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Sci-tech

Shocker Glasses Punish Your Drowsiness

Man, I'm tired. I need to start going to bed earlier so I don't feel like I'm about to fall asleep at my keyboard in the morning. What I need are a pair of these Vision Optic MyDo Bururu (what?) glasses. No, not because my vision is poor but because these glasses are designed to shock you awake when you're nodding off. They detect your level of wakefulness via the angle of your head, which seems to me like a pretty crappy way to judge whether or not someone is awake. What happens when you look down to wash your hands or make a sandwich? You get zapped by your glasses? No thanks, especially not for USD 370.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Vista's SideShow

One of Vista's features that has caught our attention is SideShow. Think of SideShow as Vista's sidekick. With the help of these mini apps that Microsoft calls "gadgets," SideShow can let you perform small tasks like read e-mail, check on weather, look through photos, or flip through your list of contacts regardless of whether your PC is on, off or in sleep mode. All you need is a SideShow-enabled device - be it an external screen on your notebook or a screen on your Media Centre remote.

SideShow-enabled remotes like these to view your photos or listen to music when your PC is idle or shut down. The larger the screen the better as you'll be able to see and do more.

You could also use a Sideshow-enabled laptop like Asus' W5Fe. Sure, you may think that colour external display will zap away your battery life, but in reality it'll actually do the opposite cause rather than have to boot up your entire system to grab a small bit of info (like an address or phone number), all you need to do is drill through the controls on the external display and find the info you need in seconds rather than minutes.

Too lazy to take out your notebook? Eleksen's messenger bag takes Asus' concept one step further in that the SideShow display is built right into the bag, so you don't even have to take your notebook out to get info, just look at your bag.

Microsoft wouldn't leak what other plans they have in store for SideShow, but the cool thing is that there could be as many products for it as there are uses. Not only that, but if you have the know-how, you can even create your own gadget, and the more people that do that, the better uses we'll see for SideShow.

The Zink Pocket Printer

Polaroid is not dead yet. Apparently it was only sleeping but now its research labs have smelled the coffee and spun off Zink, a company whose first product will be a stand-alone printer that's about the size of a deck of cards. This one-button printer is designed to easily connect to a camera phone, and will cost less than a hundred dollars. Looks like a perfect companion to the iPhone and might just work pretty well with D.A.V.E., a Seagate pocket drive with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Electrolux nFridge Modular Concept

We showed you the modular kitchen. Here's a modular fridge. You know what's smart about its design? When you open up the door to get your Pepsi, you don't let the cold air out in more than one itty-bitty compartment. Also, things don't get buried under packs of old bologna, since each box is a shelf. But are you ever going to be able to store large items inside just one cube? If I were in the market, and this went into production, I'd try it, though. I've always dreamed of having a sushi bar fridge in my home, and this would give me a similar transparent casing, and potentially, the same landscape form. But it's still my second choice, next to the invisible fridge.

Robotic Parking Help

Ok, so maybe there won't be a seven-foot tall robot who takes your keys and parks your ride, but that's not to say New York's first robotic parking garage won't be worth checking out. The garage will be able to squeeze 67 cars into a space that would otherwise fit 24. You basically just drive your car onto a platform and upon stepping off the ramp, your car is lowered into the inner depths of the garage and slid into an empty spot. Everything will be computer-controlled though there will be a parking attendant present to collect your cash. Best of all, when your car is retrieved, it'll always come out facing the driveway, so you never have to inch your way out of the garage by driving in reverse. It all sounds fun and great until the machine brings you the wrong car or even worst, holds your car hostage.

Compiled by IMRAN H. KHAN

Source: Gizmodo.com and Wired