Extreme sports such as bungee-jumping from the Macau Tower may well be enough to satisfy the adrenaline needs of the majority of premium thrill-seekers. Those still wishing for more, however, have a new alternative: they can pay to be kidnapped, without warning, by French Ultime Réalité.

"Kidnapping", "Manhunt" and "Go-Fast Adventure" are all among the standard services Ultime Réalité offers, but it's open to special requests. Through the company's simulated kidnapping packages, for instance, the participant is abducted without warning—after leaving a restaurant, say, or in the supermarket parking lot. Paying "victims" are then bound, gagged and imprisoned for four or 10 hours (depending on the scenario they choose), allowing them to experience the terror of the real thing. Additional elements such as ransom, escapes and helicopter chases can also be involved. Manhunt packages, meanwhile, can last either one or two days, with the option to play the role of either hunter or prey. Then there's the Go-Fast Adventure, where participants take the role of a drug dealer smuggling cargo on the high seas. Finally, a recently added "extreme" package allows clients to wake up on an autopsy table in a morgue, surrounded by corpses and body bags. Pricing on a basic kidnap package is EUR 900.

Just a few weeks into its launch, Ultime Réalité was already getting as many as two requests per day, according to Reuters primarily from top-level executives seeking an extreme-sports alternative. Don't look now, but the premium bar just got raised again... (Related: Paparazzi for the rest of us.)

Website: www.ultimerealite.fr
Contact: contact@ultimerealite.fr

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

We've seen several efforts recently to bring Facebook photos into the offline world, such as HotPrints' free, advert-supported albums. Now bringing such capabilities to brick-and-mortar stores comes a new initiative from Kodak that lets consumers print online photos from Facebook and Picasa using its in-store kiosks.

Starting this summer, users of Kodak Picture Kiosks will be able to access their web albums on Facebook and Picasa as well as Kodak's own Kodak Gallery service. The kiosks will make 4x6in (102x152mm) prints of the photos, provided the resolution is high enough to make a quality print. Kodak says it also intends to connect with other social networking sites around the globe.

Given that more than 3 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook alone each month, there are plenty of opportunities for forging OFF=ON connections for consumers whose memories increasingly reside in the virtual world. How can your brand help make those memories more tangible? (Related: Mini web-to-print photo albums.)

Website: www.kodak.com
Contact: tinyurl.com/emailkodak

Spotted by: Judy McRae

Bird-watchers are well-known for the tenacity with which they chronicle sightings of avian species worldwide, but fans of other types of wildlife may have a harder time figuring out what's likely to be nearby. Now coming to the rescue is WildlifeNearYou, a UK-based site that lets animal lovers share their experiences and locate wildlife around the globe.

Focusing on nature reserves, zoos, parks and other organised wildlife locations, WildlifeNearYou lets users search for particular animals or search by area to learn where the wildlife that matters to them is likely to be found. They can also combine their search criteria and, for example, look for llamas in London. More than 1,500 species and 600 locations in 56 countries have been added since the site's launch in January, and users can add their own trips with information and photos of what they saw. Those with specific knowledge, meanwhile, can also help tag photos on the site with names for the species shown.

Combining one part life-tracking and one part location-based search, WildlifeNearYou promises to serve wildlife hobbyists and experts alike with its database of localised spottings. In addition to tapping advertising possibilities, we wouldn't be surprised to see WildlifeNearYou team up with a conservation effort of some kind, giving users a way to combine their passion with the good karma of helping out. Nature-focused organisations around the world: is this one to get involved in? (Related: For every brand and logo, a species to be saved — Community for tracking life experiences.)

Website: www.wildlifenearyou.com
Contact: www.wildlifenearyou.com/feedback

Spotted by: Marko Balabanovic

We've already covered a few wearable fitness devices that measure the physical activity of users throughout their day, but what separates Gruve from other monitors is the real-time feedback it supplies. The device has an indicator light that changes colour according to how much energy the wearer is burning over the course of a day, and it vibrates if the user has been inactive for too long: a polite reminder that it is time to get moving.

Developed in cooperation with Mayo Clinic, Gruve keeps track of the user’s metabolic progress against his or her pre-measured metabolism. The information collected is then synced to the Gruve Online website, giving users the ability to view their daily calorie burn and weight loss progress. Gruve is priced at USD 199.95, which includes a one-year subscription to Gruve Online.

Gruve’s targeted customer base is corporations looking to reduce their insurance premiums and employee healthcare costs by improving the health of what are often increasingly sedentary employees. It's a savvy strategy: the US Department of Health estimates that the annual obesity cost to American companies exceeds USD 120 billion. The health market should be on every entrepreneur's watchlist. Tracking and activity-based weight management products in particular are proving to be a growth market, with lots of room for regional distribution and adaptation. (Related: Wearable device tracks fitness data 24/7 — Wrist device rewards kids for exercising.)

Website: www.muve.me
Contact: joel.silverman@muve.me

Spotted by: Frank

Niche social networking sites aren't new. We've written about plenty of them, covering a diverse range of people and interests including travellers, property owners, office workers, restaurateurs, people with disabilities, baby boomers and even dogs. So, who is the newest kid on the social networking block? FaceChipz, a safe, age-appropriate online networking site for "tweens" where friendship links can only be made as the result of face-to-face exchanges in the real world.

Created by parents concerned about whom their kids were communicating with online, FaceChipz caters for tweens, who have outgrown traditional children's websites but aren't yet ready for the open social networking experience. FaceChipz has all the features of any other social network, but the one major difference is that kids can only interact with people with whom they've physically exchanged unique tokens—FaceChipz.

The way it works is: parents register their child on the site for a one-time fee of USD 1. Kids purchase packs of five collectible FaceChipz tokens from select retailers and then register each token online by entering the unique code printed on the chip. Once the FaceChipz are registered, kids hand them out to friends. A receiver goes online and they also enter the chip's code. The FaceChipz database then confirms the friendship, and the two people are linked. It remains to be seen whether FaceChipz will be able to thrive alongside existing social network giants. But there's no doubt that tokens are a clever angle, providing parents with a sense of security while potentially unleashing the viral power of a schoolyard collectible craze.

Website: www.facechipz.com
Contact: info@facechipz.com

Spotted by: Frederick Ashton