When you have a food allergy, buying prepared food or eating in a restaurant can be a nerve-wracking – and potentially even deadly – proposition. A portable food sensor called Nima can ease your mind by testing your food for allergens before you eat it.

At the moment, Nima can only test for gluten; in the future the company hopes to add functionality for other common allergens like dairy and peanuts. All you have to do is put a small sample of the food into a test pod, close the lid, and snap the pod into the testing station.

The pods contain antibodies there were developed by the team of former MIT students who created Nima. The antibodies only react with gluten; if gluten is detected, the sample undergoes a chemical change that the sensor can read. In just two minutes, the testing station can tell you whether the sample contains gluten levels above 20 parts per million.

A simple red light or green smiley face let you know whether the food is safe to consume. The kit is small enough that you can carry it without embarrassment into a restaurant. Other food testing kits involve test tubes, chemical mixing, and much less convenient methods to check up on your meal’s safety. Nima makes it easier to ensure you won’t suffer from an accidental dose of something your body really doesn’t get along with.

The post Know Your Food: Sensor Gives up Allergen Info in 2 Minutes first appeared on Gajitz.

Some countries have strict laws against biking while drunk, but here in the US that’s left up to the individual states – and the policy is notoriously ambiguous. Japanese company KOOWHO may not be able to clarify the cycling while drunk laws where you live, but it can let you (and a friend) know when you’re too tipsy to pedal home.

Most people look at cycling as a safer alternative to driving when they’re drunk, and in a way they’re right. Since you aren’t driving a couple tons of hulking mass, you’re more likely to hurt only yourself if you crash on a bike. But there are still plenty of good reasons to hoof it or call a cab after an evening of imbibing.

Alcoho-Lock is a bike lock that will only open up and let you ride home if you can prove you’re sober enough to bike safely. You blow into it, just like the alcohol-detection devices that unlock a car’s ignition system. If it judges you too impaired to bike, it will still open up for you – but it will also notify a friend or family member.

The notification is made through the proprietary app; when you first get the Alcoho-Lock you set up a person to notify in case of drunken cycling. The idea is that the friend will either talk you out of riding your bike or offer to come pick you up. At around $300 US, it’s a rather expensive way to stay safe that requires a lot of discipline on the part of the user. Still, if it can keep a few people from eating asphalt (and maybe a few others from being ticketed) it seems like a solid idea. The Alcoho-Lock is available for preorder here.

The post Sober Cycling: Bike Lock Won’t Let You Pedal Impaired first appeared on Gajitz.

Unbuckled dogs in automobiles can be a danger to your pet passenger as well as the driver and other riders, making this snug solution a good way to keep all parties involved safer on the road.  At just 30 miles per hour with a 10-pound dog, a fender bender can turn your pup into a projectile with 300 pounds of force.

One of a number of pet-friendly features offered by Czech automaker Skoda as part of a K9 package, this seat belt provides a snug harness to reduce dog-related distractions and keep pets in place during accidents as well (the device comes in four sizes to fit various weights and body shapes). Related offerings include pet grills as well as hammocks to help keep the back of your car cleaner when transporting canine companions.

Only a small percentage of drivers secure their pets during transit, but as Inhabitat notes: “There’s somewhere in the region of 70-80 million dogs residing in households around the U.S., and according to AAA, 56 percent of all dog owners drive with their pup at least once a month, accompanying owners on anything from a quick errand to a coast-to-coast road trip. But a phenomenal 84 percent of these rides are conducted with the dogs roaming free, and that’s a serious hazard for both dog and owner.”

The post Canine Car Harness: Doggie Seat Belt Keeps Everyone Safe first appeared on Gajitz.

Making a primitive battery from salt water and a bit of metal is a pretty common science experiment, but how about using the concept on a larger scale for the good of the planet? Engineer and environmental activist Aisa Mijeno created a lamp that uses this eco-friendly, renewable energy to provide light to homes with no electricity.

The SALt (Sustainable Alternative Lighting) lamp uses just one cup of water and two teaspoons of salt to provide light for eight hours. The lamp is meant as an alternative to kerosene lamps, which are the standard in most electricity-free homes in the Philippines. Kerosene lamps are dangerous due to fumes and to the fire hazard, but many households have no other option after the sun goes down.

SALt uses a galvanic cell battery; it involves two electrodes placed into the saltwater solution. One electrode discharges electrons and the other picks them up, thus creating a current that can be harnessed to light the bulb in the top part of the lamp. The lamp also has a USB port on the side that the inventor says receives enough power to charge a smartphone.

Like all other batteries, this one will eventually wear out. But according to Mijeno, the battery should last for a good six months even if you run the light eight hours a day, every day. Then it’s just a matter of replacing the anode, not the entire lamp, to make it run like new again.

If you live on the coast, you don’t even have to worry about mixing up a saltwater solution – just grab some ocean water and pour it in the chamber in the bottom of the lamp. You’ll get the same performance as you would with a homemade salt + water solution. Mijeno and the rest of the team behind SALt hope to launch their product by providing 600 of the lamps to Philippine towns. After that, they plan to bring it to market so anyone with access to water and salt can have a simple, safe, portable source of light.

The post Now Sea Here: This Lamp Runs on Nothing But Salt and Water first appeared on Gajitz.

Professional shippers and innocent bystanders may rejoice, but others are up in arms about the announcement of a new form of Bubble Wrap designed not to pop, and thus also fail to create that distinctive sound we all know and love (or hate).

American company Sealed Air created iBubble Wrap with interlinked columns of trapped air rather than individual bubbles, allowing contents to squeeze over rather than bursting. Another advantage: unlike its traditional counterparts, this new version will be inflated on-site, making it cheaper and greener to ship to those using it for packaging on a mass scale. The company is also exploring alternative uses, as shown in some of the images here and reflecting the unusual origins of the material (it was designed as a wall covering then repurposed as packing material).

After outbursts on social media, Sealed Air stepped in to reassure consumers who enjoy alternative functions provided by bubble wrap, like scaring siblings or stress relief: “Fear not fans of ‪#‎BubbleWrap‬ and its famous pop! We are excited to expand our Bubble Wrap family to include iBubble Wrap, but the original version you love to pop isn’t going anywhere.”

Still, it is hard to imagine that if this new type works better it won’t naturally replace the original over time as more commercial users adopt and distribute it: “We want to protect what matters most to you, and a version of Bubble Wrap that doesn’t pop (less air loss means more long-lasting protection against damage during shipment) is just one of the ways we can do that.”

The post Pop-Free Bubble Wrap: Redesign Eliminates Noise (& Fun) first appeared on Gajitz.