New and Emerging Technology News part 82 ~ NEW GEN TECH LIFE : new generation technology news

Monday 27 January 2014

New and Emerging Technology News part 82

The Tokyo Flash Kisai Wasted watch
As crazy as most of Tokyo Flash's watches are, the company just might have set a new standard with the a new psychedelic design, appropriately dubbed the Kisai Wasted. With a hypnotic multi-colored array of LED lights on the face, this latest watch is sure to be a hit (no pun intended) with the stoner demographic.  Read More
Along the back of the mouse are some funky, curvy enhanced lightpipes where four multicolo...
Hamburg-based ROCCAT Studios has released a high-precision laser sensor gaming mouse that gives users access to 22 programmable function buttons without going button crazy. The Kone[+] mouse also sports precise aiming assistance, eye-catching multi-color light strips along its back, a sound feedback system and the option to alter its feel by adding weights.  Read More
Panasonic's Power Loader Light exoskeleton
We've covered a number of amazing exoskeletons here on Gizmag, ranging from the solutions for paraplegics – see REX Bionics' and Berkley Bionics' exoskeletons – to the downright wacky Kid Walker mecha for children. Last year we saw Activelink's Power Loader, an exoskeleton that takes its name from the suit of the same name in James Cameron's Aliens. The company, a subsidiary of Panasonic, has now come out with a lightweight version, appropriately named the Power Loader Light.  Read More
Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, has opened (to the media) and features a 200kph-plus roller coas...
Where would you expect to find the world’s largest indoor theme park? If you answered "Dubai," you’d be close (but no cigar). It’s basically next door in, Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital. And you might be surprised to find that it’s not another Disney park or Universal Studios attraction – no, the world’s largest theme park is Ferrari World, and it opened today (27 October 2010) to the media. The public opening has been delayed as a sign of respect for the passing of Sheik Saqr bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, Emir of Ras al-Khaimah. Gizmag has given readers an insight into Ferrari World in the past, but shortly you’ll be able to visit for yourself.  Read More
The Elevated High-Speed Bus could be headed for U.S. streets
The giant Straddling Bus we reported on earlier this year could be headed to the U.S. This week the inventor of the bus, Mr. Song Youzhou, announced that his Shenzhen-based company is aiming to form partnerships or licensing agreements with specialized manufacturers to build the vehicle for the American market. Designed as a way to reduce traffic snarls without the need for much in the way of new infrastructure, the “Elevated High-Speed Bus” straddles two lanes of traffic allowing cars to drive underneath.  Read More
VSS Enterprise flies over the runway dedication ceremony at Spaceport America, New Mexico ...
Virgin Galactic's first generation of commercial space vehicles now have somewhere to land with the completion of the runway at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The 42-inch thick, almost two mile long "spaceway" was dedicated in a ceremony attended by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Buzz Aldrin, Sir Richard Branson and around 30 soon-to-be space tourists who have signed up as Virgin Galactic's first customers.  Read More
The fuel cells will be tested on cars based on the based on the current C30 DRIVe Electric
In an effort to overcome one of the main drawbacks of battery electric vehicles, Volvo is initiating development of a hydrogen fuel cell that is expected to increase an electric car’s operating range by up to 250 km (155 miles). In the first phase of the project the company, together with Powercell Sweden AB, will conduct a study into a Range Extender, which consists of a fuel cell with a reformer that breaks down a liquid fuel – in this case petrol – to create hydrogen gas. The fuel cell then converts the hydrogen gas into electrical energy to power the car’s electric motor.  Read More
Dr. Nico Sommerdijk and colleagues have created bone in a laboratory setting
Scientists have successfully mimicked the process of bone formation in the laboratory. A cryoTitan electron microscope was used to capture the process in great visual detail and the results, which contradicted previous assumptions, could be applied to areas other than medicine.  Read More
MIT researchers have developed a portable, solar-powered water desalination system that co...
Researchers from MIT's Field and Space Robotics Laboratory (FSRL) have designed a portable, solar-powered desalination system to bring drinkable water in disaster zones and remote regions around the globe. Designed to be cost-effective and easy to assemble, the prototype system uses solar panels to power high-pressure pumps which can deliver up to 80 gallons of clean water a day in a variety of weather conditions.  Read More
Prototype of the rumored PlayStation Phone (Image: engadget
engadget has published the first unofficial pics of what appears to be the much-rumored PlayStation phone, which looks like the result of mating a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 with a PSP Go.  Read More

Sencha has announced the release of a developer preview of its CSS3 Animator software, whi...
Adobe is not the only company preparing for the heralded death of Flash on the web. Sencha has announced the developer preview of a new CSS3-based animation tool for the creation of rich media animations in HTML5-enabled browsers. The new desktop application is said to allow developers to bring web animations to life without having to mess around with hundreds of lines of complicated code.  Read More
Escort has integrated ticket avoidance technology and GPS navigation into one unit, the Pa...
Automotive radar and laser detector manufacturer Escort has announced the release of Passport IQ, which combines GPS navigation and radar detection technology in one handy unit. As well as getting you safely from A to B, the new driving accessory is said to be the first that also protects you from annoying and costly tickets by providing information on red light and fixed position speed cameras, known speed traps, speed limit information and more.  Read More
Nokia Siemens Networks has recorded data transmission speeds of 825 Mbps over copper using...
Just when the future of broadband appears to be tipped towards the mass roll-out of optics, Nokia Siemens Networks proves that there's still life in the old copper wires yet. Using a virtual channel to supplement physical copper wire, data transmission speeds of 825 Mbps were recorded. Okay, so it was only over a distance of 400 meters (just over 1,312 feet) but the circuit managed to sustain 750 Mbps when the distance was increased to 500 meters (about 1,640 feet), with the technology promising broadband speed increases of between 50 and 75 per cent over existing bonded copper lines.  Read More
Using similar technology to that found in mobile phones, but at a tiny fraction of the pow...
As Breast Cancer Awareness month draws to a close, some promising news has emerged from the University of Manchester's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Professor Zhipeng Wu has developed a portable breast scanner that offers concerned patients real-time video images that clearly show the presence of a tumor. The lunchbox-sized scanner uses similar radio frequency technology as mobile phones, but at a fraction of the power and lends itself to being used in doctor's surgeries for instant screening or even continued monitoring at home.  Read More
Indian researchers have found that eggshells could be used for carbon capture and sequestr...
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a hot area of research in the effort to fight global warming through the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and ferreting it away within carbon soaking materials, a team from the University of Calcutta has found an unexpected (or should that be uneggspected) material that could trap carbon from the atmosphere in the form of eggshells. The team has demonstrated that the membrane that lines an eggshell can absorb almost seven times its own weight of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, allowing the gas to be stored until environmentally friendly methods of disposing, or even using it, can be found.  Read More
Lockeed Martin is testing an updated, ruggedized version of the HULC robotic exoskeleton
Lockheed Martin is putting an updated, ruggedized version to its HULC Robotic Exoskeleton through lab evaluation tests. The hydraulic "power-suit" now boasts better protection from the elements, improved fitting and easier adjustment, increased run-time and new control software.  Read More
The new d2 and 2big USB 3.0 external HDDs with 3TB drives from LaCie
LaCie has given a bump to its USB 3.0 external hard drives in terms of both capacity and speed with its latest d2 and 2big drives. Taking advantage of 3TB hard drives and the performance of USB 3.0, the company’s dual drive 2big USB 3.0 offers 6TB of storage and a 20 percent speed boost to 306MB/s – claiming the fastest performance of any 2-bay RAID solution to date – while the single drive d2 USB 3.0 offers 3TB of storage and transfer speeds of 156MB/s.  Read More
An example of the potential of body-to-body networks with live streaming of video at a con...
At a major sporting event I attended recently, it proved impossible to get a connection on a mobile network that was swamped as many of the 100,000 strong crowd attempted to contact friends and family. While the influx of calls was the result of a thrilling draw, it highlighted the weakness of overloaded communications networks that would struggle in the event of a disaster in a heavily populated area. A new system being developed by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast could turn this weakness into a strength by allowing members of the public carrying wearable sensors to form the backbone of new mobile Internet networks.  Read More
A rendering of the platinum-iridium cylinder, that currently defines the weight of a kilog...
It’s one of those things where if you think about it too much, your head might explode... we know there are 1,000 grams in a kilogram, and 1,000 kilograms in a metric ton, but how was it ever decided what any of these units actually physically weighed? Well... the modern metric system is part of the Système International d'Unités (International System of Units) or SI. It states that a kilogram is the weight of one specific 130 year-old platinum-iridium cylinder, which is kept in a vault at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France... and no, don’t ask how they knew if they’d got its weight right, when they were making it. The problem is, that cylinder’s mass changes slightly over time. Now, a worldwide effort is under way to change the definitive weight of a kilogram to something more permanent.  Read More
Tesla Motors' Model S sedan will be built at a former Toyota plant in California
When most of us think of Tesla Motors, we think of the US$100,000 all-electric Roadster. The fact is, though, the first time that most of us ever see a Tesla in real life, it will probably be the less expensive, five door Model S sedan. While the company has sold over 1,300 Roadsters worldwide, the Model S has yet to start production. When it does, however, it will be in the new Tesla Factory, unveiled this Wednesday in Fremont, California. It is the state’s only auto assembly plant and the world’s first facility dedicated exclusively to the mass production of electric vehicles.  Read More
 
All of the TeliaSonera/Ncell 3G base stations in the Mount Everest region run on solar or ...
Cream brought the country blues classic Sittin' on top of the world to an international audience in the late 1960s... and now you can watch it on YouTube while you're sitting there. Through its subsidiary Ncell, the Swedish telecommunications group TeliaSonera has launched 3G services in the Mount Everest area of Nepal – which makes the company the providers of the world's highest mobile data service.  Read More
An integration exercise will feature Apache helicopter pilots controlling Shadow (pictured...
The U.S. Army is planning the largest ever demonstration of its Manned Unmanned Systems Integration Concept (MUSIC). The technology, which we first covered back in 2006, allows pilots to control the payload of a nearby Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) from the cockpit of an Apache Attack helicopter. The demonstration to be held at Dougway Proving Ground, Utah, is aimed at analyzing the progress of evolving manned-unmanned teaming technologies and will showcase level-4 UAS interoperability, which includes the ability to control the payload and view feeds from UAS systems in real-time from the cockpit.  Read More
The University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center is examining the legality and basic logis...
Despite ongoing advances in prevention techniques and monitoring systems, heart disease remains the world’s leading cause of death. A study from the University of Michigan (U-M) Cardiovascular Center has looked to the past for a future remedy in a study that examines the legality and basic logistics of recycling pacemakers after they have been removed from a deceased person.  Read More
Computer scientists have developed software that can make gigapixel images available for e...
Computer scientists from the University of Utah have developed computer software that allows editing of "extreme resolution" image files in a matter of seconds, a process that could previously have taken hours. Whereas existing editing suites require the full gigapixel image to be loaded into a computer's memory before manipulation can begin, the new development draws a lower resolution preview image from an externally-stored image into the editing screen. Users are said to benefit from being able to make image-wide modifications in seconds rather than hours and on devices normally not nearly powerful enough for such things.  Read More
Designers have completed the largest and most biologically diverse living wall in Surrey, ...
Not content with having the largest non-industrial living roof in Canada and North America, designers in Canada have gone one step further with the completion of the largest and most biologically diverse living wall in North America. Green wall designers Green Over Grey recently completed work on the living wall at the Semiahmoo Public Library and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Facility in Surrey, British Columbia, which consists of a unique design covering nearly 3,000 square feet (279 square meters) and consisting of over 10,000 individual plants.  Read More
Gibson has announced its latest foray into the world of digitally-enhanced guitars with th...
After a couple of weeks of Apple-esque hype, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz gave what he calls the revolutionary the Firebird X a smashing start at the press launch in New York. Featuring built-in effects, robotic tuning and coming with wireless pedal controllers, the lightweight new model is being offered in a strictly limited run.  Read More
The design offers a handle to the 'Pull' side and a panel to the 'Push' side offering a mo...
In the current day and age of design, you might have imagined we'd have come up with an aesthetic, intuitive and practical answer to the “Push – Pull” dichotomy frustrating and embarrassing confused shoppers and office-workers everywhere. While there are solutions such as the push bar – pull handle design often found in schools, student designer Jeon Hwan Soo has come up with a smart and instinctive all-in-one design that could reduce the number of people pulling an arm out of its socket or running into a door when they have pushed when they should have pulled or vice versa.  Read More
A dozen subjects with their brains wired up to a computer interface have succeeded in mani...
Using just the power of thought to control onscreen computer activity, subjects in a recent study led by neurosurgery professor Itzhak Fried, M.D., Ph.D have managed to choose to bring one of two merged images into sharp focus while making the other disappear. Not only were only a few brain cells found to be used when selecting one picture over another, but each cell appeared to have its own image preference.  Read More
One of the first Nissan LEAFs is inspected (Photo: Nissan)
We've been covering the Nissan LEAF with interest for some time and right on track to meet its previously-stated production deadlines, the 100% electric, Nissan LEAF has gone into manufacture at the Oppama facility in Japan.  Read More
Hammacher Schlemmer's Emotive Robotic Avatar
Mail order retailer Hammacher Schlemmer is hoping that someone out there will be willing to plunk down the price of a luxury automobile on its Emotive Robotic Avatar. The US$65,000 device is essentially a stationary remote-control robot, through which its user can carry on conversations, make gestures, and convey five different emotions. On one hand it's a taste of the future, on the other... that's a very expensive puppet.  Read More

FlexUPD paper-thin, flexible AMOLED display technology has been announced as the gold winn...
The paper-thin, flexible AMOLED display developed by Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has taken gold in the Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Award. Catering for two-sided surface visibility, FlexUPD could see its way into rollable mobile phones or e-Readers, or incorporated into clothing to provide information about the wearer – for medical purposes, for instance.  Read More
The Jack PC thin-client desktop computing solution puts all the end-user computing power i...
The Jack PC from Chip PC Technologies offers a neat and novel thin-client desktop computing solution where the computer doesn't just plug into the wall, it is the plug in the wall. Running on power provided by the ethernet cable that also connects it to the data center server, the computer-in-a-wall-socket supports wireless connectivity, has dual display capabilities and runs on the RISC processor architecture – which gives the solution the equivalent of 1.2GHz of x86 processing power.  Read More
Logitech has unveiled a new solar-powered wireless keyboard - the K750
One of the most annoying things about typing on a wireless keyboard is the sudden shutdown that often occurs right in the middle of a particularly inspirational key-tapping session. By the time the batteries have been replaced, the muse has vanished. Logitech's latest keyboard is designed to end such woes. The slim, wireless K750 sports a couple of solar strips above the row of function keys which provide the keyboard's power. The company says that it can draw energy from internal lighting as well as the sun and will keep on going even after being kept in the dark for a few months.  Read More
Shenzhen Guangxuntong Communication Technology has announced the forthcoming availability ...
The e-Reader has been a success story, there's not much doubt about that. But with only various shades of gray offered by e-Ink, most manufacturers are now diving into color LCD devices (with the notable exception of Amazon). Now China's Shenzhen Guangxuntong Communication Technology has announced a paper-like color display on its new S700 e-notepad, although exactly what technology is used to achieve this has not been revealed. Here's what we do know...  Read More
The panoramic vario-roof with MAGIC SKY CONTROL in transparent mode
Mercedes-Benz will introduce a new breed of "switchable" glass roof as an optional extra on the new SLK next year. The panoramic vario-roof with MAGIC SKY CONTROL can – aside from being quite a mouthful – either be darkened or made transparent at the touch of a button.  Read More
Mattrack's Powerboard
If you like the idea of zipping across the landscape on a stand-up tracked vehicle, but find the likes of the DTV Shredder and Scarpar just a little too intimidating, then you might like the Mattracks Powerboard. Designed specifically for use on snow, the device features one continuous snowmobile-type rubber track on the bottom, that is powered by a mid-mounted 200CC 4-cycle gas engine. Delivering a top speed of 18mph (29kph), this thing probably isn’t going to be appearing in any sports drink ads anytime soon, but it still looks like it could be fun.  Read More
A decellularized liver
In the quest to grow replacement human organs in the lab, livers are no doubt at the top of many a barfly’s wish list. With its wide range of functions that support almost every organ in the body and no way to compensate for the absence of liver function, the ability to grow a replacement is also the focus of many research efforts. Now, for the first time, researchers have been able to successfully engineer miniature livers in the lab using human liver cells.  Read More
Nissan's New Mobility CONCEPT ultra-compact EV
Nissan might not be planning on putting all its electric eggs in one basket with the upcoming LEAF. This week the company unveiled its “NISSAN New Mobility CONCEPT’ that takes the form of an ultra-compact 100 percent electric vehicle designed as a convenient mode of transportation for the increasing numbers of the elderly and single person households and also addresses the trend of driving short distance or in smaller groups.  Read More
Quadro's four wheeler
The convergence of the car and the motorcycle we forecast last year looks set to continue with the first public showing today at EICMA 2010 in Milan of a range of three and four wheeled scooters by Italian start-up Quadro. The start-up is particularly exciting because the company is to be run by Luciano Marabese, the man who designed both the Piaggio MP3 three-wheeled scooter and the Yamaha Tesseract four-wheeled motorcycle shown in 2007. The new machines will use an hydraulic tilting system patented by Marabese. In 2011 we’ll see the 350cc three-wheeled Quadro and later in the year, a 500cc four-wheeler. The four-wheeled motorcycle will evolve into a full family of supersports, hybrid, electric and off-road models, offering better braking, faster cornering and more safety and stability than a motorcycle.  Read More
VTT's mobile traffic monitoring system
In July of 2008, the European Union launched ASSETT (Advanced Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport), a program aimed at reducing accidents caused by traffic rule violations. It involves a consortium of 19 partner organizations in 12 countries, but it boils down to one thing thing for European drivers – the police will be handing out more tickets. In order to cover a larger number of vehicles, while making things easier for officers and more fair for motorists, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland is currently testing a mobile system that monitors traffic and notes when infractions occur.  Read More

A scientific assessment of the harmfulness of the 16 most commonly used drugs
One of the more interesting news items of the last week came from the release of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs’ first piece of research – Drug harms in the UK: a multi-criteria decision analysis. The findings of the committee, based on wide ranging criteria, apply scientific methodology to answering the perpetually vexing question of exactly how much harm certain drugs do to their users and those around them. The table above summarises the findings and the full paper is available free on the web, where you’ll see just how complex the equation actually is. Most interesting of all was that without government meddling and industry lobbying, alcohol was rated more harmful than any other drug, while tobacco (the only other taxed legal drug on the list), is more harmful than cannabis.  Read More
Those chunky tires help riders take sand dunes with ease
With its chunky fat tires, 14-speed gears and centrally-located electric motor, the Hanebrink all-terrain vehicle looks like a fun ride. Built to cope with a multitude of off-road situations with style and speed, the pedal-assist electric bike is classified as a bicycle throughout the U.S. so should also be good for popping down to the local mall and hauling back the week's shopping on the rear cargo rack. It's also managed to claim first place in the very first Interbike Hill Climb Challenge.  Read More
The new dressing material indicates infection by turning purple (Image: Fraunhofer EMFT)
Wounding yourself can be bad enough, but having to regularly remove the dressing to check for infection can be painful and can also compound things by exposing the wound and giving germs the chance to enter. Now researchers have developed a new material for dressings and plaster that changes color if an infection arises, making it possible to check wounds without changing the dressing.  Read More
The Halo Intersceptor multi-vehicle concept
We’ve seen cars that transform into boats, into airplanes, and even into helicopters, so why not one that transforms into all three? That’s the idea behind UK designer Philip Pauley’s Halo Intersceptor concept. Now, before you start picturing a kind of Swiss Army knife-type vehicle, you should know that the Intersceptor concept revolves around a central car that remains unchanged, that simply “plugs in” to different attachments. It’s definitely an intriguing idea, even if you may never be able to buy one.  Read More
Much like your household washing machine animals use resonant frequencies to shed water
What does a labrador and a clothes washer have in common? Not much you might say. Think again. A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, have unlocked the secrets behind how animals such as dogs, mice and even brown bears dry themselves and the key is all in the spin cycle. Much like your household washing machine these animals use resonant frequencies to shed water and given the results of their research, graduate student Andrew Dickerson and his advisor, professor David Hu, are now looking at how they can apply their results.  Read More
BMW's Concept C Maxi-scooter
While the European motorcycle industry is in crisis due to dramatically falling sales, BMW is moving in the opposite direction thanks to its loftier perspective of the mobility (as opposed to motorcycle) industry. After years concentrating on larger capacity two wheelers, it is moving into the scooter field. Having already shown an electric version of its ultra-safe C1 scooter, plus several MINI scooter concepts in recent weeks, BMW Motorrad yesterday unveiled a maxi scooter concept. Two premium scooters will be derived from the concept vehicle in the near future and there’s also an electric version being investigated.  Read More
Agloves provide full 10-finger touchscreen functionality
With capacitive the technology of choice on the majority of touchscreen devices hitting the market, people have been coming up with all kinds of interesting ways to interact with their devices when the winter chill sets in and gloves become a necessity. Many South Koreans apparently turned to using sausages as a stylus but if you’d prefer not to be hassled by dogs as you type a text there are less meat product-based solutions, such as the North Face Etip gloves. Now there’s another glove-based solution in the form of Agloves, which provide even greater touchscreen friendly surface area for your hands.  Read More
Activated carbon cloth could find its way into a variety of filtration applications
Researchers have discovered that activated carbon cloth is very effective at filtering harmful compounds out of air and liquids. The material was first developed in the 1980s, to protect British soldiers from chemical attacks. It is still in use today, in chemical, biological and radiological warfare suits for the military. This recent study, however, indicates that it could have a number of other uses.  Read More
An image of a brain's wiring system, acquired using the new software
Utilizing a recently-developed technique called HARDI (High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging), researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology have created a software tool that could reduce the need for exploratory brain surgery. The new technology converts MRI scans of the brain into three-dimensional images, which provide neurologists with a “road map” of the wiring of a patient’s brain.  Read More
The Urbee's entire body was 3D printed (Image: Kor Logic)
In the early 20th century Henry Ford revolutionized automobile production with the introduction of the assembly line for the iconic Ford Model T. Now, almost a century later, a car has been produced using a process that could prove just as revolutionary – 3D printing. Code-named, Urbee, the streamlined vehicle is the first ever to have its entire body, including its glass panel prototypes, 3D printed with an additive manufacturing process.  Read More

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