There are obvious differences between the male and female anatomy. Because of these differences, I think that the former deserves a bit more attention. Well, that’s exactly what it’s maker, Japan’s Unicharm Humancare, thought when they came up with the Robo-Humany Urine Aspiration Diaper. In short, it’s an electronic adult diaper.

The Robo-Humany was presented recently at Tokyo’s Eco-Products 2011 trade show. Basically, there’s a pocket for the penis that’s been fitted with an electronic sensor and a suction tube. When urine is detected, the vacuum tank fires up and sucks the liquid from the pad into the tank. While the whole contraption sounds weird, this makes the diaper up to ten times lighter than the usual one.

There’s no mention about how it’s going to deal with the solid kind of human waste, though. The diapers are priced at $3 each, while the tank has a price tag of 100,000 yen (~$1,284 USD).

[via CNet via Dvice]

Designed by a couple of photography geeks, Haje Jan Kamps and Ziah Fogel, the Triggertrap will be able to trigger your camera with whatever you want. Out of the box, the little gadget will trigger pictures when someone breaks a laser beam pointed at it, or if you make a loud sound like a clap or fire a gun. But the way it’s designed, pretty much anything that closes a circuit can be used. It can also be used to trigger time-lapse photos without any extra hardware – not just any time-lapse either, but non-linear time-lapse which can slow down or speed up as it goes.

If you’re wondering if it’ll work with your particular camera, here’s a quick write-up on how to figure that out, but it’s their hope to support all the current dSLRs models on the market. By default, it should support most wired triggers, but they’re also building in an IR diode which could eventually work with cameras that offer an IR remote trigger.

The Triggertrap is being released as open-source hardware, but if you’d like to support the project, you’ll want to head over to Kickstarter and back it with some cold, hard cash. For as little as $70, you can get one in kit form, or for $75 or more, you’ll get one fully-assembled, which seems like a bargain to me.

The ink of the pen is composed of silver, which, after drying, maintains conductivity even if it is bent or folded. This handheld device will lower the cost of producing certain types of circuits, and allow for the production of circuits directly on paper and other flexible materials.

The idea opens up a whole new range of flexible and disposable electronic circuits, as well as electronic art. The research team behind the prototype was led by engineers Jennifer Lewis and Jennifer Bernhard, from the College of Engineering of the University of Illinois. Their research is published in a paper called Pen-on-Paper Flexible Electronics in the Journal of Advanced Materials.

[via gizmag via designboom]

The hats themselves are made from wool felt embedded with steel wool to create pressure sensors. These in turn allow the manipulation of sound. The hats use a Lilypad Arduino that was programmed with MAX/MSP software to use them as MIDI controllers. The funny, colorful balls control volume and speed. The LEDs were added mainly for theatrical reasons. Once they are illuminated, it means that the hat is ready to play.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Watching this made me smile, even though the whole idea seems completely silly.

[Fashioning Tech via DVice]

Chicks like butterflies and jewelry after all, so this is doubly good for you. The cool part is that Italian crafter Aula46w built these earrings from resistors that are used inside electronic components. It took me a second to notice what they were made of.

They sell for $27 (USD) for the set, and if your girl isn’t into butterflies, Aula46 makes lots of other cool jewelry fabricated out of electronic components over on her Etsy shop.

Made for a presentation at MobileCampBrussels, the Phone Guitar is made out of five smartphones (actually there’s an iPod Touch standing in for the iPhone) on three different mobile platforms using three different programing languages as well as two third-party apps, a custom cross-platform sequencer app, a stick, some battery powered speakers, and a whole lot of duct tape.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It not just looks cool (as cool as a device made out of duct tape can), it also sounds cool. Steffest is one of the guys behind this device and he can also play a good Neil Diamond tune on it. I just wouldn’t want to be the one who has to get all the duct tape off of the phones when the guitar is dismantled.

[via Make:]

Thanks to fabric technologist Hanna Perner-Wilson (aka Plusea), you can now purchase pre-made components which you can use to make interactive clothing pieces.

Her collection of wearable tech items includes things like fabric pushbuttons, a pressure, stretch and bend sensors and even a special neoprene battery pack you can sew into your clothes.

Most parts sell for about $15 to $20 (USD) over at Plusea’s Etsy shop, and of course you’ll need some electronic circuitry to wire these elements to.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

If you’re into hacking and modding, you could definitely come up with some cool concepts using these. Personally, I’d like to see a complete wireless game controller for my Xbox 360 woven into a jacket. Why? Why the heck not?

Our pals over at Evil Mad Science Labs have created these battery-operated “Deluxe” LED Menorah kits which let you choose the type of lights you like the best. I personally love the ones with the giant 10mm LEDs, but you can choose from tiny 3mm LEDs too.

In addition to the ultrabright yellow version, there are blue and white LED variants available for a small up-charge. Personally, I think they’d look really cool with some ultraviolet LEDs. Each Menorah comes as a kit with a pre-programmed microcontroller that automatically “lights” an additional “candle” each time you turn it on. As the LEDs illuminate, the light up in the proper sequence.

These kits do require basic soldering and electronic skills and start shipping on November 9th. You can pre-order yours over at the Evil Mad Science store $14 to $17 (USD). Look ma, no waxy mess!

It even comes with a magnetic pick for some strumming action, and an awesome mini amplifier that has “Think Geek” written on it using the same font that Marshall uses on its amps. Aside from controlling the volume, the amp also has a tone knob.

Ready to go beyond randomly waggling your fingers when you’re rocking out to your favorite song? Then get the Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt at ThinkGeek for just $30 (USD). Requires 4 AAA batteries, not included.

The Ketron SD8 differentiates itself from the keyboard pack by offering a keyboard that isn’t based on the traditional 88-keyed piano, but instead on the chromatic scale that you might find on an accordion.

There’s 120 keys on the left side, and 52 keys on the right for a total of 172 keys. The synthesizer has a built in multi-track sequencer with editing capabilities, and four individual audio outputs too. There’s also an on-board drum machine, with a variety of catchy acoustic and Latin loops. Also along for the ride is a complete multi-effect DSP which lets you crank out all sorts of effects on top of your chromatic stylings.

This polyphonic synth is designed to produce a variety of musical styles, but definitely is best suited to Latin and maybe the occasional Polka. Here’s a couple of fun video clips of the SD8 in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Damn. Now I want to dance the Pasodoble. Too bad I have a complete lack of rhythm or coordination.

I haven’t been able to find any U.S. retailers who currently stock the SD8, but a quick Google search of “Ketron SD8” turns up plenty of suppliers in Europe who are ready for you to plunk down about €3500 (appx. $5000 USD) for yours. Expect to pay a couple hundred extra bucks for one with a built-in hard drive.

Weird Al needs one of these.

The wearable TRUTH wristband uses a set of red and blue LEDs, tied to a circuit that measures GSR (galvanic skin response). GSR is often used in lie detector tests – a questionable practice in and of itself. As the wearer’s galvanic “emotional arousal” increases, the lights turn red, and as it decreases, the lights turn a cool blue. As you can see from the video clip below, it’s seems to do a much better job detecting excitement than anything else. Especially nipple stimulation.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The TRUTH kit includes everything you need, to make your own TRUTH wristband, but does require experience assembling electronics and soldering. It’s available over at the MakerSHED for $44.95 (USD).

AudioCubes are designed to be played in live performances, and let you control sounds by manipulating the position, angles and relationships between the palm-sized cubes.

Not to be confused with gadget shop with the same name, Percussa’s AudioCubes are actually cubes. Designed as a reinvention of other devices like trigger pads, knobs, and other sound manipulation controllers, these colorful little boxes can actually pass a ton of control information to your computer or other MIDI device.

Each 3-inch cube uses infrared sensors to both influence its own sounds and to transmit data wirelessly between each other. While you can make music with just one cube, to 100 cubes can work in harmony if you really want to go crazy.

The cubes ship with a collection of software from Percussa that makes it easy to use them as MIDI controllers, and to control VST plug-ins, letting you use them with popular digital audio workstations like Abelton Live and Steinberg Cubase.

And if you’re interested in going off the beaten path, each AudioCube actually has it’s own sound generator built-in, which lets you connect them directly to a mixer, and push out some truly odd machine-generated sounds.

This introductory video gives you a really good idea of how these little guys work:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Or if you just want to cut past the mind-numbing instructional video and see and hear the cubes in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Prices for AudioCubes start at €219 (appx. $299 USD), but there are substantial discounts for purchasing multiples. You can find info more over at the Percussa shop.

[via Core77 via The Awesomer]

8-Bit FM is a new Internet radio station that plays everything from classic video game soundtracks to modern day electronic music played on old gaming hardware. The format includes everything from Earthworm Jim to Zelda and everything in between. But it’s the newly created chiptunes that really lead to discovery of new musical artists.

(Once they work out the kinks), the station (will be) online 24 x 7 x 365 with a web-based Flash player, Windows Media, WinAMP, and iTunes streams too. There’s also a live request system so I can once again listen to that damned Casino Night Zone music from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that I couldn’t get out of my head for about 2 years of  my life. Yeah, I know the Genesis was a 16-bit system, but I think the guys at 8-Bit FM aren’t quite that literal with what they play.

Since 8-Bit FM got slammed with a ton of press this weekend, their site is struggling a bit to keep up with all of the traffic so you might have to check back if you don’t get through. Hopefully they’ll work out all the kinks so you can get your 8-, 16- or 32-bit groove on real soon. In the mean time, I guess I’ll have to settle for this:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[8-Bit FM via Destructoid]

Tokyo electronic artist / programmer / composer /DJ Daito Manabe connected each of his four friends to the business-end of his “Face Visualizer” device, which shoots computer-controlled myoelectric charges through the wires. Each shock results in an involuntary muscle twitch on its recipient’s victim’s face.

While Daito previously has subjected himself and some his cohorts to this torturous-looking procedure, this video has to be my favorite, offering four times the fun of his others.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I also enjoyed this one, in which Daito attempted to “copy” his facial movements onto his friends. Creepy, but fun to watch nonetheless.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can check out more about Daito’s experimental works over on his website, and more video clips over on his YouTube page.

This desktop Whac-A-Mole game lets you whack to your hearts content. Got an important conference call? Why not whack some while you’ve got your speakerphone on “mute”? Nobody will know. You can whack all day long. You know you want to.

I’ve never really understood why it’s “Whac-A-Mole” and not “WhacK-A-Mole”. Could they not afford the “K”? Maybe it saved them money on painting all of the arcade signs. Somebody probably got a bonus for that. Remember when employers handed out bonuses? Those were the days.

Unfortunately, it looks like these cute moles only speak Korean. If you do too, you can find them at the Early Adopter Shop (search for “2774″ to find them). Otherwise, you’ll have to settle for one of these mole-free Whack-It games.

The Zapi uses ultraviolet light to clean your toothbrush “in minutes”. Let’s hope that’s not more than 5 minutes. Since we can’t see the actual cleaning process, Zapi bobs enthusiastically as proof of the intense 99.9% cleaning action going on inside. It has a removable drip cup so you can easily clean it. So what cleans your teeth? Your toothbrush. What cleans your toothbrush? Zapi. Who cleans Zapi? You. Someone invent a Zapi Zanitizer.

The VioLight Zapi toothbrush sanitizer sells for $30 USD at Amazon. As you can see it comes in 4 colors, and includes a free matching toothbrush. It runs on three AAA batteries, not included.

[via 7Gadgets]

The tinyCylon gets its tiny little brains from the programmable ATtiny13 controller chip, and loaded with more patterns than you can shake a stick at.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

A simple press of the button lets you toggle between a bunch of mini light shows: classic Cylon bi-directional scan, left-to-right, right-to-left, glowing eyes, a couple of random modes, cyclops, and the oh-so-thrilling “off”.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can grab the tinyCylon kit over at the MakerSHED for just $10. If you’d rather have one pre-assembled for you, just add $5 bucks. Me, I’d plunk down a couple hundred donuts and build my own mini desktop Cylon army.

This Cass Creek electronic turkey call is sure to attract the elusive birds as it cranks out digitized samples of real turkeys. The loudspeaker can produce a variety of authentic bird sounds including clucks, yelps, “kee-kees”, an assembly call, and even a purr. Who knew that turkeys purred? Sounds like you might end up attracting a few neighborhood alley cats if you press that button too often.

While it’s designed for hunting turkeys, I think it might be just as fun to walk around the your neighborhood grocery store with one of these, occasionally mashing on the buttons as customers grab up their frozen Butterballs and canned yams. (I think I know what I’m doing next Thanksgiving.)

KANFUBOI (that’s Kung-Fu-Boy to you and me) have one purpose in life, and that’s to kick, punch and chop their way through the day. Just set the little dudes on your desktop, switch ‘em on, and watch the punches fly. (Actually the one on the left kicks and punches, and the kid on the right chops). A built-in sound sensor sets punches flying on your unsuspecting victims.

Their packaging says “Try Me”, and I actually think that’s some sort of a dare. Of course, they don’t just do their Kung Fu moves, they let out the appropriate sound effects as they go.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Unfortunately, you’ll have to find a way to fly these in from Japan if you want a pair for your desk. They’re available from E-Goods for ¥1995 (appx. $18 USD) each.

Adafruit’s Botanicalls Twitter Kit lets your plants communicate over the web, letting you know when they need water, or if they’re feeling happy that they’ve been recently cared for. And since Twitter can notify your mobile device of new posts, you can receive a text message when your plant is feeling blue.

The easy-to-assemble electronic kit uses wired moisture sensors to detect your plant’s state of mind and send information out to the Internet via an on-board Ethernet jack. Connect the board to your PC using a USB cable, and the Arduino-based circuit can be programmed to send custom messages to Twitter.

The kit is available from Adafruit for $160 USD. All I need now is for my dogs and cat to start Twittering too and I can finally take a nice long vacation.

[via MAKE]