Based on magnetic resonant inductive coupling technology developed in 1894, researchers at Stanford have just developed an innovative wireless electric car charging system for highways – it would power moving cars at high efficiency while untethering them from plugs. The system comprises of a series of coils embedded underway: as one coil is charged, the other will absorb the resulting magnetic field and turn it into electrical energy. Experiments now prove that the coils can deliver 10 kilowatts of energy for 6.5 feet, and the transfer of electricity is about 97% efficient.

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New good things in and old good things out, undoubtedly we’re now living in a throw-away culture nowadays. But instead of throwing those unneeded items away, there’s actually a better way for us to deal with them: to recycle them via the Swap-O-Matic Vending Machine. The machine comes with thirteen compartments where the items to be traded can be placed in and one touchscreen interface on which users can keep track of their account. When using the vending machine, you can either directly exchange your unused item for one placed in the compartment or place it in one compartment for sale. Quite interestingly, when you buy or sell one thing, you won’t need to pay or get paid with real money but virtual credits instead. As a result, as long as you have something in hand, you can exchange it for a needed item conveniently.

As the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games are soon to begin, the London government is now busying with many projects to make the city good enough to welcome guests from all over the world. One of those projects is the LCD smart recycling bins built in London’s streets and public spaces. Each recycling bin features a couple of LCD screens on either side, which will display the latest news from 6 am to the mid-night every day. The bins are fitted with Wi-Fi too, so that they can offer a better and wider connectivity. Since these bins are nearly the most high-tech recycling bins we’ve ever met, each of them will cost about £30,000 to build.

Based on clever design and accurate arrange, the Rozetkcus Wall Socket comes with 9 points to allow you to plug in various shapes of devices effectively. It not only solves that problem that we usually need to insert several different types of plugs in one socket, but also promises endless possibilities of how to configure your devices according to their plugs’ shapes. Except for the 9-point socket, the Rozetkcus is also available in a 16 points version.

Designer: Art Lebedev Studio

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The science and technology is forwarding ahead so fast that they’ve left us many and many gadgets we no longer use, such as old-modeled radios, cellphones, music players, tablets and so on. Especially guys who are always buying new phones and updating their devices, they really don’t know what to do with those discarded one… It’s time to trade with the ecoATM. Recently emerging in California, the ecoATM is an automated gadget recycler with a touchscreen and a metal tray where you can put your devices to be recycled. The ecoATM has been inputted with over 4,000 kinds of gadgets, thus it can recognize your device, checking out if it still works and after that displays a quote for it on the screen. If you accept its offer, the ecoATM then dispenses cash in return. Or, you can cancel the trade to get your gadgets back if you’re not satisfactory with the price the ecoATM offers.

Special tool for special use, the “Rhythm Slim” is rightly something that can combat muscle aches and slack skins. Put it under your chin, push down on the top piston, and hold it down for ten seconds – repeating that process for several times every day, you may then the difference after a period. Will the Rhythm Slim machine really work? We bet it will, if you can persist on the exercise for a long enough period.

Selling Price: $136

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Anytime, anywhere, watch what you’d like to watch, and that’s rightly the thing David Forbes’ Wearable LED TV would help you to do. The wearable LED display involves customized display boards, circuits, batteries, iPod and speakers, making it functional enough to display some videos even during your moving.  For more details and manufacturing costs, you can check out the story at Popsci.

Designer: David Forbes

“FIT” armband developed by BodyMedia and IBM is a body-tracking gadget that not only knows how unhealthy you are, but can offer specific recommendations on how to reverse the trend. The armband is built with several different sensors, which can gather and analyze up to 5,000 individual data points every minute, to track everything from how active you are or how well you sleep. Once you log the data using IBM’s WebSphere Operational Decision Management (WODM), you’ll be sent with some valuable suggestions then.

Designer: BodyMedia & IBM

Selling Price: $199.99

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Basically an outstanding paper-cut artwork is always related to the masterly craftsmanship, while sometimes it is actually all completed by an electronic machine, such as the Silhouette CAMEO. When connected to your PC via a simple USB cable, the electronic cutting tool will then automatically cut out the pattern you’ve chosen on paper, cardboard, vinyl, fabric or other materials.

Selling Price: $269.99

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Belkin’s Wemo home automation system is a smart device that allows you to control the electrical outlets of your home via your smartphones or a motion sensor modular. The system is all based on Wi-Fi technology, comprising of a Home Control Switch and a Motion Sensor module, which function in different ways in fact. The Home Control Switch is a plug, which sits between the wall socket and plug from any electric device, to provide a programmable on / off switch that can be controlled by a smartphone or triggered by the company’s Motion Sensor. And the Motion Sensor, just as you may have guessed, is a wireless motion-sensitive switch that can sit anywhere to ensure the users an instant control of the electricity outlets.

Designer: Belkin

Selling Price: $49.99(Home Control Switch); $59.99(Motion Sensor module)

As a newer and cleverer solution to solve the problem of “overcharging”, Bracketron’s GreenZero chargers can automatically shut off once your devices is fully charged. The GreenZero, available in a Mushroom and Stone styles, is compatible with iPhone, USB, and Android specific models, shutting off automatically to save energy and avoid top-off stress on batteries. Set to be released at CES in Las Vegas later this month, the GreenZero will be priced at $22 to $29.

Designer: Bracketron

Selling Price: $22-$29

PumPing Tap is a 2011 red dot design concept winner, which can cleverly solve the problem of wastage of electricity by automatically ejecting a plug when the appliance is switched off. About ten minutes later after you’ve turned your device off but haven’t unplugged it, the socket will then eject the plug, so as to completely cut off the electricity.

Designer: Seong Soyeon, Kim Seonmi, Lee Jeongjae, Park Jihye & Lee Yeontaek

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I’ve known of many people, especially those in love, getting used to making a copy of their SMS and IM messages as the commemorative. But that really costs them too much time, unless they’ve gotten the “BlackBox”. It provides a convenient and easy solution for people to keep their valuable messages on hand, printing SMS and IM messages out via a standard, noncarbon receipt printing system. It can even print a message twice so that the user can share that conversation with others.

Designer: Joe Doucet

Certainly we’re all different: some people simply enjoyed the rock music, while some others were converting the music into electricity with their “Sound Charge” T shirts. T- Shirts?! Completely right, and the high-tech tee each can generate about 6 watt-hours of electricity to power two mobile phones or one smartphone, with a modified piezoelectric film that acts as an oversized mic by absorbing sound waves and some interlaced quartz crystals that converts the acoustic signals into electricity.

The beverage or snacks in vending machines seldom attracted your attention? Never mind, as they have now managed to draw the crowds to move closer and closer, by offering WiFi without any charge. Unveiled by Japanese company Asahi, the machine sends out internet waves that cover about 164 feet around it, allowing people to use it continuously even though there’s a 30-minute limit on each session. Asahi is planning on rolling out 1,000 of these in 2012.

Designer: Asahi

No more a long waiting time in cafes, as a vending machine can actually offer us a cup of coffee with a patterned foamy top too while costing less time and less money. This special vending machine appeared at the Yojiya Cafe in Haneda Airport, Japan, which uses drips of coffee poured carefully through milk to form a face on the top of your hot beverage. Currently the machine only offers coffee with the face of a woman floating on the top, and possibly in future the machine would come with other options like a hello kitty.

Designer: Yojiya Café

The development of bio-batteries is now pushed to a new level, after electronics giant Sony announced that it has developed a battery powered by paper. The batteries were demonstrated at the Eco-Products exhibition in Tokyo, where they have successfully powered a mini fan to work. Sony’s actually utilizes cellulose enzymes to accomplish this technology: after breaking down the paper, the enzymes were left with sugar that had been created from the cellulose; and then the sugar is processed to create hydrogen ions and electrons. Theoretically, a piece of A4 paper is expected to produce about 18 watts of electricity, equivalent to the electricity power of six AA batteries. But currently the electricity power we get is fewer than that, which is also a drawback of this bio-battery.

Designer: Sony

Hot egg is the most popular food in my family whenever the winter comes, as it not only warms my hands but also warms my stomach. It’s a pity that the eggs cannot keep hot for a long time, and they usually become cold after my way to offices. Thus I need something to reheat them. The ultra-portable Heater Egg Card seems like a good choice. It utilizes a wire-web and thin skin that envelops the egg to reduce heating time; features a collapsible casing that can be folded as thin as a credit card, thus to ensure us an easy carrying; still, it also comes with a USB charging style, which makes it practical in places without an electricity outlet.

Designer: Jidanjiareqi Limian

【Source】

Measuring merely four inches thick, this solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) can generate electricity from gasoline to diesel fuel to natural gas, featuring a power-to-size ratio that’s 10 times better than other fuel cells, and thus it’s really a high-efficient fuel cell that may surprise the users. Of course there’s still disadvantage of the SOFCs, which is that you have to heat the fuel cells up to 600 degrees to get them to work. But with further development on the SOFCs, we bet they’ll soon come to the market to serve us better.

Though claimed “zero waste” or “no waste”, these earthCell batteries actually are not something decomposing completely in the earth and leaving no footprint to the environment. Instead, they’re introducing to us a new way of selling and using batteries: since the used earthCell batteries can be returned to the company where they may get re-used again, the company and consumers would cooperate to reduce the amount of throw-away batteries, and thus to ensure the environmental friendliness. On the other hand, the earthCell features a good performance of rechargeable, as each pre-charged LSD-NiMH battery can last 30-50% longer than alkalines, even in high-power devices.

【More Information Here】

Smart and cute, these electrical outlets not only feature an outstanding appearance, but also come with new functions: their little “arms” can be used to hang your plugs until they’re in use again.

Researchers at the University of Michigan are currently busying with their cyborg insects that would be used in small spaces or nuclear disaster locations to assist people to collect information or do something else. These insects are all installed with sensors in their bodies, which are powered by the energy generated from their own wing motion. When fully-developed, these insects can help to investigate hazardous environments that are dangerous to humans, thus to find their application value.

Researchers from Northwestern University have developed a breakthrough battery technology that features both high efficiency of re-charging and better electricity energy storage. Compared with ordinary batteries, the new lithium ion batteries allows for using 10 times longer and recharges 10 times quicker. Generally it could keep your cellphone charged for a week and recharge in 15 minutes; when applied on electric cars, the battery can power it to run 500 miles with 10 minutes of charging.

Designer: Northwestern University

Pull and fix to provide your electrical appliances with enough electricity, to use an outlet is just as simple as that. Composed of 5 pods along a 15 foot-long cable, the Pod Power is an extension cord that brings the outlets to you, and in the meanwhile keeps your cables tidy and organized. With adhesive stripes included, the Pod Power can be stuck onto walls or tables once you’ve already adjusted the distance between the pods.

Selling Price: $34.99

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No doubt we people are selfish to some degree, because we really want everything belonging to us is exclusive, never the same as others’. ‘Artist’ Phone Case Printer, exhibited on ‘The Korea International Sign&Design Show (KOSIGN 2011)’, is rightly a device that prints out our own cellphone cases. It’s similar to ‘Photo sticker machine’, printing out your favorite pictures on a leather or silicon case within two or three minutes.

This is a unique electrical switch designed for your books. It is subtly hidden inside your books and turns your light on when you move the book, while it doesn’t bring any damage to the books. So what do you think, pull out your favorite book to turn a light on or turn on a light to find your favorite book?

Selling Price: $50

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Wish you iPhone, iPod, or iPad more powerful than they are now? Get the chance to change them into a medical device or magnification apparatus with the aids of the AirMicro Model A1then. It’s a portable wireless microscope that can magnify something to 50 or even 400 times the original image. Via a free application downloaded onto your iPhone, you may get a clear view of what you’re magnifying, even including your skin conditions.

Selling Price: $889

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Magical Blow On/Off Light Switch is something especially perfect for lazy people like me. It can attach to any electrical appliances and then lets you to switch on or off them via an easy control of the device. That means, if you sleep with a Light Switch besides your pillow, you can conveniently turn on the light when you need to get up in the midnight… Cool, I love the idea.

Selling Price: $15.99

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Well, seemingly we’re really in deep love of products from the Apple Company or those designed for the Apple, coz we’ve been focusing on the iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc for quite a continuous period. Here comes something for the iPhone too. It is a portable printer that can print out prints 4×6 photos with crystal-clear 300 dpi resolution directly from a docked iPhone or iPod touch. The new printer is easy to use, and can be controlled via a free downloadable app. Just imagine that any time you shot a photo, you can print it out almost at the same time, isn’t that great?

Selling Price: $159.95

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With the Apple Company is promoting their products almost every year, the Twelve South is designing and launching new accessories for iPad, iPhone, iMac from time to time too. PlugBug is rightly a product from Twelve South, created to let two gadgets reenergized at the same time with merely one charger. It is essentially a splitter for the iPad/iPhone charger, and allows two devices get charged once attached to your MagSafe.

Designer: Twelve South

Selling Price: $35

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iPad is expected to do many more things for you, including serving as a painting plate? Then you must need to get this Nomad Brush too. It is made of natural and synthetic fibers, performing well on the iPad’s responsive screen. Anything created by the Nomad Brush comes in colors, instead of white or black, and also shocking details.

Selling Price: £19.99

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A light signal isn’t functional enough to help you communicate with other drivers? Well, possibly the LED Light Display can. It is composed of mesh grid with about 600 LEDs, which are controlled by an ATmega AT89C51 microcontroller and play the messages you’ve already stored in the system. That means, when driving on the road, you can inform those behind you to back off, go ahead or do other things you may want with words displayed by the LED light. See what? The communication between drivers would become easier and clearer now.

Nest is a new thermostat put forward by Tony Fadell, who used to work in Apple Inc. and brought us with the iPod. Designed to be a smart thermostat that can learn about your schedule of changing the temperature and thus makes temperature adjustments based on that, the Nest comes with a stylish metal body, a touchscreen as well as a rolling wheel controller. It features a energy-saving modes like Auto-Away™ and Energy History too, so as to help the consumers reduce down their electricity consumption.

Designer: Tony Fadell

Selling Price: $249.99

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Our ordinary life is constructed with extraordinary stories, and even a chair, a lamp can remind us of some sweet memories. Thus when I get some old things from my friends, I’d like to know his/her story with the furniture or gadgets. Shen Hao Cheng’s Sony Echo is rightly something to record the life story of a secondhand product. It allows the new owner to retrieve significant information conveniently, and may even make emotion produce resonance between people. Kinda like a message recorder that can be passed on from one people to another… Really interesting.

Designer: Shen Hao Cheng

【Source】

My passion for cleanliness and organization finally drives me closer to this Corner Power Strip designed by Herald J. Ureña – Umaña. It features a triangular composition, which allows the gadget to be neatly placed in any corners. Plus, its clever design also ensures the power cord to face the direction of the outlet, so as to make it really convenient for use.

Designer: Herald J. Ureña – Umaña

【Source】

Anything that comes with an outlook nothing to do with its functions is usually interesting. And the Pistol Hairdryer shown here is rightly a good example. It is shaped like a pistol, however shots no bullets but hot air instead. If possible, I’d like to try it.

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Can solar cells become as flexible as paper or fabric? The answer from a MIT group is “yes”. Instead of producing solar cells, the researchers actually printed solar cells onto fabric or paper substrate, thus making the cells quite flexible. On the other hand, this technology reduces the production costs as well.

With more and more electronics on my table, there’re actually less and less power outlets to plug them all in. So it is obviously the time we need to use one power outlet to serve two or more gadgets. The FlipIt USB Charger is a clever tool that can leech off an existing plug to draw about 1Amp of current for your USB devices, while not troubling your other gadgets to get reenergized. Pretty great!

Selling Price: $15.99

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With battery-powered vibrations and gentle heat, the device is an ideal gift for ladies who want to improve the condition of their skin around the eyes. It’s easy to operate, simply lay them under your eyes and you can then enjoy comfortable massage to have your eyes rid of annoying lines.

Selling Price: $132

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Amazing… I mean, these plugs come with really cute look that can make us smile. Additionally, they also feature a good function to help us unplug them from the sockets easily and conveniently. Simply push the knob on its back, and then you’ll see your plugs out of the sockets slowly. Just think of the practicality!

Designer: Jeong-woo Han & Seul-gi Oh

【Source】

Ever felt it bothered to bend down to pick up those dust particles on the floor? Calm down and have a look at this CUUM Electronic Wastebasket. It is a clever combination of an electric appliance with a vacuum cleaner, which would suck all the dust in when you sweep it to the bottom of the device and turn it on. So how do you like it? Everything gonna to become easy.

Designer: Jun-se Kim, Yonggu Do & Eunha Seo

【Link】

You may get bit of promiscuous, because the concept hub designed by Qi Weijia looks really the same as taps you commonly see. Actually, however, it merely supplies electricity to charge your computers or cellphones.  Simply connect your tablets to the hub via a USB charger, turn the tap, and then you’ll see your items reenergized.

Designer: Qi Weijia

【Link】

Bookmarks and dictionaries are two necessary tools for bookworms, and obviously the item shown here has cleverly combined them together. Named as Electronic Dictionary Bookmark, the gadget comes with a quite simple look but extremely powerful functions.

It is crammed full of 38,000 definitions from the Collins Gem English Dictionary 15th edition so that the users can key in any word they don’t know and check out what it means. On the other hand, when not used as an electronic dictionary, the item can also serve as a bookmark.

Selling Price: £19.95

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Composed of gesture recognition software connected with a 3D depth sensor, a real time 3D video capture module using a 3D video camera and interactive graphic generation software based on a game engine, the 3D AR screen showcased by Aniframe can not only create 3D images but interact with the users. It can recognize and track the gesture of users, allowing them to “draw” images in 3D space. After showing the visual contents via a 3D TV, the system can help the users to browse its 3D contents using their own hand gestures such as tapping and scrolling.

Designer: Aniframe

For people who are used to do clothes washing in a laundry room, it is really hard and boring time to wait for their clothes get cleaned. Thus they may need this Game Washer. It is a clever combination of a game player and a laundry machine, allowing the users to kick out their time with funny video games when keep washing their clothes at the same time. But keep in mind that you’ll need to put in more coins to do the washing if you lose the game – the more games you lose, the more coins you need to spend.

Designer: Lee Wei Chen

【Link】

With the innovation of design concepts and the progress of technology, remote controller is now approaching its new period that features great changes in both appearance and functionality. The Leaf Grip Remote Controller by Murata is a creative one that requires the users to control their TVs with a bending and twisting motion. Furthermore, it is built with a photovoltaic cell, providing the device with a battery-less feature.

Designer: Murata

See What You Print (SWYP) is a sleek concept by Artefact, which is designed to give the printers a new great change. The SWYP combines with a simple stylish appearance and a fantastic user interface, which have made us think of products from Apple. Once wirelessly connected to your cameras or computers, the printer will then allow you to choose and edit your photos with its multi-touch screen. The image on the screen is exactly the photo you will finally get, and that’s also why the printer is named “See What You Print”.

Designer: Artefact

Elegant and functional, the Tropism Well is an outdoor water-supply that can pour water into your cups automatically. Once it has seen you, the device then bows down and offers water, which seems like that a friend is just greeting you warmly.

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For people who have too many business cards to handle, this Mini Business Card Scanner is the best gift they can ever get. It’s portable and easy-to-use, allowing the users to scan business cards in seconds and store the information with an organized list. After that, the users can then import, export, and synchronize their personal data on computers. So what are you waiting for? Get the smart gadget and manage your business cards.

Selling Price: $40.76

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Till now, the International Funkausstellung Berlin 2011 has brought us many surprising designs and products, and today we’d like to add a new one to the list of innovative electronics. It is Sony’s “Lenticular Sheet”, a thin film that can be places in front of any laptop screens to turn them into glass-free 3D displays. With such a product, 3D fanciers would then enjoy 3D films without needing to wear glasses any more.

Of course the “Lenticular Sheet” cannot work on its own, and the users also need to utilize a certain software to work together with it. When the software works, the webcam of your laptops will move to detect your face, so as to offer you a best 3D display according to your locations. The “Lenticular Sheet” will be on European market on October, with a price of $183.