Nothing stops progress! Do you own a Tom Tom GPS - you know, this little device that you have in your car with a friendly voice telling you to turn right or left? Well, in exchange of $13 ( or 9,95€ ) it can be the Lord of the Sith himself who will guide you to your destination as Tom Tom just released the Darth Vader voice pack! And if you prefer Yoda, C3PO and Han Solo voices, their voice packs will come in the next months!
In the meantime, have a look at the fun Darth Vader recording session below.
Now, let's talk about the future of transportation. No, it's not a new monorail but this amazing new invention by Honda!
Once again, Honda is creating the future. With the new U3-X Honda rethinks the concept of personal mobility, providing the rider with freedom of movement in any direction forward, backward, sideways and diagonally by simply leaning slightly in the desired direction. The lightweight and compact one-wheeled device also features a foldable seat and retractable footrests. A lithium-ion battery pack provides power for up to one-hour of use and can be recharged by plugging in to a conventional household or office 120-volt power outlet. Have a look to the amazing Honda U3-X on the video below, and i'll meet you after with more technical explanations.
Weighing roughly 22 pounds, U3-X uses an advanced Honda proprietary balance-control system which derives from its research into human walking dynamics for the development of the ASIMO bi-pedal humanoid robot. To realize full freedom of movement in all directions, the U3-X also employs the worlds first omni-directional driving wheel system (Honda Omni Traction Drive System) which utilizes a series of concentrically mounted wheels a larger, forward and backward moving inner wheel and a series of smaller sideways moving outer wheels. Diagonal motion is achieved when both forward and sideways moving wheels operate in tandem.
In addition, the compact size and one-wheel-drive design of U3-X was intended to provide user-friendly and pedestrian-friendly operation with low-mounted foot pedals that make it easy for the rider to reach the ground, and a seat height that places the rider at approximately the same eye-level as other people.
You love your mobile phone whether it's a IPhone, a Nokia or an Android? Well, this next topic will show you how might be the screen of your favorite device in a few years from now.
Sony Corporation announced this week that it developed a super-flexible full color OLED display which can be wrapped around a thin cylinder. The new screen is super-flexible to allow it to be repeatedly rolled up, but it's also sturdy enough to still show images. It has a 4.1-inch full colour screen with a resolution of 432x240 pixels and this was achived due to the development of integration technologies of OTFTs and OLEDs on an ultra-thin 20 μm thick flexible substrate and soft organic insulators for all the insulators in the integration circuit. By combining these technologies, Sony successfully demonstrated the world’s first OLED panel which is capable of reproducing moving images while being repeatly rolled-up – around a cylinder with a radius of 4 mm – and stretched.
Sony has not stated exactly what it will use the new displays for, but it has indicated that they may hit the mobile device market. Indeed, the size of the screen itself supports this, suggesting we may have some kind of rollable screen on smartphones in the near future. This may be used to save space or offer bigger screens on small devices by allowing users to stretch the screen out and roll it up when not in use.
And let's end with a bit of real magic for this Sunday! The great Apple IPad is now released in Europe, but in Japan a street magician performs his latest magic act with Apple's "magical" device! You like Apple AND magic? This video is for you!
You'll find many other great articles on the Innoventions blog!
Youtube video: copyright Tom Tom, Honda, Sony, salarymagican
