The age of the bifocal is over: a firm called PixelOptics has designed a pair of glasses for which the focal length can be adjusted at the touch of a button. How long until they can do so much more? These glasses — in which a layer liquid crystal is placed inside the lens and, when activated by an electric current, it alters it's refractive properties.
electronic tags are fitted to disabled drivers’ cars while sensors instantly notify parking attendants if a non-disabled driver enters a reserved parking bay.
"Several companies have successfully built cooperative marketing structures online. Companies such as OwnerIQ, for example, enable online retailers like Crutchfield to retarget people who visit the web sites of electronics manufacturers, offering the flatscreen TVs they were just studying - at a discount. When it comes to driving brick-and-mortar sales from online, though, Facebook appears to offer the best solution yet. CPG brands gladly pay for retail circulars to help sell their products, and there's reason to believe they could buy Facebook advertising to drive consumers into retail locations.
One company with which we work, ShopLocal, puts a retailer's circular content into a database, including images and all the sale prices and details. In so doing it makes local data portable and extendable, so retailers can build online-only pages of the circular, or utilize QR codes to generate more content than exists in the print world."
researchers have devised a way to "print" devices directly onto the skin so people can wear them for an extended period while performing normal daily activities. Such systems could be used to track health and monitor healing near the skin's surface, as in the case of surgical wounds.
"R2 Studios, which is developing home-media and automation technology, has remained largely mum about its plans but last year released an app that turns Android phones into touch panels for controlling heating and lighting systems wirelessly. R2 Studios also holds some patents related to controlling electronic devices and interfaces."
This is a fairly crazy way to buy things, but it does have a certain appeal to folks who like to thoroughly document their spending habits. You know the ones: They film themselves "unboxing" consumer electronics items, or they upload mirror pics of their new outfits to Pinterest, or they tell all their Facebook friends about the Kickstarter pledge they just made.