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Rochester Cloak: Harry Potter’s invisibility cloack might soon be a reality
SwannOne Is the One Smart Home Smartphone App to Rule Them All
Eko Turns Regular Stethoscopes Into Smart Ones

Rochester Cloak: Harry Potter’s invisibility cloack might soon be a reality

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 06:00 AM PDT

What looks like magic to us might soon be a normal occurrence thanks to science, and seems invisibility might be the next big thing we’ll achieve.

Meet the Rochester Cloak, a “Cloak of Invisibility” of sorts developed by a group of researchers from the University of Rochester. What it does is completely hide objects from view. The weird thing about it, though, is that the University of Rochester Newscenter claims this device is inexpensive, and can be built at home with every day materials.

The process is simple: by using four standard lenses, and depending on the position of the viewer, any one object can become invisible. Obviously, this would have no use at all if it was only one direction it cloaks, but a multitude of them. So, more than a cloak like Harry Potter’s, probably a shield would create a better mental image.

If readers wish to learn more about this concept, just head to the video right below these lines.

Via Syracuse

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SwannOne Is the One Smart Home Smartphone App to Rule Them All

Posted: 30 Sep 2014 01:50 PM PDT

The ideal smart home has all sorts of devices that can be controlled from a distance using a single remote, and that remote should be at your fingertips. SwannOne Hub comes with a smartphone app built on that very principle.

The problem with devices that are part of a smart phone is that in the majority of the cases, each manufacturer supplies its own companion app. As a result of this, there’s little to no interaction between the various devices, and on top of that, you would have to switch between multiple apps in order to control these smart products. If only there was an equivalent of keyboard macros for smart home devices. Oh, wait!

Developed by Swann security, the SwannOne is a home automation system that puts A/C, lights, locks, and security cameras just one tap away. The developers announced that in addition to its standard functionality, the SwannOne app will offer control over professional home monitoring services, cloud storage solutions, as well as audio analytics.

Swann’s SoundView Camera is at the core of this smart home system, as it plays a double role. First of all, it acts as a surveillance camera with night vision capabilities, and secondly, it is a hub that enables you to control the other home automation devices. The SoundView Camera works both over Wi-Fi and Zigbee protocols, and while the latter has low-power requirements, the former might prove problematic.

Geoff Wanless, CTO of Swann, pointed out that “The smart home is an unstoppable trend which we intend to be at the forefront of through continuous research and development. We understand the needs of our customers, and we are going to deliver exactly what they want – a complete and affordable security-centric smart home solution driven from one app. Our system uses the latest wireless technology, including Wi-Fi and Zigbee to ensure that it is easy to use and inter-connectable.”

In a statement made for Gizmodo, the company revealed the probable launch date, but it declined to specify the price and the exact components of the kit: “SwannOne will be available in November. Pricing and included kit information is under embargo until the product is officially available.” It remains to be seen how the product works in real-life scenarios.

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Eko Turns Regular Stethoscopes Into Smart Ones

Posted: 30 Sep 2014 12:30 PM PDT

Digital stethoscopes get praised for their hi-tech features, but their steep price and low availability makes them really unappealing. The Eko attachment represents a far more accessible upgrade that improves the way clinicians interact with their patients and with the stethoscope itself.

Developed by Berkeley, California-based Eko Devices, this device attaches to analog stethoscopes and, using a companion app, provides additional details during the auscultation. All that clinicians have to do in order to attach Eko to their stethoscopes is to remove the stem from the tubing and place the device inbetween.

Eko comes with a button that enables medical personnel to switch between analog and digital modes. When the digital mode is selected, Eko makes use of Bluetooth to transmit recorded data to the companion iPhone app. If heart sounds happen to be hardly audible, Eko provides the option of amplifying them and recording them for later reference.

The fact that the companion app is only available on iOS is a great disappointment, as I’m pretty sure there are plenty of doctors out there who use Android devices. The mobile platform can store the name of the patient, as well as a history of the auscultations. Doctors are free to share data pertaining to a patient with other specialists, just in case they need a second opinion, and all this can be done from within the app.

Visual feedback is always important, but performing an electrocardiogram on each patient takes time. The app is capable of doing this right away, and on top of that, some thresholds are displayed in order to establish whether the patient has a normal heart rate or not. Such features are particularly useful for med students who might forget every now and then the exact physiological values.

Doctors and medical students alike can join a waitlist on the Eko Devices website in order to find out when the Eko stethoscope attachment will hit the market. Even though there has been no word on how much it will cost, Eko should be cheaper than electronic stethoscopes such as the Littmann 3100, as otherwise it would defeat its entire purpose.

Eko Devices is currently looking for business partners, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they launched a crowdfunding campaign sometime in the near future.

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