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Innovation. According to one Mads Thimmer, it's a word that held a great deal of mystery some 10-plus years ago, but today, "it's thrown around as a cliché." When you really get down to it, though, the art of innovating is a hugely delicate and complex one, fraught with frustration and a curious passion for never settling on the here and now. In covering the world of consumer technology, I've come to form my own understanding of what innovation is, what it isn't and how companies are embracing (or outright shunning) the idea. After an evening with the cofounder of Innovation Lab, however, I was rightfully ready to toss my own preconceived notions aside.
Filed under: Misc
Dreams, curiosity and a passion for what's next: picking the brain of Innovation Lab's Mads Thimmer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Boosted Board isn't the first powered skateboard to grace these pages, but it is the lightest. In its current prototype form, it weighs just 12 pounds, thanks to a high-end Loaded Vanguard longboard, 2,000W brushless electric motor, 100W/h Lithium polymer battery pack and regenerative braking and drivetrain bits. That hardware will move you along at up to 20mph, provide about six miles of range and tackle up to a 15 percent grade. The company is also evaluating different battery chemistries and cell sizes for folks looking for longer range. We were told that the board is capable of much higher speeds, but it's been limited for safety reasons. However, that reservoir of power is put to good use when rolling uphill, as the Boosted Board's got some custom firmware that aims to make cruising up inclines feel the same as riding on flats. Adjusting the speed is accomplished through a custom handheld, thumb-operated throttle that's still in development.
We got to lay our hands (and feet) on one today in San Francisco, and we spoke with Boosted Board's builders, too. The board's lightweight design, with the battery pack and motor components nestled at either end, is quite different from other electric decks we've seen with a massive power pack centered underneath. This design is made possible by that power-dense brushless motor, and it allows the Boosted Board to maintain the flexible feel that regular longboarders know and love. For now, the drivetrain and components are left exposed (as you can see in our gallery) but a more integrated design will go to the Kickstarters who pledged the $1,200 needed to get one when they start shipping next May. Folks looking for more info can find it in the source below and the video after the break.
Filed under: Transportation
Boosted Board electric longboard is lightweight enough to carry, powerful enough to haul riders uphill originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Undeterred by the fact that even humans struggle to interpret certain gestures, Huawei says it's allocating a chunk of its growing R&D budget to new motion-sensing technology for smartphones and tablets. The company's North American research chief, John Roese, told Computerworld that he wants to allow "three-dimensional interaction" with devices using stereo front-facing cameras and a powerful GPU to make sense of the dual video feed. Separately, the Chinese telecoms company is also putting development cash into a cloud computing project that promises to "change the economics of storage by an order of magnitude." Roese provided scant few details on this particular ambition, but did mention that Huawei has teamed up with CERN to conduct research and has somehow accumulated over 15 petabytes of experimental physics data in the process. Whatever it's up to, Huawei had better get a move on -- others are snapping up gesture recognition and cloud patents faster than you can say fa te ne una bicicletta with your hands.
Huawei throws R&D dollars at gesture control, cloud storage, being more 'disruptive' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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