Aoyama wool suit is as comfortable as a t-shirt

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Japanese clothier Aoyama, the Japan Wool Textile Co., and two other companies have created a high-tech weave for a new kind of wool suit that breathes like a t-shirt. How did they manage that? The new process involves enlarging the spaces between the weave which allows six times as much air to pass through, as if through a conventional dress shirt. This should make the suit warm and cool at the same time. Advertisement, which involves flying jackets and a woman toting a thermometer, after the jump. [GT]

Aoyama breathable suit (Source in Japanese: Nikkei)

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Swedes invent "talking paper"

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Using pressure-sensitive ink and printed speakers, new “talking paper” is essentially an interactive billboard. “When you approach the billboard and put your hand on a postcard that shows a picture of a beach, you can hear a very brief description of that beach,” suggests project lead Mikael Gulliksson. The electronics are sandwiched between a heavy-duty cardboard backing and the decorative front layer, so it’s not precisely the flimsy thin stuff we think of as paper, but we could soon see pop star posters which whisper sweet nothings to us in our sleep. [GT]

Talking paper made by scientists (via Engadget)

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Pileus: Internet umbrella with GPS

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When I originally heard about the Pileus Internet Umbrella I thought, oh boy, another gadget about as useful as the combination washing machine and MP3 player. However, your eyes open to new possibilities when you realize it has built-in GPS, allowing you to simply look up and see “YOU ARE HERE” and how to get to there. It also has a low-res camera and the ability to upload straight to Flickr. Probably it also keeps you dry. Video after the jump. [GT]

Pileus Internet Umbrella

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First zero-emission home unveiled

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At Offsite2007, Kingspan Off-site unveiled the first zero-emission home in the UK. Boasting a wind-catcher to cool the house during the summer and burning wood pellets in the winter, it also generates its own electricity and hot water via solar power, providing a savings of about £500 per year. While construction costs are about 40% higher than they would be with a conventional house, the price is apt to drop as more are built. [GT]

First zero-emission home unveiled

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Full Size Camarasaurus Dinosaur Replica

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How many times have you thought to yourself, “You know, the back garden looks a little spare. What it really needs is an 18-foot dinosaur.” No, me neither. But apparently the chaps at drinkstuff felt a full-size Camarasaurus was just the solution, provided you budget £28,000 for this rather than, say, just buying another house. [GT]

Full-size Camarasaurus (via Red Ferret)

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Wall gear clock turns your clock inside out

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The wall gear clock makes some profound statement about time and technology by turning your clock inside out, or possibly is art, or may just be a really difficult clock to keep clean. Designed to let you see the entrails of your busily whirring timepiece, the Wall Gear Clock goes for £75.00 (though is temporarily out of stock). [GT]

Wall gear clock (viacoolest-gadgets)

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Robotic lawnmower kills Danish man

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The robotic lawnmower concept is terrific in all directions — they’re electric, so they don’t generate ghastly diesel emissions, they tend to mow daily and mulch the clippings so the lawn is healthier and there’s no clumps of grass to dispose of, and they spare your precious time. However, they do still involve heavy duty spinning blades and require caution, as demonstrated in Denmark recently when a municipal worker was killed by a robotic lawnmower. The mower became unbalanced, tipped over, and fell onto the worker, killing him instantly with a blade to the head. Video of the mower itself, the Spider ILD 01, after the jump. [GT]

Robot lawnmower kills Danish man (via Engadget)

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Marka27 mini god speakers

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Bow down before your new gods, mortals! Dreamed into existence by the entity known as marka27,the vinyl figures stand at an imposing 16 inches. They plug into any music player via a built-in 1.5mm audio jack and are powered by a 9-volt battery. The gods will manifest themselves at the San Diego Comic Con in July through the auspices of Toy Tokyo.

marka27 (viatechnabob)

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Biotex programme "intelligent textiles"

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God knows we’re not very good at keeping track of our own health as a species, so it’s a good thing science is bringing us smart clothes that will keep an eye on how we’re doing physically. The Biotex programme “intelligent textiles” are designed for recovering hospital patients, people with chronic illnesses and injured athletes, to monitor sweat acidity, salinity and perspiration rate. By tracking metabolic changes the expectation is that infections and relapses will generally be easier to catch before they become severe. It is expected that future versions will have military applications, to allow mobile hospitals to track battlefield injuries. [GT]

Smart clothes to monitor health

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