Posted on: 13 November 2008 |
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The Wrap looks at innovations this week that could change our lives.
Walk like a robot
In Japan, Honda has unveiled a new computerized walker machine, designed to help factory workers or anyone having to stand on their feet for too long, and the elderly.
The machine weighs 6.5 kilos, has a saddle, leg-frames and shoes. It reduces the weight of a user’s legs making it easier to climb and descend stairs, as well as carry out difficult crouching positions.
From the television reports I saw, you have to put the contraption between your legs and kind of almost sit on it and then move normally. Think John Wayne.
Honda says it will start using it at a factory in Japan. Think about the implications for elderly travellers …
Speed like the devil
Now that we in Asia are all fans of Formula 1, this piece of news caught our eye.
Apparently, someone is having another go at trying to beat the land speed record. A British team has developed a car that has the potential to break the current land speed record of 763 miles per hour, held since 1997 by the Thrust SSC (super-sonic car).
The article,The New British Jet Car - 0-1000mph in 15 Seconds, says the new car “will apparently cover the length of a soccer pitch in the blink of an eye –literally”.
“In one sixth of a second it would have travelled the entire distance at 1.4 times the speed of sound, and it would only take 34 seconds to travel 10 miles...”
In layman’s terms, this would leave Lewis Hamilton in the dust.
Laptop and kiasu karaoke
Finally, an innovation that allows you to sing your heart out not in the bathroom but in your living room – welcome to laptop karaoke.
With laptop karaoke, you just plug a mike into your computer, log into a Swedish website called Karaoke Party and belt it out.
The website was launched in August and unites karaoke lovers all over the world to sing free online. It also grades singers and creates a list of the site’s top 10 singers each day.
The website was founded by Mattias Oberg and Mats Fors, who told The Straits Times that there are 13,000 registered users. Most users are from Finland, followed by Sweden and the US.
There are 300 users from Singapore. Said one user, “Users can let themselves go as they are at home and they do not need to care about their image that much.”
Yes, Kiasu Karaoke has arrived in Singapore. (Kiasu – a Singaporean term that means “afraid to lose”, very much embedded in the Singapore psyche)
