Archive for the 'Other Products' Category

My first reaction seeing the 2CLight Solar Light cap was: oh no, again a funny cap with an add-on like a fan but looking a bit closer how the cap works I must say: the 2CLight Solar Light cap is a unique and useful product after all.

The concept is simple but brilliant: a flexible solar panel is integrated into the peak of the cap together with a micro processor controlled charging and discharging system that provides control of the lights brightness.

The light comes from two ultra bright LEDs which give off enough light to even read by night. The solar generated electricity is stored in a small battery in the cap.

The light switch is placed next to the LEDs in the peak of the cap, easy to reach. The small electronic components and the flexible solar panel does not change the wearing comfort and characteristic of the cap.

A fully charged battery will give light for 2-4 hours at maximum brightness and up to 36 hours by low brightness setting.

The photos below show some situations where the Solar Light cap can actually be very useful: reading when out camping, checking the map quickly if you got lost in the great outdoors, fishing at dusk and dawn to see the tiny fish you catch, all kind of work you have to do outside after sunset where you need a flashlight, this cap frees both of your hands for doing the job.

2CLight’s Solar Light caps come in three basic styles: Baseball, Trailblazer and Sportsman, each style offers various color choices. The retail price is $ 35.- available direct by 2CLight.

A truly wearable solar powered bright idea!

Bookmark to:

If you wonder what I am talking about today - keep on reading. Bellysonic® is a soft speaker device that enables ’soon to be moms’ to share their music with the baby in the womb.

The Bellysonic is the perfect way for an expectant mom to participate in their baby’s sensory development, and to enrich their pregnancy experience using a natural, sound therapy approach.

Music has effected human emotions for many years. It can be a soothing therapy for a stressful day, or a non-aggressive release for pent up emotion.

So why should music not have similar relaxing benefits for babies even-though they are not yet born? I have done some research around the topic of the effect of music to unborn babies. There is one side which says nothing is scientifically proven but this does not mean the other side is wrong in believing in the positive influence of music in the womb.

The most often heard effect of music for unborn babies is it will have a similar relaxation and soothing effect like we grown-up have by listening to relaxing music.

An interesting observation is also that babies which ‘listened’ to certain music for the last 3 month of pregnancy could still remember this music when they celebrated their first birthday.

I have my serious doubts that listening to music in the womb makes smart as other ’studies’ suggest but I am sure that letting your unborn baby listen to music in soft sound setting will not harm either.

In whatever way you might see this, I like the unique idea of the Bellysonic by giving a soft touch to the hard plastic and metal world.

Adjustable belt, made of 100% organic sherpa cotton and 100% natural cotton takes care for extra softness. Easy to use fasteners allows freedom of movement for relaxation, mobility and comfort.

The Bellysonic® stereo speaker pouch comes with two built-in mini stereo speakers and headphone splitter allowing you and your baby to listen simultaneously.

Mom’s Interactive pregnancy Fashion and Babies first iPod Bellysonic is available for example by amazon.com for $49.95

Bookmark to:

The list of interactive pillows is getting longer with the My Beating Heart pillow, a pillow that has its own heart beat.

My Beating Heart is the invention from Yury Gitman and has been available since 2005 but out of whatever reason I only ‘discovered’ it today.

Why should a pillow with it’s own heartbeat be of any use for us? Since the old ages it is common knowledge to humanity that the heartbeat is one of the most reassuring sounds we know. The heartbeat is the first sound we hear even before we are born.

Another wisdom of life says that being very close to someone like during hugging, the two hearts will start synchronizing their beats. That’s why we calm down and feel comfortable if we are in the arms of someone special. Sound like magic - right?

My Beating Heart recreates this natural magic forces by employing Artificial Intelligence and haptic design into software and hardware. A small motor at the heart of the My Beating Heart pillow is programmed to give a life-like heartbeat.

The My Beating Heart pillow is not just playing prerecorded sequences. With it’s highly sophisticated electronics and software, called by the company the “secret sauce technology” the heartbeat rhythm of this pillow gradually changes like our own heartbeat changes over time.

Hugging the pillow will turn it on and will beat it’s heart for 20 minutes. One 9-volt battery will last for 6-12 months depending of course how often you hug the pillow.

My Beating Heart realized after the launch of the ‘grown-up’ version in 2005 that many parents buying the My Beating Heart pillow for their little ones to help them gliding into a nap or into dreamland and decided to launch additional smaller sizes specific for kids.

Prices for the My Beating Heart pillows range form $34.99 up to $120.- and are available directly by MyBeatingHeart.com

This is yet another example for the growing list of interactive pillows using soft technologies. Music playing, glowing, phone call making pillows and now the relaxation pillow with a heartbeat.

Bookmark to:

The Vital Jacket® is an intelligent wearable garment that is able to continuously monitor electrocardiogram (ECG) wave and Heart Rate as used in medical environment, high performance sports and fitness.

The company behind this futuristic Jacket/Shirt is Biodevices, S.A., a spin-off from IEETA (Institute of Electronics and Telematics Engineering of Aveiro / University of Aveiro, Portugal) with the mission of developing and commercializing biomedical solutions for diagnosis and monitoring support.

The Vital Jacket® is a wearable vital signs monitoring system that joins textiles with microelectronics. It was designed and developed to be a usable pragmatic approach for different clinical and normal life scenarios, in hospitals, home or on the move, that need continuous or frequent high quality vital signs monitoring.

The benefit of Bio-monitoring clothing is obvious: more freedom of movement and independence from stationary treatment for patients or elderly who need special care and quality data collection in high performance sport as well as for fitness enthusiasts.

There are currently two versions available, the HWM100 that stores data on a SD memory card for post-analysis on a PC. This version allows long term monitoring. Users can define heart rate limits and will be alerted through a vibration alarm embedded in the T-Shirt.

The second version is the HWM200 that allows realtime visualization where data is sent via Bluetooth to a PDA or smart phone.

Both VitalJacket versions are ready for pre-order at a price of €399.- / $635.44 (excluding PDA) on VitalJacket’s Website. Shipment is indicated as begin of 2008 so it should be very soon.

Bookmark to:

Rugs that light-up seems to become a new trend for the sophisticated lifestyle.

First we saw the FootLume with EL light in a Rug to light the way in the dark and now we have the Luminoso, a Wool Rug interwoven with LEDs.

The Luminoso is a creation from Top Floor an interior design company focussed on flooring. Top Floor was founded in 1998 and has become a leading source for distinctive contemporary hand-made rugs and carpets, winning numerous awards for their designs.

Top Floor’s rug collections are created by founder and Design Director Esti Barnes.

The Luminoso rug has hundreds of tiny LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) woven into it creating an animated light pattern symbolizing a galaxy in the far distance.

I like the idea of an living, animated rug instead of a ‘death’ piece of textile lying around in my living room. Imagine the out-of-this-world atmosphere such a rug creates.

Top Floor’s rugs and carpets are made to order that means any size and color scheme is possible and the cost will be …. made to order. Check out directly with Top Floor if you like to walk on Light in your living room.

[via: Gizmodo]

Bookmark to:

Spring has officially arrived although in some areas there is not much of it to see yet. Nevertheless you have to plan ahead for the summer beach or pool season meaning: get in Shape now.

For a starter, running is the most easiest to do which makes you loose some pounds on the way and you can do it almost anywhere. What’s most important next to your motivation is to have the best outfit for running and a system to track your progress.

For the best outfit, the NuMetrex range of heart rate monitoring apparel which won recently the ShapeYou.com Sports, Health & Fitness GearAwards™ 2008 would be my advice.

The NuMetrex Heart Sensing Sports Bra and the Cardio Shirt for Men got the Top Gear medal while the Heart Sensing Racer Tank was awarded the Great Gear medal.

These awards for NuMetrex products is not a big surprise to me. Their fitness apparel with integrated textile sensors offer by far the best wearability comfort for heart rate sensing in sport apparel. Combined with the flexibility of NuMetrex’s system allowing to mix and match almost any existing sensor and wrist monitor makes the NuMetrex range the big winner.

If you are planning to get in shape, I suggest to look at the award winning Top Gear NuMetrex has on offer before you head off to your first run of this season.

Bookmark to:

Our homes get a lot of attention lately from the ’soft technology’ innovation corner.

We have covered the wakeup call with the glow Pillow and now we have a rug that lights our way to the bed or bathroom at night: the FootLume - a rug that glows.

FootLume, created by Zoe Robson and Leona Dean, is an illuminating rug that adds a touch of truly contemporary style for the design conscious home.

But there is also a practical element in the FootLume concept: pressure sensors in the rug activate light patterns with electroluminescent technology used for example in the WiFi Shirt of Equalizer Shirt.

The sensor will activate light pattern with each step showing the way in the dark. EL technology gives off soft light just enough for indication without illuminating the whole room.

Zoe and Leona met back in 2005 while studying for a BSC course in Engineering Design. During their study time they came up with FootLume next to other ideas and started their own company – Zolo Designs.

According to Leona Dean “… the glow that the rug emits is very soft which could make the rug useful as a child’s night light. Another use could be to help the elderly to find their way in the dark. A great idea is to use the glow rug to light the way to bed after a night in the pub without waking up your partner.”

“It can provide ambient mood lighting, or flash in time to music as a talking point at a party. The manufacturing techniques mean that the styling of the product can easily be changed to suit the end user.”

Currently Zoe and Leona are at the London South Bank University (LSBU) particibating in the Enterprise Associate Scheme which supports students with entrepreneurial flair.

The FootLume rug is exhibited at London’s Ideal Home Show which is running until April 6. The exhibition is a opportunity for both to find a manufacturing partner to bring the FootLume glow rug into our homes.

Let’s hope the search for a manufacturer is successful and we can find the FootLume in a interior store soon. I certainly have use for it thinking about the pub scenario above.

[source: LSBU via Gizmodo]

Bookmark to:

Two New Zealand companies have developed a merino shirt that promises to revolutionize the way athletes measure, track and share information about their performance.

South Island-based sportswear innovation company i-RULE and Auckland-based smart-fabric monitoring company Zephyr Technology combined forces to create the Sputnik shirt, named after the world’s first artificial satellite which means “co-traveler”, “traveling companion” or “satellite”.

The shirt incorporates a harness worn around the chest made from fabric sensors woven into it. This smart fabric, in combination with specialized electronics, can measure, transmit and record key athletic performance attributes such as heart rate, respiration rate, skin temperature and posture.

After racing or training, the athlete uncouples the transmitter from the harness, places it in a cradle and uses Sputnik software to upload the collected data to the Facebook website and show off to friends the athletic accomplishments.

The idea sounds great, who does not like sharing the personal achievements but the design and integration of the smart textile sensor does not look that exiting, looks almost as having a chest strap underneath a shirt.

Personally I like more the full and seamless integration Numetrex is offering. Especially for women a chest strap is to my opinion a big NO even a smart textile based strap.

Lets give i-RULE / Zephyr the benefit of doubt at this moment as we will see very soon how the real world product will look like. The Sputnik shirt will be available for general release through i-RULE’s online store in spring 2008.

[source: Scoop Sci-Tech]

Bookmark to: