Youtooth
This may have been inevitable: a Chinese company now has a Bluetooth microphone designed to be implanted in an actual molar or bicuspid. Could have positive implications for hands-free speech recognition use. Anyone who manages to talk their dentist into doing an installation please let us know: is the device tasty, or does it bite?
Gizmodo: Tiny Bluetooth microphone goes in a hole drilled in your teeth
Tired, and being admired
The Self-Inflating Tire is being shown in prototype form by Czech developers; as you drive, their radials automatically refill with air from the environment. Let’s cross our fingers for upcoming wheelchair models!
A universally touching story
A bunch of forward-thinking British scientists are working on a way to make potentially anything a touchpad–not by changing the surface of objects, but by using a camera to record the blood flow patterns under users’ fingernails to figure out what they’re pressing on and how hard. If this comes to market, we could easily see the concurrent development of mouthsticks or other assistive technologies that would mimic these fingernail patterns for folks without use of their fingers.
Gizmodo: Fingernail watching-cam makes everything a touchpad
Apple iPhone to support video chat?
More iPhone rumor mongering … Will the next generation iPhone from Apple have 2 cameras, one facing out and one facing the user? Will its 3G capabilities allow video chat? If so, stand by for exciting sign language video, direct and via relay service and remote video interpreting.
AppleInsider | Rumor: Digg founder claims 3G iPhone to do video chat
I can feel you calling
Samsung has added to its line of haptic phones with the Anycall, which has 22 kinds of vibration that actually try to simulate real-world tactile sensations–e.g., the feel of a radio dial for turning volume up and down. Looks like blind users might not be entirely left out of the touchscreen revolution after all…at least in South Korea.
Inflated hopes
Designed for motorcycle riders, this wearable air bag system will protect against falls and other high impact events. Many more people could continue to live independently if they felt safer moving around their homes and neighborhoods. Just be sure to de-activate it before doin’ the Bump at the Senior Surgical Sock Hop.
Viewing cells with cells
A bioengineering professor at UC-Berkeley has developed microscope attachments for cell phones, one with 5x power and the other with 60x power. The original use is for performing medical work in remote areas, but we could see the 5x lens also used as an inexpensive ($75) add-on that turns phones into portable CCTVs for magnifying small amounts of text.