Train stations in the UK sometimes broadcast mosquito noises that are so high-pitched they can only be heard by those under 25 years of age, but Japan’s taken it one step too far with this age prediction gadget.
In today’s Remainders: video! And in many cases, things caught on video for the first time, like Samsung’s E6 and E101 ebook readers, Apple’s $US1 billion data centre, Big Bloom’s “miraculous” fuel cell, and a modern day Superman.
I love little birds. They are so cute. And they taste delicious and crunchy fried in beer batter. If you want them to wake you up, however, try BirdBox.
“Where Is My Phone” is a clever little app designed to help you locate your misplaced iPhone simply by whistling. But I think we can agree that there are better uses for whistle-triggered sound effect playback than finding your phone.
Henry Dagg spent four years building this gigantic pin barrel harp, commissioned for a London garden. It’s finally finished but is too fragile for the outdoors. Listen to it play “A Long and Winding Road” and reflect on its fate.
Daito Manabe, my favourite Japanese weirdo ever, is at it again. This time the party is in his mouth, thanks to a custom LED/sound based device programmed by him and Motoi Ishibashi. [Thanks Enjuto Mojamuto]
Yes. This is not a steam-punk montage. It is a real photo from an old military parade circa 1917, showing what’s probably the dumbest-looking military invention of all time. But what is it?
Call Dr Arroway, because NASA has detected a deep space sound that defies belief or any explanation. They don’t have a single clue about its origin, according to Alan Kogut from the Goddard Space Center:
The surge of systems devised to re-capture bodily output continues, this time with a nano-piezo technology that could use sound waves to charge mobile phones. But how long must you talk before you can… talk? Science Daily reports that Tahir Cagin, a professor in the chemical engineering department at Texas A&M, has merged the really old science of piezoelectrics with the very new science of nanotechnology to discover that a technique for harvesting energy actually gets way more efficient at the nano level. Specifically, when a piezoelectric film used to convert vibrations into energy is reduced to around 21 nanometers in thickness, it’s suddenly twice as good at converting the energy. There’s not a lot of detail on the uses for this technology just yet, and—like other vibration-power systems—the earliest uses would probably be in very low energy applications such as sensors. But the article does suggest this could have “potentially profound effects for low-powered electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, personal communicators and a host of other computer-related devices,” though I wonder if that wasn’t just thrown in to make people like me excited about it. It worked. I am. [Science Daily via TreeHugger]
This concept of a sewing machine was created by SOUNDS.BUTTER, a design group interested in physically representing sound waves. They sought to represent it tactically instead of digitally where sound is oft seen in sound and music editing. The sewing machine was chosen because of its association with industriousness and physicality. While it is a very unique concept, I’d be curious to see exactly what Metallica would look like under this sewing machine—would it actually turn into a picture of sex and drugs? [SOUNDS.BUTTER via Design Boom]
