- November 4, 2009 10:15 am
Living in a big city has it’s obvious challenges. Simply navigating the streets in a timely fashion often means countless life threatening decisions and maneuvers as you cross the urban landscape. Falling even a couple seconds behind can mean the difference between getting home at 5pm and 9pm — all because you missed that one subway or bus. Smartphones and mobile apps are becoming increasingly ingrained into our daily lives so much so that many cities have apps to make finding out public transportation times easy, quick, and effortless. But there’s an easier way. Why not utilize something that we city dwellers stare at everyday?
The Smart Manhole Cover is a concept created by Cheolyeon Jo & Youngsun Lee that turns your ordinary manhole cover into a smart dish (for lack of better words) of information concerning public transit times. The real kicker is that the manhole uses rainwater to power the display and digital innards making it a novel green, grid load reducing implementation. As illustrated by several more images inside, operating the manhole cover is simple. Step on the right or left sides of the cover for 2 seconds to display various forms of transit times and schedules. Depending on your city, these will of course vary between subway, train, bus, trolley, etc. It’s certainly something that gets those interested in future tech all excited. And who can blame them. Such gadgetry is just the tip of the ice berg of what the future holds for us. Now the only question that remains is how much would these cost?
Step inside for a more detailed look at how this hi-tech manhole cover works…
When the mercury starts rising, many people start heading for cooler pastures, particularly ones with nice soft carpet, comfy couches, and a nice ambient air temperature. That pretty much describes your typical living room. But for those unlucky souls who have to venture outside, a decrease in clothing is often warranted to keep them from melting. However, the true geek never worries about himself but about the life of his gadgets. When others are passing out left and right, you can proudly stand strong, displaying your Solar Vest. Featuring four solar panels and a capacious 8,800 mAh rated battery, the Solar Vest will bring complete freedom to whoever chooses to done such an article. Don’t fret on the matter of connecting your device as it comes with 7 different connectors. Hopefully that standardized phone charging port will work it’s way stateside so that won’t be neccessary. Charing any gadget provided you have the correct connector shouldn’t be a problem as the SV supports 5V, 6V, 9V, and 12-20V outputs. Chinavasion will be the destination of choice for those looking to pick up a piece of fine nerdy technology. If only that god awful “Solar Vest” writing were located elsewhere…in a much smaller font — Pricing still unannounced. Continue the eye candy journey right after the jump.
Old incandescent light bulbs use a ton of energy. The problem with that is that most of that energy is a wasted by product of heat. Very little of the energy incandescent light bulbs use actually puts out light. Sure we have compact fluorescents but those still don’t last as long these new bulbs developed by a Cambridge University research group. The new LED lightbulb has a life of 100,000 hours, or 60 years! The goodness doesn’t stop there. Besides being extra frugal, the LED’s will light up instantly. Just think of how much energy and money one person could save over a year…a lifetime of using just one of these. Now imagine if the entire country adopted them. The energy and money savings are staggering. So with this new tech comes a high entrance fee right? Wrong. You will soon be able to pick these little beasts out for as little as $2.98! Finally, being green will start to pay off!
Source: Engadget, Daily Tech
