Energy Sistem's Android-based Energy Tablet incoming
By Paul Ridden
November 9, 2010
Spanish consumer electronics manufacturer Energy
Sistem has set a pre-Christmas release date for its new Android-based,
5-inch touchscreen tablet computer. The Energy Tablet i504 is powered by
a Rockchip processor, can render video in 720p high definition, is
Wi-Fi-enabled and has both internal storage and expansion opportunities.
To the side of the display is a built-in webcam and an optical
trackball. Read More
With the help of the Swinglet CAM you can create
your very own local aerial map a la Google Maps, or monitor wildlife
distribution in a given area, or maybe just get a feel for what's going
on in the neighborhood. The small, unmanned aerial vehicle can take off
and land on its own and its integrated camera will snap high resolution
images along a predetermined flightpath or as directed by remote
control. Read More
iPad and iPod Touch
application developers have recently created several programs which
help aid the learning and development for children with autism. The
success and usability of many of these programs has not only offered a
new platform to help autistic children with their education, but can
also offer much-needed relief to their parents. Autistic children are
said to be adapting to these iPad programs like ducks to water, whilst
the supervising parents can finally get some quiet time for a cup of
coffee or to simply read the newspaper in peace. Read More
Tea is the world's most popular drink and for the
last 5000 years was made by placing tea leaves in boiling water. Over
the last fifty years, the convenience of the tea bag has captured more
than 90% of the tea market in many countries and the evolution looks set
to continue. The world’s largest beverage company is moving into the
tea market for the first time, pioneering a new pod-style machine which
calculates the perfect brewing time and temperature for each individual
tea variety and reproduces the perfect brew every time. Throwing
tradition to the wind in every way, the EUR129 (US$180) Special.T by
Nestlé machine and EUR0.35 (US$0.50) pods will ONLY be sold via the
internet, with fulfillment within 48 hours. Read More
It might seem a long time, but the Media Tablet
marketplace did not exist until April this year. It soon became obvious
that Apple's iPad
had catalyzed yet another major computing trend – by Computex, almost
every device manufacturer in the world had a tablet coming. Last month,
Gartner Group predicted the 20 million sales expected in 2010 will grow
an order of magnitude over the next four years. Now Gartner has gone a
step further. “It is not usually the role of the CEO to get directly
involved in specific technology device decisions, but Apple's iPad is an
exception,” says the report. “It is more than just the latest consumer
gadget; and CEOs and business leaders should initiate a dialogue with
their CIOs about it if they have not already done so.” Read More
Of all the quirky old British cars, perhaps none
has more of a cult following than the Morgan Threewheeler. About 30,000
of the autos were manufactured at Morgan’s plant in Malvern, England
between 1909 and 1953, with a number of others being produced under
license by Darmont Morgan in France. The Threewheeler was no slouch in
the performance department – it could maintain an average speed of 100
mph (161 km/h) on the race track, and one of the vehicles won the 1913
French Grand Prix. Now the Morgan Motor Company is re-releasing the car with its original looks and today’s technology. Read More
BlackSheep add-on combats Firesheep session hijacking tool
By Darren Quick
November 8, 2010
Last month Seattle programmer Eric Butler exposed the weaknesses of open Wi-Fi networks with his Firesheep
add-on for FireFox. The program intercepts browser cookies to identify
users and allows anyone running it to log into sites such as Facebook
and Twitter as the legitimate user. While Butler wanted to encourage the
use of HTTPS to combat such vulnerabilities, users can now combat
Firesheep with another Firefox add-on – BlackSheep. Read More
Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes might just be
the technology that allows electronics achieve the next big leap in
processing speed. Research into diode design conducted at the Oregon
State University (OSU) has revealed this week cheaper and easier to
manufacture MIM diodes that will also eliminate speed restrictions of
electronic circuits that have baffled materials researchers since the
1960's. Read More
Mitsubishi will unveil the North American version of its i-MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) at the Los Angeles Auto Show
(LAAS) this week. This version of the i-MiEV will boast an enlarged
body, new front and rear bumpers, airbags that detect passengers, a Tire
Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) and Active Stability Control (ASC) as
standard. Read More
With solar power plants requiring large areas
which aren't usually available in or close to urban areas, Sweden-based
architect Mans Tham proposes cities like Los Angeles take a different
road – covering the city’s freeways in solar panels. His "Solar Serpents
in Paradise" idea would see 24km (15 miles) of LA's Santa Monica
Freeway covered in solar panels – with an average width of 40m (131 ft),
that adds up to an area of 960,000 m2 (10,333,354 Sq Ft), enough space
for 600,000 domestic panels, which could generate 150 GWh per year.
That's more than enough to provide electricity to all the households of
Venice, California. Read More
A better understanding of color vision has been
gained in a feat of interdisciplinary and inter-institutional science.
Researchers from neuroscience, nanoengineering, physics and electronics
departments at universities on opposite sides of the world have come
together to build a sensor that detects activity in the neural circuitry
of the eye with a level of accuracy never before seen. Read More
The Kno digital textbook now available for pre-order
By Paul Ridden
November 10, 2010
Remember the Kno digital textbook
for students? After much development and student input, the devices are
now ready for shipping. In addition to the 14.1-inch dual-screen
version, the developers have also created a single screen edition that
offers similar functionality to its bigger cousin but in a now familiar
tablet format. Students can now also browse through an online textbook
store, which is to include tens of thousands of titles from top
publishers. Read More
Joby has continued a steady stream of product releases by tweaking the Gorillapod mobile tripod series for iPhone 4. The Gorillamobile for iPhone 4 features the flexible legs found on all Gorillapod tripods and a stand-alone bumper case to protect your device when in your pocket or packed away. Read More
Modern society's reliance on fossil fuel extends
past its use as an energy source with by-products used in everything
from plastics to lubricants and fertilizers. Seeking alternatives that
are cleaner to produce and renewable is important for the continuation
of life as we know it. This is why researchers the the U.S Department of
Energy (DOE) are are engineering plants to produce chemicals needed for
plastics that have traditionally come from fossil fuels. Read More
Green Float concept: a carbon negative city on the ocean
By Darren Quick
November 9, 2010
The idea of going offshore to satisfy our renewable energy needs
isn't new, but the grand vision of Japan’s Shimizu Corporation goes way
beyond harnessing green energy at sea for use in cities on Terra firma –
it takes the whole city along for the ride. The company, along with the
Super Collaborative Graduate School and Nomura Securities, is
researching the technical issues involved in constructing its Green
Float concept – a self-sufficient, carbon-negative floating city that
would reside in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean. Read More
Getting a computer to understand what a person is saying is one thing, but getting it to understand how
they’re saying it is another. If we’re ever to see a system that truly
comprehends the meaning behind the words – and not just the words
themselves – then such systems will need to be able to put the words in
context. Researchers from Spain’s Universidad Politécnica de Madrid are
trying to achieve this by developing an application that allows
computers to accurately recognize human emotions based on automated
voice analysis. Read More
While many movies and TV shows would have us
believe that hospital sponge baths are only carried out by nurses at
either end of the attractiveness spectrum, the reality is no doubt
generally somewhere in between. In fact, I’m sure a lot of patients and
even more nurses would prefer such tasks were handled by a robot.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology seem to have reached
the same conclusion and have developed a robot that can autonomously
perform bed baths to keep bedridden patients clean. Read More
Oh, choices, choices... do you grow vegetables,
raise worms or raise fish? Well, the just-released Fishy Farm is
designed to do all three in one hit. The small-scale aquaponic set-up is
based around an ecosystem in which fish-waste-infused water fertilizes
the veggies and feeds the worms, which in turn filter the water before
it returns to the fish. All that users need to do is feed the fish, top
up the water, and gobble up the bounty... except for the worms. Read More
A trio of companies has joined forces to develop a
truck cabin air conditioning system that uses solar energy generated
from panels on the trailer’s roof area for its power. The i-Cool Solar
system can save around 1.8 liters of light oil per hour when the truck
is idle and reduce fuel consumption by about 1 percent when the truck is
moving. If planned trials go well, we could see these units on
highways in spring 2012. Read More
The ingenious Anthony Emergency Housing System
By Mike Hanlon
November 9, 2010
The seeming increase in natural disasters such as
tsunamis, earthquakes floods and wildfires around the world has
continued to highlight mankind’s need for emergency housing. Gizmag has
reported many clever designs for emergency housing over the last decade,
but Peter Anthony’s collapsible, lightweight mobile platform is the
most viable we've yet seen for airdropping and rapidly-deploying housing
for large numbers of people. Each self-contained 8' x 8' x 8' living
space is constructed of composite material, and hence weighs less than
200 pounds, folds flat and can be assembled with a single spanner by two
people in less than 30 minutes. Read More
Until now Audi has pretty much limited hybrid technology to its concept cars such as its A1 Sportback, e-tron Spyder and metroproject quattro.
That is set to change with the upcoming Q5 hybrid quattro – the
company’s first hybrid model with two drive systems. Audi claims the
vehicle will have power comparable to a V6 coupled with fuel consumption
like that of a four-cylinder Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI)
turbodiesel engine vehicle. Read More
The world practically runs on pneumatic tires,
but getting rid of them is an environmental nightmare. Apart from
playground flooring material, running tracks for athletes and horses and
unfashionable footwear, disposing of or reusing tires has proven to be
extremely problematic (remember the Osborne artificial reef
off Ft Lauderdale, Florida, made from old tires? It became an
environmental disaster and had to be removed by the US Military). Now a
scientist at the University of Basque Country, Spain, has used the
process of pyrolisis to decompose and reuse the left-over components of
pneumatic tires. Read More
Bat-hook device taps into overhead power lines
By Darren Quick
November 10, 2010
As soldiers are fitted out with more and more electrical sytems
to extend their capabilities, they become increasingly dependent on the
power needed to run them. Since soldiers in the field don’t always have
ready access to an electrical outlet when they need to top up the
batteries, the U.S. Air Force has developed a device that taps directly
into the electricity flowing through overhead power lines... a kind of
bat-hook for real-life superheroes. Read More
US$3,000 bounty claimed for open source Kinect drivers
By Darren Quick
November 10, 2010
The race to claim the bounty offered by Adafruit for open source drivers for Microsoft’s Kinect
has been run and won. The winner is hacker Hector Martin whose
achievement of producing drivers to pull depth and RGB camera data from a
Kinect is made even more impressive by the fact that it came just three
hours after the European launch of the device. Read More
Walk barefoot on an asphalt road and you'll soon
realize how good the substance is at storing solar heat – the
heat-storing qualities of roadways has even been put forward as an
explanation as to why cities tend to be warmer than surrounding rural
areas. Not content to see all that heat going to waste, researchers from
the University of Rhode Island (URI) want to put it to use in a system
that harvests solar heat from the road to melt ice, heat buildings, or
to create electricity. Read More
Optical switch development cuts power consumption by half
By Alan Brandon
November 10, 2010
Fujitsu Laboratories has unveiled a new optical
switch technology that it claims uses half the power of conventional
optical switches. The new optical waveguide switch uses photonics made
from silicon germanium (SiGe) instead of pure-silicon semiconductor
material. This technology will be the basis for a new generation of
high-speed optical switches capable of operating across a wide range of
wavelengths, while featuring perhaps the world’s lowest power
requirements. Read More
If you’ve ever tried to install a rooftop or
rear-end bike rack on your car, then you’ll know what a hassle it can
be. You have to put the thing together, carefully line everything up,
run the hooks under your roofline or hatch, then try to tighten it all
down simultaneously so everything doesn’t get pulled to one side.
According to the folks at SeaSucker, however, their racks attach and come off in seconds, thanks to an attachment system that involves nothing but rubber cups. Read More
I-slate to bring tablet computing to rural India
By Ben Coxworth
November 10, 2010
Computers have become an essential part of a
child’s education, yet there are currently over 100 million Indian
children who attend rural schools that don’t have electricity – no
electricity means no computers. Recently, however, a group of
organizations from several different countries put their heads together
to create the I-slate, a low-cost, low-energy tablet PC designed for use
in these schools that runs on solar power. In trials conducted so far,
it appears to be a hit with the kids. Read More
Samsung Continuum smartphone gets Verizon debut
By Paul Ridden
November 10, 2010
Not content with offering smartphone users just a
single touchscreen, Samsung's new Android-based Continuum model sports
two AMOLED displays. Sitting underneath the main screen is a ticker
display that is used to feed the user news and information without
interfering with what's being displayed above. Other features include a 5
megapixel camera, the ability to act as a hotspot for other wireless
devices, and a six-axis sensor that works with the accelerometer to
offer fluid pan and tilt gaming. Read More
Mission controllers from the University of
Maryland-led EPOXI mission celebrated last week as NASA's Deep Impact
space probe flew close by the Hartley 2 comet, sending back rare and
valuable data about the comet. This is only the fifth time that a comet
core has been viewed from such a near distance by a space probe, and it
is hoped that by understanding comets better we can learn more about the
origin and history of our solar system. Read More
Electronic explosive-detecting sensor out-sniffs sniffer dogs
By Darren Quick
November 11, 2010
The recent Yemeni bomb threat has only
highlighted the need for quick, accurate ways of detecting explosives.
With their excellent sense of smell and the ability to discern
individual scents, even when they’re combined or masked by other odors,
this task is usually given to man’s best friend. But training these
animals can be expensive and good sniffer dogs can be hard to find.
Scientists have now developed an electronic sensor they say is more
sensitive and more reliable at detecting explosives than any sniffer
dog. Read More
The discovery that gold nanoparticles can induce
luminescence in leaves has opened up the prospect of using roadside
trees as streetlights. Post-doctor Yen-Hsun Su of Research Center for
Applied Science (RCAS), Academia Sinica, Taiwan, implanted gold
nanoparticles into Bacopa caroliniana plants and found that, when
exposed to high wavelength ultraviolet light, the gold nanoparticles can
produce a blue-violet fluorescence that triggers a red emission of the
surrounding chlorophyll. Read More
Samsung Galaxy Tab released – AMOLED screen on the way
By Gizmag Team
November 11, 2010
The theory that the Galaxy Tab could become the first genuine challenger to Apple's iPad in the media tablet marketplace
is about to be put to the test with Samsung's 7-inch offering going on
sale in the U.S. this week. At the same time the possibility of a Super
AMOLED screen on the next-gen Galaxy Tab has also surfaced with Samsung
Mobile Display showing a 7-inch AMOLED screen at the International Flat
Panel Display forum in Japan. Read More
Three British amateur aerospace enthusiasts have
successfully sent a camera-equipped paper airplane to an altitude of
89,000 feet (27,127 meters), where it captured images of the blackness
of space before gliding back to Earth. Project PARIS (Paper Aircraft
Released Into Space) involved getting the plane into the stratosphere
using a weather balloon before letting it go via a release mechanism.
Our regular readers will no doubt remember a recent similar project, in
which a father and son obtained photos of outer space, before their camera-in-a-fast-food-box parachuted back to the ground. Read More
Opel has announced pricing and started taking reservations for the European sibling of the Chevy Volt – the Opel Ampera.
Although prices between countries may differ due to different trim,
Opel says the suggested retail price for the base model throughout
Europe will start at 42,900 euro – that’s just over US$58,500 at the
current exchange rate – which has raised eyebrows since the base price
of the Volt in the U.S. is $41,000. Read More
Microwaves could replace electrodes for monitoring vital signs
By Ben Coxworth
November 11, 2010
In the not-so-distant future, patients having
their heart rate or other vital signs monitored may not have to be wired
up with electrodes. Scientists Atsushi Mase and Daisuke Nagae, at
Kyushu University in Japan, have developed a method of remotely
measuring such data using microwaves. This means that people would be
free to move around as they were being monitored, or in some
applications, would not even know that it was happening. Read More
NASA plans to develop hypersonic plane for manned mission to Mars
By Grant Banks
November 11, 2010
NASA has announced funding to develop a hypersonic
fixed wing air/space vehicle capable of flight speeds between Mach 8
and Mach 20. Over five years US$5 million will be spent on the research
and development of a vehicle that could one day take the first humans to
Mars. Read More
Electric aircraft within reach of average aviators
By Grant Banks
November 11, 2010
While it may be some time before we see electric propulsion used in commercial airliners,
at the other end of the scale, business is booming. The biggest problem
facing designers is the weight-to-energy ratio of fuel cells, meaning
that they are a heavy way of carrying around energy. Luckily in the
light aviation world, designers don't have to worry so much about having
long flight durations or carrying heavy payloads. This has made
achieving electric and hybrid flight not only possible but also
accessible to the average aviator. Read More
Greenliant Systems has announced that it is
currently sampling a new SSD storage solution that's been combined with a
SATA controller. The embedded NANDrive form factor is suited to
deployment in mobile computing products, set-top boxes and networking
systems and includes advanced security features, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring,
and low power consumption. Read More
M55 aims to make the most sophisticated human-electric bikes
By Paul Ridden
November 11, 2010
Budapest mountain bike enthusiasts coming
together as M55 have spent the last four years bringing their pedelec
dream into existence. Now the Beast has risen. The first hand-built,
luxury human-electric bikes out of the workshop doors will be restricted
to a limited production run of just 55 and are said to feature the very
best that technology has to offer. In addition to the fully
CNC-machined aluminum frame and carbon fiber plates, the Beast 55
benefits from Formula One stopping power, a brushless electric motor
that is claimed to make uphill climbs a relatively easy affair, and Fox
suspension. Read More
The major announcement of last week's Brazilian
Motor Show in São Paulo was Kia's Soul Flex. Though it's the first
Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) from Korea, ethanol derived from sugar cane
is 40% cheaper than gas in Brazil, so flex fuel vehicles make up 85% of
new car sales. On top of the cheaper fuel, the Soul Flex gets a 44%
improvement in fuel efficiency, with power and torque figures also a
slight improvement compared with the existing petrol model. Scheduled to
go on sale in Brazil early next year, the Soul Flex is able to run on
100% ethanol, 100% gasoline or an ethanol-petrol mixture. Read More
A new technique that allows blood to be made
directly from skin cells has been discovered. The pioneering approach by
Canadian researchers uses human skin stem cells to create blood stem
cells without an intermediate step that previously was thought
necessary. It could be used for creating blood for surgery, or treating
conditions like anemia using a patch of the patient's skin. Read More
Wheego electric LiFe car to debut at LA Auto Show
By Ben Coxworth
November 12, 2010
The all-electric Whip LiFe from Atlanta-based automaker Wheego will be making its debut at this month’s LA Auto Show. Not to be confused with the luxury hybrid LIFECar
being developed by Morgan Motors in the U.K., the 65 mph, 100 mile
range LiFe is designed as a practical little runabout and it looks...
well, it looks pretty “Smart.” Read More
Quantum computers could be easier to build than previously thought
By Grant Banks
November 12, 2010
The strange behavior of quantum particles that gives quantum computers
such potential also has its pitfalls. One of these is the loss of
information through atomic particles escaping the system, but a new
study has found that this may not be as big a problem as first thought.
Read More
If you’ve seen something you’d prefer to forget,
then playing Tetris might be just what you need – provided you do it
within six hours. That’s the conclusion reached by a team of psychiatric
researchers from Oxford University, led by Dr. Emily Holmes. In a study
involving 60 test subjects, it was found that people who played the
video game within six hours of viewing traumatic images had less of a
tendency to experience flashbacks of those images afterward. It all has
to do with the way in which the brain processes experiences. Read More
French artist Julien Berthier has designed a
fully functional boat to look as if it is sinking. The 6.5m (21ft)
yacht was cut in half with a new keel and motor added so it remains in
the sinking position while being fully functional. He describes it as
"the permanent and mobile image of a wrecked ship that has become a
functional and safe leisure object." Read More
Differentiating between the model numbers that
make up the HP Mini lineup can be tricky, perhaps even more so with the
competing Inspiron Mini series from Dell out there. The new HP 5103, however, does have a lot under the lid to make it stand out. Read More
Audi to make e-tron safer using sci-fi sound effects
By Grant Banks
November 12, 2010
As electric cars take to the streets, the people
at Audi have been confronted with what they see as a new problem to
solve: their cars are too quiet. Acoustic technicians have been enlisted
to find the new sound of Audi, and it won't be a roaring V8 or hissing
turbo – the inspiration might just come from the sci-fi world. Read More
TRENDnet announces tiny wireless USB adapter
November 12, 2010
U.S. networking solutions company TRENDnet has launched one of the world’s smallest wireless N USB adapters.
The new 150Mbps Micro Wireless N USB (model TEW-648UBM) is uber small,
measuring in at 0.59 x 0.74 x 0.28 inches (1.5 x 1.9 x 0.7 cm). I know
what you are thinking – how can I possibly not lose a USB adapter so
small? Well, when it's plugged into the side of a computer, it only
extends out by 0.3 inches (0.8 cm) so you can easily just leave it in
there. For laptop users, you can travel with the USB attached to your
computer, without the concern of damaging the device. Read More
Oil vacuum cleaner developed for spill-affected shorelines
By Darren Quick
November 11, 2010
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill
earlier this year prompted many researchers to concentrate their
efforts on developing better ways to clean up oil after such disasters.
We’ve looked at approaches such as autonomous robots and underwater separators
to collect the oil while it is still at sea, but students at the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have developed a
novel approach to dealing with the oil once it winds up on shore – a
vacuum cleaner. Read More
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