Category: GPS + Navigation

In long-awaited news, Israeli researchers at Ben-Gurion University have successfully taught goldfish how to steer a vehicle in order to reach a target and receive a treat, using a specially designed FOV (fish-operated vehicle). The future, ladies, and gentlemen – we’re finally here.

Unless you have a late model car with a factory heads-up display, the Navdy is definitely a device worth considering. It adds a heads-up display to any car, and is capable of displaying navigation and other useful information without you having to take your eyes off the road.

Back in 2009, we checked out a real-world version of the Weasley’s locating clock. Redditor tbornottb3 recently made his take on the time– er spacepiece, but instead of mechanical hands he used an LED strip. The clock is powered by the Particle Photon, which gets data from the smartphones of tbornottb3 and his relatives via the powerful app If This Then That.

Instructables employee DJ aka Aleator777 – the genius behind the Apple II and retro phone watches – recently promoted the Intel Edison by creating the Miniature Autonomous Blimp. This brainy balloon can stay afloat and avoid obstacles on its own.

Located in Hamburg, Germany, Miniatur Wunderland is the world’s largest model railway, occupying nearly 14,000 sq.ft. and inhabited by more than 200,000 Lilliputian citizens. Now we can check out its sights and details at our leisure, thanks to Google’s first ever mini-Street View.

While Amazon is figuring out how to airdrop Three Wolf Moon t-shirts, Chinese drone maker Ehang has its sights on a much bigger goal: delivering people. Behold: the Ehang 184, a “low-altitude aerial autonomous vehicle.” Ehang’s CEO Huazhi Hu was motivated to develop a passenger drone after two of his friends passed away in separate aircraft crashes.

Voice-guided navigation makes it a lot easier for drivers to follow directions for map applications. But a group of Electrical & Computer Engineering students from Cornell University have come up with a more intuitive solution. They created a hat-mounted navigation device that guides you by producing sound that appears to come from the direction of your destination.

A couple of weeks ago we checked out ETH Zurich Autonomous Systems Lab’s walking robot that had a drone launching pad. That combos nicely with one of the Lab’s latest projects: a similar pair working together to navigate unknown terrain.

If you want to make your own cellphone, you can source the parts yourself, or you can support Seeed Studio’s RePhone, a ready to assemble kit. The heart of the RePhone kit is the MediaTek MT2502A (pdf) system-on-a-chip, which gives you GSM, GPRS and Bluetooth connectivity in a stamp-sized form.

In 2012, the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) teamed up with Royal College of Art product design students to create functional and innovative chairs out of American hardwood. So Thomas Gottelier and Bobby Petersen made a boat.

Last March, the performing arts group Extant held a unique rendition of the novel Flatland. The installation was set in complete darkness inside a disused church. But the audience members were able to make their way around the set with the help of the Animotus, a haptic navigation device that points to the destination by changing its shape.

It’s rare that I get my hands on a gadget these days that lives up to my expectations, let alone exceeds them, but Yuneec did both with their incredible Typhoon Q500 4K drone. This is no toy quadcopter.

It is perhaps the most famous monster photo of all time. Appearing in England’s Daily Mail on April 21, 1934, it was snapped by London physician Robert Kenneth Wilson and became known as the “Surgeon’s Photograph.”

Lumoid is an online store that rents and sells consumer electronics, from prosumer cameras to the Google Glass. Recently the store opened up a new kind of service that’s solely for wearable devices. Lumoid can ship you up to five fitness or sleep trackers so you can try them out for a week.

What’s your dog’s name? “Viktor Erstmann von Drakenhoff IV?” That’s a bit much… oh, you call him “Vicky” for short. Still weird, but whatever. Has Vicky ever escaped from your yard? Have you ever wanted to spy on him from the comfort of your computer?

Pet locators are nothing new, but Eric Tsai’s homemade dog tracker not only tells him where his dog is, it can also tell him if and where it’s pooping. Or if it’s just sitting down somewhere.