360 DEGREES Weblog

No medicine can do its job if it’s not taken on the right schedule, yet only about half of people with chronic diseases adhere faithfully to their dosing regimen, according to the World Health Organization. Aimed at improving that statistic, GlowCaps are a line of electronic pill caps that use multiple means to ensure patients take their medicine when they should.

GlowCaps, which are from Cambridge, Mass.-based Vitality, fit on standard 20 dram medication vials and feature a small computer that illuminates the pill cap and plays a melody at medication time. To set up the basic GlowCap Solo, now available through Amazon for USD 29.95, users simply insert the included watch batteries at their daily dose time (the GlowCap Solo is designed just for once-a-day medications). Then, every day thereafter at that time, the GlowCap flashes a visual reminder to attract the user’s attention. If the bottle is not opened within an hour, the device periodically plays a short melody for another hour after that.

What’s even more interesting, however, is the next version of the line—still forthcoming—dubbed GlowCaps Connect. Designed specifically for managing chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and depression, where daily medications are critical, GlowCaps Connect goes beyond just using light and sound to include Internet connectivity as well for a range of new reminder mechanisms. A reminder schedule can be set up for more than one dose or medication per day, and when patients forget to take one—after the reminder melody has been played—the caps can be set to trigger a phone call to remind them. GlowCaps Connect can also be programmed to send weekly updates to a friend, family member or caregiver, and each month the service sends a report to the patient’s doctor, thereby increasing accountability and rewarding good performance with coupons and incentives. Finally, GlowCaps Connect will also coordinate with the patient’s pharmacy for automatic prescription refills. No word yet on when GlowCaps Connect will be released.

This creative piece of guerrilla advertising was done fora local FedEX Kinko’s store in New York. Great stuff, this Type-X

Fisher Price announced a handful of high-tech gear at Toy Fair this year, including the My Toon TV which is just the thing if your kids have ever wanted to appear on TV… as a cartoon character. They can use the built-in camera to snap a photo of themselves, which is then ‘meshed’ with one of 11 cartoon characters. Once the tooning transformation is complete, their character will dance around on screen to one of 5 built-in songs, or to music from an external audio source like an MP3 player. There’s also a microphone accessory that doubles as a remote control and camera trigger. It’s expected to hit stores in June with a suggested price of $69.99.

Toshiba is working on an ultra-thin OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display that could be used to wallpaper your home, turning any wall into a huge TV.

From Toshiba:

“The wallpaper uses light that has been redirected by an ultra-fine grating that is fabricated by self-assembled nano particles.” Also according to Toshiba, it’s several years from commercial production.
Damn — I want it now. Lenses will amplify the light, and brightness levels close to more traditional TVs will be possible with nanotechnology. Entire rooms could be covered with a floor-to-ceiling glow. Instead of picking a permanent color palette for a room, set one for your mood at the moment. Don’t paint a static mural in your kid’s room, just install this and keep moving murals playing all day long. Keep a sunny day in your kitchen, all winter long. Or just use it as the world’s biggest badass TV. That works for me.

Swiss Air has completely redesigned their First Class cabins, adding all kinds of fun gadgets and convenient features and gearing everything towards improving comfort and communications. Space is one of the biggest luxuries available when it comes to travel, so Swiss Air made sure there was plenty of that to start with. Add in a 23″ flat screen TV, a full bed, a solid fold-out table and movable privacy partition, and an electronic controller to help you personalize it all, and you have a truly luxe first-class travel experience.

 

As the performance of actual memory cards constantly increase, the natural advantage of those tiny nail-sized storage devices finally raises a stage of usefulness. However, it was a tough job to find an appropriated multicard reader that matches the otherwise contemporary desk devices. SanDisk now introduced two “reader stations” bearing that demanded ever-stylish high gloss appearance and furthermore adds a mat silver accent on the detachable magnetic feet. Said readers are the All-in-One that is able to fully exploit even class 6 cards with 30mb/s and supports any known memory card type, and the smaller sibbling the Multi-Card is able to read SDHC, SD, MMC, and xDs.

 

If you are on the market for a decent outdoor grill then this minimalist & innovative grill table from Designers: Broberg & Ridderstråle is worth considering. “Röshults Grill – 120” is designed to complement your surroundings. The stylish grill features solid construction and large grill surface to serve a handful of guests, and is powered with firewood or charcoal. The grill features detachable stainless preparation area on the grill grid, and there is space for storage of firewood and accessories underneath the grill. The grill adorns an affordable price tag for approx. $1,804. There is also a smaller side-table like version available at Roshults to fit any corner in case you are looking for a space-saving design.

Providing a new solution to an old problem, ReadyPing lets restaurants notify guests by text message when their table is ready. The system aims to improve on restaurant pagers, which require a substantial upfront investment plus maintenance costs, and have a limited range. Restaurants don’t need to purchase new hardware to use ReadyPing; all that’s required is an internet connection and a computer. ReadyPing charges a flat monthly fee of USD 35, which includes sending an unlimited number of ‘pings’.

To use the system, hosts enter a party’s name, number of guests, and their mobile number. When their table is available, the host clicks a button to send a customizable text message. Launched in January 2009, ReadyPing is currently only available in the United States, but it definitely has potential in other time-strapped parts of the world.

Aston Martin decisively avoids deviating from the immense expressive DBS design principles and introduced the final touch for the DBS lineup, the fabric roof bearing Volante. The irresistible visual meal continuous its delicate taste through the whole vehicle with the mean sounding 6.0L V12 producing 510 horsepower and in the seat pressing 420 lb-feet of torque. Performance edge data feels as impressive as the mighty but majestic seeming visual impact with a 4 second sprint and a 155 mph top speed.

Apple’s next operating system, Snow Leopard, will improve “performance and reduce the OSes footprint — so far the developer builds have added very few new visible user features.” Click for the preview.