Toshiba has developed an object scanner designed to speed up the grocery checkout process. The scanner has the ability to recognize produce and even distinguish between varieties of apples.
via laughing squid
A fun round-up of wearable electronics ranging from utterly silly to sleek and innovative:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/is-the-rise-of-wearable-electronics-finally-here.html (via MAKE)
Also, another great collection here from Fast Company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1773462/smart-couture-wearable-tech-gets-wearable
Google has unveiled a new product, the Chromebook, a web-only laptop-like computer.
Read about it:http://www.google.com/chromebook/
Or watch the cutey-cute video that gives the Chromebook a voice made of plucked strings:
Visa is working on a product coming in Fall of this year to make digital payments easier, using an “e-wallet”.
How this will actually work is somewhat mysterious at the moment, but it will simplify online payments with a single click, and will also support NFC (Near Field Communications) payments for in-person transactions by allowing people to wave their NFC-enabled phones over a PayWave station.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1752776/visa-is-making-the-e-wallet-a-real-thing
Google has acknowledged that they have been working on self-driving cars for at least a year now, racking up over 140,000 miles in California tests alone.
Neurowear is a Japanese fashion company that concepts around the idea of the “Augmented Human Body.”
They have created a pair of wearable feline ears that sense brain activity and respond to your emotions.
If the wearer is concentrating, they stand up. When relaxed, the ears lie down.
Bizarre but fascinating. What other kinds of interactive devices could respond to brain waves?
http://www.refinery29.com/cat-ear-headbands-that-move-when-you-feel
Toothtag is a new Android app that allows you to tag people (by sensing their phones) and locations (by sensing wifi hotspots and more).
You can then customize actions that will happen when you are near those places or people.
You could get an alert when your friend is nearby, or automatically check in on Foursquare when you enter your gym.
Toothtag is actually only a showcase application created by a software company called Neuaer to demonstrate their proximity platform, on which they want others to build more applications that will use the device and location-detecting capabilities.
The platform (and Toothtag) uses Bluetooth, Wifi, and NFC (Near Field Communication) technologies.
Discovered via Laughing Squid
DisplayContent is a thought-provoking augmented reality proof of concept to come out of the Pachube International Internet of Things Hackathon.
via fastcompany
Mark Lukas gives us a beautiful example of how AR can bring the geographic and economic data of an atlas to life:
More information via Flowing Data.
Teenagers visiting the Coca-Cola Village Amusement Park in Israel could Like locations throughout the park simply by waving their personal RFID bracelet in front of a physical Facebook Like button.
via All Facebook