If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

A two-way wrist radio was a mighty handy communications tool, when used by Dick Tracy. He could be in touch with Chief Brandon, or fellow officers Pat Patton and Sam Catchem. Seems to me it would be great to issue wrist radios to Chief Distrola and the other stalwart members of the Port Allegany Police Department.

Not but what the civilian population could make excellent use of wrist radios. Come to think of it, wrist scanners would suit those who have one ear glued to “public safety band” scanners most of the time.

Way back when kids sold garden seeds and “Grit” subscriptions, the thought of earning a Dick Tracy two-way wrist radio was a powerful inducement. You could communicate with someone in the next room with one of those! Of course that other person had to have a wrist radio too, or else you had to really speak up.

Apple was rumored to be readying a wrist computer. The form factor sounded somewhat on the bulky side: it would be six inches long by three wide, it was said. Other companies toyed with wearable computer concepts.

Recently we have seen unveilings of several wristphones. They seem designed to partner with handheld smartphones. Three companies have announced their entries in the field: Sony, Qualcomm and Samsung.

Actually, Sony had a Smartwatch which didn’t seem to go much of anywhere, but the Smartwatch 2 may have the right combination of features.

The display is 1.6 inches in length, with a 220X176 resolution. Smartphone 2 can pair with most Android devices using NFC and Bluetooth 3.0. It can interact with phone apps and capture texts. The price tag is around $260.

Qualcomm’s Toq uses the Mirasol color e-ink display (readable in sunlight). Toq can communicate with your phone using Bluetooth, and interact with common apps and messages.

Toq can be charged wirelessly, which seems like a nice feature, and comes with wireless headphones. The battery is in a snug compartment in the band, and can support the Toq for up to five days, depending on use.

Compatible with Android phones so far, the Toq may get friendly with iOS later on, Qualcomm says. When Toq is released, later this year, it will sell for about $300.

And now comes Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch with its 1.63-inch size and a 320X320 Super AMOLED display. There’s a 1.9-megapixel camera on the band.

The Galaxy Gear has an 800MHz processor, 512 of RAM, and a battery that will keep Galaxy Gear up for about a day between charges.

GG pairs with Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and 3 and with the S4 (as is shown in announcement videos), and the Note tablet phones, and shows you messages and texts. It is friendly with Pocket and Feedly apps.

Raise your GG to your ear and it will answer phone calls. All right! If you are Chief Brandon you may hear Dick Tracy telling you to send the examiner and a photog.

Expect the launch of Galaxy Gear next month, priced at about $300, give or take.

Meanwhile, Google is said to be working on a Nexus smartwatch. The more the merrier!

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A company in Maine boasts that its new bridge building system can produce a span in 10 days. Township supervisors, rejoice! PennDOT engineers, pay attention!

Advanced Infrastructure Technologies claims that bridges built using their lightweight arches cost less, and are better. Municipal infrastructure folks will be dancing in the streets, if these arches are on the level.

The AIT “kits” include tubes made of fiber-reinforced plastic.

The tubes are inflated at the site, and treated with resin. These become arches as long as 90 feet, and they harden in half an hour.

The arches are positioned, and corrugated panels are bolted to them. Concrete is poured into the tubes, and hardens in two to four days.

Sand and gravel are applied to the bridge and compacted, then paved.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? The video I watched looked impressive, but what do I know about building bridges? How has it worked out, in practice? AIT says it has made 13 of these bridges, in Maine, Massachusetts and Michigan. They are trying to grow their company and attract more investors.

Simulation tests indicate the AIT bridges can stand up to heavy truck traffic for 50 years. The company claims carbon fiber reinforced tubes are not harmed by salt and other corrosives, as bare concrete would be.

With concrete in short supply in some areas, there may be cost and availability advantages over conventional designs.

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3D printers are becoming more popular, and less of a curiosity. So it was only a matter of time until 3D copiers and faxes became the next gee-whiz additions to the well appointed office.

AIO Robotics has come out with the Zeus, a multifunction machine that can replicate prototypes and parts and what have you, many kinds of solid objects—as long as they fit into the compartment, smaller than your microwave oven’s capacity.

Someone at the “other end” of a 3D fax transmission can take the replication out of a Zeus in that office or shop. Think of the money you will save on shipping!

You’ll get your $2500 purchase price back in about 200 faxed objects, in saved shipping costs. And you won’t have to buy a separate 3D scanner, right?