My Science School

Ever come across a colour you want to use in a design or to paint your walls with? The SwatchMate Cube lets you capture the exact colour. Just hold it up to the coloured surface that you want to copy, and press the top. An internal spherical light source illuminates the surface in a controlled sequence, with the reflected light being picked up by an integrated colour sensor. The device immediately sends the colour via Bluetooth to a paired iOS or Android smartphone or to Photoshop on a nearby computer, although it can also store up to 20 colours in its own memory. The Cube can output colours in the RGB, CMYK and L*a*b* colour spaces.

Once you've picked a color, they can either be stored on your phone for later use, or beamed straight to Photoshop, using Bluetooth.

The Kickstarter project has already hit more than $85,000 of its $55,000 funding goal — but for photographers, it would be especially useful to hit the $90,000 mark. That's when SwatchMate would add a light intensity sensor, allowing it to be used as a light meter, to. If it hits that point, $80 for a gadget that can works as a light meter as well as a color sampler would be a pretty fantastic tool.

Picture Credit : Google

The original name in online photo sharing recently updated its Android and iOS apps. Refine your pics in real-time with editing tools that enable deep photo tweaking, and Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr integration. Record up to 30 seconds of HD video using the same live filters available with photos and customize the video by adding different segments of footage. Its new Auto Sync feature lets you upload original quality photos from your phone automatically to your account. Other new features include a smarter and faster search, detailed photo data and limiting the audience of select photos. Plus 1000 GB of free storage for everyone who downloads the app.

Flickr has also finally renamed Sets (a collection of images) to the more widely used Album.

In addition, Flickr to challenge the Instagram and other photo-editing apps has also introduced new editing tools such as levels, crop, colour balance, contrast, saturation and live filters (total of 14 live filters for iOS) for HD video editing to its iOS app.

Flickr's vice president, Bernardo Hernandez said in a blog post, "Whether you're new to Flickr or one of our biggest fans, we want you to know the new apps are the beginning of a great deal more to come! They represent our commitment to building new products for your changing needs and they offer a beautiful canvas for upcoming features."

Credit : Gadgets 360

Picture Credit : Google

Need portable power on the go? Vorson's Bookmark packs a 2,500 mAh battery into a thin shockproof housing that's just 4.7 mm thick. On its bulging bottom you'll find a standard-sized USB port, as well as touch-to-activate battery meter so you always know how much juice is left. The battery works with any USB charging cable, including a micro USB cable. Described by Vorson as the "world's thinnest backup battery", with the $60 Bookmark you won't have to worry where your next charge will come from.

The Vorson Bookmark battery is designed to be easy to carry with you, you won't find better and more practical than having the world thinnest portable battery in your pocket, with the capacity to fully recharge once your phone, it will provide enough power to ensure you can make it through the busiest days, on family trip or if you are going out of town for a few days with friends or for work.

Power charging has become a difficult issue for people these days as smartphones and tablets are being use many hours each day. But don't worry, with Vorson Bookmark portable rechargeable battery,

No more stress to see your phone dying when waiting for an important phone call, texting or browsing online for vital informations. Now you can finally enjoy using your phone or any devices that can connect to USB, the Vorson Bookmark battery can recharge virtually any USB device.

Picture Credit : Google

Here's a fun way to show your friends what you're up to, it's your excuse to take a selfie. The entire concept of Frontback is in its name Snap a picture of what you're seeing with your phone's front camera; then another with your rear camera of you, and a frontback' is created.

Enter Frontback, the app. It was released today in the App Store. Now, there is no whitespace around a Frontback photo, absolutely no chrome. The photo itself doesn’t have any filter. It’s just two square-ish photos on top of each other, filling up the entire screen of your iPhone. It’s all about immersing yourself and putting yourself in your friends’ shoes.

“It tells so much more than a photo on Instagram,” Instagram designer Tim Van Damme recently told Della Faille. “Two photos change everything,” Della Faille told me. “On Instagram, you share something because it’s beautiful, but you don’t share the context,” he continued.

Share both in a single image on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can tag your FB friends right from the app. Free for iOs from the App Store.

Picture Credit : Google

The Micro Phone Lens is an adhesive add-on lens that lets you take and send microscopic pictures and videos with your phone to all your science-loving (or not) buddies.

Measuring only 6 mm in diameter, the lens simply clips on over the top of the one on your smartphone to provide microscopic levels of detail. It is washable, removable and reusable, so you won't have to lock it into one specific smartphone or tablet. The lens is made using "platinum catalyzed silicone technology", meaning it uses soft plastic instead of glass, making it flexible, scratch-resistant and optically identical to glass.

The lens can achieve a magnification of 15X, and a magnification of 60X with the help of the smartphone or tablet's digital zoom. Phones with cameras of 5MP and higher are recommended.

Picture Credit : Google

A wristwatch for your finger POCKET-watch, wrist-watch, finger-watch? As its name suggests, The Ring Clock is a watch that you wear as a ring. The chunky stainless steel finger ring is made up of an inner and an outer ring. The outer ring has three distinct bands; the top one has 24-hour clock markings, the second has minute markings, and the third has dots showing the seconds ticking away.

The Ring Clock sits on your finger in an inert state until you spin the outside ring, at which point the time is revealed by the correct numbers lighting up with LEDs. This keeps battery use to a minimum, which, as the battery only lasts two hours before needing to be recharged via its Qi wireless power charger pad, is a good thing.

Charging the device looks just as impressive as wearing it. With its own futuristic pad, you can be sure that losing the ring will never happen.

Outdoor enthusiasts would be happy to know that the Ring Clock is water resistant. Unlike most crafty watches, you won’t have to remove it every time you go for a jog or jump in the shower.

The devices comes in standard international sizes, which does not affect the features of the ring.

Picture Credit : Google

How many times have you silenced your phone and forgot to turn the ringer back on? Shush!, a super-simple app, makes sure you'll never forget your phone on silent again. Once your phone's on silent, Shush! automatically launches its timer which you can set to anything from 15 minutes to 12 hours, in increments of 15 minutes. It will tell you what time the ringer will come back on. You can also control your phone's ringer volume once it comes back on. The app is small and light so it won't hog valuable space on your phone. Great for class, the movies and sleep! Free on Google Play.

In push-to-silence mode (aka “cough button”), press and hold the hotkey to immediately mute your microphone so nobody hears anything you don’t want them to. Release the hotkey and Shush will unmute your microphone.

In push-to-talk mode, your microphone will be muted until you press and hold a chosen hotkey, unmuting your microphone and allowing your voice to flow freely. Release the hotkey and Shush will mute your microphone again.

Picture Credit : Google

Google updated its terms of service recently to allow them to use your real name and face alongside ads, under an expansion of its "shared endorsements" program. To stop Google from using details from your Google+ profile in its ad campaign, go to the Shared Endorsements page on Google+. Scroll down to this option: "Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads." Uncheck the box and click 'Save'.

According to Google’s new and not-so-improved (in our opinion) terms, this includes your “Google profile name, profile photo, and actions you take on Google or third-party applications connected to your Google Account (such as +1’s, review you write and recommendations you post) in our Services.”

It’s all part of Google’s new Shared Endorsements plan, which ensures “that your reviews, recommendations and other relevant activity” get in front of “the people you really care about” in the form of ads and in other “shopping contexts” that they might see when cruising for apps, music and other stuff in the Google Play store and elsewhere.

Credit : Entrepreneur 

Picture Credit : Google

Say goodbye to getting wrapped up in miles of cord connecting your MP3 player to your headphones. Split is a wireless audio player that fits the ears like ear buds. The magnetic earphones turn on when you split them apart. You can control the volume and playback via "bite clicks" or by biting down which is detected by a 3-axis accelerometer. One bite skips a track while a double bite adjusts the volume. The player can be locked to avoid potential chaos when they're chewing gum while using the device! Each earphone contains a memory chip, circuit board, processor and a button cell battery. Both earbuds are synchronized with high precision crystal clocks so they can play in unison. The device can be charged using a standard USB. The earbuds only exchange a short near-field signal when the track or volume is changed reducing the amount of radiation you are exposed to as compared to a Bluetooth streaming headset. The main limitation is that music is stored locally in the earphones in a memory of 256MB.

With no buttons or microphone for voice command, Split uses its accelerometers for control. These are designed to respond when the user bites.

One bite, even a soft 'bite click', changes tracks, and two bites changes the volume, cycling through low, medium, high and muted volume settings. The volume control can also be used to place the player on standby.

Tapping the right earbud deactivates the control.Split's makers have just launched a Kickstarter campaign aimed at bringing the current design to production standard and to enable mass production of the device.

Credit : First Post

Picture Credit : Google

Created by design company MJ McLaren, Video Earrings can play four to eight hours of videos, screen savers, slideshows or advertisements. The fashion device consists of hook earrings with a small screen dangling from them. The device is 2.25" in length, 1.25" in height, and weighs approximately 17 grams. The earrings connect via USB cable, which can be used to charge the device or load it with videos. Compatible with both PC and MAC platforms, the device accepts MOV, AVI, MP4, WMV, Mpeg and Mpg video file formats. When not in use, the earrings can be powered off or put on an automatic screen saver mode. It can play audio, but is not designed to have audio playing constantly. The creators plan to come out with three storage capacities -- 2GB, 4GB and 8GB.

The 2.2-inch screens would play popular video formats and would be loaded and recharged via USB cable.

Set in a carbon fiber frame, the high-tech jewelry would have simple volume and power buttons and built-in speakers -- just in case what's coming out of your mouth isn't as interesting as what's on your screens.

The Video Earrings are being offered for only $50 and come with attachments of various lengths.

Picture Credit : Google

Android powers over 1 billion smartphones and tablets and since these devices make our lives so sweet, each Android version is named after a dessert: Cupcake, Donut, Eclat. Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. As everyone find chocolate so tempting, Google decided to name the next version of Android (4.4) after a chocolate treat-KitKat!

About three years ago, when Google launched Kitkat, it released this statement that sheds a little more light on the naming convention than the spokesperson’s explanation: “Android is the operating system that powers over 1 billion smartphones and tablets. Since these devices make our lives so sweet, each Android version is named after a dessert: Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean. As everybody finds it difficult to stay away from chocolate we decided to name the next version of Android after one of our favorite chocolate treats, Kitkat.”

Google, of course, is not unique when it comes to naming important stuff after a certain category of things. Apple’s OSs are named after cats, and the Italian supercar company Lamborghini has a long tradition of naming its cars after fighting bulls, but Mountain View really does go all the way when it comes to naming their operating systems and celebrating them.

Picture Credit : Google

The clip-on Eye Tribe Tracker technology means you can hold your tablet in one hand and a pizza in the other while your eyes take care of the swiping and tapping on your devices. It connects via USB 3 and tracks the exact point that the user is looking at on the screen. It's the smallest eye tracker in the world and allows hands-free navigation of apps and websites on tablets, laptops and desktops and device control such as aiming in games, eye activated login or hands-free typing. Currently available only for Windows PC, laptops or tablets, Android and iOS versions are also in the works.

An eye tracker uses invisible near-infrared light and high definition cameras to project light onto the eye and record the direction it’s reflected off the cornea. Advanced algorithms are then used to calculate the position of the eye and determine exactly where it is focused. This makes it possible to measure and study visual behavior and fine eye movements, as the position of the eye can be mapped multiple times a second. How quickly an eye tracker is able to capture these images is known as its frequency. A recording can also be made of the scene a person is looking at, and using eye tracking software it’s possible to produce a visual map of how the person viewed elements of the scene.

In this blog post we will explore the range of eye trackers available, what types of research each is most suited to, how to understand and interpret the results of your eye tracking study, and the unique benefits of using eye tracking in research.

Credit : Tobii Pro

Picture Credit : Google

The total number of people who have played Call of Duty is larger than the population of some countries in the world. To put that into context, the population of Germany is only 80.4 million!

It also took 25 billion hours of play time to fire them all, which is longer than humans have actually existed!

Warzone’s overwhelming success is no surprise, with over 100 million players in the game. However, it’s only gotten bigger. In an earnings document published by Activision, Warzone is currently sitting at a monthly 111 million players. While most of that playerbase is brought in because of Warzone being free-to-play, Warzone is also one of the biggest battle royale games out there because of its heritage. Holding the Call of Duty brand is one of the key factors in Warzone’s success. Combine that with the engine and gameplay of Modern Warfare 2019, which received critical acclaim for its back-to-basics gameplay, and Warzone is the best-case scenario for Call of Duty. 

Warzone has proven to be one of the biggest titles in the franchise. Combining the numbers between Cold War, Warzone, and Modern Warfare, there are more than 113 million players enjoying what Call of Duty has offered over the past two years. More players are also enjoying the entire library of Call of Duty titles, with each game holding a small yet active playerbase. Not many game franchises can keep that kind of player commitment, which touts Call of Duty as the only first-person shooter franchise to go to.

Credit : Esports Talk

Picture Credit : Google

American astronaut Steven R. Swanson is the first astronaut residing in the International Space Station to take and post the first Instagram photo from outer space, and that photo, naturally, is a selfie. Swanson accompanied the space selfie with the caption, "Back on ISS, life is good."

The image, posted to the official ISS Instagram account is—befitting of our times—a selfie. The photo shows American astronaut Steven R. Swanson in the station’s scenic seven-window observatory module. Swanson, who has flown one previous mission to the station, captioned the photo with, “Back on ISS, life is good.” Obviously, no filter was needed.

Swanson launched with two Russian cosmonauts, Aleksandr Skvortsov, and Oleg Artemyev, on March 25 aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, becoming the 39th crew to journey to the station. Expedition 39 started the Instagram account back in January as a way of documenting the last few months of their training and preparation.

In recent years, NASA and the ISS program have garnered a lot of public attention from savvy social media use. In 2009, astronaut Mike Massimino became the first person to Tweet from space. Massimino has since attracted more than 1.28 million Twitter followers. And if the backdrop of the first space Instagram looks familiar, that’s because it was one of backdrops used Chris Hadfield’s “Space Oddity” music video last year. The video, shot aboard the ISS, became a viral sensation garnering more than 21 million views on YouTube.

Credit : Daily Dot

Picture Credit : Google

Skulpt's Aim is the world's first wireless device that determines the health of your muscles. It uses electrical impedance myography (EMI) developed by Skulpt co founder Dr Seward Rutkove of Harvard Medical School. The device, which is smaller than a smartphone, is pressed against the skin where key muscles are located (specifically the biceps, triceps, abs and thigh). The Aim sends an undetectable current through the body wherever it makes contact; its sensors can distinguish both muscle from fat, and weaker muscles from stronger ones. Algorithms then convert the data into fat percentage and muscle quality that are shown on the screen. Priced at $149, the Aim can help users improve their overall fitness.

The underside of the Aim consists of 12 electrodes that measure how current moves through the target muscles. It is recommended that the user take measurements at four sites (biceps, triceps, abs, and thighs) to obtain a snapshot of the total body fat percentage and muscle quality, with each measurement taking less than a second. The measurements are instantly displayed on the device’s LED screen. The Aim also includes Bluetooth communication to allow the user to monitor his or her fitness through an online dashboard. The online companion tool allows the user to set workout goals to reach a certain muscle quality target and also provides active fitness advice to the user. The Aim is water resistant, allowing for it to be used in a wide range of environments and the rechargeable battery can last up to two months at a time.

Picture Credit : Google