PROTOTYPES SPINOFF.COM

Sun exposure gets personal with wearable UV sensors

A new handy sensor can enhance food safety

A sweat sensor to monitor your health

A smart clock that shows you the right information at the right moment

These days most everyone struggles with information overload; we are all constantly bombarded with notifications and messages that distract us from what really matters. Glance is a smart clock that gives you the notifications that you actually need. Whether it be meeting alerts, fitness tracking, or a friendly reminder that your UBER has arrived - Glance is here to help you organize and enjoy your life. Glance saves you from procrastinating on your phone. It syncs with your iOS device and reminds you of important events, displays calls, and updates from fitness trackers and more. Glance helps you to keep your hands and mind off the phone and do the important stuff.

by Tetiana Nedashkivska

2018.09.20

2C3D is the first camera for blind people

The means of visual reproduction of the surrounding world are a great achievement of mankind since they allow us to shoot beautiful lands and moments of life, turning them into memories that can be viewed in the future. Until now, people with visual impairments, unfortunately, had no such opportunity. However, Oren Geva from the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Israel, developed an innovative 2C3D camera that provides blind people with the ability to see. This groundbreaking camera is a development and design of a tactile camera concept for the vision impaired. It creates 3D photos and videos and has a 3D screen. The screen, inspired by 'Pin Toy', is built by numerous 3D pixels that shift depending on the photo to forms the 3D shot on the screen surface. The device provides the term 'touch screen' with a new and more literal interpretation.

by Karina Vrashchuk

2018.09.11

Electric chopsticks will replace the use of salt

Electric Chopsticks, which are capable to replace the taste of salt, were developed by scientists from the Multisensory Interactive Media Lab (MIM Lab) at the University of Maine, USA. Too much salt isn’t good for the human body. In the United States alone, about 30 percent of all adults have high blood pressure, and should, therefore, reduce their sodium intake. Scientists created a pair of chopsticks with electrodes embedded in the tips, enabling them to gently zap the tongue to produce simulated flavors. According to Nimesha Ranasinghe, an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing and Information System; also directs the Multisensory Interactive Media Lab (MIM Lab) at UMaine, such technology could one day let people hack the flavor of their food while sticking to a healthy diet. 'The flavor would be external to whatever they’re consuming'.

by Yana Kurchenko

2018.09.06

A new method to make residential solar panels twice as efficient

Robotic fish that could enable a closer study of aquatic life

3D-printed prototype for bionic eye

Robot that carries payloads necessary for search-and-rescue operations

A highly maneuverable search-and-rescue robot that can creep, crawl and climb over rough terrain and through tight spaces has been developed by the team of researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGUni) of the Negev (BGU). It is called RSTAR. RSTAR stands for Rising Sprawl-Tuned Autonomous Robot. It utilizes adjustable sprawling wheel legs attached to a body that can move independently and reposition itself to run on flat surfaces, climb over large obstacles and up closely-spaced walls, and crawl through a tunnel, pipe or narrow gaps. The innovative new robot was introduced in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2018) in Brisbane, Australia.

by Tetiana Nedashkivska

2018.08.23

A new camping stove that reduces the heat loss and negative effects of wind

A novel stove that can cope even in strong winds has been developed by the team of researchers at ETH Zurich. A kettle shaped like a Bundt cake tin encloses a gas burner, protecting it from the wind. Moreover, other design features make the kettle extremely energy efficient: the wall of the gas burner is rippled, like a citrus juicer. This increases the contact area between the flame and the jug. The fact that the wall is very thin, makes heat transfer to the contents of the jug ideal. The interior of the burner is also packed with engineering expertise: the gas nozzles are what are known as Venturi nozzles. Their geometry causes a localised drop in pressure. This increases airflow, which enhances the quality of the flame and boosts efficiency.

by Tetiana Nedashkivska

2018.08.22

An adjustable shading system that adapts itself independently during the day

An alternative to motor-driven sunshades has been developed by Chiara Vailati, ETH doctoral student at the Institute for Building Materials. It gets hot in the city in summer, and buildings in direct sunlight get particularly warm. At night, it can then be difficult to get rid of that accumulated heat. These days, many people dream of efficient air conditioning. Anyone who is now picturing a fully automatic high-tech shading with sensors, actuators, and complex controls is a long way off the mark. The prototype may be high-tech, but it is still refreshingly modest. The system uses shade-producing wooden planks and requires no sensors or motors - or even electricity.

by Tetiana Nedashkivska

2018.08.21