We all know that a lot can happen over coffee. But now it is time to change the phrase a little. A lot can now happen over the coffee table. In fact the table can give discussions a guide and get actively involved in conversations. No, the table is not going to do the talking but it can help you in a number of ways. Thanks to the brand new concept of the Multi-Touch Coffee Table from Touchscape.
The concept of the touch screen is pretty well-known now. This very technology has been incorporated into the coffee table. The Multi-Touch Coffee Table has a 47 inch high definition LCD screen incorporated onto its surface. You might have seen something like these being used in movies but it won’t be long before you could run your fingers on one such screen in your very own living room.
This patented MT technology bearing coffee table screen boasts of having an HD 1920 X 1080p resolution. It is capable of tracking as many touches as can be fit on the screen. It has been powered by a Quad Core Processor and the surface configuration can be a Windows 7 touch input device similar to the Microsoft Surface. It can also serve TUIO touch events to be used with SUSHI or multitouch SDK. The unique experience of this table enables you to enjoy applications with your fingertips. Moving around on screen or browsing through photographs was never so easy before.
The processor is ably supported by a 4 GB memory while there is scope for storing a whopping 180 GB. That would take many coffee mugs to discuss all that data. It efficiently supports Bluetooth, Wi Fi, USB and Ethernet. Keeping with the times it is well ready to take on the 3G era in communication.
The ambient light sensor is able to adjust display based on the background lighting conditions. The self monitoring system keeps a watch on the performance by regularly checking for updates which keeps the system moving.
Since it is a coffee table it should be capable enough to support coffee mugs and this it can do with all expertise. The LCD display has features like being scratch resistant, wipe-clean top, and in the worst case replaceable.
Once you have invited guests over for coffee on the Multi-Touch table you are sure to have them visiting again. And you are going to be a beaming host to all.
With YepYep’s original HQ being in Cincinnati, someone sent us the Mushroom House and asked if we’d ever been. The answer is no, but it inspired us to explore similarly bizarre homes from around the world. Below are the 10 strangest we could find.
Mushroom House - Cincinnati, Ohio
The Mushroom House, also known as the Tree House, is a staple of the Hyde Park section of Cincinnati. It was built by University of Cincinnati professor Terry Brown with the help of his architecture students.
Boeing 727 House
Buying and renovating this Boeing 727 only set back Joanne Ussary $30K. It boasts a jacuzzi in the cockpit, remote controlled doors, and the post-apocalyptic life you’ve always dreamed.
Upside Down House - Poland
Polish businessman Daniel Czapiewski is the man behind the house that makes passersby think they’re drunk and those inside seasick.
Shoe House - Hellam, Pennsylvania & Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
Wouldn't it be great to live in a mansion on the water, Gatsby-style, with your best friends and make art all day? That was the fantasy of Celene Ramadan, a twentysomething filmmaker and musician living in Seattle, who rented a lake house in Chicago with 17 friends while attending an improv festival. The rental only lasted a week, but it left Ramadan with the idea that her artist collective, Beta Society, should have a "frat house" of its own.
Then a friend forwarded her a Craigslist posting for a 10,000-s.f. mansion on Seattle's Puget Sound, available for rent. The subject line of the e-mail expressed the astonishment of the find: "really, truly, seriously."
The mansion had been languishing on the market for two years until the owner, web entrepreneur and indie-film financier Garr Godfrey, gave up and decided to rent it out at a loss. Ramadan spent months wrangling 10 tenants, enough to cover the rent -- and writing Garr a heartfelt letter expressing her appreciation for his house.
And so it was that Ramadan scored quite possibly one of the best Craigslist finds in history. The housewarming party, celebrating the signing of a two-year lease, lasted days. "I never thought anything like this would exist in Seattle," Ramadan said as she relaxed in her ivy-covered gazebo on a sizzling afternoon last week, during the Pacifc Northwest's mercifully rare triple-digit heat wave.
The mansion, built in 1952, is a gated, multitiered playground. Along with the gazebo, the backyard has its own kitchen with a pizza oven, a playground fit for a well-endowed elementary school, a massive lawn, and a seating area festooned with tiki torches and a telescope for stargazing over tranquil Puget Sound. Just past the palm-tree garden in the front yard is a hot tub and pool with a retractable roof and changing rooms, where the crew has been hanging out every day since moving in in April.
The sprawling interior -- nine bedrooms, 7.5 baths (and three bidets), a home theater (projector, 12 giant leather recliners), and entryway fountain -- gives its tenants plenty of room to roam; they could avoid each other for days if they wanted to. The house's 10 bohemian tenants have made the house a performance space. Last weekend, they hosted an interactive play inspired by MTV's longrunning reality series The Real World, in which the audience/party guests shuffled from room to room, voyeuristically checking out the drama in each. They even wrote and recorded a retro sitcom theme song for their mansion, inspired by the bidets.
"I've never been this popular in my life," says Ramadan. Even better, the high life is saving her money. She's spending $650 a month on rent, less than she was for her old apartment, and she's cut back significantly on bar tabs: her friends would rather meet at her place. But she's already living with most of the people she hangs out with anyway.
"This is the first time I'm excited to go home," says Ross Whippo, 29, a marine-biology student working at the Seattle Aquarium. The giddiness has yet to wear off, and the usual roommate tensions include "fridge wars" -- elaborate espionage games between the two fridges in the kitchen, each used by half of the household. One cunning retaliation included wrapping one fridge like a gift and leaving it on the backyard lawn -- still plugged in, of course.
If you're burning with envy, don't begrudge these people for their good fortune -- follow their example instead. If you know a dozen people you'd like to live with, now's the time to hit up your local high-end realtor to find a mansion for rent. The Wall Street Journal reports that there's no recovery in sight for the luxury housing market: It's still suffering overdevelopment, cash-hoarding jitters, and tight credit for massive mortgages. And the economy has challenged people's notion of how much home is enough.
In some luxury markets, the rich can afford to wait, says Doug Wright, an agent for Century 21 in the Southeast Valley of Phoenix, Arizona. "We're a global market here, unlike Seattle or some area that doesn't have the huge global tourism...We are seeing a number of sales, all cash. We're seeing 8, 10, 15 offers on a house, 50% of what it was 8-10 months ago."
"I'm seeing more flexible owners, willing to do lease options and vacation rentals," says Eric Colona, a realtor for multimillion dollar mansions on San Diego's coastline. As the owner of SDMansions, Colona advises any would-be "group tenants" to show off their responsible side to homeowners, including an academic transcript. "It gives them an idea of what type of lifestyle you have."
That line of thinking worked for Ramadan. To beat a group of what she calls "frat boys," she based her letter to her prospective landlord on two classic films, The Breakfast Club and The Goonies. "On paper we may not look like the best tenants....But we're not the jocks, throwing parties all the time, we're the dorks on the laptops who are going to stay up all night learning editing software. We're the dorks, and this is our time."
That letter, her realtor told her, is what got her the house.
If you're looking for cheaper alternatives to botox and silicone injections from the doctor to pretty up your face, think again. This lady learned the hard way.
This Twin Cities mom, who didn't want to be named, bought 100% silicone lube online and syringes at a local pharmacy and tried to inject it herself. The product clearly says it's a personal lubricant for external use only.
Her experiment ended miserably and she now has pools of lube in her lips and cheekbones. She's facing huge medical bills to fix her face.
The woman bought the silicone online for $10, hoping to make her upper lip fuller and fill in acne scars. She had previously been to a doctor who gave her silicone treatments, but the $2,700 price tag made it tough to go back again.
Despite the site's warnings about the lube, she figured it was the same because it was 100 percent silicone. So she bought it and did it herself. Bad idea. Unlike Botox and collagen, silicone is permanent because it isn't absorbed by the body. That's why she has lube pockets on her face now.
In the mad dash to go green, grow green and glow green, some energetic gadget makers are marketing devices that are so darn friendly, we might as well ask them to move into our homes. Plug into these and see:
Philips Eco TV
A 42-inch, flat-panel LCD, this TV broadcasts power-saving features, such as a backlight dimmer the viewer controls for darker scenes. It also has a power-saving mode for capping peak light output. It retails for around $1,400 at Amazon and other electronics suppliers. (Shown above.)
Bamboo Laptop
How chic can a computer get? The green batteries in the Asus boast a 35 to 70% longer life. The bamboo exterior houses all the usual extras of a notebook. Check it out at Ecomoves.
The Studio Hybrid Eco-Friendly Small Desktop
Ideal for the little green home office that could, this engine has optional upgrades to include built-in Wi-Fi Blue Ray™ and a wireless keyboard and mouse. This PC is Dell's greenest and most powerful desktop to date, using 70 percent less energy while arriving 80 percent smaller than a typical desktop minitower. Beginning at $499, it's available in cool color options. It gets a 4.0 Energy Star rating with packing material made from 95 percent recyclable material.
Jonta LED Flashlight
Described as one of the best "human powered" flashlights, you can recharge this wind-up toy by cranking it to your heart's content. Keep one handy in your nightstand drawer, the kitchen cabinet, in your kid's room. Let it shine the new fashioned way. $49.99 at Green and More.
Solar Christmas Lights
If you are inclined to deck the halls and the roof, opt for these solar lights from Eco Geek Living, $39.97 for a set.
Spin-X Spindryer
This will cut down on drying time so much, it will make you dizzy. It costs $599.95 (plus shipping) but saves an estimaed $1,104 in three years. I believe it. The Spin-X can remove one quart of water from clothes taken out of your machine. The extracted water goes into a storage container. It also removes soap, detergents, perfumes and chemicals into the container. You can order one at Spin-X.
Helios Solar Grill
Invented by Sean McGreevy, this energy-efficient outdoor grill (great for that Thanksgiving turkey in Miami) has a coil inside that heats up like the hottest coal. The dish looks like it should be receiving your favorite show, Top Chef, but instead it collects the solar power while you cook away. Fire up your curiosity at Coolest Gadgets.
Eco Fan 800
No batteries, cords or chargers required for these blades of glory. The Eco Fan generates its own electricity using the heat of your wood burning stove. The thermo-electric module inside acts as the generator, letting you cut down on those insane power bills. $119 at Northline Express.
Barbar Ceramic ECO 8000 Blow Dryer
A hair greener than other styilng tools, the ceramic ECO Dryer is equipped with a low EMF heating output, negating radiation while keeping your locks soft and shiny. $109 at Beauty Choice.
Kill-A-Watt
It's the favorite gismo of Alter Eco's Darren Moore. This tool lets you test how much energy is being sucked out by your appliances, helping you to calculate and cut costs. $23.89 at Smart home.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
Philips Eco TV
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