High-Tech Pitfalls

New technologies can make our lives easier, but they can also distract, mesmerize and make you a couch potato. Here are a few ways to keep fit using the latest body conscious technologies.

Exergaming - Get Fit by Playing Your Favorite Video Games

Project Natal is Microsoft's Xbox 360 addition that allows full-body motion sensing, facial and voice recognition without hand-held controllers.

XR STATION is a video game console that burns calories and builds muscle with isometric resistance.

Dance Dance Revolution® (DDR) a popular arcade game, is now available at home. This game features a platform with four arrows: up, down, left, and right. Players move their feet to the instructions they receive on the machine.

EyeToy® technology (for PlayStation 2), features motion tracking, light-sensing technology and a built-in microphone to record and detect audio. It can function as a photo and video camera, snapping photos, recording video and placing players on the TV.

Guitar Hero® - Strap on your custom guitar shaped controller and find out how much energy it takes to be a rock star.

Wii® - Wii is a gaming system by Nintendo that can definitely keep you moving.

Labeling the Future

Nanotubes have slipped into my sunscreen with the stealthiness of a cloned kitten. The cheese I just ate, may have been a time-proven design by Mother Nature, or the newest version developed by a single father in Cleveland.

The FDA and the EFSA have reported that meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs and goats are just as safe as food from conventionally bred animals. I could not find a report from any government agency on the safety of nano-based products.

What do you think the odds are that you have eaten a byproduct of a cloned animal or applied nanoparticles to your skin? Check out some of the articles in the links below and your answer might change.

Question: Why are consumer products that use nano or bio technologies not clearly labeled?

Here are some possible answers. Please vote for your favorite or add one of your own.

Last update: 12/03/09

Articles and Links

Nanotechnology in Consumer Products

20 Questions on GM Foods

Printable Power

Solar cells convert light to electricity. Until now, solar cells have been developed mainly on glass, making them easily breakable and expensive.

Konarka Technologies, Inc. has developed organic photovoltaic cells on lower cost, lightweight, flexible plastic substrates rather than on glass.

Power Plastic®

Meet Nobel Prize Winners

This web site presents original video interviews of Nobel Laureates in physics and chemistry. Learn first hand of their achievements and what they could mean for the future. The site could be an inspiration to any student interested in physics or chemistry and the one minute video section was perfect for my limited knowledge and short attention span.

Honeywell Nobel Interactive Studio

Time to Invade Your Privacy

Designed with a built in voice recorder, an innocent looking wrist watch can secretly capture hours of conversation.

Spy Equipment

Inspired by Nature - Biomimetics

Nature is the ultimate engineer. Billions of years of
“natural R&D” have resulted in effective, optimized
biological solutions that really work. By studying and mimicking nature’s processes and structures, scientists and engineers can develop nature inspired
solutions that are far more effective than solutions conceived and developed exclusively by man.

This field of study is called biomimetics, which falls
into two distinct areas:

1) mimicking of natural creation of chemical compounds

2) imitating mechanisms found in nature.

Other examples of biomimetics:

Velcro® – inspired by seeds' clingy burrs
Low-friction ship hulls – inspired by shark skin
Morphing aircraft wings – inspired by bird wings
Temperature-adapting fabric – inspired by pinecone
Dirt and water-resistant paint – inspired by the lotus flower
Neuromorphic computer chips – inspired by neural networks

Source: Qualcomm