Scuba Dive Without The Wetsuit

Some of you might remember the other day when we reported on the Coolerbot, a way of exploring the outdoor wildlife from remote control while indoors. The Beriscope is a way of looking at undersea life from remote control.

Designer Jaewon Choi's "Beriscope" is an interesting blend of aquatic technology. It's a fishing rod that isn't for catching the critters, but instead for viewing them without ever having to enter the water yourself. Instead, you cast a camera out into the water and then use the Beriscope like a periscope, watching from the shore. It's just a concept, but it seems like it'd be a pretty good way to kill some time by a lake or river.


Here’s how it works: The ball shaped thing on the left side of the device can separate from it, but is still tethered to it with some cable. The user throws this ball into the ocean, and it has a camera on it. From there, the user can look into the visor itself and get a view of the life aquatic.

The goggles look like the type from a Viewmaster, but it doesn’t look like you can view stuff in 3D. I mean, after all, I’m surprised that the ball has a 2D camera on it.

When you are finished with your underwater viewing by a lake or river, you can just pull it back with the handle. At this present time, there doesn’t look to be a way to record the footage.

[ VIA Dvice, Yankodesign ]

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Ikkar Transforming Yacht

Calling all evil (but eco-friendly) movie villains: Julien Anglade’s 150-meter Ikkar yacht concept is not only powered by solar sails but can transform into a larger vessel while at sea.

If ever there were a yacht version that can actually bridge the gap between man and sea, it has to be the IKKAR hybrid yacht. Designed by Julien Anglade, a design student at Strate College, who came up with a cruise ship concept that changes shape depending on navigation, stationary or at anchor offshore, the sides of its hull open at water on almost all its length, creating huge space to be enjoyed while cruising. Measuring 150 meters in length, the IKKAR includes a streamlined hull, adding to its energy-efficient design along with its rigid photovoltaic cells that can harness solar energy to sail in positive wind conditions.

[ VIA TheAwesomer, Bornrich

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Kinesis Tries To Reinvent The Keyboard

Another design concept so freaky it HAS to be good for you! The creators of the Kinesis Advantage spent years perfecting their design – and went so far as to field test it with people who use their keyboards the most, namely programmers and medical transcriptionists.

The Kinesis Contoured Keyboard family is based on a unique, patented design that minimizes the pain and strain typists experience from heavy use of conventional computer keyboards. Yet productivity is greater than with any other keyboard, leading to its popularity with programmers and medical transcriptionists.This ergonomic design resulted from years of research and testing and has proven itself in more than ten years of commercial use. Kinesis contoured keyboards are prescribed by physicians and placed by therapists dealing with keyboard-related overuse injuries.

The Advantage USB contoured keyboard sets a new standard for ergonomic keyboards. The Advantage line incorporates the same advanced ergonomic design as Kinesis' other contoured keyboards and delivers additional features not found on other USB keyboards.

No product is perfect, and just by looking at the Advantage I can already see a couple of problems with it. First of all, it’s butt ugly. Second, the keys on the top row are too small for my comfort. Cool Tools commenters also complained about the hard and loud keys.

And this keyboard is available for $300 (USD).

[ Ohgizmo VIA Technabob ]

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Steampunk PC, Oh So Retro!

The Philco PC was inspired by the 1950’s Philco Predicta, a design classic. This original design received Top Three honors in a competition.

Indulge in it for the aesthetic value, as for the specs…yea it does host Windows 7. But then again we’re here for the love of design, specs can take a hike for the moment!

Philco PC from Dave Schultze on Vimeo.

[ 2dayblog VIA YankoDesign ]

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Rechargeable Wall Climbing Insect

This rechargeable remote-controlled “space insect”, as they have decided to call the toy, is capable of climbing the ceiling, walls, mirrors, windows or just about any other surface.

Features:
* Running Forward, Backward, Left Turn, Right Turn
* Dimension: 133 x 150 x 38 mm
* Weight: 46 g
* charging up by the remote control
* Requires for Transmitter: 6xAA batteries (not included)

There are two different versions of this bug, there is the Space Beetle and then the Space Spider. You can purchase one for $24.90.

[ Brando VIA CG ]

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USB Sonar Speaker

As usual in our hunt for the geekiest gadgets there has been a lot of cool gadgets that we just didn’t have the time to feature. So here comes the USB Sonar Speaker.

This small dish-shaped USB speaker connects to portable audio players, laptops and other products using a standard 3.5mm stereo audio plug, and it uses “sonar” technology to produce and deliver the sound picture to the listener.

It is a speaker using vibration to produce sound. It differs from traditional speakers that you need to have 2 big holes so that the sound could comes out.

It means, no matter where you place the speaker on, it plays. As it does not need a big holes for the speaker, so it can be seamless. For this speaker, it just has a hole for inputer (both power and audio signal) and a hole for the LED.

Here is video clip showing how this audio technology works:


The USB Powered Sonar Speaker is available over at the USBFever for $35.99.

Via [ GeekAlerts ]

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USB Fishbones 7-Port Hub

Just like the name suggests, the device is shaped precisely like a fishbone, being designed to look very stylish on anyone’s desk. The hub is provided with 7 USB ports, allowing the user to plug in his / her favorite gadgets into it. A great thing about it consists of the fact that it doesn’t restrain you as far as the size of the gadgets is concerned, leaving, will all four of them being used, enough free space.

If you are looking for a fish inspired USB hub, but you feel that the Fishbowl / LED Crystal Ball USB Hub is a little bit over the top, this new model might be just the ticket.

The Fishbone USB hub is available for $12.69 from Uxsight. It comes in a variety of funky colors including, orange, green and blue.

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Caterpillar USB Hub

Here we have another fun USB gadget that is bound to brighten up your desk, the Caterpillar USB Hub.

The Caterpillar USB Hub comes with 4 USB ports and it measures 110 x 36 x 35mm, it comes in a variety of funky colors including, orange, yellow, green and blue.

Description:

* Innovative designed Green Caterpillar USB Hub enables you to add four high-performance USB 2.0 peripheral devices to your PC.
* The Laptop USB Hub features 1 upstream and 4 dowstream USB ports.
* Fully compliant with USB specification version 2.0.
* Backward compatible with USB 1.1.
* Maximum data transfer rate is 480Mbps.
* Hot swappable, plug and play.
* Individual port over-current protection.
* No external power supply needed.
* This Computer 4 Port USB Hub with LED indicators.
* System Requirement: Windows 2000, ME, XP, and Vista.
* Casing Material: Plastic
* USB Cable Length: ~100cm
* Dimension: ~11(L) x 3.6(W) x 3.5(H)cm
* Weight: 77g

The Caterpillar USB Hub is available for $6.69 from Uxsight.

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Sawed-off USB Flash Drive

Here’s a really cool DIY project for creating a USB Flash Drive that looks like a sawed off old cable. It is the bomb when it comes to fooling people from removing it without your knowledge.

Without knowing any better, most folks will think that this is a ripped and broken USB cord where the owner is nutty enough to leave it hooked up. It’s the ultimate in “Shabby Geek” style gizmos. It just looks like you wouldn’t want to touch it for fear of zapping yourself but inside that old wire is a fully functioning (albeit small) USB flash drive. As far as DIY projects go, this one is not too difficult at all- no soddering required.

Actually, there is a USB flash drive inside, courtesy of a $10 DIY project.

[ How to make a Sawed-off USB Key ] VIA [ Fosfor ]

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USB Bomb - Plug and Play

Mexican designer Joel Escalona is offering new concept of USB memory drive or other any USB storage device. Our Transportation Safety Administration officers won’t think this iconic trinket is very funny, no matter how many “all your base” jokes you crack in the security line.

I'm sure this flash gadget will be very popular between spies and James Bond will be satisfied from solutions.

Now, this is only cool idea, but we will hope to see Bomb USB drive in future.

Designed by Mexico City industrial designer Joel Escalona, the USB bomb is unfortunately a prototype at this point in time.

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