Gadgets
Lunar Baby Thermometer Avoids Sticking Things Up the Wrong Places
Posted by Jesus Diaz at 6:30 AM on November 18, 2008
According to designer Duck Young Kong--probably the best name ever in the history of best names ever--his Lunar Baby Thermometer is great because "it eliminates the need to insert an external tool while holding them in a still position" since it uses the "common and natural behaviour of putting your hand on the forehead to measure internal heat of their body". It's a good idea. Until somebody tells you that the forehead may not be the best place to measure temperatures.

You're sitting there freezing your arse off and someone comes up to you and says "cold enough for ya' today?" then laughs. If you have ever been in this situation you know how annoying it can be. Thanks to the temperature sweater you can reply by extending your arm, pointing to the temperature gauge on your wrist that is clearly displaying 2 degrees Fahrenheit, then turn up your hand and extend your middle finger. [
The Atmos 561 Clock, made by Jaeger LeCoultre and designed by Mark Newson, is powered entirely by changes in temperature and sits inside a block of crystal for good measure. According to
Finding out when you're ovulating (assuming, you're among the Giz readership with ovaries, and trying to have a baby) may be a lot easier thanks to this upcoming DuoFertility device. Designed by Cambridge Temperature Concepts, a spin-off by Cambridge University PhD students, it consists of a small stick-on patch device that goes under your arm, and a handheld reader.
The main complaints about the current Nike+ Gear aren't that it doesn't do a good job keeping track of how far you run, it's that it doesn't measure stuff like heart rate, body temperature and other factors runners care about. Nike hears you. Their latest patent for upcoming Nike+ gear expands on the current concept and features all kinds of sensors over a person's body, even possibly adding a GPS receiver so you can automatically map out the path you took on your run.
Fine, it's a little more complex than that. The Bath-O-Matic from Unique Automation is an automated bathtub filler that draws a bath just the way you like it. Through a touch screen interface, bathers can choose the temperature and height of the water, as well as any combination of oils, bubbles and fragrances.


Temperature-detecting faucets have been available here for a while, but the same concept for shower heads have been mostly a Japanese-only affair. Imagine our surprise when we found these shower heads from China, which have four different shades to correspond to different temperatures: white for "I need to pay my utilities", blue for "damn it, I should have waited for the water to heat up", pink and violet for "ahhh, time to pee", and hot red for "ouch my nads". And since it's from China, it's pretty likely that this shower head should appear in cheap online and offline stores some time soon. [
Different wines should be stored at different temperatures, but how can you tell quickly if your precious Bordeaux is being kept properly? You don't want to waste time and money with some doodad that requires lots of batteries and wires, which is why this Liquid Crystal Wine Thermometer is so great.
It slips right over the bottle, and within a couple of minutes the temperature will appear on the side. There's a list of all sorts of different wines, so you can see whether or not it's chilled properly. And since it uses liquid crystals for the temperature display, no batteries or power is required. Slick.