The Gadget Show April 2013:Technology in the UK (part 1)

The Gadget Show is not an enthusiast based technology broadcast – it deals with lots of different technology, showcasing some of the big names as well as home grown devices, and their application to the real world.  The Gadget Show Live is an extension of this, for companies and entrepreneurs to showcase their wares to first the professional crowd (investors, resellers and media), and then the general public over a multi-day event.  The location for this is the NEC in Birmingham, a well known location for this sort of trade (+public) show.

Microsoft was on hand to showcase its touch-focused operating system Windows 8, in addition to its own Surface tablet devices.Meanwhile, Lenovo brought along its IdeaCentre Horizon – the world’s first “table” PC, which packs a ten-touch, 27-inch touchscreen display.

Aldebaran Robotics’ NAO is the most widely used humanoid robot for academic purposes worldwide. NAO’s many sensors and actuators, convenient size, and attractive appearance, combined with sophisticated embedded software, makes it a unique humanoid robot ideal for many research fields. NAO boasts, for example, face and object recognition, automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech in seven languages, and whole body motion.Graeme Menday, British Inventor of the Year, said: “This will be a great product for your kids when it goes on general sale and if you can afford the price tag. Robots such as the NAO are going to be in great demand in the future, playing important roles in our lives.

Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) is a 60 strong student organisation that designs, builds and races solar powered vehicles. Founded in 2007 – they are now the UK’s number one solar vehicle developer.They will be exhibiting their latest vehicle, which they are looking to race in the World Solar Challenge in Australia later this year – and win of course.

Graeme Menday: “With our energy resources depleting quickly, renewable energy such as solar power will be in great demand. This is a great way to “showcase the on-going research into this area.”

The Tinké is an iPhone accessory that allows you to check key health and fitness measurements within seconds – for example, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood/oxygen levels.

Greame Menday: “This is such a great product and will benefit thousands people worldwide wanting to monitor their health or fitness levels. With the possible addition of measuring insulin levels and an interface into your personal health records with your Doctor that triggered automatic alerts with symptoms.”