The dumbbell hasn’t had an upgrade in a long time, if ever. Well, now suddenly they are getting smarter. What if you could have an entire set of dumbbells in one compact design? That’s the idea behind this concept by Sang-Hoon Lee.

You can digitally adjust the weight of the dumbbell. There are tiny balls inside the dumbbell that spin. The faster the balls spin, the heavier they weigh, thereby beefing you up so you don’t look like a girly man. You can adjust the speed of the balls, which adjusts the weight, simply with a dial and pushing buttons. The set comes with a charger cradle..

Myself, I don’t feel the need to spend more than about $35 on a pair of shoes. However, if you are into cutting edge sneakers and the whole tech/foot experience, maybe a pair of VectraSense Technologies’ new $700 Verb for Shoes will get you excited about putting these in the closet.

For the $700 price tag, you will have shoes worthy of the Bionic Man himself. They feature an embedded computer with “Auto Comfort”, which means that they automatically adjust to the wearer’s feet, becoming firmer or more cushioned based on movement. They also feature “Contact Sharing,” which allows them to trade information with other smart shoes in the area.(Hey, what up? You stink as bad as I do? Damn this fool got nasty feet!) Through a wireless link, users can even sync information between their shoes and a PC. At $700, they better put themselves away when you remove them too.

The students at Virginia Tech are a pretty intelligent bunch. They’ve come up with a new system for automobile braking lights that will indicate whether you are stopping, or just slowing down, based on how quickly you put your foot down on the brake. The solution for a better brake, as it turns out is really pretty simple.

The concept uses an array of horizontal LED lights. When you start to slow down, the center lights will glow orange and after a pre-programmed time, the side lights will turn red. If you slam on the emergency brake, then all the lights turn red instantly. If we could just get it to flash the finger for those people who stay way too close behind you, I’d be happy. They think these will be easier to add as additional indicators on commercial vehicles at first, but who knows, one day soon all cars may sport these.