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Darren Quick
Xerox develops silver ink to usher in new era of low cost printable electronics
By Darren Quick
01:35 October 28, 2009 PDT
Silicon is the main substrate used for the integrated circuits found in almost all electronic equipment available today. However, silicon could soon be replaced by plastic, film or even fabrics, with Xerox scientists developing a low-temperature silver ink that they say paves the way for the commercialization and low-cost manufacture of printable electronics. This process will offer manufacturers an inexpensive way to add “intelligence” or computing power to a wide range of surfaces to produce things like electronic clothing and cheap games. Read More
Nissan joins personal mobility field with ‘Segway-skis’
By Darren Quick
22:23 October 27, 2009 PDT
The fact that the streets aren’t exactly swarming with Segways seven years after they went on sale hasn’t stopped some major players taking tentative steps (or wheels) into the personal mobility arena with their own device prototypes. As we’ve seen previously Toyota is working on the Winglet, while Honda recently displayed its U3-X experimental vehicle at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. Now Nissan is getting in on the act with its own prototype developed in partnership with Japan’s National Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (AIST). Read More
Steuart’s Patent vacuum tank regulator – the timepiece to beat in the early 20th Century
By Darren Quick
03:02 October 27, 2009 PDT
The second in our series of interviews with Michael Bennet-Levy looks at the Steuart’s Patent vacuum tank regulator – a clock produced in 1923 that its makers, J & D Meek, claimed was accurate to “better than a second a year.” If true this would have made it the most accurate timekeeper in the world prior to the invention of Caesium clocks in the mid 1950s. The essence of the Steuart regulator is that the electric motor drives the clock and the pendulum governs and corrects the speed of the motor. Neither is connected. Ideal for telescopes (because it doesn't tick), the clock was used as a stand-in for Big Ben during WWII and in the opinion of the Scientific American it marked “the most important development in clock-making which has taken place in modern times.” Read More
'Hyperspectral Remote Sensor' senses disasters from space
By Darren Quick
23:59 October 25, 2009 PDT
Combining sophisticated sensors in orbit with sensors on the ground and in the air has led researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) to create a “Hyperspectral Remote Sensor” (HRS) that can give advance warnings about water contamination after a forest fire, alert authorities of a pollution spill long before a red flag is raised on Earth, or inform the population where a monsoon will strike. Read More
The Lexus LFA supercar – the long awaited production version arrives
By Darren Quick
22:29 October 25, 2009 PDT
It’s been a long time coming. The Lexus LFA that first appeared as a concept car at the 2005 Detroit Auto Show is finally production ready. Lexus made the announcement at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show where a prototype of the production car was on display along with a full-scale see through model in the company's “art gallery” - and the stunning 202mph V10 supercar is indeed worthy of a place in an art gallery, although keen collectors will still have to endure a bit more of a wait since the car isn’t expected to reach garages until early 2011, with only 500 units being produced. Read More
At long last - a bicycle simulator
By Darren Quick
20:40 October 25, 2009 PDT
Simulators are a great, safe way to teach people how to do things properly before they actually have to do them. The first simulators were for airplanes and they cost a lot of money when they appeared 80 years ago. Although simulating an aircraft cockpit and behavior was a difficult and costly business, it had a very effective ROI in terms of planes and pilots. Nowadays, you can simulate almost any environment thanks to the computer - there are low cost safety simulators available for planes, boats, cars, motorcycles, and even the inside of a person’s mouth - but until now, not bicycles. Honda is rectifying that with a bicycle simulator that has been developed for the purpose of traffic safety education. Read More
Promising tests for MotionPower system to generate electricity from traffic
By Darren Quick
03:22 October 21, 2009 PDT
Apparently, the ongoing testing of the MotionPower system for generating electricity from the movement of cars and light trucks - as reported here previously - is paying dividends. New Energy, the company developing the technology, reports it can produce a 25-fold increase in the system’s capacity to capture kinetic energy from moving vehicles, bringing the commercialization of the MotionPower system another step closer to reality. Read More
Apple takes inspiration from MacBook Pro for updated MacBook
By Darren Quick
01:10 October 21, 2009 PDT
Apple’s new MacBook update finds the notebook borrowing a few things from its bigger brother. Like the MacBook Pro, the new MacBook features a unibody enclosure, albeit polycarbonate instead of aluminum, an LED-backlit display, a glass multi-touch trackpad, and a built-in battery designed to deliver up to seven hours of battery life. Read More
Apple introduces world’s first multi-touch wireless ‘Magic Mouse’
By Darren Quick
23:58 October 20, 2009 PDT
The Apple rumor-mill’s speculation of a replacement for the Mighty Mouse has been borne out today, with Apple introducing the world’s first wireless multi-touch “Magic Mouse”. As with all Apple designs, the new mouse is a lesson in minimalist design with no buttons, scroll wheels or “nipples” on display. Instead, the entire top of the aluminum-based mouse is a seamless hard acrylic multi-touch surface that lets users navigate using the finger gestures made popular on other Apple devices, such as the iPod touch, iPhone and Macbook trackpads. Read More
Samsung STORY Station external drives cut standby power consumption to less than 1W
By Darren Quick
00:25 October 20, 2009 PDT
Samsung’s STORY Station drives will be the first 3.5-inch external hard drives to boast a standby power consumption of less than 1W. The typical standby power consumption of external hard drives is around 2.5W, so lowering that figure to 0.09W constitutes a reduction of more than 95 percent. The reduced standby power level easily meets requirements for the forthcoming European Union’s EuP (Energy Using Products) Directive for Standby Regulation, which is effective from January 2010. Read More
Spring Design’s Alex: the first Android-based, dual display e-book reader
By Darren Quick
23:46 October 19, 2009 PDT
Alex from Spring Design is the first Android-based e-book reader that comes with dual screens. The upper display is a 6-inch E-Ink monochrome electronic paper display (EPD) screen, while below it sits a 3.5-inch color LCD screen. The device features full Internet browsing capabilities that, through the use of the device’s Duet Navigator interface, allows hyperlinked text displayed on the main EPD to be clicked on to bring up supporting multimedia information such as video, images, and notes on the secondary color LCD screen. Read More
Solar Decathlon 2009 results are in, and the winner is...
By Darren Quick
23:23 October 19, 2009 PDT
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon has wound up in Washington, D.C. with Team Germany taking the top honors, followed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in second place, and Team California taking out third. As we reported last week the competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and efficient solar-powered home saw 20 university-led teams from around the world competing in ten contests, ranging from subjective elements such as architecture, market viability, communications, lighting design, and engineering, to technical measurements of how well the homes provided energy for space heating and cooling, hot water, home entertainment, appliances, and net metering. Read More
Magnetic leaves indicate levels of air pollution
By Darren Quick
00:54 October 19, 2009 PDT
Measuring the level of magnetism of tree leaves could be a powerful tool to monitor the air quality of streets. A new study has shown that leaves along bus routes were up to ten times more magnetic than leaves on quieter streets. The magnetism comes from tiny particles of pollution, such as iron oxides from diesel exhaust, that float through the air and either stick to the leaves, or grow right into them. Read More
A cheap way to increase capacity and improve download speeds of strained broadband networks
By Darren Quick
23:19 October 18, 2009 PDT
A new technology that applies the same principles used by ADSL to improve the capacity of data transfer over copper and wireless broadband could potentially increase the data capacity of optical fiber cables tenfold. It’s creators say the technology, known as optical Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (oOFDM), offers an inexpensive way drastically boost the capacity of increasingly strained broadband networks and improve download times around the world. Read More
Everyone gets a water view in Europe’s first rotating hotel
By Darren Quick
23:09 October 18, 2009 PDT
There are plans to build what will be Europe’s first rotating hotel in Croatia. The hotel will form the centerpiece of a new resort to be built near Split, the second-largest city in Croatia that is situated on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. It was the desire to give guests views of the Adriatic Sea from all rooms that led to the rotating design from Richard Hywel Evans of holiday resort designer specialists, RHE. Read More
CyberLink TrueTheater Enhancer gives YouTube videos a spit and polish
By Darren Quick
01:10 October 16, 2009 PDT
I’ve always considered YouTube an example of “two steps forward, one step back.” Although it has provided a seemingly endless supply of video to keep us entertained, if not informed, it does so with often low quality video at a time when television services around the world have shifted to digital broadcasts offering improved high definition (HD) picture and sound. CyberLink is looking to bridge the divide with its TrueTheater Enhancer software that is designed to give YouTube content a spit and polish. Read More
Diagnosing depression in less than an hour using an ‘ECG for the mind’
By Darren Quick
01:00 October 16, 2009 PDT
Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) cost upwards of US$2 trillion globally every year and affect one in four people in their lifetime. At present, diagnosing these conditions relies on an often unreliable process of questions and interviews, which means it can take many years for sufferers to be correctly diagnosed. A new diagnostic technique that measures the patterns of electrical activity in the brain’s vestibular (or balance) system could dramatically fast-track the detection of mental and neurological illnesses. Read More
Bioengineered scaffold could restore sense of touch to prosthetic limbs
By Darren Quick
00:15 October 15, 2009 PDT
Existing robotic prostheses have limited motor control, provide no sensory feedback and can be uncomfortable to wear. In an effort to make a prosthesis that moves like a normal hand, researchers at the University of Michigan have bioengineered a scaffold that is placed over severed nerve endings like a sleeve and could improve the function of prosthetic hands and possibly restore the sense of touch for injured patients. Read More
ChemBot: the shape-shifting robot that is the stuff of nightmares
By Darren Quick
23:22 October 14, 2009 PDT
We’ve looked at robots that use a variety of ways to get around, from caterpillar treads, to wheels, legs, wings and even combustion-driven pistons. But the title of weirdest (not to mention unsettling) method of robot propulsion we’ve come across has to go to the shape-shifting ChemBot from iRobot. The ChemBot, which looks more like the Blob than most people’s preconceived ideas of what a robot should be, moves around by changing its shape in a process its creators call, “jamming skin enabled locomotion.” Read More
The GlideTV Navigator is a mouse, keyboard and AV remote that fits in the palm of your hand
By Darren Quick
03:54 October 14, 2009 PDT
TVs are no longer dumb receivers sitting in the corner of the lounge, displaying whatever trash the networks have decided to cram down our throats. Nowadays, a TV is just as likely to be hooked up to a home theater PC (HTPC) for playing games, accessing media content stored on a hard disk, or surfing the Internet. For more complex tasks like that, the humble remote starts to look a little underdone. That's where remote controls on steroids, such as the GlideTV Navigator, come in. It combines the functionality of a keyboard, mouse and AV remote control in one distinctive-looking unit that fits in the palm of your hand. Read More
10/GUI the human computer interface of the future for people with more than two fingers
By Darren Quick
03:43 October 14, 2009 PDT
Those old enough to remember the command line interfaces of yesteryear are only too aware of what a godsend the Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) of today are. However, the human computer interface (HCI) developed in the 1970s at Xerox PARC, combining a desktop metaphor GUI and mouse controller, has remained largely unchanged ever since. Now R. Clayton Miller proposes the next step in the evolution of HCI's with his 10/GUI concept that harnesses the power of multi-touch by removing the touch surface from the screen. Read More
Scientists grow patch to heal a broken heart
By Darren Quick
00:48 October 13, 2009 PDT
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in many parts of the world, including the U.S., England and Canada, so it's not surprising that bioengineers at Duke University are excited by what they believe could be an important first step toward growing a living “heart patch” to repair damaged heart tissue. In a series of experiments using mouse embryonic stem cells, the bioengineers used a novel mold of their own design to fashion a three-dimensional "patch" made up of heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes. The new tissue exhibited the two most important attributes of heart muscle cells - the ability to contract and to conduct electrical impulses. Read More
Blaze ‘Wiimote’ for PS3 could beat Sony to the motion sensitive controller punch
By Darren Quick
23:07 October 12, 2009 PDT
Sony might want to pull the lead out with European video game accessory maker, Blaze, announcing its very own motion-sensing controller for the PS3. The Blaze PS3 Motion Freedom Controller sports more than a passing resemblance to a Wiimote and promises to bring Wii-like motion sensing capabilities to any PS3. Read More
Using radio waves to ‘see’ through walls
By Darren Quick
21:52 October 12, 2009 PDT
University of Utah engineers have developed a system that uses a wireless network of radio transmitters to track people moving behind solid walls. They say the system could help police, firefighters and other emergency services capture intruders, and rescue hostages, fire victims or elderly people who fall in their homes by letting them know where to focus their attentions. The engineers’ system uses radio tomographic imaging (RTI) to “see”, locate and track people or objects in an area surrounded by inexpensive radio transceivers that send and receive signals. Read More
Solar Decathlon solar house competition heats up
By Darren Quick
00:45 October 12, 2009 PDT
Competition is underway in the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Solar Decathlon, in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The house designs entered in the competition not only capture heat and light from the sun, but also integrate design features to take advantage of cooling breezes and shading. By combining these proven energy efficient designs with the latest off-the-shelf technology, the teams aim to create homes that reduce utility bills and meet all their energy needs, while providing all the comforts of home. Read More
rob yates
- November 26, 2009 @ 12:49 UTC
