs-your-attention -rattles-your-teeth/

Technorati : attention, police, rumble, vibration

This new fingerprint reader for your car beats out the competition on quite a few different levels:

• Better security: It uses vein identification (identifies you by your unique pattern of veins in your finger tip), instead of the conventional fingerprint
• Easier to use: It’s attached to the steering wheel
• Personalized: Once the driver is identified, the car will adjust to that person’s preferred seat position, air conditioning, and stereo settings.

Now that digital fingerprint readers are more and more widespread each day, its nice to see that people are finally using them for other uses that actually have some day to day benefit. This is a perfect example of successfully “re-appropriating” an existing technology to serve a new purpose, and hopefully is the first of many more convenience- based uses for boring old fingerprint readers.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hitachi/hitachi-to-install-its-fingervein-s ecurity-system-in-steering-wheels-313869.php