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Karen Sprey
Innovative contact lenses look to dispense drugs
By Karen Sprey
00:02 May 26, 2009 PDT
Eye-drops may be a simple way of medicating the eye, but patients don't always get the right dose at the right time. Eyenovations has developed contact lenses that can deliver drugs to the eye in measured doses for a month or longer. The start-up company’s initial focus is developing a lens to help glaucoma patients. However, it believes the technology can be used to help other eye conditions and deliver antibiotics following surgery. Read More
Plans to build Arizona bullet train fired by the sun
By Karen Sprey
16:54 May 25, 2009 PDT
Bullet trains are considered by many to be one of the greener forms of transport, so imagine how environmentally friendly they might be if the sun’s power was harnessed to power them. That’s precisely what Solar Bullet LLC hopes to do with its 220mph solar bullet train, which the company claims can travel from Tucson to Phoenix in just 30 minutes. Read More
The Bushbunker: last resort wildfire protection
By Karen Sprey
06:43 May 19, 2009 PDT
Australia’s ‘Black Saturday’ in February claimed 173 lives and countless homes and livelihoods. The country’s worst wildfire tragedy, this horrific disaster was an extreme example of an annual threat faced not only in Australia but also North America and South Africa where similar dry conditions are experienced. As the survivors struggle to come to terms with their losses and begin to rebuild their lives, questions are being asked about what could have been done, and what must be done now to better protect populations. Tougher building standards for homes in fire-prone areas will be introduced, but another option under scrutiny is fire resistant shelters - are they safe, should governments play a role in their development and how should they be designed and built? Entering this debate is the Bushbunker, a dedicated fire shelter design which aims to maximize the likelihood of survival regardless of the intensity or type of fire. Read More
Prayer wheel generates more than karmic energy
By Karen Sprey
22:20 May 17, 2009 PDT
Tibetan prayer wheels have been used for centuries to create harmony, enhance compassion and generate positive karmic energy. Now the kinetic energy created by the millions of tourists and Tibetans who spin the wheels each year could be harnessed to provide additional electricity for street lighting and homes. Read More
Powabyke tackles record breaking 1655-mile trek
By Karen Sprey
05:45 May 14, 2009 PDT
As you read this, 66-year-old Briton Eddie Sedgemore is powering his way all over the UK mainland, a 1,655-mile journey on a Powabyke X-byke electric bicycle to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. The Powabyke is a regular looking bike that has a 250 watt motor which slots into the water bottle holder and weighs only 2.5kg, allowing riders to coast along at a steady 15mph (add another 10mph in pedal assist mode). Read More
Smarter wind technology looks to improve turbine workrate
By Karen Sprey
18:20 May 10, 2009 PDT
Clean, renewable energy is freely available – in the form of wind, sun and water. However, harnessing it reliably and cost-effectively remains a barrier. Wind power is one of the fastest growing alternative energy markets and researchers at Purdue University and Sandia National Laboratories in West Lafayette, Indiana, are working to make wind turbines more efficient, reliable and resilient. Read More
New technology could lead to 50% increase in tire recycling
By Karen Sprey
17:15 May 10, 2009 PDT
A new method of recycling old tires to produce high-quality rubber powders for making new rubber products is being developed in Australia. Its developers say it is energy-efficient, economically viable and environmentally responsible, and they hope it will result in 50 per cent more tires being recycled. Read More
GameDr Video Game Timer limits kids' gaming time
By Karen Sprey
13:33 May 3, 2009 PDT
Any parent who has spent time trying to prise their kids from the xBox or PlayStation to do homework or household chores is likely to welcome the GameDr Video Game Timer. Its tamper-proof controls allow you to set and enforce time limits to game playing, simply by plugging the games unit into the timer. Read More
Lip-reading computers can recognize different languages
By Karen Sprey
00:51 April 28, 2009 PDT
Computerized lip-reading technology for deaf people - and surveillance cameras - has taken a step forward with scientists from the University of East Anglia successfully teaching computers to recognize different languages from the shapes and movements of people’s mouths. Read More
Orbita Sparta Mini watchwinder - one for the ladies?
By Karen Sprey
01:09 April 27, 2009 PDT
As the name suggests, automatic or self-winding watches wind themselves using a moving weight mechanism inside the watch. All well and good if you are wearing your watch everyday, but if you happen to have a collection, you'll often find yourself faced with the fiddly task of manual winding and resetting features like perpetual calendars - a difficult job for large unwieldy fingers (men) and delicate fingernails (women) - which is where watchwinders come in. This one, the Sparta Mini from Orbita, is for the ladies. Read More
Cisco Linksys Media Hub promises intelligent multimedia management
By Karen Sprey
17:25 April 20, 2009 PDT
‘Whatever you want – wherever and whenever you want it' is pretty much today’s philosophy, especially when it comes to music, movies and photos. We’re used to getting our content at the click of a mouse, button or scroll-wheel and it's this kind of flexibility and simplicity of access that Cisco's Linksys Media Hub aims to bring to personal media collections, delivering up to a terabyte of storage capacity backed by an intuitive interface and remote access functionality. Read More
The CellScope: transforming the cell phone into a mobile microscope
By Karen Sprey
20:09 April 14, 2009 PDT
The CellScope is a revolutionary attachment that turns a standard camera-enabled cell phone into a clinical quality microscope, with magnification up to 50X. Health workers in developing countries, where expensive equipment, facilities and on-the-ground physicians are scarce, will be able to use the mobile microscope to quickly and easily capture images of blood cells, lesions and infections and transmit them via the cell phone network to remote experts for analysis and diagnosis. Read More
The Mobile Solar Computer Classroom: a complete classroom in the back of an SUV
By Karen Sprey
19:11 April 14, 2009 PDT
A mobile computer classroom powered by solar panels atop a modified SUV is providing computer training to 100 students a day in the east African country of Uganda. The Maendeleo Foundation, which runs the Mobile Solar Computer Classrooms (MSCC), hopes the project will help to launch a local computer services industry, creating jobs by outsourcing the new computer skills, boost the local economy and alleviate poverty. Read More
GlideCycle: giving back independence and mobility
By Karen Sprey
22:14 April 6, 2009 PDT
The GlideCycle offers a whole new world of mobility, independence and exercise to people of almost any age with disabilities and injuries. Looking a little like a bike, but with no pedals and a frame over the top of the body rather than underneath, the GlideCycle uses a suspended ergonomic saddle that holds the pelvis to support body weight so that the rider can walk, run or glide with no pressure on the crotch or perineum. It provides major cardio benefits with virtually zero impact, is easily mastered, comfortable and fun to use, quick to assemble – and it’s affordable. So what’s the catch? There isn’t one. Read More
AIRchitecture: Flying classrooms of the future
By Karen Sprey
05:00 March 31, 2009 PDT
If you’ve ever sat in a classroom, bored silly, and wished you could just fly away, here’s the solution, well, sort of. The new concept from Geotectura and Malka - a flying structure for Delft University’s Architecture Faculty - melds spacecraft with studio space to create AIRchitecture, a dynamic, real-world learning environment with a minimal carbon footprint. Read More
Music really is a universal language
By Karen Sprey
04:19 March 30, 2009 PDT
It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words but the same image can have different meanings across cultures. Music, however, may bridge the cultural divide: a new study has shown that regardless of culture or previous exposure, people were accurately able to recognize three emotions in Western music - happiness, sadness and fear. Read More
Gold nanospheres search out and ‘cook’ cancer cells
By Karen Sprey
21:48 March 23, 2009 PDT
A minimally invasive therapy that could help fight cancer may be on its way with the development of the first hollow gold nanospheres that actively search for and burn tumors. Researchers believe the new technique could prove particularly effective against malignant Melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer responsible for around 48,000 deaths worldwide each year... and numbers are growing. Read More
Qatar’s giant cactus: a shining example of biomimicry
By Karen Sprey
17:46 March 23, 2009 PDT
London may have The Gherkin but it’s not a patch on the cactus-inspired design for the new Minister of Municipal Affairs & Agriculture (MMAA) building in Qatar. The spectacular office building and adjoining botanical dome is a great example of biomimicry, a discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. This increasingly prominent approach has yielded advances in fields as diverse as aerodynamics, robotic navigation, clothing design, UAVs and the detection of water pollution. It makes sense that architectural design can also learn from nature. Read More
Barbie at 50: revered and reviled
By Karen Sprey
05:48 March 17, 2009 PDT
Barbie turned 50 this month but she doesn’t look a day older than at her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959. Sure, she’s copped some flak along the way for being empty-headed and ‘tarty’, and reinventing herself to conform to current fashions, but essentially she’s still as glamorous as ever, not to mention technologically savvy. Read More
Laundry POD: from salad spinner to washing machine
By Karen Sprey
00:22 March 16, 2009 PDT
It’s a great example of thinking outside of the box: as industrial design firm RKS were redesigning a salad spinner they discovered women were buying them to wash their delicates, so they modified the technology and created a portable, hand-powered laundry machine. The Laundry POD is stylish, easy to use and eco-friendly, saving energy and water, and is perfect for delicate items, “in between” and small loads, camping and traveling. Read More
PowerNap plan could save 75 percent of data center energy
By Karen Sprey
22:58 March 12, 2009 PDT
The average utilization for a typical industrial data center is as low as 20 to 30 percent - and the computers are still using 60 percent of peak power even when they're doing nothing. To combat this problem, researchers at the University of Michigan have put together an approach that could save up to 75 percent of the energy that power-hungry computer data centers consume. Read More
Bionic eye begins to see real-world results
By Karen Sprey
22:18 March 10, 2009 PDT
For those suffering from degenerative eye diseases, abilities which most of us take for granted like following white lines on roads and sorting socks can have a huge impact on quality of life. "Bionic-eye" technologies that can artificially restore sight are creeping closer to reality and now one of the most promising systems to grace our pages - the Argus II Retinal Implant - is beginning to reap rewards in the real world with positive outcomes reported in the preliminary results of the device's feasibility study and personal stories beginning to emerge of the difference this technology can make to peoples lives. Read More
World’s largest virtual desktop deployment underway
By Karen Sprey
18:46 March 5, 2009 PST
In what's billed as world’s largest virtual desktop deployment, 356,800 desktops will be supplied to schools across Brazil using Userful Multiplier software, a system which effectively turns one computer into up to 10 independent PC workstations, reducing CO2 emissions by up to an estimate 15 tons per year per system and electronic waste by up to 80%. Read More
From oil rig to luxury eco-resort
By Karen Sprey
16:38 March 4, 2009 PST
Think "oil rig" and what comes to mind? Deafening noise, pounding seas, people covered in black muck and ugly metal structures? Perhaps even explosions and Red Adair, but it’s unlikely "luxury resort" popped into your head. However, thousands of decommissioned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could in future be given a new lease of life as exclusive, self-sufficient eco-resorts that make use of renewable energy and cater for those looking for a new and unique holiday experience. The idea is catching on, with Morris Architects' program to turn a disused rig into a high-end resort experience winning it the firm a $10,000 Grand Prize in the Radical Innovation in Hospitality awards. Read More
The coffee cup for a zero g situation
By Karen Sprey
21:24 March 3, 2009 PST
Astronauts may have the very cool job of floating around in space, but when it comes to grabbing a caffeine fix, they are faced with the decidedly uncool prospect of drinking out of aluminum bags with straws. Donald Pettit was on Space Shuttle mission STS-126 when he decided enough was enough and came up with the idea of an "On-Orbit Coffee Cup" designed to hold liquid in zero gravity situations. Read More
Sam Munro
- November 26, 2009 @ 08:08 UTC
