What to watch for at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show
By Darren Quick
February 20, 2012
With the 82nd Geneva Motor Show
just weeks away, the world's automakers are gearing up to display their
wares. As usual, many companies have already teased us with previews of
what they'll have on display, including new small cars from the likes
of Peugeot, Skoda and GM, plus concepts from Rinspeed, Nissan, Bertone, Ssanyong and Mini.
With the number of teasers multiplying by the minute, it's time for a
quick round up of some of the other notable vehicles headed for the
floor of the Geneva Palexpo convention center. Read More
Entries are now open for the 2012 Electrolux Design Lab
competition. Now in its 10th year, the competition is open to current
undergraduate industrial design students and 2011 graduates who are
being asked to get busy around the home by designing "appliances that
will provide a fuller sensory experience." Read More 
For those unfortunate enough to suffer from
severe spinal cord injuries, the tongue is often the only extremity
still under their control. To take advantage of this fact, engineers at
the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed what they call the
Tongue Drive System (TDS), a wireless, wearable device that allows the
user to operate computers and control electric wheelchairs with
movements of the tongue. The latest iteration, which resembles a
sensor-studded dental retainer, is controlled by a tongue-mounted magnet
and promises its users a welcome new level of autonomy with both
communication and transportation. Read More
History is full of famous handshakes
that symbolize a permanent change in the status quo. The 1945
Roosevelt-Churchill-Stalin triple handshake. The 1961 Kennedy-Khrushchev
handshake. The 1972 Nixon-Mao handshake. The 1993 Rabin-Arafat
handshake. The 2012 Burbank-R2 handshake? This historic clasping took
place on February 15, 2012, when NASA's Robonaut 2
(nicknamed R2) humanoid robot greeted Commander Dan Burbank aboard the
International Space Station (ISS) in the first "man-machine" handshake
in space. Read More 
If you live in a traffic-nightmare city like New
York or London or Bangkok, an ultra-compact urban electric car is great.
They're so tiny that they fit in the smallest parking space, they're
quiet, they're often exempt from congestion charges and they're tailpipe
emission free, which is important if you live where the air is so dirty
that it's visible. Unfortunately, they also have all the boot space of a
glove box and the travel radius of a tortoise in a hurry. Unless you
have the ideal lifestyle that allows you to work within the vehicle's
limitations, there will come the time when you'll need to carry more
than a messenger bag or drive farther than a single battery charge. When
that happens, you'll probably wish you had some way to magically add an
extra boot or a bigger battery. Rinspeed's Dock+Go concept car looks
forward to a day when that may be possible. Read More
If you thought Wikileaks was a disruptive idea,
the transparency grenade is going to blow you away. This tiny bit of
hardware hidden under the shell shaped like a classic Soviet F1 hand
grenade allows you to leak information from anywhere just by pulling a
pin. The device is essentially a small computer with a powerful wireless
antenna and a microphone. Following detonation, the grenade intercepts
local network traffic and captures audio data, then makes the
information immediately available online. Read More
New method for regrowing blood vessels developed
February 20, 2012
In spite of numerous medical breakthroughs
ranging from heart transplants to bypass surgery, cardiovascular disease
still tops the list as the leading cause of death in developed
countries. Key among the many problems that trouble our hearts is
something called myocardial ischemia disease (MID), a condition
that leads to reduced blood flow in the vessels of the heart and lower
extremities and, frequently, corrective surgery. Now, University of
Texas at Austin (UTA) biomedical engineer Aaron Baker and his research
team have developed a method that may speed up the body's ability to
grow new blood vessels (a phenomenon called angiogenesis), and
best of all, no surgery is required. That's potentially great news for
the nearly 27 million folks in the U.S. alone who chronically suffer
from MID. Read More
Google's PageRank algorithm used to model hydrogen bonds in water
By Jan Belezina
February 20, 2012
Aurora Clark from Washington State University has
found an unlikely application for Google's link ranking technology -
harnessing it to analyze hydrogen bonds in water. Connecting the fields
of computer engineering and chemistry, her project aims to predict
chemical reactivity between differently shaped particles while bypassing
the hassle and expense of carrying out actual lab-based experiments.
Read More
Mini goes commercial (again) with the Clubvan
By Mike Hanlon
February 20, 2012
Mini will finally add a commercial variant of its
iconic design at the Geneva Motor Show, creating an interesting new
niche for the growing premium small car segment. Though the Clubman-based
Clubvan is only a concept, we expect the unique blend of upmarket
panache, go-kart handling and delivery van load-carrying capacity to
fulfill pent-up demand for a premium stylish commercial vehicle and
propel the concept into production. Remarkably this vehicle has a highly
successful predecessor. The Morris Mini Van was replaced in the Morris
commercial fleet in 1982 after half a million vehicles - when production
ceased in 2000, the van accounted for nearly 10% of all Mini sales.
Read More
Granted, granted, there may not be
much cutting edge technology on display here, but it's a cynical
technology enthusiast indeed that doesn't raise a wry smile when
nerd-friendly worlds collide, and were worlds ever more nerd-friendly
than those of Lego and Minecraft? Read More
Laying claim to being the "world's first
weight-sensing electric skateboard," the ZBoard delivers up to 400 watts
of motor power via a simple, lean-and-go interface. The result is that
riders will get up to 17 mph worth of speed without having to scuff
their soles on the pavement. Read More
Although the existence of hepatitis C had been
postulated in the 1970s, it wasn’t until 1989 that a team led by Michael
Houghton identified the virus. Often being asymptomatic, it is
estimated between 130 – 170 million people worldwide are infected with
the virus that can lead to scarring of the liver and cirrhosis. Although
treatment with medication is available, it isn’t effective in all cases
and between 20 to 30 percent of those infected with hepatitis C develop
some form of liver disease. Now Houghton and a team at the University
of Alberta have developed a vaccine from a single strain that is
effective against all known strains of the disease. Read More
NODE is a multi-function remote sensor for your smartphone
By Ben Coxworth
February 21, 2012
While smartphones are awesome little computers,
one of the things that really makes them useful is their built-in
sensors – many apps are made possible via a phone’s accelerometer,
gyroscope, GPS, microphone, camera, or some combination of the bunch.
The thing is, though, all of those sensors are stuck in the smartphone.
What if you want to use your phone to monitor another device? Well,
that’s where NODE comes in. The proposed gadget could be placed on or
near a device, and would wirelessly relay data from multiple onboard
sensors, via Bluetooth. Read More
LG launches 5-inch touchscreen Optimus Vu smartphone/tablet
By Paul Ridden
February 21, 2012
LG has revealed what is claimed to be the
thinnest LTE smartphone available on the market. The Optimus Vu sits
somewhere between a small tablet (Thrive/Agora/Arnova) and a modern smartphone (Spectrum/Xperia ion), features a 4:3 ratio IPS display, is powered by a Dual-Core processor, and has 32GB of onboard storage. Read More
Even long-time admirers of Enzo Ferrari's sleek,
red roadsters might be surprised to learn that he also lent his
expertise to create what is still, nearly 60 years later, the fastest
raceboat in its class, the one-of-a-kind ARNO XI hydroplane. Developed
in 1952 by wealthy Italian industrialist Achille Castoldi and Ferrari
Grand Prix racers Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi, the speedy craft,
propelled by a 4500cc V12, handily won the world speed record the
following year. Now, carefully restored to its original condition, the
ARNO XI will soon go at auction to the highest bidder - an honor that's
estimated to cost the buyer a cool US$2 million (or more)! Read More
Pity the poor industrial robot. It
spends countless hours toiling away at mindless manual labor, never
getting a chance to explore its creative side. Well, next month at the
CeBIT digital technology trade show, one such robot will get the
opportunity. When visitors to the Fraunhofer display take a seat on a
provided stool, one of the company's industrial robots will create a
pencil sketch of them, then hold up the finished product for everyone to
see. Read More 
Gizmag regulars will know we're
partial to a bit of aspirational iPhone photographic lens-lust, even
though I'm personally hesitant to splash out on an expensive lens kit
that might be rendered obsolete come the next iPhone update. But this
stick-on 8x magnification lens might just be low-tech and affordable
enough to take the risk with. Read More Scientists develop child-like synthetic voice for children who can't speak
By Ben Coxworth
February 21, 2012
You may think that Stephen Hawking’s synthesized
voice sounds a little ... unusual, but imagine how much weirder it would
be to witness a child using that same adult voice to
communicate. For many children who are unable to speak, however, they
have no choice but to use assistive devices that utilize just such a
voice. Now, help may be on the way. Norwegian researchers have developed
a new method of creating synthetic speech, that actually sounds like it
is being spoken by a child. Such technology could also allow computers
to better recognize words spoken to them by young users. Read More
Recently, and for the first time in living
memory, sound recordings made in 1881 at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta
Laboratory Association have been heard aloud. The experimental
phonographs made by the association where Bell worked alongside
instrument-maker Charles Sumner Tainter and chemist Chichester A. Bell
are thought to be the oldest preserved sound recordings intended for
playback. Read More
Although we’re social creatures,
everyone needs a bit of privacy every now and then. This is particularly
true in the bedroom, but whether it’s sharing with siblings growing up
or co-habitation with roommates at college, unfortunately not all have
us can enjoy the luxury of our own sleeping space. While not quite in
the same league as your own four walls, the Privacy Pop will provide
some protection from prying eyes - but you’ll still want to keep the
noise down - you know, when reading. Read More Versatile Wind Harvester breaks from traditional turbine design
By Paul Ridden
February 22, 2012
From huge kites to sea-bound flywheels and roof-top installations to tree-like art creations,
we've seen many different approaches to capturing energy from the wind.
One design, though, reigns supreme - the tri-blade turbine tower. It's
not exactly a trouble-free life at the top and there are those who do
not look upon these monsters favorably, most often complaining about the
noise and the not so picturesque view. With support from Nottingham
Trent University's Future Factory project, Heath Evdemon is currently
building a new type of wind turbine called the Wind Harvester that's
claimed to be virtually silent, doesn't need to loom high over the
landscape and can operate in a variety of wind conditions. Read More
Whether it’s people who can’t speak, or musicians
looking for a new way of expressing themselves, both may end up
benefiting from an experimental new gesture-to-voice synthesizer. The
system was created at the University of British Columbia, by a team led
by professor of electrical and computer engineering Sidney Fels. Users
just put on a pair of sensor-equipped gloves, then move their hands in
the air – based on those hand movements, the synthesizer is able to
create audible speech. Read More
Masters of obfuscated timepieces Tokyo Flash have
always (well, since 2010) been open to consumer ideas for watch
displays that are at first glance baffling but easy to read once you
know the knack. With its fan-conceived Kisai Stencil LCD watch, Tokyo
Flash has repeated the track with a watch that requires its wearer to
read between the lines. Read More
The F-35A is the conventional takeoff and landing version of the Joint Strike Fighter,
intended primarily for the U.S. Air Force short range fighter role.
These single-seat single-engine fifth-generation fighters are designed
to carry out air defense, ground attack, and recon missions. February
16, 2012 marked the first flight of the F-35A carrying an external load
of two Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles. The F-35A also had four
additional weapons pylons attached each of which can carry 2000-pound
air-to-ground weapons. Read More 
For the past several months, film-makers using
DSLRs or small camcorders have had an interesting option available for
getting smooth tracking shots – CineSkates.
The product combines a GorillaPod Focus tripod, a BallHead X tripod
head and three soft urethane wheels. Those wheels mount on the feet of
the tripod, allowing it to make fluid, dolly-like movements. Cinetics,
the company that makes Cineskates, has now announced a new member to its
family. It’s called the CineSquid, and it includes the same tripod and
head, but with suction cup feet that allow it to adhere to almost any
smooth surface. Read More
Architectural practice SOM's 17.6-sq km (6.8-sq
mile) master plan for Beijing Bohai Innovation City has won an
international design competition for the redevelopment of the region.
The design is focused on a redevelopment corridor along the high-speed
rail connection between Beijing, and the port of Tianjin. Though
incorporating existing infrastructure, the scheme constitutes an
ambitious planned city, and one which, if fully realized, may set a new
standard for environmentally-conscious urban planning. Read More
Pico projectors
might be able to turn any old surface into a display – with varying
results of course – but can they turn any old surface into in
interactive display and everyday objects into a remote? No? Well, with
LightBeam they can. Developed by a team at Germany’s Technische
Universität Darmstadt, LightBeam pairs a pico projector with a
depth-sensing camera to provide some Kinect style interactive control to
projected presentations. Read More
Apple to build largest end user-owned, onsite solar array in the U.S.
By Darren Quick
February 21, 2012
Following widespread criticism of its
environmental record from groups including Greenpeace, Apple has made
efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its products and
facilities in recent years. As part of these ongoing efforts, the
company has revealed plans to build the United States' largest end
user-owned, onsite solar array at its Maiden, North Carolina
iDataCenter. Read More
A recently published patent application indicates
that Sony may be working on a Kinect-like 3D depth-sensing device for
PlayStation. If Sony follows through with development of such a device,
it will no doubt be looking to make up some ground lost to Microsoft,
whose release of the Kinect in November 2010, overshadowed the release of Sony’s PlayStation Move just a month earlier. Read More
Waterworld: A new class of exoplanet is discovered
February 21, 2012
Planets orbiting two stars, giant super-Earths and worlds racked with boiling rock storms
- these are just some of the galactic oddities among the more than 700
exoplanets discovered in the past 20 years. Now there's another new
class of extrasolar planet to add to the list - the waterworld. Read More
Putting 1 million tonnes of CO2 a mile under Illinois
February 23, 2012
A bold undertaking to store one million metric
tonnes (1.1 million short tons) of carbon dioxide in a sandstone
reservoir 1.3 miles (2.1 km) below Decatur, Illinois, is well under way.
The project began last November, and has so far injected more than
75,000 tons of carbon dioxide, almost one tenth of the target. The
University of Illinois, which is leading the Illinois Basin - Decatur
Project (IBDP), hopes that the scheme will demonstrate the safety and
effectiveness of carbon sequestration, as well as raise public awareness of the process's potential environmental benefits. Read More
Ford's Tourneo Custom Concept will
debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, giving what we believe is an
accurate preview of the next generation of Ford Transit people movers
and commercial vehicles. The styling is based on the same "Kinetic
Design language" used in the latest passenger cars, the driving
experience is also fashioned more on a car than a van, and even though
the rear of the eight-seater is trimmed in leather with sumptuous
multi-adjustable leather seats, they can be easily removed for special
purposes. Read More 
While most compact point-and-shoot cameras are
aimed at the budget-conscious end of the market, Canon has higher
aspirations for the new flagship of its PowerShot G-series.
With a 1.5-inch, 14.3-megapixel High-Sensitivity Canon CMOS sensor that
is just 20 percent smaller than the APS-C sensors used in Canon's EOS line
of DSLRs and over six times bigger than those in previous G-series
models, Canon says its new G1 X delivers the highest image quality
available in a compact point-and-shoot. Read More
UK's next generation Wildcat helicopter completes sea trials
By David Szondy
February 22, 2012
A Lynx Wildcat helicopter has completed 20 days
of sea trials aboard the British frigate HMS Iron Duke in waters off
southern England and northern Scotland. It was the latest in a series of
trials required before the £16 million state-of-the-art combat aircraft
can enter into active service with the British Army and the Royal Navy.
The latest tests involved putting the helicopter through tests that
involved over 400 day and nighttime take offs and landings from the Iron
Duke in the worst weather conditions that could be found to put the
mission systems, night-vision equipment and navigation systems through
their paces. Read More
Bugatti to unveil world’s most powerful roadster in Geneva
By Darren Quick
February 22, 2012
The world's automakers continue to provide a glimpse of what to expect
at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show in March. The latest teaser comes from
Bugatti, which will unveil its Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse, calling
it the world's most powerful roadster - time to invest in some
super-strength adhesive for that toupee. Read More
Oregon Scientific has launched a new
tablet designed specifically for kids at the recent Toy Industry
Association's 109th American International Toy Fair in New York. The
MEEP! tablet runs on Android 4.0, features a 7-inch Neonode zForce
touchscreen display encased in toughened housing with a silicon rubber
sleeve, and is Wi-Fi-enabled. Parents concerned about their kids running
wild and free online will be relieved at the inclusion of intuitive
Parental Control technology that can be adjusted remotely using any
internet-enabled computer or mobile device. Read More 
Some day, your jacket may be able to power your iPod ... and no, I’m not talking about piezoelectric fabrics (which generate electricity from movement-caused pressure), nor am I talking about photovoltaic materials,
although both of those could probably do the job. Instead, your jacket
might be made out of a new thermoelectric material called Power Felt,
that converts temperature differences into electrical voltage – in the
case of the jacket, the difference between its wind-cooled exterior and
its body-warmed lining might be all that was needed. Read More
Next month's Geneva Motor Show will
be stocked with new concept cars from various parties - automakers,
design houses and educational institutions. One of the latest concept
cars announced is the Cisitalia 202 E, a modern reinterpretation of the
original 1947 Cisitalia 202. Read More 
It’s possible that your next laptop
computer could contain parts of your present-day notebook ... not your
notebook computer, mind you, but your actual notebook. At
least, it will if China's PEGA Design and Engineering has anything to
say about it. The company’s new Paper PP Alloy, made from a combination
of recycled paper and polypropylene, is intended for use in the shells
of consumer electronic devices. Read More Google glasses coming to stores this year?
February 22, 2012
A number of anonymous Google employees are
reporting that the company is currently developing Android-powered
glasses that can provide a heads-up display to the wearer and connect
over wireless data services. The glasses will purportedly work like a
wearable version of the Google Goggles
app, providing real time information on a user's location via GPS and
motion sensors. Even more surprising, the same sources are saying these
"Google glasses" could be available to the public by the end of this
year. Read More
A Japanese company is looking to take elevators to new heights. The Daily Yomiuri
reports that Tokyo-based construction company Obayashi Corp. hopes to
have a space elevator operational by 2050, carrying passengers and cargo
in a vehicle that travels along a ribbon made of carbon nanotubes
extending a quarter of the way to the moon. Read More
Each year the Goodwood Festival of Speed hosts an
auction by Bonhams, and due to the importance of the event and the
unique crowd it draws, the best come out to play. This year there are
two stand-outs going under the hammer: the first is the 1912 Rolls-Royce
Double Pullman Limousine (estimated GBP2,000,000/US$3,147,000) which
was reproduced in the popular Corgi Classics series of widely circulated
die-cast toy cars, the second being the personal 1938 Type 57C of the
Ettore Bugatti, lovingly built for Le Patron by his staff. Read More
It seems like the uses for graphene
just won’t stop coming. The ultra-strong sheet material, made from
bonded carbon atoms, has so far shown promise for use in transistors, computer chips, DNA sequencing, and batteries
... just to name a few possibilities. Now, scientists have discovered
that it can also be used as a very effective anti-corrosion coating –
and at just one atom in thickness, it’s thinner than any of the
alternatives. Read More Korkers winter boots feature interchangeable outsoles
By C.C. Weiss
February 23, 2012
Snow, slush, glop, black ice, slick ice, chunder
... no matter how grippy and surefooted your winter boot outsoles are,
one of those surfaces is sure to have you grabbing desperately at the
air as your backside prepares for a bruising. That’s especially true if
the sole doesn’t include any type of metal traction cleats or bars.
Korkers attempts to provide the perfect traction in all situations by
offering an interchangeable outsole system with its boots. You can
adjust your soles for snow, ice and more ice. Read More
TheO Ball lets you get physical with your smartphone
By Emily Price
February 23, 2012
Playing with your phone just got a little more
physical, with TheO Ball. The foam ball is designed to hold your phone
within its cushioned grasp, allowing you to literally throw your phone
around to play games without fear of damage. Created by PhysicalApps,
the idea behind TheO Ball is to get you moving rather than sitting
around while playing games with your phone. The company recently showed
off the ball and a few games it has developed specifically to use
alongside it, at the 2012 Toy Fair in NYC. Read More
The House of Marley recently celebrated a certain
Reggae legend's birthday with the release of the Bag of Rhythm portable
stereo speaker system. Topped by a solid piece of FSC-certified Birch
wood and coming in its own durable cotton canvas bag, the device can
output 32 watts of sonic power through two 1-inch tweeters and two
4.5-inch woofers, and features an iPod/iPhone dock that can charge while
playing. Read More
Home-made flame glove provides a warm handshake
By Ben Coxworth
February 23, 2012
If you've already built your own wrist-mounted laser-sighted crossbow, how do you top it? Well, a hand-mounted flamethrower might do the trick. That's just what cyberpunk weapons hobbyist and Iron Man
fan Patrick Priebe has done, with pretty impressive results. However,
unlike some of his previous creations (which have included a 1-megawatt
pulse laser gun, and a balloon-popping palm laser), the "flame glove" is
not for sale - given its rather startling performance in the video that
follows, that's probably for the best. Read More
The tiny Swiss town of Tenna has put itself on
the eco-map by building an innovative solar-powered ski lift. The solar
lift is one of the world's first of its kind, and utilizes a "cable car
system" where the solar panels are integrated directly into the lift.
Approximately 80 solar panels are incorporated into a 450-meter
(492-yard) system that is suspended above the ski lift, which has the
capacity to pull 800 skiers up the mountain per hour. To avoid running
out of energy during bad weather and snow storms, the ski lift is also
connected to the local power supply, so skiers will not be left hanging
on in the dark! Read More
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has recorded
ultra-fast 20 million-mph (32 million km/h) winds roaring from a gas
disk around the stellar-mass black hole IGR J17091-3624. The wind speeds
are a record, a factor of ten greater than any previously recorded, for
a black hole of this kind. It is hoped the surprise discovery will shed
new light on the behavior of stellar-mass black holes. Read More
Casco ski goggles secure to your helmet with the snap of a magnet
By C.C. Weiss
February 23, 2012
It seems that ski goggle manufacturers like to
tinker around with magnets. Earlier this winter, Anon previewed its
upcoming Magne-Tech
magnetic lens technology. Now we've stumbled upon a European eyewear
manufacturer that uses goggle magnets for a different application.
Casco's Magne-Link goggles streamline goggle-helmet compatibility. Read More
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