I don't have an iPhone . . .

. . . but if I did, there's a fair chance I'd have this app.





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Saucer groove

What about Music? UFO Drums

Music evolves. So do the instruments. And when they do, some instruments turn into UFO's, probably because designers like to associate futurism with alien vessels.

What was I just saying about everything looking extraterrestrial?

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But is it Bluetooth compatible?

Motorola celebrates 25 years of mobile phones with 12 concepts that look nothing like mobile phones

In an effort to build such a mythology, 31 of Motorola's designers, from five different offices around the globe, have been dedicating a portion of their time since late last year to a project called "Motorola 2033." The initiative, under the auspices of the Consumer Experience Design team (CXD), uses the 25th anniversary of the mobile phone as an opportunity to imagine mobile device design 25 years on, resulting in a curious set of research-based blue sky concepts rooted in some fantastical, yet plausible suppositions.

My favorite of the bunch is the Tender, shown above; I think it looks like a UFO. (Then again, sometimes I think everything looks vaguely extraterrestrial.)

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The color of consciousness

I never thought parapsychological research would lend itself to interior design, but it appears I was wrong.

A lamp that reads your mind . . . maybe

The researchers claim -- and at this point the science sounds a bit fuzzy to the lay observer -- that the internal REG can be influenced by the human mind whether by intention, emotion, thought or subconscious processes. Apparently years of research have shown that REGs can be influenced by human consciousness. Even if the research sounds mind-boggling, the lamp is visually striking and most likely a source of light entertainment for family and friends.

Human laundry

Ultrasonic Bath: Human washing machine

At the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, consumer electronics maker Sanyo demonstrated their vision for the future by showcasing a series of appliances they thought would populate the home of tomorrow. Included was the Ultrasonic Bath, a pod-like human washing machine that cleans, massages and dries the user in a fully automated 15-minute process.

Of course, everyone knows that you're not fully clean unless you're "Zest-fully" clean.

New prospects for augmented reality

MIT researchers create cheap "sixth-sense" ubiquitous computing device

According to the researchers, the gadget (unveiled by MIT researcher Pattie Maes at the Technology, Entertainment, Design [TED] conference currently underway in Long Beach, California) uses about $300 U.S. worth of store-bought components, and can do things like recognize items on store shelves, retrieve and project information about products, look at an airplane ticket and let the user know whether the flight is on time, or recognize books in a book store, project reviews or author information from the Internet onto blank pages, and recognize articles in newspapers and retrieve the latest related stories or video from the Internet.

Operative word: "inevitable"

Bullet Flight 1.0.0 -- the US$15 iPhone app for snipers

Bullet Flight turns the iPhone into a handy, touch screen, ballistics computer using the iPhone's accelerometer to calculate angles, providing highly detailed, very quick solutions out to 2000 metres. The KAC mounting attaches an off-the-shelf Otterbox ruggedising case. You can also download different weapon and ammunition profiles (it comes with three) and even subscribe to highly detailed weather and forecast information, not to mention listen to music whilst you await your quarry.

OK, I'm sold. Where do I send the check?

CES 2009: Flexible OLED Wrist Display Unveiled

This thing packs some serious cyberpunk cache.

See also: HP Announces Flexible Computer Screens On the Horizon

The Biodegradable Grass Cell Phone

Appearing for all the world like a brick of sod outfitted with a keypad, Je-Hyun Kim’s Natural Year Phone concept carefully considers the life cycle of cellular phones, which are all too frequently disposed of due to obsolescence and the constant cycling of two-year contracts. Designed to last only for the length of its functional life cycle, the grassy green phone biodegrades and pieces apart for easy recycling after two years are up.

See also: Millions of gadgets unused in Britain

Augmented reality meets the iPhone:

TV-B-GONE goes open source

That's the best new I've heard all day.

Virtual Webcam Girlfriend Is Entrancing, If a Little Perverted

From a technical standpoint, the Dennou AR Figures virtual 3D girlfriends, first announced a few months back, aren't much more impressive than PlayStation 3's Eye of Judgment. You install webcam software to that when your camera detects the special bundled cube onscreen, it fills a 3D companion into your environment. But when that 3D companion is a girl who can be dressed, tickled or, errr, spanked, the concept is born anew.

From an original short-story fragment:

Homeless people, many of them marred by cruel deformities, lined the defunct sidewalk, summoning vicarious charms from slates and projectors. A tiny naked woman with copious piercings writhed in mid-air, extremities flickering.

Yesterday I linked to a blog highlighting an electricity-generating sneaker-sandal, so today I'm drawing your attention to this Wi-Fi-sensing shoe in the hopes that someone more tech-savvy than myself will take the initiative and combine the two.

Am I the only one reminded of Rudy Rucker's "uvvies"?

LightMates are soft anthropomorphic pillows and warming lamps. This awfully attractive creature heats, lights and provides company. Their different sizes answer to everyone's need of heat; a mate to hug or a huge companion you can lay on.

The evolution of mobile phones, from the impossibly archaic to the mouth-wateringly exotic:

Digital Pot turns your plants into pets

Designed by Junyi Heo, the Digital Pot takes the guesswork out of keeping your plants healthy by expressing on an LCD display exactly how they are feeling and what they need from you. The various icons that can appear on the screen of the pot have corresponding meanings ranging from "normal" and "dissatisfied" to "more water" and "danger". The system works by measuring the soil conditions, temperature, humidity, and water in the pot and calculating the variables to express the plant’s condition in facial symbols.

An interesting inversion on the long sought-after dream of nurturing "bonsai pets" (including these unfortunate -- but thankfully farcical -- kittens).

Separated at birth: this USB head massager and the "drones."

See also: Xenu and the Flatwoods Monster.

Gadget Watch: Keyboard Pants

Just the thing to go with those augmented reality contact lenses.

Behold the latte printer: an idea whose time has come.



My only grievance is the inventor's choice to commemorate an otherwise respectable latte with the logo of a corporation whose relevance to well-made espresso drinks ranks a negative 10.

(Sighted at Boing Boing.)