High-Tech Tools for Daily Living

By Carol Johnson

As the population grows, the world gets smaller, and the population’s craving for innovative technology increases. Scientists the world over are researching a wide variety of small electronic devices—some even wearable—to make life easier. Portable computers, iPods, cell phones, DVD players, and other electronic gadgets have become a standard fixture of many people’s lives. And the next greatest things in high-tech gadgetry are just around the corner.

Joe Hynek, a mechanical engineering doctoral candidate at Iowa State University, has developed a product that will be welcomed the world over by people who carry more than one personal electronic device. The Solarjo Power Purse has solar panels on the exterior that harness the sun’s rays into batteries inside the purse. The batteries can then be used to charge electronic devices such as iPods and cell phones using the USB port inside the bag.

Hynek hopes to cut the AC adapter umbilical cord and make it easier for people on the go to recharge while staying on the go. "I’m hoping to get it made for under $300," Hynek says. "The wires are all enclosed. The shape of it is designed so it can sit on a windowsill and charge while you’re at work." Mark Bryden, an associate professor at Iowa State, suggested a philanthropic use for the purse as well. Solar-paneled products such as the Solarjo could assist in disaster relief when no power sources are available.

University of Pennsylvania biology professor Larry Rome developed submersible technology for the U.S. military as a civilian contractor. While working with soldiers, he was asked to design a plan for overhauling their backpacks, which are sometimes loaded with heavy electronic equipment. "Soldiers go into the field with 80-pound backpacks carrying portable electronics," Rome says. "If they run out of batteries for their GPS in the middle of the Afghan mountains, they can't go to the local drugstore to get more. They have to choose between carrying food or medical supplies and batteries."

Rome has designed what he calls a "suspended load backpack," built on a metal frame with springs. The springs convert the mechanical movements of the soldier walking into enough electricity to power a generator that weighs just 1 pound—replacing the 20 pounds of batteries a soldier would normally have to carry. "Hearing how people couldn't communicate (during January's tsunami in Indonesia) because their satellite phones went dead, I realized this could give emergency responders electric independence," Rome says. The backpack currently weighs about 15 pounds, but Rome is working to reduce that to 6 or 7.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab is always coming up with terrific new inventions and ideas, and one of their latest is a real eye-opener. Alex Pentland, founder of the wearable computing department (yes, that’s really what it’s called) says that his lab’s Memory Glasses operate just like a personal digital assistant. They factor in the user’s location at all times and keep track of information that would usually require a pad in your pocket. They look just like regular glasses, but they create a profile of the person wearing them and provide situation-appropriate hints when called upon, such as when to pick up your dry cleaning, what to pick up at the grocery store, or a reminder of someone’s name when you meet them for the second time.

Pentland says the glasses probably won’t cost any more than the price of designer glasses. They have a small screen within the lenses and a mini-computer inside the frame. After the user enters background information into the computer, the software running on the computer flashes subliminal hints on the screen inside the lenses. Almost as good as whispering hints into your ear, and after wearing them for a little while you won’t even be aware of the glasses jogging your memory. Just be sure to keep an eye on them at all times if you take them off. You wouldn’t want your coworkers to enter information in them and brainwash you while you’re driving to work so they can show you up in staff meetings!