Roland’s new iModela 3D mill will hopefully change this, offering up users the chance to make their own 3D objects at home.

With the iModela, users can use it to mill 3D objects, by starting out with a block of material, the 3D mill will cut out the desirable shapes and objects. It works a little differently from 3D printers, which creates objects by putting layer upon layer of material until the desired shape is ‘printed’.

The mill has an advantage over conventional 3D printers, as the drill of the mill has the ability to move in 3 axes, allowing for a higher degree of precision. Objects will also come out much cleaner. The downside is that the mill can only cut objects from the top to the bottom, meaning that it’s impossible to create objects with void spaces in the middle.

The iModela is on the petit side, however, as it only has a milling area of about 8.6cm x 5.5cm x 2.6cm. This size should be sufficient for the hobbyist to create mini sculptures and small crafts. Hobbyists can enjoy milling out of materials such as wax, foam, balsa wood and plastics. The mill has a resolution of 0.01 cm, which means that its precision is enough to be able to carve out custom circuit boards and detailed wax molds for metal casting.

View a video here of the iModela in action.

Currently, the iModela sells for about US$900, which is supposedly cheaper than most 3D printers out there.

I really enjoy seeing these kind of works, where digital models get turned into physical ones. The price of the mill still seems quite steep, but I can almost envision 3D sculpted projects and items being sold on Etsy sometime in the near future.

Chances are, probably not. This is why Fujitsu has come up with this conceptual device, called the Lifebook, which is supposed to integrate all these portable devices into one laptop.

Prashant Chandra of Yanko Design is responsible for the design of the Lifebook, which said to run on the concept of “Shared Hardware”. The whole idea is to lessen the need for duplicate data, stored in separated devices. The processor on your tablet could help run your laptop, and the storage on another device can be used on the laptop.

With the integration of separate devices, the aim is to have the maximum potential from each gadget and avoid wastage, be it in processing, or memory, or even functionality.

The conceptual device has a detachable camera, a tablet used as a keyboard when attached to the laptop, and also a smartphone, as the main processor and storage of the laptop. All these gadgets are able to function together, as well as be removed and used as individual devices.

Developers claim a 2013 release, and details are still under wraps.

I think this is the perfect gadget for anyone, particularly those often on the move. I just hope that the developers are able to fully integrate all these devices and make them work together well enough as they have promised. This is truly the next generation in mobile devices!

Xpal Power (the company behind Energizer) has developed a mobile phone that is able to outlast most, if not all, of the battery life of the phones we are used to. Known as the SpareOne, it is said to be able to run up to fifteen years.

The SpareOne is able to run on just a single AA battery, and it is made to be used as an emergency phone, so I doubt we’ll bee seeing it run like our fancy smartphones today. I can foresee it as extremely useful for emergency situations, as the phone will transmit its location as well as its caller ID to the receiver.

It would be great as a backup phone, allowing you to make calls without having to worry about keeping your main phone charged up all the time. The phone is also said to have up to 10 hours of talk-time.

There are plenty of places to implement such a phone, especially for travelers to foreign countries, or adventurers who are in need of a handy backup.

The SpareOne will come equipped with Energizer® Ultimate Lithium AA battery and a Micro SIM card when it is available in the US in Q1 of 2012 for US$49.99. Different versions are set to be released for the US, Europe and Asia.

Recently, Kraft Foods is moving on new trend, with their vending machine that serves free samples, but only to adults.

Kraft’s new vending machines have facial recognition software, used to determine the age of the person utilising the vending machine. The machine only allows those over a certain age to have free samples of their new product, Temptations by Jell-O.

The product itself is designed specifically for adults, therefore requiring the need to use this kind of technology to dispense the free samples. If the sensor detects that a child is using the machine, it lights up with the words “Sorry, kid. You’re too young to experience indulgence like this. Please step away so the adults can get their free treat.” A bit mean on the kids, but the product is supposed to be for adults.

When the sensor detects an adult, they have to either text a code, or swipe a barcode with their smartphone, select one out of six flavours and they get their treat. The code is required to prevent people from taking more than one sample a day.

Vending machines are getting smarter each day, unlike the simple gumball machines of yesteryear. It does make me curious to try this ‘adult-only Jell-O’, and I can probably think of quite a number of other products that could use technology like this.

Sony has come up with a battery that does not run on fancy metals, instead, it runs on what is basically termite feed: paper and cardboard.

The company has been refining the technology for years now, and how the battery works is simple. The battery itself consists on a thin sheet of material known as a “bio-battery”. Enzymes are used to break down sugar and turn it into ions and electrons, creating an electric current. These bio-batteries can run on pretty much all kinds of things, including soda and fruit juice. (I’m sure you’ve all heard of potato and lemon batteries)

The problem with that is, rather than use these things as a battery, we tend to eat them.

Sony has come up with their idea of using cardboard as a power source, by adding another enzyme into the mix, that is able to break down cellulose into sugar. All that is needed to work this battery is cardboard, soaked in water and the enzymes. There are two enzymes needed, the first is to break down the cellulose of the cardboard into sugar, and the second is used to produce the electricity.

Currently the battery is said to produce enough electricity to power an MP3 player, which is pretty impressive. I wonder if this kind of battery can be further improved upon. Maybe one day it will be used to replace the batteries we use today.

Now, with enough funding, this glass keyboard and mouse design will be coming to you through this Kickstarter page.

The glass keyboard and mouse concepts are designed by Jason Giddings, an apparently they are fully functional devices. The keyboard and mouse works on a very simple principle which makes it able to function as a multi-touch surface as well.

How the devices work is with the use of an infrared LED light that shines through a strip of tempered glass that acts like a light pipe. What this means is that the light is reflected and bounces back and forth within the interior of the glass.

When a finger is placed on the glass the infrared light gets scattered, and with an infrared camera below the surface of the glass picks up this scattering. This is the way the keyboard knows where you are pressing on the glass surface. As long as there is enough light scattering, you can touch as many spots as you like. It is also able to pick up hand gestures as well.

The devices are wireless and rechargeable, and there are comfy wrist rests and bases made of solid metal. Mood lighting and tactile sounds are included, and the key layout can be changed with a software tweak and keyboard sticker.

There is no prototype of the device yet, which is worrisome, not to mention that once funding is achieved (which it is) Kickstarter is no longer directly involved. There’s only a couple of weeks left to go, so if you wish to get these futuristic-looking devices, all you need to do is pledge $150 for just the mouse, $250 for the keyboard and $300 for both the keyboard and the mouse.

I really do like devices like this, and hopefully one day they will become mainstream enough that everyone would be able to use them. In the meantime though, I think I’ll just stick to my run-of-the-mill keyboard and mouse.

Washington State University engineers are the brains behind the idea, and they say that the bone-like material is added to damaged or diseased bones, where it acts as a scaffold for new bone growth. This material is said to be able to dissolve with “no apparent side-effects”.

The group utilised a ProMetal 3D printer to create whatever bone structure they need, with the bone-like ceramic powder as a feed material. The powder material is held together by a plastic binder sprayed in layers half as thick as a human hair. The idea has of course gone through rigorous research and development, having been through four years of development just to make the right bone-like material.

Watch a video of how the the bone-like material is created here.

Tests have been done using immature foetal bone cells, and it in fact is able to support bone growth, as new bone cells started to grow over the scaffold in the fist week it was attached. Promising results have also come from tests with live rabbits and rats.

This sounds like some very promising medical technology, especially with the use of a 3D printer to create bone. There have been plenty of developments regarding the usage of 3D printers in creating just about anything you can think of, from food and now to bone. The only downside I see is the pricetag of one of these printers. If only they were more affordable to buy and use!

Researchers at the University of Washington and Finland’s Aalto University have developed a prototype, and recently they have sucessfully tested this lens on rabbits that have undergone anesthesia.

The want to show information overlaid on real-world objects has long since existed, with the creation of apps like Wikitude, and other similar smartphone apps. Now apply this to a display that sends info directly to your eyeballs and imagine all the possibilities.

Were this technology to be applied in such uses as augmented reality, the whole world might look like a very different place. Eventually, perhaps this projected display on contact lenses may one day replace all the other screens we look at.

Check out the video on how these lenses are produced.

Researchers believe that in the future, the contact lenses may be able to receive data from an external source, for example your mobile phone, so that you can be notified in real-time of important events. With more colours and increased resolution, the lenses may be able to display text, be used with gaming devices or display navigation cues.Imagine being able to read emails on your contacts.

Of course, such advanced technology doesn’t quite exist yet, as the prototype is just able to display only one pixel’s worth of data. Some other challenges would be to be able to attach an antenna and a power source to something as small and thin as a contact lens, without obstructing vision of course. In the end, they agreed on an antenna that circles around the edge of the contact lens.

I, for one, am very interested to see how far this kind of technology can go. It truly sounds like science-fiction turned science fact, but then again, isn’t that where a lot of our modern technology comes from?

Sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie? Maybe not, with this computer chip that is able to mimic the human brain’s ability to learn new tasks.

Researchers at MIT have unveiled a chip that can do what us human brains can do, with our brains neurons being able to adapt to new information (known as the neuroplasticity). The researchers believe that this chip will be able to help neuroscientists learn more about how the brain works, like learning and memory.

The chip is able to simulate brain activity of a single synapse, a connection between two neurons that allow for information to flow to each other, through its 400 transistors.

Not only is the chip anticipated to let us learn more about how the brain works, it could also potentially be used in artificial prosthetic devices, such as artificial retinas. Imagine that one day this technology could restore proper sight to the blind.

The chip works in analog, simulating the brain, which means that the system could work much faster than digital computers. Even on high-end computer systems, simulating a simple brain function takes days. As with an analog chip, the simulation can go even faster than its biological counterpart.

I think this is the breakthrough that people have been waiting for. It looks to be able to shed more light on how our brains work. Perhaps even create an ‘artificial’ brain that can download data. I certainly wouldn’t be too surprised if it happens one day!

To solve this problem of glare, Nippon Electric Glass Co Ltd has developed an “invisible glass” that exhibited last month at the FPD International 2011.

Most users of digital handheld devices, such as smartphones, surely have experienced glare on their phones, especially when using these devices under strong light. With the “invisible glass” the company has been able to reduce the reflection of light, so much so that light can hardly be seen on the glass substrate.

About 92% of light passes right through normal glass, which means that a good 8% of light is reflected. The “invisible glass” substrate is able to allow for 99.5% of light to pass through, making only about 0.5% of light reflect off of it. That is a significant drop, so much so that the glass looks nonexistent.

Normal glass substrate to the left, “Invisible glass” on the right

To reduce the reflection of light, the company formed an anti-reflection film on both the front and back sides of the glass substrate. A total of 30 or more layers of anti-reflection film was layered in increments of nanometers on the pane of glass.

People who saw the “invisible glass” at the exhibit expressed surprise at the seemingly non-existent piece of glass.

This is some really interesting technology, especially for handheld electronic devices. Then I don’t have to worry about angling my smartphone just right so I don’t catch any glares, especially walking under sunlight, or bright lights. I just hope that they won’t start putting this “invisible glass” on doors, or I’ll definitely end up walking right into one of them!