Future computers to its next level!

Rene Lee has come up with an exciting device called Bento. It is a single modular device that integrates a tablet, notebook, smartphone, hard drive and battery. The device can be used independently or as a processing network. It not only extends the life cycle of the product but also expands the possibilities of networked use. And thus, it provides easy portability of each component. Bento is short-listed for FUJITSU design award 2011 from over 1000 designs. It has got remarkable appreciation in a Designboom competition A Life with Future Computing. 

Snaplet paper computers and paperphone!

A team of researchers at the human multimedia lab at queen’s university in canada have created two fully functional paper computing devices, ‘paperphone’ and ’snaplet’ wrist computer, controlled by bending their screens. capable of use as a phone, music player, book reader, and navigator, the ‘paperphone’ prototype is composed of a 3.7-inch flexible electrophoretic display, underlain with a layer of 2-inch long bidirectional bend sensors. an arduino microcontroller obtains data from the sensors, and the information is processed by a laptop.

Flex Tablet Computer future!

Flex is a revolutionary collapsible tablet computer, with flexible screen while still maintaining rigidity.It encapsulates a flexible spine plus a bendy screen within the frame, which allows the user to translate flex from a slate to several form factors. A loop stand integrated into flex paves way for best content viewing experience. Flex’s flexible spine facilitates efficiency as well as collaboration on a tablet.

 

Re-thinking automobile ownership

It may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the world firsts listed here, but Daimler's announcement of a “car2go edition” of the SMART fortwo marks a shift in the way we think about our personal transport. The car2go system allows cars to be spontaneously rented on-the-spot, or booked up to 24 hours in advance via a mobile phone or online.

 

Car sharing isn't new, but with increasing pressure to stop choking our urban roads the announcement of the first production vehicles dedicated to this approach is a significant one (and BMW's recently announced pilot scheme which will see its vehicles available for rent on an hourly basis over the Internet is also worth noting).

Space tourism takes off

A string of world first announcements during 2010 from Virgin Galactic has marked a shift in the push towards space tourism. Among these we saw the first captive carry flight, the first free flight and the first manned flight of VSS Enterprise, plus the opening of the two mile long runway at Spaceport America.

There's no firm commitment on a launch date, but Virgin Galactic's first paying customers could be heading towards space as early as next year

Throw away your joysticks

2010 has been the year of motion control. While the Wii has been in the wild for some time, this year both Sony and Microsoft upped the ante with widely publicized entries into the space. Sony's PlayStation Move combines controller tracking with body tracking via the PlayStation Eye camera while Microsoft's Kinect does away with the controller altogether by using a CMOS camera, infrared projector and multi-array microphone to track the movements and voices of players ... and the system is already showing potential beyond the gaming world.

First commercially available Jet Pack

We've been waiting a long time for this one. Earlier this year New Zealand based Martin Aircraft announced the first commercially-available jet pack. The 250 lbs "Jetpack" (which uses twin ducted fans) is capable of 30 minutes of flight time, can reach heights of 8,000 feet and is fueled by regular premium gasoline.

 

We've been waiting a long time for this one. Earlier this year New Zealand based Martin Aircraft announced the first commercially-available jet pack. The 250 lbs "Jetpack" (which uses twin ducted fans) is capable of 30 minutes of flight time, can reach heights of 8,000 feet and is fueled by regular premium gasoline.