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WELCOME TO THE WEIRD Wide Web – where we take a look at the week’s best offerings in tech and social media news.
(Image: Jawbone.com)
Jawbone's UP fitness-tracking wristband has made a comeback after an embarrassing first launch last year after which it had to be withdrawn over reliablilty problems, Telegraph reports. Creaters started fresh with a new design and the gadget works as a pedmoeter, monitors your sleep and even acts as an alarm which you can set through the app.
(Image: BikeSpike/Kickstarter)
Have you experienced the frustration and helplessness of a stolen bike? The BikeSpike is a simple way to prevent it from happening again. You attach a small tracking device to your bike which is linked to an app. If it's stolen you can trace its whereabouts and nail those suckers.
(BikeSpike/Vimeo)
(Image: VanderbiltUniversity/YouTube)
This humanoid robot helps to train children with autism in coordinating their attention with other people and objects in their environment. Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University Nilanjan Sakar said that if children are" more interested in the robot than in human therapies then the robot might be able to use this engagement to some benefit". Research findings indicate that the robot could place a key role in responding to the growth in the number of people being diagnosed with autism.
Toshiba Research and Cambridge University have designed this slightly unsettling digital talking head which can express human emotions on demand. Gizmodo reports that the creators had an actress read over 7,000 different simple sentences, in different emotions while tracking facial expressions to create the avatar dubbed 'Zoe'.
(CambridgeUniversity/YouTube)
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Bikespike is a great invention, I have it set up for my Nans high nelly. We have second one stuck to Mrs Reillys bike so Nan can tell when she has to hide. Mrs Reilly does stay talking for hours and my Nan doesn’t like having to pretend to talk to her. We just keep the app open on our iPad and when the dot appears for Mrs Reillys bike we turn off the lights and hide under the window in the kitchen and try not to laugh because we know Mr Reilly does be looking in the window to see if Nan has bought any new cushions or throwovers for the couch in the sitting room.
Zoe ? Should have named it Holly
Floating head reminds of Red Dwarf!!!
*reminds me
I love the idea of the “bike spike”.. Plant it on ur teenagers clothes, that way when they go “out” to ‘no where” with “no one” doing “nothing” at least I’ll know the general area that all of this happened in ;-)
Expanding Dublin Bikes scheme to other parts of the city would also help to combat bike theft. After all, no bike, no bike theft…
Otherwise, a cool app.
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