Toshiba’s revolutionary helmet… sorta

The concept of this product had been announced last year already, but given the creativity behind the product I thought that this was a must-read (perhaps a must-laugh) for the CG readers.

Now before people start to get the wrong idea by looking at the picture “No, that girl is not wearing a Cathode-Ray-Tube television on her head”. Toshiba developed that helmet to allow users to experience a 360-degree view while watching television or playing video games.

The bulky helmet weights about 6 pounds, but people commented that this version is actually much smaller than previous prototypes…

It is an interesting idea (insert sarcasm here), however a few questions pop into my mind by looking at it:

1. Do the manufacturer includes oxygen cylinders for people to breath inside the device?
2. Will Toshiba sign a partnership with some insurance company to provide medical treatment for the neck injuries to come?
3. What if your old grandpa gets a heart attack by entering suddenly on a room where you are using the device, who are we to blame?

By the way, did you watch SpaceBalls?

R2-D2 Unit Has a Trash Can

I’m crazy about Star Wars, and one of my favourite characters is R2-D2, that little droid that plays a vital role in this great story. Now Think Geek is selling this incredibly detailed R2-D2 replica from Japan, which is not at all what it seems. This R2 unit doesn’t have any sounds or lights or special effects, but if you’re looking for a trashcan, this is one of the coolest I’ve ever seen. When you step in to his central “foot”, it swings the dome open to reveal a trash bin, making it the perfect companion to your office.

With the R2 wastebasket you’ll find that throwing things away can be also fun, just be careful not to dispose of anything important. The droid stands 24″ tall, and it costs US$ 149, which may be a little expensive for a trashcan, but is a small price to pay to get all your friends jealous. If you want one you can buy yours now from Think Geek, but hurry up, because this Star Wars R2-D2 Trash is a limited edition Japanese imported collectable and when it sells out there will be no replacement.

Islamic Gadgets

I know personally that many Muslims are feeling under siege, both mentally and physically, and believe they are getting a bad press. Relations between our two cultures seem to be deteriorating, so I hope I’m not trivialising events when I discuss this Quranic clock gadget: I’m trying to clear up a few myths and find some common ground.

The Taliban banned television, video and satellite shortly after seizing power in Afghanistan in 1996. The ban was probably academic as not many people had electricity after years of fighting between Afghan warlords, but it did perhaps reinforce for many who didn’t know better that Islam was a backward-looking religion – myself included at that time I have to say.

These days I think judging Islam as a religion by the behaviour of a fanatical cult like the Taliban is like trying to judge Christianity by people who don’t let their children have blood transfusions.

The Muslims I know are crazy about gadgets, buying mobiles with alarms to tell them when it’s time for prayers, and adding Quranic ring tones for example. Recently, when an Indian cleric reportedly called the use verses from the Quran as ring tones un-Islamic they were horrified that the view of another crank cleric was reported in the Western media as somehow being representative of mainstream Muslim opinion.

Anyway, I’m sure my friends would love this gadget. It’s a Quranic wristwatch with flash memory and an MP3 player. It comes with a USB port for transferring files and for re-charging. You can install the Quran as an MP3 file, taking up 70 MB of the available 256 MB memory. In fact, thinking about it I wouldn’t mind one myself.

The Quranic clock was found via PC Magazine.

Sunglasses,, that are so cool, they’ll eat your face,, Parasite

These are from the French design team at Parasite. They have a line of super cool sunglasses.

I’m sure however you could easily figure that out after looking at the images here.

Check out their site for a full look at all the lines they have. I’ve been wearing my pair of toasters for waay too long and I think it may be high time to trade out for a pair of these (then again, they’re probably a fortune, ahh, what the heck, I only have these two eyes).

Click through their press pack for more info on these guys. They’re really going about their business well. They’ve got a solid design philosophy, amazing branding, and well, those glasses are awesome!

The real advantage here is that they’ve developed their eyewear holding system in a way that makes every frame of theirs very unique as well as functional. It grips in two areas referred to as the fronto-parietal zone as the upper arm, and the temporal bone area as the lower arm.

The best thing about them, is they don’t just make sunglasses, but they do prescription frames as well. That of course means, once my eyes drop below 20/15, I’ll be picking up a pair of those too (umm, I don’t wanna know what that’s gonna cost!)

Thanks to Core77 for being on the lookout again!

Fold Away Keyboard

This is cool a full size bluetooth keyboard that folds up to just 5″ x 3″.

It folds up to a remarkably slim, pocketable slice of metal. When unfolded, it automatically turns on and connects to a paired Bluetooth device. It is comfortable to type on, and works with a huge array of products including plug-n-play with any Bluetooth-enabled PC (especially nice with the OQO, Sony UX, etc.) and also smartphones/PDAs (Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian S30 3rd like the Nokia E-series).

The stowaway keyboard is available from dynamism for $149.99.

Move over, motion controls

What’s this motion controls you talk about? Rumble feature? All those pale in comparison when it comes to the gaming controller of choice, especially when faced with Emotiv’s Project Epoc. This spunky start-up from Down Under has developed a brand new gaming peripheral that makes the world of video and computer games accessible to virtually anyone and everyone with a head. How is this possible, you ask? The answer is simple - this helmet like device is placed on top of your nogging, while a processing unit will interpret the information garnered from a series of detection suites that are located all over the helmet. It will be able to detect and measure the player’s discreet emotional states and conscious thoughts, eventually translating those signals into a command that controls your on-screen avatar.


The Project Epoc helmet, when fully functional, will be compatible with a whole slew of gaming platforms without discriminating against either console or computer. This means those who are disabled will be able to duke it out with current Masters of Mice on an even platform, and don’t be surprised if your friend in a wheelchair manages to trounce you over and over in Warcraft or Quake due to his/her superior cognitive ability that was enhanced after suffering from paralysis.

There is no word on when a commercial version will be available, but if you have some time, do scurry over to the Gamers’ Developer Conference in San Franciso as the Project Epoc helmet will be on display.

Harley Davidson TV Lantern Boombox

Harley Davidson may make some pretty decent bikes (well to pose on at least) but some how I don’t think this Harley Davidson TV Lantern Boombox is going to get quite as many admiring glances.

You can probably tell exactly what it comes with by the name and it does feature a CD player along with the tiny TV and lantern.

If you want to impress all your biker chums, I’m sure carrying this on your shoulder and wearing fake tattoo sleeves is a sure way to lose teeth test your running shoes.

You can get this crap Harley Davidson tat from Target.

Gold Necklace Earphones

Jewelry has always been an object of desire (though Gems TV are trying to change that). With iPods starting take over the role of most desirable item (people are getting mugged based on what headphones they sport) Stockholm jewelry designer Anna Tascha Larsson has come up with the idea of a gold plated iPod earphone necklace (so now you can get robbed for your jewelry and iPod).

If the earphones actually worked this could be a cool product but as they don’t it kind of reminds me of a charm bracelet for the neck, though I’m not renowned for my taste in fashion or Jewelry.

Via Vulture Droppings via Neatorama.

Personal Alarm Watch Helps the Hearing Impaired

Designer Nikita Golovlev has come up with an innovative idea for a watch that could be a real life saver. The Personal Alarm Watch will detect important events like fire alarms and alert the wearer by vibration and flashing lights.

How does it work?
The personal alarm watch is a concept product at the moment but it has been shrewdly thought about on how it could actually work, so far there are two solutions:

It could use an internal antenna to detect special signals given off by smoke detectors and fire alarms (this would require an expensive modification to appropriate alarm systems).
A microphone in the watch could monitor sound levels, if it detected a severe increase or heard a known danger sound again a warning could be issued
As product ideas go I think this is really great and Nikita Golovlev(found via the Product Design Forums) is certainly a designer to look out for in the future (thanks Nikita for the extra images).

Animated Pong T-Shirt

This has got to be the geekiest T-shirt ever, what better way to show your love of retro gaming than displaying an animated game of pong on you chest.

The only thing that’s lacking is the fact you can’t move the paddles and the score never changes, so we might have to look out for that in Animated Retro Table Tennis Shirt version 2.0.

You can get the shirt from Think Geek for $24.99, go on show off your inner nerdiness [via Coolness Roundup thanks Charlie].