Possible Tron Lightcycle? The Revolights

 As a college student and a cyclist, I enjoy cycling around on campus. A recent new gadget that came into light are the Revolights. Out of the many attempts of people trying add illumination to  bicycle spokes and wheels, I believe the Revolights are the current best candidate. Not only do they actually help illuminate the road, they may just be possibly better than conventional headlights.

 Kent Frankovich, Adam Pettler and Jim Houk the designers of Revolights wanted to replace the little headlights and red taillights most people might have on their bicycles with something much more efficient. A normal headlight projects light out from the front of the bike and then down to the ground, but the Revolight actually casts light directly from the rim of your front wheel forward and onto the ground beneath the tire.

Revolights use a series of thin LED rings that mount to each wheel rim, and then use a small magnet to provide information about speed and position of the wheel to the system’s controller so it can illuminate the correct bank of LEDs at the right time. Not only is this amazingly cool, it also brings safety to riders as well as drivers. Revolights are currently under development but from the amount of support their getting, it wont be before long that you'll be seeing Revolights in the market. To find out more about Revolights, visit their blog! (Revolights)

Fujitsu Flexbook

 Did you ever wish for a tablet that came with a keyboard? Well in the near future, this may actually happen!
Taiwan-based designer, Hao-Chun Huang created a design called the Fujitsu Flexbook for entry into Fujitsu’s 2011 Design Award contest. Given its name, it has the ability to flex and fold into a tablet or a netbook. With the use of OLED flex screens, technology is becoming more compact and multifunctional.

 Currently the designs are giving The Flexbook a 21:9 11-inch folding screen and is designed to be portable. The keyboard could also fold up and used whenever needed. It would convert from netbook into a as tablet and e-book reader when the keyboard is stowed. For people who are interested in buying netbooks or tablets, they new piece of technology may answer both parties wishes. This may also make a cool alternative for those who cant afford Apple products but still want something portable with a large screen.

 It will be very interesting to see what kinds of tablets, netbooks, and smartphones manufacturers come up with when flexible OLED screens are becoming cheaply available according to oled.at (Visit OLED.at) Already many companies are beginning to use these flex screens in their products for example Samsung Mobile Display introduce a 4.5 inch flexible AMOLED Display at the FPD-International 2010.

Blink Bike Helmet

Usually on a college campus a large percentage of the students use bicycles are a source of transportation. Now think about the times where you saw of saw the potential of a car related bicycle accident. As I fellow college student, I have seen plenty. Often times, drivers are unaware or oblivious of to anything in their path that isn't as large as they are. Bikers during the daytime can catch their attention with their flailing arms and their bight neon suits but at night, bikers are at greater risk. A new concept design by Giovonni Doci has surfaced called the Blink Bike Helmet that protects your skull and has special lighting on it for added safety especially at night.

On the front of the helmet is a small light to help people see you. The back has a small red light for those coming up behind you and on each side of the helmet are orange lights that look like an “on” switch. When the rider is cycling along, those lights on the side of the helmet act as blinkers. To trigger the blinkers, the rider simply slaps or presses the side they wish to turn then after they make they turn press it again to turn it off.

According to Giovonni Doci, the helmets creator,"'Blink' is an innovative helmet that allows the rider of bicycles to drive safe in the urban environment, also by night. ‘Blink’ protects the user in a safe and active way, by indicating the direction that the user intends to turn to, in order to prevent accidents." Not only does this new technology given cyclists more safety, its the special prize of Seoul Cycle Design Competition of 2010. I wont be surprised if this nifty new helmet becomes a top favorite when it hits the market.