Both Boeing and BAE Systems
have been working on laser weapon systems for use at sea for a number
of years and now the two companies have teamed up to develop the Mk 38
Mod 2 Tactical Laser System for the U.S. Navy. The system combines both
kinetic and directed energy weapons capability by coupling a solid-state
high-energy laser weapon module with the Mk 38 Machine Gun System that
is already in use on many U.S. Navy vessels. Read More
The iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad are now
established favorites for the mobile muso with new synths and sequencers
seemingly coming out every week. Until iOS 4 however there was no
standardized method for getting MIDI control signals in and out of the
units for interfacing with ‘proper’ equipment. Some enterprising
developers created methods using the Apple Camera Kit USB connector
whilst Line 6 created its own proprietary method and the MIDI Mobilizer
dongle to go with it. In the iOS 4 software release Apple ported the
CoreMIDI programming interface framework from MacOS and developers
finally had a standard method with which they were familiar. Though iOS4
was released a year ago, compatible MIDI interfaces are now only
beginning to get to market. Read More
Plows are one of the most basic agricultural
implements and have been in use for thousands of years. In that time
they’ve evolved from simple ox-drawn scratch plows consisting of a frame
holding a vertical wooden stick dragged through the topsoil – which are
still used in many parts of the world – to tractor-mounted plows that
can have as many as 18 moldboards. The evolution of the humble plow
looks set to continue with Fraunhofer scientists working on diamond-like
carbon (DLC)-coated plowshares that would slide through the soil like a
hot knife through butter, thereby requiring less fuel. Read More
As some Gizmag readers will already know, the new technical regulations
for Formula One racing state that cars must move under electrical power
only when in the pit lanes. Eyebrow-raising though that may be, two
companies are currently collaborating on technology that would see cars
being powered by electric motors for the entire race. Instead
of looking at ultra-powerful batteries or three-hour recharging pit
stops, however, they're taking another approach - they propose that the
cars could wirelessly receive power from transmitters embedded in the
track. Read More
The way things currently stand in the field of
medicine, doctors often have to try out a number of treatments on any
one patient, before (hopefully) finding one that works. This wastes both
time and medications, and potentially endangers the patients, as they
could have negative reactions to some drugs. In the future, however, all
that experimenting may not be necessary. The pan-European IT Future of
Medicine (ITFoM) project, a consortium of over 25 member organizations,
is currently developing a system in which every person would have a
computer model of themselves, that incorporated their own genome.
Doctors could then run simulations with that model, to see how various
courses of treatment would work on the actual person. Read More
Germany-based company Zero1.tv has announced its
VooMote One IR sleeve and app that converts iPhone or iPod touch into a
universal remote. While the idea itself is not particularly new, some
users might find VooMote One interesting as the add-on allows to create
custom layouts linked to certain locations, like the living room or
bedroom, with different sets of electronics to be operated via iPhone or
iPod touch. Read More
No, it's not just you. According to studies
recently conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, the
viewing of stereoscopic 3D displays does indeed cause visual discomfort,
fatigue and headaches. The problem appears to come from the fact that
the viewers' eyes are simultaneously trying to focus on the screen, and
on objects that appear to be located either in front of or behind that
screen. Read More
If Israeli industrial design student Dror Peleg
had been around in the late 1950s, I feel sure that his Frii plastic
bike concept would have found its way into Mosanto's House of the Future.
Over 50 years later, that vision of a world of plastic has also given
rise to some serious disposal issues and grave environmental concerns.
Frii proposes to be part of the solution, not the problem. Made from
recycled plastic, the city cycling concept would be manufactured locally
for local use. Components would be injection molded into modular shapes
that snap together to form a strong, lightweight and very colorful
single-speed bike for quick trips through the city streets. Read More
One of the great things about the internet is the
fact that everyday people can share what they know with the entire
world, so if they’ve had a particularly good or bad experience with a
business or product, they can notify everyone via customer review
websites. The flip-side of that, however, is that business owners can
plant fake reviews on those same sites, that either praise their own
business or slam their competition. Well, confused consumers can now
take heart – researchers from Cornell University have developed software
that is able to identify phony reviews with close to 90 percent
accuracy. Read More
The ingenious Cargoshell shipping container concept
is about to be tested for ISO certification, finally enabling
deployment. The composite Cargoshell is both light and collapsible.
Though containerisation has streamlined global trade, it remains
inefficient. The current steel containers use the same space whether
they are empty or full, and waste valuable resources globally being
transported and stored empty. A Cargoshell can be broken down by one
person in 30 minutes, to a quarter of its original volume. Read More
There have been numerous attempts at designing partially transparent gadgets over the years, with the LG GD900
cell phone being a notable example. Fully translucent mobile devices
are difficult to produce, however, as they would require a fully
see-through battery, which hasn't been available yet. Stanford
University researchers now claim to have developed such a device - a
see-through, flexible, lithium-ion battery, suitable for powering mobile
gadgets like cell phones, tablets or e-readers. Read More
Last August, we did a side-by-side video comparison of Drift Innovation’s HD-170 actioncam, and the ever-popular GoPro HERO HD.
While we liked the HD-170’s image quality, LCD screen, ease of use and
swiveling lens, we noted that it lacked the HERO’s replaceable lens,
and that it was considerably longer (although narrower) than the GoPro
camera. Well, with its new compact Drift HD, Drift Innovation has
addressed both of those shortcomings. Read More
Estonian automotive producer DARTZ is best known
for producing the world's most expensive US$1 million bulletproof Kombat
T98 and Prombron SUVs and more recently for producing a concept car
lined in whale penis leather. Now it has announced a 2000 bhp armored
Sportback, designed for pulling yachts. With a 2000 bhp powerplant, it
will be the world's most powerful production car. It will also be
frightfully expensive, but the owner won't be worried every time a
motorcycle pulls alongside at the traffic lights. Read More
Mobile number crunchers whose laptop keyboard is
lacking in a useful separate keypad will no doubt be interested to
discover that Canon is about to release a new slim laser mouse which
includes its own keypad. The new X Mark I Mouse could also please
trackpad haters looking to reduce the number of peripherals housed
within the laptop bag, as it also operates as a 10-digit calculator
complete with LCD screen. Read More
When musical inspiration hits, it's vital to get it recorded before it disappears. Handheld recorders like Tascam's DR-07 MkII recorder and or Zoom's new H2n Handy Recorder are useful in this regard, but if you need a little more flexibility, something like a pocket-sized version of the BR800
portable recording studio could be the answer. Roland has announced
that its BOSS MICRO BR multi-track digital recorder has now been
updated. The MICRO BR BR-80 has twice the simultaneous playback tracks
of its predecessor, a new effects processor and the ability to reduce
the presence of vocal and lead guitar of pre-recorded audio to give
players the chance to create their own. Read More
Akamai might not be a household name but between
15 to 30 percent of the world’s Web traffic is carried on the Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based company’s Internet platform at any given time.
Using data gathered by software constantly monitoring Internet
conditions via the company’s nearly 100,000 servers deployed in 72
countries and spanning most of the networks within the Internet, Akamai
creates its quarterly State of the Internet report. The report provides
some interesting Internet-related facts and figures, such as regions
with the slowest and fastest connection speeds, broadband adoption rates
and the origins of attack traffic. Read More
Utilizing Kinect's
motion tracking and facial recognition, Avatar Kinect takes ordinary
video calls into a fully virtual environment giving each user a facial
expressions and gestures-reproducing avatar. First unveiled at CES 2011
in January, Avatar Kinect is now available free to try until September
8, while later it will be available to Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers only.
Read More
As much as Goodwood might hold special
significance for automotive enthusiasts, the estate also has strong ties
with the world of aviation. During WWII it was an active fighter
airbase (aka RAF Westhampnett), and there are many other aspects which
make it a particularly appropriate venue at which to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of most famous British aircraft of all-time – the
Supermarine Spitfire. Read More
Two international teams of astronomers have
discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in
the universe. The researchers found the huge mass of water feeding a
black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away. The
mass of water vapor is at least 140 trillion times that of all the water
in the world's oceans combined and 100,000 times more massive than the
sun. Read More
For a good while now, electric guitar and bass
players have been able to interface their instruments with computers and
mobile devices thanks to solutions like the JAM from Apogee and the iRig
from IK Multimedia. Now, acoustic players are to get their chance to
join the digital party with the launch of the AcousicLink solution from
Alesis. Read More
Last year MIT researchers reported improving the efficiency of lithium-air batteries
through the use of electrodes with gold or platinum catalysts. MIT News
is now reporting that in a continuation of that work, researchers have
been able to further increase the energy storage capacity of lithium-air
batteries for a given weight by creating carbon-fiber-based electrodes.
Read More
If your holiday snapping demands the versatility
of up close macro photography and telephoto zoom in one compact camera
then a wide-angle superzoom will likely be at the top of your shopping
list. Olympus believes that it has you covered with the announcement of a
successor to its SP-800UZ superzoom compact camera. The new model
retains the same image resolution and movie quality as its predecessor
but gets a zoom boost, gains SDXC and Eye-Fi
support and is a touch thinner and lighter. The creativity features
also benefit from new additions, including a 3D capture mode and Magic
Filter additions. Read More
We recently took a look at the iPerform3D online guitar lessons
for those looking to unleash their inner Hendrix, but if you’re
thinking tinkling the ivories might be more your style then Ion Audio’s
Piano Apprentice could be worth a look - at least for a basic
introduction to playing the piano. Following the Simon school of music
instruction, the Piano Apprentice features a 25-note keyboard that docks
with an iPad, iPod touch or iPhone to demonstrate how to play as the
relevant keys on the device light up. Read More
Fujitsu and Toshiba have announced IS12T, the first smartphone to run on Windows Phone 7
with the new Mango update pre-installed. The new smartphone is
waterproof and dust-resistant and comes with 13.2 megapixel camera and
large 32GB of internal storage. Read More
Chinese scientists have developed an aquatic
microrobot that mimics the water-walking abilities of the Gerridae - a
family of long-legged bugs commonly known as water striders that are
able to run on top of the water's surface. The scientists say their
bionic microbot incorporates improvements over previous devices that
make it an ideal candidate for military spy missions, water pollution
monitoring and other applications. Read More
With the use of airships for passenger transport
decreasing in the early 20th century as their capabilities were eclipsed
by those of airplanes – coupled with a number of disasters – they were
largely resigned to serving as floating billboards or as camera
platforms for covering sporting events. But the ability to hover in one
place for an extended period of time also makes them ideal for
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance purposes, which is why
Lockheed Martin has been developing its High Altitude Airship
(HAA). The company yesterday launched the first-of-its-kind High
Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator (HALE-D) to test a number of key
technologies critical to development of unmanned airships. Read More
When it comes to the sound-proofing of buildings,
most people likely think of using materials that simply absorb the
sound waves in a noisy room, so they can't proceed into a neighboring
quiet room. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech), however, are taking a different approach. They have created
something known as an acoustic diode, that only allows sound traveling
through it to go in one direction. If incorporated into building
materials, such diodes would let sound travel from the quiet room to the
noisy one, but would simply block noise transmission in the opposite
direction. Read More
So, is that really Johnnie Walker Blue that
you’re drinking, or is it perhaps actually Johnny Woker Bloo?
Counterfeit Scotch whiskeys are more common than you might think, with
the Scotch Whiskey Association reportedly handling between 60 to 70
active cases of counterfeiting at any one time. While there are lab
tests that can identify the fakes, not every bar owner or restaurateur
has the time or funds for those. Fortunately for them, scientists from
Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde have devised a quicker, simpler,
less costly system. Read More
The Nuon Solar Team has revealed its lightest
solar powered vehicle yet. Not only is the 145 kg Nuna6 around 10
percent lighter than its predecessor Nuna5
and half the weight of the original Nuna which competed in 2001, it is
also 15 inches shorter and has 10 percent less air resistance. This
month's unveiling comes as the team of students from the Delft
University of Technology prepares for a tilt at victory in the 2011 World Solar Challenge
- a biennial 1800 mile race through the heart of Australia that has
become one of the world's premiere showcases for these incredibly
efficient vehicles and the technologies that underpin them. Read More
Initially presented in 2009 as a rather eccentric
architect's idea, one of the world's narrowest houses will be built in
Warsaw, Poland. Referred to as an "impossible house" by its designer
Jakub Szczesny of Centrala design studio, the house will be 152 cm (60
in) across in its widest spot on the outside. It's located in the center
of Warsaw in a small slot between two buildings, and will be officially
defined as an art installation, as it does not meet any legal standards
of construction in Poland. Read More
According to a 2009 estimate by the U.S. Society
of Civil Engineers, more than one in four U.S. bridges are either
structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. While newer “smart”
bridges have embedded wired networks of sensors to monitor their
structural integrity, the high cost of installing such systems on
existing bridges is simply unaffordable for strained city, state and
federal budgets. Now University of Maryland electrical engineering
researcher Mehdi Kalantari has developed a tiny wireless sensor that
monitors and transmits minute-by-minute data on a bridge’s structural
integrity that he estimates is one-hundredth the cost of a wired network
approach. Read More
While a lot of online video has made the move to
HTML 5, there are still plenty of Flash videos floating around that
leave iDevice users with a “Please Upgrade Flash” message on their
displays. With Apple seemingly unlikely to ever support Flash on its iOS
devices, Skyfire came to the rescue last year with its Skyfire browser
that allows Flash video to be viewed on said devices. Realizing that,
despite its lack of Flash support, most people are generally quite happy
using Safari, Skyfire has now released a standalone Flash player for
iOS devices called VideoQ. Read More
Cellular-based automotive roadside assistance
services like GM’s OnStar and BMW Assist allow remote unlocking of
vehicles by communicating with remote servers via standard mobile
networks. Now a pair of security systems engineers have managed to prove
it takes just a few hours of clever reverse engineering to crack the
in-car cellular network-based technology to gain access to vehicles.
They call their method “War Texting.” Read More
With human error the predominant cause of car accidents, automatic braking systems like the Pedestrian Detection system
found in the Volvo S60 use cameras and sensors to assist drivers in
detecting oncoming hazards and automatically applying the brakes. Now a
team of researchers from the Berlin Institute for Technology has found a
way to improve the response times of drivers by reading their minds.
Using electroencephalography (EEG) by attaching electrodes to the scalp
the researchers demonstrated that reading driver’s brain signals can
provide quicker reaction times to potentially prevent many of the car
accidents caused by human error. Read More
With diseases such as Foot and Mouth, TB, and of
course Mad Cow still presenting a danger to cattle, it’s of the utmost
importance that farmers monitor the health of their animals, and
immediately proceed to isolate any that might be showing symptoms. If
you have a herd of over 500 cows, however, keeping track of individuals
can be rather tricky. That’s why scientists at England’s Newcastle
University have developed electronic ears tags, that they’re trying out
on a herd of test cattle. Read More
If you’ve ever heard the eerie electronic music at the beginning of a 1950s science fiction movie (The Day the Earth Stood Still,
for example), then you’ve heard a theremin. Invented in Russia in the
1920s, the instrument is unique, in that the person playing it doesn’t
touch it at all. Instead, they move their hands around its two antennas,
causing it to emit different sounds by altering radio frequencies that
the machine emits. Although still used by some modern musicians,
theremins can be a little pricey, and somewhat difficult to master.
That’s where the $35 Beep-It optical theremin comes in. Read More
Students from the University of Karlsruhe in
Germany have created a flexible housing solution that makes the most of
its minimal interior space in a very unusual way. Dubbed "Roll it", this
cylinder-shaped home changes its purpose depending on its orientation -
roll the the work space 180 degrees and it becomes a bed, the kitchen
becomes a bathroom and you even get some exercise in the mouse
wheel-like center section when you decide to "move house". Read More
It doesn't have quite the appeal of sending a robot to do your shopping,
but this Smart Cart service being trialed by SK Telecom could
definitely take some of the hassle out of trolling the supermarket
aisles. Just launched at the Shanghai Lotus Supermarket in China, the
system consists of WiFi-enabled, tablet PC-equipped shopping carts and a
smartphone app that can be synchronized with the tablet. By utilizing
indoor positioning technology and augmented reality, the shopping
"Smart" cart becomes a virtual shopping aide. Read More
Luanda in Angola, Libreville in Gabon and
N’Djamena in Chad are the most expensive extreme hardship locations in
the world and thanks to the marketplace volatility which results from
local inflation, political instability, currency fluctuations and
natural disasters, Tokyo has consolidated its title as the most
expensive of the recognized cities of the world in which to live. Read More
The Ryugyong Hotel in the center of North Korea's
capital city Pyongyang, must count as one of the strangest building
projects, not to say one of the ugliest, in the world. Construction
began in 1987 and continued until its abandonment in 1993 when the
projected cost of required remedial rebuilding was simply too much for
the impoverished city and state to bear. Now, twenty-four years after
the first concrete block was laid, it's finally finished - kinda... Read More
For the first 50 years of computing, the input
and output of a computer have been to different places. Mobile computing
and the touch screen are quickly changing things though and the changes
extend to the aircraft industry. At the 59th Annual Experimental
Aircraft Association (EAA) Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Rockwell
Collins has unveiled the first touch-control primary flight displays
(PFD) for business jets and turboprop aircraft, which will be available
on future applications of the company’s Pro Line Fusion avionics system.
Read More
The James Dyson Awards
for young inventors are always a treasure trove of fresh ideas and
up-and-coming innovators - so we caught up with 8 of the Australian
finalists and got them each to deliver us a 2-minute 'elevator pitch'
explaining their designs and the inspiration behind them. The videos
after the jump highlight some of our favourite entries for this year's
prize, including the winners. See if you can guess which of these young
contestants took the prizes! Read More
Despite some initial similarities, this is definitely not another iPod nano strap, such as the TikTok or LunaTik,
but Chinavision's new Timesnap MP3/MP4 multimedia player wristwatch.
Although not touchscreen-based, it offers a number of features including
music, image, text and video file playback, along with an FM radio, at
a reasonable price. Read More
In order to capture slow-motion footage in which a
bullet can actually be seen traveling through the air, a camera has to
film at a speed somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 frames per
second. Given that as a benchmark, what would be the purpose of a camera
that manages a whopping 4.5 million fps? In the case of the
UK-based Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)'s new X-ray
camera, it's to obtain three-dimensional images of individual molecules.
Read More
As part of a project aimed at getting people to
accept and embrace their own mortality, visual artist Jae Rhim Lee is
training mushrooms to decompose human tissue. This doesn't involve
cruelly prodding unruly shrooms with electric goads or whipping them
into submission, but rather introducing common fungi to the artist's own
skin, hair, nail clippings and other body tissue so that they start to
digest it. A prototype body suit has been created that's embroidered
with spore-infused netting. This would be used in conjunction with a
special spore slurry embalming cocktail to break down the body's organic
matter and clean out the accumulated toxins, producing a nutrient-rich compost. Read More
For some people, skateboarding
is more a way of life than just a sport. Surely this is the case with
former skateboarding world champion, French-born Pierre André
Senizergues, who is about to build a skateboarder's dream house, located
in Malibu, California. Dubbed PAS House, the dwelling is meant to be a
tribute to the skateboarding lifestyle, thus virtually all the walls,
furniture and appliances in the house will be either 'skateable' or
skateboard-themed. Think of it like a private habitable skate ramp. Read More
While people may have laughed at the
mechanical-nose-bearing Odoradar device that Elmer Fudd once used to
track Bugs Bunny, the development of real devices that can
"smell" recently took a step forward, as researchers from the University
of Pennsylvania grafted olfactory receptor proteins onto carbon
nanotubes. These proteins are ordinarily located on the outer membrane
of cells within the nose. When chemicals that enter the nose bind with
the proteins, a cellular response is triggered, that leads to the
perception of smell. It is hoped that a synthetic version of that same
response could be possible, within sensing devices incorporating the
nanotubes. Read More
One of the biggest selling features for 3D
printers is the fact that you can just whip up a design using CAD
software on your computer, then create a physical copy of it to try out –
no special factory tooling required. Well, in order to illustrate the
potential of the technology for the aviation industry, engineers from
the University of Southampton have just designed and flown the world’s
first “printed” aircraft. The entire structure of the unmanned air
vehicle (UAV) was created using an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering
machine, which builds up plastic or metal parts through a successive
layering technique. Read More
0 comments:
Post a Comment