GadgetReview

Gardening and horticulture are fastly becoming new hobbies for thousands of Americans embracing this powerful green movement and many of them may be very interested in what Olga Kalugina has created.

The FlowerPot Eye is a sort of X-Ray flowerpot that not only shows the roots of your plant but vital information such as:  Light levels, humidity, and the current soil conditions of the plant.

Very futuristic looking indeed and I’m sure these would sell great here in Portland.

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Here’s an interesting concept from one of Japan’s leading telecommunication providers, the Polaris.  KDDI, in corporation with Japan’s Flower Robotics, have built what very well might be Roomba meets cell phone meets Loopt…and then some.  The phone itself doesn’t sound all that mind bendingly crazy, but toss it into the docking system, which includes a set of speakers, and the on board motor will fire up the wheels and drive it to its closest power source once its juice runs low.

Using what is probably a combination of GPS and NFC (near field communication) the phone tracks where you went and what you bought.  Connect it to a near by TV or monitor and the data can be displayed in a somewhat digestible format.

They plan on having a commercial version of the Polaris by sometime next year.

[via Popsci]

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Before you go and get your panties in a bundle, note that this hear portable gaming system is just a concept.  That’s right, it doesn’t actually work but if it did you’d be playing your favorite Xbox 360 games any where you went.  Putting aside the battery life issues, and where the disc would fit, the Xbox 1080 rocks a pop out LCD screen and a set of buttons to facilitate not only your gaming needs but your media ones as well.  Hopefully Carl Archambeault, who came up with the concept, can make good on the tease and provide us with a portable Xbox 360 even the master Ben Heck would be proud of.

So this begs the question: will Microsoft create a portable gaming console like the PSP?  Or is that market too saturated at this point?  Personally I wouldn’t be interested and with the iPhone in my back pocket why would I want to hull around yet another device.

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When I was ‘corporate’, to combat long and drawn out meetings bosses would implement the ’standing meeting’.  In short, employees were required to physically stand during the meeting which in turn would force them to get down to brass tacks.

The TimeTable incorporates a similar philosophy, but instead of requiring workers to stand a set of LED lights built-in to the translucent surface of the table countdown indicating how much time is left for them to present.   Once the total meeting time has transpired a record voice is played to let them know their time has expired.

The TimeTable is currently a design only, but they’ve got a working prototype up and running at the “The Cole” building at Wieden and Kennedy London.

[via BornRich]

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Remember when the hands free mics for cell phones hit critical mass?  You’d see people in the grocery store or walking down the street talking to themselves, until you realized they had one of these jammed into their ear.  Then the Bluetooth headset craze ran wild and once again many a sane people were deemed crazy by fellow commuters and city patrons.

Well, you can fire up the crazy again, because design studio BCK has got a concept that turns the ‘call me’ gesture into a Bluetooth headset.  The idea is that two rings, one a mic the other a speaker, are worn on the pinky and thumb respectively.  To activate a call you simply separate the two fingers and to end the call place them together.  It’s not a bad idea.  But you know what is a bad idea?  Placing an animation on your website that flashes so much it feels like it could induce a seizure – yeah, that’s their website.

[via Mobilecrunch]

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Why in the shape of a light bulb I don’t know, but from the design studios of Quirky I bring you the Watt Time alarm clock.  And yes, that is a horribly bad play on words, something I greatly appreciate in light (get it?) of the all too common bedside alarm clock.  The light bulb shaped alarm clock is crafted of high-gloss, hard plastic, which not only allows the the digital time display to shine through, but prevents you from smashing it to flesh tearing glass shards when you hammer down on the would be socket to activate the snooze – although that would be a killer wake up call.   And much like the Philips alarm clock we recently saw, you can wake to a gradually increasing glow of light.

You can pre-order the Watt Time alarm clock for $24.99 and hope it reaches it pre-sale goal, otherwise it will never see the light of day (yes, another one).

[via Cnet]

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The inherent problem with any turnstile – you know, the things that prevent you from skipping the toll for the subway – is that those who are in a wheel chair can’t pass through them.  Enter the Watergate.  Pop in the toll and the water, which sprays from side to side, turns off long enough for you to pass through.  If you don’t pay the toll you’ll end up with a soggy pair of pants, making it all the easier for the subway police to identify their fickle rider.  Toss in a little dye and you can guarantee the toll will be paid.

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You gotta just love when something really old gets revamped with a modern twist.  The Electronic Ruler is most certainly on the bulky side, but for those who are short on sight this might just be a god send.

Little to no detail has been provided about the conceptual project, but based on the pics I’m gonna say it is actually functioning.  Placing the pencil on the sensor will provide a digital readout of that point’s length and to give it that authentic ruler feel they’ve added a transparent wood facade.

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Depending on your age, the 3.5-inch floppy disk will either look familiar or totally archaic.  It held just over 3MB of data and was the second iteration in portable data for the computer.  Before that it was a 5.25-inch floppy that held less data, was about twice the size and was literally floppy, hence the name.  The 3.5-inch floppy USB drive merges a bit of the old with the new and gives reason for not only this article but a little reminiscing, something I’m doing a lot of as I get into my 30s.  It looks like a concept only, but of all the flash drives we’ve seen in recent years there is no reason why this one shouldn’t get produced.

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If you’ve ever side swiped some one’s cornea with the tip of your umbrella – ya, I’m talking about eye gouging – then you might wanna consider the Polite Umbrella.  Yanking the lower part of the handle causes the umbrella to shrink to a more crowd pleasing size, all the while providing more anonymity and wind protection.

[via PSFK]

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