Matrox Graphics’ new Extio F2408 KVM Extension
Solution offers a new capability we feel certain will find many new
uses. It enables a multiple display configuration of up to eight
1920x1200 screens to be separated from the host PC by up to a kilometer
of fiber-optic cable, yet still produce the same flawless image quality
and system performance of the host workstation. Five USB 2.0 ports at
the display end enable the addition of keyboard, mouse, touchscreen
controllers and other peripherals. Read More
The 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show
Design Challenge – which asked designers to come up with an efficient
1,000lb (454kg), four-passenger vehicle that maintained comfort, safety,
driving-performance and style – has finished in a tie between GM’s
Cadillac Aera concept and the Smart 454 from Mercedes-Benz Advanced
Design. Previously, the Design Challenge was restricted to major
Southern California automotive design studios but this year
saw the field widen to include studios from Germany and Japan,
resulting in entries from Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Nissan, Toyota and
Maybach. Read More
Space-saving chicken coop includes rooftop veggie patch
November 21, 2010
Having chickens and vegetables in your backyard
is great for self-sustainability, but what if I want both in a small
space? Seattle-based architect turned-self-starter Traci Fontyn has the
solution in the form of the Kippen House; a modular chicken coop with a
rooftop vegetable garden that creates a looped ecosystem to benefit both
your home-grown veggies and eggs. Read More
Elecom's new headphones built to hold iPod Shuffle
By Rick Martin
November 21, 2010
Here's a clever set of headphones from Japanese manufacturer Elecom that are specifically built to hold the latest iPod Shuffle.
The company has created a very simple neckstrap/headphone unit that
slips over your ears, and then your iPod shuffle docks right into the
ear-piece. The obvious benefit here being that there is no longer any
long headphone cord to get in your way. Read More
'Plastisoil' could mean cleaner rivers and less plastic waste
By Ben Coxworth
November 21, 2010
A new cement-like material that could be used to
form sidewalks, bike and jogging paths, driveways and parking lots, may
be able to lessen two environmental problems, namely plastic waste
and polluted rainwater runoff. The substance is called Plastisoil, and
it was developed by Naji Khoury, an assistant professor of civil and
environmental engineering at Temple University in Philadelphia. In order
to make Plastisoil, discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic
bottles are pulverized and mixed with soil, and then that
mixture is blended with a coarse aggregate and heated. The result is a
hard yet non-watertight substance, similar to pervious concrete or
porous asphalt. Read More
Elephants, jellyfish and robotic automation
November 21, 2010
Festo, the automation company that designed the bionic penguin
and its robotic stablemates – AirRay, AquaRay, AirJelly and AquaJelly –
has found another natural model in its latest application of biomimicry – the elephant's trunk. Read More
Windows 7 gets the Minority Report treatment using Kinect
By Ben Coxworth
November 20, 2010
In the 2002 movie Minority Report, part
of the “way out there” 2054 technology was a computer system that Tom
Cruise navigated his way through via arm and hand gestures. That
technology – minus the holograms – has now officially arrived 44 years
ahead of schedule, thanks to the design team at tech firm Evoluce. With
support from Microsoft, the company has created prototype software which
allows Microsoft’s Kinect gesture-based
video gaming platform to control Windows 7 applications. PC-users will
likely soon be able to “swim” through Google Earth images, write
on-screen messages in the air, and surf the Internet without cramping
their mousing hand. Read More
Not long ago, there was informed debate on
whether a purpose-built computer would ever beat a chess master. Now
mobile phones have achieved Grand Master status. Computers continue to
get exponentially faster, not to mention considerably smarter through
improved software, whereas humans are effectively nearing their limits.
Hence, it’s arguably only a matter of time and R&D focus before
computers (plus improved sensors and software) surpass any specific
human capability. This week Audi revealed that its Autonomous TTS
research car had completed the 12.42-mile Pike’s Peak mountain course in
27 minutes. An expert driver in the same car would take around 17
minutes – now we have a benchmark, the race is on, and it's almost
inevitable that a computer will one day outdrive the best of our
species, and it may be sooner than you think. Read More
Fiat recently announced that it will be manufacturing an electric version of its cute li’l 500 automobile
for the North American market, starting in 2012. If you can’t wait that
long, however, you can get one in Europe right now – you just won’t be
buying it from Fiat. The Italian automaker gave Swedish company EV Adapt
permission to buy the stock 500, swap out the combustion motor for an
electric one, and then resell the car as an EV. Sold as the CARe 500,
the vehicle is now available throughout Europe. In an interesting move,
buyers have the option of purchasing a battery-less car for a reduced
price, and then renting its battery pack. Read More
Having spent a number of years as the audio
weapon of choice for computer sound systems, Creative has announced a
couple of USB releases that will allow any sound card to benefit from
its Sound Blaster know-how. The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1
Pro is said to offer true 5.1 surround sound, while the Sound Blaster
X-Fi Go! Pro has been designed for mobile listeners. Both benefit from
the company's THX TruStudio Pro entertainment system, that provides
depth and space to give a more natural feel to stereo output. Read More
Gone are the days where most houses have large
back yards and the family dog can run freely. As outdoor spaces are
getting smaller and people are working longer hours, often household
dogs struggle to get the exercise they need. I must admit I'm a little
uncomfortable with the idea of a super-sized mouse wheel, but for the
family pet it may just well be a great solution for keeping active and
happy. Read More
Solar cells could become more efficient and less
expensive, thanks to the development of tapered nanopillar
semiconductors that are narrow at the top and wide at the bottom.
Created by chemist Ali Javey and his group from California’s Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, the two-micron-high nanopillars’ unique
shape allows them to collect as much or more light than conventional
semiconductors, while using much less material. Read More
Tokyo Make Meeting 06: Wii Balance Board hacked to create 'Diet Chair'
By Rick Martin
November 22, 2010
Here's a very clever hack of a Wii Balance Board
from engineer Ryo Yamamoto that was on display at Tokyo Make Meeting 06
this past weekend. Mr. Yamamoto's "Diet Chair" is essentially just a
regular chair, but with a Wii Balance Board
sitting underneath the seat. What's smart about this is that it allows
the chair to send feedback to the computer where the user's weight can
be monitored over time. Read More
MSI's Wind Top Professional and Entertainment
All-in-One computers are to be joined by a new Classic model. The super
quiet AC1900 is said to have low power requirements, and benefits from a
high performance processor, good sized storage, Wi-Fi wireless
connectivity and a DVD drive. Read More
Like the Rock Lock
we featured last month, the Guitar Hanger is one of those wonderfully
simple ideas that you wish you'd thought of first. It provides a
temporary storage solution for players who suffer from limited floor
space or just need to get their treasured electric saxophone out of
harm's way. As you can see from the gallery,
the device has two parts – a double-hooked hanger where one end locks
to a U-shaped bracket and the other is slung over any closet or rack rod
that happens to have some space. Read More
Magnetically-guided pill sends pictures from inside the stomach
By Karen Sprey
November 22, 2010
Stomach examinations may soon become more
comfortable and less invasive with the development of a magnetically
guided capsule endoscope. Jointly developed by Olympus and Siemens, the
capsule is swallowed by the patient and wirelessly transmits high-res,
real-time images from inside the stomach while the doctor navigates
using a joystick. Read More
Nokia researchers build huge touchscreen display made of ice
By Paul Ridden
November 22, 2010
Researchers from the Nokia Research Center in
Tampere, Finland, have turned a wall of ice into a huge interactive
touchscreen display. Using infrared emitters and detectors to determine
hand location and movement, the team projected images onto the blocks of
ice so that users could see flames behind their hands. Happily, users
didn't need to worry about catching a chill from icy fingers as the
setup managed to keep track of gloved as well as ungloved hands. Read More
Across the UAE in eleven days in a solar-powered wheelchair
By Darren Quick
November 21, 2010
United Arab Emirates (UAE) inventor Haidar Taleb
has today set out from Fujairah on a journey that will take him across
all seven of the emirates that make up the UAE. The journey is expected
to finish in Abu Dhabi in 11 days time on the UAE National Day, but its
not the route or the timing that is attracting attention, it's the means
of transport. Taleb won’t be making the trip by train, car or even
camel – he’ll be riding a solar-powered wheelchair. Read More
Retrofittable anti-rollover truck system recognized
November 21, 2010
It doesn't take much analysis to reach the conclusion that truck rollovers are very
dangerous. Studies have shown that over 6 percent of the heavy truck
fatalities and incapacitating injuries on U.S roads alone are a result
of rollover accidents. Modern trucks fitted with ESP (Electronic
Stability Program) have a greater chance of avoiding the problem, but
this retrofittable early warning tanker roll-over device developed by
Bertocco Automotive Engineering of Italy and Shell Chemicals Europe
provides added safety for older vehicles... and it's just been awarded
top prize in the EuroTra Safety and Innovation Award 2010. Read More
MIT's adaptive lighting system could slash lighting bills
By Darren Quick
November 21, 2010
According to a 2009 Department of Energy study,
lighting accounts for 22 percent of all the electricity used in the
United States. In an effort to cut this figure, many modern buildings
have done away with the humble light switch in favor of automatic
motion-detector switches or complicated control panels with arrays of
sliders and buttons. A new system literally puts the controls back in
people’s hands and its developers at MIT say it has the potential to
slash lighting bills by more than half. Read More
Two very interesting pieces of news from Italian
motorcycle marque Ducati this week. Firstly, a co-operative partnership
and MotoGP sponsorship deal with Mercedes-AMG – demonstrating the
dollar- and eyeball-pulling power of star recruit Valentino Rossi – and
secondly, the wraps have come off one of the worst-kept secrets in the
motorcycle industry, with the Ducati Diavel power-cruiser making its
public debut. The Diavel has got most Ducati fans stumped – it's a
bizarre-looking musclebike/cruiser/street rod design that seems to fit
somewhere in between the Ducati Streetfighter and the Yamaha V-MAX – and
it mates a whopping 240-section fat back tire with a firmly
performance-focused, quick-revving, 162-horsepower V-twin motor. It's
the first step into a completely new market for Ducati, and its bold,
brutish design is already causing fights among the faithful. Read More
Digital Storm's Sub Zero Liquid Cooling System
By Paul Ridden
November 23, 2010
In spite of huge advances in computer system
performance in recent years, for demanding gamers and dedicated
overclockers they're simply not enough. Persuading processors to offer
more performance and power does come with a heat cost though. Digital
Storm's new Sub-Zero Liquid Chilled System manages to idle an Intel i7
processor below freezing point while unlocking overclocking performance
gains at the same time. Read More
MicroVision’s second-generation SHOWWX+ laser pico projector
By Darren Quick
November 22, 2010
MicroVision Inc. has just released the second generation of its SHOWWX laser pico projector
that we caught at CES earlier this year. The new SHOWWX+ is powered by
the same PicoP display engine and is the same pocket-friendly size as
its predecessor, but packs a 50 percent brighter display to project
images of up to 250cm (100 in) from mobile devices to provide a
(relatively) big screen experience wherever you may be. Read More
It’s vital that surgeons, whether operating on
humans or animals, are familiar with how body tissue feels and reacts
before conducting their inaugural operation. However, until recently,
many veterinarian students were practicing basic surgical and suturing
procedures on carpet pads and pig’s feet before moving on to their first
“live” patient. But an invention by Colorado State University (CSU)
veterinarians has provided students with a substrate that is infinitely
closer to the real thing by developing artificial body parts that
closely resemble real skin, muscles and vessels – they can even bleed!
Of course the real benefit is that no animals (or humans) are hurt in
the procedures. Read More
There are a number of games that are ideally
suited to lone players, such as patience, Tetris and, of course,
solitaire. Chess, on the other hand, has always required an opponent, be
it human or computer – to be a challenge anyway. But this new Solitaire
Chess, which is “almost” chess but not quite, removes the need for an
opponent but keeps the rules and moves associated with the traditional
board game. The idea of this logic puzzle is to wipe out all the pieces
bar one using your problem-solving skills as you would in a game of
chess. Read More
Bike 2.0 takes Seoul Cycle Design Competition prize
By Ben Coxworth
November 22, 2010
Bicycle designers had a chance to show the world
their ideas earlier this year, by taking part in the Seoul Cycle Design
Competition 2010. The online contest was organized by e-zine Designboom
and the Seoul Design Foundation, and received entries from 3,078
designers in 88 countries. The ideas included everything from bikes that
doubled as shopping carts, to frames shaped like horses, to
handlebar-mounted wind turbines. The grand prize winner, while not as
entertainingly-outlandish as some of those concepts, was nonetheless
pretty far removed from your garden-variety Schwinn. It’s called, simply
enough, Bike 2.0. Read More
Apple has announced that iOS 4.2 is now available
as a free download for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. While iPhone and
iPod touch users have enjoyed many of the features found in the latest
version in iOS 4.0 and 4.1, it brings multitasking, fast app switching,
folders, Game Center and a unified mail inbox to the iPad for the first
time. The update also adds AirPrint and AirPlay to all compatible
devices. Read More
Safer levees and bridges thanks to new erosion and scour detector
By Grant Banks
November 22, 2010
Erosion through water flow (called scour) causes
the majority of bridge collapses in the U.S and was responsible for the
levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It has been
difficult to assess the erosive potential of a soil profile without
extensive digging on site followed up by hours of off site testing, but
researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) have developed a
device that significantly improves the process by measuring the scour
and erosion potential of soils without the need to excavate and remotely
test samples. Having tested the sensor in the lab the team are ready to
conduct their first field tests. Read More
Intel introduces first configurable Atom-based processor
By Darren Quick
November 22, 2010
Intel’s range of ultra-low-voltage Atom
processors have certainly staked their territory in a wide range of
netbooks and tablets. In a move designed to make it easier for original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to incorporate Atom processors into a
wider range of devices, Intel has announced its configurable Atom E600C
series. With differentiated, custom-made processors, Intel says OEM’s
will be able to handle design changes and get their products to market
quicker, without the need for complicated hardware changes. Read More
Fans of the film Blade Runner may
remember a scene in which the maker of an artificial snake is identified
by a microscopic serial number on one of its scales. Well, in a rare
case of present-day technology actually surpassing that
predicted in a movie, we’ve now gone one better – bar codes on embryos.
Scientists from Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), along
with colleagues from the Spanish National Research Council, have
successfully developed an identification system in which mouse embryos
and oocytes (egg cells) are physically tagged with microscopic silicon
bar code labels. They expect to try it out on human embryos and oocytes
soon. Read More
E-ink's benefits over other forms of display are
obvious: you don't have to backlight it if you don't want to, so it's
very easy on the eye and also on a device's battery. You can effectively
use it to produce an electronic screen that's as pleasant to look at as
a printed piece of paper. And the technology seems set to take another
leap forward with the announcement that University of Cincinnati
researchers have developed an e-ink technology that's quick enough to
competently display full color video – but so cheap that it can be
completely disposable. How? Well, instead of using glass or flexible
plastic as the basic substrate layer, they're using paper – and getting
excellent results. So you could end up with single-page disposable
electronic newspapers and magazines that use a tiny fraction of the
paper their printed counterparts require. Clever stuff! Read More
Dell puts a new spin on tablet computing with the Inspiron Duo
By Darren Quick
November 24, 2010
With the popularity of Apple’s iPad it’s easy to forget that most tablet computers
used to be laptops with a hinge that allowed the touchscreen display to
be swiveled around and folded down over the keyboard. Such designs are
still available today but have had their thunder (and much of their
market share) stolen by the touchscreen-only designs like the iPad.
Recognizing that there’s still plenty of people who prefer the
functionality of a full QWERTY keyboard, Dell has introduced the
Inspiron Duo with its new flip-hinge design that allows users to switch
from touch to type mode with a flip of the screen. Read More
Nanotechnology, electric vehicles, renewable energy, quantum computing
and slicker, smarter consumer electronics – just some of the fields in
which the rollercoaster of human technological development continues to
gather pace each year ... and 2010 was no exception. As the calendar
flips towards December, it's time for a look back at some of the key
breakthroughs that have caught our attention over the past 12 months.
Read More
The world’s largest solar-powered boat – TÛRANOR PlanetSolar
– departed from Monaco on September 27 in an attempt to become the
first boat to circumnavigate the globe using only solar energy. Aside
from getting another world record under the boat’s belt, the aim of the
expedition is to demonstrate that, through the use of existing materials
and technology, high-performance solar mobility can be realized today.
Read More
News Corp. reportedly teaming up with Apple for tablet-only newspaper
By Darren Quick
November 23, 2010
Over the past decade, the rise and rise of the
Internet has seen traditional newspapers scrambling to go online lest
they go the way of the dodo – or the Rocky Mountain News.
Unfortunately for the publishers, the public became accustomed to
getting this online content for free and publishers faced the difficult
task of converting readers to a more sustainable subscription model. The
increasing popularity of tablets such as the iPad
is changing the newspaper landscape yet again and media mogul Rupert
Murdoch’s News Corp. is now reportedly teaming up with Apple to develop a
tablet-only publication exclusively for the iPad and other tablet
devices. Read More
Nano metal-detector to aid development of next-gen electronics
By Grant Banks
November 23, 2010
The use of semiconducting carbon nanotubes
in place of conventional silicon components and circuits could
revolutionize electronics, bringing us even faster and more power
efficient devices. One of the problems in manufacturing these
nanostructures is getting rid of unwanted metallic tubes, but
researchers from Purdue University (PU), Indiana, hope a new screening
tool which uses a process known as "transient absorption" to detect
these impurities will provide a boost to the manufacturing process. Read More
Face shields on army helmets could reduce brain injuries
By Ben Coxworth
November 23, 2010
Over half of all injuries to U.S. troops are due
to explosions, and a large percentage of those are head injuries. While
helmets offer some protection, explosive pressure waves can be
transmitted to soldier’s brains via their unprotected faces. With this
in mind, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) have created a computer model to evaluate how useful face shields
on army helmets would be in reducing traumatic brain injuries. Their
conclusion: shields could save lives. Read More
Phantom Ray UAV completes low-speed taxi tests
By Ben Coxworth
November 23, 2010
Boeing achieved an important milestone in the development of its Phantom Ray
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on November 18, when it successfully
completed low-speed taxi tests on a runway at Lambert International
Airport in St. Louis, Missouri. Read More
Gig-fx releases the Peter Frampton MegaWah effects pedal
By Paul Ridden
November 23, 2010
Guitarist and songwriter Peter Frampton – of
Humble Pie fame – has put his name to a new Megawah effects pedal built
by Gig-fx. Designed to meet his exacting specifications, the signature
analog pedal features four settings to produce the established Megawah
sound, but with a slightly warmer high end and more defined lower end
response. Players can also choose a classic crying wah, an adjustable
funky envelope wah and a variable rate autowah. Read More
Olive announces audiophile-pleasing O6HD Music Server
By Paul Ridden
November 23, 2010
High-end music streamer manufacturer Olive
describes its latest High Definition music server as an audiophile's
dream. The O6HD features Digital Analog Converter (DAC) technology to
offer audio enjoyment at over 250 times the resolution of CD. The device
is constructed to reduce noise and vibration to an absolute minimum,
and even dampens the 2TB hard drive with eight layers of cushioning.
Read More
When it comes to solar cells, everyone is chasing
the highest conversion efficiency. Although we’ve seen conversion
efficiencies of over 40 percent
achieved with multi-junction solar cells in lab environments, Boeing
subsidiary Spectrolab is bringing this kind of efficiency to mass
production with the announcement of its C3MJ+ solar cells which boast an
average conversion efficiency of 39.2 percent. Read More
When obtaining three-dimensional images of cells
using a scanning electron microscope, individual cells are scanned one
section at a time and those images are then put together to form one
complete 3D picture of that cell – the process often takes a long time
to complete. When using a fluorescence microscope, cells must first by
dyed so that they show up against their surroundings. Now, a team from
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have demonstrated a process called X-ray
nanotomography, that can instantly obtain 3D images of cells in their almost natural state. Read More
Logitech's downsized Lapdesk N550 for notebooks and netbooks
By Grant Banks
November 24, 2010
Logitech has followed up on its N700 Lapdesk
with a unit designed for 14-inch or smaller notebooks and netbooks –
the Lapdesk N550. The new addition features integrated stereo speakers,
an ergonomic design and four layered heat-shielding. Read More
While there are already effective
methods of screening samples of body fluids for viruses such as Ebola,
these tend to require a fair amount of sample preparation time and a
decent technological infrastructure. Time isn’t always in abundance at
places such as airports, while infrastructure is lacking in many
developing nations. Fortunately, researchers have created a diagnostic
tool that can detect viruses quickly and easily, and that’s about the
size of a quarter. Read More
The Internet has opened up a brave new radio
world to listeners who otherwise suffer airwave restrictions. With tens
of thousands of stations now pumping out just about every kind of music
imaginable around the clock, tuning in can be overwhelming and
complicated. The Q2 Internet Radio from Armour Home Electronics offers
to make the process a whole lot easier and a lot more fun. Read More
Zebra finches, beware! That tweeting noise you’re
responding to might not be coming from another finch at all, but from a
rubber tube-based bird-call-imitating device. The gizmo was devised by a
team of physicists at Harvard University in an effort to understand the
physics of bird song. Read More
Digital dessert – the Cricut Cake Printer
November 24, 2010
Modern technology has advanced so quickly, so why
shouldn’t it also advance our cake decorating skills. The Cricut Cake
printer will do just that ... and it might inspire a new wave of
neighborhood cake competitions and children’s parties. The printer is
designed to make cake decorating as simple as printing a piece of paper,
but instead of using paper and ink, it cuts shapes, words, motifs and
decorations into frosting sheets, cookie dough, modeling chocolate and
soft candies. Read More
There's no denying that the Zeppelin and Mini
from Bowers & Wilkins are handsome and powerful ways to dock your
iPhone. While the Koostik dock can't hope to compete in the
amplification stakes, there's something about the simple design and
natural wood finish that makes it just as pleasing to the eye – and more
than a little cheaper, too. Read More
In May, ASUS announced
that it was going to release an amalgam of a notepad and e-Reader
tentatively named the Eee Tablet. The details of just such a device have
now emerged, although the company is now calling it the Eee Note EA800.
The 8-inch glass touchscreen display is said to be ultra-sensitive to
pressure from a stylus input, with the monochrome screen image remaining
clear even in bright sunlight. It supports all of the main e-Book
formats as well as Microsoft Office documents, benefits from wireless
connectivity and has quite an impressive battery life. Read More
Tokyo Make Meeting 06: Mommy Tummy lets you be Mr. Mom for a day
By Rick Martin
November 24, 2010
One of the more popular exhibits at Tokyo Make
Meeting this past weekend was Mommy Tummy, a pregnancy experience
simulation system developed by Kosaka Laboratory of Kanazawa Technical
College. It allows men (and others who have never carried a child) to
not just feel what it's like to be pregnant, but to also gradually
experience the changes. The Mommy Tummy suit is pumped full of water,
and the onscreen display updates you as to how far along your pregnancy
has progressed. The man's breasts will get bigger as well – did I just
write that? – via a pair of inflatable balloons on the front. Read More
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