I’ve always been a big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done strategies, and even though I don’t fully implement the system, I still feel it’s a massive benefit to my life (I’m working on fully implementing it, it’s just tough to get into that routine). If you haven’t heard of it, take two minutes to watch the video below…it does a great job of summarizing what this is all about.
Graphene supercapacitors to replace batteries?
There’s a lot of exciting work being done in battery technology…yet your future electronic devices may end up being powered by a supercapacitor instead if research into this area pays off. Environmentally, it’s pretty awesome…graphene is of course carbon, which is plentiful and non-toxic (potentially, you could even throw a used graphene supercapacitor into your compost bin!). These supercapacitors can store a lot of energy and be recharged extremely quickly (like 100-1000 times faster than a battery). It’ll be interesting to see which wins out here…advanced battery technologies, or supercapcitors? Stay tuned to Peak Geek for all the latest on that, and in the meantime, check out the video below describing these graphene supercapacitors (I love that word, especially as they didn’t mention ‘nano’ anything).
Transparent (sort of) bicycle
By using a special type of plastic, designers at Designaffairs Studio made a bicycle with a transparent frame. It’s perfect for the cyclist who worries that they stand out too much in traffic and want to just be less visible. Yes, that’s a joke. I mean really, aren’t cyclists usually going out of their way to be MORE visible? Like the ‘light up like a Christmas tree’ bike light system I wrote about here previously.
The one way I could see this transparent frame being of any benefit whatsoever is if you pack it full of bright LEDs, so you have a glowing frame. It wouldn’t help much during the day, but at night, no one is going to miss you!
A retinal implant to restore sight
Right off the bat, realize that this isn’t about restoring 20/20 vision to blind people…but rather, helping those who lost their sight due to medical conditions (in this case, retinitis pigmentosa) restore partial vision. It’s amazing technology…a retinal implant uses a 1500 pixel sensor to receive light through the eye, and transfers it (via electrical signals) to the nerves in the eye for processing by the brain. This gives these people a very rudimentary level of vision, but adequate enough to detect the objects around them, make out the horizon, houses, trees, rivers, cars. Close up, they can even tell if someone is smiling or wearing glasses. Pretty amazing tech.
(via SmartPlanet)
Lithium battery technology advancements
Researchers at USC have made some progress in improving lithium ion batteries, with tests suggesting a three-fold increase in energy storage and fast recharge times. Their technology is…well..honestly, the description had too many ‘nano’ items in it and that made me a bit skeptical…it’s a bit of a media buzzword that I grow wary of. But, well, here goes. They used nanoparticles, nanospheres, nanowires, and nanotubes (naturally). Yeah. Well, if you want to juicy technological details of how they did it, follow this link. The most important thing to realize is that this is just one of many efforts being made to improve battery technology…and there are a LOT of competing teams of scientists and engineers getting really close to bringing this to your home. Expect vastly improved batteries in a matter of just a few years (if that).
Ice Parkour – winter free running
Cool video by stunt man Ronnie Shalvis…ice parkour! He makes it look so easy and effortless. I wonder how many bones this guy has broken in his life.
World’s fastest electric boat
Now this is cool…a 100+mph electric powered speedboat! It features twelve electric motors (six per prop) and a 240kWh lithium-ion battery pack. That pack is wired to produce 400V, and can provide a mind blowing 6000A! But then, a boat like this is built for marketing purposes primarily, speed secondary, and range, well, range isn’t really a consideration for these vehicles yet. At full speed, you get about ten minutes run time. 🙁
(via gizmag)
Latest Google Glass news
The Google Glasses project continues to move ahead, and while I expect the coolest uses will take a while to materialize (augmented reality, mainly, due to software challenges), Google just released a video (below) that helps show how people will use these at first. It’s exactly what I want for skiing (how it can integrate with goggles will be a challenge though) – but it’s the ability to take photos or videos on the fly, without digging out a smartphone, that’ll be really cool. I can’t wait! (link for full article)
A boat for the 1% – the ‘Xhibitionist
Well, here’s a boat (concept) for those who omit the word ‘subtle’ from their vocabulary and lifestyle. It’s the 75 meter long Xhibitionist superyacht, with a heliport, hot tub (of course), car showroom inside, matching supercar, yeah, you get the idea. Kinda over the top, ya know? While the design is distinctive, it’s lacks the elegant lines that other super yachts like the late Steve Jobs’ posses. Still, I have no doubt there’s some mega-billionaire chomping at the bit to have one (or two!) of these built ASAP.
(via Autoblog…strangely enough)
Drones in the US
The use of drone aircraft in the US is the target of new legislation in the House of Representatives, which basically seeks to prohibit citizens from flying any remotely operated aircraft that has a camera (sorry kids, no more strapping cameras to model rockets!). Or rather, they seek to make it a misdemeanor to use a UAV to photograph a person or their property without their explicit permission. This is a bit redundant, as there are already privacy laws that prohibit photography when a person has a reasonable expectation to privacy. Ignoring that for a minute, on the surface this may sound like a good law, but consider this. Government would still have the ability to use UAVs, police helicopters, and surveillance satellites to photograph you without a warrant, whenever they want. This just takes that ability away from citizens. When you look at what citizen photography has already done in exposing police brutality and corporate wrongs, I believe that citizen UAVs operating under existing privacy laws are not necessarily bad, perhaps even a very good thing in maintaining trust in government and business. It’s an interesting debate, I can see both sides of the issue…I think rather than an outright ban, we’d be better off with something less than that. Maybe restrict them from photographing residential property, but the rest is fair game? What do you think?
(via FastCompany)