Q-SOUND Solar-powered Headphones

 

Q-Sound is a solar powered Bluetooth headphone a concept device which is especially designed to overcome the performance boundaries of energy efficiency or time use while enjoying the music using any MP3 player which is linked to any electronic audio or acoustic device. Q sound is a part headband and part headphone which works with the help of vague silicon cells integrated within. The solar cells integrated on the user’s crown which absorbs the sun rays in order to gain power.

Normally the solar cells are flat and rigid, but the solar cells for Q-Sound are specially made of flexible plastic with the purpose of utilizing silicon solar cells.  Q-Sound features Bluetooth which could be used with any Bluetooth enabled device in order to enable wireless sound capability.

Q-Sound can also be synced with all digital audio players consisting of 3.5 mm stereophonic jack plug. Q-sound also allows answering calls if it is synched to a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone. Q-sound consists of two NiMH batteries which are fully rechargeable and has a capacity of 800mAH and 1.2v operating voltage. A completely charged battery can work for complete 40 hours.

SmartFaucet – Face Recognition Tap

 

Sometimes it’s hard to blog about every great new gadget that comes along. It can be too tempting but you can’t just buy everything that catches your interest. I do keep a little wish list which I update with all the gadgets I would buy if I ever won the lottery. Today’s gadget, the Face Recognition Tap is on my wish list. Why? Well I just love these futuristic gadgets and think this one is pretty darn cool.

Simply walk into your bathroom and touch the tap and it will recognise your face and adjust the water to your preferred temperature and pressure. The gadget is called SmartFaucet and is made by the guys at iHome. Its touchscreen display can also be configured to let you check your emails and calendar to get you ready for the day ahead.

And it looks pretty smart too, don’t you think?

Electrolux Wind and UV Rays Dishwasher

 

Ultra Violet light has long been used for sterilizing equipment, for this reason it has been proposed that it could be beneficial to kitchen devices such as dishwashers to aid cleaning and prevent the spread of bacteria. The Electrolux Wind Dishwasher utilizes this technology in its three step cleaning procedure. Step one produces a high pressure air flow which is passed over dirty dishes to remove left over food. The second step is to steam the plate to remove the more difficult greasy stains before the final step of UV sterilization.

Two things concern me about the Electrolux Wind and UV dishwasher, firstly its very small. From the picture you can see only two plates getting cleaned at once. This dishwasher therefore is very impractical unless you live by yourself and very few dirty dishes.

Secondly, I think this gadget must use more power and water per cycle load of dishes. For example if you think how many dishes you can position and clean in one average dishwasher cycle then compare that tok how many cycles you would need to run on the Electrolux dishwasher to clean the same load of dishes then the Electrolux seems inefficient to me.

We must not get forget that this is a concept, and in that it seems a pretty nice idea. Nevertheless let’s hope they can expand the idea to a full size dishwasher whilst keeping the cost down as well. Good luck!

[via Dvice]

The Green Pizza Box

 

Check out this new pizza box concept which aims to reduce the volume of cardboard boxes that are being used and entering land fill sites. From the Youtube video below you can see clearly that the lid of the Green box can be tore along its perforated edge to allow 4 small plates to be used to hold pizza slices, the other half of the box can be folded into another box to store your remaining pizza.

Featuring a clever design, the Green Pizza box aims to reduce the volume of paper plates that might be used during parties, however I still don’t think its the ideal eco-friendly pizza box and that further modifications would make it more environmentally friendly. After all, volume of boxes will not change because people will still buy pizzas and with every pizza comes a pizza box so a better idea would be to make a pizza box that degrades quicker than any of the pizza boxes currently available.

Save Money and Ink with Cartridge Free Xerox Printer

 

Xerox is one of the only printer manufacturers offering solid ink colour printing technology. Instead of the traditional messy and sometimes toxic toner and inkjet cartridges found inside other printers, Xerox has come up with the concept of solid sticks of ink to produce fantastic colour prints at a much lower cost. The solid ink is resin based and involves heating it before transferring it to paper, which is similar to large scale press printers, however all this has been fitted inside a desktop device called the Xerox ColorQube 9200.

Features of Xerox ColorQube 9200

• Non-toxic ink is resin-based, similar to a crayon, so the sticks are safe to handle by anyone

• No-mess ink won’t stain your clothes or your skin

• Capacities of ink sticks can be up to 1,000 or 2,300 pages depending on the device

• Load up to 5 sticks at a time (depending on device) of each colour in a solid ink device for long, uninterrupted printing

• Stringent manufacturing of the ink ensures colours will be consistent. 100% of all ink is inspected, not a statistical sampling, which is commonly employed.

The Xerox ColorQube 9200 guarantees a reduction in the cost of ink compared with Inkjet and Laser printers (claimed 62% saving) and a faster prints-per-minute (up to 85ppm). The downside may be the expensive price. Because the Xerox ColorQube 9200 has four separate print heads along with a heating element, its price tag is $23,000.

[Via Xerox]