| Turn That Music Down! and Blog - Artificial Fingerprints Help Robots Distinguish Shapes |
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Volume control: These earphones are designed to protect the user(TM)s hearing by limiting the average volume to no more than 85 decibelsCredit: Conrad Warre/TRMillions of people are risking their hearing with prolonged exposure to loud music from MP3 players and smart phones. A new earphone technology developed by dB Logic of Indianapolis, Indiana, aims to prevent such damage by limiting the maximum volume of music, and is able to do so without distorting louder passages or making soft sounds inaudible.People have been listening to portable music players via headphones since 1979, when Sony introduced the Walkman. But the widespread adoption of digital music players over the last decade represents a new public-health hazard, because digital devices store so much music that users can listen without interruption for hours. [Read the full article] The Dyson Hot will set you back a cool $400, and comes in two color schemes: white with a silver heating ring, or aluminum with a blue heating ring. The device accelerates air through its aperture, passing cool air over an airfoil-shaped ramp and heating it. The Dyson Hot can be easily tilted, and oscillates to cover a broad swath of room. A curved and magnetized remote control can be stored right atop the device. The whole thing weighs five pounds; if it topples, it shuts off automatically.Is the thing, with its exposed heating ring, safe? Space heaters, after all, reportedly are associated with some 22,000 fires every year. Sir James Dyson himself has been hitting the circuit to assure people that yes, the Dyson Hot is safe. The lack of blades actually makes it safer around children, he says: "I've got grandchildren," Dyson told a crowd gathered for an event in New York recently. "I've watched them rush up to fans and try to poke their hands through the grill. [Read the full article] First, a company called Orbotix is putting out a robotic ball called the Sphero, expected to retail at about $130. I went hands-on with the Sphero last week at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular in New York, and had, so to speak, a ball. Orbotix is being very clever about Sphero; it stands to make money not only on the hardware, but on the proliferation of apps that will result (some of which will sell for as much as $9.99).A rep showed off several ways of controlling the Sphero with your smart phone. First, there was what he termed a sort of "Etch-A-Sketch" approach; you draw lines on your smart phone screen, and the ball will replicate those movements on the floor. Second, there was an old-fashioned R/C approach, in which two dials appeared on the screen, one to control the balls forward and backward movement, another to steer it right or left. There was even a hilarious app called KittyCam that enabled you to shoot video or your perplexed cat while you steered the ball. [Read the full article] 
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