Held each year since 1950, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance
is now the centerpiece of a week-long collector car festival in
Monterey each August, and in addition to becoming the world’s foremost
classic car event, it is increasingly being preferred by prestige
manufacturers as the launch platform for new and concept vehicles. This
year the car regarded by some as the most beautiful collector car in the
world is to go under the auctioneer’s hammer. The work of prodigiously
talented automotive stylist and coachbuilder Jacques Saoutchik, this
1949 Delahaye 175 S Roadster is expected to fetch around US$6 million.
Read More
The Mediano piano TV cabinet: not for music lovers
By Darren Quick
August 5, 2010
Got a piano sitting in your house gathering dust
because no one will come around and join you in a good old-fashioned
sing-along? Why not give it a new lease on life by converting it into
something that’s sure to get some use, like a TV cabinet? That’s just
what German company Craft Line has done with its Mediano, a white
upright piano that has had all its musical innards removed to make way
for an LCD TV that slides out of the top of the piano at a push of a
button on a remote control. Read More
DNA testing has provided the biggest revolution
in the identification of criminals since the adoption of fingerprinting
in the early part of last century. Still, the technology has
limitations. Most genetic tests take 24-72 hours but the time taken for
DNA to go from crime scene to identification can span as long as 14
days. By the time that the results are back, the suspects often have
been released. A newly developed test could make checking DNA from
people arrested for crimes against DNA samples from crime scenes stored
in forensics databases almost as easy as matching fingerprints. Read More
Engineers have used a variety of techniques to create robots that can scale walls – “the Climber” uses a rolling seal, while the insect-like robots from
SRI have caterpillar tracks with electro-adhesive properties. While
such robots generally focus on speed, adhering to the wall and deciding
how and when to move, the creators of a small robot named ROCR say it is
the first wall-climbing robot to focus on climbing efficiently. And it
does so by using the momentum of a tail that swings like a grandfather
clock’s pendulum. Read More
MSI has launched its latest performance gaming
laptop, the MSI GX660. This laptop is designed with high performance and
ease of use in mind. It features MSI’s TDE (Turbo Drive Engine)
technology and Dynaudio sound. It also comes with dual 500GB SATA hard
drives, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 discrete graphics card and has three
DDR3 RAM slots which allows up to 12GB of RAM. MSI has built two USB
3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports into the machine as well as an eSATA port.
Read More
You probably don't go hunting for decaying bodies
too often, but then you probably don’t work in the field of forensics.
If you did, then you’d be glad to hear that technology recently
developed by America’s National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) should make finding buried bodies much easier. Traditionally,
cadaver-sniffing dogs have been used to find bodies, but they can be
limited in situations such as where a body is buried under concrete. The
new device, however, uses a probe slightly thicker than a human hair to
probe the soil, detecting ninhydrin-reactive nitrogen (NRN) that
collects in air pockets around gravesoil. Previous technology could only
achieve that same end through what NIST describes as “the tedious and
expensive process” of solvent extraction of soil samples. Read More
Electric bicycle
designers are continually coming up with new ways to fold the humble
bicycle to make it easier to carry when not being ridden. The latest to
catch our eye is the VeloMini, a light-weight folding electric bike
featuring a 180 watt brushless hub motor that will transport a person
from eight to ten miles at speeds of up to 12 mph (19 km/h). When it’s
not being used it folds down to a compact form 18-inches tall that fits
into a carrying case roughly the same size as a guitar case. Read More
Five years ago, Frog Design
founder Hartmut Esslinger envisioned a technology that “could influence
notions of community, identity, and connectivity with minimal impact on
the physical environment.” Using an online design portal, users would
select and try out a customized electronic processing device that they
would then print onto their own skin. The DNA Tattoo, or Dattoo, could
include printable input/output tools such as a camera, microphone, or
laser-loudspeaker - it would be up to the user, as would the Dattoo’s
aesthetics. Most intriguingly, it would capture its wearer’s DNA, to
ensure an intimate user/machine relationship. Read More
Readers who follow developments in the growing
field of bio-signal telemetry (perhaps we can call it "life data
monitoring") will likely be familiar with the Fitbit,
an activity monitor that collects and measures data about your daily
movements. Hitachi's Life Microscope goes a few steps further,
collecting even more data that can be used to analyze your life trends.
Read More
Rather than rely on noisy fans to cool computer
systems, overclockers and gamers have been using the chilling power of
water to keep processors from overheating for quite some time. Now
Kingston is offering three new flavors of water-cooled DDR3 memory
modules to help keep the temperatures down while users try to squeeze
even more performance from their machines. Read More
While it's not as high-tech as the built-in Wi-Fi featured on the recently announced ST80 camera,
Samung's inclusion of a flip-out USB connector on its PL90 model is
still a welcome addition. The new point-and-shoot – which takes 12.2
megapixel stills, 640x480 movies and packs some clever face detection
functionality – joins the HMX-E10 pocket sized camcorder and new Dual View models in the company's latest raft of releases. Read More
Billed as the "first new Amphibian design in 60
years," the Privateer incorporates lightweight carbon fiber composite
construction, a shrouded rear-mounted propeller, unique float layout and
a lower center of gravity with the aim of optimizing safety for both
water and land operations. Created by aviation enthusiast and
entrepreneur John A. Meekins along with partner and aircraft engineer
Bill Husa, we spied the design on show at AirVenture 2010. A prototype is currently under construction and it's expected to be in the air next year. Read More
The popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch
hasn’t just resulted in an explosion of apps available from the iTunes
Store, it’s also spawned a stack of hardware accessories designed to
extend the capabilities of said devices. Most common are the seemingly
endless array of docks, or cases
that increase the devices’ battery life. New Potato Technologies has
decided for something a bit different with its LiveRider – a bike
mounting system that turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a wireless
cycling computer. Read More
If they were real, the Transformers harking from
Cybertron would be considered pretty remarkable pieces of machinery. But
their transforming abilities are limited to just two forms. By
combining origami and electrical engineering, researchers at MIT and
Harvard are working to develop the ultimate reconfigurable robot – one
that can turn into absolutely anything. To test out their theories, the
researchers built a prototype that can automatically assume the shape of
either an origami boat or a paper airplane when it receives different
electrical signals. Read More
The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3
million people worldwide died from tuberculosis in 2008. It’s definitely
a disease to be taken seriously, so when people in remote locations are
being tested for it, it’s best if they don’t have to wait for their
samples to be processed at a distant lab. That’s why medical device
designer Andrew Miller, when he was still an undergraduate at Houston’s
Rice University, developed the portable, battery-operated Global Focus
fluorescence microscope. In a paper published this Wednesday, Miller and
his co-authors described how the $US240 Global Focus is able to detect
TB-positive sputum smears just as well as laboratory microscopes worth
over $40,000. Read More
Bill Stewart has been shaping and selling
surfboards since the late 70’s and, like most surfers, it seems that
Bill thinks there just aren’t enough daylight hours to enjoy his wave
riding past time. To rectify this he’s created a one-of-a-kind board
complete with headlights designed specifically for surfing at night.
Dubbed the Night Stalker, Stewart’s creation is the first ever
shortboard to pack LEDs embedded in the side fins and two 700 lumen
headlights contained with the board’s transparent plexiglass nose to
form a pair of surfboard headlights. Read More
Perhaps you haven’t given this problem a lot of thought, but it is
a problem nonetheless... most spray bottles can’t be used upside down,
or even at much of angle once they’re half-empty. Not only that, but
there’s always that last little bit of liquid in the bottom that gets
wasted. That's because most of them have rigid-tubed sprayers that just
have a single hole at the bottom, so they only suck up liquid from the
bottom middle of the bottle. Well, British inventor Michael Pritchard
has come up with something he calls the ANYWAY Spray, a tube that allows
you to hold your spray bottles any way you darn well please, and keep spraying until they’re as dry as Keith Richards’ bourbon glass. Read More
Tetris-like video game used to solve medical puzzles
By Darren Quick
August 5, 2010
Since October, 2000 the Folding@home project
has been used to understand protein folding. Scientists know the pieces
that make up a protein but cannot predict how those parts fit together
into a 3-D structure. So the Folding@home project harnesses the power of
Internet-connected PC’s and consoles, such as the PS3, to form the most
powerful distributed computing cluster in the world. But no computer in
the world is big enough, and computers may not take the smartest
approach. So a team from the University of Washington (UW) made a
Tetris-like game that asks players to fold a protein rather than stack
colored blocks and discovered that people can compete with
supercomputers in this arena. Read More
In two just-released studies, scientists have announced new ways of making solar cells
less expensive and more efficient. In one of the projects, researchers
from the University of Toronto demonstrated that nickel can work just as
well as gold for electrical contacts in colloidal quantum dot solar
cells. In the other, a team from California’s Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory added selenium to zinc oxide, dramatically increasing the
oxide’s efficiency in absorbing solar light. Both developments could
result in more practical, affordable solar technology. Read More
Graffiti murals can be truly amazing pieces of
artwork, but when it comes to indoor graffiti-making events... well,
those spray paints aren’t exactly fume-free, nor are they particularly
forgiving to people trying their hand at the art form for the first
time. That’s where the YrWall Digital Graffiti Wall comes in. Designed
by startup British tech company Lumacoustics, YrWall consists of a video
wall that users "paint" on using a modified spray paint can - it
“sprays” infrared light, and is tracked by a computer. Much like
Microsoft Paint, users can select different colors and effects from a
palette, fill in areas with a given color, insert pre-made graphics, and
delete their mistakes. When they’re done, they can save their projects,
share them online using an onscreen keyboard, or even get them printed
on T-shirts. Read More
Phantom limb pain, where a person feels pain in
an absent limb or a portion of a limb, is a very real phenomenon, most
commonly experienced after amputation of an arm or leg. Chronic phantom
pain is believed to affect around 10-45% of amputees. It is highly
therapy resistant and can last for years, or even a lifetime, despite
high dosages of painkillers that put patients at risk of addiction.
However, hope may be on the horizon thanks to a modified hand prosthesis
which enables feedback between the artificial hand and the brain. Read More
Pioneer Computers has announced the forthcoming
availability of a Windows 7 tablet computer with an 11.6 inch capacitive
touchscreen, up to 64GB of storage and ION-based graphics. Processing
power for the DreamBook ePad L11 HD comes courtesy of Intel's Atom N450
processor and there's also a built-in camera and optional GPS. Read More
As its name suggests, Power over Ethernet (PoE)
technology delivers electrical power via Ethernet cabling. The
technology is typically used to power VoIP phones, wireless LAN access points, cameras
and other low power, network-related devices. SkinnyBytes has now
announced a line of computers engineered for low voltage and extremely
low power consumption that are able to receive all their power over a
standard network cable via PoE. Read More
Anyone who has suffered the very unpleasant
experience that is food poisoning will be happy to hear that researchers
have developed technology enabling the high-speed detection of the
toxic proteins that cause it. The new sensor was manufactured by
employing a combination of artificial antibodies which capture these
toxic proteins and a signal converter which converts those “capturing
events” into optical signals. Read More
According to the Christopher & Dana Reeve
Foundation, about two percent of Americans – more than six million
people – have some form of paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury,
which is due primarily to the interruption of connections between the
brain and spinal cord. Such paralysis and loss of function has long been
considered untreatable, but a new approach has, for the first time,
induced robust regeneration of nerve connections that control voluntary
movement, showing the potential for new therapeutic approaches to
paralysis and other motor function impairments and offering hope to
sufferers. Read More
Telenoid R1 robot lets you phone a robotic friend
By Darren Quick
August 8, 2010
It’s been suggested that one of the main reasons
video calling hasn’t taken off is because a lot of the time people want
to be heard and not seen. A new robot would allow callers to remain
unseen, while creating a physical presence of the caller for the
receiver of the call. Developed at Osaka University in collaboration
with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International
(ATR), – the creators of Robovie II
– Telenoid R1 is a portable robot that is designed to relay a remote
user’s presence during long distance communications by mirroring their
movements. Read More
The verse “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I
wonder what you are” could, in fact, refer to the frustration felt by
astronomers trying to view celestial objects obscured by turbulence in
the earth’s atmosphere. It’s that turbulence that causes stars and other
heavenly bodies to twinkle, and it’s one of the reasons that
space-based telescopes like the Hubble can see those objects more
clearly than telescopes down here on the ground. Recently, however, a
team of astronomers from the University of Arizona developed a technique
that allows them to effectively turn off the twinkling over a large
field of view, allowing them to get Hubble-quality images in a fraction
of the usual time. Read More
It seems like just yesterday Oregon Scientific was offering up its ATC2K actioncam, and now it’s all the way up to the 9K? They grow up so fast! Like its immediate predecessor, the ATC5K,
the ATC9K features a built-in color LCD screen. Unlike it, however, the
9K shoots full 1080p HD, is waterproof down to 20 meters/60 feet (the
5K only goes down to 3 meters/10 feet), has a 130-degree field of view,
includes a remote, and it can embed G-force data on your footage. Read More
Day after day, honeybees are able to travel back
and forth between a food source and their hive, even in a
constantly-changing environment. Given that the insects have relatively
small brains, scientists have determined that they rely chiefly on
vision and hard-wired visual processing abilities to achieve such a
feat. To better understand that process, scientists from the Cognitive
Interaction Technology Center of Excellence at Bielefeld University,
Germany, have created an artificial honeybee’s eye. Using the device,
they hope to unlock the secrets of the insects’ sensing, processing and
navigational skills, and apply them to human technology such as micro
air vehicles (MAVs). Read More
Logitech has unveiled three new products aimed
specifically at gaming enthusiasts. The new G-Series low friction gaming
mouse features 13 programmable controls and pixel-perfect laser
tracking. The keyboard has a GamePanel LCD display, user-customized
color backlit keys and delivers 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound, plus up to 10
hours battery life... and there's a wireless headset too. Read More
If you’re into writing the “old-fashioned” way –
that is with a pen and paper – then you’re probably already acquainted
with Sharpie, the company that brought us those markers and pens that
come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Their latest offering – called the
Sharpie Liquid Pencil – is really quite unique. It writes like a pen
but can be erased like a pencil and it becomes as permanent as a
permanent marker in three days. Read More
Throwing the washer or dryer in the car when
something goes wrong isn’t really an option, meaning you’ll have to call
out a repair person to make a potentially expensive house call. Some
manufacturers are installing network capabilities in such devices to
allow problems to be diagnosed remotely, but most people don’t have a
network connection located in the laundry. LG has come up with a way to
troubleshoot washer and dryer issues remotely by getting the devices to
chat with a technician over the phone in a language R2-D2 would
understand. Read More
Micro electromechanical systems, or MEMs,
are promising in an array of high-tech applications. However, the
accuracy of conventional techniques to gauge the force and movement of
tiny objects containing components so small they have to be measured on
the scale of micrometers or nanometers are typically off by 10 percent
or more because of their inherent uncertainties. A new technology
enabling MEMs to "self-calibrate" could overcome this problem and make
possible super-accurate and precise sensors for crime-scene forensics,
environmental testing and medical diagnostics. Read More
Motorola's much talked-about DROID 2 is out of
the woods at last. The company's latest Android handset – which runs
version 2.2 – gets a 1GHz processor, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, a
5-megapixel camera with Dual LED Flash, 3G Mobile Hotspot capability
that can handle up to five devices, 8GB of onboard memory and an 8GB
microSD card, a redesigned slide-out QWERTY keyboard with larger keys,
plus a 3.7-inch, 480x854 multi-touch display equipped with Swype texting
on top. The phone will hit the Verizon website tomorrow and find its
way onto shelves on August 12, but you'll have to wait until September
for the R2-D2 version. Read More
Officially announced at AirVenture 2010,
Sikorsky's Project Firefly sets out to demonstrate the feasibility and
showcase the benefits of electrically powered helicopters. The
technology demonstrator is based on an S-300C light helicopter, with a
190-horsepower electric motor replacing the standard piston-engine and
lithium ion battery packs added to either side of the cabin. The result
is a significantly more efficient system that – although it's expected
to fall short of typical helicopter performance when the first flight
takes place later this year – is just the tip of the iceberg for the new
era of manned electric rotorcraft. Read More
Spintronics
– or spin electronics – is an emerging technology that exploits the
intrinsic spin of the electron rather than its charge, as is the case
with current electronic devices. The technology promises microelectronic
devices that can store more data in less space, process data faster,
and consume less power. Researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) have
now demonstrated the first plastic memory device that utilizes the spin
of electrons to read and write data. Read More
Although medical advances over recent years have
seen the majority of people surviving heart attacks, the damage done to
the heart muscle is irreversible. As a result, most patients eventually
succumb to congestive heart failure, the most common cause of death in
developed countries. Stem cells offer hope for achieving what the human
body can’t do: mending broken hearts. Now researchers have built a
scaffold that supports the growth and integration of stem cell-derived
cardiac muscles cells. The scaffold supports the growth of cardiac cells
in the lab and encourages blood vessel growth in living animals. Read More
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
that was first released in the UK back in March has finally made its
way to the U.S. The company’s flagship Android smartphone will be
available on the AT&T network from August 15 and, despite the delay,
will still be running the Donut edition of Android, version 1.6 –
apparently because Sony Ericsson has been having trouble modding its add
ons to suit Android 2.1. Read More
In November 2008, we reported on the FEELIX GROWING
(Feel, Interact, eXpress: a Global approach to development with
Interdisciplinary Grounding) project’s aim of developing robots that are
capable of identifying different emotions based on facial expressions.
Now, that same project has announced the completion of its first
prototype robots that are not only capable of developing their own
emotions as they interact with their human caregivers, but they can also
express those emotions. Read More
For any unfortunate mobile users whose phone goes
kaput due to water damage, there's now a new machine designed to suck
moisture right out of your phone – if you live in Japan, that is. JMC
Risk Solutions has installed a number of new 'Dryer Boxes' in selected
Yodobashi Camera shops around Tokyo for those whose phones get caught
out in the rain. Read More
Despite Apple’s recent string of successes sparked by the iPod and following through to the iPhone and iPad, there’s one device that stands out for it’s less than stellar performance in the marketplace – Apple TV.
Hardly surprising given the unit’s lack of features that can be found
on devices much cheaper than Apple’s offering. Now, it seems the company
is set to give the insides of its digital media receiver a going over
and rename the device to better fit with its line of iDevices. Read More
Software removes pedestrians from Google Street View
By Ben Coxworth
August 11, 2010
Google Street View,
while very useful, fascinating, and full of wonderful bloopers, does
rub some privacy advocates the wrong way. Should people on public
streets have a reasonable expectation of not ending up with their photo
on the Internet? There’s a whole other article in that, but in any
case... for all the folks who do have a problem with it, a
computer science graduate student is working on a solution: software
that digitally removes pedestrians from Street View images. One of the
byproducts of the current version of the system is somewhat unsettling,
however – areas where people were in images are sometimes marked by ghost-like shapes, or even by disembodied shoes and feet. Read More
The amount of power drawn from the electricity
grid can vary greatly at different times of the day. It usually peaks in
the early evening for a couple of hours after the mass exodus from
school and work, while short-lived spikes are also common after major
televised sporting events, during commercial breaks and in the morning
hours. This can cause headaches for energy companies as they struggle to
match supply with demand. But researchers have now found a way to
manage these short-lived draws on the electricity grid far that could
halve the fuel needed. Read More
We've seen pico-projectors in mobile phones, point-and-shoot cameras and pocket camcorders,
but this is the first time we've seen one added to a conventional
camcorder. Little known Chinese brand Ordro's offering – the HDV-350S –
captures up to 1080p video at 60 fps or 12 megapixel still pictures,
features 10x optical zoom and includes a removable pico-projector which
throws a WVGA (854x480) resolution image with a brightness of 15
lumens... according to Ordro that's good enough for a 60-inch
projection. Read More
The first stage in judging the James Dyson Award
2010 has been completed and the national shortlists from 18 countries
have been posted. From these, 20 projects will be chosen to go onto the
next stage later this month. The overall international winner will be
crowned in October. Read on for a look at some of those now being
scrutinized by the judges. Read More
Offsetting greenhouse gas emissions using charcoal
By Darren Quick
August 11, 2010
According to a new study, as much as 12 percent
of the world’s human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be
sustainably offset by producing biochar, a charcoal-like substance made
from plants and other organic materials. That’s more than would be
offset if the same plants and materials were burned to generate
bioenergy, says the study. Additionally, biochar could improve food
production in the world’s poorest regions as it increases soil
fertility. Read More
The folks over at Seiko, apparently lamenting the fact that the company doesn't manufacture cars, are jumping on the hybrid
bandwagon nonetheless. In late August two hybrid clocks will be
released in Japan. Seiko's new timepieces will combine both solar and
battery power so as to reduce the frequency at which you need to replace
the batteries. Read More
WikiReader,
the palm-sized device that makes Wikipedia entries available offline,
has gone multilingual. In addition to being able to store the more than
three million English language Wikipedia articles, users can now
download any of 14 other language versions of Wikipedia along with the
virtual keyboards with characters to support them. Read More
How do you get a heavy box across town without
using a delivery truck, car or taxi? That’s where the Move-it could help
– it’s a cleverly designed kit, made of self-adhesive cardboard parts
that stick on your box and transform it into a lightweight trolley. And
would you believe it’s entirely made of cardboard – including the
wheels, axle and chassis? Read More
For most sufferers of type 1 diabetes pricking
their fingers several times a day to draw blood for testing is an
annoying (and often painful), but necessary part of life. It is
essential to keep an eye on blood glucose levels because too much sugar
can damage organs, while too little deprives the body of necessary fuel.
To minimize that pain and inconvenience, researchers at MIT’s
Spectroscopy Laboratory are working on a noninvasive way to measure
blood glucose levels using light. Read More
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