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Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Pineapple leather, the $400,000 helmet & robot taxi drivers for any car

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Pineapple leather, the $400,000 helmet & robot taxi drivers for any car
Steve Caplin discusses the importance of cheese, red wine and chocolate for living longer. Artificial leather just got better by using pineapples. The $400,000 Genesis III helmet can make the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning jet invisible – while you're piloting it. There's a deflatable bike helmet which is safer than the hard type. And instead of autonomous vehicles, the University of Tokyo has developed a robot taxi driver which fits into any car. All this plus the downside of McDonalds using AI in their drive-throughs.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Apple's AI, the AI MP candidate and how Oxen's bottoms influenced railways

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Apple's AI, the AI MP candidate and how Oxen's bottoms influenced railways
Steve Caplin explains to Simon Rose what Apple Intelligence will do on its newest phones. He has been quizzing the AI candidate standing in the General Election and discusses what he would ask the older version of himself, as being developed at MIT. He points out that Elon Musk's Starship is the biggest rocket in history, with the entrepreneur building a Starfactory to turn out one rocket every single day. An AI pin turns out to be rather dangerous. There's a DIY compass for "mindful wandering" and a film which enables you to see at night. Even more fascinating still is the explanation of the relation between two oxen's bottoms and the width of the Saturn V rockets.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Tattooing avocados, growing your own teeth and having a third thumb

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Tattooing avocados, growing your own teeth and having a third thumb
Steve Caplin explains why Tesco is tattooing avocados. Japanese scientists believe people will soon be able to grow new teeth. There's a robot seed-planter taking its inspiration from wild oats. A 9-seater electric plane can take off and land on a football pitch. A new Chinese hybrid car has a massive range and a minimal price, in China at least. Cambridge scientists have been studying how people make use of a third thumb. There's a crowd-funded pet monitoring camera which can tell if the animal is poorly. Bringing the internet to a remote Amazon tribe has caused problems. And in Dubai, there's a proposal to build skyscrapers 1km high.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: AI gaffes and hearing aids, cutting cargo ship emissions and head transplants

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: AI gaffes and hearing aids, cutting cargo ship emissions and head transplants
Steve Caplin discusses the latest AI gaffes, as it suggests rock eating and gluing cheese onto pizzas. There's a bright idea to cut cargo ship emissions. Glass windows can be made more efficient – with one drawback. AI can help vastly improve hearing aids. A crowd-funded exercise bike claims to provide a more realistic 3D interactive landscape. And a molecular biologist believes he's only ten years away from robotic head transplants.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Monocab trains on demand, transparent wood & crowdsourcing hair colouring

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Monocab trains on demand, transparent wood & crowdsourcing hair colouring
Steve Caplin delves into the world of tech, with ChatGPT withdrawing a voice Scarlett Johansson claims is too much like hers and tech companies agreeing not to develop AI that poses an "intolerable risk to humanity". German scientists are developing on-demand cabs to travel on disused railway lines. Apple's new accessibiity features are impressive. Chinese scientists are improving transparent wood to be flame retardant and "superhydrophobic". L'Oréal is crowdfunding a hair colouring device. The NHS is using drones to carry blood samples. And the Police might not have thought through their new solution to eBike mugging properly.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Another leap for AI, how to drink without getting drunk & battling noisy neighbours

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Another leap for AI, how to drink without getting drunk & battling noisy neighbours
Steve Caplin is excited by ChatGPT's latest innovation which combines text, audio and video and talks to you uncannily realistically. He also explains which AI system you should use and points out that AI is not guaranteed to tell the truth. There's the video portal between Dublin and New York which had to be shut because of mischievous activity. Scientists have found a way to consume alcohol without getting drunk. MIT is working on a way to combat noisy neighbours. There may be a way to stop satellite jammers blinding planes' navigation systems. And Ordnance Survey is incorporating local nicknames to its maps.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Underwater bikes, robotic shoes, Bill Gates' unused megayacht & knifeless knives

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Underwater bikes, robotic shoes, Bill Gates' unused megayacht & knifeless knives
Steve Caplin delves into the world of gadgets. You can swim faster with an underwater bike or the thrusters of the Jetdrive Pro. You can speedwalk with Moonwalker robotic shoes. There's an electric quadricycle and a personal flying system. You can now strap bike clips to your shoes. If you're after a megayacht, Bill Gates is selling his – unusued. The new Swiss Army Knife has no blades. And accountants BDO will no longer be doing Zoom interviews to cut down on cheating.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Superfood from thin air, anti-ageing drugs & 3D-printed houses

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Superfood from thin air, anti-ageing drugs & 3D-printed houses
Steve Caplin enlightens Simon Rose as to the new protein superfood that can be made from thin air with little environmental impact. In California, human trials are starting on anti-ageing drugs. A lifebelt can be sent further when it's attached to a drone, but some of the grocery delivery companies are being closed down. Steve finds Portuguese 3D-printed houses very attractive. The famous can use AI for engaging with fans on Instagram. New plastic can biodegrade when mixed with compost. And the Dodo may make a comeback.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: A one-in-a-billion-year event, the Thermonator & an omnidirecitonal bicycle

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: A one-in-a-billion-year event, the Thermonator & an omnidirecitonal bicycle
In a once-in-a-billion-year happening two lifeforms have merged into one organism, says Steve Caplin. Post Office staff are using Google to tell if stamps are counterfeit. Whatsapp is being switched off in China and TikTok in the US. There's a flamethrower dog, an omnidirectional bike, a cat self-groomer and a way of putting your ex's love letters behind you. We also learn why NASA can't find out if there's life on Mars and hear why Microsoft won't release its way of producing realistic talking AI videos from a single photo.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published:
Simon Rose

Gadgets & Gizmos: Avoiding kangaroos, various-legged robots & a crow imitating a siren

Simon Rose
Original Broadcast:

Gadgets and Gizmos

Gadgets & Gizmos: Avoiding kangaroos, various-legged robots & a crow imitating a siren
Steve Caplin on the latest tech. VW have developed a kangaroo scarer for cars. A home security device can fire paintballs or tear gas. There's a three-legged robot for asteroid mineral extraction, a two-legged humanoid that can be trained remotely and a drone that can hop on one leg. Skateboards can now be propelled by an expensive broomstick-like device. The Post Office can't tell if its own stamps are counterfeit or not. A crow near a police station can imitate two types of siren. And Elon Music wants to send 1,000 rockets to colonise Mars.
Guest:

Steve Caplin


Published: