Via Engadget

According to the theory, a cloak group of large concentric plastic rings will be fixed to the Earth’s surface. When surface waves come to this re-arrangeable area, these plastic rings will keep them not going to the building and direct the waves outside. It is all about tuning to the frequency of coming waves individually.

A building which is 10 meters across will need a few plastic rings which have 1 to 10 meters diameters and 10 cm thickness in its foundation.

Invisibility cloaking has made certain progress in especially light manipulation field of physics. It is quite possible that we will see such materials in constructions as well.

Today’s fantasy is tomorrow’s reality.

]]> http://www.vubx.com/tech-research/making-buildings-invisible-to-destructive-earthquakes.html/feed http://www.vubx.com/robots/japan-cities-under-attack-giant-robots.html http://www.vubx.com/robots/japan-cities-under-attack-giant-robots.html#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:59:44 +0000 admin http://www.vubx.com/?p=318 We have not so long ago mentioned Giant Gundam Robot in Tokyo. It seems like Japanese people are really obsessed with their famous comics and anime robots.

This time, Kobe’s turn to build a giant 60 foot tall, 50 tonned statue of Tetsujin-28-go in Wakamatsu Park. Tetsujin means Iron Man in Japanese language and Tetsujin 28-go was a manga published in 1956 featuring a secret WW2 robot to help Japanese army. Later, after the war ends, the robot finds its destiny better fighting against criminals and other bad enemy robots. It is still being built and Kobe proudly waits for its release from the factory.

Via OhGizmo

Toyota developed the best social application of brain signals processing to help the people who are bound to wheelchairs. The user of the wheelchair just need to think about the commands of left, right turns or forward motion. All is thanks to real time fast calculations of one line EEG signals. The brain waves of the person is analyzed every 125 milliseconds and the results are translated into real mechanic movements. An accuracy of 95% was achieved.

Expect to see commercialized brain controlled wheelchairs in not very far future.

Toyota Pressrelease

At first sight, Snaefell car looks like a special limited edition of a famous sports car brand because it is quite successfully detailed and shining in attractive red. But, actually this motorbike sidecar combination is a result of a 10 years amateur car engineering efforts. Francois Knorreck spent more than 10,000 hours and around 15,000 Euros to finish this. I have hesitation to decide it was worth or not?

Via AutoBlog

We are talking about a handheld vacuum cleaner equipped with world’s fastest motor. DC31 will surely make dusts and debris a history. Beware your large objects as well while using. The device will be sold in UK next month in two versions. Not much costly, around $250 on average. Would you buy the new Dyson dustbuster or a new version of iRobot robotic vacuums?

Via GizmoWatch

I could find a handful useful resources. The first one is Quiet Mouse website. They have both USB and wireless mouse variations which they prefer to name as QuietSmooth. I guess, they just replaced the mouse switch inside with another non sounding material.

My second discovery can shock you a bit. It is a Silent Mouse Software. No need to click on the screen. With the help of the program, when you stay on a link  it will show you a tiny window where you move and pause your mouse just a second and it will do the click. There are all variations like click, double click, right click, scroll etc. Honestly I didn’t try the product. It is what they say on their website.

Another (hopefully) much silent mouse called as Thanko. It is advertised that click wheel and the mouse buttons have been silenced to one-fifth that of a normal mouse that I consider enough for normal day usage, but I wanted to have a real full silence! Do I want much? Gizmodo reviewed Thanko with the result of disappointment too.

Second is Buffalo USB Silent Mouse. This one also lowers the noise but doesn’t eliminate completely. Unit does not work with Vista (yet).. Hmmm let’s look further.

So, here is another powerful candidate! Apple Mighty Mouse Wireless Kit. Everything is superb. No clicking at all. Everything is touch-sensitive. Wireless, cool design. Positive reviews. But, as you can expect from Apple, it only works with Mac OS X. So, you will need a Bluetooth-enabled Macintosh computer. I continued my search further as a poor PC user.

I see that it is a big empty market still except the first one I mentioned. Some smart guys tell us how we can make silent mouse ourselves. My current champion is DIY Silent Mouse. I will try to do it in my first spare time.

Well, when we ’see’ something, our view of the world has been processed by our brain. And our brain ‘knows’ that a face is convex, not concave, so that is the way we see it. When we move, the face does not move in the way that a convex face would move, so our brain comes up with a different explanation, and we see the face move, following us wherever we go! Not the following photo, you should watch the video below.

This illusion is called as Hollow-Face Illusion. After some further search, I have learned that only schizophrenic people are not fooled with this trick because their eyes don’t believe in what brain knows automatically about faces. If you check the video below you will see that we perceive as if the mask face is clearly following us. Cool, isn’t it?

I had written about Einstein’s Brain Journey on my other blog as well some day ago. I guess, his story after death is interesting enough as well.

Einstein Hollow Face Mask Product Page

#1 Lightwedge Book Light
Couldn’t afford to buy one of Amazon Kindles or waiting for the price drops of Kindle devices? Still, there are old but good gadgets for bookworms. Lightwedge enables you read a book at night while not disturbing your partner nearby. Even better, you can read a fantasy or horror book with full concentration closing all lights down.

#2 The Go Plate
We like to eat in bed with my wife, especially night seances to watch a cool dvd film. At least 2 cups or bottles of drink and 2 plates of food needed naturally. Bringing them from kitchen to bedroom and back can be exhausting. The Go Plate was designed to be able to hold both plate and bottle, can or cup in one hand. Reusable material, so it can go to dishwasher as well.

#3 Pick-a-tooth Toothpick holder
It is an ordinary silicone-made stuff with one exception that it looks attractive. A perfect gift idea for dentists and for their offices.