If that headline made you feel like you may not be contributing as much effort to society as you could…you’re not alone.
Yes, a 15 year old from Canada has created a flashlight that runs off of nothing more than your hands. While you might guess that magic is the cause (possibly evil magic) it in fact functions because of peltier tiles, which generate an electric currency when one side of the tile becomes hotter than the other.
In this case, the exterior of the handle is heated by your hands, while the interior components remain cool. Specifically, the exterior must remain 5 degrees Celsius hotter than the interior for a useful enough current to be produced.
The developer calls this the design’s greatest flaw, since being humble is much easier when you are a 15 year old genius.
Dubbed the hollow flashlight because of its hollow handle, the design is still in a sort of prototype phase and is currently making its rounds at various young achievers contests, including the worldwide 2013 Google Science Fair, where it finished in the top 15.
Garnering impressive accomplishments aside, there doesn’t seem to be much direction for the hollow flashlight as there is only the one known model and, no matter how intelligent they are, 15 year olds usually don’t mass produce on their own.
This is a great design, though, that improves upon some recent battery free flashlight ideas, by functioning off something you always have easily on hand (pun sadly intended) without relying on cumbersome and time consuming mechanics.
Hopefully then someone picks up the concept, as some form of this design would ideally be in every emergency kit worldwide.
So let’s say you have several thousand dollars readily available to spend without worry, and you’ve been hoping to train in secret to shock everyone with your badass fighting skills for the next time you are forced into conflict, or presented the opportunity for a conflict, while out on the streets.
But even if you’re not, you will still love the Nexersys Home Boxing unit, which represents the ultimate in at home MMA or boxing training tools. It sports seven strike pads with integrated sensors that all feed to the built in monitor, which is the real highlight of the device. The monitor not only keeps track of your normal workout statistics like calories, history, and time, but more unit specific figures such as striking power and strike count, and also provides unique gaming workouts like digital avatar sparring.
While the undisputed heavyweight champion of fighting training equipment, as mentioned the Nexersys is only meant for those with serious on hand pocket change, as the basic unit will set you back $2,995, and the much sturdier professional model with a larger screen runs an impressive $6,995.
Of course can you really put a price on something that will put you on the path to becoming the next caped crusader, or at least living the ultimate man fantasy of delivering that perfect right hook in bar fight just once?
Tuning a guitar is a monotonous and thankless task that any real guitar player must learn to love, at least until that day they finally get that crew of roadies. While the purist will tell you the only real way to do this is by ear, many know there is no shame in using a digital tuner to help you get the perfect sound, especially if you are just starting out.
Of course if you truly hate having to constantly tune your guitar the old fashioned way, then consider the upcoming Gibson Min-Etune.
The Min-Etune is a very impressive piece of technology that goes behind the head of your guitar, and with few strums will automatically physically tune your pegs. Battery operated, and featuring both pre-set and programmable tuning specifications, to truly appreciate exactly how quickly this incredible device functions, you have to view the video demonstration.
While the Min-Etune may appear to be blasphemy to some, this is the kind of technology you used to theorize about existing (possibly while high), and its impressiveness on function alone is hard to deny. While the price tag hasn’t been revealed yet, for the right person this is a potentially invaluable tedium eraser.
There’s a compulsive activity I do almost everytime I leave somewhere, where I pat my front pockets for my keys, wallet, and phone, and don’t proceed until all three are accounted for. It’s a common impulse used to make sure your most necessary items are on you, but is far from infallible. For instance, sometimes you are running especially late, or are just hammered drunk, and don’t remember to take the usual precautions.
There’s been a variety of tracking devices over the years that help you keep tabs of your valuables in situations like that, but I’ve never considered one until the SmartWallit.
The SmartWallit is a small device that you slide into your wallet, and link to your phone via Bluetooth and an app. From there, if you leave your phone behind, the device in your wallet will beep as a notification. Similarly, if you snag your phone, but forget the wallet, the phone will beep, and even provide an approximate proximity to the wallet. While there is a keychain option for the device to keep the “band together” so to speak, there’s no way for it to notify you you’ve left them all, because, as in all things, at a certain point, you’re just screwed.
The SmartWallit isn’t just a high tech game of marco polo between the necessities, though, as there are additional app features. The most intriguing of which has to be the one that reads sensors from the device to know when you opened your wallet last to make a payment, and keeps a loose record of it that will show you the time and exact location it was used, meaning you’ll never forget where that twenty went to again. You can even import more advanced financial features to keep closer tabs on your active spending habits.
Looking for just under $7,000 to finish its Kickstarter campaign, the SmartWallit isn’t the first of its kind, but is among the least invasive, and most versatile, of the tracking devices I’ve seen yet. Plus you can never really have enough gadgets that help you never have to know the horror of replacing the contents of your wallet.
I’ve always wondered something. Was science fiction of the past just really good at predicting the future, or rather is present technology just evolving based on the suggestions of science fiction?
Regardless, in a move that a research by the Congressional Research Service compared to the invention of onboard missles in the 50’s, the Navy will be equipping the first of the much hyped Laser Weapons System (LaWS) prototypes aboard the USS Ponce, which is stationed in the Persian Gulf.
This laser weapon system has been in development by the Navy for some time now, and it appears that after a number of highly successful trials, they feel it is almost ready for use in the field, far ahead of schedule. So far, the laser has been used to shoot down drone plans during test runs, but could also be used to take down incoming missiles as well. They are also apparently equipped with a “blinding” function that will serve as a non-lethal alternative to distracting pilots.
The Navy isn’t just itching to use the term “laser cannon” a their next press conference though, as this beauty is actually incredibly efficient and practical. The military is particularly enthused about the relatively low cost of the device ($31-$32 million for the prototype), and the fact that each shot costs less than $1, which is a about a $100,000 improvement over your average missile. Plus, if you’re familiar with the term “laser precision,” you probably have an idea of the kind of battlefield effectiveness this thing is capable of.
The system does have some drawbacks though, as there is the potential of hitting friendly aircraft and satellites, as well as the laser’s dip in effectiveness under foggy, and similarly bad, weather conditions. We’ll know more about it’s potential though when the USS Ponce is officially outfitted with the cannon in 2013.
While not the first time laser technology of this type has been incorporated into combat, the scale and effectiveness of this particular design makes it one of the more unique and potentially useful implementations of the tech ever, and could signal the true dawn of the future of warfare.
Also the thought of a fleet of laser equipped battleships kind of takes some of the edge off that whole North Korea thing doesn’t it?
