- Wireless sensors placed at intersections calculate distance, direction and speed of approaching car
- They calculate time left for signal to turn green or red and vary time at traffic lights according to traffic density
- Sensors switch off car ignition to cut waiting/idling time at intersections after a specified period of time. This saves idling fuel consumption and CO2 emission. Also improves traffic management.
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The Light Blossom
An outdoor lighting system with an ecological bent. Light Blossom from Philips not only looks ultra-futuristic, but actually harmonises several forces of nature such as wind and sun's rays and uses it to produce light. The light-sensitive 'flower' at the tip of a slender stem behaves just like a natural blossom and reacts to changes in nature. It opens and closes, mimicking the rhythms of a flower. The stem emits light and also sways with the wind.
Musical Pillow
Lying in bed and drifting off to sleep listening to your favourite music is heaven. But the wires can be quite a problem. How about a pillow that can provide the same fun without any strings (wires) attached? These pillows have a speaker buried deep inside and a phone jack at one end to plug in an iPod/MP3 player/radio. It's the ultimate private musical experience while in the bed.
MATA Biotech's M28 Fingerprint Door Lock
If you thought fingerprint recognition comes only in large vaults and new-age laptops, think again. The M28 combines a conventional cylinder lockset with sophisticated high-precision fingerprint recognition technology. It can store up to 10 fingerprints and manage them without a PC link.
Internet-Enabled Digital Photo Frame
You've seen digital photo frames which you can hook on to your laptop to upload family pictures. But this 8" frame can go on to the Internet on its own, has an e-mail ID, is Wifi-enabled, has a slot for memory cards and 128 MB of onboard memory. So you can now not only upload pictures but also send them to your friends.
OzSpy's SIM Card Data Recovery Pro
Don't let your spouse get anywhere close to this one. The SIM Recovery Pro is an advanced SIM card reader which retrieves text messages purposely or accidentally deleted from SIM cards. In Australia, the company has been selling over 100 pieces daily. It seems trust is a serious issue in Oz.
Nokia 9900 Pen Phone
This could be the biggest sensation since the iPhone. Mobile handset giant Nokia has been working on this concept phone that comes with a roll-out touch panel which will in turn double up as the phone's display and camera viewfinder. We've seen pens doubling up as cameras and voice recorders, but this sounds special.
Sneakey Software To Clone Keys Long Distance
Researchers at the University of California have developed a software program that can clone a key within minutes after analysing a digital photograph, even a low-resolution image taken on a mobile phone. Sneakey runs on a computer and uses key-cutting hardware and can, along with a technique called tele-duplication, extract a normal key's precise tooth pattern from a distance, using optical decoding.
Surface Computer
Devised by Microsoft, an ordinary tabletop comes alive to allow interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. It simultaneously recognises multiple points of contact and processes each one independently. It has a 30-inch display on a table-like form-which makes it easy for individuals or small groups to interact just like in the real world. Users can actually "grab" digital information with their hands and interact with content through touch without the use of a mouse or keyboard. Watch the latest Bond film and you'll know how.
Kalpvriksha
Kalpvriksha tries to break the conventional, low-yield approach to farming by enabling soil-specific crop management using wireless sensor networks which monitor the variability of soil characteristics in different places. The information is used to create site-specific data to help farmers optimise the use of agro-inputs like water and specific fertilisers.
Enpower
PCs waste over half the power delivered to them when idle. Enpower enables organisations with large computer networks to optimise power utilisation by putting idle machines in power-saving mode through a Net 2.0-based application & a website deployed with a central server.
