Month: December 2005

Sony Makes a Buckyball Film

Right now it looks little more than a chunk of kelp that washed up on a beach somewhere but trust me, its much more than that.

The formula Sony has developed uses the buckyballs arranged in clumps of eight. Sony is mixing them in a polymer to form a barrier that makes for thinner membranes. The goo helps stop the penetration of oxygen across the fuel cell’s membrane and stops methanol leakage, which in turn boosts the power density…or so the Sony boffins say.

Huh? Sounds like the oxygen doesn’t stand a chance at making little buckyballs, poor buggers. All kidding aside, this should help make fuel cells more efficient with a power density of about 100 milliwatt-hours per square centimeter.

[via Core77 ]

Sony super fuel cell film

Robot Football With Mr. Soccer

Robot Football

What could be more fun than robot football, er.. I mean soccer?  Each of your little robotic (remote controlled, but some hacking can give them the gift of autonomy) is about two inches high and run off from two AAA batteries. The starter pack comes with two robots (England and Brazil) but you can have up to seven on a side. I can imagine that having 14 robots on a playing field is going to require some unique markings added to your robot, good thing it comes with a sheet of stickers. I’m hoping that these end up being sold here in the states, with such a low cost (apx $56US for the base kit and $25US for each extra robot) these could be bought in a large quantity and used in a robotics lab as the basis of some swarm bots.

Robot Football

Chameleon Scarf

LED Scarf 

When my friend Greg sent me this link I’m sure he wasn’t thinking of the fashion applications of this new technology. The scarf uses a color sensor and a matrix of red, green, and blue LEDs to adopt the local color as it were. This reminds me of the active camouflage used by some ships and planes in WWII. The vehicle was illuminated by lights that were dimmed to match the ambient light levels. This would make the object harder to see at a distance. I suppose that the same would be true of a person wearing this if it was emulating the color of the wall behind the wearer. I doubt that it would be used in only this way, the fashion impaired would make a better market for this sort of thing.

Chameleon scarf coordinates with your outfit

Batoen: Dragon Quest Battle Pencils!

 

 How clever, use the hexagonal cross-section of a pencils as dice. Mix it in with the kind of rules you would find in a card game like Pokemon and you have the latest Japanese craze that is heading to our shores. Expect a TV show based on this soon…

I would swear that when I was a kid there was a game a little bit like this so the entire thing may not be all that new.  

[ via Boing Boing ] 

Batoen: Dragon Quest Battle Pencils!

Radio Ace Kit

 

This kit not only has a high cool factor (glowing electronics, does it get any better than that?) but is also a good starter for someone that isn’t all that sure of themselves winding coils and soldering wires. 

Build a nostalgic radio with a real vacuum tube and explore the airwaves as they did in the 1930’s! Historic technology comes to life again with 30 engaging experiments. Assembling this radio is a fun project for radiomen, tinkers and gadget-buffs of all ages. Once your radio is up and running, hunting for radio transmissions becomes a fun challenge. While learning how the radio works, you will discover the fundamental parts of electrical circuits.

The radio is pre-wired for easy assembly. Users need only to plug in the various components, attach an antenna and a ground wire, and make tuning adjustments to get the radio working. The wooden base is beautifully finished with a polished cherry stain and golden labels for an authentic look. The vacuum tube glows with a soft orange glow when you are using it!

 

[via Mavromatic ]

Thames & Kosmos – Radio Ace Kit