Being able to breath underwater, à la Aquaman, sounds like a made-up superpower. But it needn’t remain the stuff of pure science fiction. After all, fish manage to breath underwater. And some, like the lungfish, are adept at breathing air too. Theoretically, for a human to breath underwater all that’s required would be some sort of gill-like system.

Enter Jeabyun Yeon, a student at the Samsung Art And Design Institute, who thinks he’s come up with exactly that. Dubbed the Triton Oxygen Respirator, Yeon’s design features miniature artificial gills extending out from a mouthpiece.

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Can flying on a passenger airplane be awesome, comfortable and incredibly efficient all at the same time? It can if John McGinnis has his way. He’s the Project Manager for the Synergy Aircraft Project, an effort to vastly improve commercial air travel that’s as ambitious as it is necessary.

The goal of the Project is to build an airplane that, compared to current offerings, provides passengers with significantly more room, a better view and a more quiet and comfortable ride. The new airplane should be easier and safer to operate. It should be more environmentally friendly and super-efficient to fly using commonly available fuels. And, oh yeah, the aircraft must be highly affordable.

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The Blast Chiller can also chill a bottle of champagne in about eight minutes.

Where was this when we were in college? A refrigerator that can chill a can of beer from room temperature to ice cold in about four-and-a-half minutes. The ‘fridge is the Ultra-Capacity French Door Refrigerator from LG. Its fast cooling drawer is called the “Blast Chiller.”

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You’ve heard of point-and-shoot cameras, single reflex lens (SLR) cameras, micro four-thrids cameras and perhaps even light field cameras. But what about a throwable ball camera? That’s what Jonas Pfeil, student extraordinary at the Technical University of Berlin, developed for a class project (for which we presume he earned high grades).

Using this new type of camera requires more hand-eye coordination than it does photography skills. The “photographer” merely turns on the camera, throws it straight up in the air and catches the ball when it comes down. The camera does the rest.

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If there’s one product outside of the computer and portable electronics markets we wish Apple would design, it’s a car.

Spot Cool Stuff is a big fan of nearly everything Apple. Yes, their products aren’t inexpensive. But they are almost universally well designed, well built and user friendly—not to mention cool-looking. If Apple were to bring their prowess an automobile design . . . well, we can only imagine.

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Major electronics companies like Sony, Canon, Nikon and Olympus currently dominate the world’s $40 billion consumer camera market. Now a new company—and by “new” we mean it was literally launched yesterday—aims to change that. The goal of this company, Lytro, is no less to revolutionize photography.

Their camera’s most revolutionary feature: Photographers can focus their shots after they take them!

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Japan is famous for it’s quirky cultural trends and bizarre tech gadgets. Yet even by Japan trend standards, Necomimi is ridiculous looking—and technologically wondrous.

Literally translated as “cat ears,” Necomimi¹ appears at first glance to be a regular headband topped with two furry ears. It’s like what you’d expect to receive if you rented a cat outfit from a costume store. The amazing part is that the ears move, not randomly but based on the brainwaves of the Necomimi wearer!

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The stated aim of Mitsubishi’s television division: To bring the movie theater experience into people’s home.

To that end, Mitsubishi today unveiled a new 3D HDTV set that has—if we may use the technical term for it—a big ass screen. 92 diagonal inches of ass, to be specific. 92 inches! That’s a full foot longer than LeBron James is tall.

When it becomes available to the general public sometime in the summer of 2011 this new Mitsubishi will be the world’s largest consumer 3D television set.

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