This is interesting it’s a coat that can make you feel like you are being hugged and plays recordings of typical girlfriend phrases. The coat was invented by Japanese students and simulates the feeling of being hugged from behind whilst also playing recordings through headphones. The engineer said 'The concept of this device is everyone can get the feeling of having a girlfriend.' It’s an interesting idea but I can’t help feeling a little sorry for those who invented it. I wonder if they should spend more time talking to actual women rather than inventing a substitute one.

I do often rely on my sat nav when I am in unfamiliar territory but am always surprised to read stories like this. It seems some people blindly follow the directions rather than using a little bit of common sense and looking at their surroundings and road signs. In this extreme example a Belgian woman ended up driving 900 miles after she followed a broken sat nav. She originally set out on what should have been a 38 mile journey to pick up a friend from the train station.

Taking a wrong turn she drove 900 miles and ended up in Zagreb in Croatia. She crossed five borders and would have seen road signs in several different languages but failed to notice the mistake. This was despite having to stop several times to refuel her car and stopping for a roadside nap. She admitted to being distracted during the journey and so continued with the drive only noticing the error when she got to Zagreb and found she was no longer in Belgium.

This is an interesting idea, it’s a fork which monitors your eating habits and can tell you if you eating too fast. The HAPIfork uses electronic sensors to monitor how much and how fast the user is eating. If you eat too quickly the fork will vibrate and bright lights will flash on the handle. The fork wirelessly connects to your phone to send the information to an app which can help you track the duration of a meal, the number of fork servings and duration of the intervals between the servings.

If you have ever looked at your pets wagging tail with envy then you might want one of these. Created by a Japanese inventor it is a tail for people that wags when the wearer becomes excited. The Tailly is fitted with sensors that monitor the wearer pulse rate, the faster the heart beats the more it wags. I wonder how popular it will prove to be.

I read this article with interest about a man that has apparently created a video baby monitor. Whilst it is a very good idea I don’t think he has created it as such. The monitor can easily be set up by anyone who has the technical knowledge to do so with a basic night vision camera and simple software. I know this because we have been using a similar system since last year when my daughter was born. So it’s a great idea but hardly new and ground breaking.

This is interesting it’s a washable keyboard that costs just £35. It has been designed with drainage holes so that it will dry quickly and can be submerged in up to 28cm of water.

This is an interesting idea, it’s a wine fridge that stores the bottles upright. Aimed at those that want to store opened bottles of wine it is made to take 750ml bottles. The fridge has a large front viewing window so you can see exactly what wine it contains and has room for eight bottles of wine.

This is interesting, its a dogcam solution that could be used in search and rescue operations. Called paws the application is an acronym for portable, all terrain wireless system. it has been developed by UK firm Wood and Douglas which specialises in wireless broadcast technology applications. It basically involves fitting a wireless camera and harness to the dog which can then search the debris of a disaster zone for any signs of life. It has the advantage that the dog can not only reach places people might not be able to reach but also use its sense of smell to track down any survivors. The information is sent back to the receiving station where the person co-ordinating the rescue can see the live video.

This is an interesting idea. It allows you to use a typewriter as a keyboard. It is actually a USB typewriter conversion kit that allows users to type on their computer using an old typewriter keyboard. Quite why someone would want to do this, I don’t know but if it is for you you can buy them at Etsy.com. They sell for between $699 and $899 depending on the model you choose and you can also buy a do it yourself kit for $74.

This is interesting, called Leafsnap it’s an iPhone application that is able to identify a tree by it’s leaves. To use the application you need to take a picture of the leaf on a white background. The application then uses face recognition software to identify the species. It is produced by the Columbia University, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution. It uses the same technology as face recognition software to identify the species. It’s an interesting idea and having tried it, it is useful, however, it currently is mainly US based so is not so good with UK species.

This is interesting it’s a device called a Coffee Joulies which claims to keep your drink at the perfect temperature for up to five hours. The device which resembles a glass bean is placed inside the thermos with the hot drink. It absorbs the extra thermal energy in the drink when it is hot and then releases this energy to keep the drink at an optimum drinking temperature as it starts to cool down. The beans are made of a non toxic material sealed within the stainless steel shell. They only work, however, when the drink is insulated with a lid. It’s an interesting idea, but I do wonder whether they are any more effective than an ordinary thermos.

These interesting looking shoes have been created by fashion student Lisa Dillion out of a stale cheese sandwich. The heels are sculpted from a block of cheese whilst a stale sandwich is used as part of the sole. The front of the shoe is also moulded from cheddar and extra cheese has been melted to make the decorations.

This is an interesting idea, it’s a Cloud Girlfriend for lonely men. The idea is that a virtual girlfriend will post updates to your Facebook page making it look as though you are in a long distance relationship. The Social Network Girlfriend website is yet to go live but potential users can register their interest online. The site will ask a user to define their perfect girlfriend before the sites owners bring her into existence. The user will then be able to interact with their new girlfriend through social networks making it look as though they are in a relationship. Real human beings will be employed to act as fake girlfriends with the idea being that the user will appear more desirable because they are not single.

If you don’t like the thought of using “naked” scanners at airports then this may be the solution. It’s a range of underwear which claims to be x-ray proof so that your most private parts don’t show up on airport scanners. The range which includes pants and vests for men and women has been invented by a man called Steve Bradshaw. He claims that they are able to coat body parts whilst still allowing operators to see potentially dangerous objects such as guns, knives and explosives. They work by using a paint made from barium sulphate, aluminium, ground glass and other materials which reflects and scatters the x-rays in a particular area, diffusing the image but also allowing dangerous items to still be seen. It looks like an interesting idea but is still yet to be tested with a scanner.

This is interesting it’s a device called the Solowheel. It’s like a unicycle and is being hailed as the latest device for commuter's. The user puts their feet on the foldable platforms on either side of the wheel and leans forward to move, back to stop and left or right to turn. It has a top speed of 12 mph and can travel for two hours on a 45 minute charge. The rechargeable battery also recaptures energy when it’s going downhill or slowing down. It certainly looks interesting but with a £975 price tag it’s a little pricy.

This is an interesting idea, its an iphone application that allows users to find the nearest place giving out free condoms. Recently launched in New York by the city’s health department it taps into the city’s database of over 1,000 places offering free condoms and gives you directions to the nearest five places. The city has been criticised in the past for the fact that it offers free condoms with some parents believing it encourages children to have sex. In their defence they say they are not promoting sex but rather promoting safer sex. Either way it’s an interesting idea.

I use Royal Mail’s Smartstamp software for printing most of my postage and whilst most of the postage is printed directly onto the envelope with my laser printer I rely on my trusty Dymo LabelWriter 400 to print postage for larger envelopes. The Dymo does a fairly good job printing onto 99012 (36 x 89mm) labels which look nice when stuck onto a C5 or A4 envelope. One thing that has always frustrated me, however, is that the Dymo has insisted on printing out both a postage label and address label thus using two labels when at times I only require one. Up to now I had assumed that the Dymo printed the double label by default but it seems there is a very easy way to get the machine to print a single postage label without the address. You simply need to select your postage options as normal (shown in the first screenshot) but make sure the “address” placement holder is deleted so that the address window contains no text. The Dymo will then happily print just the one label with your postage on it without the need to waste a second label. I still can’t believe this simple problem has been bugging me for so long.

At the risk of sounding old I remember when mobile phones were expensive. I am aware of deals for phones that cost in the region of £20 but this one surprised me. It’s a phone available from the Carphone Warehouse that costs only 99p. The pay as you go phone is the cheapest currently available within the UK and customers who buy it will be tied to no contract. The phone is aimed at first time users and contains none of the bells and whistles you would expect to find on more expensive models. It would, however, be fairly useful as a backup phone.

According to this article Dyson have recently released an attachment that can be used to vacuum your pet. The £40 tool is designed to remove loose hair from your pet quickly before it gets stuck on carpets and furnishings. Unfortunately I don’t think I could use it on my cats, they are terrified of the vacuum cleaner and bolt for the door as soon as I take it out of the cupboard.

According to this article a new speed camera has been developed that can catch drivers for a number of other offences. Not only can they tell whether a driver is going too fast. They will also be able to tell whether a driver is wearing a seatbelt, measure the distance between cars to tell whether someone is tailgating, look for out of date tax discs, note numbers plates and check whether a driver has insurance. The new cameras have been funded by the European commission and developed by a consortium of European universities and research institutes. They are currently being tested in Finland and so far have been given a cautious welcome by UK motoring organisations. As most traffic offences and accidents are caused by drivers with no tax or insurance I wonder whether this might go some way to taking some of these cars of the road. After all these things are legal requirements if you don’t have them, you shouldn’t be driving in the first place.

According to this article more people are suffering from something called toasted skin syndrome. The problem can be caused by being too close to a heat source such as an electric fire for extended periods of time. Recently, however, there have been a number of cases caused by laptop usage. The picture shows the mottled skin that is caused by the problem. In this case a boy used a laptop for several hours a day and ignored the fact that it was getting hot. When you think that the temperature of a laptop can reach 52C it seems a good precaution to rest your laptop on a book or other surface. The condition whilst it does clear up in some people can cause permanent discolouration of the skin and in some rare cases cancer.

This is interesting its a phone called the Amplicom M6000 which has been designed with the elderly and hard of hearing in mind. The phone has a ring tone that can reach 100 decibels for those who struggle to hear a normal mobile phone. The ear piece can be set to a higher volume so that it can be turned up to hear a call without the user needing to wear their hearing aid. The phone is also designed to be simple to use having a large clear keypad and a screen which displays text messages in extra large type. Unlike other phones it doesn’t overcomplicate matters by adding extras like a camera. It does, however, have a SOS button which can be set to ring a relative in an emergency and a motion sensor which can be set to automatically ring 999 if the user falls over. The phone retails at £119.99 and is compatible with all UK operators except the 3 network.

This is interesting its a new design of foldaway bike. It has been designed by Kevin Scott who cam up with the idea of a bendy bike. The bike includes a mechanism which allows the frame to bend meaning it can be bent around a lamppost and locked to itself. It is currently just a prototype but it certainly looks interesting.

According to this article a device will soon be available that will allow people to charge their mobile phone whilst cycling. The phone manufacturer Nokia has designed the device which connects to a dynamo. It charges when the wheels turn and comes with a phone holder that straps to the handlebars. To charge the phone you would need to cycle at around four miles an hour. The faster you cycle the more charge your battery will get. Cycling at a speed of 10 miles an hour for 10 minutes would give about 28 minutes of talk time or 37 minutes on standby. The kit will be on sale by the end of the year.

This is interesting its a new device which is expected to be popular this summer. Previously launched in the US is will soon be available in the UK. The device allows you to make home made ice lollies in just 7 minutes. Called the Zoku it costs £40 and allows you to pour fruit juice into moulds and produce lollies in 7 minutes.

This replica wine fountain has recently been unveiled at Hampton Court Palace. It is similar to those that would have been used by Henry V111 and has been created after the remains of a 16th century fountain were found at a archaeological dig at the palace in 2008. It stands 13ft high and is made of timber, lead, bronze and gold leaf. The best thing about it, however, is that it is a working replica. At weekends and bank holidays it will serve red and white wine priced at £3.50 a glass. I like the idea of a wine fountain I wonder if I can convince my husband to build one.

This plane is thought to be the world’s biggest model aircraft. Built by Tony Nijhuis in his garage the aircraft is a scale version of a Boeing B-50 Superfortress. It has a 20ft wingspan and weighs about seven stone. It took two years to make plane and cost around £8,000. The aircraft has 96 batteries that power four electric motors. It can manage around 8 minutes in the air before it needs to be recharged.

According to this article 3D televisions have recently gone on sale at John Lewis. Their flagship store has started selling a Samsung 47 inch 3D TV. The TV is on sale for £1,800 but in order to experience the full effect you will also need to purchase a pair of 3D glasses which cost £200. This could get a little expensive if you have to buy glasses for the whole family. Apparently you will also need to own a Blu Ray player in order to watch anything in 3D as there will be no other content available until Sky launches their 3D channel in June. I’m not sure I will be splashing out on one just yet.

This new design for the British plug has recently won the Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award for 2010. It was designed by British student Min-Kyu Choi. It measures just 1cm thick compared with the standard size of 4.5cm and has a fold away design. The two bottom pins of the plug can rotate 90 degrees whilst the top pin remains static meaning it can be easily collapsed to fit inside a laptop case.

This interesting looking device could help treat people who suffer from migraines. The hand held device emits a single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation which disrupts the electrical events in the brain which cause the symptoms of migraine. In a trial 40% of patients who used the device were pain free for hours afterwards. Trials have shown it to be more effective than placebo treatment with more patients being pain free up to 48 hours afterwards. More research is needed before the device is likely to be available to patients.

These rockets have been made by inventor John Coker. He had the idea after a friend remarked that his rockets looked a bit like crayons. The over sized pack of rocket crayons was soon born. They took several years to build  and do pretty much what you would expect rockets to do whilst looking like crayons.

This is interesting, its a machine that supposedly turns waste paper from the office into toilet roll. Called the “White Goat” the machine could not be described as portable, it is 6ft tall and weighs in at 94st. It can create a new toilet roll from 40 sheets of A4 paper in around 30 minutes. Waste paper is fed into a shredder, untangled and then dissolved in a pulper. The wet paper is then thinned out and dried before being wound into toilet paper.

According to this article Dyson have just launched a mini version of its vacuum cleaner. Designed for those who live in small flats or apartments the City DC26 is small enough to store in a bookcase but has all the features you would expect from the bigger model. At £250 its not cheap but I would certainly find this useful for cleaning awkward places like the stairs where I find lifting my larger Dyson a little difficult.

According to this article we will soon be able to watch 3D football matches in our living rooms. Sky have begun testing its technology by filming some matches in 3D and have promised that football will be a major part of its 3D channel content. In order to watch the 3D matches you will need to have a Sky HD set top box and wear 3D glasses but with many TV manufactures launching their 3D models this year it seems TV could be set to get a little bit more exciting.

According to this article this is the world’s largest TV. Recently unveiled by Panasonic it measures 152 inches. If you want one it is likely to have a fairly hefty price tag and you will need a large living room as you need to be seated between 25ft and 38ft away from it to enjoy optimum viewing.

This is an interesting idea, its a see through toaster. The toaster cooks the bread between two sheets of glass so that it is possible to see how well done your toast is and prevent you burning it. It currently only take one slice of bread at a time, however, so may not be that practical for day to use.

I get several thousand spam messages a day so tend to notice the latest trends. It seems that emails pretending to be from Facebook are becoming more popular at the moment and whilst other spam does still outnumber them, I am currently getting a few hundred a day. The emails tend to ask you to log in to update your details and do look like genuine Facebook emails so I can see how some people might be fooled. Bear in mind, though just as you would never click on an email to update an account or change details for a bank account the same applies to Facebook. I have noticed a number of people whose Facebook accounts have been compromised recently, I wonder whether its because they were fooled by one of these emails or whether their account was compromised by another method.

This interesting looking device is a bracelet that will tell you when you are too stressed. The bracelet is supposed to feel the emotional state of the wearer by measuring the way you sweat. It then sends radio signals to the bowl which changes colour depending on the users feelings. The bowl starts off yellow but gradually turns orange and finally red when the user becomes stressed.

Fans of the Wii might be interested in this new gadget which is due to be released in 2010. Called the Cyberbike it looks like an exercise bike. It comes with a cycling sports game but will also be compatible with Mario Kart. The game that comes with the bike will feature 18 different circuits and have several options including Fitness, Story and Multiplayer. I can see that it might be more interesting than using a conventional exercise bike but I’m wondering if like my exercise bike which lies forgotten at the bake of the garage this might also be a gadget that ultimately ends up gathering dust once the initial appeal has worn off.

This is interesting its a watch that contains a satellite positioning system which can locate the wearer to within ten feet. Aimed at parents who want to keep an eye on their children, the brightly coloured watch costs £149.99. Parents will be able to see their child’s location on Google maps by texting a special number. They will also be able to set up safe zones in which the children can play and receive an alert when the children go outside the area. The device is made by a company called Lok8u. I’m not sure how practical it is for children as they would soon learn to take it off but I would be interested in getting one of these for cats. Having emailed the company that makes these I have found out that a cat version is due to be released in the new year.

I was watching Watchdog last week and was interested to see a feature about a fault with the PS3. The problem starts when a yellow light appears on the console after which it no longer works. Dubbed the yellow light of death the issue appears to affect machines that are just part their warranty date. The Watchdog programme approached three commercial repair technicians who tried to fix a small number of consoles and managed to revive all but one of them, so if your PS3 has the issue there are people who can resolve it for you. What I find surprisingly though is that Sony refuse to acknowledge the problem denying that there is a manufacturing fault. So far my PS3 is still ok but I would be interested to hear from anyone who has experienced the problem and whether you managed to fix it.

This is interesting its some pictures taken by a man in Surrey of bats flying over his garden pond. To get the pictures he rigged up this rather elaborate set up using a digital camera that listens for ultrasonic squeaks and an infrared beam to trigger flash  lamps when a bat flew near the water. The first picture shows how he set up his equipment and the second is one of the pictures that he took.

Staff at a computer company in South Africa are using pigeons to transfer data between offices because it it quicker than broadband. They say that it takes six hours to transfer four gigabytes of encrypted data from Durban to their call centre 50 miles away. In contrast it takes a pigeon with a memory card attached to its leg, just an hour to make the journey. The pigeons do face some problems, however, such as getting eaten by predators on route.

This is interesting its a device that has been made by two Kenyan students which allows bicycle riders to charge their phone whilst cycling. The dynamo powered charger is designed to help people in rural areas who do not have electricity. According to the article people in some villages have to travel long distances to shops where they are charged $2 to charge their phone from a car battery or solar panel. The device is small enough to fit into a pocket along with a mobile phone. In Kenya bicycles are sold with a dynamo which is attached to the back wheel to power the lights. The lead can be switched to plug into the charger instead to power the device. It takes about an hour of pedalling to fully charge a mobile phone.

Sony have released two new phones that are made from recycled plastic. The phone are made from old CD cases and water bottles and have been launched as an eco friendly option for customers. The GreenHeart C901 and Naite both feature a camera, video streaming, bluetooth and WAP and work as a conventional phone would. The only difference is that the casing is made from 50 per cent recycled plastic. Both phones also include a low power charger and an in phone e-manual which reduces paper usage by 90 per cent. They also include an application that allows you to work out how much greenhouse gas emissions you can save by choosing to walk somewhere rather than using your car.

Robots can do many useful things, now it appears that there is one that can cook pancakes. The robot which has been invented in Japan stirs the ingredients before pouring the batter onto a heated cooking pan and then flipping them using its spatulas before serving. Very useful but what I am waiting for is a house cleaning robot.

This is an interesting idea, its a mini microwave from Heinz that is designed to be used at your desk. The microwave can be charged from your laptop and is large enough to heat a small pot of food or a mug or soup. It has been made for Heinz snap pots and is just 7.4 inches tall by 6.2 inches wide. At around £100 its not cheap but I can see that it would be quite a useful gadget to have at work.

This is interesting its a Tweeting cat door (pictured left) that has been made by a programmer to track his cats. The cats each have a RFID tag attached to their collars. When they go near the cat door the RFID reader reads the tag and if the cat is authorised a servo unlocks the cat door. Each time there is a cat door event a Twitter message is sent as well as a picture of the cat that has activated the flap. You can check out the updates at the following link.

According to this article the Nintendo Wii has now become the fastest selling games console in history surpassing even the Playstation 2. Since the launch of the Wii in 2006 Nintendo have sold more than 50 million consoles. The Wii seems to be doing well because it appeals to families and casual users who perhaps are not your average Playstation or Xbox gamers and if this article is to believed figures suggest that 20 per cent of Wii owners in the US have no other games console in their home. I find this quite interesting, I own a Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and like all the consoles for different reasons. I do, however, play the Wii considerably less than the other two, it seems to only be used when we have friends around and want something that does require conventional gaming controls. I prefer my Playstation 3 for my SingStar games and for Tombraider and my Xbox 360 is used for more serious games such as Gears of War and Splinter Cell.