Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine shirts that act as antennas for smartphones or tablets, workout clothes that monitor fitness level or even a flexible fabric cap that senses activity in the brain!

All this will soon be possible as the researchers working on wearable electronics have been able to embroider circuits into fabric with super precision — a key step toward the design of clothes that gather, store or transmit digital information.

“A revolution is happening in the textile industry. We believe that functional textiles are an enabling technology for communications and sensing and one day, even for medical applications like imaging and health monitoring,” said lead researcher John Volakis from Ohio State University.

Continue reading “Clothes that Transmit Digital Data Are Coming” »

RoboHon, Sharp’s dubiously useful but definitely adorable phone that walks around on two legs and projects you happy images when you’re sad and alone in your bedroom, is actually making its way to market. Sharp announced today that the phone/robot/thing will see release on May 26th in Japan, with preorders now open. It has a 2-inch screen on its back and runs Android 5.0.

The last time I wrote about RoboHon I expressed hope that Sharp can “get this weird little guy onto the market for a reasonable price.” That, uh, appears to have been difficult; RoboHon is selling for 198,000 yen, or about $1,800, before you get into service fees. But hey, you can’t put a price on true friendship — I hope to evaluate RoboHon’s conversational skills, punctuality, and Myers-Briggs personality type in the near future.

Continue reading “Sharp’s ultra-cute RoboHon robot phone goes on sale next month for $1,800” »

The Textalyzer would be able to determine if you were using your phone right before an accident occurred.

Hmm… That would explain Alzheimer disease — It’d be like some sort of unabashedly evil version of a smart phone data caps!

Or not.

Continue reading “Is the Universe a Simulation? Scientists Debate” »

One of the biggest rumors surrounding the iPhone 7 is that Apple is adding a second camera module (at least on the Plus model), and it makes a lot more sense than you might realize.

After all, other manufacturers have already caught on. LG’s G5 comes with a ultra-wide angle lens, Huawei’s new P9 sports a dedicated black-and-white camera, and HTC beat everyone to the punch with the One M8’s depth-sensing camera a couple of years ago.

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Continue reading “Smartphones should fully embrace the dual-camera bandwagon” »

Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, or as it is more commonly known, JARVIS, is a highly advanced personal digital assistant. And it could be your best friend of tomorrow.

Among all of the fictional artificial intelligence (AI) systems, by far, the coolest one has to be Tony Stark’s JARVIS—It can not only control everything for Iron Man, it’s also a highly intuitive and sentient entity that has become part and parcel of his Tony Stark’s way of life.

Continue reading “Microsoft Is Developing a New JARVIS-Like Artificial Intelligence System” »

Samsung is exploring the development of a contact lens that can project images directly into the users’ eye, take photographs and connect wirelessly to a smartphone, a patent application has revealed.

The South Korean copyright authority has published a 29-page application made by the consumer electronics firm two years ago, reported the technology blog Sammobile, offering a rare insight into a science fiction vision of a future technology that could be closer than we think.

The lens could overlay internet-connected services directly into the user’s line of sight, in an example of what is known as augmented reality. It could also discreetly – even covertly – take photographs. The device would be controlled by eye movements or blinking, according to the patent, and it would connect with a smartphone.

Continue reading “Samsung is developing a contact lens camera, triggered by blinking, that can also project images into the eye” »

Beautiful future lays ahead in QC.

Quantum physics not only explains how matter behaves at the subatomic level, but is also used to create many devices in our everyday lives, from lasers and transistors to GPS and mobile phones. The next wave of innovation could lead to unbreakable encryption and computers that are up to one million times faster. On 6 April, Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA) unit organised a workshop to discuss with experts the potential of these new quantum technologies.

Exploiting the quirks of the quantum world

Continue reading “Quantum technologies: from mobile phones to supercomputers” »

Samsung’s dream of creating smart contact lenses capable of capturing images and shooting videos has just drawn closer. However, the patent reveals that Samsung has been working on the concepts and not necessarily the actual product which they trademarked as Gear Blink, which was filed in both South Korea and the U.S.

‘The analysis component of the contact lens can process the raw image data of the camera to determine processed image data indicating that the blind person is approaching intersection with a crosswalk and establish that there is a vehicle approaching the intersection’. It could very well be a smart contact lens. It’s a contact lens that consists of a small display, camera, RF antenna, and sensors to detect eye movement.

SamMobile states that the “lenses can provide a more natural way to provide augmented reality than smart glasses”. While the display projects images directly into the eye of the person wearing the contacts, an external device like a smartphone is needed for processing.

Continue reading “Samsung Files Patent For Augmented Reality Smart Contact Lenses” »