Technknowledge

Forget those compact fluorescent bulbs, or even fancy LED lighting. Scientists in Sweden and the USA say they have developed lighting panels using the wonder material graphene, which one day could make the basic lamp redundant.

The material can be fashioned into large energy efficient flexible sheets called LECs (light emitting electromechanical cells) that can cover an entire wall or ceiling, filling the room with an adjustable and even source of light. We've seen how OLED technology promises a similar approach to lighting, but the scientists say the graphene panels are much cheaper to produce, and don't contain the metal alloy indium tin oxide that makes OLED panels tricky to recycle.

No word on how long we'll need to wait before you can buy LEC panels at your local hardware store.

ScienceDaily.com, via Treehugger.com

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Want to impress your Super Bowl visitors this weekend with more than 7-layer dip and mini-sandwiches? Have some extra time on your hands? Happen to have 66 feet of salvaged particle board sitting around?

Well, even if you don't meet all of those requirements, this is still a pretty neat project. Roommates Jandra, Priya, and Ruella cobbled together their very own apartment photo booth for pretty cheap, though they got a little help and used their heads to keep the price down. Still, none of it is stuff you couldn't find at a hardware store or IKEA.

Check out the full list of instructions here.

Via Apartment Therapy

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Ah, children: those lovable balls of built-up energy. If only there was a way to harness that force? That's exactly what designers Aaron Tsui, Irina Kozlovskaya, Jasen Mehta and Sergio Silva had in mind when they came up with "Rocco, the energy pal."

Rocco is a rocking horse that, when rocked, charges up its flashlight ears. These ears can then be used as a regular old flashlight, or — appropriate for kids — as a nightlight. It's a great idea, but, like all things designed for kids, I could imagine it backfiring. You're sleeping, say, while your little terror is up too late with way too much energy. What happens next? One of the runts, now armed with a fully-charged flashlight, barges into your room and wakes you up.

Still, let's just imagine we go the nightlight route instead, and Rocco's power is something used only for good.

Rocco is one of the entries in the Greener Gadgets Competition in NYC.

Rocco, via Inhabitots

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Back in September last year, Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices did what most of the industry was already prepared for, namely the introduction of its first series of graphics processing units with support for DirectX 11. The chip maker did so by announcing their fastest cards yet, the Radeon HD 5800 series, which als... (read more)
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Some of the most interesting products we came across during our short visit at Sony's booth from IFA 2009 were the MDR-NC300D noise canceling earphones, recently released by the Japanese company (well, at least they were pretty recent at the time of our visit), which really managed to draw our attention for two reas... (read more)
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Have you ever come across a certain item that, from the moment you laid eyes on it, you felt like it really brought something innovative to its category? I mean, a device providing certain unique, never before seen features that you felt were going to change the respective product segment for good?

Well, if you have (and I'm pretty sure all of you must have felt like this regarding a gadget at some point), then you'll completely understand why we were so excited whe... (read more)
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