The Hagent uses its heat sensors to find warmers spots in your pad, like next to a heater or a fireplace. Then, it will soak up all of that heat, storing it as energy. Once the temperature drops, it will move around to where it’s cold and release the stored heat. That’s pretty smart. The storing process isn’t fully described, but it’s nothing too futuristic looking at the prototype robot in the video below:

Assuming they can get this thing down in size and cost, I think they’re onto something here. I wouldn’t mind having one of these, following me around like a puppy. The pets would go nuts though.

[via Gizmodo via DVice]

What Virus actually did was grind up these coffee beans to come up with coffee charcoal, which they’ve (not so) cleverly called Coffee Char. The char was then processed and incorporated into a natural fiber, which serves as the base layer fabric that make the garments act more like insulators, raising skin temperature by as much as 10°F.

You might be thinking that sportswear that traps heat will end up making you feel all sticky and gross, right? Wrong, because the Stay Warm suits were made to wick the moisture away from your skin. The suits also have UV shielding and anti-odor properties that make sure you don’t stink while doing whatever it is you’re doing.

You can check out the entire range of suits from the Virus Action Sport Performance Stay Warm line on their site right here.

[via Gizmag]

Artist Marcia Stuermer and the guys at Fossil Faux Studios make these transluscent hot pink resin trivets which are very reminiscent of the heat coming off an electric cook top. Each one measures about 8.25″ in diameter and 3/4″ thick, and is ready to handle the heat of any pot or pan you throw on top of it.

The only odd thing about these is that I think the cooking element part should be the glowing red/pink bit, and the other areas should be black. But somehow the illusion is still quite effective as-is. At $50 (USD) each, they’re not exactly the world’s cheapest trivets, but they are quite possibly the coolest. You can grab a Red Hot trivet over on Etsy now.

I think it would be fun to put four of these out on the dinner table before guests arrive and mess with their heads when you place the pots on top of them.

As he shows in his video, as soon as you stretch the rubber band on a slingshot, the band heats up, which gives the slingshot more firing power. Right away the band cools and as the heat leaves, the power declines too. The problem is if you want to have your slingshot loaded and ready to fire you end up losing power. The answer to the problem of losing that power is to apply heat.

Sprave took a heating element and encapsulated it and the rubber bands in an enclosure that traps the heat and keeps the bands nice and warm for firing. This way when he stretches the bands, he can heat them up for maximum power. The heater is powered by a rechargeable battery and appears to heat quickly. He’s also included an interior/exterior thermometer for optimizing the temperature.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if Joerg heated up the rubber bands on some of his more destructive creations like the circular saw slingshot or the slingshot cannon.

Thought so. These wouldn’t be the first gadget I’ve seen which keeps your hands warm at the computer. They’re not even the first USB handwarming mitts I’ve come across in my travels. But they are the first ones I’ve seen that look like anthropomorphic toast, and that’s good enough to warrant a purchase in my book.

When you find your fingers getting cold, just plug in the USB cable, and slip a slice of toast over each of your hands. Heck, even if you’re living in Australia and it’s summertime, you should buy a pair, just so you can look cool while surfing the web on the beach.

The USB Toast Handwarmers are available now over at ThinkGeek for $24.99 (USD) for the pair. Choose from white, wheat, sourdough, rye, pumpernickel, or an english muffin. Just kidding about that last part.

Researchers from the University of Virginia and Microsoft Research are now saying (opens PDF) that in the future, people might purposely host small “data furnace” server farms in their home to be able to produce the heat needed to cool the place. I think this would make more sense for data farms or businesses than individuals. According to the researchers, if you had a server that had 40 mainboards and processors inside you could create some serious heating capability.

In fact, they claim that if you had 110 of those mainboards inside a server room in a home you could heat the entire place, as well as a furnace from the server heat alone. The downside is that if the room temperature reaches 95F or higher you would have to shut the servers off to prevent overheating.

[via NYT]

Created by Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy of CW&T, the Thermochromic Clock was made by taking segments of nichrome wire, covered with black heat-sensitive paint. When power is applied to the wires, they heat up slightly, making the wire transparent so you can see the time against the dark background. As each segment cools back off, it fades into blackness once again. The clock can also be reset to its default state by wiping it down with a cool cloth, as seen at the beginning of the video clip below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The 4-digit, 7-segment timer circuit is controlled by an Arduino, but they don’t reveal anything else about how you might be able to create one of these for yourself. It does make me think that you could make a really cool clock using some sort of heater wire filament placed under glass, and letting it glow to tell time.

[via Creative Applications]

The wall changes colors using the heat from dudes’ warm streams of pee (boy that sounds so nasty now that I said it.) I actually have no idea where this thing is located, or if it’s just a design concept, but if any of you guys have ever seen it up close and personal, let us know where we need to go take a leak if we want to see it in action.

[via MatrixAgent]

The device uses a heat sink with fins that gather heat and that heat is used to drive a Nextreme eTEG HV56 thermoelectric power generator. The maker says that the system is maintenance-free, and can run for decades with no interference.

The Thermobility WPG-1 generator can produce a constant voltage output of 3.3, 4.1, or 5.0 Vdc to electrical loads of 15kΩ and up. The WPG-1 is available for testing for $495. When we might see gear on the market using the tech is unknown.

The jacket is called the M12 Heated Jacket and it runs on red lithium rechargeable batteries. A single battery is good for up to six hours of heat. The three heating zones are made from carbon fiber and will keep you toasty. The jacket is wind and water resistant as well.

It also has a three stage heat control along with pockets for your gadgets like a phone or MP3 player. The jacket is about $180 depending on the size you need and you can buy the thing in some local stores and at Amazon.

[via Uncrate]

While its name makes no sense – E stands for environment, and Cu, as you are no doubt aware, is the chemical symbol for copper – its main feature is very practical. Its copper case is designed to absorb heat from the environment. An integrated thermo-generator will then convert the heat into electrical energy that will be used to power the phone.

Hyland chose to make the back of the case look like dried earth, which looks nice I guess. What I’d like to know is if this is the optimum shape and form for the case, i.e. will this form maximize its heat-absorbing property? I honestly am not sure, because I’m no physicist. I’m just a guy with a fever, looking at something that could make his damn sickness useful.

[via Dezeen via Inhabitat]

Toshiba has recalled the Satellite T135, T135D, and ProT130 notebooks due to a burn risk. The machines apparently overheat near where the AC adapter connects to the notebook. Toshiba reports that it has had 129 complaints of the machines deforming in the AC adapter area.

Of those 129 complaints, two resulted in minor burns and two in minor property damage. Toshiba has a new firmware that will disconnect the AC adapter if it detects overheating and tell the user to get the rig fixed by Toshiba. I guess you just need to hope yours doesn’t burn the house down after the new update is applied.

[via CPSC]

She gets really grumpy if her coffee gets cold and she chugs a mouthful of the tepid brew. She needs this mug from the Art Lebedev Studio. You probably recognize the name from the much cooler products the design firm usually offers like the Optimus Maximus OLED keyboard.

This coffee cup has a battery outline on it that has a green temperature indicator. The temp gauge shows when a liquid inside is more than 96.8F. The fuller the cup, the higher the gauge goes. This might be a good thing, especially in my household. I could look at the cup from a distance and if the gauge were not showing, I would know not to talk to my wife for a while.

It’s not the quickest way to start a fire, and when you first fire it up it may seems like it’s not doing anything, but because it doesn’t use lighter fluid you’ll save a lot in the long run. That and your chicken barbecue won’t taste like lighter fluid anymore. Unless you actually put lighter fluid on it.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can order the Looftlighter at ThinkGeek for $80 (USD). I’d buy a low-powered version of this so I can use it for pranks.

[via Chip Chick]

I don’t know if the fluffy bunnies or the pooh bears are more insane. And even if they weren’t completely stupid looking, do your hands really ever get so cold that you can’t type and you need to wear hand warmers at the computer anyway? It’s certainly never happened to me, but then again, I don’t live in an igloo.

Both Bear and Rabbit USB Hand warmers are available from Gadget4all for $22.50 (USD) a pair. I dare you to bring these to work and wear them during a board meeting while you’re typing on your laptop. When the CEO asks WTF is going on with you, just tell him your hands were cold. I’m sure he’ll understand.

London UK-based Mathmos is getting set to release their new Fireflow lava lamps. The lights eliminate the need for electricity, instead substituting the heat of a simple tea light candle.

The Fireflow R1 and Fireflow O1 were designed by the same company that invented the original lava lamp over 45 years ago. The R1 looks like a tiny rocket ship, loaded up with bubbly goo that gradually morphs under the warm glow of candlelight.

The O1 features a modern design that floats a mouth-blown glass lava container several inches in the air above the flame.

Both versions are is available in a variety of fluorescent colors, as well as a sparkly glitter version, sans lava. You can also choose from a chrome or black metal finish. Burn time is rated at appx. 3 hours – or however long an average tea light glows.

Mathmos expects to ship the Fireflow lava lamps this Fall, with the Fireflow R1 selling for £29 (appx. $49 USD), and the Fireflow O1 priced at £35 (appx. $60 USD).

Thanks to this weird, wacky mouse pad from Japan’s Thanko, you can keep your chilly hand nice and warm while you crank out spreadsheets and surf the web. Just stick your hand inside the “mouth” of this oversize blue googley-eyed fish and an integral heating element keeps your fingers fiery hot (or maybe that’s its stomach acid dissolving your skin into a gelatinous goo).

Just plug the blue monster into a spare USB port, and it’ll reach a fiery 42° C (107.6° F) in about 10 minutes. I suppose it beats wearing ski gloves when you’re working on your PC.

You can get your hands on (or inside) one of these from USBGeek for $22.

What makes the Block Light really cool is the fact that you can rearrange the pieces into pretty much any configuration you’d like.

The kit comes with 219 small, 16 medium, and 4 large heat-resistant clear acrylic blocks which can hold up to the heat of a 40-watt lightbulb. Of course, if snapping all those blocks has you intimidated, you could always buy one of these giant LEGO block lamps instead.

Ready to build your own custom lamp? Head on over to RED5 and plunk down your £25 (appx. $45 USD) for the kit. Keep in mind that RED5 is located in the UK, which operates on 240-volt power, so you might need to swap out the plug and lightbulb for use in North America.

While it’s not quite as compact as Sam Fisher’s heat-vision goggles, this portable thermal imager goes one better by combining both a visible light digital image with an infrared one, producing single view that lets you get an immediate visual temperature map of whatever you aim it at.

Priced at about $7500, these Fluke thermal imagers are designed for heavy-duty industrial troubleshooting and safety applications, but they’re even better for telling you if the ice cream has thawed or if your mocha latte is cool enough to drink yet.

[via MAKE]

Leave it to the wacky gadget makers of Japan’s Thanko (the same guys who brought us other gems like these) to come up with these silly oversize red shoes, which keep your tootsies toasty when you plug them into your computer’s USB port.

What’s next? Heated booties for your flying reindeer?

[via 7Gadgets]