Transparent Toaster

This transparent toaster allows you to see the bread while it is toasting so you're never surprised by toast that comes out too dark. This idea is based on a transparent heating glass technology. Although the glass does not currently get hot enough to toast bread, the vendor explained with some R&D this application may be possible. The concept was developed by the Inventables Concept Studio.




















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Citizen LCD retains image even when off

Citizen has developed something it's calling the "memory liquid crystal," a new passive matrix LCD that can retain an image even when powered off. According to Citizen, the display's inorganic membrane, combined with an angled orientation, keeps the crystals frozen in position without power having to be maintained. The five-volt, non-backlit display isn't going to take the place of your LCD TV anytime soon, but is planned for use in point-of-sale applications, watches and cellphone auxiliary displays.

Source 

Humanoid Robot HRP-2"Promet"

HRP-2 is the final robotic platform for the Humanoid Robotics Project headed by the Manufacturing Science and Technology Center (MSTC), which are sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) through New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

·	Many DOF system despite light weight construction: 154 cm Height, 58 kg Mass and 30 DOF
·	Cantilevered crotch joint structure allows for a walk in confined area
·	Highly compact electrical system packaging to forgo "backpack"
·	Experiments to realize "walking on uneven surfaces," "tipping-over control," "getting up from a fallen position," and "human-interactive operations in open spaces" are planned.
·	Users will be able to develop application software due to open architecture.

Background Music for YOUR Life

Make Your Ordinary Life More Exciting

The Personal Soundtrack Shirt is an amazing new wearable audio solution that features a working speaker embedded into the front of the shirt. When you push the appropriate button on the pocketable remote you get music or sound effects appropriate for any situation... everything from drum roll, to cat call whistle, to western showdown. Check out the chart below to see the extensive list of built in sounds and suggestions on using them for dramatic punctuation in your everyday life.Add Your Own Sounds

Don't like the built-in sounds? No problem. Simply pop in your own SD memory card loaded with MP3 files to use your own sound effects and music. The Personal Soundtrack Shirt remote has buttons from 1 to 20, each can play a different sound. The filename of your MP3 file determines which button will be used to play the sound. So if you name your file "03.mp3" it will play when you hit the "3" button on the remote. If you add an "L" to the end of the filename your sound will loop until you stop it. So "04L.mp3" would play when you hit button "4" and loop endlessly until you hit a new sound or the pause button. Got it? Remember... all this is optional. If you don't want to add your own audio files you can simply stick with the 20 built in sounds. Full instructions for loading your own sounds are included in the package.

Play Music from Your iPod or other Portable Audio Player
The Personal Soundtrack Shirt can also play sound from your portable audio player through the speaker on the front of the shirt. Simply connect your portable audio player to the audio "input" jack on the battery box of the shirt and power it on (you will need a male-to-male headphone cable, not included). The Soundtrack Shirt amplifies your music and you can use the volume control on your portable audio player to control the volume level of the shirt.

April Fool's Joke Turned Real
Yep. This unusual shirt was originally a joke product for April Fool's day. But after your overwhelming positive response and hundreds of e-mails screaming to "make the damn shirt already" we went ahead and made the damn shirt... please enjoy.

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Windows XP, Vista and 7 Tested For Multicore Performance, XP Still Wins For Now

InfoWorld has a very interesting test between Windows XP, Vista and 7 in terms of multicore performance, and it seems like Windows XP still wins (right now). But there are even more interesting things.

The interesting bit is that, using the testing workloads they came up with, they were able to find that Vista and 7 were almost exactly the same, barring some tweaks, and very different from XP under the hood. Our analogy would be that Windows XP is an orange, and Vista and 7 are a banana and a ripe banana, respectively.

Another point Infoworld brought up is that both Vista and 7 are actually more optimized for multicore performance than XP, naturally.

Taken to its logical conclusion — and disregarding for the moment external factors, like bus speeds, I/O contention, and memory latency — Vista would ultimately overtake XP when the core count reaches between 32 and 64.

And in Windows 7, they suggest that it will overtake Windows XP at around 16 or 24 cores. So although it may be slower now, in a few years, when you have 16 or 24 cores, you're going to be thankful for Microsoft for their work. But until then, Ballmer can expect lots of angry fist shaking. 

Extreme Ergonomic Seating for 'Him' and 'Her'

To most of us, comfort is sitting on a soft cushion.To others, comfort is sitting on a sheet of molded plastic that rides up one's butt crack.

The Chaise Him and Her chairs are the brainchild of Italian designer Fabio Novembre, intended to be an updated response to the famous Panton S chair by Verner Panton. Should you be enticed show the world a rump that you may or may not be blessed enough to possess, the chairs are available for $340 apiece. Airholes are, sadly, not an option. [Amateur DeDesign via Le Journal du Geek]

The Electrolux Flatshare Refrigerator: A Solution For Food Fights

Food and drink are precious commodities, especially when it comes to having to store them in the same refrigerator and freezer space as roommates. You know those ones who have 'different' appetites and cleanliness habits. Whether you are sharing an apartment, a house, or a room with workmates or classmates, having a personal space for your own food supply is often a matter of necessity.

The new Electrolux Flatshare Refrigerator is an innovative product that gives you your own space for your all-natural, processed, or whatever else kind of food you enjoy. No longer do you have to store your exquisite delectables alongside someone else's less-than-fresh rutabaga or rapidly deteriorating corn dog. This modular refrigerator guarantees you your own personal, safe, sanitary, and organized refrigerator and freezer space.

The Electrolux Flatshare Refrigerator is one of the nine finalists in the Electrolux Design Lab 2008 competition. This competition has garnered 600 entries from 49 countries. Undergraduate and graduate industrial design students received invitation to create and design appliance concepts geared to the Internet generation.

This far-out refrigerator is the perfect peacekeeping device for those who fight over refrigerator space. It's a sure way to keep one's food in one's own territory. While it doesn't guarantee against pilfering from those friend's of yours with voracious appetites, it does guarantee your food will stay stored where you like it-the way you like it.