Mega LEGO Hotel Opens in Florida

Posted on 22/05/2015 by John Thomas

LEGO fans rejoice! The world’s largest LEGOLAND park, in Winter Haven, Florida, now boasts the largest LEGO hotel on earth.

The brand new, brightly colored hotel, which opened on May 15, sits at the entrance to the park and offers people who stay there early admission. When you drive in you’ll be greeted by a giant green LEGO dragon who lives atop a massive clocktower.

There are 152 rooms and suites, each decked out in LEGO splendor in four different thematic patterns – pirate, adventure, kingdom and LEGO Friends (my fave is pirate). Each room also features a treasure hunt where kids (or adults) can search for LEGO toys. The hotel also offers model building classes and building contests every night.

Perhaps the smartest thing the folks who built this hotel did was how they designed the rooms – the adult bedroom is a separate space from where the kids sleep! That means the kids can go mental with all their LEGO goodies while the older folks can lie down on a king sized bed and try to regain their sanity.

[via Metro]

Mint Tells You if Your Breath Stinks or If You Need a Drink

Posted on 18/05/2015 by John Thomas

My wife often says I have bad breath. I think she’s is a bit hypersensitive on the issue, but it’s her nose. Luckily, soon there will be a tool available so that I can test my level of halitosis and either start brushing more often or prove that my wife’s odor-sniffing abilities are too finely tuned.

A new crowdfunding effort from Breathometer, who also produced a breath-based blood alcohol monitor in 2013, is called Mint. It not only tells you the quality of your breath, but also it lets you know how hydrated you are (often times the two are linked). To use it, turn on the palm-sized device, pair it with a companion app on your phone, and then clamp down on the front and let the tool’s tiny motor suck air into its sensor. In about five seconds, the app on your phone shows you the results – it gives your breath a score of one out of five mint leaves and tells you how hydrated you are. Mint should be available by August and a pledge of $99(USD) will get you one when it’s released.

Until August I am still going to have to go old school and breathe into my cupped hand and sniff it. But once I get my Mint, I’ll be scientifically sure whether or not people are offering me mints out of courtesy or because I really need them.

Get Your Clothes Clean and Stay Very Green with Drumi

Posted on 15/05/2015 by John Thomas

More and more people want to live off the grid these days, but one issue these modern minimalist pioneers face is how to wash their clothes properly without having access to a traditional machine. Well, Yirego has a solution.

Their small, Star Wars droid looking foot-powered Drumi washer – which is also great for students and green energy buffs – can hold about five pounds of clothes and takes about five minutes of leg energy per wash (so you’ll get clean clothes and a decent little workout at the same time). It uses a lot less electricity (well, it actually uses none) and less detergent than a traditional washer and is a lot greener than the machines you have to use in a your corner laundromat.

It’s scheduled to be ready for delivery in July at a price of $129. If you’re interested, I’d say to make sure you pre-order one, because their clever demo video on YouTube has been viewed more than 1 million times, which means there’s probably going to be a waiting line to get one.

[via EcoBuilding Pulse]

Genie Food Replicator: From the USS Enterprise to Your Stomach

Posted on 09/05/2015 by John Thomas

One of my favorite things from the original Star Trek series was the Replicator. Just walk up to the machine, tell it what you want to eat, and voila, a piping hot, tasty meal is ready in almost no time.

And now an Israeli company claims it has created technology they say mimics that futuristic cooking machine. Their phone-app controlled device, called a Genie, uses pods of different kinds of baking ingredients and freeze dried foods, and those powders are mixed together to create the meal of your choice. So, you can load up anything from Ramen noodles to a chocolate souffle, and less than a minute later you meal is good to go. It’s sort of like a Keurig machine for food.

The machine is set to go on sale in the United States next year with a price tag in the $300 range. No word yet on when Star Trek’s Transporter will be ready for market.

[via C|NET]

FEELREAL VR Mask and Helmet: A Face Full of Feeling

Posted on 04/05/2015 by John Thomas

Modern movies and video games are amazing at delivering mind-blowing visuals and sounds. But a Brooklyn-based tech company’s invention would add a lot more senses to the experience.

FEELREAL’s Kickstarter campaign wants you to help them bring to market what they describe as “the world’s first multi-sensory virtual reality mask.” You could call it Smell-O-Vision for the 21st century.

The mask contain small motors and fans that create vibration, moisture, warmth, breeze and, yes, smells. The odoriferous component is probably the most interesting. The developers collaborated with perfumers who helped them design a series of removable cartridges that you can swap out to match the smells that would naturally emanate from whatever you are playing or watching.

A pledge of at least $300 will get you an early consumer version of the mask, while $600 will buy you a version that integrates the mask with a smartphone-based VR display helmet, dubbed the NIRVANA.

If they get it right, this technology could bring some amazing intensity to battlefield warfare play and flicks featuring delectable kitchen scenes. But the company may want to include a small towel with their device. In a video they produced of people trying out a prototype, the first thing a few did when they took off the mask was start trying to dry their faces off.

Google Maps Brings New Meaning to a Search for Nessie

Posted on 22/04/2015 by John Thomas

It is perhaps the most famous monster photo of all time. Appearing in England’s Daily Mail on April 21, 1934, it was snapped by London physician Robert Kenneth Wilson and became known as the “Surgeon’s Photograph.” We’ve all seen it countless times – a creepy snake-like head jutting out of the dark waters of Scotland’s Loch Ness. The image was later discovered to be an elaborate ruse created using a toy sub.

Even though that photo was proven not to be a real portrait of Nessie, many still believe a giant beast actually haunts the Loch. To mark the date the image was taken, Google posted a host of its Street View images of both the surface of the Loch and what it looks like under the surface so that explorers around the world can scan the terrain themselves in search of the infamous creature.

What’s crazy though, is that one of the 360-degree images you can view is titled “Bird, log or monster?” And when you click into it you can clearly make out four small black bumps breaking the surface that look a heck of a lot like Godzilla’s tail slipping back beneath the water. I certainly don’t believe in the monstrous myth, but after seeing that Google pic I won’t be taking a dip in Loch Ness anytime soon.

[via Google Maps Blog]

Could Robotic Lawn Care Cripple Deep Space Exploration?

Posted on 22/04/2015 by John Thomas

Mowing the lawn is one of the more odious tasks homeowners have to deal with, especially during the hot summer months. But iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, wants to do away with that chore with a new line of robot lawnmowers. However, while kicking back on the couch with a cold one while a machine automatically trims your grass might sound awesome, some scientists say these machines could hamper our abilities to delve into deep space.

How? To wirelessly guide their lawnmowers, iRobot wants to use a section of the wireless spectrum currently employed by astronomers who use radio telescopes to peer into deep space. And now some concerned astronomers have sent their concerns to the FCC for a resolution.

Who will win? It’s hard to tell, because the battle hinges on a limited resource. According to an article in wallstreetdaily.com, “the astronomers’ objections are part of a supply and demand equation, where multiple bodies are scrapping for a relatively limited amount of radio spectrum as wireless applications increase.”

But knowing how much Americans love their leisure time, I have a sinking feeling robotic lawn care will end up meaning more to more people than discovering the mysteries of what appears to be a fairly grass-free universe.

GIZMODO.cz

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