tech e blog

Land Walker - Wearable Robot Suit

Created by Masaaki Nagumo, the "Land Walker" is a wearable robot suit -- think Mobile Suit Gundam -- that stands 3.4m high and weighs a hefty 907kg (1-ton) -- "can walk forward, backward or sideways at 1.5 kph by operating four pedals, and shoots sponge bullets from two air guns installed beside the cockpit." Available now in Japan, priced at a whopping $313,985USD.

$22,587 Luxury Shower

For the ultimate shower experience, check out Duravit's "multi-function shower" by Jochen Schmiddem". This $22,587 setup consists of two 170cm benches, silicon-free safety glass, water-resistant shelves, LED-enabled chromatherapy, built-in sound system, and touch-display controls. [Source]

85-in-1 Swiss Army Knife

Wenger has unveiled a new Swiss Army Knife that measures 9-inch long, weighs 2-pounds, and has over 85 tools. Here's just a small sampling: "golf shoe spike wrench, a bike chain rivet setter, and a laser pointer with a 300ft range." More pictures here.

Self-Playing Violin

"Virtuoso" is claimed to be the world's first self-playing violin. Basically, "an invisible hand glides the bow across the strings producing a genuine violin sound -- with no human in sight." One drawback, it costs a whopping $17,500.

Developed by Paroutaud Music Laboratories, the Virtuoso violin was invented by TV and film scorer Fred Paroutaud and the late Dr. Thomas Paine, administrator of NASA during the Apollo moon flights and the former president of Northrop Corporation

$300,000 "Black Diamond" Phone

The "Black Diamond" phone is limited to just 5 units and costs a whopping $300,000. Powered by Windows Mobile 5.0, it features a 2-inch display, 400MHz XScale processor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 128MB of internal memory, an SD memory card slot, and a touch-sensitive keypad. [Source]