Computed·Blg

Via DVICE

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No matter how many times you watch The Matrix, the creepiest part is seeing the whole of humanity hooked up to pods to act as living power generators for their robot masters. Now Germany-based designer Dennis Siegel has created a kind of mini version of this idea that he calls an Electromagnetic Harvester.

The tiny device allows him to draw redundant energy from household appliances, mobile devices, and even outside aerial electrical lines. An LED light indicates when power is effectively being drawn in, and that power is conveniently stored in what appears to be a common AA battery. According to Siegel, it takes the Electromagnetic Harvester about one day to fully charge one of the batteries, depending on the strength of the electromagnetic field being sourced.

You can see video of the Electromagnetic Harvester in action in the video below.

Via liliputing

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Always Innovating is working on a tiny flying video camera called the MeCam. The camera is designed to follow you around and stream live video to your smartphone, allowing you to upload videos to YouTube, Facebook, or other sites.

And Always Innovating thinks the MeCam could eventually sell for just $49.

The camera is docked in a nano copter with 4 spinning rotors to keep it aloft. There are 14 different sensors which help the copter detect objects around it so it won’t bump into walls, people. or anything else.

Always Innovating also includes stabilization technology so that videos shouldn’t look too shaky.

Interestingly, there’s no remote control. Instead, you can control the MeCam in one of two ways. You can speak voice commands to tell it, for instance, to move up or down. Or you can enable the “follow-me” feature which tells the camera to just follow you around while shooting paparazzi-style video.

The MeCam features an Always Innovating module with an ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, WiFI, and Bluetooth.

The company hopes to license the design so that products based on the MeCam will hit the streets in early 2014.

If Always Innovating sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same company that brought us the modular Touch Book and Smart Book products a few years ago.

If the MeCam name sounds familiar, on the other hand, it’s probably worth pointing out that the Always Innovating flying camera is not related the wearable camera that failed to come close to meeting its fundraising goals last year.