Basketball on a Giant Touch Screen!

Basketball Court is a Huge LED Touch Screen

We begin in Shanghai where there’s a basketball court. WHAT?! I know! Can you believe it?!? Well, this isn’t any court. It’s a special court. Nike created the world’s first full-sized LED basketball court for players who are competing to advance to the Nike World Basketball Festival in Barcelona next month. It has built-in motion sensors that can track player’s movements. And… Kobe Bryant and LeBron James designed drills for the players to practice their mad skillz. But they don’t have to be there to show you because the court does it for you! It lays out moves. And the players follow.

Leo Fitness Monitor Keeps You From Injury

Elsewhere on the fitness front, the Indiegogo community has fully-funded a wearable fitness monitor. It measures nine “bio-signals” to monitor the effectiveness of your workout and warn you against risk of injury if you’re doing something dangerously or in bad form. It’s called the Leo. They’re focused first on a leg band that you can use with any leg-intensive exercise, like running or biking. But you could also use it on a treadmill or stair climber… I would love to see them branch out into an arm band as well! But that may be a while. They expect to ship in May and – with a week remaining – it’s still open to backing the project.

Virtual Primping with Electronic Makeup

Okay… let’s talk makeup! Yep! I’m starting a new vlog where I’m going to teach you how to do cool make up tricks. Like… Fine… I have no clue, but Nobumichi Asai from Japan does! They first scan the model’s face, then use real time facial tracking and THEN use a projection mapping process to project the digital or electronic makeup if you will… onto her face. This isn’t a brand new concept… think 3D projection on buildings. Or cars. But this is a moving face. It’d be pretty awesome if they could do this on a MOVING car… I haven’t seen that yet.

Aloft Offers Robotic Room Service

If you’re staying in the Aloft hotel in Cupertino, you’re going to want to order room service. And when you do, don’t be surprised if what you ordered is delivered by robot. It’s a test of a Google-Venture Funded bot called the SaviOne. It’s a 3 foot tall, 4 wheeled robot with a 7 inch touch screen face and a compartment for deliveries to guest rooms. They’ve nicknamed it the “Bot-ler” and thanks to Sonar and a 3D camera it should have no trouble finding its way around the hotel. And don’t worry about tipping… Bot-ler will accept tweets of appreciation to its own hashtag instead!

Climb Aboard the Bacon-Fueled Motorcycle

And if you’re passed by a motorcycle on the highway and suddenly smell bacon… you’re not imagining things. Seems Hormel has converted 275 gallons of bacon grease into 250 gallons of bio-fuel and is pouring it into a motorcycle which is about to wrap up a road trip from Minneapolis to San Diego. In case you were wondering the “Bacon Bio Fuel” costs about $3.50 a gallon and the bike is averaging about 75 to 100 miles per gallon. It’s a publicity stunt to promote Hormel’s “Black Label” Bacon Line. But I don’t care. It’s bacon people!!

Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

More than 10,000 people die each year from a drunk driver. 10,000 people! That’s 10,000 unnecessary deaths. No one gets in the car after an evening at a bar or at a friend’s grill party thinking I’m probably going to kill someone tonight. Nope, you just think “I’ve only had a couple, I’m fine.” Better safe than sorry! Get a designated driver or take a cab… don’t ruin your life or someone else’s. Cops are cracking down over the next couple weeks. So have fun on Labor Day, but be safe.