Awesome Flower Webcam with 12 LEDs

Yes, believe it or not, it’s yet another flower inspired gadget. This time it’s a lotus USB 2.0 web camera that will look great together with the daisy flower baby camera monitor.

This Lotus-Shaped USB Webcam will give you a 640×480 resolution at 30 frames per second. It comes with a built-in microphone and 12 bright white LED lights. This allows you to use the web camera without any problems in low light conditions.

Features:

* Built-in 12 LED lamp and microphone.
* Large Window Capture Size: 640 x 480
* Frame Rate: VGA, 30 frame/second
* White Balance: Automatic
* Exposal Control: Automatic
* Flash Control: Automatic
* Interface: USB 2.0
* Microphone Plug: 3.5mm
* Flexible metal neck for any angle adjustment.
* Separated switch for LED light and bottom suction cup.
* System Requirements: Windows XP, VISTA.
* Cable Length: ~124cm
* Dimension: ~7.6(D) x 20.1(H)cm
* Weight: 260g

The Flower Webcam with 12 LEDs is available over at the Uxsight.com website for $24.69.

The Earth at night: Stunning images of the cities that light up the globe

It may look like an intriguing star constellation far away in space, but these lights are actually far closer to home. This image shows London at night as viewed by the International Space Station.

Taken by astronaut Donald Pettit on his last mission on the ISS, it shows England's capital shortly after 7.22pm on a cloudy February 4, 2003. He is due to return to space for the second time on the shuttle Endeavour later this week and no doubt looks forward to capturing yet more stunning images.


London's orbital motorway, the M25, is most clearly running south of the city. The darkened Thames river estuary fans out to the east, while dark pockets slightly west of the densely packed lights in the centre reveal Hyde Park and Regent's Park.

Mr Pettit captured his images after he constructed a device called a camera mount called a barn-door tracker on board the station.
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It is commonly used by astronomers on the ground to capture images of the stars, which compensates for the rotation of the Earth relative to the stars. However, Mr Pettit used it to compensate for the movement of the space station relative to the Earth below.

The careful coordination kept the target city in the same position during a long exposure, producing detailed photos. The astronauts have now captured hundreds of images of cities from around the world with this technique with a level of detail of about 60 metres.

Border cities like Ciudad Juaréz, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, show cultural differences influencing city planning.

On the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, El Paso is marked by the brightly-lit Interstate Highway that cuts through the city. The American-style grids of the city differs markedly from Ciudad Juaréz, which has a European inspired pattern of curved streets.


Cities from different regions of the Earth can also be identified by the different colours that the lights throw off. Japanese cities such as Tokyo glow a cooler blue-green than other regions of the world and patches of orange along the shore of Tokyo Bay reveal more advanced orange sodium vapour lamps, compared to the light green mercury vapour lamps inland.

As populations expand and urban areas grow, individual cities will merge into ever larger bright blobs. More roads will connect those cities to form an illuminated, lace-like web across the continents. And the snappers on the ISS no doubt hope there will be someone up in space to chart the changes.

Nymph - Insect Inspired Lamp

Nymph, as in “the immature form of some insects”, is the name of this odd and cool looking lamp by Site Specific Design - an interior and furniture design company based in Brooklyn, New York.

Body made of a two-part fiberglass mold- white lacquer finish. Light covers made of Corian. Legs 5/8” hollow steel tubes each curve is unique to its location- white powder coat finish.
The Nymph lamp measures 19(H) x 15(W) x 31(L) inches and will set you back $2,600.

Philips LivingColors LED Lamp - Mini Edition

Remember the beautiful LivingColors LED Lamp from last year? Philips is now about to release a mini version, featuring 256 different color modes.

Although smaller in size the Mini LivingColors still emits an amazing amount of light like its predecessor. The unit itself now looks even better and would fit into a multitude of environments, whether that’s an office or bedroom or living room! You can change your room dramatically in an instant without the need for a single drop of paint.

The lamp has integrated with the colour wheel which means no more searching for the remote control! It can stay static on any one of 256 variables or can continuously loop for the ultimate party effect!
Features:

* Change the colour of you walls as often as you change your mind
* Choose from 256 different colours or loop continuously
* Long lasting high powered LEDs (red, green, and blue)
* Intuitive colour wheel to select colour
* Energy consumption 7.5 W
* 230-240 v
* Light Output: 70 Lumen
* White or black units fit with most decors.

The Philips Mini LivingColors is expected to arrive at the end of September 2008 and can be pre-ordered from Red5 for £85 (about $166 USD).

Webcam with Fan and LED Light

This 4-in-1 USB 2.0 webcam features - apart from the web camera functionality - a fan for hot summer days, a microphone and a LED light.

Features:

* USB 2.0
* Excellent Still Image Capture
* Video Recording
* Video Conference
* Work with any chatting software, like ICQ, MSN and Skype, etc
* Built in sucker with lock
* Built in Microphone & Fan
* Built in LED light
* LED Dimmer switch
* Fan on/off button
* Support Window XP/Vista
* Driver free for Windows XP/Vista
* Dimension: 75 x 75 x 228mm (approx.)
* Weight: 211g


You can get the above black USB 4-in-1 Web Cam from USB Brando for $23, or you can get a dark gray model from GizFever.com the same price.

8-LED Macro Ring Light for Digital Cameras

This LED ring from Marumi will allow you to take better close-up pictures with your compact digital camera. The ringlike form provides a smooth and shadowless illumination of your object from every side.

This ring light unit provides an illumination akin to daylight. This results in brighter colours. The ring light has two steps of light intensity. You always can choose the matching light intensity for the actual ambient light.

You can attach the ring light to any camera which has a tripod thread. By the help of the flexible bending arm you can adjust the ring light to any camera type. You just have to bend the bending arm so that it is positioned in front of the lens of the camera.

Features:

First ring light for compact digital cameras
Smooth illumination from every side
No object shadowing any more
Eight LEDs
Two steps of light intensity
Illumination akin to daylight
For any camera with tripod thread
Flexible bending arm for the LED-ring
Needs three AAA-batteries
Case included

The Marumi LED-8 LED Macro Ring Light for Compact Digital Camera is available from enjoyyourcamera.com for 79,99 EUR (about $126 USD).