MIT | Evolving Consumer

Roll Like the Danish

E-bikes are often good in concept but sometimes provide assistance when you don’t need it. The other problem is that e-bikes cost a lot, and weigh a lot. Designers at MIT might have a better solution. They’ve created the Copenhagen Wheel, which gives a power assist based on the effort. This in turn allows riders to go faster and further.

The wheel can monitor effort, so when a rider struggles or pushes harder the wheel in turn provides more power. Users can also adjust the level of assistance via a mobile smartphone app. The Copenhagen Wheel even utilizes regenerative braking to get juiced up as well.

The best part however is that no special bike is needed and the Copenhagen Wheel can be used with most bikes. Video after the jump

Shareable Brain Buckets

Using a bikesharing program is a great way to get around a city without needing to actually purchase and own a bicycle. The problem is that riding in city traffic or even on city bike lanes can be dangerous, especially without a helmet.

Students at MIT have looked to address this issue and back in 2011 debuted the first HelmetHub, which provides rentable helmets, which are offered where bikeshare bicycles are provided.

Now the idea of wearing a “shared” helmet might seem a little “icky” to us – but the system actually provides 36 helmets in three sizes and more importantly returned helmets are inspected and sanitized prior to being rented out again.

Not a bad solution to ensuring that your head is protected when you ride a bike.

Helmet Hub Official Website

Shoes Leave Carbon Footprint!

While we always encourage walking when possible, according to an MIT study a typical pair running shoes actually generates 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to keeping a 100-watt bulb lit for one week!

The study noted, “The researchers found that more than two-thirds of a running shoe’s carbon impact can come from manufacturing processes, with a smaller percentage arising from acquiring or extracting raw materials. This breakdown is expected for more complex products such as electronics, where the energy that goes into manufacturing fine, integrated circuits can outweigh the energy expended in processing raw materials. But for ‘less-advanced’ products — particularly those that don’t require electronic components — the opposite is often the case.”

[Via MIT News: Footwear’s (carbon) footprint]

Move Over SimCity, CaveSim Has Arrived

For those who like the idea of caving – also known as spelunking – but don’t like the idea of getting dirty, or worse trapped underground for all eternity, CaveSim might just be for you. Instead of crawling through natural caves or underground caverns, CaveSim puts you in a virtual in your cave environment. It even add a video game like scoring system as you wear electronic sensors that track your personal efforts will you compete against others.

Designer Dave Jackson, a caving hobbyist, used his MIT engineering degree to create CaveSim. He came up with the idea after participating in a cave rescue seminar, where organizers created a virtual cave of their furniture and tape. Jackson felt this lack and immersing environment, and after two years in development created his own virtual cave. This simulated environment offers built-in electronic sensors to track the user’s performance. CaveSim thus encourages you to crawl through this virtual cave as you would an actual natural chasm. Continue reading Move Over SimCity, CaveSim Has Arrived

Autom Robot Helps You Get Fit

If movies and TV shows are to be believed someday the machines will take over. When that day comes – and Terminator and The Matrix plus the iPhone and hybrid cars are enough to make us think it is just around the corner – we’ll all likely be bossed around by robots. Until then you can have a robot help you with your diet. That’s the idea behind the new Autom, a personal robot developed by Intuitive Automata, which was designed to be a motivational tool as part of a weight loss regimen. The Autom robot was officially unveiled at an entrepreneurial event in Barcelona, Spain in June, 2009.

The robot is actually based on the PhD thesis of MIT graduate Cory Kidd, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Automata Inc., who suggested that interactive technology could help people lose weight. Thus the concept behind Autom is that people who keep track of their food and exercise whilst dieting will have more success, and if you don’t have someone to help you manage this information the robot can help.

Continue reading Autom Robot Helps You Get Fit

Staying Healthy When Flying

This piece from MIT is a couple months old, dealing with ways to stay healthy while flying during the holiday travel season. But if you’re like the crew here at KS, you may be one of the many who travel regularly, so the advice given by Howard M. Teller, M.D., of MIT Medical will come in handy.

Besides debunking some myths (recirculated cabin air is not the cause of why people get sick when flying), Heller offers some common sense advice on what you can do. Essentially, the main cause of illness when flying are from the people around you, from fellow passengers to the flight crew. Heller also says eating is one of the ways of getting sick, because you’re bringing your hand to your mouth; your hand may have been contaminated.

For more on the subject, check out MIT’s page, which includes a video. We at KS will also offer our own tips on flying healthy in an upcoming post.

MIT Medical