New Tech Reviews Just another NEW TECH NEWS

A team of college students came together to design a new traffic intersection that transforms the power of footsteps into energy.The theories behind piezoelectricity, or the conversion of movements and vibrations into electricity, have existed for over 100 years. Very few applications of piezoelectricity exist in this modern age. Upon researching this technology, they immediately realized a multitude of different avenues one could take to utilize it.

Piezoelectric plates are placed under the cross-walk so that vibrations and pressure fluctuations caused by cars and pedestrians can be converted into electricity. The electricity is piped to power street lamps, traffic signals, cameras and other electronic devices located in the vicinity. What an awesome idea for busy metropolises.

Designers: Ian Jaye, Jovan Popovic & Patrick Houin

Source:yankodesign.com

I am very grateful for the presence of the eneloop glitter edition in my life. If it were not for this rechargeable set, then Id be at the store every other day, buying stock for my iMac peripherals! In an alternate situation, I wouldnt mind giving these Spark Winners, Charge Battery a chance. Theyre like the old fashioned winding toys; a few good twists to charge and I’m ready to go. So simple!

Designers: Yeon Kyeong Hwang & Mieong Ho Kang

Source:yankodesign.com

We pass through rotating gates at many checkpoints like train stations and amusement parks and we never give it a thought but there is a lot of potential mechanical energy that can be harnessed. The Green Pass is one such gate with a three-roller switch mechanism to trap, transfer and convert mechanical energy as you pass through its turnstiles.

Green Pass is a 2010 Liteon Awards winning project.

Designers: Bi Zhao, Fengchi L, Meixian Su, Fengming Chen, Yuke Li, Jiamin Liang & Yujie Chen

Source:yankodesign.com

In spite of the clear USB mark on its right side, many a times we careless try to shove in the USB Plug from its wrong side. As a result, one-in-freak cases we manage to damage the head. With the Double U USB port, this situation will never arise, simply because either ways its the right side! As simple as that!

Design: Ma Yi Xuan

Source:yankodesign.com

If you’ve never heard of holocube before, you’re in for a treat. This is a brand of products in their own category. Presentation machines I suppose you could call them, but projectors + projection booth + ultra-simplified computer to hold the projected video is what they are, and not just any projection booth – transparent glass for two-sided viewing. The model this post focuses on is the brand new HC70, a six foot tall box with a 70″ diagonal screen for full-sized human projections.

Each holocube is attached to a 40GB solid state harddrive that can store approximately 18 hours of uncompressed video at a bit rate of 4 Mb/s or 8 hours of compressed video at 9 Mb/s. This harddrive is set with a number of automatic functions such as automatic reboot upon power interruption and it’s supposedly completely immune to viruses (though, I’m not sure why that would matter since it’s not connected to a network.) It’s got a single switch to operate as all operations are pre-programmed, all content changed and uploaded via USB interface.

The brightness of the projector inside this huge box is 600 cd/m2 bright and has a resolution of 1080 x 1920. The computer running the projector runs on a Intel Dual Core 2.8 Ghz processor with Windows 7 Embedded, but again, that doesn’t matter as you won’t be accessing the computer at all. The bulk of the box is made of aluminum in either white or black matte powder coating, and the projection screen is made of a giant sheet of glass.

Take a peek at the videos below to see this and one other model holocube in action!

Designer: Joris Vanbriel for holocube

Source:yankodesign.com

You’ve got something important to do but your batteries are almost out of power. We’ve all been there and each of us has discovered ways to milk every ounce of power out of our devices. I’ve found power cycling my iPhone gives it a few more minutes, but what if someone could give your device a jumpstart? The Jump-Start CARD lets one device siphon off power from another. Yea, can’t decide if this is really useful.

Designers: Chu Li-Chiao, Yang Hsiang-Hui, Chen You-Ren & Lin Chun-Jun

Source:yankodesign.com

It’s been quite a while since the last time I did a post about a sled. A sled for snow, incase you did not know. The designer of this project I’m about to tell you about, Dawid Dawod, reminds us all that dog power, combined with sled engineering, has been utilized by humans in traveling and hunting for hundreds of years. Dawod notes that as far back as the 10th century we were rolling hard with our best friends by our side. So what does Dawod design? The sled!

The “Polar Journey” sled is made for tourists. Made for ordinary, non-professional people who wish to check out the frigid snow-packed environment in a totally fun fashion. Adapted to work in a multitude of different situations, problems, and straight up good times, this is the sled you want to have when you visit up nort’.

Takes up to two passengers and collapses easily for storage.

Designer: Dawid Dawod

Source:yankodesign.com

Spike-busters and power strips usually sport their set number of sockets regardless the shape of the plugs to be used. Unless you go in for the expensive Belkin ones, extension cords here in India are standard and sport limited sockets. Something like the Slot-Type Power Outlet will be handy for us and the world over. The idea is not to have holes or set number of sockets, but just a swipe-in slot to hook up the plugs. This ways different shaped plugs reside comfortably next to each other plus accommodate more than the regular strips.

Slots for 3-pin and 2-pin plugs are different though, but easy to manage.

Designer: Chen Yinfeng

Source:yankodesign.com

This car right here goes by the name “AMV-R”, an acronym which stands for Automotive Visual Racing. And it’s fantastic. Your eyeballs are going to explode when you peek at the images in this post’s gallery, if you haven’t already. But then again, if you had already, you wouldn’t have eyes. Designer Alexei Mikhailov presents a spectacular vision that mixes Italian and German styling with an “exotic” and precise surface flow.

Alas, this car is but a vision. It is neither a prototype nor is it planned for production. But we can LOOK at it, can’t we? Yes we can. What a shell it is, yes? What a fantastic vision. Theoretically this lightning bolt of an auto would have a highly efficient twin turbo V 10 engine, generating 850hp. That means it’d rock. It’d rock so hard.

Designer: Alexei Mikhailov

Source:yankodesign.com

Most photographers use a sturdy camera strap while clicking pictures and heres an idea that wants to capitalize on it. This is done by making the strap solar-savvy! Meaning, adding thin solar films across the width of the strap, so as to harness solar energy when out on the field. Aptly christened the Solar Camera Strap, its a neat idea; when we can have solar panels on backpacks and what not, then why not on a camera strap!

Designer: Weng Jie

Source:yankodesign.com

Besides being good for your flubber, skipping seems to be a good way for harnessing energy to recharge batteries. I know this idea is not so new; we have seen how jumping a rope can power a torch and juice batteries. However design is not only about problem solving, but also about refining existing solutions, hence the E Rope. Refinement comes in the form of aesthetics and interface. Both look gorgeously done in this one. Moreover, the video says it all..

Designer: Kyung Guk Lee

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Source:yankodesign.com