Future spacecraft could use dead stars to navigate
By David Szondy
October 10, 2012
The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to know if it’s possible to use dead stars as a navigational aid for traveling in deep space. To answer that question, ESA has contracted Britain’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Leicester to investigate whether pulsars can serve as navigational beacons in the far-flung reaches of the outer Solar System or interstellar space. Read More
New system detects touch and hand gestures on any surface
By Ben Coxworth
October 10, 2012
The world may not be your oyster, but thanks to technology being developed at Indiana’s Purdue University, it may soon be your multi-touch screen. Researchers at that institution have created an “extended multitouch” system, that consists of a computer, video projector, and Kinect camera – the technology allows any surface to be transformed into a touchscreen interface, that can track multiple hands simultaneously. Read More
Honey Badger serves as a backpack and a bicycle pannier
By C.C. Weiss
October 10, 2012
Once a relatively lesser known member of the animal kingdom, the honey badger rose to infamy last year, becoming a legend among critters. It's not all that surprising to see the animal referenced in a product name, especially one designed to bring some of the animal's tenacity and ferocity to the outdoors. The new Honey Badger backpack may not survive an all out attack by a honey badger, but it'll survive all kinds of other adventures. Read More
Hop! suitcase automatically follows its user
October 10, 2012
As any frequent flyer knows, hauling around a passport, carry-on luggage and suitcase while navigating through an airport can be a real hassle, and the situation is made worse if the traveler in question has any physical health issues. Madrid-based designer Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez has come up with an ingenious solution to this issue: a smart carry-on suitcase named Hop! which follows the traveler around automatically. Read More
Lytro camera gains manual controls with new firmware
By Simon Crisp
October 10, 2012
The Lytro light field camera – which lets users adjust a photo's focus after it's been taken – has gained the manual controls photographers have been craving, with a new firmware update. This means users can now stretch their creative shutter finger and adjust things like shutter speed or ISO (remember there's no need to adjust aperture, which is a constant f/2.0), and turn on or off the neutral density (ND) filter. Read More
We’ve already seen a pen with silver-based ink, that lets its user draw electrical circuits on ordinary paper. Now, scientists from MIT have brought similar “hands on” technology to the humble pencil – they’ve compressed carbon nanotubes together to form a pencil lead substitute, that has been used to draw gas sensors onto regular paper imprinted with gold electrodes. Read More
The iPod touch lives on. When Apple neglected to update its oddball iOS device in 2011, some speculated that the end was near. But now the touch has been updated to its 5th generation, and life goes on for the iPhone without a phone. Apple opted to keep the older 4th generation iPod touch on the market, next to its younger sibling. How do the two stack up against one another? Let's take a look … Read More
The hatch of SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon cargo spacecraft has been opened by the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) a day early. Launched last Sunday and docked with the ISS this morning, the opening was originally scheduled for tomorrow, but SpaceX’s twitter feed announced, “At 1:40PM ET, astronauts opened Dragon's hatch, one day ahead of schedule. Success!” Read More
Logitech adds G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard to G-series
By Dave LeClair
October 10, 2012
Logitech's G-series keyboards have a new member of the family. The brand new G710+ is a mechanical keyboard, which tend to be preferred by hardcore gamers. Mechanical keyboards also offer quieter keys, and this G710+ is no exception. Read More
iPhone case adds two more touch-based inputs to the device
By Dave LeClair
October 11, 2012
One of the features of the PlayStation Vita that has drawn a lot of attention is the rear touch panel. It allows users to input various touch commands without actually smudging up their screens with dirty fingers. The new iPhone case from Canopy called the Sensus adds the same feature to iPhones. With it, users can play their games all they want without getting ugly fingerprints and smudges all over their screens. Read More
Hand-held laser pointers can now be used for something else besides doing presentations, projecting images of microorganisms, and disabling satellites. Next week, a group of scientists from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will be presenting a compact device that they created, which uses a garden-variety green laser pointer to detect dangerous substances such as explosives. Read More
Samsung has announced its latest handset at a press event in Frankfurt, Germany. The four-inch Galaxy S III Mini is an Android-powered smartphone designed to provide a premium alternative to the company's larger Galaxy S III device. Read More
Halloween is right around the corner, and that means it's time to start getting those costumes together. There are plenty of ways to enhance the visuals of your costume, but one part of Halloween that we tend to forget is sound. A costume can be made a whole lot more authentic with some quality noise. Mega Stomp Panic from ThinkGeek is designed to be your ultimate Halloween sound machine, by detecting movement and making appropriate sounds at just the right times. Read More
Scientists often need to find creative ways to present data visually so others can interpret it more easily. Peter Larsen, of the Argonne National Laboratory in the U.S., decided to do something a little different: he represented microbial data with sounds. More specifically, he sonified data relating to bacteria collected from the western part of the English Channel. Read More
With astronauts venturing beyond the protection of Earth’s magnetic field exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation, the European Space Agency (ESA) has teamed with Germany’s GSI (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung) particle accelerator in the search for materials to shield future astronauts going to the Moon, the asteroids and Mars, or manning a space station beyond the Moon. Amongst the candidates being assessed are Moon and Mars soil. Read More
Art and science combine to turn gold chloride into nuggets
By Paul Ridden
October 10, 2012
For centuries, the world's great thinkers were consumed by the search for the mythical Philosopher's Stone. Franciscan friar Roger Bacon is said to have penned a formula for its creation in the 13th century, legend would have us believe that German friar Albertus Magnus actually found a substance capable of transmuting base metals into gold or silver, and English scientist and mathematician Isaac Newton was a known devotee of the magnum opus. Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have put a microbial spin on the ancient quest by creating a bioreactor that forces bacteria to transform a toxic liquid that, as team member Kazem Kashefi says, "has no value into a solid, precious metal that’s valuable." Read More
Vibrating glove could direct users to items within stores
October 10, 2012
These days, we do our hunting and gathering in supermarkets and department stores. While this is much easier than the challenge faced by our ancestors, it is not without its difficulties. Tracking down that one specific item on our list can prove frustrating when faced with aisle after aisle filled with shelf upon shelf of products. Researchers are eying the use of gloves to make the task a lot simpler but, unlike high tech wearable computing devices like Google's Project Glass, these conceptual gloves use a simpler formula: they emit vibrations to tell you where to go. Read More
While the Kindle and Nook are busy adding HD displays and more storage, at least one company is focusing on making eReaders as portable as possible. German developer, txtr, recently revealed the Beagle, which it claims is the smallest eReader in the world, with a 5-inch screen and a weight of 128 grams (about 4.5 ounces). Read More
Researchers from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science have shown off a new tabletop display that is capable of showing different overlays to individual users. This new overlay called PiVOT (personalized view-overlays for tabletops), is being shown off at the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST). Read More
Researchers have already turned to the humble sunflower for inspiration to design more efficient Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant layouts, and now a team from North Carolina State University has developed a “nanoflower” structure out of germanium sulfide (GeS) that shows great promise for use in energy-storage devices and more efficient solar cells. The secret is the material's ultrathin petals that provide a large surface area in only a small amount of space. Read More
With the increasing focus on sustainable urban transport comes an increasing call for proper safety infrastructure and products. We've recently seen LED bicycle helmets, and now a company called Light Bohrd has developed LED helmets and skateboards for commuters that use their feet for pushing rather than pedaling. Read More
Bye Bye Laundry, hello charcoal clothes hangers
By Dave Parrack
October 11, 2012
Recent design graduate Lisa Marie Bengtsson believes many of us wash our clothes far more often than is necessary. And she may well be correct. Certainly, we're generally brought up to believe that clothes need to be washed after being worn for a certain length of time, whether they're actually dirty or not. It's hard to argue against underwear and other garments that are in direct contact with our bodies being washed very regularly, but what about other garments that merely act as extra outer layers? Perhaps the Bye Bye Laundry clothes hanger is the answer. Read More
New Chevy Volt app breaks down the cost of charging
By C.C. Weiss
October 11, 2012
Calculating the fuel costs of a traditional vehicle is quite easy – just look at the price read-out on the gas pump or receipt after you finish filling it up. The cost of filling up an electric vehicle's battery can be a bit more difficult to pin down because you don't get a receipt on the spot and the cost of electricity fluctuates regularly. GM plans to make the process easier for Chevy Volt owners with a new app currently being tested designed to give Volt owners a full cost breakdown. Read More
Droid Razr HD vs. Galaxy S3
October 11, 2012
After reviving the Razr brand last year from a flip-phone graveyard, Motorola has tweaked its formula with two proper sequels. The Razr HD and Razr HD Maxx (accompanied by the Droid moniker in the U.S.) aren't exactly true to their names, as they're both beefier than their predecessors. How do these more balanced handsets stack up next to Samsung's Android-leading Galaxy S III? Read More
In the television series Macgyver, the eponymous title character was notorious of being able to take a paperclip and some pocket lint and make an aircraft carrier out them. Now researchers at Georgia Tech want to give robots that same ingenuity. A team led by Professor Mike Stilman plans to create a “Macgyver bot” that can go into a disaster area and use whatever is lying around as tools to complete its mission. Read More
“People will protect what they love, and they love what they know,” says robotics engineer Eduardo Labarca, paraphrasing Jacques Cousteau. That’s why he and his team at Mountain View, California-based 9th Sense Robotics want to start up an online marine exploration project known as AcquatiCo. If it reaches fruition, it will allow computer users anywhere in the world to control an actual ocean-based submarine, while watching a real-time feed from its onboard video camera. Read More
U.S. Navy evaluating a second railgun prototype
By Ben Coxworth
October 11, 2012
Back in February, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) test-fired a prototype electromagnetic railgun that had been built by BAE Systems for the U.S. Navy. BAE isn’t the only game in town, however – this Tuesday, ONR announced that it is now evaluating a second railgun prototype, made by San Diego-based General Atomics. Read More
Handheld launches Windows 8-ready Algiz 10X rugged tablet
By Paul Ridden
October 11, 2012
For many mobile workers, tablets are a good choice. When faced with the dust and grit of a construction site, however, or there's a good chance of being subjected to a soaking on a regular basis, many tablet users run for cover ... quite literally. If protecting your existing device with a toughened-up outer case (such as the rather tasty Lifeproof nüüd) doesn't sound like your cup of tea and you'd rather invest in a dedicated rugged tablet, the Algiz 10X from Sweden's Handheld Group might be worth a look. Read More
Have you ever seen actioncam footage where the camera is mounted on a pole attached to the shooter’s helmet, looking back at them? If not, well, it’s pretty bizarre – their head is the only stable object in the shot, with the rest of the world appearing to swivel around it. The BoomPro is a prototype device, designed to allow anyone to get these kinds of shots using their GoPro HERO. Read More
PredictGaze pauses the TV automatically when you leave the room
By Dave LeClair
October 12, 2012
Imagine, if you will, that you are sitting around watching TV, and the sudden urge to grab a snack overtakes you. You try desperately to ignore it because you can't find the remote control, and the show you are watching is the single most gripping piece of entertainment you've ever witnessed. Hunger overtakes you, and you proceed to walk away and go to the kitchen. As you get up and leave, the TV pauses on its own. This is the idea behind new startup PredictGaze. Read More
Sandia Labs simulates Android network to study cyber security
October 12, 2012
More and more people rely on their smartphones for most of their computing needs. However, the ubiquity of mobile devices and their communications networks opens up new opportunities for rogue cyber behavior. In order to better understand security risks associated with smartphones, Sandia National Laboratories in the U.S. has created a simulated network of 300,000 Android smartphones. Read More
Thirty-five year old Chris Todd has attempted to “walk” across 106 kilometers (66 miles) of open sea in a giant hamster wheel-like raft dubbed Tredalo. Unfortunately, the plan to cross the Irish Sea – leaving from Wales and arriving on the east coast of Ireland in the South of Dublin – didn’t quite go to plan. Harsh weather conditions forced Todd to abort the mission after approximately eight and a half hours and 42 kilometers (26 miles) into the journey, when he encountered rudder problems. Read More
Samsung's new Roboray humanoid robot walks the walk
October 14, 2012
Samsung's robotics division presented the company's latest humanoid robot, Roboray, at IROS 2012 in Portugal last week. Researchers led by Kyungsik Roh have been co-developing humanoid robots with the KoreanInstitute of Science and Technology (KIST) since 2004 and the Roboray is a departure from their earlier robot (known as "Mahru", of which there are several models) thanks to its torque controlled leg joints, which give it more human-like walking capabilities. Read More
GoPro app lets you control your actioncam with a smartphone
By Simon Crisp
October 14, 2012
Have you ever jumped out of plane with a GoPro camera attached to your helmet and wondered, as you hurtle to Earth, what the resulting video will look like? Well, if you have, you've got your priorities all wrong, but you could also be in luck after GoPro launched an iOS app which gives you live preview and full control over the camera's settings. Read More
Porsche has unveiled its newly updated Cayenne Turbo S, which is due for release in early 2013 and promises to be the company’s most powerful SUV yet. The 2013 Cayenne Turbo S boasts 550 hp (405 kW), allowing it to motor from 0 - 60 mph (96.5 km/h) in just 4.3 seconds, and reach a top speed of 175 mph (281 km/h). Read More
Woogie protects your iPhone and makes it considerably more huggable
By Simon Crisp
October 14, 2012
The Woogie is an iPhone and iPod touch case that makes your Apple device considerably more huggable than those designed to add a keyboardor stop a bullet. Intended for those times you pass your iPhone to your kids, the new Woogie from Griffin Technology comes as one of two characters, which an accompanying app brings to life with your iPhone screen becoming the face of the interactive playmate. Read More
- "Sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you are" – Felix Baumgartner, standing outside his capsule at an altitude of 24 miles (39 km) on October 14, 2012.
The Northern Hemisphere autumn is usually a slow time for jailbreaking. Apple releases new iOS firmware, along with a shiny new iPhone – and both typically need time before they can be hacked. The members of the iPhone Dev Team, however, have given us a pre-Halloween surprise: they updated the jailbreak tool redsn0w to simplify the hacking of A4 iOS devices. Read More
Switzerland's Earth Houses resemble real-life Hobbit Holes
By Dave Parrack
October 13, 2012
In The Lord Of The Rings the Hobbits live in the Shire in their distinctive dwellings known as Hobbit Holes. They're really just homes built into hillsides, with banked earth sitting atop the basic structures. While the Hobbits are fictional creatures, their homes are not, as people have been taking up residence in similar dwellings for many years. And the idea has now taken a firm hold with those interested in working with rather than against the environment. In other words Hobbit Holes are real and, on this occasion at least, the Shire can be found in Switzerland. Read More
What do astronauts on a mission to Mars and earthbound paraplegics have in common? Quite a bit, including the news that NASA is developing a robotic exoskeleton for both of them. Called the X1 Robotic Exoskeleton, it’s derived in part from NASA’s Robonaut 2 humanoid robot now undergoing trials aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The X1 uses robotic technology for a dual-use exoskeleton that has applications for both astronauts on long space missions and the walking impaired on Earth. Read More
Mobile computing is changing the world. Tasks that could recently only be performed at a desk can now be done anywhere. It may be some time before an entire laboratory can be replaced by an iPhone, but the men behind a new Kickstarter project are taking an ambitious step in that direction. Read More
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