Gizmodo Australia » miniature

Back In The Day, Patents Actually Meant Something

Dan Nosowitz — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:30:00 +0000

From 1790 until 1870, patent applications had to also include a miniature model, less than 12 square inches in size, along with the idea. We wish the policy were still around, at least to weed out the more ridiculous ideas.

Today, tech companies are some of the worst offenders in patent application, filing crazy patents for any half-baked idea they can think up, without the slightest regard for whether an object can actually be made. That’s not even going into patents for basic ideas like Page Up/Page Down keys. Questionable patents aside, the strict miniaturization policy might have finally given us an iPhone Nano.

The days of physical patents are over, but some are still collecting the rare miniature versions, including the roller skate and paper clip. They’re pretty cool, especially if you’re as big a paper clip fanatic as I am. [Wired]

“Snack-Size” Cigarettes Offer Super-Size Nicotine

Mark Wilson — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:00:46 +0000

In an era when smokers are subjected to the hostile smoking environment of…fresh air…our friends at Philip Morris are ready to accommodate those looking to expedite the process stepping outside. They’ve packed the same amount of nicotine goodness into a smaller package—think of it as the iPod Nano of the ~~lifespan~~ cigarette world.

The product is called Marlboro Intense, and it’s being test marketed in Turkey.

While a normal cigarette measures 8.5cm, the Marlboro Intense is just 7.2cm long. If it takes the average person 7 minutes to smoke a cigarette, our middle school math tells us that the average Intense would take just 6 minutes to enjoy (we calculated the time saved at 63 seconds).

We’re not going to end this with a snarky, anti-smoking comment. That shit is like ~~crack~~ nicotine to the smoking crowd. We’ll just observe how interesting it is that the miniaturising trend (that could probably be best credited to consumer electronics) has made its way to tobacco products. [timesonline via dvorak][photo]

Tok Tak MP3 Player Looks Like Audio Jack, Comes with Base Station

Addy Dugdale — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:38:26 +0000

Ah, holidays. Spend a couple of weeks on a faraway island, where the words “internet” and “connection” are met with baffled stares, and it’s easy to forget what one’s purpose in life actually is. And then you come across a concept gizmo like the Tok Tak and it all comes flooding back: The Giz! Her readers! Hot Verdommer and Eek-a-poos, I’d better get back to work before the editor realises that I didn’t just nip out to get a packet of fags from the store. Designed by Tae-won Kim, the Tok Tak looks like an audio jack but is actually a basic MP3 player concept that comes with a base station — which, judging by the photo below, looks a bit like Tae-won got his inspiration from gazing at a smoke detector.
See what I mean? It’s quite a neat concept, though (if you don’t mind looking like an idjut who wanders around wearing earphones plugged into nothing) — plug the jack into the smoke alarm and, as well as recharging and uploading new tunes onto the player, it converts into a speaker unit with joystick controller. [Yanko]

MIT Researchers Develop Tractor Beam For Microchip Manufacturing

Adrian Covert — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:50:24 +0000

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a method of arranging cells on a microchip using what they call “optical tweezers.” These optical tweezers consist of a fine tuned beam of laser light, which moves cells around on the chip.

Scientists say this could have may beneficial applications in the fields of biomedical and materials research. In the picture shown, they used said tweezers to arrange the letters “MIT” on the surface of the chip. Now if they could do that with Harvard’s marching band at a football game, I’d really be impressed. [AP via Science Daily]

Hitachi Mocks Your Manhood, Makes World’s Smallest RFID Chip

Haroon Malik — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:50:00 +0000

Hitachi has just rolled out a worryingly small RFID chip, measuring an impressively tiny 0.15 mm x 0.15 mm x 0.0075 mm. The chip packs in a 128-bit ROM, which is able to store a 38-digit number. Hitachi previously held the title for world’s smallest RFID, but the now second place tag was comparatively large at 0.4 mm x 0.4 mm. The reduction in size was achieved by utilizing the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process, where the transistor is formed directly on the silicon base. It may be disparaging to know that an RFID chip, measuring 0.15mm x 0.15mm x 0.0075 mm, holds the title for world’s smallest item in that category, whilst simultaneously being far larger than your winky. Hey, at least your twinkle can memorize 38-digits… oh, it can’t? Why do you wake up in the mornings? [TFOT]

World’s Smallest Radio Is Just Atoms Wide, Still Needs AAA Battery

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:24:49 +0000

University of California researcher Chris Rutherglen shows off a radio made of carbon nanotubes, measuring “a few atoms across,” that’s 1,000 times smaller than today’s radio technology.

As you see in the video, the bummer is that the teeny weeny radio still needs what looks like a AAA battery to power up. This doesn’t have Rutherglen and his prof, Peter Burke, too upset. It’s a breakthrough that will spread, as they explain in their research paper:

“Though we have only demonstrated the critical component of the entire radio system out of a nanotube (the demodulator), it is conceivable in the future that all components could be nanoscale, thus allowing a truly nanoscale wireless communications system.”

The sky’s the limit for this stuff: they’re already talking smart-dust computing, with meterological, geophysical, biological and of course military implications. [BBC News]

Phone Projector Concept Allows Impromptu Sales Meetings

Jason Chen — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:40:17 +0000

This cellphone projector may not be completely original—weve seen the real thing before—but it does look quite cool. The concept has a Windows Mobile phone projecting your computer’s desktop onto a wall so you can make presentations or show off a cool YouTube video. It’s 10 shades of impractical right now, but an interesting concept nonetheless. Why that Windows Mobile phone is projecting an OS X desktop is beyond us though. [Yanko Design]

Micro Camera Shows the Workings of a Combustion Engine

Addy Dugdale — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:33:17 +0000

Someone had the great idea of putting a high-pressure, heat-resistant camera inside the cylinder of a four-stroke engine. Shooting at 1000 fps, the camera recorded just exactly what happens to make engines run. Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow! [LiveLeak]

Remarkable Nikon Small World Microscope Photography Winners

Mark Wilson — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:59:51 +0000

It’s been an amazing week for microscopic photography buffs (and those of us who just like to look at neat pictures with significance we can barely comprehend). Just the other day we featured this gallery of electron microscope photos from the Bizarre/Beautiful Micrograph Contest. Now, Nikon has just announced their winners in their Small World contest, comprised solely of photographs from beefy light microscopes (Ed: NOT like the ones you probably used in science class). The gallery is worth a click through, if only to remember that natural phenomenon are even crazier than Hollwood cgi. That top shot is the winner, a red and green fluorescence image of a double transgenic mouse embryo.

[nikon via medgadget]

Tiny Chairs Let Your Gadgets Have A Meeting

Charlie White — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:03:24 +0000

Looking for a place to park that new Zune? Brando suggests pulling up The Chair, a $US6 gadget stand that looks like those stackable chairs you lugged outside to the church picnic back in olden times. Now when you play Bag Lady Barbie with those mini shopping carts Jason introduced you to last week, at least Barbie will have a tacky old-fashioned 6-inch-high chair in which to sit. [Brando]