Inventors and Remarkable People
Happy birthday to the Cascading Style Sheet
December 20, 2006 By any measure, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are the good guys - an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. This year the World Wide Web Consortium celebrates ten years of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the technology designers use to create attractive, economical, and flexible Web sites. To celebrate this anniversary (dubbed CSS10), W3C invites developers to propose their favorite CSS designs for the CSS10 Gallery. Bert Bos and Håkon Lie, the original co-authors of CSS, will select designs for the gallery based on originality, utility, and aesthetics. So if you fancy a chance at global ecognition, send your proposals here. (read more...)
The Chicago Spire to become world’s tallest residential building
December 17, 2006 Santiago Calatrava is known for his ability to create public landmarks on a grand scale. The world renowned Spanish architect and engineer has one of the most impressive bodies of work ever assembled including the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Transport Hub, plus dozens of the most beautiful buildings in major cities around the world - airports, opera houses, bridges, train stations. Now Shelbourne Development Group has filed a final design for the Chicago Spire, with the City of Chicago. The Calatrava-designed Chicago Spire is 2,000-foot tall tower which will become the tallest residential building in the world if approved. It’s Calatrava’s second remarkable residential building. (read more...)
Modern tools recreate a mediaeval art form
December 8, 2006 Glass is a jewel-like substance made sand and transformed by fire. Its origins are as distant as the discovery of the wheel, and within a short time, we learned to colour it. Stained glass windows came along 1700 years ago when Constantine first permitted Christians to worship openly in 313 A.D., and came to prominence a millennium ago when substantial church building began in France, Germany and England. The earliest surviving example of pictorial stained glass is from the tenth century Lorsch Abbey in Germany. Now this mediaeval art form is being recreated in the 21st Century, using the latest in digital technology. "In the Womb of the Rose" is a unique, digitally created stained glass window, produced by worldwide collaborators via the internet. Traditionally, stained glass windows, or ‘rose’ windows, featured in medieval churches, telling stories from the Bible using recognisable iconography and symbolism, using the skills of many glass artists to create the final monumental artwork. (read more...)
One Hundred Years - happy birthday to Soichiro Honda
November 17, 2006 We regularly note significant historical milestones and today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a significant technological achiever. Soichiro Honda, the founder of the Honda Motor Company was born this day, November 17, 1906. The son of a blacksmith and a weaver, Soichiro was fascinated by machines and how they worked. One of his earliest memories was being enthralled by the first motor car he had ever seen. He later said: “As the car rolled through our small village I turned and chased after that car for all I was worth.” The young Soichiro may not have been able to catch the car, but it signalled the chasing of his dream: to build his own cars and motorcycles and win world championships with them. Without formal education, Honda forged an empire encompassing road cars, All-Terrain Vehicles, engines, generators, outboard motors, personal watercraft, water pumps, scooters, snowblowers, robots and more recently jet aircraft. (read more...)
First demonstration of a working invisibility cloak
October 20, 2006 A team led by scientists at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has demonstrated the first working "invisibility cloak." Now before you get all excited about the prospects of playing the invisible man or Harry Potter, it’s not a Dr Zhivago sort of cloak but an electromagnetic radiation cloaking device and we’re many years from being able to turn an object or person invisible to the naked eye. The cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a "hidden" object inside with little distortion, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all. Cloaks that render objects essentially invisible to microwaves could have a variety of wireless communications or radar applications, according to the researchers. Watch the video. (read more...)
High tech supersleuth Dick Tracy turns 75
September 21, 2006 It’s time to pay homage to super sleuth Dick Tracy who turns 75 next week, or more specifically, it’s 75 years since Dick first appeared in the Detroit Mirror in 1931. The creation of cartoonist, indeed futurist, Chester Gould, Detective Tracy used forensics, futuristic methodology and wireless technology way ahead of its time. Gould’s imagination gave us the Closed Circuit TV Police villains line-up in 1953 - real suspect lineups were introduced the following year. Dick was using Electronic Telephone Number Pickup in 1954, 28 years before Caller ID was patented. One we’ve still to see was the Magnetic Space Coupe which took Tracy to the moon in 1962, seven years before the first actual moon landing, with the prospects of the magnetic car still realistic, having been used in the Lexus Concept from "Minority Report". The most iconic of Dick Tracy’s kit though, was his wrist communicator, a device that started countless millions of technological dreams in a young American technology community which went on to create ubiquitous wireless communication. There would not have been one leader in the communications revolution who wasn’t touched by Dick Tracy’s videoconferencing wrist watch. The device arrived in 1946 with two-way audio, became video in 1964, and a wireless wrist-worn computer in 1987. Gould’s imagination deserves credit for helping to fuel the communications boom of the late 20th Century. (read more...)
The Farnsworth Invention to become a stage play
September 18, 2006 In May of this year, Elma G. "Pem" Farnsworth passed away and we were staggered to think that someone who witnessed and played such a major role in one of the key inventions of the 20th century could have still been alive. Pem was the wife of television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth, one of the last “lone inventors” who worked it all out from scratch and his quest to finally transmit pictures through the air was reached for the first time on September 7, 1927. Now Farnsworth’s story is to be told in a new stage production "The Farnsworth Invention" written by well known writer Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the television series “West Wing” which won him an Emmy for outstanding writing in a drama series for his fast-paced and intricate dialog. Sorkin’s play “A Few Good Men” also became a major film. Originally written as a screenplay, and now rewritten as a play, "The Farnsworth Invention" will run from February 20 to March 25, 2007 at the La Jolla Playhouse Potiker Theatre in California. One of the backers of the production is none other than Steven Spielberg so don’t be surprised to see it as a feature film sooner or later. (read more...)
The interactive Codex Atlanticus - digital working models of Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions
September 5, 2006 The term “renaissance man” implies an extraordinary breadth of expertise and capability and no person epitomises the well-rounded concept than painter, inventor, sculptor, architect, anatomist, engineer, geometer and musician Leonardo da Vinci. That he was a master of several of these disciplines and hundreds of years ahead of his time in some makes him without equal. All of which makes this announcement incredibly exciting as there’s now a compelling new way to engage with Leonardo’s remarkable work, at least in the area of invention. Innovative Italian media company Leonardo3 has created a digital version of the Codex Atlanticus – an interactive book containing more than 100 of Da Vinci’s most fascinating manuscript pages. The pages can be “turned” and it’s possible to zoom in on Leonardo’s sketches, and the inventor’s secret messages and notes, many of which can’t be deciphered with the naked eye. For example, zooming in on Leonardo’s design for a military fortress shows his secret plan for a subterranean tunnel that allowed for escape if the fortress walls were breached. Enigmatic notes and sketches can also be discovered by “flipping” the pages over and looking at them from the back. More than 50 3-D machine models spring from the images on the pages as well, allowing the viewer to interact with the machines and understand how the designs work. Guests can view Leonardo’s design for a naval cannon from all sides and actually fire this artillery, seeing how its opposing cannons were designed to absorb the force of firing and keep the boat on course. Ideal as a gift for the gifted and special people in your life, the price is as remarkable as the contents – you can buy it on-line for just UER25.90 (US$33). (read more...)
Company claims to have developed new technology that provides unlimited free energy
Steorn, an Irish company, claims to have produced a groundbreaking (we do not use this word lightly) technology which is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and produces free, clean and constant energy. If the claims are true, the new technology will enable a significant range of benefits, from the convenience of never having to refuel your car or recharge your mobile phone, to a genuine solution to the need for zero emission energy production. It will also provide a secure supply of energy, since the components of the technology are readily available. Steorn’s technology appears to violate the ‘Principle of the Conservation of Energy’, (energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change form) considered by many to be the most fundamental principle in our current understanding of the universe. Fully aware that its claims will be considered bunkum by anyone who has graduated kindergarten, Steorn today issued a challenge to the global scientific community to test its free energy technology. Steorn has placed an advertisement in The Economist to attract the attention of the world’s leading scientists working in the field of experimental physics. From all the scientists who accept the challenge, twelve will be invited to take part in a rigorous testing exercise to prove that Steorn’s technology creates free energy. The results will be published worldwide. That's Steorn's Richard Walshe with the George Bernard Shaw quote on the placard - all great truths begin as blasphemies. (read more...)
Optical breakthrough makes “Lab-on-a-Chip” possible
August 8, 2006 Georgia Tech researchers have found a way to shrink all the sensing power of sophisticated biosensors — such as sensors that can detect trace amounts of a chemical in a water supply or a substance in your blood — onto a single microchip. In compact communication, signal processing and sensing optics technologies, multiple wavelengths of light are combined as a space-saving measure as they carry information. The wavelengths must then be separated again when they reach their destinations. Wavelengths used for these sophisticated applications have very high spectral resolution, meaning the distance between wavelengths is very small. The device that sorts out these crowded wavelengths is called a wavelength-demultiplexer (WD). (read more...)
Hulme SuperCar - the name behind the badge
July 26, 2006 The Hulme Supercar proudly takes the name of the former World F1 Champion, international racing driver and one of New Zealand’s favourite sons, Denny Hulme. In doing so it also takes the name of Hulme’s equally famous father, Clive Hulme. Denny Hulme won eight F1 Grands Prix, two Can-Am titles, and the World Formula One Drivers Championship in 1967. His father Clive achieved war hero status during World War II for his exploits as a sniper-killer operating just behind enemy lines and his Rambo-esque, one-man forays behind enemy lines saw him kill 33 snipers before he was seriously wounded - he remains a living legend to the folks at home. For his “outstanding and inspiring qualities of leadership, initiative, skill, endurance and most conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty,” Clive was awarded the highest medal of military valour, the Victoria Cross. The parallels between father and son make interesting reading. (read more...)
Aldrin Gemini XII / Apollo XI flight suit under the hammer
July 6, 2006 If you’re at all interested in science fiction memorabilia, the upcoming Hollywood Memorabilia auction on eBay might well be worth a look. First up, the star of the show is indeed not scifi but a genuine Buzz Aldrin Gemini XII / Apollo XI flight suit with original rank insignia and mission patches, which was worn during training for both missions by the second person to walk on the moon. It’s the only flight suit of Aldrin’s in private hands and is expected to fetch between US$120,000 and US$150,000. The movie memorabilia which will also go during the auction is quite breathtaking in its breadth and depth, and includes a complete T.I.E fighter pilot outfit from Star Wars, Liam Neeson’s Light Saber from Star Wars - The Phantom Menace, the Proton Pack used by Bill Murray in GhostBusters II, an array of guns, bugs and clothing from StarShip Troopers, and dozens of futuristic gadgets and outfits used in Star Trek. Plus Arnie’s leather jacket from Terminator III and a futurist police helmet from The Fifth Element and … follow the links. (read more...)
The Talking Camera - new handheld electronic reader will change the lives of millions
June 27, 2006 There are 174 million visually impaired people in the world, and we can hardly imagine how overjoyed these people will be to hear of a groundbreaking new device that has been announced by the United States National Federation of the Blind (NFB) - the Kurzweil-NFB Reader. The handheld machine was developed by NFB and renowned inventor Ray Kurzweil, and enables users to take pictures of and read most printed materials. Users hold the device over any print document (such as a letter, bill, restaurant menu, airline ticket, business card, or office memo) and in seconds they hear the contents of the printed document read to them in a clear synthetic voice. Readers go on sale July 1 for US$3,495. Download a brochure here. The invention will once again focus public attention on the inventive mind of Ray Kurzweil which has made significant contributions to human knowledge in the areas of optical character recognition, music synthesis, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence – read about his remarkable career inside. (read more...)
Shuji Nakamura wins the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize
June 18, 2006 The world’s most lucrative technology award, the Millennium Technology Prize, has been awarded to Professor Shuji Nakamura. Nakamura was awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize, including a cash component of one million euros, for his work in developing new sources of light – bright-blue, green and white LEDs and blue lasers. Professor Nakamura’s work has launched a totally-new sector in light-producing semiconductor research, made possible the widescale industrial production of efficient, energy-saving LED lights and created the conditions for applications that improve the quality of human life. His blue lasers have enabled the next generation of optical storage (BluRay and HD-DVD), his LED work has enabled highly efficient lighting systems suitable for significantly reducing consumption of the world’s resources, and his work with ultraviolet LEDs could enable far cheaper and more efficient water purification processes to provide the third world with its most needed commodity (sadly, safe water). Nakamura’s win is also significant in that a significant body of his work related to a high profile patent dispute that challenged the Japanese tradition of selfless devotion to employers. (read more...)
The Pedal Radio
June 10, 2006 The population density of the world’s continents says it all: North America (32 people/sq mile), South America (73), Europe (134), Asia (203), Africa (65) and Australia with just 6.4 people per square mile. Given that 90% of Australia’s population live in large cities in the South Eastern corner, the immense interior known as “the Outback” is one of Australia’s defining features. Eighty years ago, with almost no telecommunication infrastructure beyond the seaboard, the tyranny of distance loomed much larger in the Outback as the nearest doctor could be several thousand miles away, with no method of contacting them in an emergency. Hearing that German WW1 soldiers had used hand-cranked radios for battlefield communications, Alf Traeger set about creating a radio powered by bicycle pedals. The invention of the pedal radio in the late 1920s enabled the famous Flying Doctor service, and offered remote settlements access to telecommunications for th first time, (read more...)
The ezVue Storage System
March 31, 2006 The ezVue is a storage system designed to capitalise on limited space by creating multiple shelves within a single drawer – it’s a bit hard to exp-lain without seeing it, but we hope these diagrams make it clear – it’s actually a very clever and effective storage and organisation product with great potential for the office products market. The clever bit is the patented hinge system and the inventor is currently seeking investors or potential licensees to deliver the product to market. (read more...)
3D Broadcast and Film Technology to feature in Live Patent Auction
March 31, 2006 A fortnight ago we wrote about the plans for Chicago-based merchant bank Ocean Tomo to conduct the world's first, live multi-lot technology patent auction in San Francisco on April 6, 2006 but we didn’t realise that CircleScan would be among the lots on the day. Originally developed by inventor Eddie Paul of EP Industries in El Segundo, CA, the patented CircleScan makes 3D television entertainment a technical and economic reality. Unlike traditional 3D technologies requiring specialized cameras to record stereoscopic images, CircleScan easily attaches to any existing equipment. But what really sets CircleScan apart from all other 3D systems is that it can be delivered with virtually zero-cost of deployment across the entire media landscape: theaters, broadcast, DVDs, Internet and even iPods and cell phones. The picture? That's Circlescan being used to shoot a Victoria's Secret catalogue. (read more...)
The LongPen – landmark distance tool
March 30, 2006 The unveiling of the LongPen at the London Book Fair earlier this month is one of the most important technology stories of 2006. The fact it was conceived and funded in its development by Booker Prize-winning novelist Margaret Atwood seems to have helped to disguise the story from the tabloids. Similarly, the absolute focus of Unotchit on the LongPen as a tool to enable authors to escape the drudgery of book signing tours has been equally myopic – Atwood could not have picked a harder industry in which to pioneer a machine that challenges traditional ways. The LongPen machine threatens the lucrative tradition of book signing tours because it enables the author to sign a book remotely while they chat via videophone with the recipient – all facilitated by the Internet. Viewed with some perspective though, LongPen is the world’s first real-time, remote signing device and will likely find many applications in a world unshackling itself from the tyranny of distance. It is already being adapted to sign basketballs and will be used by entertainers, musicians ad infinitum to sign CD/DVDs and photos remotely. Instead of focussing on how much the value of a signed book is diminished by LongPen, we think Unotchit should forget the book market and go after the burgeoning distance-everything markets where it is a landmark tool that will enable public figures of all types to represent themselves more effectively to the global community. (read more...)
FiberSIM software for designing composite products
March 23, 2006 There can be no more difficult proving ground than Formula One in the design and rapid prototyping of parts, and we have written before about the advanced techniques employed by Renault F1 in building the cars which won the 2005 title and lead the 2006 title. Accordingly, those who study advanced composites are in for a treat at the JEC Composites Show 2006 show to be held later this month at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris, France. Engineering software developer Vistagy will be on hand to show the latest version of its FiberSIM 5.1 design environment for composite products and to have one of their best known customers present not just the Renault F1 race car, but to have the F1 team’s CAD support engineer, Alan Duerden, deliver a presentation entitled “Champion cars, composite parts, and FiberSIM” in the VISTAGY booth. FiberSIM 5.1 provides specialized tools that enable engineers working in commercial CAD systems to automate design processes early in product development. This results in more efficient and accurate manufacture of complex or large composite parts, including products produced in multiple stages. There will also be demonstrations of the new Airframe Design Environment (ADE) which helps engineers design airframe assemblies. (read more...)
Survey of Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Reveals Increased Confidence in Startup Venture Landscape
March 22, 2006 It seems the outlook for entrepreneurial activity is looking good and getting better – at least that’s the result of a survey of current Silicon Valley entrepreneurs conducted earlier this month that shows startup Conditions, valuations and liquidity opportunities have improved in the last six months. According to the survey of entrepreneurs (individuals who are seeking or have sought venture capital funding over the past year ) over two-thirds of respondents indicated they believe conditions for starting a company today are more favourable than they were six months ago, outnumbering those who felt conditions were less favorable by more than a 10-1 ratio. (read more...)
Instant activation program for electronic payment system allows retailers to enrol customers on-site in 2 minutes
March 17, 2006 How many times have you seen a good idea that would offer compelling features and benefits and elected not to join because the process is just too time-consuming? Removing the barriers to entry of such systems is something that marketers have been battling with forever, which is why ExxonMobil’s latest enhancement to its Speedpass electronic payment system is worth a look – it offers a significant step forward in customer convenience. The Speedpass electronic payment system is one of the fastest ways to pay for gas and other purchases at Exxon and Mobil stations across the U.S. The new enhancement utilizes wireless hand held computer technology, to enable enrollment and activation within about two minutes at Exxon and Mobil retail locations or other remote sites. Customers no longer have to initiate the enrollment process using paper applications, wait for the device to be mailed to them, and then call to activate the device. (read more...)
The world's first live multi-lot technology patent auction
March 16, 2006 Many of the things the world’s 6.5 billion inhabitants do every day are done in a certain manner because they’ve always been done that way. In a world that is rapidly changing though, many of the traditional ways are under threat, with the most recent being the way that IP is bought and sold. Chicago-based merchant bank Ocean Tomo is hosting the world's first, live multi-lot technology patent auction at The Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco on April 6, 2006. While some would suggest auctions are the absolute model of economic efficiency, uniting buyers and sellers at just the right price to their mutual benefit, there are those who argue that there is a winner's curse of ALWAYS paying too much at an auction, based on the fact that there will almost always be one or more persons who add irrationality to the model hence making the winning bid too high. If all bidders were truly rational, the winner would not overpay, but they wouldn't win many auctions either. Statistics also suggest that the bigger the universe of bidders, the more overrepresented the true worth will be. Which means that the auction might just be a better way of selling IP. The catalogue is available here, though you'll need to pony up US$500 for a look at the details. (read more...)
Innovative levelling and stabilizing hydraulic system seeks global partner
March 8, 2006 One day about 12 years ago, Tony Pike called in to have a coffee at a friend’s Bondi Trattoria restaurant on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach. As his friend Ross put the coffee on the table, it tilted slightly on the uneven stonework floor and the coffee spilled. Ross looked up as he was adjusting the table legs with some folded cardboard, and he said to Tony, “whoever solves this table stability problem will become a billionaire - it’s the biggest single problem in hospitality worldwide.” A decade later, after working on the problem on-and-off between other projects, Tony finally solved the problem by developing an innovative, levelling and stabilizing hydraulic system which is now patented as the FLAT (Fluid Locking & Adjustment Technology) system. FLAT is based upon an interconnected series of hydraulic actuators to provide horizontal support on uneven surfaces and then locks to provide stability at the chosen level or angle the user requires. What was conceived as a table and chair stabilisation system for the hospitality industry appears to have potential for solving problems in many military and aviation situations, with dozens of domestic and industrial applications (see demonstration movies) seeking the system. (read more...)
Industrial Archeology - designers and engineers preserve history using CAD to recreate products that no longer exist
March 7, 2006 Museums and history buffs have begun using CAD software for an exciting new application - breathing life into centuries past. "Industrial archeology" is the study and re-creation of machines, parts, vehicles, and buildings that may have vanished, been destroyed, gone obsolete, or perhaps never existed at all. The practice combines art, history, craftsmanship, and, in a new twist, computer-aided design. Industrial archeologists like Californian William L. Gould use SolidWorks software as an efficient, mechanically faithful way to illustrate, in three dimensions and myriad individual components, a piece of lost history. Gould’s (pictured) full-color 3D CAD model of the 1879 Mason Bogie steam locomotive, is rendered in SolidWorks and PhotoWorks software, and exists only as a 3D CAD model with hundreds of discrete parts. It is available as a fine art lithographic print or a set of plans in exacting detail. (read more...)
Deflexion - the board game with a high-tech twist
March 2, 2006 Deflexion is an electronic board game with a high tech twist that we suspect has the oomph to compete with heavyweight classic board games such as Monopoly, chess and chequers, as it combines the strategic appeal and universality of chess with modern technology yielding an innovative and instantly engaging game experience. It’s played on a board similar to that of chess and the Egyptian-themed game pieces include obelisks, pyramids with mirrors and a Pharaoh, which needs to be protected in a similar way to the King in chess. Surrounding the board is a raised frame into which are built two low-power lasers, one for each player. After each move, the player presses the button to fire up the laser beam, which bounces from mirror to mirror around the playing field. The challenge is to protect one's own pharaoh while maneuvering to "light up" the opposing player's pharaoh. (read more...)
