But then, came the PumpTire.

The PumpTire is a revolutionary design by Benjamin Krempel that’s currently up for funding on Kickstarter. The tire actually employs a mechanism that pumps your bike tires as you pedal and move along, ensuring that you will never have a flat tire or ever have to manually pump some air into your tires – if all goes well, that is.

The PumpTire is fitted with a valve and a special inner tube that work hand-in-hand to determine if your tires are full or if they could still use a pump or two of air. As you can see from the video clip, Krempel already has a working prototype of the PumpTire, and just needs funds to ramp up production.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Krempel has listed the goal for his project as $250,000 (USD). The project has managed to raise around $9,000 as of now, so it seems that the group is still a long way off from reaching their goal. If you want to help out, you can make a pledge on PumpTire’s Kickstarter page. A $75 pledge will get you a pair of PumpTires, along with innertubes and pressure control valves, assuming the project reaches its funding goal.

[via TDW Geeks via Dvice]

The whole dress is then connected to a pumping backpack which precisely times the movement of the fluids – resulting in an amazing lightshow. But enough of my yakkin’. Watch, and be mesmerized…

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Trippy, no? Now all he has to do is figure out a way to make it truly portable, and he’d be able to sell thousands of these for rave-goers.

[Vimeo via Boing Boing]

This kind of reminds me of the movie Abyss for some reason. The ROV submarine uses four 500gph and two 1,250gph bilge pumps. The bigger ones are used for propulsion while the smaller ones are used to dive and surface.

It’s got lights and naturally a functioning camera, which lets Jason guide it into the depths. Jason actually designed some non-explosive torpedoes as well. Sweet. Incredibly, all of the parts needed to build this sub are available at any home improvement store.

He’s got an meticulously detailed guide on how to create your own. Here’s a link to the basic how-to pdf file he created to start off with this build.

[Hack a Day via Make:]

Created for BarBot 2010 (which we reported on yesterday), EMSL’s descriptively-named Drink Making Unit is a digitally-controlled bartender. After initial false starts using ketchup bottles and servo motors, the EMSL guys decided on a simpler solution for cranking out drinks – breast pumps. Specifically, the Evenflo Comfort Select Performance. There’s nothing comfortable looking about that thing, and I’m not a woman.

With a little modification of the suction pumps, some stainless and flexible plastic tubing, and some carafes, the mechanism was complete.  They then set up a custom-programmed Meggy Jr RGB unit to act as the drink controller.

A couple of flicks of the buttons – a squirt of vodka here, a drip of Kahlua there, and big a pump of cream, the deafening roar of breast milk pumps, and a couple of minutes of your time… One White Russian without humans. Except for the ones who had to design and build this contraption, buy and load the ingredients, and press the buttons.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Now all I need is a cocktail drinking robot and I’ll be all set.

The Playpump, to quote gizmag, is “essentially a windmill on its side, driven by children, not wind.” The Playpump is installed near schools so it also serves as a roundabout that children can play with. It can gather up to 1,400 liters of water per hour at 16 rpm from a depth of 40m, and it’s good for up to 100m. In between the pump and the faucet is a tank, meaning children can play on the pump for a while without wasting water.

Some of you might be thinking that it’s unfair for the children to work for their community’s supply, but it’s actually not that simple. First of all, without the Playpump, these children would still work to fetch water. Some have to travel quite a distance to get water, and all of their bodies are strained by their heavy load. So spinning on a pump is really nothing compared to the alternative.

Second, some schools don’t even have a playground for these children, so it’s a good way for children to have fun and yet help their families at the same time. And obviously adults can always step in to help with the pumping.

The Playpump is driven by ads that are placed on the water tank. The ads also pay for the maintenance of the pump. But Playpumps International knows that it will take more than the ad-revenue to achieve their dream of bringing clean water to 10 million people by next year, so they’re asking for donations. The bottled water you see above is coming out in the US this spring; 100% of the Love One water’s proceeds will be used to fund Playpumps.

Spread the word or donate if you can.

Just strap your Wii-mote and Nunchuk controllers into these inflatable gloves, pump them up with air, and you’re ready to duke it out with your favorite boxing game. Regardless of the extra padding the cushion of air might provide, I don’t recommend that you punch your $2000 plasma screen with these.

If you don’t mind looking a bit silly while you play a little Hajime no Ippo Revolution, you can pick up a pair of the gloves for just under 15 bucks here.

The Dresser Wayne Ovation