Funky Earpiece

28/5/2007

Hearing aids do have their own stigma - they're not really that cool a piece of gadget, especially in the looks department. Sun Kyung Sunwoo, of Sydney University of Technology, has taken steps to address that. Rather than plumping for the mild skin tones, she's only gone and designed one in lemon yellow.

But that leap forward in just scratching the surface. Inside, the whole thing is different to your average earpiece. For a start, she uses a hydrogen fuel cell, meaning the aid can keep running for up to 6 weeks.

On top of that, the speaker and microphone are spaced far enough to eliminate the characteristic feedback of conventional models.

And what does Sun Kyung Sunwoo get in return?  Only a shortlisting for a Dyson Design award!

Bendy-vision

27/5/2007

There has been lots of talk around the production of paper-thin screens in recent times, but not much in the way of reality. Sony have up’d the ante and released their prototype billed as the world’s first flexible version.

The screen are made using organic light-emitting diodes – a technology where organic compounds are deposited onto a polymer substance – of course, this all sounds very ‘now here’s the science bit’. All you need to know is that OLED makes for a very versatile display.

Previously, OLED screen were based around glass, but Sony have managed to use plastic, hence the flexibility. The prototype shown by Sony is 64mm long and weighs a tiny 1.5g.

All that’s left now is to have an uber-brainstorm to come up with a million or so uses for the flexible screen. We’d like to see TV dinner placemats – that should keep the kids quiet at dinner time.

The Bigger, the Better

25/5/2007

Small is never good. Small requires magnifying glasses and too much fiddling. Everyone likes big – ask any gadget freak. Fujitsu have answered prayers and released two big screen plasmas. The 55-inch P55XHA51WSb, and 63-inch P63XHA51WSb are part of Fujitsu’s high performance ‘51’ custom install series.

The sets have top specifications as can be expected. They come with the latest generation of their ‘PDP’ (Plasma Display Panel) glass technology. Also thrown in are better brightness and contrast capabilities, two HDMI inputs, and an upgraded AVM II video processing technology.

Costs for the sets are set at £4,495 for the 55-inch, and £6,495 for the 63 inch version.