Gadgets

With the touch of a button, a motorist can adjust a car's seat, mirrors, and stereo system; so why can't we adjust our bathrooms as easily? Architects at the University at Buffalo have already built two prototypes that can be personalized to fit our needs.

Both bathrooms have sinks, toilets, and showers that move up and down for people of different heights, as well as sinks and showers that move sideways to make space. In one prototype, the bathroom's components are on interchangeable panels, with multiple plumbing hookups built into the walls.

PS RATING: B




As a licensed massage therapist, I get a lot of "could you rub my shoulders for just a minute?" But sadly, offers to reciprocate are infrequent. So I was more than happy to try Inada's new H.9 Shiatsu Massage Chair, a top-seller in Japan that is now available in America.



Shiatsu involves applying pressure to specific points on the body; the key spots vary by person. As such, I was skeptical as to how the chair would find mine.

It was a plum assignment, one I'd dreamed about since my teenage days at the local arcade: test the latest game systems -- the all-new Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, plus Sony's year-old PlayStation 2 -- and, in the end, pick the best.

The problem with forced-air heating is that as it gives (heat), it also takes away (humidity). The result: chapped lips, parched furniture, and lots of static electricity. So why not add moisture back at the source? The Humidifier Register replaces your floor-vent cover; fill it with water periodically and it sends moist warm air into the room when the furnace kicks in. Price: $15.

If all goes according to plan, Coleman Powermate will introduce the world's first practical home fuel cell this month. But don't look for it at Home Depot: It'll only be available at www.colemanpowermate.com.

Well here we are again. Back in Las Vegas for the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show. This is PopSci.com's second annual inside peek at the enormous trade show that spotlights the brightest and best technology innovations we can expect to see in the months ahead. Once again I 'll give you the viewpoint of the most average of Joes (yours truly).

You could probably get through winter without an ergonomic ice scraper, but why? The Ice Dozer gets the job done quicker and better. The wild-looking Dozer has micro and macro teeth for clearing ice, and a straight edge that flexes to follow the curve of the windshield. A pistol grip lets you put your full weight behind each push. Price: $15.

They're semi-intelligent, loud, and hellbent on a path of destruction. Not teenagers, but rather a new creation designed for them: Bio-Integrated Organisms, or Bio Bugs for short. The new toy from Hasbro represents a breakthrough of sorts -- it's only $40, yet it's hardwired with artificial intelligence created at Sandia National Laboratory. The result: These toys can work together to complete tasks.

Walk down the street, look at the world. This is reality. Now repeat, but wearing an odd-looking, bulky pair of glasses that place into your line of vision selective, relevant bits of data about the world; the data hovers in sight like virtual Post-it Notes, annotating your view. This is augmented reality. Glasses on, you glance to the right, at a vaguely familiar restaurant, and click a small button in your hand.

From the days of Les Paul and Charlie Christian to those of Eric Clapton and Metallica, the electric guitar has remained basically the same. A "pickup" consisting of a magnet surrounded by a coil of wire is placed close to a metal string. The string's vibration changes the magnetic field, which transmits an electric signal through the coil. This signal is then broadcast through an amplifier.

But California's Lightwave Systems is about to introduce something new: an optical system that uses infrared light to cast a shadow of the string onto a series of photodetectors. As the string vibrates, the shadow does too, modulating a current and producing a signal much like a magnetic pickuponly a lot better.

When I first saw Whirlpool's Personal Valet a few months ago in North Carolina, I didn't have time for a formal test. But I did have a wrinkled shirt with me (more accurately, on me). I loaded it into the device, waited a half-hour, and -- voilà -- my shirt came out pressed and clean-smelling.

Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best. Exhibit A: the Venta Airwasher,
a combo air purifier-humidifier that's now available in the United States after a successful debut in Germany.

It's the circle of life, I'd always figured: You buy a carpet, you stain a carpet, you use bottle cleaners to smear a carpet, you replace a carpet. Thus, I didn't give Dirt Devil's Spot Scrubber ($50) a second look when it came out last year. But over the past few months, it's removed wine, coffee, and tomato sauce from my carpet like magic. What's the secret? I asked Dirt Devil's Rob Matousek.

The annual Young Inventors Awards program challenges kids to design and build gadgets that solve real, everyday problems. Not only does the contest spur creativity, says Brian Short of the National Science Teachers Association, it also teaches a valuable lesson in problem solving: "Any complex tool can be broken down into several simple tools." Here are three semifinalists from this year's competition, along with comments from the inventors.