Deaf Phone?

Pratt student Suhyun Kim is quite concerned about the deaf folks and wants them to enjoy technology as much as we do. Her Visual Sound is a mobile phone for the hearing impaired that converts voice input to text and text input to voice. The design features two handy pillars that scroll sideways to expose the roll-out display. To communicate, the impaired person feeds in the text onto the touchscreen display, which gets converted to voice simulation for the person on the other end of the phone and vice versa.

The only drawback that I foresee is the time taken to input the text and converting it to sound. It may deter long distance calls, but on the flipside any form of communication is better than being mum

Music Sofa with CD player

When furniture is fused with high tech kit the results are often about as comfortable and stylish as sandpaper g-string. But the new Music Sofa by designer Giongkun Wuqiongkun defies the norm with its charmingly curvaceous lines and comfy interior cushion, which sent us from nought to napping in only a few seconds… until we were suddenly awoken by some beefy rock riffs. See, this sofa contains a stonking wireless speaker set-up. Plus with a built in CD player it should be music to your ears.

http://www.yankodesign.com/2007/03/22/music-sofa-built-in-cd-playerspeaker-by-giongkun-wuqiongkun/

Amazing VeinViewer technology

Another amazing technology to help the doctors! It is called VeinViewer. The VeinViewer by Luminetx™ utilizes near infrared light and patented technologies to illuminate subcutaneous vasculature by imaging their location on the surface of the skin. VeinViewer is a mobile biomedical device consisting of the following four components:

Infrared light source - The light source emits a harmless, near-infrared light reflected back to the surface from the tissue surrounding the vein, while no light is reflected back from the blood inside the vessel.
Digital video camera - The digital video camera captures the near-infrared light reflected back from the patient.
Image processing unit - The microprocessor adds contrast and projects this image back on the skin in their actual location.
Digital image projector - Using Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing™ technology, the projector displays these real-time images of the vasculature onto the surface of the skin.

click here to see the video..


http://simplebrowser.blogspot.com/2007/10/amazing-veinviewer-technology.html

Freecycle - Globike

Globike is a system designed to share your bike and your experiences with all the members of its online community. Globike is designed to promote the friendship and the cultural exchange between people from different countries through its online portal, together with the use of the bicycle as the best green transportation solution during a travel.

Every bike sends its position (obtained through the GPS system) to the online Globike portal. Users can access to the portal everywhere through their Globike device, and ask for a bike to other members.

With Globike, a boy from Barcelona that wants to visit Amsterdam can contact a person that lives there, become his friend, and visit Amsterdam riding the person’s bike. At the same time, he can share images, videos and etc. about the travel with his community’s friends.

The system is composed by an hardware part and a software part, that manages 3 areas: sharing, navigation and communication. The hardware part is composed by the Globike device and an electronic lock with a NFC chip inside, that has to be installed permanently on the bike. The device acts as a key, allowing a trusted member to unlock a booked bike. The Globike lock is able to automatically recognize the devices that can unlock it.