Today's Interesting Engineering

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

WowWee – A Small Canadian R & D Company Brings Cutting Edge Technology to Toys.

Based in Montreal and founded back in 1988, WowWee is an independent research, development, and manufacturing company, focused on cutting edge technologies applied to toys and leisure products. Making recreational stuff their focus is, for my mind, a brilliant stroke; it’s a niche that allows an innovative and flexible company to shine in a highly competitive marketplace. WowWee genuinely does come up with some great ideas, as their award wining toys clearly illustrate, and they’ve partnered with some fairly high octane institutions in so doing.

Their world-class in-house engineering and design team produces what the company refers to as “proof-of-physics” prototypes, to determine the viability of product concepts. Going a step further, WowWee continually bounces these ideas off third-party partners, out of a belief that sharing breeds innovation; their highly successful track record points squarely back at this strategy. So, yeah; this little Canadian company makes toys. They put one out not long ago, called the MiP Robot, and it pretty much went viral, because it was, in fact, an extremely cool toy. They’re about to strike again with the Miposaur, a robot-tyrannosaur due out in a few months. Naturally, all this makes you wonder, ‘And I should care about this, why?’ Glad you asked – Let me enlighten you.


First, and foremost, these aren’t dumb toys WowWee is turning out. Sure, the Miposaur is a “dancing robot,” but it incorporates some pretty slick technology. The ‘MiP’ stands for Mobile Inverted Pendulum, a system co-designed by WowWee and the Coordinated Robotics Lab of the University of California, San Diego. This gives these MiP toys pretty impressive balance somewhat akin to a Segue scooter. Gesture control means this little robot will follow ten basic commands, with variants of each depending on three different “moods.” Finally, the toy comes with a track ball that it will interact with based on what the company calls “BeaconSense technology;” in essence, it means that the robot can see and respond to the ball in a number of ways as well as to gestures. And of course, there’s an app for that – an iOS and Android capable program allows further play, and hints at expandability down the line.

At around US$100 a pop, it’s not a cheap toy, but then, it’s really not designed to be; this thing is clearly meant to appeal to adults as much, if not more so than kids.

As for why this kind of thing is important, I’ve got several thoughts. Homer Hickam, Jr. comes to mind first – That genuine NASA rocket scientist caught the bug because of model, AKA toy, rockets he explored with as a kid. Encompassing real technology, fairly cutting edge technology, into a toy means people who might not otherwise get exposed to such things do, in fact, get exposed; that’s how future engineers are made. Secondly, there’s an unquestionably expanding role for robotics in this world of ours, and some folks see that as a threat. As such, showcasing robotics and associated technology to these people in a non-threatening way is a good thing – It softens the blow, and opens minds without being scary. And last but not least, I think one of these would look really cool on my desk.

The post WowWee – A Small Canadian R & D Company Brings Cutting Edge Technology to Toys. appeared first on Interesting Engineering.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Airlander 10: The world’s biggest aircraft will soon take off

The Airlander 10 is close to becoming the largest aircraft in the world to take off thanks to a new investment that will finally bring the project to completion. The 92-meter-long aircraft designed by Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) was initially planned for the US Army to use for military surveillance.

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The US army gave up on the project in 2013 due to budget costs and the airship has been grounded ever since. But a recent £3.4 million (US$5.1 million) grant from the UK government to HAV will take the Airlander 10 back into the skies. The investment was enough for HAV to continue developing the aircraft and it should take off by the end of the year.

This time around, the HAV is planning the Airlander both for military and civilian use. Although passenger airships are still quite a delicate subject since the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, in which a passenger aircraft caught fire, killing 36 people. However, the technology has greatly improved since then, which might help improve people’s opinions on this kind of air vehicle.

According to Chris Daniels, leader of HAV communications, “the sole problems existing old-style airships had (were) having lots of ground crew, limited ability to carry payloads and to be susceptible to weather conditions. We solved all those problems with a new concept — a hybrid aircraft. So a mix between a wing and an airship.”

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The Airlander 10, which received it’s name because it can carry up to 10 tons is made of carbon fiber, Kevlar and Mylar – a strong polyester film resistant to high temperatures.

Not only is it high-tech, the Airlander 10 is also eco-friendly, using near-silent 325 hp V8 engines that use only 20% of the fuel required by existing aircraft. It can also incorporate solar panels and fly in extreme temperatures between -56°C and 54°C without any problems.

The Airlander 10 could have many different applications, from military surveillance to humanitarian missions like taking medicine and food to risky areas.

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Source and images: Hybrid Air Vehicles

Via: CNN

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Recycled bottle kayak floats down Parana River

Federico Blanc always wanted to float down the Parana River in Argentina and just recently that dream became reality when he did it in a recycled bottle kayak.

[Image Courtesy of Inhabitant]​

He collected dozens of plastic soda bottles and then glued them all together to make a kayak that is very simple but eco-friendly and which has room for two people along with a cooler.

[Image Courtesy of Inhabitant]​

The recycled bottle kayak looks simple enough to make, providing you use waterproof glue to glue the bottles together of course. Blanc made the raft in the Villa Elisa region of Argentina and there is no better way to make use of old soda bottles than undertaking a project such as this.

[Image Courtesy of Inhabitant]​

Via [Inhabitant]

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Earthy home made from old US school bus

While the idea of setting down roots and buying a home in suburbia is many peoples’ idea of heaven, some would like to have more freedom. One young couple wanted to own their own home but didn’t like the idea of being tied down so they bought a ready-made home transformed from an old US school bus.

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[Image Courtesy of WPI Creative]​

WPI Creative decked out the US school bus and turned it into an earthy home for the couple to live in, in the Cascade Mountains. To ensure that the unusual home was warm in the winter it has its own rustic wood burning stove and the bus has lots of natural ventilation and light and it retains all its windows, which can be opened if it starts to get too warm inside.

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[Image Courtesy of WPI Creative]​

The old US school bus has been lined with timber and offers plenty of shelving and storage that can be secured in much the same way as they would on a boat. The bus has been fitted out with plumbing that is fully functioning. The positive side to owning a bus for a home is that if the couple wanted they could move to any location they wanted. However the bus isn’t the most fuel efficient vehicle. Another plus is that the earthy home does have a small carbon footprint.

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[Image Courtesy of WPI Creative]​

Via [WPI Creative]

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[CarlS]

I'll stick with my 5th wheel toyhauler rather than a converted school bus.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

TE Connectivity 3D-prints fully functional electric motorcycle

TE Connectivity decided to 3D-print a motorcycle in order to demonstrate the many uses of this technology. Inspired by the Harley-Davidson Softail, almost all the parts of this motorcycle were printed in 3D, with the exception of the engine, electrical components, and rear-view mirrors.

The 113 kg bike took 1000 hours to be printed and is equipped with a small 750 watts motor, which can manage to carry an average-weight person at the speed of 25 km/h for more than 20 minutes.

The motorcycle frame was made using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology where an extrusion nozzle controlled by a robotic mechanism, lays down molten polymer in layers. The polymers used for this project consist of ABS and a heat resistant resin called Ultem 9085. Furthermore, the metal parts such as the headlight housing, were made using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) which creates a solid structure by compacting powdered material with a laser.

The bike was unveiled at the Rapid 2015 3D Printing fair in Long Beach, California, one of the most important events related to 3D printing technology.

Via: Wonderful Engineering​

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[CarlS]

That 3-D printing is beyond my meager comprehension!

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Christian von Koenigsegg Makes Very Sexy Cars

I commute about 90 miles a day, and as such, I drive a Toyota Prius C. It’s a hybrid, of which there are many these days. My car gets the job done, but it’s not exactly sexy. Christian von Koenigsegg, the founder and CEO of his namesake car company, drives a Tesla S. Now, that’s a sexy car, but when you compare that to what his company builds, the difference is far more pronounced than the leap from Prius to Tesla, because Christian von Koenigsegg makes very sexy cars.

Koenigsegg founded his company in 1994 at the tender age of 22; twenty one years later, it is arguably the leader of the megacar market. What’s a megacar? Let me put it in perspective for you. There are cars, those driven by us mere mortals; these top out in the high five figures, lead by names we all know, like BMW and Mercedes. There are supercars, limited editions made by many of those same outfits, and small production runs by outfits like Lamborghini and Maserati; those can easily get into the half million dollar price range. And then there are megacars, extremely small model runs, made by folks like McLaren and Koenigsegg. These are handmade works of art; stunningly beautiful, high performance machines with price tags far, far above the ‘if you have to ask,’ range – These are cars for the One Percenters, that run well over a million dollars each, and for good reason.

Koenigsegg’s first production effort came out in 2002. It was the CC8S, a supercar that held two Guinness Records, for most powerful production car, and for the highest speeding ticket ever issued, (242 MPH, earned somewhere down in Texas). The total production run was six cars. The CC8S used a modified Ford engine, but the chassis, suspension, and brakes were all designed in-house. The car was received well, and opened doors of opportunity for the company.

In 2006, they followed the CC8S with the venerable CCX, designed and built almost entirely in house, from the engine up. Koenigsegg refined their process significantly during and after bringing out the CCX, and forged important relationships with F1 level component manufacturers.

With a price tag just shy of one million dollars, the 2013 Agera propelled Koenigsegg into the megacar level with a vengeance. 3D printing and laser scanning made their way into the design process, and the company experimented with 3D metal printing of actual parts on prototype models. Forbes called the Agera one of the 10 most beautiful cars ever made and they wouldn’t be wrong. What Koenigsegg was doing harkens back to the early 20th century, when hand-made, high performance cars enjoyed their first heyday.

As their confidence and expertise increased with every success, so did the speed and innovation of new model production. In January of this year, they released the One:1. Limited to a run of six cars, (a nod to Koenigsegg’s first production vehicle), the One:1 highlighted everything they’d learned along the way. The model name derives from the 1:1 ratio of horsepower to curb weight, a number that is frankly dumbfounding in a street legal production car.

And then, just a few months later, the company announced yet another new model, the Regera, a “Luxury megacar,” ready in early 2016, and marking the first time ever that two models will be built simultaneously, (the Agera remains in production at this time). The Regera may be called a luxury car, but it’s far more than that – shades of my Prius, this is a hybrid to end all hybrids. The Regera is, in fact, a plug-in, sporting no less than three electric motors generating 700 horsepower, coupled to a proprietary twin-turbocharged 5 liter, dry-sumped V8 engine boasting 1000 horsepower, for a combined horsepower “well over 1,500″: Yes, you read that right, no, it’s not a typo. The end result is a hybrid capable of 0 to 248 mph in under 20 seconds. ‘Stunning’ is the word. The Regera production run will top out at 80 cars, and each one will cost just a shade under two million bucks.

Speed, performance, and sexy looks is what sells Konigsegg, but to a nerd like me, what’s underneath and behind it all is where all the truly stunning stuff is. From “dihedral synchro-helix” door hinges to proprietary engine designs, Koenigsegg is a hotbed of innovation, and the Regera illustrates this is spades. The company call the Regera the “first fully robotized car.” In practical terms, this means that using either the supplied remote or a smart phone, you can manipulate anything on the car that is controlled electronically, including updating the firmware or wirelessly sending diagnostic data. There’s a proprietary direct drive transmission, and a newly designed subframe that rests on “active soft mounts” that vary the amount of stiffness they provide based on driving conditions.

They did call this beast a luxury car, and they did so for a reason. From heavy interior insulation and 8 way adjustable memory foam seats, to high end sound and entertainment systems, Wi Fi connectivity, interior and exterior cameras with recording capability, ambient lighting, and a custom designed, leather and carbon fiber trimmed interior, they pulled out all the stops – The rear wing even folds neatly into the body of the car when not needed, and yeah, you can control that with your iPhone, too.

Koenigsegg engineers have used every model as a springboard for the next. In an industry where innovation frequently loses out to homogeneity, they seems quite comfortable replacing or overhauling a system when they think up something better. The company website sums it up well, “Together we work hard, in focused teams that are agile, efficient, and together we focus on excellence. When we fail, we fail fast. We learn from our failures and improve upon them. The pace is fast. Our structure is limited. Innovation and making it work is key.” That’s a refreshingly honest and potent statement, and a testament to their success.

The post Christian von Koenigsegg Makes Very Sexy Cars appeared first on Interesting Engineering.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Top 10 inventions dating from the 80s

When the 1980’s arrived they brought many things with it, including MTV, big hair styles and many superb technology gadgets. Here we have our top 10 inventions dating back to the 80’s.

10- The Disposable Camera

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

During the 1980’s disposable cameras became the in-thing from such as Canon, Nikon and Kodak. The disposable camera was cheap and came with one roll of film and a flash built in, some even offered manual zoom. They were perfect for traveling and very easy to use but digital photography saw the popularity drop.

9- The Nicotine Patch

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

The nicotine patch was offered to people who wanted to stop smoking. The nicotine patch became available on the shelves in the US in 1992 although the patch was invented during the 80’s when Dr Murray E. Jarvik studied nicotine effects back in the 60’s and 70’s and discovered that it was the addictive part in tobacco. He recognized the fact that harvesters of tobacco suffered from what was known as green tobacco illness, nicotine poisoning from tobacco leaves having contact with the skin. From here the nicotine patch was born. In 1985 he put in a patent request. They were eventually offered freely over the counter without the need to have a prescription.

8- Prozac

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

Prozac, also known as Fluoxetine, is a drug taken by millions of people around the world to overcome clinical depression. It became available in 1987 after being discovered in the 70’s. It was patented by Eli Lilly and Company and the name Prozac has been one of the most popular and most well-known drugs associated with antidepressants.

7- Disposable Contact Lenses

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

During the 1970’s contact lenses became a popular alternative to wearing spectacles and during 1987 disposable contact lenses were introduced onto the market. The disposable lenses were made of soft materials and are worn for short periods of time. Before the disposable lenses people worn the same contact lenses and had to take them out to clean them. Today people can get disposable contact lenses in daily, weekly and monthly types.

6- The Space Shuttle

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

NASA focused on developing a different type of vehicle following the lunar missions in the 60’s and 70’s, so that astronauts could go into space and come back home safely. Their dedication saw the development of the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle had an important role to play when it came to deployment and maintenance of equipment in space. The first launch of the Space Shuttle was the Columbia in 1981, lasting for two days. Since this time there have been more than 130 missions.

5 The IMB and Macintosh Computers

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

The computing revolution started during the 1970’s but the computers that came out were large machines, often taking up the whole floor of the room in which they were in. While the machines were big they only offered around the same processing power as a phone of today offers. In 1981 the IBM 5150 Personal computer came out with an Intel 8088 processor and had the 1.0 PC-DOS OS with the BASIC programming language. IBM was the most well-known name among computers at this time and it sparked off the Windows computers that we know today. Apple revealed the Macintosh computer in 1984 and was the first to offer a user interface that is graphics based.

4- Compact Discs

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

Vinyl records were common during the 1980’s but the downside to them is that they took up a lot of space. While 8 track tapes and cassettes took less space they degraded over time and then the compact disc was born from Sony and Philips. During the mid-1980’s engineers wrote books which set the standards for the format of compact discs, five in total. The books expanded the standards and this gave way for the introduction of data storage to the CDs and then the CD-ROM and CD-RW. This was something that revolutionized the music industry and saw the end of the vinyl and cassette market. CDs stored information in an optical format and so they held a lot more data than magnetic discs. During the 1990’s compact disc players were in domination for both computer storage and music.

3- The HDTV

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

The first HD TV broadcasts took place in the US during the late 90’s, however HDTV does go further back to the late 70’s when the Japan Broadcasting Corporation worked on a new standard for TVs. During 1980 the first prototype offered clearer pictures than ever before. It wasn’t until the latter half of the 1990’s that HDTV sets became readily available on the market in the US.

2- DNA Fingerprinting

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

In 1984 science was changed forever when Alec Jeffreys, a British geneticist stumbled on the fact that people all had their own unique DNA profile. He found that genetic profiles come from our parent’s profiles and that lineage could be traced back generations thanks to DNA testing. Jeffreys came up with the term DNA fingerprinting and this gave him a knighthood. The world of forensic science owes its development due to DNA profiling.

1- The Permanent Artificial Heart

[Image Courtesy of Google]​

The first surgical implant of an artificial heart in a human was during 1969, however the early artificial hearts were just a temporary measure as they were made to ensure that the person could be kept alive long enough until a heart transplant could be performed. Things changed with the introduction of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart. This was made as a permanent heart transplant. The first operation of a Jarvik-7 heart was in 1982 with the implant undertaken by William DeVries on patient Barney Clark. Clark managed to survive for 112 days following his surgery and then passed away.

Via [Howstuffworks]

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Architects propose converting old oil tankers into living communities

What do you do with the gigantic oil tankers that are no longer used? Just leave them to rust? Well a team of architects have another idea about what to do with them and they would like to re-use them as infrastructure by turning them into living communities.

[Image Courtesy of WonderfulEngineering]​

At the moment decommissioned oil tankers are scrapped in ship graveyards in developing countries and it is here that workers have to take the ships apart by hand and this is a task that isn’t without danger. The workers have to deal with toxic chemicals and oil that has been left behind and all they get from it is salvaging metal that is sold for scrap for a pittance of profit.

[Image Courtesy of WonderfulEngineering]​

Now the shipping industry and the Government is trying to put an end to this but this leaves us with the issue of what to do with the oil tankers when they are decommissioned. A team of Dutch designers, Sander Bakker, Chriss Collaris, Rubern Esser and Patrick can der Gronde think they have the answer with a project named Black Gold as they want to re-purpose the vessels.

[Image Courtesy of WonderfulEngineering]​

At the moment the project is only a concept as the team have been talking about taking a vessel that has been abandoned and then reusing it as a public building. The designers talked about how oil tankers are becoming irrelevant thanks to changes in the transportation system. The designers want to take the internal structure of the tanker out and replace it with floor-plates. As the tankers have big beds it wouldn’t be difficult to make an ad hoc structure in the big shell. An open rectangle would be cut in the sides and this would allow air glow along with styling on the interior that would be similar to that of an airplane hanger and there would be free passage of wind and sun.

[Image Courtesy of WonderfulEngineering]​

They plan on ensuring that the entrance would be connected to the coast with a pedestrian walkway, while the top of the vessel could be used for farming and inside there could be a commercial plaza or sculpture garden. The team propose a cultural centre in a country in the Persian Gulf as this is where the majority of the oil comes from.

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[Image Courtesy of WonderfulEngineering]​

Via [WonderfulEngineering]

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

1st gen Apple computer worth $200,000 is recycled by woman

A woman took a 1st generation Apple computer to a recycling station in Silicon Valley and dropped it off without knowing that it’s true value at auction was $200,000.

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[Image Courtesy of Thenextweb]​

The woman was clearing a garage when she found the Apple I, the first computer to be hand-assembled by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ron Wayne in 1976. The computer has only 4kb of memory and was originally sold for just $600 with just 200 of them having been made. The woman didn’t realise how valuable the computer was and took it to a recycling centre in the Clean Bay Area and left it along with more boxes of electronics.

[Image Courtesy of Thenextweb]​

A few weeks later a team as the centre came across the 1st gen Apple computer and realised its worth. The woman hadn’t left any contact information but the recycling centre said that they will give 50% of the money from the sale back to her and the vice president of the recycling centre said that he would recognise her if he saw her again.

Via [Thenextweb]

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[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

The bendable bike can be secured around any post

Bikes are a popular way of getting around cities these days but one of the down sides is that you have to carry around a lock and chain to keep it safe when you leave it. This could soon be a thing of the past though thanks to a new bendable bike that can be secured around any post by just the push of a lever. There is no need to carry around chains as it fastens up with just one lock.

[Image Courtesy of Gizmodo]​

A student from the De Montfort University in the UK designed the bendable bike for the Business Design Centre New Designer of the Year Award and it won him second place. His bike works on a ratchet mechanism that allows the bike to be bendable or rigid. However it cannot be both at the same time. When riding the bike it remains rigid just like any other bike, but when you stop you just push a lever on the bikes frame and it becomes flexible allowing the rider to wrap the bike itself around any bike rack or pole.

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[Image Courtesy of Gizmodo]​

The bike was designed so that it could be secured with just one lock and at the moment it is just in the prototype stage but Scott is hoping to make it into a business venture. He said that he was taking it forward and hopefully the design would be his stepping stone into bike designing.

[Image Courtesy of Gizmodo]​

Via [Gizmodo]

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[CarlS]

That bike is pretty cool.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

The June intelligent oven will help you become a better cook

If you love to cook but can’t quite get it right every time, get ready for the release of the June intelligent oven, the new smart oven that promises to help you prepare any meal by recognizing what food is being put into it and choosing the perfect cooking program.

Much like a conventional electric oven on the outside, the smart oven actually has a lot of technology that makes it like no other. Not only does it have supercomputer brains -NVIDIA Tegra K1 with 2.3 GHz quad-core processor and 192 CUDA GPU cores- it also counts with Wi-Fi connectivity and a full HD camera.

The camera is the equipment responsible for helping June identify the food inside, with the help of algorithms and an integrated scale, and from there suggest the temperature and the cooking time based on the user’s taste. The camera also shows real-time preparation of the food, streaming live videos through a phone application, which allows these images to be shared on social networks.

All this technology can be easily controlled through the application, which also allows those who are using the appliance to choose the perfect cooking program and to alter it at any time if needed. The oven still will also send notifications when the food is ready or when it’s time to, for example, flip the steak. Still, perhaps the most interesting point is the oven’s engineering for precision heating. The June is able to calculate the exact temperature for each dish and Digital TRIAC controllers meticulously manage the oven’s temperature in order to keep it precise.

The June smart ovens should reach the market in 2016. It’s possible to pre-order an oven on their website for US$ 95 or wait until next year to get it for US$ 140.

Via: Wired​

The post The June intelligent oven will help you become a better cook appeared first on Interesting Engineering.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Small shipping container house interior will blow your mind

We have featured small houses that are made from many things, including traditional bricks and mortar, wood grain silos, warehouses and now we have one in the form of a shipping container house.

[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

Shipping containers do make a great home if you don’t need plenty of room. One shipping container has been designed by a firm of architects in Costa Rica and they show that you can pack great things into small spaces.

[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

The design of the shipping container house really makes the most of the small space and it offers a home that is roomy along with being cozy, thanks to many ingenious space saving ideas.

[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

The home can sleep up to four people and it is made available as a rental located in a superb vacation destination. There is plenty of space for holding a party or dinner on the rooftop terrace which is decked out in wood and which can be accessed by a ladder on the side of the home.

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[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

The inside of the shipping container house has been decorated in earthy tones that are warm and comes with lots of cabinet space along with LED lighting that is recessed. It features a sliding glass door that opens out onto a deck, the same applying to the door on the shower.

[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

The kitchen features a stove with two burners along with small refrigerator and a microwave that has been fitted into the cabinets above the sink. Just outside the kitchen is a clever dining table that seats four, which is perfect for dining or working.

[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

The beds are just off the left of the kitchen with each bed having its own window to brighten up the small space, along with recessed lights above. There is also a bed hidden away in the wall during the day for guests.

[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

When the shipping container house is vacant the whole front of the house is covered up thanks to the roof which hangs above the deck being able to fold down.

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[Image Courtesy of LittleThings]​

Via [LittleThings]

The post Small shipping container house interior will blow your mind appeared first on Interesting Engineering.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

D-Eye attaches to your smartphone to help you avoid seeing the eye doctor

Those who live in remote parts of countries don’t find it easy to get to see an eye doctor the same as those who live close to a town. However a new device called D-Eye could be a solution for them and it could change people’s lives. Around 80% of visual impairments suffered by people around the world could be cured or prevented in the first place simply by having an examination of the eyes and care of them.

[Image Courtesy of D-Eye Care]​

The D-Eye is a lens for a smartphone that clips easily onto the back of the camera and at the moment the technology works with the iPhone 5, 5S, 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5. The lens is very easy to put into place and it doesn’t need power in order for it to run. It has an app that allows patients to film their own examination of their eye and this can then be sent to a specialist over the internet for them to check.

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[Image Courtesy of D-Eye Care]​

The tech comes with an innovative mounting bumper, retinal imaging system and eye lens. It means that people can carry around their own technology in their pocket and undertake an eye test along with retinal screening to look for many disorders. People will be able to test for glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration associated with age or diabetic retinopathy.

D-Eye was developed by Andrea Russo, an ophthalmologist, who has worked alongside Si14 SpA, a tech development company from Italy. The patient establishes a link with the doctor over the internet and the doctor can then remotely control the phone to look into the eye along with being able to review the patient’s files. The technology offers a comprehensive view of all regions of the eye relying on combinations of levers and beam splitters created by the LED flash, camera and the autofocus of the phone. The lens is being offered for 400 Euros and the bumper attachment an additional 40 Euros and the app is free. A cloud service is also being planned for using with the tech and storing scans.

Via [D-Eye Care]

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[CarlS]

That shipping container is cool; but I have more room in my fifth wheel trailer than that and probably for less cost.

 

[hemibee]

This is not in the same format as the previous posts but I think it should go here.

 

[CarlS]

Great post. That is why I have to really concentrate when I ride my '68 TR6 with the shift on the on right and the brake on the left.

 

[DaveM]

In today's Interesting Engineering we have the following

Vintage lifehacks from cigarette packs that are still useful

At the beginning of the twentieth century it was very common for cigarette manufacturers to place collectible cards inside the packs, kind of like cereal nowadays. You could find baseball cards, trivia questions or animal pictures in the cigarette packs to collect. Gallaher’s Cigarettes printed out a brilliant series of 100 how-to-do-its’, or lifehacks.

These vintage cards are now part of the George Arents Collection at the New York public library. The coolest part of this is that many of these century-old lifehacks can still be super useful today. You can learn many great things from them, like how to remove that tight ring from your finger or getting a splinter out of your hand. It also tells you how to create a fire extinguisher in a few quick steps . Check out the cards for some great lifehacks:

How to make a fire-extinguisher

How to draw a perfect circle without a compass

How to remove a tight ring from the finger​

How to extract a splinter​

How to stop flies from spreading diseases​

A hint when boiling potatoes​

How to clean oil painting​

How to preserve Autumn leaves​

Via: Science Dump​

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