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June 1, 2009 5:00 AM PDT

Android monitors your power readings while you do dishes

by Eric Franklin
  • 3 comments

This is one of those, "well I didn't really need this, but the fact that this is even possible is pretty frakking cool" stories.

From Moto Labs, those same wacky guys who brought us the Scalable Multitouch display, comes the DIY Android Home Energy Monitor (or AHEM, as in "ahem, look at my clever acronym").

The AHEM can use an average wireless network to track your utility readings and post them on your Google home page. Here's how it works. Wireless Webcams take pictures of the ever-changing dials on the user's utility meters.

How it all works. These guys are quite the talented scientists...and artists. Damn them.

(Credit: Moto Labs)

A motherboard called a BeagleBoard running Android and the AHEM custom applications pushes the pictures up to a designated Flickr photo set.

The AHEM application transcribes the reading numbers into your Flickr image tag. Then, Moto Labs' Google Gadget will automatically chart meter activity on your Google home page.

Check out the site to see all you need to get started and get step-by-step instructions on how to set the whole thing up.

December 13, 2007 1:18 PM PST

Tokyo green fair highlights Sony wind-up camera

by Elsa Wenzel
  • 3 comments
Hooked up to a PC, the Odo looks like a postmodern potted plant.

Hooked up to a PC, the Odo looks like a postmodern potted plant.

(Credit: Impress Japan)

Sony's prototype, wind-up Odo digital camera is among the gadgets attracting attention at Tokyo's largest green products fair this week. We're spying from afar at Eco-Products 2007, which includes more than 500 exhibitors.

The Odo looks like a giant, plastic toy sprout when plugged into a planter-shaped base to transfer images to a computer. The camera takes 15 seconds to recharge, either by rolling the charger wheel with fingers or running it over surface. Sony's Spin N Snap takes still photos while the Crank N Capture shoots video.

Other future-forward products attracting attention at the fair include solar LED lights from Sharp and environmentally friendly X-ray equipment from Toshiba. Rice, used for materials coatings in Japan for centuries, is the key ingredient in nontoxic paint from Kinuka that's supposedly safe enough to lick.

Japan East Railways is demonstrating a ticketing system that harnesses electrical power from the vibration of human feet as they pass through the gate.

Penguins animate this household energy monitor.

Penguins animate this household energy monitor.

(Credit: Impress Japan)

And there are audio speakers that use bamboo-based fabrics, many energy-efficient appliances, home power-monitoring software featuring cartoon penguins, as well as a slew of biodegradable toys and bioplastic cell phone cases.

People at the fair can count their carbons and learn how to go on a CO2 diet with help from a government-sponsored campaign that began in 2004.

(Via Japan for Sustainability, Impress Japan)

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