A reporter for Medium’s tech site OneZero recently spotted an especially bizarre ad on Instagram:
The ad features a GIF of a person wearing a Fitbit-style wristband, with the text “Eliminate Cravings.” Across the frame from their hand sits a giant slice of cake. As the person reaches towards the cake, the wristband turns red and zaps them with electricity. You can…
Tag: wearable
It’s Official: EU Launches Antitrust Probe Into Google’s Fitbit Takeover
It was rumored last week and now it’s official: the European Commission announced it is launching an in-depth antitrust investigation into Google’s $2.1 billion bid for Fitbit. CNN reports: The European Union’s top antitrust regulator said it is concerned that the takeover would further strengthen Google’s market position in online advertising by “increasing the already vast amount of data that Google…
Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode Display On Human Skin
In a new report on Science Advances, Minwoo Choi and a team of scientists in Electronic Engineering and Materials Science in the Republic of Korea, developed a wearable, full-colour OLED display using a two-dimensional (2-D) material-based backplane transistor. Phys.Org reports: They engineered an 18-by-18 thin-film transistor array on a thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) film and transferred it to an aluminium oxide…
Google is Quietly Experimenting With Holographic Glasses and Smart Tattoos
A simple pair of sunglasses that projects holographic icons. A smartwatch that has a digital screen but analog hands. A temporary tattoo that, when applied to your skin, transforms your body into a living touchpad. A virtual reality controller that lets you pick up objects in digital worlds and feel their weight as you swing them around. Those are some of…
Shock-Dissipating Fractal Cubes Could Forge High-Tech Armor
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Tiny, 3-D printed cubes of plastic, with intricate fractal voids built into them, have proven to be effective at dissipating shockwaves, potentially leading to new types of lightweight armor and structural materials effective against explosions and impacts. “The goal of the work is to manipulate the wave interactions resulting from a shockwave,” said…
The Cutting Edge of 3D Printing: Chemicals Within Chemicals, and Printing Tissue In Bodies
Engineers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a new approach to 3D printing with potential applications in tissue engineering, soft robotics, and wearable technology — by repurposing the glass capillary microfluidic devices used in their lab to encapsulate one chemical inside droplets of another:
The resulting structure looks like a Pac-Man maze, with little dots of PEGDA droplets surrounded by…
Fish scales turned into flexible and biodegradable electronic displays
Flexible displays for wearable devices can now be made using fish scales instead of plastic – and the new displays biodegrade within a month of being discarded Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237819-fish-scales-turned-into-flexible-and-biodegradable-electronic-displays/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Developing the spacesuit of the future
Researchers at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology have entered their third year of development of a wearable and wireless body sensor system—with the ability to be powered remotely—that will revolutionize NASA spacesuits. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-02-spacesuit-future.html…
A Lithium-Ion Battery That You Can Scrunch
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: Busan-based firm Jenax has spent the past few years developing J.Flex, an advanced lithium-ion battery that is ultra-thin, flexible, and rechargeable. With the arrival of so many wearable gadgets, phones with flexible displays, and other portable gizmos, “we’re now interacting with machines on a different level from what we did before,” says…
Fitbit and Garmin Are Under Federal Investigation For Alleged Patent Violations
U.S. trade regulators said on Friday they will investigate wearable monitoring devices, including those made by Fitbit and Garmin, following allegations of patent violations by rival Koninklijke Philips and its North America unit. Reuters reports: The U.S. International Trade Commission, in a statement, said the probe would also look at devices by made by California-based Ingram Micro as well as China-based…