A light-powered toothbrush?

Would you like to use a light-powered toothbrush which needs no toothpaste and no batteries? It’s already available in Japan and North America and it costs about $30. Its rod contains titanium dioxide that generates a plaque-removing electrochemical reaction. This ’solar’ toothbrush of the future ‘works by releasing electrons that then react with the saliva in the mouth and help to breakdown plaque.’ It just needs some light — so you’ll be able to wash your teeth in your garden or on your balcony. And as it has no batteries, this is a very eco-friendly device. It is currently tested today by 120 students at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, but it’s already available online.

You can see above how the light-powered Soladey toothbrush works. (Credit: Soladey-USA, on this page Here is a link to an ebven better graphical explanation from the New York Times. And you also might want to look at this short TV Commercial about this toothbrush.

Here are some more details provided by the Cosmetics Design Europe article. “The toothbrush is powered by light. When light hits the solar panel in the handle of the toothbrush electrons are released and delivered to the semiconductor head (titanium dioxide), explains the manufacturer. In addition, when light strikes the wet titanium dioxide head more electrons are released, which form a negatively charged fluid inside the mouth that can remove hydrogen ions from the plaque making it easier to break down, says the manufacturer. The toothbrush, therefore, cannot work in the dark. However, it takes the same amount of light as a solar-powered calculator, so that if the user can see their reflection in the mirror there is enough light to operate the brush.”

In “New brush could make toothpaste obsolete“, Janet French from CanWest News Service added that “University of Saskatchewan dentistry professor emeritus Dr. Kunio Komiyama and his colleague Dr. Gerry Uswak are recruiting 120 teens willing to brush with a prototype light-powered toothbrush and sit in a dentist’s chair for a few extra inspections.” So far Komiyama saw a complete destruction of bacterial cells.

And in “Brushing Innovations, Built on Titanium,” Joyce Cohen, from the New York Times, provides additional technical details. “The brush, available at soladey-usa.com, relies on a property of titanium dioxide. It is photocatalytic, meaning that it causes chemical reactions in the presence of light. Light shining on the titanium dioxide rod in the brush’s handle generates negatively charged electrons, which steal positively charged ions from dental plaque, causing oxidation. Brushing creates a slurry of negatively charged saliva, which attracts and decomposes plaque.”

According to the New york Times, Donald C. Selmarten, a senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, thinks that the concept makes sense, but “has questions about the details — whether the wavelength of visible light is high enough to drive the reaction inside a dark mouth, and whether the resulting positive charge will actually remove plaque.”

This toothbrush is manufactured by Shiken Corporation of Osaka, Japan (page in Japanese) and available in North America from Soladey USA. And here are two questions you might ask about this toothbrush which are already answered in the Soladey FAQ section.Here is one: “Can Soladey be used with or without toothpaste? Yes, the ionic power of Soladey works with or without toothpaste. If you do want to use toothpaste, just make sure it doesn’t go all down the handle, blocking the light from getting to the light-sensitive rod. A strong light source is what makes Soladey most effective. If you wish to freshen your mouth we recommend using a natural mint rinse after brushing.”

But here is my preferred one. “Will any light source do? I’m not going to have to go outside to clean my teeth, am I? No, any light source will work, a fluorescent bathroom light, or a plain light bulb will do fine. Any natural or artificial light is all that’s needed. However, the better the light source is, and the more the titanium rod is in the light, the more effective Soladey is. Perfect your brushing habits by keeping the Titanium Rod in bright light as much as possible.’

Sources: Katie Bird, Cosmetics Design Europe, November 23, 2007; and various websites
Extracted from ZDnet blog

LifeSize unveils low-cost HD video-conferencing solutions

LifeSize Communications was the first company to release an HD conferencing solution which I covered at Interop Las Vegas spring 2005. Now at Interop fall 2007 in New York, it appears that LifeSize has again rocked the video conferencing world by releasing 720p HD products at half the price of competing 720p solutions. The LifeSize Express sells for less than $6K and is cheaper than many standard definition video conferencing solutions. The new LifeSize Telepresence solution can be built for a quarter of the cost of competing Video Telepresence solutions.

Pictured to the left is the newest low-cost LifeSize Express 720p HD video conferencing solution. It will ship tomorrow on 10/23/2007 and it has an MSRP of $5,999 which is nearly half the price of competing 720p HD conferencing solutions on the market. The LifeSize Express has dual-input capability and it has HDMI input and output which carries audio. The 720p codec in this model is limited to 1.5 mbps. The $5,999 price comes with microphone, remote, and camera.





Pictured above is the back of the LifeSize Express. At this time the HDMI ports which carry digital audio and video capability don’t have HDCP compatibility which means you won’t be able to input commercial HD DVD or Blu-ray video in to the system since they require HDCP copy protection. At this point in time that wasn’t really a priority and no other product on the market has HDCP protection either nor do they have the convenience of HDMI ports.

Pictured left is the new LifeSize Team MP product which ships tomorrow on 10/23/2007. It has an MSRP of $8,999 and it adds 4-way continuous presence multipoint capability and supports up to 2.5 mbps. At under $9000 the Team MP is about the same price as some competing standard definition video conferencing solutions. Like the Express system it also supports a single camera and single display.







Pictured left is the LifeSize Room system which has been the flagship product for LifeSize for a year. It supports up to 6-way continuous presence multipoint, VAS (Voice Activated Switching), and up to 5 mbps. This model supports dual camera and dual screen. Seen in the picture is a LifeSize IP phone which is powered by standard RJ45 802.3af POE (Power Over Ethernet) port. The smaller microphones shown with the LifeSize Express and Team MP are analog microphones that go in to the microphone jack.

Pictured above is the new LifeSize Conference solution which is essentially a “Telepresence” solution without the display and furniture. The solution is essentially two LifeSize Team MPs and one LifeSize Room system bound together by a controller. It is extremely disruptive to the Telepresence market space because it sells for an MSRP of $39,999 when competing Telepresence solutions sell for $200K which includes the furniture and displays.Since you can buy three 52″ flat panel LCD displays for $6K and some pretty nice custom furniture and video studio lighting for $14K which means you can build a LifeSize Telepresence solution for about $60K. As LifeSize CEO Craig Malloy explained it to me in a telephone conference today, you can build a house in Texas with the remaining $140K. In the

picture above you’re probably looking at $2000 of furniture and wall mounts and I can’t see why you would need anything more than this other than a brightly lit room which produces a much better picture quality. This gets you the same video Telepresence quality of systems costing 4 times more money.

Source:
ZDnet blogs

PS3 Grill

"When the final case design of the Playstation 3 was released, it was widely critsised as looking exactly like a George Foreman Grill ... we decided this would be a great project and challenge to actually build the Real PS3 Grill."
I don't know why but somehow somewhere few people have managed to grill sausages and steaks with Sony's $500 toy!

They are still working on the complete product and also accepting donations from people who eager to help them out. They explain the reason as:

"After much support and advice from the X-S forums we decided to dedicate a site to update everyone about The Real PS3 grill. The main reason of building this grill, apart from the fame and glory (Id like to think so lol :) is to make everyone laugh and make those damn Sony fanboys angry!! "

Well these people must have enough money and time to mess with $500 thing! but not everyone. They're also accepting paypal donations on their website and expecting people to donate them for their project who hate PS3!

Visit the PS3Grill site: http://www.therealps3grill.com

iPhone Torture Tests -- Will it Survive?

Can you scratch it? What happens when you drop it? PC World's Eric Butterfield takes the iPhone through a grueling set of tests to check how the device handles abuse.

USB to SATA/IDE Magic Bridge

Tired of connecting and disconnecting Hard disk with ur PC? or you want to connect ur PC Hard disk to Laptop? Here is solution for those who have habit, need or profession of connecting/disconnecting hard disks to their systems without hassle of system restart and plugging/unpluggng SATA/IDE cable.

Magic bridge supports most types of ATA/ATAPI /SATA interface devices such as 2.5” HDD, 3.5” HDD and CD-ROM, CD R/W, DVD ROM and DVD R/W devices. and its plug and play


Price : Rs 1800/-

Availability in Pakistan:
Karachi : Galaxy Computers Technocity GC-07 09 Techno City Altaf Hussain Road
Lahore : Galaxy Computers 29, 2/F Hafeez Centre Main Blvrd Gulberg III

Asustek Released Mainboard with Built-In DDR3 Memory Modules

Even though DDR3 memory technology offers some promises for higher performance, it is still not available widely, which is why Asustek Computer, the world’s largest producer of computer mainboards, decided to offer its customers a motherboard with pre-installed DDR3 modules and specifically tailored heat-spreaders.

The P5K3 Premium/WiFi-AP mainboard itself is based on Intel P35 chipset and supports a variety of LGA775 form-factor processors, including Intel Core 2 Extreme, Intel Core 2 Quad, Intel Core 2 Duo as well as future chips with 1333MHz processor system bus. The board support ATI CrossFire multi-GPU technology, sports a number of modern technologies for tweaking and overclocking as well as built-in wireless network controller that can function both as access point or wireless client mode.

The manufacturer suggested retail price of the novelty has not yet been announced.

source: neowin

USB fridge

This USB Fridge is the only way to keep your drink cold while you're at your computer and it looks cool on any desktop. You can keep your beverage chilled and stay at your computer longer. Just minutes after plugging in the USB Fridge the cold plater chills to the perfect temperature for helping keep your beverage cool. It takes 5 minutes to bring the fridge down to 8 degrees centigrade (47 degrees Fahrenheit). Its installed easily, plug and play, no driver required.

It is ideal for free roamers with laptops that want their drinks to be kept cool every time they need it

Dimensions: 19.5 x 9 x 8cm

Weight :365gm

Buynow and source: USBGeek

3D T-Qualiser - Display of yourself!

Making display of your self in a party has never been easier, now its more fun to standout in the crowd with this equalizer display T-shirt.

The black t-shirts sport a slim, bright, electro-luminescent design in the shape of a 3D graphic equaliser display. Just like the T-Qualizer they have a built in controller box which incorporates a wide sensitivity sensor - so when the music plays, the lights start to dance - and so will you presumably. Whether you're in a club, a bar, at a festival, or just leaping around the living room, the lights will flash up and down your shirt as the music pumps away. It's kind of crazy, a little bit funky, and dare we say it, achingly cool. The T's come in small, medium, largeand extra-large sizes and the battery pack is detachable, so after a night of sweaty leaping about looking like the most interesting person in the room, you can hand-wash the beer and sweat of adoring fans from your shirt.

Features:
>Black cotton t-shirt with a sound activated 3D illuminating panel.
>Lights flash in time to surrounding beats.
>An advanced controller box with a wide sound sensitivity sensor.
>The 3D illuminating panel is powered by a detachable battery pack.
>The battery pack has an on/off switch so you can choose when you do and don't want to flash (as it were).
>The battery pack can be unplugged for washing the t-shirt.The t-shirt is hand wash only.
The T-Qualizer is available in small, medium, largeand extra large.
Requires 4 x AAA Batteries (not included).

Buynow and source: iwantoneofthose.com