thousand documents can be stored
internally. As of this writing, no price
tag has been attached, but one of
the main deal killers of competing
products is the high initial cost (e.g.,
$359 for the Amazon Kindle and
about $300 for the Sony Reader).
Will this be the product that makes
paper obsolete? Well, maybe.
Make Your Pet a
Photographer
the timer to take a photo every one,
five, or fifteen minutes, thus allowing
you to see the world from your pet’s
point of view.
Is this a good idea? If I attached it
to my dog, I’m pretty sure the result
would consist mostly of pix of (1)
garbage cans, (2) rotting road kill, and
( 3) the posteriors of other dogs.
Come to think of it, maybe 35 photos
is plenty. Anyway, you can get one
for a suggested retail price of $49.99.
■ The Pet’s
Eye View
camera turns
your dog or
cat into a
photographer.
Courtesy of
Uncle Milton.
This month’s Ill-Conceived Gadget
award goes to Uncle Milton
( www.unclemilton.com), which
appears to be responsible for the
Pet’s Eye View camera. It’s basically
just a standard toy digital camera,
offering 640 x 380 resolution for
4 x 6 in prints and underwhelming
storage capacity of about 35 photos.
But the twist is that you can hang it
from your dog or cat’s collar and set
New Robotics Curriculum
In a move intended to “spur greater
interest in science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM)
across the globe,” Innovation First,
Inc. ( www.innovationfirst.com), and
Autodesk, Inc. ( www.autodesk.com),
have teamed up to offer a new
robotics curriculum package. It is primarily intended for classroom use,
but it includes some features that
should make it appealing to the
home hobbyist, as well. Autodesk
has been around for years, providing
2D and 3D design software to
manufacturing, construction, and
other markets, and its contribution is
based on the Autodesk Inventor
package, which is used by many
professional robotics engineers.
Innovation First is kicking in
its VEX Robotics system, which is
already used in more than 2,000
classrooms. The result is the new
VEX Classroom Lab Kit, which
“provides a custom solution for
robotics education that is flexible
enough to be applied at multiple
grade levels, including secondary and
post-secondary.” The basic $699
package contains a set of 17 units,
each of which contains a separate
lesson, concept, and activity. For a list
of included hardware and options,
visit
www.vexrobotics.com/vex-education.shtml. NV
INDUSTRY AND
THE PROFESSION
Green Energy Research
Center Launched
Aiming to “facilitate the use of
green energy sources, reduce the
environmental impact of carbon
emissions, and alleviate the growing
energy crisis,” the National Science
Foundation ( www.nsf.gov) has
awarded $18.5 million to North
Carolina State University
( www.ncsu.edu) and its partners to
establish a new NSF Engineering
Research Center (ERC). It will be the
first of five third-generation ERCs,
each of which will embrace “new
dimensions designed to speed the
innovation process and prepare
engineering graduates who are
innovative, creative, and understand
how to function in a global economy
where engineering talent is broadly
distributed throughout the world.”
(Translation: Hold meetings, generate
a slew of position papers, and have
some really great lunches.) Dubbed
the NSF ERC for Future Renewable
Electric Energy Delivery and
Management (yes, FREEDM), it will
conduct research on how to modify
the nation’s power grid so as to
integrate alternative energy
generation and novel storage
methods into the existing network.
The project includes more than 65
industry partners, 18 state and local
government organizations, and about
nine other universities and institutes.
Results are expected in five years.
14
November 2008
