As useful as Google Hangouts and Skype are for staying in touch, the screens that divide people while chatting remain a barrier to intimate conversation. Getting us one step closer to more realistically imitating the familiarity of an in-person encounter, researchers at Queen’s University have invented a life-sized, 3-D video conferencing pod that enables users to see the person with whom they are talking in holographic form.

The rendering is so life-like, it’s almost as if the participants are chatting together on a street corner. The device’s cylindrical body is irrefutably unsightly for home environments, but expect future iterations to be infused with a more elegant design sensibility—hopefully, one on par with Jem’s.

(Holo)graphic Content [Cassandra Daily]

What if your lamp and laptop could be powered by plants? ‘Moss Table’ by Biophotovoltaics is an innovative concept product demonstrating the future potential of Bio-Photo-Voltaic (BPV) technology. The ‘moss pots‘ in the table act as bio-electrochemical devices converting the chemical energy into electrical energy using biological material such as algea, cyanobacteria, and vascular plants. The ‘Moss Table’ is still in its concept stage, but it can already produce enough electricity t0 power smaller devices such as digital clocks.

Biophotovoltaic Moss Table Generates Electricity Through Photosynthesis [Inhabitat]

An eco-fashion brand has taken an innovative approach to the issue of transparency and traceability within the fashion industry by developing a new fabric that can make t-shirts appear invisible.

In partnership with the University of The Isle of Wight, eco-fashion brand Rapanui has taken the light transmitting properties of optic fibres and woven a jersey fabric to create an invisible t-shirt. The technology captures light on one side of a garment and relays it on to the opposite side.

The research has been around for a long time but the principle is actually quite simple – to take light from the front of the garment and relay it to the back – and vice versa. Optic fibres are simply light conductive threads. They capture the light in the space immediately surrounding the garment and relay them through the threads. If you can direct this light directly out of the shirt, the result is a vivid perception of invisibility.

Happy April Fool’s Day from all of us here at CBI!

Researchers have already developed a device that allows you to see through eight-inch-thick concrete walls, but now, scientists have devised another way to reveal objects that are hidden from view: a camera that can see around corners.

The novel imaging tool works a lot like sonar, which uses echoes to determine the position and shape of distant objects; the difference is that this new technology uses light (and some sophisticated image-processing capabilities) instead of sound.

Meet the camera that allows you to see around corners [io9]

21st century home security is not your daddy’s Brinks burglar busting siren system. Instead, modern tools and technology allow you to keep tabs on the safety of those you love living inside your home no matter where you are. It’s admittedly really cool stuff, and no business exemplifies this budding industry quite like Utah-based Vivint Security.

It’s really no more complicated than connecting the various sensors and cameras to a unified network connected to the web at-large. The challenges lie mainly in securing the network itself from outside interference, something Vivint reviews seem to suggest the company accomplishes without hiccup. After that, it’s basically all about designing a smartphone app that’s easy to use.

The remote home security system designed by Vivint allows you to do more than just arm and disarm while away from your residence. You can view live video footage of your property and review recordings the system made for you. There’s even a nifty feature that tells you which doors and windows are open and closed throughout your house.

But from a strictly aesthetic point-of-view the best thing about Vivint remote home security is the fact that the installations are mutely white, compact, and specifically designed to be unnoticeable and out of the way. Manufactures and suppliers of 21st century consumer technology are increasingly pressured to concern themselves with the look of their products, and Vivint has chosen to take the initiative.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to how these individual pieces interact with one another, which is the true takeaway for anyone analyzing the operations and business philosophy of Vivint. There is an obvious balance that they’ve applied as far as attention is concerned. With only so many hours in the day to design, plan, and implement the production of a home security system, it’s nice to know they sat down to care about pleasing the eye as much as ensuring the system network was secure.

And to top it all off, the enormous increase in effort doesn’t equate to increased cost compared to competitors, making Vivint Ssecurity a very cool business indeed.

This post is a guest blog post from our supporters.

Want to monitor things and environments remotely without a nerd degree? Maybe you want to get a tweet when your laundry’s done, an email when the basement floods, or a text message when you left the garage door open.

Twine is the simplest way to get the objects in your life texting, tweeting or emailing. Focus on your idea instead of installation or technical stuff. A durable 2.5″ square provides WiFi, internal and external sensors, and two AAA batteries that last for months. A simple web app lets you give Twine human-friendly rules — no programming needed

Scalado excitedly introduce the world’s first object removal innovation in a mobile device: “Remove” automatically deletes unwanted details in captured imaging.

When capturing photos in a busy area, like a public square or a concert for example, it is often difficult to get a clean shot without unwanted objects entering the frame. Now you can capture the shot anyway, and simply let the camera remove the people for you! Point your camera and take a photo. Afterwards you can remove anyone moving around, or select your friends and remove any strangers.

BioLite stoves make cooking on wood as clean, safe and easy as modern fuels while generating electricity to charge phones, lights and other electronics off-grid. The BioLite CampStove, designed for outdoor adventure and emergency preparedness, makes cooking on wood as clean, safe and easy as petroleum fuels while powering electronics off-grid.

Open wood fires are inefficient, wasting potential energy and creating toxic smoke due to incomplete combustion. Carefully designed stoves that use fans to blow air into the fire can dramatically improve combustion. However, such stoves require small amounts of electricity to power their fans and most people who cook on wood are without grid or battery access. BioLite stoves solve this problem by converting a fraction of the fire’s thermal energy into electricity to power the combustion improvement system. Excess electricity is made available to users for charging small electronic devices such as mobile phones, LED lights, GPS and many others.

TrendCentral: Getting a waiter’s or bartender’s attention during a busy weekend rush can pose a real, and often irritating, challenge. The Draqie has arrived to potentially alleviate such frustration. Part dinner table and part waiter, it’s an interactive table that provides restaurant patrons with the ability to view and order from a touch-sensitive, digitized menu. The glass surface reacts only to finger touches, meaning an accidental swipe of cutlery or dishes won’t unintentionally beckon a server. Furthermore, participating establishments can include photos and descriptions of menu items so that customers can make their selections without any fear of mystery ingredients or allergic reactions.

Tabletop Touchdown [TrendCentral]

Popgadget: We love this very clever yet simple concept from Gong Huachao and Wang Hui, which adds a numberpad to your laptop with the help of a special sticker and a program. Ideal for those that use numbers a lot day-to-day and miss a dedicated numberpad for quick sums.

Add a numberpad to your laptop [Popgadget]

Cool ideas are one thing, but for true innovations in technology, the ones that rapidly spread and find near immediate adoption, there generally needs to be a “tipping point” reached by advances in a host of supportive technologies before ignition really takes place. There are ample stories in books and the press about connections and inter-dependencies that have come together to produce everything from radios to lasers to even the latest craze for computerized tablets. For the solar power industry, the tipping point for its breakout has suffered from constant delays along the way.

Yes, solar has come a long way, and yes, many investors have profited handsomely over the past few years if they got in on the ground floor. Lately, however, the industry has been in the doldrums, and future prospects do not look good since the largest market for the products happens to be Europe, a stagnating region already cutting back on imports. Innovation can spark growth under even the worst of circumstances, however, and one “old” idea seems to have caught fire if you wish to believe recent press releases about it.

At a recent electronics trade show in Japan, 3M presented its apparent breakthrough in solar window films. Costing 50 to 70% less than current fully installed solar panels, the innovation is seen as a financial boon for homes, buildings, and even cars, for that matter. Energy is the planet’s “Mother” of all markets, topping $6 trillion on a worldwide basis. Solar has struggled to make inroads, but innovations in storage batteries and connecting to local utility grids have held it back, while the efficiency of the cells themselves has always been suspect.

3M is not touting great advances in efficiency, and it expects to release something new in the battery arena next year. For now, a 3 to 8% efficiency rating is the output, but 3M asserts that, “A square meter under full sun can generate enough power to recharge a smart-phone.” The window films, however, will also help cool offices or homes, adding further to their appeal.

The elders among us may recall high school science projects in the seventies touting the stellar future for solar energy, but we can also remember another industry that took off when all the “stars” lined up in the eighties. Many aspiring entrepreneurs got their business plans together, ran out to get a small business loan, and made millions. The location was Florida. Illicit drugs were flowing through the state, causing a crime wave that swept through the region and beyond. Security and alarm systems were in big demand, and installations spread as quickly as you could splice two wires together.

3M may not have the perfect answer, but a small firm outside of Washington, DC, recently demonstrated before physicists, academics, and the press that its product leapfrogs the “titans” at 3M, both in efficiency and installation costs. It’s time to get a small business loan.

This post is a sponsored blog post.