Our innovation-oriented reporter Anders Frick visited the West Coast to look into the latest techie stuff at Cool Product Expo in Silicon Valley.
Anders Frick
It's cool to quickly clean dirty water using a portable UV purifier. It's also cool to plug in a box to your broadband connection at home and then be able to see TV wherever you are in the world. And it's really cool to play computer games by just wearing a device that measures your brainwaves.
This week's Cool Product Expo at Stanford University attracted many techno-junkies and a few normal people as well. About 40 companies showed off their cool products with enthusiasm. (Here's a little video clip I've put together. You can watch it here too on YouTube.)
Photo: ANDERS FRICK
ONE COOL CAR: The Tesla roadster has lithium-ion batteries and comes with a charging cable, just like your cellphone.
Have you seen our article about the Tesla sports car in this month's issue of Spectrum? Now, I've seen the battery-powered car in real life. Cool is just the first name... And I've also tried to drive a car with autopilot—I just marked where to park and then the Toyota parked itself. Very convenient. Will the next step be to ask the car to find an available parking space or even drive me wherever I would like to go? "Robot James, take me to the supermarket, please."
You might have heard about Joost and other services for providing TV and movies online. But how about if you like your old TV receiver and still prefer to watch those old VHS movies but from another place than from your TV sofa? Just plug in the box from Sling Media and get the signal sent to you over the Internet. Zapping can now even be done on your mobile phone while travelling around the world.
Photo: ANDERS FRICK
ON YOUR MIND: The NeuroSky bio-sensor system has applications in consumer electronics, health, and education.
Boiling water from nature before drinking is only a memory. All high-tech scouts can now kill germs with ultraviolet light (UV-C) by using the battery-powered water purifier Aqua Star. "After 75 seconds, the water is done, it is just like a tea bag. UV is good because it is a non-specific killer, it kills everything , says Kurt A. Kulmann, who is the company's chief technical officer.
In 1992, Céline Dion sang "Love can move mountains." In 2007, anyone can move anything—as long as it's in the virtual world, using a head-mounted device from NeuroSky. They have created a device that measures the electrical activity of the brain's neurons and combined it with a computer game. The more intensely a player concentrates on an object, the faster it will move. "I think, therefore I am" is more valid than ever.
HOT DOINGS AT A REALLY COOL SHOW
Our innovation-oriented reporter Anders Frick visited the West Coast to look into the latest techie stuff at Cool Product Expo in Silicon Valley.
Anders Frick
It's cool to quickly clean dirty water using a portable UV purifier. It's also cool to plug in a box to your broadband connection at home and then be able to see TV wherever you are in the world. And it's really cool to play computer games by just wearing a device that measures your brainwaves.
This week's Cool Product Expo at Stanford University attracted many techno-junkies and a few normal people as well. About 40 companies showed off their cool products with enthusiasm. (Here's a little video clip I've put together. You can watch it here too on YouTube.)
ONE COOL CAR: The Tesla roadster has lithium-ion batteries and comes with a charging cable, just like your cellphone.
Have you seen our article about the Tesla sports car in this month's issue of Spectrum? Now, I've seen the battery-powered car in real life. Cool is just the first name... And I've also tried to drive a car with autopilot—I just marked where to park and then the Toyota parked itself. Very convenient. Will the next step be to ask the car to find an available parking space or even drive me wherever I would like to go? "Robot James, take me to the supermarket, please."
You might have heard about Joost and other services for providing TV and movies online. But how about if you like your old TV receiver and still prefer to watch those old VHS movies but from another place than from your TV sofa? Just plug in the box from Sling Media and get the signal sent to you over the Internet. Zapping can now even be done on your mobile phone while travelling around the world.
ON YOUR MIND: The NeuroSky bio-sensor system has applications in consumer electronics, health, and education.
Boiling water from nature before drinking is only a memory. All high-tech scouts can now kill germs with ultraviolet light (UV-C) by using the battery-powered water purifier Aqua Star. "After 75 seconds, the water is done, it is just like a tea bag. UV is good because it is a non-specific killer, it kills everything , says Kurt A. Kulmann, who is the company's chief technical officer.
In 1992, Céline Dion sang "Love can move mountains." In 2007, anyone can move anything—as long as it's in the virtual world, using a head-mounted device from NeuroSky. They have created a device that measures the electrical activity of the brain's neurons and combined it with a computer game. The more intensely a player concentrates on an object, the faster it will move. "I think, therefore I am" is more valid than ever.