Techalyzer

The Star Trek Trilogy has been around for at least fifteen years and in that time we have seen a load of changes in technology – a lot of it seemingly influenced by that television show whether it is on purpose or not.  Gene Roddenberry was a genius who inspired all kinds of visionaries to come up with the innovations we enjoy today.

Nowadays it is not unusual to see every day gadgets inspired by the entire marketing universe to do with the original Star Trek.  It is fabulous when fiction comes to life.

There has also been The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Vogager and Enterprise in the mythological lineage. In these shows you see things like the sleek laptops we see today and rather familiar looking remote control designs that are quite familiar to most of us with cable television’s these days. Day  These series and their accompanying feature films have also inspired films with even more unique technology in them such as The Matrix, Star Wars and Resident Evil.  Minority Report is also a spectacular example of a film that finds its origins in Star Trek type gadget mythology and that has had an influence on today’s gadgetry too.

Everybody knows all about the transporters that look like today’s cell phones and the food creators that seem like today’s vending machines or microwaves but as time marched on the creators of the Star Trek film franchise had to make up more and more interesting gadgets. The team behind the new Star Trek film that just came up is led by producer J.J.Abrams. and includes Scott Chamblis and Russell Bobbitt. They needed to create a whole bunch of new Star Trek style gadgets that were not so trapped in the past and yet were credible to being part of the twenty third century.  Yet at the same time they had to be very human friendly and identifiable as the original props from the original Star Trek series and films.

One Star Trek device that was freshened up to look more like a Nokia style flip phone.  The phaser, which can stun, kill or vaporise is now made out of chrome and don’t have the revolving lighted barrel that you saw the original series.  The tricorder, which is supposed to scan people and environments for their chemical composition is smaller.

Toy replicas of each of these three iconic updated props are currently for sale by Vivid Imaginations and are sure to be enjoyed by both adults and kids alike all over the world.

It’s business as usual but not business as typical when it comes to gadgets for the business man who wants to be high tech. One of the greatest and newest innovations is the sound bug. Sound bugs make your speakers out of date. They allow you to turn your table or windows into a loud speaker. The Sound Bug is made by a company called Hi-Tech Solutions.The produt has an amplifier and automatic gain control that also eliminates noise position.

Yet another great hi tech invention for businessmen ( and also professors, students and journalists who need to take notes) is the e-Pen. This pen uses a regular ink refill but has a small transmitter at its head that communicates the strokes to the computer.

Students, professors and journalists, who need to take notes and memos often can now go digital with the e-Pen. This uses a regular refill but has a small transmitter that commuciates strokes to a computer.

This helps you transfer the written word to acomputer instantly. You clip it to a pad and it integrates seamlessly over LAN, e-mail and instant messaging. It also has a flash memory that can store up to fifty A4 size pages. The device is powered by two AAA size batteries and is cheap to operate.

Another amazing devices is called the Light Keyboard. This is a mini-projector that is made of light. The cigarette lighter shaped device projects a full-size keyboard onto any flat surface. It can be used with a PC, PDA or bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. You will feel just like a mad scientist from the future using this device. It is very, very cool. The only drawback is you need to dim the lights to use it.

Other gadgets include scanners Docu Scanpen and Port-a-scan. Docu Scanpen features optical character recognition imaging software, which conveniently converts graphics into image files. This means you can make a presentation out of practically anything. You can open a book and just lift the image right out of it and project it using your screen.

Yet another great invention is the Bizcard finder . It offers a special algorithm for Indian cards, developed indigenously by the company’s software engineers. “This enables the user to organise cards by designation and pin codes.

All of the inventions mentioned above are made by Hi-Tech Solutions. This company is backed by the ADS Group, whose revenue was around fourmillion last year. The company has already sold a few thousand units of its new products and all of them are good news for the businessman who wants to be a sleek and professional as James Bond.

We don’t see a lot of robots here in North America but in Japan there is a little gadget that has become almost a member of the family. This is called the Banryu Homer Robot. This robot made by tmsuk Co., LTD., (pronounced “temzack”) has actually been around since 2002 and surely but subtly making its way into the daily existence of many homes. It is a piece of very sophisticated technology that makes you really feel like mankind has entered a century where the robots have developed a real logic and intelligence and are slaves to mankind.

This nifty robot is manufactured by a small robotics firm Kitakyushu (Fukuoka Pref. Japan) and SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. Headquartered in Moriguchi, Osaka. The finalized version of their home-robot Banryu has been in existence for a quite a long time. It was first invented in 2001 when a limited edition of fifty of the little electric critters were tried out in experimental families.

The robots name translates in Japanese to mean “guard dragon” which also translates to mean guard dog. It looks like an ancient reptile but with futureistic design elements. Initially in only moved about three meters a minute but now it moves about fifteen meters a minute even when it is in confined spaces.

The great thing is that this little robot also can jump over gaps that are as big as ten centimeters. It has sensors on its legs to sense height so that it does not get stuck turning in one place or spin out if it happens to hit a gap in the floor.

The mythology behind it certainly is as solid as its technology. Dragons are lucky in Japan and considered protective. They are also known as Fu Dogs.

Furthermore this electronic Fu Cog can smell. The robot also holds onboard a completely new “odor-sensor” developed jointly by tmsuk, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, and New Cosmos Electric Co., LTD. The developers believe that this is one of the first devices that can sense a particular smell.

With the sensor the robot will be able to detect “burnt scent” which is known to occur in the atmosphere preceding a fire. It can also detect odors like kitty litter. The robot is aimed to be used for several purposes including home-security.

The company tmsuk was responsible for the design and development of the robot and its mechanism. SANYO provided batteries and power train, voice/sound recognition technology and cosmetic design. SANYO is also to manufacture the products at the post pre-marketing stage.

This robot has become a member of the household in many Japanese homes as it has the ability to do many chores.