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Putting the brakes on running red lights - Mercedes Benz 'Smart Stop' technology
By Mick Webb
02:16 October 16, 2009 PDT
Taking driver-assist technology to the next level is the “Smart Stop” system currently in development by Mercedes Benz. The wireless safety system, which allows intersections to communicate with vehicles, would automatically cause a car to stop at a red light should a driver fail to heed it. Read More
Like a fish out of water - Nissan unveil EPORO robot car concept
By Mick Webb
21:13 October 7, 2009 PDT
Taking its cue from under the sea, Nissan has revealed the latest offering in its ongoing Safety Shield line of research and development, aimed at making our roads and vehicles safer and smarter. Programmed to think and move like a school of fish, Nissan’s EPORO robot car prototypes move in unison as a group while communicating to avoid collision. Read More
Google investigating smart charging solution for electric vehicles
By Paul Ridden
02:52 October 5, 2009 PDT
A lesser-known fact about the operator of the world's most popular Internet search engine is that it's been running a small fleet of hybrid vehicles for the past few years to support its effort to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. Google engineers have put the cars through numerous tests to both prove and improve electric vehicle technology whilst publishing the results on the Internet. More recently, Google has confirmed that the fleet is currently running smart software to enable communication between the grid and the vehicles. Read More
Intel Point-of-Sale by Frog Design: How shopping should be
By Paul Ridden
17:16 September 28, 2009 PDT
Internet shopping is a true marvel of the modern age. Not only does it open up whole new worlds of temptation but it can also save you money. And it does away with annoying or incompetent sales personnel. Despite all of its benefits, buying online is somewhat lacking in one important area - you can't try before you buy, something particularly important when shopping for your clothes. However, with the Point-Of-Sale kiosk concept from Intel, the two experiences might at last find common ground to become the much-needed savior of High Street shopping. Read More
Smart Grid City now online
By Paul Ridden
16:18 September 16, 2009 PDT
Boulder, Colorado has just become the world's first city to benefit from an intelligent power supply monitoring system. The Smart Grid City system aims to make outages easier to predict and/or prevent, manage power flow throughout the infrastructure and give customers greater access to energy information and more control over how much they use. Xcel Energy constantly monitors the grid network for any irregularities, allowing the company to fix problems before they happen. Read More
Old meets new in the form of the YikeBike
By Paul Ridden
15:10 September 7, 2009 PDT
So what do you do when you challenge yourself to come up with a design to make traveling around busy, congested cities as easy and stress-free as possible? According to the folks behind the YikeBike - which was officially launched at Eurobike 2009 trade fair in Friedrichshafen Germany this month - you start with a blank sheet of paper, throw a good-sized front wheel in for stability, swap pedals for a brushless electric motor and abandon the familiar forward-leaning riding position of the bicycle altogether. Read More
Tests on reducing glare and fingerprints from touch screen devices
By Jeff Salton
23:04 August 27, 2009 PDT
Big touch screens, like those used on smart phones and portable media devices, are great … unless the sun is out. Then the glare can be a killer, rendering some devices next to useless. Scientists have developed a test for analyzing reflection-resistant coatings to make using touch screen devices easier. The research also includes defining a better smudge-resistant coating to deter ugly fingerprints and scratches from screens and surfaces. Read More
The remote-controlled kitchen arrives
By Jeff Salton
17:27 August 6, 2009 PDT
Ever since home automation systems were invented, manufacturers have been looking at ways to integrate the technology into the busiest room of the house – the kitchen. But apart from the original Internet fridge (with its frightening price tag and lack of functionality) useful products have been few and far between. Not to be deterred, Anvil Motion has created a kitchen where, by choosing say, the ‘baking’ scene on a touch panel remote control, the cupboard doors slide vertically to reveal the oven, the utensils, the ingredients and the recipe books … all in unison. Read More
Virtual co-drivers will make trucks of the future safer
By Jeff Salton
06:55 August 4, 2009 PDT
Trucks of the future could be equipped with an on-board digital co-driver to help the human behind the wheel, or even take over if the driver loses control. The HAVEit project (short for Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport) has 28 million euros (USD$40 million) at its disposal and is aiming to develop an intelligent driver assist system that responds to both traffic conditions and drivers' needs. Read More
Nissan’s 2010 EV in detail
By Jeff Salton
07:34 July 29, 2009 PDT
Nissan has showcased its electric vehicle (EV) platform on a Tiida-based hatchback model. The Nissan EV-11 prototype seats four-five adults, has a top speed of around 87mph (140kmh), a cruising range of 100 miles (160km) between charges and, being a full EV, produces zero local CO2 emissions. The in-house developed electric motor delivers 80kW (107hp) for “high response and powerful acceleration”. Nissan has also plans some clever IT for its EV platform, like remote ON/OFF charging via a cell phone or the Internet, useful mapping features including automatic updates on the nearest charging stations, a global data center providing 24/7 support and a scheme that could even see non-contact charging introduced in carparks. Read More
Light Tape: bending light... and other applications
By Jeff Salton
19:48 June 30, 2009 PDT
Think of a light bulb you can wrap around your finger or roll-out to create a display that would rival the Griswalds' efforts in Christmas Vacation. Light Tape is an extremely flexible lighting strip that has seemingly more applications than LED or neon lighting systems. Thinner than a credit card, and with a bend radius of 2mm, Light Tape can go just about anywhere – indoors and outdoors. It’s even wearable. Read More
Smart sprinkling with Cyber-rain
By Paul Ridden
04:29 June 26, 2009 PDT
With the return of Summer comes the now familiar imposition of water restrictions and the unwelcome return of headaches for gardeners and nursery managers alike. Fortunately, pain relief for lovers of all things horticultural is available in the form of clever green tech known as smart irrigation, which plugs in to online weather information to optimize garden watering and minimize waste. Timing being everything in business (as well as comedy), smart sprinkler manufacturer Cyber-Rain has recently upgraded its range to add more independent zone control, better wireless communication, a simple and clear interface and an enhanced software solution. Read More
illumi-knob helps you find doors in the dark
00:56 June 24, 2009 PDT
If you’ve ever stumbled around a room at night trying to find the door, the illumi-knob will strike you as simply brilliant. Designed to fit over most door handles, the device uses a passive infra-red sensor to detect any movement within 10 feet and then turn on two gentle LED light rings. It’s not bright enough to wake anyone, but more than enough to get you safely to - and through - the door. Read More
Electric smart ready for small series production
By Mike Hanlon
15:43 June 22, 2009 PDT
Following a four-year U.K. trial of 100 electric smart fortwo electric drive cars which began late 2007, Daimler has decided to produce a limited run of the fully electric eco vehicle which will become available in 2010. The 30kW smart ed (electric drive) uses lithium-ion battery technology to power itself to an electronically limited top speed of 60 mph and is as simple to drive as a dodgem car. With no gear changes required, the diminutive smart can reach 30 mph in a respectable 6.5 seconds, making it ideal as a city car with short stints on the freeway. Read More
SFC Portable Fuel Cell lightens the soldier's load
By Mick Webb
17:58 April 21, 2009 PDT
Soldiers operating in remote locations face a considerable heavy equipment burden, a significant proportion of which can be attributed to the need for a portable power supply. Fuel cells are seen as a key solution to this problem and the JENNY system, which has just been commercially released for defense applications by German mobile power application company SFC Smart Fuel Cell, promises to reduce weight by around 80% compared with lithium-ion batteries. Read More
NASA investigating the SMART shape changing helicopter rotor
By David Greig
20:04 March 26, 2009 PDT
Can you imagine a world full of large, relatively quiet rotorcraft making short hops between cities such as New York and Washington, carrying as many as 100 passengers at a time in comfort and safety? This, amongst other technological improvements, would require helicopters with greatly improved rotor blade efficiency, allowing them to travel much quieter, smoother and further with the same amount of fuel. NASA is currently conducting research in their wind tunnels on the SMART rotor hub, which has rotor blades made with shape-changing materials that could one day make this scenario a reality. Read More
Self inspecting bridges could save lives
By Jamilah Le
23:58 March 15, 2009 PDT
From mundane traffic overpasses to marvelous feats of soaring engineering, bridges are something we tend to take for granted - until something goes wrong that is. A team from the University of Michigan is leading a five-year, $19 million project to engineer an intelligent infrastructure monitoring system designed to prevent tragedies like the collapse of the Interstate 35 West bridge over the Mississippi river in 2007 in which 13 people were killed and 145 were injured. Read More
Sentience intelligent cruise control demonstrated: you steer, it works the pedals
By Loz Blain
00:39 March 12, 2009 PDT
The driverless car of the future is getting closer every day, as more and more technologies come along that take critical jobs away from the driver and put them in the hands of lightning-fast, all-seeing computers. One of the latest and most ambitious of these systems has just been successfully demonstrated in the UK; the Sentience system is a kind of hyper-intelligent cruise control system designed specifically to minimize fuel consumption and emissions. It calculates the best route for you based on traffic, topography, curves, speed limits and a host of other information, and then actually takes over the throttle and brakes for you for the entire journey. It keeps you strictly within speed limits, slows down for corners, speed bumps and roundabouts, and it even knows when the lights ahead are about to turn red, so you don't waste petrol accelerating towards a stop point. Fuel savings in testing have been between 5% and 24% - a very significant figure - and Sentience is expected to be available on production cars, for a minimal cost, as soon as 2012. Incredible stuff. Read More
The Smart phone - Maxwell Smart that is
By David Greig
17:16 March 5, 2009 PST
The vision of Agent 86 mumbling into his shoe is one of the most endearing images from the slapstick 60s spy series Get Smart, but an Australian scientist who has built a working version of the shoe phone using 21st century technology sees serious applications for this kind of device in the medical field. Read More
Smart fortwo BRABUS electric drive
By Paul Evans
17:48 March 4, 2009 PST
Following on from the cosmetically customized version of the Tesla Roadster which debuted at the Essen Motor Show 2008, German tuning house BRABUS has seen the writing on the wall and launched a second electric car, this time based on a Smart fortwo. Drowned in matt green throughout the exterior and interior, the car comes with the same style monoblock light-alloy wheels and the (somewhat gimmicky) LED Daytime running lights as used on the Tesla, as well as some real technical innovation in the drive train. Read More
Tessera showcases intelligent face-tracking technologies for phone cameras
22:19 March 3, 2009 PST
The camera on your mobile phone might be about to see the next major upgrade to its software and image processing capabilities. Tessera Technologies has demonstrated several intelligent scene analysis technologies aimed at simplifying the process of taking quality pictures from your mobile phone. FotoNation is designed to improve image quality of the camera on the software side, while still keeping mobile picture taking fast and easy. Read More
Mercedes Benz BlueZERO EV on show in Detroit
By Paul Evans
04:13 January 21, 2009 PST
We first encountered the Mercedes-Benz BlueZERO concept vehicle platform when it was announced in December and recently we had chance to take a closer look at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Read More
BMW working on multi-functional Smart Key
By Emily Clark
23:16 October 23, 2008 PDT
BMW Group Research and NXP Semiconductors have developed a prototype multifunctional car key that can incorporate contactless payment, personalized access control and even functions like public transport e-ticketing. Creating new usage scenarios for future consumers, the prototype is powered by NXP’s SmartMX security chip and allows drivers to perform quick, secure and convenient electronic payments using their car key. Read More
Smart cars to be trialed in city mobility scheme
By Emily Clark
23:54 October 21, 2008 PDT
In a progressive move that shares similarities to bike sharing schemes currently operating in some European cities, Daimler is looking to combat urban road congestion with car2go, a new program to be trialed in Germany which will utilize a microchip system in order for members to access environmentally friendly Smart cars. Read More
2008 Paris Motor Show round-up
19:37 October 19, 2008 PDT
As the curtain falls on the Paris Motor Show for 2008 we take a look back at some of the biggest surprises and brightest innovations to emerge from this massive global automotive extravaganza. As a starting point it's hard to go past Lamborghini, which emulated its 2007 most-talked-about crown by showing its Estoque concept. As a mid-engined four-door coupé with a V10 motor and permanent four-wheel drive, it's not really eco-inspired but a weapon to behold for the family man. Mazda definitely made our short-list for the most striking design with the aerodynamic Kiyora Urban compact and Citroen also floated some compelling concepts including the colorful Hypnos luxury hybrid crossover and the virtual-meets-real-world GTbyCITROEN which will appear on-screen in the next installment of Gran Turismo. Read More
rob yates
- November 26, 2009 @ 12:49 UTC
