Here’s a groovy one for the girls!

It’s a phone. No, wait…

It’s stylish jewelry. No, wait…

It’s a unique combination of both.

From Yanko Design. Designer: Tao Ma

This is the most elaborate Rube Goldberg I’ve ever seen:

It’s like someone put legs on the captain’s chair from the starship Enterprise.

Click the picture for YouTube footage

Why do I have a feeling that Andy Warhol would have loved this thing?

You’re gawking at the the Hubo FX-1 by Hubo Lab (the Humanoid Robot Research Center). It’s, um, well … silly looking, so much so that this is my second attempt to properly document it here.

If you can’t get to YouTube, the video depicts someone sitting in the chair as the machine takes slow baby steps across a room.

Definitely a work-in-progress. I’d hate to be sitting in it when the thing trips and falls on someone’s banana peel.

Stumbled upon via Coolest-Gadgets.com, who in turn found it via Technovelgy…

This is none other than a vacuum chamber for your fruits, veggies, etc.

Place your bread and other yummies into the Auto Vacuum FoodFresh, close the lid, and this gizmo sucks all the air out of the chamber, thus making your food last longer and stay fresher.

I think it’s great!  It’s a true kitchen-geek toy if I’ve ever seen one!  I think I’ll vacuum everything I can stick into it.

This groovy gizmo doesn’t yet exist, but it will. It will.

Please ignore the fact that it’s a Microsoft propaganda film, and just go with it.

So, really, how many fish have you ended up flushing down the toilet?

Here’s an idea: save yourself some trouble by keeping them in the toilet. AquaOne Technologies has made it possible with their amazing Fish ‘n Flush.

No, I am not kidding you.

Imagine how unnerved your PETA-associated friends will be upon seeing this in the bathroom at your next party. I hesitate to say, but it would be almost worth hiding a video camera to capture that initial expression of shock and disbelief.

The secret to this is, though, that there are actually two tanks of water involved. One for the flushing, and one for the fish — and nary the two shall meet. The fish tank itself is actually removable so you can clean it out, etc.

The idea is so silly it’s cool.

And yes, in a way, the fish are living right at the doorstep — so to speak — of the fish cemetery. So when little Goldie is found floating upside-down at the top…

Yeah. She can quickly be flushed laid to rest in the great fishpond in the sky.

This interesting contraption is a remote controlled robot called the Giraffe, made by HeadThere Inc. of San Francisco. It connects via Wi-Fi or G3 to the net and you control it from anywhere in the world, sending it rolling through your office, home, whatever. Via camera and microphone you see everything it sees, and via speaker and video screen people see and hear you as well.

That’s right, your very own roving telepresence! No longer is this technology only the plaything of NASA and big city bomb squads. Just like it says on the HeadThere website, you can be in two places at one time.

I can see people buying this. Really. Unlike many, I think there is a huge market out there for this device. In my mind’s eye, in fact, I can see these things wandering all over the Google office complex, dodging Segues and Aibos. I also see paranoid parents forcing teens to take it along on dates. I can see it rolling into university classes while the students remain in the dorm nursing a hangover.

Also, mark my words, it will end up one of the most abused and vandalized pieces of technology since the payphone. In an office environment, indignant workers will cover it with plastic bags, kick it over, and throw it down stairs. At home, being used as a baby sitter, the kids will plot evil against the poor thing and blame it on the dog.

Oh, woe is the Giraffe. It will be a hard life, to be sure. I think it’s a cool, smart, and well-meaning gizmo, but really … I feel very sad for it.

It’s doomed.

UPDATE: I just had an interesting email exchange with Roy Sandberg, the founder of HeadThere Inc. He pointed out an important fact: The Giraffe does have an off switch.

After another conversation about it, this time with my girlfriend, she and I decided the attitude toward the Giraffe would depend completely upon its use … if it’s used as a communications device, then it should be relatively innocuous. If it’s being used to check up on you, that is where the animosity comes into play.

It’s an interesting subject because as we go from here, mobile telepresence will become more and more common.

This is interesting and … I’m sorry, it just made me laugh.

So you lose your dog, Spot. Some Good Samaritan finds Spot and takes him home.

See Spot’s intriguing looking collar! The Good Samaritan finds a tag on it that reads, “This is a USB device.” Unfortunately the Good Samaritan turns out to be computer illiterate and has no idea what that means.

Meanwhile you know Spot is safe because you paid good money for this high tech PetSafe Micro I.D. Rescue Collar, used their software, spent a good part of the evening doing data entry into the embedded chip, and have faith that whoever finds Spot will have all the information they need to bring your beloved pet home.

Unfortunately the Good Samaritan is still scratching his head at the meaning of “USB” device. He takes it to his friend, also a Luddite, and says, “What does this mean?”

They both look at the tag. “I dunno,” says the friend. “UltraSonic Barking Device?”

“You think?”

“For the love of God, I have no idea!”

So the Good Samaritan, who’s grown rather fond of Spot, throws the collar away and puts on a new one. The new one has a tag on it which reads, “If lost please call (973) 555-1212.” It doesn’t require a USB port and contains all the information that is actually required to return Spot should he stray again.

Never forget: Keep It Simple. I love gadgets as much as anyone, but this is so silly I had to create an entirely new category for it: A Goldberg Gizmo.

The funniest part of the recent movie Accepted is where this odd looking kid blows up the snobby Dean’s car with his mind. Soon you’ll be able to do that too.

In a video game, at least.

Emotive Systems is one of a number of companies today working on a mind-computer interface — the stuff of science fiction — and claim they’ll be coming out with a Wi-Fi headset soon that will allow you to control computer games with your thoughts.

While it’s great that video game money is paying for development, I can’t help but think of all the practical uses for such a device. Obviously it will be a boon to those who are physically handicapped. I mean, just imagine. Slip the cap on, it controls your wheelchair, the robotic arms on your wheel chair, the interface for the computer controlled car, and all the automated systems in your smart house… Yes, develop one for the video games, by all means, but the implications of the interface itself are amazing.

Another company, CyberKinetics, is working on a product to do this for the medical field, but it appears to be some sort of implant. NeuroSky is making a headset version that doesn’t look quite so scientific — it’s more a stereo headphone type accessory, and at least according to the one picture I’ve found, seems to look good on pretty girls.

So get ready world. Thought control is set to be released to the general populace later this year, and one can only imagine what will follow. First video games, next computer peripherals, then robotic control. One of these will probably end up replacing all the remote controls in your house, including the one for the TV.

This is all fine and dandy until the thing becomes a two-way device, and you come to realize the TV is in fact controlling you.

…you will buy this product … you WILL buy this product…

Just watching the video on the website for this little vehicle makes my heart race. Available in hybrid or all-electric, both zoom down the road like a little space fighter, mixing the fun and economy of a motorcycle with the comfort and safety of a car.

Well, relatively speaking.

The front pivots during a turn like a motorcycle, making this — by all accounts — a remarkably fun vehicle to drive. The back end with the two wheels and the engine remain firmly on the ground. Inside you find all the safety features of a car, including airbags, etc., which you won’t find on a motorcycle. Yet something tells me, some deep-down gut feeling, that this is not something in which I would want to be involved in an accident. Especially if I were trapped between two SUV’s.

Still, there is no denying this is one groovy gizmo, and the fact that you can zip along over a hundred miles an hour with a range of over 350 miles … on 4 gallons of gas … I can’t help but love it.