Tag Archives: thumb

Human Thumb Thumbtacks

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Continuing on the realistic human body parts theme from yesterday’s toenail eyeballs come these realistic thumb thumbtacks, made and sold by Etsy store ThisisMichiesshop. A set of four tacks will set you back $17 and are going to make the perfect addition to my corkboard. Now, if I could just rehang my corkboard with some toe-nails, the theme would be complete.

Obviously, these are the perfect thumbtacks for two bumbling detectives in some television dramedy to use as they try to track down a serial killer. The show practically writes itself. Especially if you use AI, then it really does write itself. As a matter of fact, AI is writing this article right now and may have just become self-aware.

Thankfully, the thumbtacks are sculpted from polymer clay and not actual thumbs. Although it probably wouldn’t hurt to tail Michie and make sure she isn’t making any late-night trips to the graveyard just to be sure. They look awfully real to me.

[via DudeIWantThat]

Third Thumb Prosthetic Gives You an Extra Functional Thumb

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Want an extra thumb? Check out the Third Thumb, a prosthetic extra digit designed by London’s Royal College of Art grad student Dani Clode. The idea is that the additional finger can provide more versatility for gripping and interacting with objects than with just five fingers.

Basically, this additional finger attaches to your hand with a strap and is connected to a bracelet with a motor and battery that powers the movement. The gripping is controlled by a pressure sensor in the heel of your shoe, which is relayed to the bracelet using Bluetooth. After seeing the video demonstration, I think I could use another thumb. Looks pretty handy. Pun intended.

Dani says the Third Thumb was designed to “reimagine what we think of as a prosthetic – something that adds capabilities, rather than just replacing those lost.” It is a cool idea. We’re going to need some extra body parts if we are going to keep up with the robots.

[via The Verge via Geekologie]

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Phone Screen Too Big For You? Get Thanko’s Thumb Extender

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Mobile phones went from big to small, then back to big again when smartphone-slash-tablet hybrids hit the market. People with small hands had a hard time using phablets with one hand because their thumbs couldn’t quite get to the other end of the screen.

You can’t make your thumb grow a few inches (because that would just be weird, aside from being impossible) but you can add a few inches by way of the Thumb Extender – no surgery required!

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The Thumb Extender looks like one of those trick thumbs in magic kits, only it’s bigger and comes embedded with a capacitive tip at the end so you can tap and swipe with (relative) ease.

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The Thumb Extender is available from Thanko for ¥1,480 (~$15 USD).

[via LikeCool]

One, Two, Three, Four… I Declare Lightsaber Thumb War

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Growing up I settled more than a few arguments with a quick game of thumb wrestling. Those matches always started with the chant “one, two, three, four, I declare thumb war,” which is clearly how all civilized people do it. If you ever wondered when thumb wrestling might get the inevitable upgrade, it looks like that time is now.

lightsaber thumb

A new spiral-bound book has been published called simply enough Star Wars Lightsaber Thumb Wrestling. The book has seven thick pages each printed with a different dueling location. You and your foe stick your phalanges through the holes with tiny super-cool lightsaber models strapped to them with Velcro straps.

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You then duke it out with little thumb sized lightsabers. This may be the perfect way to settle arguments in a more civilized time. The book is available for $12.99(USD) over at ThinkGeek, Imperial credits are not accepted.

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[via Nerd Approved]

University of Calgary’s Fat Thumb trick allows one-handed phone use, jugglers are thankful (video)

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University of Calgary researchers devise Fat Thumb trick for onehanded phone use, jugglers are thankful video

Everyone's let it happen at some point -- that moment where we're desperately trying to use our smartphones in one hand while juggling groceries or coffee in the other. There'll be no way to recover those social graces, but six researchers at the University of Calgary have developed a software technique, Fat Thumb, that should at least keep the contortions and dropped phones to a minimum. As the name implies, it's all based around pressure: a light touch performs the usual commands, while squishing the thumb's wider surface area against the screen allows the equivalent of a multi-touch gesture, such as a pinch to zoom. The advantages for comfort and grip virtually speak for themselves; what's surprising is that Fat Thumb may well be faster than other one-handed gestures. Work on the project is so far confined to a research paper stemming from experiments with an iPhone, although it's easy to see this spreading to other platforms and real products before too long. Catch a glimpse of the cleverness in action after the break.

Continue reading University of Calgary's Fat Thumb trick allows one-handed phone use, jugglers are thankful (video)

University of Calgary's Fat Thumb trick allows one-handed phone use, jugglers are thankful (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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