Self-powered diaper monitor system detects pee-pee, maybe one day poo-poo |
It’s not that hard for a parent to figure out if their toddler has peed their diaper, but when it comes to old folks, maybe it could be a big help. A research laboratory at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University has developed a monitoring system for wet diapers. It consists of a self-powered sensor/transmitter and a receiver and is designed to assist the staff in hospitals and nursing homes with diaper checks. The sensor kit needs to be placed inside the diaper and then it sends signals to the receiver.
The sensor and the wireless transmitter are powered by a built-in battery that generates electricity using a chemical reaction in the presence of urine. That’s when you know. You have pee-pee.


Looks like a major Wiltshire town is buzzing with excitement as they are about to become the first in the UK to be able to enjoy free public wireless internet access. Swindon Borough Council plans for all 186,000 citizens to soon be swaddled under a blanket “Wi-Fi mesh” by April 2010.
If you’ve been wondering when we might see 3TB drives arriving, the answer is soon. At least according to Dr Geoff Barrall, founder and CEO of Drobo. He says that Drobos will be offering a 3TB drive by April 2010. Drobo uses Western Digital drives, so there’s a good chance that it could mean that Western Digital will be outing some 3TB drives of their own very soon.
Blockbuster has a new program that will load DRM’d movie rentals onto an SD card from a kiosk. Let’s say that you’re at the airport, or some mall. You want to rent a movie. Apparently you just format a spare SD card (because it doesn’t look like they give you a card), put it in the machine, select a movie, pay about $4. Then you have the movie on your card with DRM.
Anthony Toth really likes Pan Am. He likes it so much that he built a vintage Pan Am first-class cabin in his garage. It looks awesome and the setup includes almost everything fliers in the late 1970s and 1980s would have found onboard.
It’s interesting how technology is finding a place in women’s cosmetics more and more. The Lashlight has a brush-tip that gives you access to even the tiniest lashes and the exclusive light-up LED wand spotlights every lash you might have missed.
Douwe Egberts wants you to work for your coffee. They think that consumers would like to interact more with machines so they are creating a coffee machine that can interact with consumers through simple games.
Seems that Polaroid can’t make up their mind. After
AC/DC knows how to rock and they have never slowed down. Only a super hard rocking band like them could put out a Box Set like this, which has to be the best Box Set ever. AC/DC’s Backtracks package obviously looks like a guitar amp. But take a closer look.
Vitality Inc. wants to sell you a new pill bottle system. The idea is that it will transmit a signal to a base station in your home every time the bottle cap is opened. So if you are not able to open the bottle cap in time, the base station will play sounds to remind you.
Vonage, a provider of VoIP home phone services, has announced a new mobile application designed specifically for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and RIM’s Blackberry devices providing alternative discounted rates for international calls. The application is a
mSpot isn’t new. It has been streaming full-length movies to cellphones for a few years. Now however, the company has a potential customer base of 40 million. Mobile phone users on Sprint, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile (including the G1, Pre, iPhone and other smartphones) can go to m.mspot.com to stream movies.
Google has now started public testing by invitation only of Wave, a new online tool for communication and collaboration between people online. Wave has been described by its designer as what email would look like if it was invented today, and contains real-time communication through text, photos, video, maps and more according to Google.
The European Commission has set volume limits for MP3 players in all European Union member states. This means that your Zune HD or other mp3 player will not be allowed to output anything louder than 80 decibels under the default settings.







