New and Emerging Technology News part 56 ~ NEW GEN TECH LIFE : new generation technology news

Saturday 25 January 2014

New and Emerging Technology News part 56

Lovely to look at, even better to drive ... the cherished and extremely rare 1963 race-bre...
RM Auctions believes it has just sold the world’s most coveted car - a rare 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO. The marque (chassis no. 4675 GT), in unmistakable Ferrari red and with the prancing horses emblazoned on the hood, has an excellent pedigree. One of only 36 250 GTOs originally produced in 1962/63 and one of a limited few with Series II GTO bodywork, it left the factory in April 1963 and was subsequently raced by Guido Fossati, Jean Guichet, Oddone Sigala, Vincenzo Nember and Luigi Taramazzo, rarely finishing outside the top three in its class and achieving numerous race wins.  Read More
The HP Gloe geo-tagging concept from HP Labs
With increasing numbers of people accessing the Internet on mobile devices there is a call for a quick, easy way to sort locally relevant content from the mountain of online data. To address this need HP is dipping its toes in the geo-tagging waters with Gloe – a concept service that allows users to find, recommend and contribute locally relevant web content on mobile devices.  Read More
The Black & Decker Alligator Lopper LP1000 makes light work of branches and logs up to 4 i...
Black & Decker has a tool that fits comfortably between a chainsaw and a branch lopper. It’s the Alligator Lopper LP1000 and can cut through branches and logs up to four inches thick. It uses its patented scissor action to grab the offending piece of wood, clamps it tight and then powers through it with a 4.5Amp motor driven chainsaw.  Read More
A half sphere of polymer cubes built by researchers at the MIT-Harvard Division of Health ...
Earlier this year we looked at a technique to grow 3D cell cultures using magnetic forces to levitate cells while they divided and grew, forming tissues that more closely resemble those inside the human body. Now researchers at the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) have devised a new way to achieve the same goal by using "biological Legos".  Read More
A computer bit circa 1958 from the LEO II/3 computer
The latest in our series of early technologies from Michael Bennett-Levy’s collection looks at the world’s first commercial business computer, the LEO II/3. The LEO II (short for Lyons Electronic Office) was the successor to the LEO I, which was designed by Oliver Standingford and Raymond Thompson of J. Lyons and Co. – one of the UK’s leading catering and food manufacturing companies in the first half of the 20th century.  Read More
LG's 15-inch OLED TV could soon get some more affordable bigger brothers
The prospect of more affordable large screen OLED TVs has taken another step towards becoming reality with the announcement by DuPont that it has developed a manufacturing process that can be used to print large, high-performance OLED TVs cost effectively. The announcement could see OLED TVs become more widespread and affordable than the pint-sized and prohibitively-priced offerings that we have been restricted to until now.  Read More
The newly-developed signal sequestering polymers could keep bacteria like these E. coli fr...
Everyone knows that when certain bacteria are present in an environment, they can cause infections. These infections can take the form of diseases such as bubonic plague, cholera, leprosy, and tuberculosis. The problem isn’t simply that the bacteria are present, however, it’s that they communicate with one another - essentially coming up with a battle plan. This signaling process, called quorum sensing, has now successfully been blocked by British scientists. They did it using plastics similar those used by dentists for repairing teeth.  Read More
An artist's rendering of the spider nanobot
Scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a robot that’s just 4 nanometers wide. And no, it doesn’t have flashing lights, video cameras or wheels. It does, however, have four legs, and the ability to start, move, turn, and stop. Descendants of the molecular nanobot, or “spider,” could someday be used to treat diseases such as cancer or diabetes.  Read More
Tom Kent's wheel-shifting Cell EV concept
While Optimus Prime and his fellow Transformers may be pure fiction, shape-shifting cars are destined to become a reality. Over the years here at Gizmag we’ve featured several examples including the Vauxhall Flextreme GT/E with its retractable aerodynamic body panels, the Rinspeed iChange with its ability to change from a one- to a three-seater, and the flexible-skinned BMW Gina. Now, it’s time to add another one to the list, as a design concept if not an actual prototype - the wheel-configuration-changing Cell.  Read More
Hundreds of separate spots on this flake of silicon can be engineered to change color in r...
A far cry in terms of both size and capability from the “bricks” of just over a decade ago, the smartphones of today are virtual offices and entertainment arcades that fit in your pocket. As we reported last month, America’s Department of Homeland Security is examining whether the ability to detect dangerous airborne chemicals should be the next function that mobile phones add to their ever-expanding utility belts. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have now begun work on a prototype sensor that could help map airborne toxins in real time.  Read More

Mitsubishi Electric installs elevators to carry 80, possibly the world's largest
If you've ever been annoyed by the impatiently waiting for an office building elevator, this might just be the perfect building for you. Each of the new elevators installed by Mitsubishi Electric in Umeda Hankyu Building’s new office area in Osaka, Japan measures 11.2 x 9.2 feet in area by 8.5 feet high (3.4m wide, 2.8m long and 2.6m high), thus allowing for a whopping 80 person capacity.  Read More
Roller Buggy – the baby stroller/scooter hybrid for kids on the fast track
Being a single, childless (as far as I know), male my experience with baby strollers is largely limited to trying to avoid parents using them as battering rams at my local shopping center. That task could get a whole lot tougher if the Roller Buggy gains widespread popularity. A simple pull of the lower body extends a platform and transforms the Roller Buggy from a run-of-the-mill baby stroller into a scooter that lets parents transport baby around town at breakneck (hopefully not literally) speed.  Read More
Implants containing both Glucose Oxidase and catalase, before and after implantation in a ...
The miniaturization of electrical sensors coupled with the development of flexible silicon technology paves the way for a wide variety of medical sensors that can be implanted into the human body. One of the major obstacles facing the development of such devices, not to mention artificial organs, is how they are powered. Currently devices need to be constantly recharged via an external power source or, as is the case with battery-powered pacemakers, replaced altogether. Now a team of French researchers has implanted a new type of biofuel cell into rats that overcomes these problems by generating electricity from a potentially limitless source - sugar in the rat’s bodies.  Read More
Hair cells like these have been successfully recreated in a petri dish (Photo: CC)
It’s become an accepted fact of life that people tend to lose much of their hearing as they get old. This is because our hair cells, the cells in our ears which allow us to hear, cannot regenerate - we’re born with 30,000 per ear, but once they die off or get damaged, they’re gone for good. Stefan Heller, a professor of otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat stuff) at Stanford University, wants to change that. To that end, he recently succeeded in creating mouse hair cells in a petri dish. Could an end to deafness be far behind?  Read More
Release office tension with the USB Stress Ball
Stress balls are a great way to relieve tension and help combat repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. They’re also an easy answer for office workers looking for a gift when social convention states you need to get a little something for someone you work with, but don’t really know that well. Since no gift is complete nowadays unless it comes with a USB cable dangling from it, this tech-take on the stress ball could be the answer. The USB Stress Ball not only provides some physical stress relief, but some virtual stress relief as well.  Read More
Penn State's conformal-evaporated-film-by-rotation technique leaves the oils in fingerprin...
If shows like CSI have taught us anything about lifting fingerprints, it’s that we do it by dusting them with powder or fuming them with chemicals... and that we have to turn on blue accent lighting and play moody electronic music while we’re doing it. Approaches like these rely on chemical reactions with the deposited finger skin oil to provide the print. A new method developed at Penn State University, however, lets the physical geometry of the print do the talking. The oils are left unaltered, which could make all the difference in a criminal investigation.  Read More
Principles observed in schools of fish could improve the efficiency of vertical-axis wind ...
Schooling fish, it turns out, have a lot to teach us about setting up wind farms. That’s the conclusion reached by John Dabiri, a fluid dynamics expert from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). One of the biggest current problems with wind farms is the large land area that they require - if you place the turbines too close to one another, they will be adversely effected by each other’s turbulence. By applying principles learned from observing fish, however, Dabiri thinks he might have found a solution.  Read More
HP is releasing more than a dozen new AMD-powered notebooks
HP has boosted its range of laptops quite substantially, with its largest single introduction of AMD-powered notebook PCs to date. Fourteen new machines are on offer in total, pitched towards both business customers and home users. All of the models in HP’s new notebook range include updated AMD multicore processors. Among the new brood is a set of Phenom II Dual-Core N620 systems promising to offer users up to 69 per cent faster performance than previous models.  Read More
Pauley Interactive's Bi Computing concept in a home setting
Pauley Interactive's Bi Computing concept looks to provide "the perfect platform for gamers, Internet surfers, business applications or watching TV and movies all at the same time, in the same place." The design crunches a couple of computers into one unit with back to back displays, an idea that could help ease the battle for space in homes and offices positively overflowing with gadgets and gizmos.  Read More

The new 'microlens' (left) leverages the unique properties of nanoscale gold to 'squeeze' ...
Anyone who likes to get their gear off for a spot of naked sunbathing in the backyard may have to think twice in the future. Researchers have developed a new nanotechnology-based “microlens” that could lead to a new generation of ultra-powerful satellite cameras and night-vision devices. Thankfully, the new lens is used for infrared imaging, so the technology is more likely to be used for security and monitoring climate change and deforestation than spying on naturists boosting their vitamin D levels.  Read More
Global study on link between cell phones and brain cancer 'inconclusive'
The world's largest study into the link between mobile phones and brain tumors is inconclusive according to a Canadian scientist. Over 10,000 people took part in the study led by epidemiologists from more than ten countries but the findings, according to University of Montreal professor Jack Siemiatycki, are "ambiguous, surprising and puzzling."  Read More
A still from the just-released video of the ornithopter in action
Last year, we brought you the story of tech company AeroVironment’s life-size artificial hummingbird, that flies solely by flapping its wings. Now, a group of Japanese researchers has successfully built and flown a flapping-wing-powered swallowtail butterfly. Besides looking incredibly cool, the life-size “ornithopter” has also proven a principle that could have big implications in the field of aerodynamics.  Read More
The 1/9th scale version of the AWS III wave energy system at Loch Ness
Solar power might be stealing the limelight when it comes to the subject of renewable energy, but ocean waves are also seen as a great, largely untapped source of clean power. The latest news surrounding attempts to mine this potentially limitless energy source comes from Scottish marine energy technology developer, AWS Ocean Energy, which has started testing its new wave energy device in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands.  Read More
The Kisai Round Trip Pocket Watch from Tokyoflash says it's 10:54
Purveyor of weird watches, Tokyoflash, has blended the old with the new in its latest creation, the Kisai Round Trip Pocket Watch. Designed to attach to a key chain, belt loop or even on a chain in your top pocket like a traditional pocket watch, the Round Trip continues Tokyoflash’s history of releasing timepieces that make telling the time a puzzle to be decoded.  Read More
The HIIDE portable biometric device
It’s billed as “the most powerful tool ever developed for biometric identification,” and it could well be. L-1 Identity Solutions’ HIIDE is a rugged, portable device that can establish and then verify peoples’ identities using three separate biometrics - iris, fingerprint and facial recognition. It must be pretty impressive, as the US Department of Defense recently ordered ten million dollars worth of the suckers.  Read More
Santos, the biomechanically-correct avatar
He may look like he stepped straight out of Second Life, but he isn’t here to kid around. Santos is a computer-generated auto worker who will perform various tasks on a virtual Ford assembly line, showing real-world researchers how those tasks affect his body. The avatar was originally developed for the US Department of Defense at the University of Iowa as part of the Virtual Soldier Research program where he was used to determine the physical strain that soldiers would experience in a variety of situations. Hmm... auto worker, soldier, university education, muscular, exotic name... perhaps he did just step out of Second Life.  Read More
The Green Samba – the first viable electric Personal Water Craft
You're looking at the first exclusive images of what we expect to become the Personal Water Craft V 3.0 – it's the Green Samba. It has the same straight line 65 mph performance of the fastest 260 bhp sit-down PWCs, combined with handling and agility far beyond those of a stand-up PWC. The biggest benefit though, is that the Green Samba uses twin direct drive electric propulsion pods (unit pictured bottom left), so it doesn't directly deliver any hydrocarbons, CO2 or NO2 into delicate marine environments. Equally as important as the lack of noxious gases, the Green Samba is also completely silent, removing one of the greatest causes for complaint against PWCs and no doubt offering respite for those creatures with extremely delicate hearing which live on and under the water. A working prototype of the carbon fiber construction Green Samba will be on the water for testing purposes in Q3, 2010. The pictured action shots (bottom center and bottom right) of the Samba are the most recent development of the internal combustion Carbon Samba we first wrote up this time last year.  Read More
The D double bubble aircraft design promises a 70 percent improvement in fuel economy (Ima...
The contribution of aircraft to greenhouse gas emissions has been well documented and while biofuels are being trialled in an effort to combat the issue, an expected doubling in air traffic by 2035 suggests that a fundamental shift in technology is needed to make real progress. That's the starting point for the D “double bubble” – a design concept presented to NASA by an MIT led research team which promises a 70 percent improvement in fuel economy, reduced noise, lower nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and the ability to use shorter runways.  Read More

The Scribble is an electronic doodle pad that animates your drawings
This is one of those ingenious inventions that’s so simple, it’s amazing no one’s come up with it until now. A team of Art and Design students at the University of Michigan have created a prototype electronic doodle pad called the Scribble that animates your drawings. You simply hand-draw a series of successive images on it, then it runs them all together in a Flash-like cartoon. Why didn’t I think of that?  Read More
Lithium-ion batteries sometimes catch fire, due to lithium particle accumulations (Photo: ...
It’s probably safe to say that just about everyone is impressed with the incredible performance offered by lithium-ion batteries. They make our cell phones and laptops viable for real-world use and will be powering just about every electric vehicle on the road. These batteries do have one problem however: they sometimes catch fire. That’s not good. Fortunately, scientists at Cambridge University think they’re on the road to solving this problem - a new technique allows them to “see” the chemistry at work inside batteries.  Read More
Softbank's  Mimamori Z001 camera
Hoping to capitalize on over-protective pet owners (like myself!), Softbank is rolling out its innovative – and admittedly cute – Mimamori Camera. This clever pet monitoring system allows you to keep tabs on your pet remotely via your mobile phone, all in real time using a Japanese handset's 'TV call' function.  Read More
ViewSonic's new VOT125 mini-PC is being offered with four Intel ultra-low-voltage processo...
ViewSonic has announced U.S. availability for its new handy VOT125 mini-PC. Coming with a quartet of ultra-low-voltage processor options from Intel to help cut down on power draw and benefiting from Windows 7 Home Premium, its petite dimensions may well see the unit being squeezed into the tightest nook of limited home and office space.  Read More
MSI has announced the development of a Windows-based software tool to unlock processor cor...
MSI has announced the launch of a Windows-based software tool that puts an end to all that bothersome fiddling around in the BIOS to enable inactive processor cores. The tool lists available cores, and with a few simple clicks on the basic interface and a reboot, a user is able to unleash previously disabled ones.  Read More
A five year Shell Eco Marathon fuel efficiency record has been smashed by a team of French...
A five year Shell Eco Marathon fuel efficiency record has been smashed by a team of French students. Team Polyjoule broke the record on the first day of the event by recording an astounding result of 4,414 kilometers on the equivalent of one liter of fuel (that's 10,382 mpg). The team then went on to break its own record by a further 482 kilometers. But the students still expect even more from their hydrogen fueled vehicle and are already looking toward next year's Marathon.  Read More
UPDATED: SAIC YeZ Concept Car inhales C02, emits oxygen
General Motor's Joint-Venture partner in China, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) rolled out a concept alongside GM's EN-V at Expo 2010 which in many ways is more ground-breaking than the EN-V. The idea behind the YeZ Concept is that it will photosynthesize, absorbing carbon dioxide from surrounding air and emitting oxygen back into the atmosphere. Among the many futuristic aspects of the YeZ (Chinese for “leaf” as Nissan already uses the name for a clever green concept that is heading for production) is a roof that incorporates solar panels and wheels that incorporate small wind turbines to harvest energy from the environment. And if you think this is not within reach by 2030, think again – artificial photosynthesis has proven elusive, but there's every indication it will be a commercial reality within two decades.  Read More
Researchers have managed to hack into vehicle computer systems and remotely take control o...
The alarming number of safety recalls appearing in headlines of late is worrying enough. Now researchers have shown that it's possible to take away driver control of a moving vehicle by remotely hacking into relatively insecure computer systems common in modern automobiles. The team managed to break into key vehicle systems to kill the engine, apply or disable the brakes and even send cheeky messages to radio or dashboard displays.  Read More
The LinnStrument - a wonderfully expressive digital music interface that may never see the...
The last time most of us heard of Roger Linn, it was when he put his name to the revolutionary Linn LM1 drum machine that became such an integral part of the sound of 1980s pop music - it was used on so many #1 hits that you'll recognize its signature sound straight away. Now, Linn has come up with a new and equally novel tool for musicians - a digital music interface that uses a pressure-sensitive multitouch pad and a layout that combines a piano keyboard with a guitar fretboard. The LinnStrument is one of the most expressive, evocative and enticing new musical instruments we've seen, and its potential is enormous - but it seems this innovative device might be prevented from coming to the market due to unfortunate IP squabbling in the multitouch sector.  Read More
3D Glasses using Toshiba's new high speed response LCD panels
Aside from the obvious fashion concerns arising from donning 3D glasses (which is already being addressed with the release of designer 3D eyewear) the biggest drawback of active shutter glasses is crosstalk. This refers to the ghosting of images when the right eye sees some residue of the image intended for the left eye and vice versa. Toshiba has now developed new high-response LCD panels that can be used in active shutter glasses to reduce crosstalk.  Read More

OmniVision has developed the world's first 0.13 inch native HD 2 megapixel CMOS sensor
OmniVision has developed a 1/6-inch, native HD, 2 megapixel CMOS sensor capable of delivering full 1080p high definition video at 30 frames per second. Likely headed for webcams, notebooks and video conferencing technology later in the year, the tiny OV2720 sensor is also claimed to provide best-in-class low light sensitivity and is capable of removing image contamination.  Read More
The Ever Increasing Watch
Watches, movies, poems and paintings... a lot of people think that the harder any one of these things are to understand, then the better they are. We’ve certainly covered some intentionally-obscure watches here at Gizmag before, with everything from a row of LEDs to numbers on a sphere to dots that get filled in and stained glass-like patterns used to display the time. Now, Japanese weird-watch-maker EleeNo brings us one that displays the hours, minutes and seconds on a climbing line graph.  Read More
The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid team with their prototype
The challenge: to design and build a high speed road-racing motorcycle from scratch, with an eye towards cost-effective production. Could you do it? The folks at Spain’s Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) think that a team of their engineering students can. The team is competing in the Moto Student competition, which pits university teams from around Europe and the rest of the world against each other to see who can design the best commercially-viable bike.  Read More
Pacman's 30th birthday tribute on the front page of Google
Google's front page today pays tribute to the iconic video game, Pacman. It's just 30 years ago today since Pacman was first released in Japan, indicating the warp speed at which gaming has become part of the global social fabric. Fittingly for such a landmark date for a landmark game, Google's front page is more than just an idle tribute – it is actually a fully playable game of Pacman and will be seen around 3 billion times during this 24 hour period.  Read More
The IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) solar sail
Although the idea of a solar sail was first proposed some 100 years ago, to date none has been successfully used in space as a primary means of propulsion. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is looking to change all that with its IKAROS project – not a misspelling of Icarus, rather an abbreviation of Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun. Launched today aboard the H-IIA Launch Vehicle (H-IIA F17), IKAROS is a space yacht that gathers energy for propulsion from sunlight pressure (photons) by means of a square membrane measuring 20 meters (65.6 ft) diagonally.  Read More
Galaxy's GeForce GTX 470 GC video card
The VGA labs at TweakTown have been running overtime this week with Galaxy's GeForce GTX 470 GC and the GIGABYTE HD 5870 1GB Super Overclock series video cards under the microscope. This week's wrap also includes a look at some heavy duty storage in the form of Proware's EPICa Series EN-T800 SAS-ready NAS, four highly popular models in the world of gaming mice and Crucial's half-size 128GB capacity model of its well renowned RealSSD C300.  Read More
Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 - the world's first synthetic organism
A research team, led by Craig Venter of America’s J. Craig Venter Institute, has produced the first cell controlled by a synthetic genome. The team had previously synthesized a bacterial genome, and transplanted the genome from one bacteria to another, but this is the first time they have combined the two techniques to create what they call a “synthetic cell” - although only its genome is actually synthetic. They now hope to be able to explore the machinery of life, and to engineer bacteria designed for specific purposes.  Read More
Remote control exhaust system offers range of exhaust notes
Without doubt, one of man's greatest delights is to experience firsthand the stereo staccato of an exhaust system trumpeting the sound of a high performance engine being controlled by an expert touch on a mountain road. Sadly, the same engine, exhaust and expert touch become highly anti-social in urban confines, so German tuning company Cobra has come up with the perfect invention for socially-responsible petrolheads – a remote-control exhaust system. At the push of a button, one can engage an electronically controlled flap on the twin 120mm tailpipes, changing the noise from subdued and refined sportiness through to unrestrained and joyful F1-madness … and back again.  Read More
Epyon's fast-charging station opened this Thursday in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Earlier this month, we told you how Dutch EV charging company Epyon was promoting its new fast charging station. It can reportedly charge a Nissan LEAF up to 80 percent within 30 minutes, and certain other EV’s within even half that time. Now, Epyon is announcing the opening of its first commercial fast-charging station in Europe.  Read More
Microsoft joins with Foxtel to provide pay TV over Xbox LIVE
Microsoft has signed an agreement with Australia’s dominant pay TV provider, Foxtel, to stream over 30 channels to Xbox 360 consoles through Xbox LIVE. The Foxtel by Xbox LIVE service will allow Xbox 360 owners in Australia to access Foxtel channels without the expense of a Foxtel installation and set-top box. Instead, to access the subscription service users will need an Xbox 360 console, Xbox LIVE Gold subscription, broadband connection and a Foxtel by Xbox LIVE subscription.  Read More
 
 


 
 

1 comment: