The Geek Church

For starters, Bccthis is doing Gmail.

The HTC EVO 4G is available for pre-order.

Some handhelds at NYSE stop working, and there is no explanation for it, unfortunately.

Here’s an App for this. This is iScrub Lite 1.5, which logs your hand-washing time. Seriously.

This is the Mastone Lifespad 3G, another iPad clone, looks like.

Here is a Tripod stand for a laptop from Thanko.

This is the ClamCase, designed for iPad laptop functionality.

This is the Aerial Capture Camera that uses a floating balloon.

Here’s is a DSLR shoulder mount is made of wood.

The iPhone 4.0 is going HD video capability.

Polaroid is going to have an exhibit at MIT Museum.

There might be a way to put Solar cells on paper.

The Hollywood Sign could be getting an interesting Makeover.

Here’s another robot called LOLA which knows where its going.

The Brite-View BV-6000P for sale at Amazon.

The search for a perfect human society. Scientists, philosophers and architects have all studied and explored the possibilities of achieving it. Furthermore, we also see depictions of this concept in the form of futuristic civilizations from science fiction in film and television. Now an Alabama-based company called Forrest Fulton Architecture has developed their own vision for an ideal utopia.

They call their concept Lace Hill and the city of Yerevan in Armenia was chosen as the setting for the design project. Forrest Fulton Architecture’s idea is to create a 900,000 square foot biomorphic spatial surface that connects the adjacent city and the landscape. Lace Hill would be a truncated hill along the natural amphitheater of the Yerevan and this model could support a “holistic, ultra-green lifestyle” with overlapping natural and urban phenomenon. Lace Hill is an artificial hill, clothed in native plants irrigated with a recycled gray water system to create outside seats for viewing the Yerevan and Mt. Ararat. It was designed to consist of exterior perforations based on the intricate details of traditional Armenian lace needlework and their purpose to serve as outdoor space to provide amazing views. Next, a series of tower-voids would function as cooling towers that allow light to completely fill the interior while cooling that space at the same time. Then northern winds passing over the tower-voids’ ponds would serve to generate a giant evaporative cooling mechanism for the semi-arid city.

Forrest Fulton Architecture also intends to use eco-friendly techniques in the development of this project. Surfaces on Lace Hill would be painted to absorb solar heat, filter air and water-borne toxins and support insect and animal life while recycled gray water serves for irrigation of agriculture and plants on the hill. Lastly, the use of sunlight is meant to play a key role in the activities and events that take place on Lace Hill. Living spaces would be located on the long south face of the hill to maximize direct sunlight for views while offices are on the north face of the hill, using indirect light. A narrow office floor plate stepping down toward the south will provide adequate, diffuse daylight. Then retail, restaurants, exhibition halls, a cinema, and a health center line the promenade at the first level. Now, that’s quite a vision for a new, human utopia to revolutionize civilization as we know it. However, I wonder how much it would cost to actually create this ideal utopia and whether or not it could truly function effectively in the real world.

Source

If you grew up watching classic television shows like The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman or even heard of them, then you should be familiar with the concept of using bionic prosthesis to make a human stronger and faster. On television, actors Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner portrayed characters who became superhuman when they received surgical bionic implants after their bodies were crippled in terrible accidents. As a result of their surgeries, these TV characters gained superhuman strength, speed and agility. Of course, prosthesis does exist in real-life for replacing limbs on victims of tragic accidents but those artificial limbs can’t make people superhuman. But now a company called Touch Bionics has made bionic prosthesis a reality in the real world.

They recently developed a new model of their original bionic creation the i-Limb Hand and it’s called the i-Limb Pulse. The i-Limb Pulse features controllable grip strength, miniaturized components and rugged aluminum construction that make it capable of lifting and carrying loads up to 200 pounds. This bionic hand was designed with high-frequency electronic pulses to drive each digit motor to gradually tighten its grip on objects such as shoelaces or belts and provide better control over intricate grasping motions. Bluetooth-enabled software called MyBioSim is also used to allow people to control preset digit and grip postures, like pointing an index finger for example and this software is used in Touch Bionics’ finger product ProDigits as well. Furthermore, the users of the i-Limb Pulse can also link it to a home computer and choose the grip patterns they want to use most, thus making visits to a prosthesis doctors obsolete. Both the i-Limb Hand and Pulse use faint signals on the surface of human skin called myoelectric impulses, which remain from surviving arm muscles. Then these sensations are utilized to drive the individually powered digits in the bionic hands and patients are trained to generate impulses for prompting the hands to produce specific finger actions like button pushing. The i-Limb Pulse will also be available in two different sizes for men and women.

Touch Bionics has scheduled a presentation of the i-Limb Pulse at Orthopaedie + Reha-Technik 2010 in Leipzig, Germany next week. Another new product in bionic prosthesis called the BeBionic hand will also be introduced at Reha-Technik 2010 by a company named RSLSteeper. BeBionic features powered wrist rotation and “flexion/extension,” as well as lifelike silicone skin covering available in 19 shades. Touch Bionics is now accepting orders for the i-Limb Pulse, their products are currently used by 1,200 people all over the world and shipping for i-Limb Pulse starts on June 1. However, the company has given no information about cost, which will be affected by factors such as socket design, artificial skin covering, and rehab. So, bionic prosthesis now exist for increasing your strength. Perhaps that brings us a step closer to creating superhumans in real life as well.

Source

Yesterday, we left off at a pretty exciting point. Hopefully, you won’t be disappointed at what happens next.

Here’s a reminder that if you missed a chapter or two or three, then you should head to the ever-updating index here.

Anyway, the chapter is after the jump.

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