Who doesn’t love blowing bubbles and then experiencing the pure visceral joy that comes from popping them? That is the idea behind SensaBubble, a multi-sensory mid-air display that combines sight, smell, and the satisfaction of popping bubbles. Designed by Professor Sriram Subramanian of Bristol University, the SensaBubble could be used for marketing, education, gaming, or a number of other applications.

The way the machine works is best described by the video above. Bubbles’ trajectories can be guided by the machine, then tracked so the SensaBubble system can project colors, words, or logos onto the fog-filled bubbles. An optional aroma can be added to the fog to provide another layer of sensory stimulation.

We would love to see this type of system used in everyday life. Imagine how fun it would be to get an email notification in the form of a floating bubble, then pop it with your finger to send it away. For those of us who feel like we’re overloaded with information and notifications all day, every day, this could be a far more relaxing way to get and then release those notifications.

The post Multi-Sensory Bubbles Display Digital Messages, Emit Aromas first appeared on Gajitz.

Sleeping next to a snorer is like a perpetual hell from which escape can only be achieved by one partner being banished to the couch. Old tricks like sewing a tennis ball into the back of the snorer’s pajamas (so he can’t lie on his back where he is more likely to snore) don’t always work, but the Snore Activated Nudging Pillow might do the trick.

The pillow is a slightly friendlier alternative to nudging or pushing your partner in the middle of the night to stop the snoring. It contains a microphone that picks up the distinctive sonic pattern of snoring. When it does, an internal bladder inflates, prompting the snorer to change sleeping positions. It lifts part of the pillow four to seven inches and then immediately deflates, which should be enough movement to make the snorer roll over without waking them.

The microphone sensitivity can be adjusted, so if the non-snoring partner is a heavy sleeper the pillow can be set to inflate only at the loudest snores. Although the pillow won’t stop a snorer’s nocturnal noise-making for good, it might at least help make the nights more bearable. The $149.99 price tag is pretty steep, but it’s cheaper than couples counseling and may even reduce the number of nights spent sleeping on the couch.

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Empathy is an integral part of the human condition. To put oneself into another’s shoes, so to speak, is to appreciate life. Violent criminals often have difficulty feeling empathy, and it’s what separates us from our closest animal relatives, the primates. One computer program hopes to spread this increasingly-less important human trait.

Working at the University of Barcelona, scientists used the seemingly-forgotten technological branch of virtual reality to simulate being a child. Historically, virtual reality has given the user sensations of ‘being’ the program’s subject. In a previous study, one participant simulated as a teenage girl reported physically feeling a slap by a simulated mother.

The scientists involved in the University of Barcelona’s study placed their subjects into either an adult body or one of a four-year-old boy. The amazing result was that those rendered as a child felt that simulated objects were twice the size, on average, than that of their adult counterparts. One supposition is that this study may help violent criminals, if placed under certain conditions, to feel more empathy when placed inside another body.

The post Forever Young: Virtual Reality Puts Adults in Kids’ Bodies first appeared on Gajitz.

Where technology is concerned, manufacturers are always trying to shrink device components so they can squeeze more functions into the device – but this Japanese phone may take down-sizing a little too far. The Phone Strap 2 is said to be the world’s smallest and lightest cell phone.

At a total height of just two inches, this phone truly is tinier than any functional cellular phone we’ve ever seen. It’s got a retractable antenna and can handle up to two hours of talk time on one charge. The Phone Strap 2 can also send and receive emails, provided they aren’t too long.

The phone is precisely the size of a box of Frisk mints, a wildly popular treat in Japan. The Phone Strap 2 is available in white, black and pink – all in shades that coordinate perfectly with colors of Frisk mint boxes.

The ridiculously tiny one-inch “ultra compact” display seems almost too small to even be a fun novelty. But where there’s a silly new gadget there’s a whole bunch of people who can’t wait to get their hands on it. They’ll have to be fast because Willcom, the phone’s manufacturer, only plans to sell 12,000 of these babies in Japan for around $380.

The post World’s Tiniest Mobile Phone Features Wee One-Inch Display first appeared on Gajitz.

Despite cassette tapes’ reputation for offering low-quality sound, this tape-to-MP3 converter exists. It looks a lot like an old-style cassette Walkman, but it’s got a slot to slide in an iPhone or iPod Touch on one side. All you have to do is insert the cassette tape, dock the iDevice, and press play – the included app converts the music to MP3 format.

You can listen to your favorite cassettes from the device by plugging in a pair of headphones, or you can connect the device to a stereo system. The Cassette to iPod Converter is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for around $80 – which is actually a pretty good deal if you still have a huge stack of cassettes sitting around, waiting for their comeback.

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