That said, I think Claire Lemarchand’s designs are smart, although they’re not up my alley. Basically, she came up with two urban bug farming units: the Cricket Bigger than Beef and the Wheat Worm Office Farming Unit.

The one for the crickets is meant to be hung around posts in the street, and Claire describes them as follows:

Each cylindrical cricket-farming unit surrounds a light source to optimize the farming yield. It is hung high off the ground to reduce its spatial impact and to keep it out of reach. The ‘farmer’ who feeds the crickets collects fresh food waste from the market and surrounding restaurants.

The wheat worm farming unit is a bit of a hassle though, because you’d have to use them in office and make sure you use special office paper that’s fit for consumption for these wheat worms:

The paper is a particular type of special office paper adapted to worm growth. It is made of cellulose and wheat cuticles, and printed with vegetable and organic inks. The unit works as a digestive system, performing the double tasks of paper shredding and farming support. Paper is directly recycled inside the company in order to produce food proteins.

It’s noteworthy, though, that these designs were a 2011 red dot design concept winner. Despite that, they’re not going to get me to start eating bugs. What do you think?

[via Yanko Design]

The project is aimed at making a roof for a car that would allow the people inside to see out at during the day and capture solar energy as well. Then at night, the roof turns into a glowing OLED light. I think the windows of homes could someday use this technology too. They could capture solar power during the day to power the house and then turn into room lighting at night.

The OLED light is only 1.8mm thick and provides a uniform and soft glow across the entire surface. By combining this with an invisible solar panel, you get power and light in one device without blocking your view. Apparently, the technology is being developed for the sunroof of Daimler’s unusual Smart Forvision concept EV, shown below:

[via TG Daily and OLED-Info]

The onboard generator will provide live hydrogen production, meaning that you won’t have to worry about unstable hydrogen tanks which might blow up in the rough seas. The only emissions of this boat are water vapor. It’s produced by Quimperié, a French company, and they aren’t saying if the boat needs other types of fuel, or if it can operate indefinitely using seawater.

The hydrogen generator will power all of the electrical devices, which include a GPS, a 10-inch touchscreen controller, and an electric anchor roller. The boat has a 500 horsepower motor and is supposed to go up to 70 mph. The boat itself is a 22-footer that weighs 2,866 lbs. The hull is made out of aluminum. There are more goodies, but you’ll have to spend €250,000 (~$326,000 USD) to find out for yourself.

[Gizmag via DVice]

Let’s see. When I was thirteen, I cared about getting good grades, obsessed over whether I should grow my hair out or get a boy cut, and surfed the web with prepaid Internet cards (yes, I used to do that, and it feels like ages ago. Which it sort of really is.)

What I wasn’t doing was using the Fibonacci sequence to increase the efficiency of solar panel systems by up to 50%.

However, that was exactly what Aidan Dwyer was doing. Instead of doing what 13-year-old boys normally do (play video games, build LEGO figures, pick their noses, or whatever it is – I wouldn’t know), Aidan was coming up with a new design for the stand that holds solar panels in place.

While hiking up in the Catskills, Aidan glanced up and happened to notice that the trees’ branches form a pattern that can be described by the Fibonacci sequence. This is a sequence of numbers formed by adding the sum of the two previous numbers in the sequence to come up with the next one. (It goes something like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on.)

He constructed his own tree-like stand fitted with small solar panels and noted an increased efficiency of over 50% with his design. Aidan now holds a provisional U.S. patent for his solar panel stand re-design, which already has some interested parties eager to put his design into action.

[via Ubergizmo via Geeky Gadgets]

A team of researchers from Australia’s RMIT University think that this is possible. It will rely on a thin piezoelectric film built into laptops to convert mechanical pressure into electrical energy. Their research has focused on studying how much energy can be captured using this method – currently around 1/10th the amount needed to power your average gadget. Their next step will be to figure out how to amplify the power stored, so it could be useful.

For now, the tech isn’t ready to be mass produced , so you’ll have to wait a while before powering your laptop by simply using the keyboard or trackpad. But the concept could someday lead to piezoelectrics in your shoes and clothes to power your mobile phones, pacemakers powered by blood pressure, and so on. I wonder when I’ll have my first piezoelectric keyboard.

[via DVice]

Unlike the original in Star Trek, the Romulan Ale Star Trek Energy Drink won’t intoxicate you instantly. Instead, it has the opposite effect of waking you up, thanks to 84mg of caffeine and a cocktail of vitamins in each can.

Since it’s blue, I was pretty sure that it had to be some kind of sugary berry flavor – something like juiced up Powerade. You can get a 6-pack of Romulan Ale Energy Drink from ThinkGeek for $14.99 (USD).

[via GeekAlerts]

This new device lets you charge your gadgets with your own energy. The nPowerPEG gathers up kinetic energy as you walk, jog, run or bike, and stores up power for recharging your gadgets on the go. It may look a little weird (to me it looks like a hair curler or something), but the nPowerPEG will give you about 1 minute of talk time on an iPhone 3G or iPhone 4 for every 26 minutes you walk. Sure, that may not seem like a lot, but you can always prime the battery by charging it with the induced USB cable. Then, it’ll just always keep topped up from your exercise.

The nPowerPEG retails for $159.99 (USD), and includes one charger tip for a device of your choice. Additional charger tips are available for over 3,000 gadgets. Their first production run is already sold out, but you can get on their reservation list at their website now.

In the video below, Dr Emile Greenhalgh of Imperial College explains a bit more about how the material looks:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Imagine how light our laptops and phones would be if their cases were also their batteries. Or how awesome it would be if our cars could project an electric shield.

[via EU Infrastructure]

Cladophora, which are found in beaches worldwide, produce cellulose with an unusually large surface area, “100 times that of the cellulose found in paper”, which in turn allowed the scientists to create batteries with a “dramatically larger amount” of conducting polymer. Conducting polymers are non-metallic conductors which can be used as battery material, but have proven quite impractical for various reasons. Until now, that is.

The algae cellulose-conducting polymer batteries made by the researchers in Uppsala University hold 50 to 200 percent more charge than similar conducting polymer batteries, and may someday compete with commercial lithium batteries… Charge times could also trump today’s rechargeables – the researchers managed to recharge their test batteries in anywhere from 8 minutes down to as little as 11 seconds. Are you kidding me?!

That’s not all, these batteries are so thin that the Swedish researchers are looking into novel applications for them, like embedding them into wallpapers or clothes equipped with sensors that react to stimuli. I’m looking forward to OLED newspapers, interactive novels, and holographic pop-up books, but hopefully this technology can also lead to laptops that literally last the whole day. Read the full article at ACS for more info.

[via LiveScience]

This unassuming looking prototype might not look like much, but it’s actually the EZ-REM-0001, the very first remote control to require no batteries at all. Power to the remote control is generated using the tiny vibrations caused by pressing the buttons on the face of the remote. The device uses a combination of a sound vibration power generation device, an RF remote control, and a specialized power supply that can drive the circuit with very little power. This new technology was developed as a joint-venture between Japan’s NEC Electronics and Soundpower.

While this might not seem like much, the notion of powering your electronic gadgets simply by using the power generated through button presses is pretty groundbreaking. Perhaps someday we’ll see other devices that can convert your physical movements into renewable energy for electronics. While I don’t know if vibrations will ever generate enough power to send radio waves, you might someday juice up simple electronic devices by simply pressing the power button.

Cool stuff, Maynard. Very cool stuff, indeed.

[via Tech-On!]

Just plug your gadgets into this handy hand crank charger and get to cranking. The SUPERBattery from Datexx lets you juice up your electronic gadgets anywhere, anytime by harnessing the power of your arm strength.

In emergency hand crank mode, the SUPERBattery should give you about 2 minutes of talk time on your phone for every 6 minutes of cranking. My arm is getting tired just thinking about it, but it is probably a good idea to keep something like this in your emergency kit if you go camping or even in the back of your car – just in case you run yourself off the road this Winter. As an added bonus, the SUPERBattery includes a built-in flashlight, just in case you’re stuck in the dark.

Of course if you’re not in an crisis situation, can pre-charge the SUPERBattery with the included AC adapter, giving your devices up to 4 hours of juice on a single charge. The kit includes a hand-cranked 600mA rechargeable battery pack, and adapters for over 1,200 different mobile devices including media players, cell phones and handheld video games.

You can find these over at Compact-Impact for just under $30 USD.

Once you’re done assembling, expose the monkey to sunlight and watch it move. Of course if you set it up on a string then it’s going to be more monkey-like, but if your children are used to conventional portable devices, then they’ll probably be amazed that the monkey can move even without batteries.

I wish there was a whole range of little toys and other trinkets that could be powered by the monkey’s solar cell; that way even if your kids get tired of the monkey, they can still re-attach the solar cell to other toys.

You can get the solar-powered toy monkey at Select Solar for £14.19 (appx. $20.42 USD).

[via 7 Gadgets]

The cherry-flavored drink should give you enough raw energy to beat-’em-up just like Ken or Ryu. (Technabob does not sanction actually beating anyone up, unless it’s in the virtual world.) Despite the drink’s “Dragon Punch” moniker, I have the distinct urge to mix this stuff with some rum and fruit juice to make myself a potent Hurricane Kick.

Dragon Punch is available for $2.98 (USD) for an 8.4oz. can over at Robert’s Anime Corner Store. If you really fall in love with the flavor, you can pick up a 24 pack for $64.98.

[Street Fighter not your thing?  Mega Man, Donkey Kong and Super Mario all have their own energy drinks too.]

The diminutive 3-door MINI E is powered by a 100% electric motor (hybrids are for wusses), and still manages to go from 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in about 8.5 seconds. While a top speed of 95 mph (152 km/h) isn’t going to break any world records, it’s plenty for anyone who doesn’t spend much time on the autobahn or the race track.

The car gets its juice from over 5,000 individual power cells, joined together to form a single composite battery. At peak, the motor can crank out 204-horsepower and 162 ft/lb of torque – not too shabby for an electric car.

With a cruising range of 150 miles (appx. 240 km), the MINI E should be fine for heading back and forth to the office, grocery, or any other short haul local destination.

If you live in Southern California, New York City or New Jersey, you could be selected to be one of the lucky early test drivers. For your chance to test out the new MINI E, head on over to MINI Space and fill out the form for more information on applying.

[MINI E Spec Sheet]

This amusing t-shirt from Ruby Red Design envisions an EnergyStar compliant galaxy far, far away. Rather than burning a wasteful powerful plasma beam, the Jedi EcoSaber operates on a high-efficiency compact fluorescent bulb instead.

Sure, you might not have enough energy to slice Sith Lords in half with one of these, but you sure could give ‘em a bad case of mercury poisoning if you smash the bulb over their heads. Or maybe you can just dodge Darth Vader until he goes broke paying his electric bill – which no doubt bankrupt him long before you.

If you’ve been looking for a new t-shirt for your ironic hipster-doofus wardrobe, head on over to online art marketplace RedBubble and order yours today.

The Greenhouse Eneplug may look like the decapitated end of a standard 110v AC plug, but instead of a power cord, there’s a USB jack. Simply plug in your rechargeable portable gadgets, and you’ll be charging them in no time. They come in a variety of colors and can handle any device that charges at the standard USB power level of 5VDC at 0.6A.

At this point, the Eneplug is available only in Japan, and priced at ¥980 (appx. $10 USD).

[via FarEastGizmos]

Recently sighted on the shelves over at New York’s Nintendo World Store, the Red Bull-esque energy drink comes in a skinny red can featuring the likeness of the big ape himself, DK necktie and all. Loaded with ingredients like taurine, caffeine, inositol, guarana extract, panax ginseng extract, and plenty of high fructose corn syrup, it’s bound to give you an initial jolt (then a ride on the sugar crash express).

The guys over at MTV Multiplayer conducted a taste test of both Nintendo beverages and found that they not only tasted identical, they tasted identically crappy. If you don’t mind the color of Pepto Bismol, the smell of bubble gum and the flavor of carbonated Kool-Aid, then maybe you’ll enjoy a can or two.

If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, then maybe just grab a few and keep ‘em on the shelf for the cool can design. If you don’t happen to live near the Nintendo World Store, you can also order cans of the concoction from Anime Castle for $2.25 each.

Alliance Optotek’s Aqualia lamp uses a dozen bright LEDs to provide ample lighting for any work area. It’s all housed inside of a sexy 18-inch tall aluminum fixture which can be adjusted to an angle of your choosing, and automatically dims down to night-light brightness when closed.

The LEDs output no UV or IR radiation, and are flicker free so they’re easy on your delicate eyeballs. I also like how the fixture offers full 0% to 100% dimming, so you can set the brightness to your preference. Plus, the LEDs are rated at 50,000+ hours of continuous use, so you’ll get plenty of use out of the fixture before it burns out. As a bonus, power consumption is a mere 16-watts at maximum brightness.

While I haven’t been able to find pricing or availability information for the Aqualia, online LED specialists TheLEDLight carry similar fixtures by the same company (for about $200 each), so you might be able to get one special ordered through them.

Litrospheres are tiny self-luminous particles which can be injection molded or embedded into paints. Brightness is said to be about the same as that of a 20-watt light bulb, but I’d imagine that would depend on how much surface area is covered with the particles. The material is extremely cost-effective, covering an 8.5 x 11 surface for about 35 cents. The particles can even be customized to give off just about any light color. There’s a good description of how the technology works over on PESWiki.

MPK, the company that manufactures this glowing goodness expects Litrospheres to make their first appearance in safety gear, but I’d love to coat all kinds of surfaces with this stuff. Can you imagine how cool it would be to drive down the street in a luminescent car?

[via Treehugger via Neatorama]

While word on the street is that it’s “blue-raspberry” flavored, I’m betting the drink tastes something like a mix of Red Bull and toadstools.

Just in case you were thinking about giving this stuff for your kids, the label is clearly marked “Product not intended for children”. Presumably, this is to keep them from bouncing off the walls, but maybe it just causes anyone under the age of 18 to spontaneously combust. I’ll leave that to you guys to test.

If want to give a can a try, I managed to find some over on GKWorld for $2.95 a can. (For those of you in the UK, check out CyberCandy to get your boost.)

[photo via Flickr]