Now You Can Undo-Send Your Gmail

Credit: Fast Company

Fed up with the cringe-worthy moments of mis-sending your emails, exposing unspeakable content to undesirable recipients? Now you get to undo your sent Gmail with a few clicks in the ‘General’ tab.

But your email can only be unsent provided that you haven’t navigated away from the page, meaning your boss is still going to receive that hateful email if you’ve already left the page, with the email already on its way. Also, the effect can only be done within five to 30 seconds of clicking the ‘send’ button.

How do you like this new tool which Google has been testing since 2009? 

Zero Energy Home with One Kit in One Week

Credit: Fast Company

It’s almost too good to be true: a group of innovators in the Netherlands have created a device that could turn an old house into net-zero energy homes in just a little over a week. How neat is that?

The device was invented to show that you don’t have to be loaded or extremely environmentally conscious to be able to own a net-zero energy home, and the point the project is meant to start will be the mid-century, low-income rental houses that all share similar layouts. What the kit includes is a system of prefab parts that can be easily installed on existing properties, from a roof covered in solar panels to facades onto old walls without the need of demolition, and a cube-shaped energy module that holds everything necessary for the generation of sustainable heat, hot water, power and ventilation.

The best thing of all? The kit is also designed to ensure that the retrofits will cause the least disruption to the lives of the renters. According to Linda van Leeuwen of the BAM Group, one of the construction companies behind the project, residents won’t have to move out; if anything, they’re only required to move the sofa or television a bit for the removal of window frames to make room for the installation of new front and back façade.

With the advancement in technology and increased support from material suppliers, the cost of the project has dropped drastically from USD144,000 two years ago to USD45,000 per townhouse today. Needless to say, utility bills for the renters will drop just as exponentially, for now their houses will be able to create renewable energy by themselves.

The system is said to work in many different world countries, and we in Hong Kong can only hope the engineers could come and make the net-zero energy houses a reality here! 

Type with Your Greasy Fingers

Credit: designboom

If you’re a fan of KFC and if you have the tendency to type away on your smartphone with your greasy fingers, your luck is in, as German advertising company Serviceplan has invented something that could save the need for wipes to rid your mobile’s screen of grease afterwards.

Called ‘tray typer’, the thin, rechargeable Bluetooth keyboard that will arrive with your food tray will allow you to connect with your nearby smartphone, so that you can type away on the tray, be it to reply your WhatsApp messages or comment on Facebook. In case you’re wondering, it’s conductive inkjet technology that makes the tray typer workable.

The best thing of all? KFC is seriously contemplating introducing the tray typer to one of its chains in the United States. Wouldn't it be nice if KFC Hong Kong could do the same, so you can leave the cleaning up of greasy fingerprints to the cleaners? 

Let the Dog Handle the Shutter

Credit: Heartography Nikon Asia

No, you read it right. We meant dogs can now become photographers now, and not needing you to hold the camera for them. Created by Nikon, Heartography SmartCase is a camera device that turns emotions (of your dog) into photographs.

The way it works is that your dog’s heartbeat data is gathered with an elastic, conductive band that is tied around the dog’s neck, before it is transmitted via Bluetooth. The servo arm of the Heartography SmartCase would then depress the camera’s shutter button, readying the camera’s focus for a photo. Once a spike in heart rate (when it exceeds a predefined baseline, set by buttons on the SmartCase) is detected, the Pro Trinket microcontroller will move the servo to take the photo.

Sounds complicated? It’s all really about your dog taking photos of what excites or scares them. Here, let Grizzler, the world’s first canine photographer show you how it works.

Pain No More

Credit: Fast Company

Cringe-worthy is how I remember the day I had my measles vaccination. I was already crying before I reached the clinic, and dad had to promise me a stuffed dog if I’d only let my arm take the jab. It took a lot of coaxing, compared to what little of it my dad had to do for my sister, who had the pluck to stick out her arm, like a man, for the nurse, and watched as the needle went under her skin.

There’s something terrifying about injections, although now that I come to think of it, it was more the unjustifiably multiplied pain in our head than the actual pain that scares some of us. But that could soon be history now, with Comfortably Numb, a device that ensures painless injection, invented by Rice University students Andy Zhang and Mike Hua.

Comfortably Numb is really a small 3D-printed canister (which contains water and ammonium nitrate) attached to a hypodermic needle, and a twist of it will break the two ingredients, causing the metal plate at the bottom of the device to chill, therefore numbing the skin to 4.5^oC before it is punctured by the needle.

The only thing that is stopping Comfortably Numb from being widely used in the market is its cost: at USD2 it is significantly more expensive than the needle, which costs just USD0.35. So, your thoughts?

Time to Eat

Credit: Ode

Among senior-related issues, often overlooked is the problem of weight loss among dementia patients. The truth is, people suffering from dementia would actually forget to eat, like they’d forget they’d already eaten. But a newly invented device is expected to help dementia patients eat well and on time.

Meet Ode, an assisted living and wellbeing product designed by a British team specialising in product design and fragrance, to enable certain level of independence among dementia patients while offloading responsibilities from caregivers, by alerting the patients of mealtimes through the emission of food scents, which come with an extensive menu from fresh orange juice, cherry tart, homemade curry to braised beef casserole and black forest gateau. Released for three times a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), the fragrances are developed by British perfumers and flavourists, with the intention to improve appetite and create a pleasant, homely environment.

Ode has been tested with over 50 individuals and families living with dementia, and 50% of participants have gained an average of 2kg of weight over 11 weeks. Several residents living in care homes have shown increased appetite and inclination to socialise over mealtime, according to their caregivers.

Sounds like a device worth a round of applause? 

Because Air Quality Matters

Credit: Awair

As a new victim of nasal allergy, I must concur with my fellow sufferers that yes, at times you just wish that you could cut off your nose and be done with the allergy, once and for all. What’s tricky about nasal allergy – in my case, at least – is that you never know when it’ll strike. It basically comes and goes as it pleases, causing stuffiness in your nostrils just when you’re about to sleep, or making you sneeze like a maniac in the middle of a work meeting. I can blame it on the severe air pollution in Hong Kong, the shedding seasons for my cats and what-not, but whatever the causes, nasal allergy is simply annoying.

Enough of my rant. It looks like help is at hand. A sleek device with an appearance that resembles a retro-style amplifier, Awair is designed to analyse your indoor air quality in real time, learn your routines, and communicate with other home devices to help you achieve optimal air quality for your home or office. By allowing you to choose from the list of habits and lifestyle preferences, Awair tracks the daily air quality levels in a given room, and can then recommend ways to help change your behaviours, such as activating the humidifier (to which it is connected) to increase moisture content in the room if it’s deemed too dry for comfort. With sensors that survey carbon dioxide, fine dust particles and volatile organic compounds in the air, Awair shows you the quality of the air that you’re breathing through a companion app that illustrates the data using infographics and digital cards.

Good news is Awair is now available for pre-order at USD149, and will be shipping from autumn this year onwards. I don’t know about you but I’m seriously tempted.