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Awesome tech you can’t buy yet, for the week of June 15, 2014

At any given moment there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the Web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and you’ll find there’s no shortage of weird, ambitious, and downright stupid projects out there – far too many for any reasonable person to keep up with. But here at DT we are not reasonable people. We spend an inordinate amount of time poring through crowdfunding sites and product blogs in search of the next Oculus Rift or Pebble Watch, so we’re here to bring you a quick roundup of the best projects that are currently up and running.

Sun Juicer — ultralight solar cooker

Sun JuicerHarnessing the power of the sun and concentrating its energy to generate heat is something that humans have been doing for millennia. Back in the second century AD, it’s said that Archimedes used a giant parabolic mirror array to set approaching warships on fire, and people were likely experimenting with solar energy long before that, too. But still, 2000 years down the road, we’re still doing it the same way. Our equipment, however, has gotten considerably more advanced in recent times. The Sun Juicer, for example, is a fully-functioning solar cooking rig that weighs less than a can of soda, and packs down flatter than an average-sized notebook. The entire apparatus consists of a set of lightweight reflective sheets that snap together to form a parabolic mirror, which can be directed at a small skillet or cook pot to heat up food. It requires absolutely zero electricity to work, making it ideal for summertime camping/backpacking trips.  

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Petal — fan for virtual reality

Petal fanEver since Oculus Rift reignited the world’s interest in virtual reality, designers, engineers, and developers have been pushing to make virtual reality more realistic and more immersive than ever before. Oculus figured out the visual element, so now other people are tackling your remaining senses. Virtuix omni, for example, aims to make walking around in virtual environments feel more realistic, and devices like Kor FX (see below) hope to add realistic tactile feedback to the experience. Petal definitely isn’t quite as advanced as these gizmos, but even so, it aims to bring one of the most fundamental real-world sensations into the virtual realm — the feeling of wind blowing in your face as you move. It’s basically just a variable-speed fan that’s programmed to speed up or slow down in relation to how you’re moving in a virtual environment, which is a pretty brilliant idea if you ask us.

Kor-FX — haptic feedback gaming vest

Kor-FX gaming vestMuch like Petal, Kor FX is all about adding an extra layer of realism to virtual gaming experiences. It’s essentially a tactical vest that’s rigged up with a number of specially-engineered “Acousto-Haptic Transducers” that create vibrations and other haptic feedback cues. With one of these badboys strapped to your body, you can feel things in your environment — things like your enemy’s vehicles approaching, or which direction a sniper is firing from. So not only does it make virtual spaces considerably more immersive, it can also give you a bit of leg up and take your competitive gameplay to the next level. The vest is particularly ideal for first-person shooters like CoD or Battlefield, but depending on how its programmed, it could add an extra layer of realism to pretty much any type of game.

Vessyl — liquid-recognizing smart cup

VessylThe past few years alone, we’ve seen the rise of a zillion different wearable fitness devices, all of which are capable of tracking everything from the number of steps you take each day, to the number of calories you burn. But in spite of all these clever ways we’ve dreamt up to track the energy you expend, we still haven’t quite locked down an equally simple way to track the calories you take in. Sure, there are apps that help you track what you eat, and food scales that can guesstimate the calories in your food, but most of these thigns still require a lot of input from the user, which makes them relatively cumbersome and inconvenient to use. Vessyl is different. Using some kind of magical technology that the inventors are keeping a highly-guarded secret, it can recognize and identify any kind of liquid you pour into it. It can tell Coke from Pepsi,  whether orange juice has pulp or not, and a myriad of other cool tricks. And of course, it all syncs with your smartphone so you can keep track of the calories/nutrients you’re drinking.

360 Cam — 360-degree HD camera 

Full HD 360 CameraYou know those giant spherical cameras that Google straps on top of self-driving Priuses in order to take its street view pictures? 360 cam is essentially the same idea, just packed into a much smaller, much simpler form factor. The tiny handheld device uses three 185-degree fish-eye lenses arranged in a triangle to deliver a massive field of view. Each of these lenses is synchronized to simultaneously capture and stitch images in real time inside the camera, and thereby produce a breath-taking all-around view in real time. As an added bonus, it also happens to be waterproof, so you can pack it along on your next outdoor excursion or strap it to the underside of a drone without having to worry about ruining it. The project has already crushed its original funding goal, so if you back the project now, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll get one in a few months.

Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Star Wars legend Ian McDiarmid gets questions about the Emperor’s sex life
Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

This weekend, the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 20th anniversary re-release had a much stronger performance than expected with $25 million and a second-place finish behind Sinners. Revenge of the Sith was the culmination of plans by Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) that led to the fall of the Jedi and his own ascension to emperor. Because McDiarmid's Emperor died in his first appearance -- 1983's Return of the Jedi -- Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be his live-action swan song. However, Palpatine's return in Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker left McDiarmid being asked questions about his character's comeback, particularly about his sex life and how he could have a granddaughter.

While speaking with Variety, McDiarmid noted that fans have asked him "slightly embarrassing questions" about Palpatine including "'Does this evil monster ever have sex?'"

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Waymo and Toyota explore personally owned self-driving cars
Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

Waymo and Toyota have announced they’re exploring a strategic collaboration—and one of the most exciting possibilities on the table is bringing fully-automated driving technology to personally owned vehicles.
Alphabet-owned Waymo has made its name with its robotaxi service, the only one currently operating in the U.S. Its vehicles, including Jaguars and Hyundai Ioniq 5s, have logged tens of millions of autonomous miles on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.
But shifting to personally owned self-driving cars is a much more complex challenge.
While safety regulations are expected to loosen under the Trump administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has so far taken a cautious approach to the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. General Motors-backed Cruise robotaxi was forced to suspend operations in 2023 following a fatal collision.
While the partnership with Toyota is still in the early stages, Waymo says it will initially study how to merge its autonomous systems with the Japanese automaker’s consumer vehicle platforms.
In a recent call with analysts, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai signaled that Waymo is seriously considering expanding beyond ride-hailing fleets and into personal ownership. While nothing is confirmed, the partnership with Toyota adds credibility—and manufacturing muscle—to that vision.
Toyota brings decades of safety innovation to the table, including its widely adopted Toyota Safety Sense technology. Through its software division, Woven by Toyota, the company is also pushing into next-generation vehicle platforms. With Waymo, Toyota is now also looking at how automation can evolve beyond assisted driving and into full autonomy for individual drivers.
This move also turns up the heat on Tesla, which has long promised fully self-driving vehicles for consumers. While Tesla continues to refine its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, it remains supervised and hasn’t yet delivered on full autonomy. CEO Elon Musk is promising to launch some of its first robotaxis in Austin in June.
When it comes to self-driving cars, Waymo and Tesla are taking very different roads. Tesla aims to deliver affordability and scale with its camera, AI-based software. Waymo, by contrast, uses a more expensive technology relying on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar), that regulators have been quicker to trust.

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Uber partners with May Mobility to bring thousands of autonomous vehicles to U.S. streets
uber may mobility av rides partnership

The self-driving race is shifting into high gear, and Uber just added more horsepower. In a new multi-year partnership, Uber and autonomous vehicle (AV) company May Mobility will begin rolling out driverless rides in Arlington, Texas by the end of 2025—with thousands more vehicles planned across the U.S. in the coming years.
Uber has already taken serious steps towards making autonomous ride-hailing a mainstream option. The company already works with Waymo, whose robotaxis are live in multiple cities, and now it’s welcoming May Mobility’s hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna vans to its platform. The vehicles will launch with safety drivers at first but are expected to go fully autonomous as deployments mature.
May Mobility isn’t new to this game. Backed by Toyota, BMW, and other major players, it’s been running AV services in geofenced areas since 2021. Its AI-powered Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) tech allows it to react quickly and safely to unpredictable real-world conditions—something that’s helped it earn trust in city partnerships across the U.S. and Japan.
This expansion into ride-hailing is part of a broader industry trend. Waymo, widely seen as the current AV frontrunner, continues scaling its service in cities like Phoenix and Austin. Tesla, meanwhile, is preparing to launch its first robotaxis in Austin this June, with a small fleet of Model Ys powered by its camera-based Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. While Tesla aims for affordability and scale, Waymo and May are focused on safety-first deployments using sensor-rich systems, including lidar—a tech stack regulators have so far favored.
Beyond ride-hailing, the idea of personally owned self-driving cars is also gaining traction. Waymo and Toyota recently announced they’re exploring how to bring full autonomy to private vehicles, a move that could eventually bring robotaxi tech right into your garage.
With big names like Uber, Tesla, Waymo, and now May Mobility in the mix, the ride-hailing industry is evolving fast—and the road ahead looks increasingly driver-optional.

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