The bacteria grows in colonies that look like thin mats, with individual microbes connected to each other through a series of natural nanowires. It’s already known to produce electricity, having previously been used in “microbial batteries” capable of powering electronic devices. However, because the bacteria used in those batteries were alive, they had to be fed constantly in order to work. This new biofilm doesn’t need that kind of input and care because the bacteria is already dead.

“It’s much more efficient,” says Derek Lovley, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology at UMass Amherst. “We’ve simplified the process of generating electricity by radically cutting back on the amount of processing needed. We sustainably grow the cells in a biofilm, and then use that agglomeration of cells. This cuts the energy inputs, makes everything simpler, and widens the potential applications.”

The bacteria is able to take advantage of a “huge, untapped source of energy” that we don’t often consider: evaporation. We’re only just beginning to learn about the possibilities, but some scientists believe harnessing evaporation as an energy source could provide truly sustainable electricity free of toxic byproducts or the need to mine rare minerals. Eventually, evaporation engines could be placed above bodies of fresh water, irrigation fields, and greenhouses. Most current prototypes for larger-scale evaporation engines don’t make use of bacteria, instead incorporating materials that shrink as they dry, pushing and pulling with a lot of force.

“This is a very exciting technology,” says Xiaomeng Liu, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering in UMass Amherst’s College of Engineering and the paper’s lead author. “It is real green energy, and unlike other so-called ‘green-energy’ sources, its production is totally green.”

The biofilm produced by UMass works by growing bacterial mats and then etching small circuits into them using lasers. Once etched, the biofilm is sandwiched between electrodes and sealed in a soft, sticky, breathable polymer that can be safely and comfortably applied to the skin. The biofilm is then able to “plug in” to moisture on the surface of our skin from sweat, which is constantly present even if we don’t feel sweaty. That energy is enough to power small devices, even when the biofilm patch is very small.

“Our next step is to increase the size of our films to power more sophisticated skin-wearable electronics,” says Jun Yao, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UMass, and the paper’s other senior author. Liu adds that eventually, the team hopes its biofilm will be able to power entire electronic systems instead of just small devices.

The post Sweat-Powered Biofilm Band-Aids Harvest Energy for Wearable Electronics first appeared on Dornob.

Dyson engineers spent six years developing more than 500 prototypes that transformed the company’s air filtration technology into a compact wearable unit. The product evolution began as a hilariously bulky design with a snorkel-like mouthpiece, which was eventually refined to its final form: fairly standard-looking over-the-ear headphones with the face visor attached. The visor might appear slightly claustrophobic, but it doesn’t actually touch the wearer’s face, hovering far enough away for proper air circulation.

The compressors in each ear cup draw air through dual-layer filters and project two streams of purified air to the wearer’s nose and mouth through the visor. Sculpted air returns ensure that you’re breathing purified air that is diluted as little as possible by external crosswinds. To test the filtration, Dyson engineers used a breathing mannequin with medical-grade mechanical lungs and sensing equipment, which they placed in a controlled chamber full of air pollution.

The mannequin “breathed” through the Dyson Zone, and then the contents of its lungs were tested to see how much pollution made it through, with results showing that the filters are at least 97 percent effective. The filtration consists of negatively charged electrostatic filter media to trap ultra fine particles like allergens, brake dust, industry combustion and construction-related pollution, while a potassium-enriched carbon layer captures common urban gas pollutants like NO2 and SO2.

The Dyson Zone is designed for comfort, taking inspiration from the shape of a horse’s saddle to distribute weight over the sides of the head rather than the top. A custom blend of different types of foam makes the ear cup and headband cushions soft, stable, and capable of blocking out external sound. Which brings us, at long last, to the quality that’s most important in a pair of headphones: the audio.

The Zone has three different modes for noise cancellation. Raising the face visor turns on isolation mode, with active noise cancelling to eliminate distractions. When you lower the visor, you activate conversation mode, disabling noise cancellation. Transparency mode is somewhere in between, filtering most noises but allowing important sounds like car horns and sirens to come through. Dyson says the Zone delivers immersive high-fidelity sound, so you can listen to music as it was meant to be heard wherever you go.

Is anyone actually going to wear these? That remains to be seen when they become available this fall. For one thing, they’re quite large and look fairly heavy. They’re also impossible to ignore. Early adopters would have to be willing to withstand a lot of weird looks in public at a time when mask wearing has become politicized and equated to being silenced (at least in the United States). But it’s also possible that all the mask wearing of the last few years will actually reduce some resistance to a product like this, and personal air filtration will become the norm. Call us crazy, but we kind of wish we could just cut down air pollution in general and skip the bulky wearables altogether.

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The 2021 iF Design Awards welcomed innovators from around the globe eager to showcase their dynamic design concepts — and with an estimated 10,000 annual submissions from more than 60 countries, there was plenty to choose from. This year, however, the focus shifted somewhat among finalists to explore and create devices that bring the often lofty concept of automation closer to home.

AI, robots, and smart home technologies galore permeated some of the top winning designs this year, a shift that acutely represents our increasing reliance on technology within our homes as a way to make life more convenient. Taking Siri or Alexa to the next level, these designs show how sophisticated design technologies can be integrated into even the simplest daily tasks.

Below we highlight three of this year’s winners we were particularly impressed with, all of them devices meant to bridge the gap between automation and the home sphere.

Tokit Omni Cook Multi-Cooker

Home cooks everywhere will recognize this dilemma. Love that pressure cooker? Sure do! That slow cooker’s no slouch, either. But what about that rice cooker? Can’t live without it. The list goes on and on. Now more than ever before, there are all kinds of kitchen appliances built for specific purposes, each meant to fit seamlessly into your kitchen milieu — making life easier, yet somehow existing in their own autonomous space.

The reality is that many of us simply don’t have the space for all the kitchen appliances we need (or want). Enter the Tokit Omni Cook Multi-Cooker. Able to replace 21 traditional kitchen appliances all by itself, this little beauty combines precision and technology with a dash of digital flair to create the perfect cooking assistant. Throw in a smart display that provides recipes and video how-to instructions, and this winning entry from Shanghai Chunmi Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. hands down wins the kitchen appliance wars.

Kiwibot Plus

Robots delivering packages may seem like something out of The Jetsons, but thanks to innovations from tech companies everywhere, this tantalizing glimpse into the future is now right around the corner. While you may have heard of the “Amazon Scout” already, there are a host of other companies also working hard to develop this exciting new technology (Starship Robot, Buro, and AutoX, to name a few).

This winning entry in the 2021 iF Design Award competition is brought to you by Kiwibot, an already-established heavyweight in the world of robot delivery infrastructure. Affordable, accessible, and boasting zero carbon emissions, Kiwibot’s newest offering, the Kiwibot Plus, is tasked with becoming the tech company’s next-generation robot delivery superstar. Safe, effective, and most importantly, sustainable, the Kiwibot Plus is more than just a robot, it’s a bonafide member of the community.

Fit Bot

The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult (and sometimes impossible), for people to hit the gym, spurring a slew of technology meant to make the at-home workout more effective, and most importantly, more social. From apps to YouTube videos, Nintendo Switch games to Peloton, the field for at-home fitness has never been more packed with options for everyone from devoted gym rats to casual fitness experimenters.

Enter Fit Bot: an IF Design Award Winner developed by Samsung Electronics. But what sets Fit Bot apart, you may ask? Firstly, it’s a wearable technology, a “robot” meant to support the wearer and encourage safe, healthy exercise habits. Meant to “address the drawback of conventional exercise methods for the general population,” Fit Bot, through its built-in actuator, is intuitive and supportive. It’s designed to reduce the risk of injury for people everywhere, especially for those who may find more strenuous equipment or routines challenging, such as the elderly, or persons with previous injuries or health conditions.

Many of this year’s iF Design Award Winners hit closer to home, showcasing design technologies meant to bridge the gap between our daily lives and automation. As always, the designs were meant to inspire, and to make the world a better place through innovation. In 2021, that “world” just happened to include a little slice of home.

Want to know more? Visit the iF World Design Guide to learn more about his year’s winners.

The post These 2021 iF Design Award Winners Hit Close to Home first appeared on Dornob.

Scientists at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Engineering (Empa) and ETH Zurich have been developing a type of energy-generating polymer that can be fused with textile fibers. The result is wearable solar collectors that can provide electricity anywhere. Led by head researcher Luciano Boesel of Empa’s Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, the team hopes to put its polymer-fiber combo into everything from t-shirts to jackets, freeing people everywhere from the tether of electrical outlets.

The Empa team is not the first to think of using sun power in apparel. Many have tried to incorporate tiny solar array panels in the shoulders and backs of coats and shirts, concocting clothing that ends up looking like something Marty McFly wore in the Back to the Future sequel. What’s more, the inflexible nature of most panels makes them uncomfortable and prone to damage with movement.

The kilowatt-creating materials used in these designs are called luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). They have fluorescent dyes and other substances embedded in them that store the light from sunrays and artificial sources to a solar cell. The cell then converts the light into electrical power.

As great as these LSCs are at making electricity out of indirect or ambient light, they are limited by both an unbending structure and an inability to let air or water vapor pass through them. That means no tossing them in the washing machine ever. Boesel and his team recognize this and understand that to make LSCs a practical solution for portable energy production, they would need to revolutionize their stiff molecular arrangement into more something flexible that could also be air and water-permeable.

More recently, the Empa researchers have engineered a new substance based on Amphiphilic Polymer Co-Networks (APCNs), which have been used commonly in silicone-hydrogel contact lenses. APCN already has the ability to let water vapor and air pass through — one reason it’s so well suited to being put on the human eye. “The reason we chose exactly this polymer is the fact that we are capable of incorporating two immiscible luminescent materials at the nano scale and letting them interact with each other,” Boesel adds. “There are, of course, other polymers in which these materials could be integrated; but this would lead to aggregation, and the production of energy would thus not be possible.”

Additionally, these newer LSCs aren’t susceptible to cracking or becoming brittle, allowing them to be applied seamlessly to any clothing fibers, maintaining comfort and practicality. And because they’re incorporated right into the fabric, solar apparel can even keep up with today’s fashions.

While the Empa polymer is not yet ready for mass production, its potential means that we could soon be using the sun and heat around us to manufacture our own personal power sources. In the near future, we may be charging devices like our smartphones, laptops, headphones, and tablets as we walk from the office to lunch, sit on the subway, or go for a bike ride.

The post This Swiss Lab Wants to Weave Solar Chargers Right Into Our Clothes first appeared on Dornob.

So far, existing electronic skins are run via batteries and near-field communication. The Caltech team sought to disrupt the industry by creating a version that could operate wirelessly through some form of continuous self-power.

E-skins are made of soft, flexible rubber, taking the form of small patches that are placed adhesively onto the top layer of skin. And what’s always present on the epidermis? Human sweat, of course! Because sweat is one of the body’s own natural waste products, The Caltech team figured it would make for a wonderful source of power.

No surprise then that the researchers innovatively devised a method to use lactate to power the e-skin’s fuel cells. If lactate sounds familiar, Scientific American explains that’s because our muscles are famously known to have lactic acid build up in them whenever we’re active. When we give them a chance to rest after heavy exercise, the lactic acid is broken down by the body into lactate and hydrogen ions. As a human waste by-product, it’s secreted in various ways, one of which is through sweat.

“One of the major challenges with these kinds of wearable devices is on the power side,” says Assistant Professor Wei Gao of Caltech’s Mechanical Engineering Department, who led the research on the new e-skin. “Many people are using batteries, but that’s not very sustainable. Some people have tried using solar cells or harvesting the power of human motion, but we wanted to know, ‘can we get sufficient energy from sweat to power the wearables?’ and the answer is yes.”

How are the Caltech e-skin’s fuel cells designed to use sweat lactate? First, the e-skin absorbs the lactate present in sweat. That lactate is then combined through a chemical reaction with atmospheric oxygen to produce water and a by-product called pyruvate, with the reaction itself acting as the energy converter that powers the fuel cells. And as The Engineer elaborates, “as they operate, the biofuel cells generate enough electricity to power sensors and Bluetooth, allowing the e-skin to transmit readings from its sensors wirelessly.”

Interestingly, The Next Web reveals that the e-skin was tested in two experimental formats. The first involved electronic skins placed on a trio of cyclists pedaling in the laboratory on exercise bikes. As the devices’ reservoirs filled up with cyclists’ sweat, physiological biometric readings on the athletes were transmitted to computers.

But the research wasn’t just about powering electronic skins through sweat, TNW adds. Rather, during the second segment of the research, an e-skin was wirelessly connected to a robotic arm. When the sweaty cyclist moved his arm through various gestures, the robotic arm likewise followed suit in grasping a nearby object. This breakthrough could mean a future where sweat-powered wearables activate tomorrow’s robotic devices.

“We want this system to be a platform,” Gao hinted about future technological and robotics applications. “In addition to being a wearable biosensor, this can be a human–machine interface. The vital signs and molecular information collected using this platform could be used to design and optimize next-generation prosthetics.”

The research was recently published as an article in Science Robotics entitled “Biofuel-powered soft electronic skin for multiplexed and wireless sensing for human-machine interfaces.” According to the official Caltech website, Gao’s work usually revolves around the research and development of novel bioelectronic devices with practical biomedical applications. His work furthers the understanding of complex biological systems, clinical assessments that include health monitoring for early diagnosis and timely intervention, rapid delivery of pharmaceuticals, micro-robotics, nanomedicine, and even precision surgery.

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Now, innovations from researchers at MIT’s Dream Lab are making it possible to “hack” your own dreams using an open source wearable device that can track and interact with them, including a glove called “Dormio.”

Adam Horowitz, a PhD student at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group and fellow Dream Lab researcher, says he hopes the project will help answer questions about whether interfering with dreams could help people change or better themselves through augmentation of memory and creativity.

The Dormio glove features sensors that wrap around the wearer’s wrist and fingers, tracking muscle tone, heart rate, and skin conductance to identify various stages of sleep. When the user slips into a stage called “hypnagogia,” the device plays a prerecorded audio cue. For instance, one experiment with 50 participants played the word “tiger,” and the users reported dreaming about tigers.

“During sleep onset, a window of opportunity arises in the form of hypnagogia, a semi-lucid sleep state where we all begin dreaming before we fall fully unconscious,” the researchers explain. “Hypnagogia is characterized by phenomenological unpredictability, distorted perception of space and time, and spontaneous, fluid idea association. Edison, Tesla, Poe, and Dalí each accessed this state by napping with a steel ball in hand to capture creative ideas generated in hypnagogic microdreams when it dropped to the floor below.”

“With Dormio we modernize this technique, using a hand worn sleep-stage tracking system, social robots’ unique interactive and embodied capabilities, and auditory feedback on sleep stage transitions. Using Dormio, we are able to influence, extract information from, and extend hypnagogic microdreams for the first time: we found all of our subjects indeed dreamed about themes chosen by experimenters prior to subject sleep, and that active use of hypnagogia with the Dormio system can augment human creativity as measured by flexibility, fluency, elaboration, and originality of thought.”

Another Dream Lab project called “BioEssence” by PhD candidate and researcher Judith Amores features a wearable scent diffuser that monitors heart rate and brain waves, releasing a specific scent the user associates with a certain memory or behavior when they’ve reached the N3 stage of sleep, which is the state most associated with memory consolidation. Scent is less likely to wake you up than a spoken word, and it’s directly connected to the memory and emotional parts of the brain.

All of these innovations might either sound exciting or foreboding to you, depending on how you feel about increasingly invasive technology. Dream Lab released a video called “Cocoon” featuring both devices in hopes of soothing fears about the potential ramifications of allowing technology to alter dream states, along with an FAQ addressing potential ethical issues. Their stance is that since users are in a state of semi-conscious hypnagogia, they’re aware of the intrusion.

“Most, but not all, remember what they said throughout the experiment. But critically, we have had people forcibly wake themselves up when they had a weird enough dream that they did not want us experimenters to hear about it. People are monitoring their environment and aware of their descent into sleep, limiting the capacity for inserting any ideas people don’t want inserted, or extracting ideas they don’t want extracted.”

The post Hack Your Dreams With MIT’s New Wearable Tech first appeared on Dornob.

Led by Chemical Engineering Professor Zhenan Bao and Materials Science Engineering Professor Yi Cui, the Stanford researchers first published their work in the Nature Communications journal, highlighting their prototype battery’s use of a special plastic polymer electrolyte characterized by “unprecedented toughness and high ionic conductivity.” Implementing a supramolecular ion conductor, this prototype’s binding material allowed for more elasticity. Hence, the research team’s thumbnail-sized battery proved extremely effective as a solid, malleable, and highly capable conveyor of electric charge. On top of that, laboratory tests revealed that the battery’s experimental design delivered a consistent power output, no matter what shape or size it was squeezed, folded, or stretched into.

By contrast, conventional lithium-ion batteries — which power electric cars, grid-level storage, and personal electronics — tend to utilize combustible liquid electrolytes, or flowable gels. Their highly flammable nature commonly leads them to leak or catch fire, making them “culpable for the majority of recent catastrophic battery fires.” These disadvantages have to be addressed to meet the performance demands of today’s wearable technology, and to ensure the safety of its many users.

The Stanford team’s thumbnail-sized prototype overcomes these challenges and is already expected to transform the wearable electronics experience, especially when it comes to products that interface directly with the human body. As the team notes in their Nature Communications piece, “The method reported here of decoupling ionic conductivity form mechanical properties opens a promising route to create high-toughness ion transport materials for energy storage applications.”

As Bao explained further: “Until now, we haven’t had a power source that could stretch and bend the way our bodies do, so that we can design electronics that people can comfortably wear.”

Another anticipated application of Stanford’s stretchable battery is its future development as a power source for health-monitoring sensors. Such sensors are designed to stickily cling to the skin as a means of tracking heart rate, respiration, temperature, and other vital signs. Bao’s own BodyNet wearable technology, for instance, makes extensive use of adhesive sensors to pick up physiological indicators or signals emanating from the wearer’s dermal and epidermal skin layers. These signals are then wirelessly transmitted as health readings to a receiver.

Ultimately, it’s hoped this new stretchable battery can power wearables without interfering with a person’s normal behavior, making them more unobtrusive, safer, and a lot more comfortable.

The post Stanford Unveils New Stretchable Battery to Power Wearable Electronics first appeared on Dornob.

“The Original Blanket with Sleeves,” the Snuggie, has become a bit of a cult classic despite how ridiculous people look while wearing it. Because, let’s face it, everybody likes to be comfortable. A new product called the V-Blanket is not exactly more fashionable than the Snuggie, but it does offer several useful functions that make it a sort of Snuggie for outdoor adventures.

Sure, you can curl up with a V-Blanket on the couch, but where it really comes in handy is at sports games, on road trips, or while camping. It’s a waterproof heated blanket and cape in one, and you can use it in a variety of ways. Sit on it like an ordinary waterproof outdoor picnic blanket, sit under it for warmth, or wear it like sweater.

The blanket cape’s Kickstarter page reads: “During the winter, the weather changes fast and becomes cold. We know all the people need something easy to take with them that’s convenient to use. So, we came up with the idea of the heated throw and called it V-Blanket. The product can keep up a human’s body temperature but also generate heat to help people get warm.”

The V-Blanket is a portable battery-powered heated blanket, with heating material woven in with ultra-fine carbon fibers so the wiring is imperceptible to the wearer, distributing heating evenly. This helps it stay flexible, too, so it doesn’t feel stiff when you’re wearing it or have wires that are uncomfortable to sit on. Turn on any of its three adjustable heating zones with the press of a button, and enjoy a toasty 85-degree blanket in just 30 seconds.

The interior is lined with cotton twill to trap the heat, and the exterior is 100-percent waterproof, so you can rely on it even in rain or snow. A built-in USB port allows you to keep your devices charged, and there are even two LED lights built into the chest and back of the cape, either for visibility while cycling or walking after dark, or for reading and completing tasks without needing a separate flashlight.

The V-Blanket’s creators add: “Unlike traditional heated blankets, which are notorious for bulky components and tangling cords, V-Blanket works at a non-hazardous 5V low voltage that can be powered by any type of USB external battery pack. It also has a built-in female USB-A connector to charge your mobile device while keeping you warm and cozy. It is ideal for outdoor sporting events, untethered use on the couch, or chilly airplane cabins.”

“V-Blanket is incredibly lightweight and packable. It measures 54.5 x 38.5 inches when laid flat and weighs just 1.5 pounds. It compresses into a stuffed pack that measures 14.8 x 7.9 inches. With V-Blanket, you are always prepared for unexpected weather on vacations and holidays. V-Blanket is both machine and hand-washable, so you can just throw it in the washer with no worries. It can also be spin-dried at a low temperature.”

The V-Blanket is available in khaki, purple, or green. For an extra $10, you can add on a pretty nice feature: making the hood heated, too. You can learn more and pre-order one for yourself at Kickstarter.

The post Move Over, Snuggie: the Heated Convertible V-Blanket Cape is Here first appeared on Dornob.

There is no known substance that’s as small, flexible, and conductive as graphene. That’s why it works so well for creating digital textiles, and why it can be integrated into products from the very beginning of the manufacturing process. It all starts with the pouring of a chemical vapor onto copper foil, from which a nanolayer of graphene is formed. The graphene is then taken from the foil and woven into polypropylene fibers. Its special coating technically makes graphene-based textiles “smart” — not to mention extremely lightweight.

Professor Monica Craciun from the University of Exeter has previously expressed optimism towards this advanced type of wearable technology, explaining that “the possibilities for its use are endless, including textile GPS systems, biomedical monitoring, personal security, or even communication tools for those who are sensory impaired. The only limits are really within our own imaginations.”

In the field of medicine alone, digital textiles could be used in numerous screening and diagnostic tests. On a larger scale, there are all the fitness trackers and smart watches dominating the consumer market. A digital textile that’s so light and smooth that the user doesn’t even know it’s there could only serve to further their success. The real challenge here would be breaking into the fashion industry, as products that attempt to blend style and technology are not always well-received. It’s hard to imagine that even something as innovative as graphene would not pave the way for a ton of design flops.

All of the advancement that graphene offers is promising, and it could help solve the now-common nuisance of owning too many devices. Some will inevitably see this as one more step towards a dystopian future in which smart technology transcends the fashion industry and starts embedding itself into out bodies — but for now, it’s safe to say we’re nowhere near that becoming a reality. What the development of graphene shows us above all else is that we are still concerned with finding ways to coexist with technology without it intruding too much in our everyday lives.

The post How Graphene Could Change the Face of the Fashion Industry first appeared on Dornob.

While Wolfcom describes its “Venture” camera as “ideal for doctors, lawyers, court processors, building inspectors, commercial truck drivers, or the everyday adventurer,” we are quick to imagine it as an especially great way to record and share mountain biking and snowboarding runs.

The Venture is lightweight and easy to use, and you can clip it onto your shirt, belt, backpack strap…well, pretty much anywhere. Recording is simple: the camera has a “one touch record” feature, so you can capture audio and video instantly. Want to take still photos? There’s another handy button for that. If you’re out at night and want to snap some shots, just use the Venture’s digital flash.

You can also use the Venture as a dash cam. Clip the camera onto your your car’s visor and point it outwards to record your drive. You can even live-stream your car journies if you so desire. Just don’t attempt any stunts, please! It’s probably best if your video doesn’t end up on the evening news…

The Venture is the first wearable camera to offer the option of live-streaming your video on Facebook or YouTube. Connect it to your smartphone via Wi-Fi, and start streaming.

The makers of Venture describe it as “the world’s most versatile camera,” and with good reason. In addition to the options outlined above, you can also plug external cameras into the Venture’s AV jack for head, eye, night, and covert vision modes.

Head vision is perfect for sports and biking, as the camera fits snugly on your noggin. Eye vision records from your point of view, which is best captured by clipping the camera to your glasses, baseball cap, or shirt/jacket collar. Want to film at night? Night vision lets you record things up to 20 feet in front of you in pitch-black darkness! For those “James Bond” moments in your life, you’ll want to use covert vision, which allows you to record secretly using a clever pinhole button camera.

No matter how you decide to use the camera, you’ll be happy to learn that the Venture’s body is splash-proof and resistant to rain, sweat, liquids, sand, and dust.

The Venture is now available for pre-order at early-bird pricing, and its estimated delivery is February of 2018.

Here are some of the body cam’s outstanding specs:

• Size: 2.9 x 1.5 x 0.6 inches
• Weight: 2 ounces
• Field of view: 120 degrees
• Memory: 64 GB
• Battery life: 2.5 hours (1.5 hours with Wi-Fi)
• Video resolution: 1080p at 15 FPS; 1280 x 720p at 30 FPS
• Live stream video resolution: 720p at 30 FPS

The post Not Just for Cops: Making Body Cameras Fun and Useful first appeared on Dornob.

The post Benjamin Button: Wearable Camera Captures Life’s Most Important Moments first appeared on Dornob.

Back pain is an equal-opportunity ailment. It can strike people who don’t exercise, it can develop suddenly if you bend the wrong way or trip and jar your back, and it can sideline athletes who are in great shape. Kelly Collier, a biomedical engineer, was inspired to develop braces that correct your posture to help people overcome back pain and change their habits to protect them against future episodes. A competitive swimmer, she knew the effects of debilitating back pain from her sport first-hand. She teamed up with Dr. Gary Chimes, M.D., Ph.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, to found ActivAided Orthotics.

The company “designs and develops biofunctional gear that optimizes posture and body mechanics,” Collier and Chimes explain. “We live in, and refuse to leave, the sweet spot of human performance, where training, healing and efficiency peak.”

They describe their ActivAided shirt as being “as close to wearable physical therapists that fiber and thread can get—our posture training products are designed to get you out of pain and back to life.” And just like an actual human physical therapist, the shirt gives your body cues to learn to correct itself. It teaches you to be aware of your body’s movements and to retrain and recondition your muscle memory. Think of it as nurturing and nudging rather than forcing a drastic change.

You start by wearing the shirt for a short time and then build up to four to eight hours a day. It can be worn under your regular clothes to be discreet, and you can continue to take part in all your activities. In fact, the creators say it’s best to use it when you’re active and that there’s no point wearing it while you’re sleeping: “ActivAided is intended to teach the body how to protect the back when gravity and daily activities put stress on the spine.” Wear the shirt when you’re doing movements that tend to make your back pain flare up, they say, so you can learn how to correct your posture and alignment to prevent future pain.

Another good time to wear the shirt is after exercise, the ActivAided inventors explain, because “your muscles are fatigued, vulnerable and more likely to fall into poor postural habits. ActivAided prevents that from happening and assists in recuperation.” It’s also helpful if you’ve been sitting or standing for a long time, putting stress on your spine (we’re thinking post-road trip).

The Elite shirt comes with a panel that you heat and then mold at home to fit your lower back (don’t worry—the company gives thorough instructions), and there’s an Rx version that requires a doctor’s prescription when you order. The Rx version has more rigid panels, but the aim is to gradually reduce reliance on those as your posture improves.

It’s really up to you how and when you use the shirt. The wearer has control over the amount of support they receive—elastic straps that wrap around the shirt apply more or less resistance depending on how much they are pulled, and the ActivAided team say you soon feel your body aligning better and becoming more balanced.

The post Zap Pain and Correct Your Posture with This Orthotic Vest first appeared on Dornob.

Thoné approached the clothing conundrum scientifically. He says he worked with people who have PhDs in mathematics to use the famed golden ratio in his Morph T-shirt, and he also incorporated the hands-on knowledge of experienced tailors in London and Italy.


The result is a well-crafted shirt designed to emphasize the triangle of a man’s shoulders down to a trim waist. Thoné says his design formula will work with any body type. In fact, buyers are asked to select whether their body is ectomorph lean, mesomorph athletic or endomorph broad.

Next, the company asks for your height, and then comes the fun part: you are invited to choose your “archetype” to aid in the fitting process. Really, this is a creative way of judging whether you are a medium, large, extra-large, etc., but with more options and an interesting mythology twist.

“Using Greek mythology, we’ve developed a much cooler system where every size, or Archetype, as we call it, is represented by an Ancient Greek hero or god, illustrated by a symbol on the sleeve,” the designers explain, “so whichever your body type, everyone gets to be a boss.” They add that the sizing knows no international bounds, working for everyone from a “big Viking to a small Samurai….”

Anyone who’s had to buy XL shirts because they’re tall but really needed a slimmer shirt body  because they are skinny will appreciate having the extra sizing options to choose from. After all, how many of us are consistently L, XL or whatever?

So, what are the secrets to this body-enhancing design? Thoné is happy to explain the design process and the improvements he and his team have made to the traditional T-shirt concept.

First, the back of the shirt is curved, which they say makes the wearer look leaner. And, even if you aren’t a regular lifting weights at the local gym, the Morph sleeves will give your triceps a boost by the curve of their fit.


Curves are apparently key, because they’ve used an upward curve at the front of the shirt to make the waist seem trimmer. Another clever touch: raising the armhole so that you gain more range of movement.
The shirts are handmade in Paris by top artisans, and the comfy fabric is high-quality organic cotton in a nod to sustainability and allergy avoidance.
The company’s Kickstarter campaign raised double its initial target, and the shirts are launching in three colors to begin with: navy blue, marble gray and classic bordeaux. Morph hopes to release more colors soon, as well as bamboo shirts that are hypoallergenic, repel odors, sustainable and super comfortable.
Morph says it hopes to expand into other items of men’s clothing based on the success of the T-shirt.

The post This Body-Enhancing T-Shirt Makes You Look Fitter first appeared on Dornob.

Getting out of bed in the morning can be unbearable, especially when it’s cold outside and all you want to do is remain wrapped up in your warm and cozy bedspread. If you’ve ever wished you could just find a socially acceptable way to wear it right out the door, an Irish hotel chain has just the thing to make your lazy bed potato dreams come true. The ‘Suvet’ is a wearable duvet set consisting of a hooded jacket and pants. It makes absolutely no effort to camouflage its bedding origins, either.

“As a nation of workaholics, things like fatigue, lack of sleep and even the comfort of our bed can make getting up an arduous task,” says Suzanne Cannon, Head of Marketing for Jurys Inn. “So we’ve created the Suvet – a comfortable, stylish outfit to make getting up for work and tackling the day ahead easier.”

Whether the Suvet is ‘stylish’ is certainly a debatable point. One could argue that the puffy suit makes you look like the Michelin Man, especially since it only comes in white, but it’s not too far off from the bulky quilted down coats many people already wear. The suit is made from Jurys Inn’s 100 percent cotton, feather and down duvets, fashioned into a belted ensemble by celebrity costume designer Wendy Benstead.

Is the effect totally absurd? Absolutely, but maybe you’ll be so comfortable that you won’t care. The goofy concept is certainly getting a round of publicity for the hotel chain, and they say that if there’s enough interest in the prototype, they’ll consider putting a limited run into production.

Honestly, even if the wearable duvet never goes get made, the best part of all of this might be the photos in which the models gleefully don this ridiculous getup in public places with grumpy onlookers frowning in the background.

The post Wearable Duvet Lets You Bring Your Bedding On the Go first appeared on Dornob.

When a loved one leaves your life, either due to death or separation, the hole left in your existence can be massive. It can feel like you are carrying a huge weight on your shoulders that won’t let you move on.

Ironically, a physical weight can actually help to comfort those who are grieving. Weighted blankets are used extensively to help people with autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, and Sensory Processing Disorder because they simulate the feeling of being hugged.

After losing a loved one, designer Mia Cinelli was overcome with a grief that she carried around with her everywhere. As an answer to this grief, she designed The Weight: a six-pound weighted blanket that replicates the feeling of being held and comforted by another human.

The Weight includes two hand-shaped appendages that you can hold. This nice addition lets you feel like you are holding the hand of the one you miss, gently leading you through the transition to acceptance of your loved one’s absence.

“When my fiancé’s father passed away in the summer of 2014, I was left with a void of where his large personality had been. I carried my grief around with me; my heart was heavy for months. I wanted to feel his presence, so I made a hand to hold. I welcomed this weight, this semblance of company, and consequently made another, and another. I researched weighted blankets used in occupational therapy practices to relieve the stress, anxiety, and inability to focus typically associated with ADD/ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Sensory Processing Disorder. A question arose: could a comparable weighted object dispel similar feelings caused by losing a loved one?”

“In moments of feeling the anxiety that accompanies grief, the weight provides a proprioceptive deep pressure, creating a feeling of presence and calm. Its use imitates an intimate gesture, reminiscent of a hug from behind. When I feel relaxed and take the weight off, I feel lighter— both physically and in spirit. (P.S. Please hug someone you love today, before you cannot anymore.)”

The post Hand-Holding Blanket Eases Grief first appeared on Dornob.

Sometimes, the little problems in life can be the most annoying. Having to take your backpack off to get at what’s inside won’t ruin your whole day, but it might be logistically impractical or slow you down. British engineer David Wolffe made eliminated that little annoyance with his wolffepack backpack. It always stays strapped to your back, but you can pull a cord to release it and swing it around to your front.

Wolffe developed the patent-pending expetoSYSTEM orbital trapeze technology to achieve this feat. To use it, the backpack wearer pulls on a magnetically-attached handle that detaches the cargo section of the backpack. It’s still attached to the backpack frame via hefty cords, so it won’t fall but it will be easy to pull around to the front.

Replacing the cargo section of the wolffepack is as simple as reversing the steps: swing it behind you, pull on the handle, and reattach the handle to the strap to secure it. The pack also gives you the option of keeping the cargo section in front and clipping it there for situations where it’s not safe or comfortable to keep your stuff behind you.

Besides its clever movement gimmick, the wolffepack is actually a really nice backpack, and it comes in a variety of models like the Metro and the smaller but more full-featured Escape. The Metro includes two padded, microfiber-lined pockets for your laptop and tablet plus a ton of other compartments and organization features.

The back is padded and the straps are equipped with a special tidy to keep the strap ends from flapping around. The project is raising funds on Kickstarter for an initial production run; a pledge of £85 (around $136 US) will get you the larger Metro model or the slightly smaller Escape model.

From Wolffe:

“15 years ago I had an idea, as many do. This was a new invention to solve the problem of backpack access, after seeing a struggling postman and my own frustrations. Although I’d collected an engineering degree way back, after a long career in media companies I had no expert knowledge of industrial design, backpacks or inventing. So on and off over the years the idea became a design doodle and then a couple of failed prototypes and then got filed away in a box. It collected dust but never left me, until I reached a turning point.”

“After 2 intense but rewarding years as Group Finance Director of HMV plc I decided to start something new. As I relaxed on a beach that old backpack idea popped into my head along with a totally new design. I came home, built a new prototype and this time, to my surprise, it actually worked. I was then faced with a choice, either 1) commit to a project with major costs and uncertainty where I had no experience but saw a big adventure, or 2) leave the idea alone, live a comfortable life but never really know what might have been. So I turned my living room into a workshop, filed for patents, teamed up with some great designers and built 14 generations prototypes.”

The post Backpack Swings to the Front for Easy Access first appeared on Dornob.