We know how it is ... you would use
public transportation more often, but it’s such a hassle trying to
figure out which bus, train or tram to take, where to transfer, and what
to do if your plans are altered. In the future, however, that might not
be a problem. Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and
Infrastructure Systems is working on SMART-WAY, a mobile phone app that
would make using public transit as simple as following the directions
on a vehicle navigation system – you would just indicate your
destination, and it would show you how to get there using public
services, updating its information in real time. Read More
The humble dog collar might seem like something
that couldn't really be improved upon in any significant way, but ...
what if you combined it with a leash? Well, what you'd end up with is
the Supercollar. It's a polypropylene collar, with a three-foot
(0.9-meter) retractable leash built into it. Perhaps not necessary in
all situations, but there a few where it might come in handy. Read More
The first Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS)
geosynchronous (GEO-1) spacecraft launched a month ago, has begun
delivering infrared imagery to the SBIRS ground station. The satellite
includes highly sophisticated scanning and staring sensors that will
provide wide area surveillance of missile launches and natural phenomena
across the globe, while the staring sensor will be capable of observing
much smaller areas of interest with vastly increased sensitivity. The
system will massively enhance the U.S. military’s ability to detect
missile launches around the globe, significantly improve technical
intelligence gathering capability, and increase situational awareness on
the battlefield. Read More
Aston Martin's new V12 Zagato had quite a
spectacular and busy few weeks following its first public showing on May
21 on the shores of Lake Como (Italy) at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este
where it won the award for Design in the Concepts and Prototypes class.
A week later, two identical prototypes finished fifth and sixth in
their class at the Nurburgring 24 Hour race, verifying that the gorgeous
handcrafted aluminium and carbon fibre machines were indeed capable of
holding their own in any company. So began a period of what Aston Martin
termed “overwhelmingly encouraging interest from customers” which has
finally resulted in a commitment to a limited production run of 150
examples of the Zagato. Read More
In the same way that polluted water can be
deceptively clear, polluted soil can just look like plain old dirt.
Given the contaminants that can be left behind by gas plants, oil
refineries and other industries, however, it's very important to check
that the soil in an area isn't toxic, before building houses or
growing crops there. Presently, soil samples have to be sent off to
laboratories, where processing can take up to two weeks. British
entrepreneur Ed Bell, however, has invented a briefcase-sized
soil-testing unit that can be carried into the field, where it provides
results within minutes. Read More
If you like to cook, and are just beginning the
process of acquiring basic kitchen supplies, you’re probably planning on
getting a measuring cup and a kitchen scale. Should you need to
maximize space, however, you can now get both devices in one unit. It’s
the Maxim 2 in 1 Jug and Scales, and it lets you measure both volume and
weight. Read More
Despite the possibility of delays due to weather,
the space shuttle Atlantis successfully launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida on schedule this morning at 11:26 EDT. It is the final flight
both for the Atlantis, and for NASA’s 30-year shuttle program as a
whole. The 12-day STS-135 mission will see four crew members traveling
to the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver supplies. Read More
The first of the concept cars we'll see at this
year's Frankfurt Motor Show has broken cover in the form of the Renault
FRENDZY. It's the fourth Renault concept car based on its design
strategy of addressing the needs of the different human “life stages”,
the first three being the DeZir, Captur and the R-Space. The
all-electric FRENDZY caters to the combined needs of work and family and
is an electric commercial vehicle which uses an asymmetrical body and a
raft of new technology to be both commercially viable and family
friendly. Read More
As you sit there reading this story you’re
surrounded by electromagnetic energy transmitted from sources such as
radio and television transmitters, mobile phone networks and satellite
communications systems. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of
Technology have created a device that is able to scavenge this ambient
energy so it can be used to power small electronic devices such as
networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors and communications chips.
Read More
Taiwanese manufacturer MSI has announced a new
motherboard Z68A-GD80 (G3), which according to the company will be the
world's first motherboard to utilize the PCI Express Gen 3 (3.0) bus
standard. Featuring a BIOS with a graphical user interface, the
motherboard boasts two PCIe 3.0 slots (1x16, 1x8), which provide a 2x
faster transfer rate than the 2.0 standard with a maximum bandwidth of
32GB/s, and support for 3TB drives. It is also equipped with an Intel
Z68 (B3) chipset and supports the LGA1155 socket to work with Intel
Sandy Bridge CPUs. Read More
Illinois-based ROEHR Motorcycles has announced a 2011 update to last year's eSuperSport model. The new entry-level performance superbike's design is now based on the award-winning Hyosung GT650R,
it's been given a power boost, has a top speed of over 100 mph and its
onboard battery is said to be good for 75 miles before needing some
charging attention. Read More
There are presently several in-car systems
that use small cameras and sensors to alert drivers to dangers on the
road, or even in their own driving habits. Some of these systems can be
quite costly, and are therefore limited to use in fairly expensive
automobiles. Now, however, a team of scientists from Germany's
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration have developed
a new type of sensory system, that's cheap enough to produce that it
could be used in economy vehicles. Read More
Located in Cornwall, UK, in what once was a
disused clay mine, you can discover a rich and abundant garden with over
one million plants. Considered by the Guinness Book of Records to be
the world's largest greenhouse, the Eden Project is a unique resource
center for people who want to know more about nature and the
environment. Read More
First unveiled online a few months ago, I'm Watch
is a smartphone-compatible wristwatch, designed to work with
Android-based cell phones – although it's reportedly also compatible
with iOS devices. It is being developed by an Italian producer, and is
currently available for pre-order. Initially the price tag was very
high, but it is now being offered in a cheaper, colored version called
I'm Color. The watch is scheduled to be released this October. Read More
Brabus specialises in building fast cars - very
fast cars. Indeed, it already holds the record for building the world's
fastest production sedan and the world's fastest production coupe, so in
claiming the title of the world's fastest cabriolet, it's not that much
of a surprise. The car begins life as a Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet
before the engine is transplanted with a 788 bhp, 6.3 liter, Biturbo V12
(a derivative of the three-valve Mercedes S 600 V12), giving it a top
speed of 370 km/h (231 mph) and a price tag of EUR 478,000 (US$682,000).
Read More
I think it's fair to say that many music loving
mobile device users are left somewhat wanting when it comes to built-in
speakers. Listening to audio either involves having to wear cumbersome
earphones or sacrificing device usability to plonk it in a dedicated
docking station. You can, of course, just dock your device in
Soundfreaq's new Sound Step speaker and top up the battery while
listening or you could keep your mobile device where it should
be - in your hands. Thanks to Bluetooth connectivity, users can stream
audio directly to the speaker while enjoying lots of multitasking action
on the device itself. Read More
Every year in the lead up to flu season, those at
high risk of infection, such as the young, the elderly and those who
are immune-compromised, head off to the doctor for a jab in the hopes it
will protect them from the flu. However, influenza vaccines have a
number of shortcomings that means even those who have been vaccinated
may still get influenza. Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute
and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell have now found a broadly
acting antibody that could lead to a single, near-universal flu vaccine
to replace annually changing vaccines. Read More
Though the idea of sleeping inside a concrete
tube probably doesn't sound that appealing, architect firm T3arc have
found a way to make sleeping inside a pipe not only comfortable but also
a holiday experience. Mexico's Tubohotel, which opened in 2010, is a
unique and affordable holiday destination created from recycled concrete
tubes. Located approximately 45 minutes south of Mexico City in the
village of Tepoztlan, Morelos, the rooms of the hotel are stacked in a
pyramid shape, reflecting the Aztec pyramid of El Tepozteco that
overlooks the town. Read More
While the researchers at Fraunhofer have been toiling away on all manner of important technologies, from electric vehicles and printable batteries to antibacterial film and water conservation technologies,
it's good to see they've also turned some of their expertize towards
the equally important task of bringing the joy of ice cream on a
summer's day to those with a milk allergy or lactose intolerance. A new
plant-based ice cream alternative developed by Fraunhofer researchers
called Lupinesse has already hit store shelves in Germany and is
apparently pretty close to the real thing. Read More
There's little doubt that when it comes to
snapping spur-of-the-moment photos, nothing quite matches the
always-ready convenience of the smartphone. Apple's iPhone is second
only in popularity to Nikon's D90 for overall image uploads to Flickr,
and takes the top three spots in the Cameraphone category. There are now
a whole host of apps available that can help add numerous clever
effects to the photos taken with an iPhone's camera, and a growing
number of hardware-based enhancements. If you find yourself yearning for
a little more zoom than the Eye Scope offers, or the close-up goodness of the Fisheye and Macro/Wide Angle lens is just too small and fiddly for you, then perhaps what you need is an iPhone SLR Lens Mount. Read More
We've seen a number of unusual speakers before, such as the Whamodyne glass speakers or Solid Acoustics' dodecahedron speakers,
but concrete speakers are definitely something new. It's definitely not
a very popular material for audio systems, but Israeli designer Shmuel
Linski would like to change that with his "Exposed" concrete speakers,
each of which weighs 123 pounds (56 kg). They're just one part of his
line of unusual creations, that include a concrete coffee maker and a
concrete canoe. Read More
The ASUS-Automobili Lamborghini VX7 is, as the
name suggests, a computer designed to emulate the style and performance
of Lamborghini cars, with a case that captures the angular Lambo
styling, and rear cooling vents modeled on a Lambo's taillights and
exhaust through to a host of other faux association. What isn't false
though, is the performance of the machine, which runs quad-core 2nd
generation (Sandy Bridge) Intel Core i7 processors, and is also the
first to use NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460M GPU. Read the specs as a tech
junkie and you'll likely be far more excited than the petrolhead
association would get you. How about 3GB of video memory or TWO 7,200rpm
750GB hard drives providing a total of 1.5TB or storage? This is a
beast, regardless of the badging. Read More
Most will be familiar with photochromic lenses
that darken when exposed to UV light, but now a researcher at the
University of Connecticut has developed lenses that can quickly switch
color based on the amount of voltage passed through them. While
sunglasses manufacturers are expected to employ the technology to create
color-changing sunglasses, it has also apparently captured the
attention of the U.S. military who see it as a way to potentially assist
soldiers to see clearly in rapidly changing environments. Read More
If there was any doubt that the journeyman
Husqvarna brand had found a permanent home, or would be reinvigorated by
BMW ownership, those doubts were dispelled during the recent BMW
Innovations Day program in Munich when the wraps were pulled off the new
NUDA 900 R streetbike. If last year's Mille3 concept shown at EICMA
hadn't pointed the way towards Husqy returning to the roads, the Nuda is
a concrete design landmark that leaves no doubt about the future of a
BMW Motorrad sister brand. The equation is simple: 100+ bhp with a meaty
100 Nm of torque, all in a package weighing 175 kg (386 lb) sans
liquids. Read More
BMW has flagged a possible intention to get into
the electric motorcycle market with the airing of its E-Scooter concept
bike. Designed from the ground up as an electric bike, the E-scooter
uses its battery casing as a primary component of the frame. With a
regenerative braking system built in and a full charge from a
conventional power socket taking less than three hours, the E-Scooter is
capable of over 100km per charge, and easily makes freeway speeds. Read More
Smoke alarms are great for alerting people that a
fire has broken out so they can get out of harm’s way and alert the
authorities. But what happens if there’s no one home when a fire breaks
out. Sure, you could rely on your neighbors to raise the alarm, but by
that point your house and its precious contents will likely be well
ablaze. The FireText Smoke Alarm will let you know if your house is
going up in smoke wherever you may be by sending a text message to up to
four mobile phone numbers as soon as it detects smoke. Read More
Atlantis may have taken off on the last ever space shuttle mission
last week but that doesn’t mean it has finished racking up firsts.
Along with ferrying its last batch of supplies to the International
Space Station (ISS), Atlantis is also carrying a urine recycling system
that is designed to convert astronaut’s urine into a sports drink. The
Forward Osmosis Bag (FOB) system will reportedly be tested by one of the
four-man crew towards the end of the shuttle’s 12-day mission. Read More
At approximately one billion pixels, it’s the
largest digital camera ever built for a space mission. Over a five-year
period, the “billion-pixel array” will be used aboard the European Space
Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, to map upwards of a billion stars. While it
will be focusing mainly on our own Milky Way galaxy, Gaia will also be
mapping other celestial bodies, including galaxies and quasars near the
edge of the observable universe. Read More
Before current technology allowed them to be
available to the public, wearable POV (point-of-view) video cameras were
known within the television industry as “bullet cameras,” because of
their shape. Nowadays, they come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges,
and are generally called actioncams
or helmetcams. Hearkening back to the days of yore, however, is
Rollei’s recently-released Bullet HD. With its aluminum body and rounded
nose, it does indeed look like a big bullet ... or perhaps a small
Thermos flask. Read More
Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence Lab have been able to create computers that
learn language by doing something that many people consider a last
resort when tackling an unfamiliar task - reading the manual (or RTBM).
Beginning with virtually no prior knowledge, one machine-learning system
was able to infer the meanings of words by reviewing instructions
posted on Microsoft's website detailing how to install a piece of
software on a Windows PC, while another was able to learn how to play
Sid Meier's empire-building Civilization II strategy computer game by reading the gameplay manual. Read More
Since its launch in 2007, the Zoom H2 Handy
recorder with its ability to record high quality digital audio has
become popular for everything from recording personal memos and band
demos to sticking in the faces of politicians. Zoom has now given its
portable “studio on a stick” an update in the form of the H2n Handy
Recorder that ups the number of microphones to five and, according to
Zoom, is the first handheld recorder to offer Mid-Side recording. Read More
While there have been huge strides made in
battery technology in recent times, the limited range of electric
vehicles remains one of the main barriers to their general adoption.
While maybe not an ideal solution, Volvo is producing a few electric
test vehicles with range extenders – combustion engines that increase
the effective range of the electric vehicle by effectively turning it
into a hybrid. The project, which is supported by he Swedish Energy
Agency and the EU, will test three different electric motor/combustion
engine combinations. Read More
It can be very frustrating trying to fix
something, when the person instructing you isn’t there in person, but is
instead communicating with you over a phone line – “Whaddaya mean, ‘The
silver cap’? Which silver cap?!” This is why engineers
sometimes need to be flown in to factories or other places that use
complex machines, to make repairs that simply can’t be explained
verbally. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication,
Information Processing and Ergonomics, however, have developed an
augmented reality system that lets those engineers provide real-time
visual instructions to distant on-site technicians ... and it can be
done without internet access. Read More
More and more, we’re hearing about vehicle
navigation and communication/entertainment systems that are able to
access the internet. As these systems begin to become standard in all
new cars, the possibilities for using them to allow cars to communicate with one another
will start to open up. Along those lines, Italy’s University of Bologna
has developed an app that should allow vehicles on a motorway to
instantly notify one another when an accident occurs. In computer
simulations, it has been shown to reduce multi-car pile-ups by
approximately 40 percent. Read More
If you think that heavy construction machinery
like a Caterpillar 5230B Excavator is an unlikely source of inspiration
for a piece of art, then you obviously don't work for Michigan art
studio Woodchuck and Co. The team there has built a highly detailed
wooden model, or rather, a semi-working replica of the large machine, in
1/16th scale. The collector's piece is up for sale at US$35,900. Read More
Of all the energy-saving tips out there, probably
the one we hear most often is to not leave lights on when we leave a
room. It’s good advice, yet cities around the world are not following it
in one key way – their streetlights stay on all night long, even when
no one is on the street. The Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology
is experimenting with a new streetlight system on its campus, however,
in which motion sensor-equipped streetlights dim to 20 percent power
when no people or moving vehicles are near them. The system is said to
reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent, plus it
lowers maintenance costs and reduces light pollution. Read More
AME-LOT is a recent material reuse building plan
from French architectural firm Malka, in which student housing is
primarily made up of a variety of reused pallets which are added to an
existing structure. The technique not only creates a striking
architectural display, but also ensures that no existing building is
destroyed, thus minimizing its carbon footprint. Read More
Have you ever wondered what happens to old
carpets, after they're thrown away? For the most part, they're
incinerated, with only about 20 percent of the material being recycled.
Given that over 700 million square meters (837 million square yards) of
carpets are produced in Europe every year, with the U.S. reportedly
producing ten times that amount, that's a lot of burning floor
coverings. Dutch companies Bond Textile Research, Best Wool Carpet, and
James wanted to change that, so they commissioned a research team from
Spain's Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Austria's
University of Graz to come up with a solution. The result was a new type
of wool carpet that is reportedly cheaper and lighter than traditional
products, and that can be completely composted when worn out. Read More
For most of us, digitally capturing our
six-string virtuosity involves plugging an axe into a guitar interface
like Apogee's JAM
and then launching some software on a laptop or mobile device.
Researchers from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering
and Thin Films are currently developing a somewhat neater, and
potentially more accurate, solution that also holds the promise of
replacing the humble guitar pickup. The guitar's tailpiece has been
thinly coated with a contact material which is claimed to precisely
capture complex playing movements in minute detail and convert them to
digital control signals for onward processing. Read More
USRobotics has added to its line of USB 3.0
products that currently includes a 4-port USB 3.0 Hub, 2-Port
ExpressCard Adapter and 2-Port PCI Express Card Adapter, with the
introduction of its USR8420 All-in-One USB 3.0 Card Reader/Writer. The
company claims the device is the first USB 3.0 card reader that allows
data to be read from each of its five card slots simultaneously and is
also the first to offer dual SD, MMC and Memory Stick slots. Read More
Although wind power energy production in 2010 was
estimated to be only about 2.5 percent of worldwide electricity usage,
wind turbines are considered a mature technology with many experts
suggesting that we’re approaching the theoretical limit of individual
wind turbine efficiency. For this reason, researchers are now looking at
new approaches to wind farm design to increase the power output of wind
farms. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
have been conducting a field study and claim the power output of wind
farms can be increased at least tenfold by optimizing the placement of
turbines on a given plot of land. Read More
Glasses-free 3D displays are getting larger with
the 20-inch LG Cinema 3D DX2000 computer display being the latest
addition to the glasses-free 3D line of devices. The newest LG Cinema 3D
display utilizes similar webcam-based eye-tracking technology as the
latest glasses-free 3D gaming laptop Toshiba Qosmio F750, aimed at
dealing with the common "sweet spot" 3D technology issue. Read More
When the Motorola Photon 4G debuts through Sprint
later this month it will be Motorola’s first WiMAX smartphone and
Sprint’s first international 4G smartphone that is capable of working on
GSM networks around the world. Powered by a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2
processor with each core running at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM and with 16GB of
built-in memory the device will come with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
pre-installed. Read More
Just a couple of weeks after its maiden flight
at the end of May, the e-Genius electric aircraft has now winged its
way into the record books - managing to stay aloft for over two hours
and maintain an average speed of 100 mph (160 kph). Its University of
Stuttgart development team are now looking to improve on that
performance, ahead of the 2011 Green Flight Challenge for which it was designed. Read More
Cat litter might not seem like a particularly
exotic substance, but it contains a mineral known as sepiolite, which is
actually rather remarkable. Mined from only a few sources worldwide,
sepiolite is a type of clay that absorbs 2.5 times its weight in water -
that's more absorbent than any other known mineral, or any manmade
material. This is made possible by its crystalline structure, that
maximizes the amount of internal surface area available for soaking up
liquids ... such as cat pee. Recently, an international team of
scientists have obtained X-ray diffraction microscope images of
sepiolite for the first time. Using the information provided by those
images, a cheaper, easier-to-source synthetic version of the mineral
could be created, and used in everything from batteries to food. Read More
Electric bicycles, with some exceptions,
generally fall into one of two categories: those that can be powered
solely by their motor, and those in which the motor is only used to
augment the rider’s pedaling power (commonly known as “pedelecs,” or
pedal-electrics). In both cases, they can also simply be pedaled,
without any contribution from the motor. California electric vehicle
designer Roy Prince, however, decided that he wanted all three – a bike
that could be motor-driven, pedal-assisted, or just plain pedaled. The
result is his intriguing creation, the eCortina v2 hybrid. Read More
We've been following MIT's progress on creating solar cell-coated paper
since 2010, and we're excited to report the current findings of the
project. What looks and feels like an ordinary sheet of paper with a
fine layer of colored rectangles, is no ordinary piece of paper at all –
once connected to a couple of wires, it instantly generates solar
electricity. Additionally, the technology is almost as cheap and easy as
printing a family snapshot from an inkjet printer. You can even fold it
up, slip it in your pocket, then unfold it again for later use. Read More
According to the latest statistics, every year
approximately 2,500 babies die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
in the U.S. alone, with thousands more falling victim to it around the
world. In typical cases, an infant passes away in their sleep, with no
apparent explanation. While various theories have been put forward, the
exact cause of SIDS is unknown. While not offering an answer to the
mystery, two students from Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
(BGU) are working on a computer system, that could keep more babies from becoming SIDS statistics. Read More
A couple of weeks ago, NVIDIA released the GeForce GTX 580M
laptop GPU, claiming it was the fastest graphics chip on the market.
AMD has just unveiled a quick response, in the form of its Radeon HD
6990M GPU for laptops. The new graphics chip outpaces "any other
announced notebook enthusiast GPU" by 25 percent, according to the
Sunnyvale-based chipmaker. Read More
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