CrunchGear

What did you get for Christmas?
TDK develops method to tint touchscreens
RC model of Star Trek USS ENTERPRISE swimming underwater (video)

What did you get for Christmas?

Posted: 24 Dec 2009 02:32 PM PST

Tell us. We want to know. I, for one, got nothing. Just beer. But it was an amazing beer called Stiegle.

TDK develops method to tint touchscreens

Posted: 24 Dec 2009 08:00 AM PST

tdk_tint_sheets

I’m not really sure if that’s something a lot of gadget freaks were waiting for, but here we go: TDK has found a cost-effective way to tint touchscreens. The company claims it can add color to transparent electrode sheets that serve as the basis of those screens. In the future, electrode sheets will be available in 13 colors, including red, green, blue, aquamarine, purple and black hues.

The main selling point here is to match the body of a given device with its touch screen.

Electrode sheets used in touch screens are made of a thin film of indium tin oxide. TDK says they produce these sheets by adding an adhesive layer to a resin film substrate, resulting in a film that can be placed down evenly. Organic pigments mixed in with the adhesive are used to color the sheets in a second step. TDK says they tested 50 kinds of pigments before getting a compound that’s color-stable and durable.

The company plans to start delivering samples and to begin mass production by April next year. Their sheets are not only suitable for cell phones or other portable gadgets but also for large screens, for example those of notebooks.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

RC model of Star Trek USS ENTERPRISE swimming underwater (video)

Posted: 24 Dec 2009 06:21 AM PST

USS ENTERPRISE _model

I’m not an RC gadget expert, but modding static model kits of space ships so that they’re water-proof and can be RC-controlled to make them then “fly underwater” seems like a very, very geeky thing to do to me. Take this 1/350 scale replica of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A space ship from Star Trek, for example.

Some person [JP] in Yokosuka, Japan, bought the static kit and transformed it into a space ship that can move and be RC-controlled underwater. The people belonging to the “underground” circle of these self-made gadgets call themselves “Aqua Modelers” and meet up on a regular basis [IT] to exchange ideas and show off their works each year. The last one apparently just took place a couple of days ago.

See the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A in action in the video below:

Another example of the aqua model craziness can be seen in this video where we see an awesome 1/350 scale replica of the Space Battleship Yamato floating around underwater: