Creating cool new gadgets is nothing new for inventor Jem Stansfield.
Wearing a contraption made from vacuum cleaners, wooden panels, hoses and latex rubber, he crawled 120 ft up the side of a building in London.
During a science festival he used the same gear to climb a high school to the disbelief of onlookers who witnessed the feat.
"I couldn't believe that it actually worked and was shocked to see him ascending the wall," said festival organizer Richard Robinson.
"I came across the idea for the vacuum cleaners when I was doing a challenge to make superhuman powers out of junk," says Jem, an aeronautics scientist.
Making strange inventions is not unusual for the 39 year-old. When companies need weird inventions, they turn to Jem to make them.
He has created special effects for movies (Lost in Space and Van Helsing) and special exhibits for Science Museums.
He is credited with inventing the first air-powered motorcycle and has won the New Scientist Award for inventing boots that walk on water.
Jem is a co-host on BBC's popular science show Bang Goes The Theory, a television series that airs from a high-tech studio located in a disused supersonic wind tunnel.
The British scientist creates his innovations to inspire science students to think outside the box.
"Jem's ingenuity is mind-boggling" says Liz Bonnin of Bang Goes the Theory.
What's next for Stansfield?
He plans to drive a car powered by coffee beans.
Sources: bbc.co.uk/bang;telegraph.co.uk
Talking With Your Appliances
One of the cool new gadgets to hit the market is a touchscreen device that allows you to communicate with anything consuming energy in your home.
Inventor Seth Frader-Thompson's new invention has been named one of the "best new gadgets" and "breakthrough ideas of the year" by Time Magazine.
The EnergyHub Dashboard is a device that allows you to wirelessly communicate with all your appliances.
The touch screen device receives wireless information from "plug-ins" in your electrical sockets and provides details of usage for every energy consuming product in the home - everything from your furnace and air conditioner to a specific light bulb, cell phone or alarm clock.
It even tracks leak current (the power used by devices that are plugged-in but not being used).
Although many of us are motivated to reduce our carbon footprint and power consumption by changing our lights or upgrading to Energy Star appliances, this doesn't tell us exactly what's happening with consumption.
Our utility bills give us total power usage but nothing about what would happen if our thermostat was reduced by a few degrees or if a specific appliance was replaced, shut-off or used on a certain schedule.
The EnergHub provides this type of information and allows you to control and schedule the energy usage of anything in the home.
Source: energyhub.net
Wireless Electricity
RCA has developed a prototype of a cool new gadget capable of producing wireless electricity from radio frequencies in the air.
According to a company spokesman at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the device recharged a Blackberry from a 30% battery charge to full charge within 90 minutes.
The handheld wireless device (Airnergy) uses an antenna to absorb energy from frequencies and convert them into DC power inside its casing.
The gadget is then connected via a USB port to charge your cell phone or mobile internet device.
Airnergy charges itself 24/7.
This cool new gadget is expected to be available later this year.
Source: youtube.com/watch?v=IMMbihbeIls
Vibrations Relieve Pain
An orthapeodic surgeon has invented a cool new gadget for relieving lateral epicondylitis - commonly known as tennis elbow.
Vibration therapy has proven to be the most effective method for treating tennis elbow as supported by research published in medical literature.
However, the treatment has required large and expensive equipment which is only available in hospitals.
Dr. Vhadra has created a portable, strap-on device that can generate the same low frequency vibrations generated in much larger machines used for treating lateral epicondylitis.
The device, known as Tenease, stimulates blood flow to an afflicted area, which stops pain and promotes healing.
Tenease has been rigorously tested and awarded approval as a medical invention by the MHRA (Medicines and Healhcare Products Regulatory Authority), a government regulatory agency of the U.K. Department of Health.
Source: /tenease.com
No Battery Remote
The battery-less remote control is a cool new gadget in energy-saving technology.
This remote control uses an electromagnetic induction coil and rotation gears to generate current.
The signal is transmitted a distance of several meters using infrared light. The current is activated by squeezing a trigger which in turn makes the remote functional.
Source: smk.co.jp
Voice Stick
Invented by Sungwoo Park, this cool new gadget is a portable scanning device that reads printed text and converts it into a voice.
The Voice Stick can read any written document such newspapers, books and mail.
It was the Gold Medal winner at the International Design Excellence Awards for new inventions.
Source: International Design Excellence Awards
