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How would you disguise an underwater survey robot? The first thing that passes through my mind when I think about underwater environments is fish. So why not a fish robot? A small one that would go completely unnoticed, unless it gets eaten by some predator fish. Or better yet, a bigger predator fish that wouldn’t be that easily transformed into tasty food by other fish. Probably the same things were passing through the minds of the engineers at the University of Kitakyushu when they started developing an underwater survey robot that looks like this:

Pinktentacle reports that the robotic fish is dubbed “Tai-robot-kun” and weighs about 7-kilogram (15.4 lb). The robot looks quite real with a silicone body covered in hand-painted scales, featuring a unique propulsion system that allows it to move its tail and drift silently through the water like a real fish. Check out this short clip:



A full battery charge will enable the robot to swim around for an hour or so. The robotic fish relies on a ballast system similar to those used in submarines to adjust its buoyancy and depth.

Professor Ikuo Yamamoto, the designer of the robotic fish, claims the robot can easily be mass-produced, outfitted with various cameras and sensors, and released into the sea to perform a wide range of oceanographic survey tasks. Of course, armies around the world would also be interested to own at least one of these, for their own stealthy purposes.

Yamamoto and his team are currently developing a robotic manta ray that uses some of the same technology.

Remember our article about a simple technology called Thermocromic but with an amazingly beautiful applicability? Today we want to show you another cool idea present at International Design Excellence Awards this year among other innovative designs.
In the Commercial & Industrial category we’ve found the Invisible Streetlight, a design idea that would be useful on streets during night. It was created by Jongoh Lee, an industrial designer from South Korea who won also last year at Red Dot Design 2007, for her Kangaroo Apron concept.



The Invisible Streetlight consists of solar powered street lights imitating leaves, and that can be hidden among natural plants on the sides of streets. They are set to emit light during night and save the energy in the daylight.
These solar powered street lights made of double injection of silicon and aluminum materials, contain a photocapacitor and the nano wire battery with 10 times mode storage capacity than Li-Ion models. Besides adding flexibility, this material combination provides high thermal conductivity as well as waterproof capability.

A photocapacitor is an electricity storage device proofing more efficiency than silicon-based solar cell in low light. While the standard photovoltaic cells are dependent on a battery to store the electrical power converted from light, a photocapacitor is combining photoelectric and storage functions in a single unit. The technology was invented back in 2004 by Tsutomu Miyasaka and Takurou Murakami at Toin University in Yokohama, specially to power mobile phones and other wireless handheld devices.



In Li-Ion batteries, the electrical storage limits to the amount of lithium held in the anode made of carbon, while the silicone has a higher storage capacity. Researchers at Stanford University found a solution for the problem of silicone’s expand/shrink cycle that lead to the battery’s degradation in time. They used nanotechnology storing the Lithium in tiny silicone nanowires, which don’t fracture as they inflate soaking lithium.

“Posture: Sit in easy pose or in a chair with your spine straight.
Focus: Either close your eyes and focus at the third eye point or look straight ahead with your eyes half open.
Breath: Concentrate on the flow of breath. Regulate each bit of the breath consciously. Inhale slowly and deeply through both nostrils. Then hold your breath in by suspending your chest. Retain as long as possible. Exhale through the nose smoothly, gradually and completely. When your breath is totally out, lock the breath out for as long as possible.”( Meditation for a Calm Heart by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa)
This is one of the many lessons that teaches you how to practice meditation to calm your heart when it’s beating fast allowing you to increase your concentration and self control. It is used in Yoga courses for beginner levels and it really works, but what do you do when you’re at the office or in a public place? You wouldn’t try it in noisy environments or where other people can see you.

If you are an adult, your normal heart rate ranges between 60-101 beats per minute, and when you are stressed it tends to increase in speed. If you don’t have where to start meditating or you’re busy and can’t reach the doctor, a good solution for the moment might be the Beating Heart Stress Relief Pillow from ThinkGeek . Among toys and tech products, they provide this cool gadget in the shape of a heart, made of soft plush material, and integrating a special device that spreads rhythmic vibration through the pillow.
It’s a smart idea to design this idea as a comfortable pillow that you could hold at your chest.



The rhythm is pre-recorded but you don’t hear any heart-like sound, but just feel the calming vibration in a new pattern each time you turn the pillow on. It changes slowly over time to better mimic a real heart beat rhythm, and features an auto shut off mechanism.

Available in 14 x 14 x 14 inches and smaller in 9 x 9 x 3 inches, the Stress Relief Pillows come at $49.99 and $24.99 respectively, including a 9V battery.

Blackboard and chalk, marker and whiteboard, even laser pointers, all outdated in the face of this little wonder. Looking like a laser pointer on steroids, the Flowlight is currently a design concept that lets you write in midair with streams of light.

It reminds of that photographic technique where you leave the shutter open for a few minutes and you take a flashlight or a light source and draw shapes in mid air. The Flowlight does not require any professional DSLR, as it provides instant visual results. However, it has one minor limitation, since it's a two-piece device. According to DVice, the pen will only create light streams in the air above the included unit, a cone-shaped base station. This base is needed to focus a laser beam 100 times per second to where the pen is, creating small plasma points that glow in midair. That plasma tells me we’re actually dealing with some sort of controlled lightning.

As you can see in the first picture, this device can also be used to create cool drawings. I’m not that certain about the range of the pen. Anyway, we’ll have to wait a little longer for this one, since it is just a concept.

Here’s a new Chinese player that is meant to shift your perspective away from the iPod players. This one is so thin, it’ll even cut through the Macbook Air. How thin? 4.5mm! Check out the pic:

Wait, it’s an MP4 player and it’s even thinner than Brando’s screenless customizable MP3 player. The player is known as CVSJ-1304 and comes with 4 GB of storage. It plays ASF videos in addition to audio files. Just to understand how thin this player is, take four credit cards and stack them up one on top of one another and here you go.

Here’s a list of specs:

• DisplaySize: 1.8”; Resolution: 160×128
• Supported Formats: MP4, MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV
• Bit rate: 32~320Kbps
• FM Radio: 87.5-108Mhz
• Built in MIC Record Format: WAV
• Earphone Jack Output: 5mW + 5mW
• Earphone Jack Size: 2.5mm
• SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio): 75dB
• Languages: English, Korean, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Czech, Danish, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Thai, Romanian, Greek and Hebrew
• USB: 2.0 (1.1 Compatible)
• System: Windows 98SE and Later, MAC OS 9.2 and Later
• Power Source: Internal Lithium Ion Battery
• Dimension: 85×54x4.5mm
• Manufacturer Ref.: G9536FUECW82

Not yet impressed? Take a look at this short clip:



How about a retail price of $39.55? Wholesale prices go even lower.