Archive for June, 2010
Chemical sensors printed on elastic could lead to ‘smart’ underwear
“Why use underpants? As the elastic on underpants has tight contact and direct exposure with the skin it allows for direct sweat monitoring via the chemical-sensing electrodes. And it seems elastic is a hardy textile. Engineers at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering discovered that even after aggressive testing by stretching, folding and pulling, the chemical sensors printed on the elastic still retained their sensing ability and could detect hydrogen peroxide and NADH – two compounds that sensors in “smart’ systems will need to recognize.”
Gizmag
Largest Sheet Of Graphene Produced, Can Be Used For Flexible Touchscreens
“…thanks to recent breakthroughs, researchers at Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University in Korea have produced a continuous layer of pure graphene the size of a television using a roll-to-roll process to spool graphene on top of a polyester sheet […] A flexible touchscreen using graphene to make the screen’s transparent electrodes has already been developed and already outclasses the current material, indium tin oxide. Where indium tin oxide is expensive and brittle, graphene is cheaper, stronger, faster and flexible”
Gizmodo
California weighs ‘digital adverts’ on number plates
“At least one firm, in San Francisco, is developing an electronic number plate that would scroll adverts while a car is stopped at lights and in congestion. The company, Smart Plate, holds a patent on the technology but has yet to produce a demonstration model. “We’re just trying to find creative ways of generating additional revenues,” said Democratic Senator Curren Price of Los Angeles, who introduced the legislation to explore whether to adopt the new plates. ”
BBC News
MIT Uses Carbon Nanotubes to Boost Lithium Battery Power 10x
“An intrepid team of researchers at MIT have made a remarkable find in lithium battery technology – by using carbon nanotubes as one of a battery’s electrodes, they can increase the amount of power it can deliver by up to 10 times (compared to a conventional lithium-ion battery).”
Inhabitat
YourNextRead: A Web Of Books
“YourNextRead is a user-driven web application that recommends the book you should read next based on the ones you have recently finished. Inputting the name of the book you’ve just read will generate a web of eight related books based on other people’s book recommendations, with Amazon rankings and a link to purchase the book on Amazon. Clicking on any of the books to learn more about it will generate a new web that’s based on that book.”
PSFK
visualcomplexity.com
“Authors tracked the number of times a song was quoted in Twitter messages as an indicator of its ‘ratings’ in the world in order to create a parallel rating system. As the authors explain, these new ‘music charts’ could give us a more accurate insight into the perceived ‘value’ of the song. These ‘grassroot’ charts are based on the influence of songs on people?s everyday lives, on the real emotions they evoke, and on the associations they create in people?s minds, unlike official music industry charts that are primarily based on album sales and the commercial success of the artist.”
Twitter Lyrics
Soluto Offers a Program to Fix Those Irritating PC Delays
“Now Soluto, a company based in Tel Aviv, aims to help these PC owners with an unusual program intended to minimize irritating slowdowns. The software runs in the background on PCs, collecting data on delays in program responses and sending the information to company servers for analysis, said Tomer Dvir, a co-founder and the chief executive. As its first service, the company is offering a free program intended to solve a classic computer problem: a slow boot or start-up time. (The program is at the company’s Web site, www.soluto.com.) ”
NYTimes.com
Implantable & wearable monitoring devices for the tech-savvy generation
“Jarno Riistama from Tampere University of Technology (TUT) believes that an increase in health problems as a result of modern living will encourage us to be more health conscious. However, he estimates it will be another ten years or so before implantable measurement devices for human use are commercially available because of the rigorous testing and approval processes. In addition to the implantable devices, researchers at Tampere have developed wearable ‘strips’ that measure functions such as EKG directly from the skin. The signals, which are comparable to those produced by existing measurement devices such as pulse counters, are sent wirelessly from the device, removing the need for cumbersome cables.”
Gizmag
Forth Valley Royal Hospital to use robot ‘workers’
“A hospital in Scotland is to become the first in the UK to use a fleet of robots to carry out day-to-day tasks. The robots will carry clinical waste, deliver food, clean the operating theatre and dispense drugs. They are currently undergoing final tests ahead of the August opening of the new £300m Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Stirlingshire. The robots will have their own dedicated network of corridors underneath the hospital.”
BBC News
jeff mills’ collaboration with yuri suzuki: digital-analog hybrid disc
“suzuki proposed the idea of the disc to DJ jeff mills for his new music project ‘the occurence’. the result is a disc with a vinyl press-on on one side and a CD mix on the other, merging analog and digital music formats into one. the disc has been produced by AXIS records and manufactured by german company optimal media production. mills’ digital-analog album is finally on the market in a limited edition.”
DesignBoom
Go with the Flow
“Go with the Flow is a tangible user interface that allows you to visualize and filter incoming emails. Divided into three categories by tags (work, family, and friends), the emails are represented by colored water drops from 3 tanks and 3 different tubes. You are able to decide the amount of emails from the different categories you want to receive in your inbox. The concept, even if meant to be a statement object, helps people working from home better divide their personal and work lives. This creates a liquid membrane instead of a solid barrier.”
New Ways of Interaction
OnObject System
“Program any physical objects and surfaces into a gestural interface. RFID + accelerometer + gesture recognition + developer API.”
New Ways of Interaction
david bowen: tele-present wind
“the piece consists of 21 x/y tilting devices that are connected to dried plant stalks inside the gallery and a dried plant stalk connected to an accelerometer installed outdoors. as the stalk outside begins to sway in the wind, the forces on it are measured by the accelerometer, which transmits the data in real time to the stalks inside. this forces the tilting device to mimic the swaying of the plant outside so that all the stalks are in-sync.”
DesignBoom
Light & Shadow: Tabletop Augmented Reality
“The project plays on the fact that shadows present distorted silhouettes depending on the light. Augmented Shadows take the distortion effect into the realm of fantasy. The shadow is an interface metaphor connecting the virtual world and users. Second, the unexpected user experience results from manipulating the users’ visual perceptions, expectations, and imagination to inspire re-perception and new understanding. Augmented Shadow utilizes this unique interface metaphor for interactive storytelling.”
PSFK
How Harmonix Is Tricking Lazy Gamers Into Learning Real Instruments
“But even more so, you can use a full, real Fender guitar in the game as well…with actual strings…even plugged into an amp. Instead of digitizing the air guitar, Harmonix (with the help of Mad Catz and Fender) has digitized the real guitar. The game will still show you the “buttons” to press, but now they’re a combination of real frets and strings, a modern take on tabs (labeled with real chord names) with a whole lot more eye candy and real time performance feedback. It’s not wholly different than the Rock Band interface you know—therein lies its particular genius: By slowly building vocals, keyboards and other new functions into Rock Band, Harmonix gateway-drugged us into reading a new style of music.”
Gizmodo
Small Vehicles Self-Assemble To Create A Powerful Aircraft
“Researchers at the ETH Zurich’s Institute for Dynamics Systems and Control have developed the “Distributed Flight Array”, a flying platform consisting of multiple autonomous single propeller vehicles that are able to dock with one another to create a larger and more powerful aircraft. The individual vehicles of the DFA have their own propellers to lift them into the air, but have an uncontrolled and erratic flight pattern . However, these vehicles can join together to become a larger flight platform capable of maintaining a coordinated flight by sharing data to determine how much thrust is needed for the DFA to take-off”
PSFK
RhinoSpike Teaches You Foreign Languages by Hearing Native Speakers
“RhinoSpike’s set-up is rather clever. Instead of providing the service themselves (and thus having to make it a pay service), users record their own voice for other users. After you submit your text request, another RhinoSpike user that speaks that language will record their voice saying it, and send it back to you in the form of an audio file that you can play instantly or take with you. Responding to other users’ requests bumps up your submissions in the queue, so you can get your answers faster.”
Lifehacker
Thermoelectric wellies charge festival-goers’ phones
“Created by Orange in collaboration with GotWind, Orange Power Wellies target Glastonbury Festival attendees with a power-generating sole that converts heat from the wearer’s feet into an electrical current that can be used to charge a mobile phone. Twelve hours of frolicking at the festival in the thermoelectric boots provides enough power to charge a phone for one hour; for longer charging, festival-goers can head over to the dance tent for hotter feet and extra charge.”
Springwise
Attachable tablet adds digital data to cemetery headstones
“RosettaStone is a palm-sized stone tablet with an embedded microchip and up to six engraved symbols that can be selected to represent key milestones or affiliations in the deceased’s life. The brainchild of Arizona-based Objecs LLC, the RosettaStone can be preinstalled in a new gravestone or added to an existing one to create a technologically enhanced memorial that will allow future site visitors to read the deceased’s story from a mobile device. Both photos and text can be linked with any RosettaStone, including genealogical information, achievements and relationships or even favourite recipes and philosophical beliefs. Using NFC-RFID technology, an enabled phone need only be touched to the tablet to display its associated information; for phones that are not NFC-enabled, the information can be accessed via an associated URL.”
Springwise
Online gardening service sends seeds when it’s time to plant
“Aspiring gardeners begin by telling SproutRobot their ZIP code, and the site generates a personalized planting calendar for that area based on historical weather data. From there, users choose whether they want to buy their own seeds and simply receive planting reminders from the site—that service is free—or whether they want to receive certified organic heirloom seeds and instructions whenever it’s time to plant. Pricing on the latter option ranges from USD 19.99 per year for a “Patio Garden” service including up to three varieties and a few small harvests per year to USD 59.99 per year for the “Family Garden” service with up to 10 varieties and veggies several times each week for a family.”
Springwise
Audi Sound Concept: one car, 62 speakers
“To help bring a physical principle called “wave field synthesis” to the automobile, the company has crammed a standard Audi Q7 with 62 speakers – five woofers and five tweeters plus 52 mid-range speakers. Wave field synthesis is a spatial audio rendering technique whereby “artificial” wave fronts are synthesized by a large number of individually driven speakers. Such wave fronts seem to originate from a virtual starting point and, unlike traditional spatialization techniques such as stereo, the localization of the virtual sources doesn’t depend or change with the listener’s position. In other words the entire interior of the car would be a “sweet spot”.”
Gizmag
wieki somers: consume or conserve
“her project ‘consumer or conserve’ evaluates this notion of a second-life. she considers, how human ashes can be reused by means of rapid prototyping or 3D printing, so that we may afford someone a ‘second life’ as a rocking chair, vacuum cleaner, perhaps even a toaster? would we become more attached to these objects if this was the case? would our willingness to pay more for a product increase if it is made from human tissue or ashes?”
DesignBoom
Japan unfurls Ikaros solar sail in space
“Ikaros will demonstrate the principle of using sunlight as a simple and efficient means of propulsion. The technique has long been touted as a way of moving spacecraft around the Solar System using no chemical fuels. The mission team will be watching to see if Ikaros produces a measurable acceleration, and how well its systems are able to steer the craft through space. ”
BBC News
Manga News: Current Events in Comic Strip Format
“Japanese website ‘Manga No Shimbun‘ presents the day’s current events in comic strip format – from the release of the new iPhone to the story of that smoking Sumatran toddler. Editor Son Yang collects information about the day’s biggest news stories from TV, the internet and his own sources and distributes it to a team of in-house and contract artists, who spend an average of eight hours on each 2-page news piece.”
Design + Ideas on WU
A Series of Walks/A Series of Walks (Displaced)
“Schelling attached 10 cameras to her body and tread the streets of New York with robotic movements, mimicking Google’s cameras and recording a nearly 360-degree view of where she went. For the installation, Schelling built a telephone-booth sized box for the viewer to enter. With six projectors, the videos were played on the walls, simulating the Street View digital environment. A laptop adjacent of the box showed footage of her walking. Exhibited at ITP’s Thesis Week in May, you can watch a clip of the installation and Schelling’s performance here.”
Cool Hunting
HP Launches Geo-Tagging Application
“Gloe is a cloud service that can tag billions of web pages with location data and offers a user-generated recommendation system for identifying location-relevant web content. Among its several applications, it can be used for discovering local news, taking virtual tours, searching local businesses or sharing geo-tagged pages with friends. Users can filter web pages according to friends’ recommendations, popularity or distance.”
PSFK
Chinese scientists create mini ‘black hole’
“Researchers at Southeast University in Nanjing, China have created a device that traps and absorbs electromagnetic waves coming from all directions, spiraling them inwards without any reflections, essentially creating an electromagnetic black hole. Qiang Cheng and Tie Jun Cui’s “omnidirectional electromagnetic absorber” draws in microwaves coming from any direction by spiraling radiation inwards, and converting its energy into heat. They plan on developing a device that can absorb visible light next.”
Gizmag
Wearable Technology: LED Compass Skirt
“The skirt contains 8 rows of 4 LEDs each, powered by a 9v battery and has a digital compass which lights up a particular row of LEDs pointing north. At the heart of the technology behind this skirt is a flexible soft-circuit board and a haptic compass kit called North Paw.”
PSFK
Toshiba’s Gesture-Based User Interface
“The UI puts a transparent image of yourself onto your screen, and from there it will display a menu and some content that you can manipulate. From there, you’ll be able to move your transparent self around the screen, where you’ll be able to interact with what’s there just by simple gestures, like flicking through pictures in a photo gallery.”
PSFK
Who’s your doggy’s daddy? Find out with the DNA Breed ID Kit
“Just like similar tests intended for humans, all that’s required is taking a cheek swab of saliva from Fido and sending it off to the BioPet Vet Lab. There the sample will be analyzed and a determination of the breeds that have contributed to the makeup of your dog will be made. The whole process from receipt of the sample to a detailed report landing on your doorstep should take less than two weeks. The company says it believes that 92.5% of the mixed breed dog population in the USA is covered by its 62 validated breeds – with more breeds being added all the time.”
Gizmag
GPS Device Helps Domestic Violence Victims Avoid Their Abusers
“It works via a movement-tracking ankle bracelet that the abuser is required to wear. The victim then gets a cellphone-like device that tracks their location. If the abuser comes within a certain distance, a text or call is sent to the victim or the police.”
Gizmodo
The Zamani Project
“Africa’s neglected architectural heritage is being recorded in striking 3D images by the Zamani project. The project, run by the University of Cape Town, uses high-tech laser scans, photography and conventional surveying to meticulously record database of African heritage sites and landscapes. The aim is to build an exhaustive database of spatial data from 50 important structures in Ghana, Mali, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa. ”
ICON MAGAZINE
Historypin
“Historypin is a like a digital time machine that allows people to view and share their personal history in a totally new way. It uses Google Maps and Street View technology and hopes to become the largest user-generated archive of the world’s historical images and stories. Historypin asks the public to dig out, upload and pin their own old photos, as well as the stories behind them, onto the Historypin map. Uniquely, Historypin lets you layer old images onto modern Street View scenes, giving a series of peaks into the past. ”
Historypin | About
Sony demonstrates eye-tracking glasses designed for ‘lifelogging’
“it looks like Sony could one day make the process a whole lot easier if an actual product ever results from these prototype glasses, which combine eye-tracking technology with an outward-facing camera. That, Sony says, allows the camera to detect and record objects (or people, for that matter) that you’re looking at, and even recognize and copy text that you’re reading. Sony apparently isn’t quite done with the idea just yet, however, and says that it also plans to add some GPS capabilities and, of course, embed the device in the frame of the glasses.”
Engadget
The Kno, a Tablet for the College Market
“The device has two, 14-inch screens, which are big enough to display two facing textbook pages without requiring students to scroll up and down to see the entire pages. It will also have a stylus that will allow students to take notes. It weighs about 5.5 pounds, with each slab of the tablet a little thicker than half an inch. In addition to the ability to view textbooks, the Kno gives students a desktop full of tools to organize their college lives, like calendars and folders for each of their courses where they can view textbooks but also store notes and videos and highlight passages in the books.”
NYTimes.com
Analytics tools help music bands uncover local demand
“Just launched into beta earlier this month, GigsWiz includes a website, a Facebook application and a software widget. The Facebook app and widget are both for collecting data—specifically, during GigsWiz’s beta period, they’re focused on asking fans, “where do you want us to play live?” The app is designed for the band’s Facebook fan page, while the widget can be installed on the band’s own website or MySpace page. Responses to that question can then be viewed plotted on a map or as charts and lists. Either way, the results show where interest is greatest for a live performance, enabling the band to make better decisions on when and where to play. Not only that, but the data can also help sell gigs to gig organizers, who are more likely to be convinced that the demand will be there.”
Springwise
Jules Verne Book Comes With QR Codes For 21st Century Footnotes
“A special-edition of Jules Verne‘s Around The World In 80 Days has been published with QR codes included at various points of the book. Pointing an iPhone (loaded with Ubimark’s app), the codes take you to relevant sites for context. It’s like the 21st century version of footnotes, I guess you could say. When you turn the page and see a QR code, the app recognizes it, and whizzes you off to a website for sidenotes, historical information and even discussions about that particular section.”
Gizmodo
Dolphin uses iPad as way to communicate with humans
“For now, the researchers are getting Merlin used to the touch screen by showing him real objects, such as a ball, cube or plastic duck, then asking the dolphin to touch photos of those same objects on the screen. “This is an easy task for a dolphin, but it is a necessary building block towards our goal of a complete language interface between humans and dolphins,” Kassewitz said. ”
Boing Boing
Real life version of Minority Report’s user interface
“John Underkoffler led the team that came up with this interface, called the g-speak Spatial Operating Environment. His company, Oblong Industries, was founded to move g-speak into the real world. Oblong is building apps for aerospace, bioinformatics, video editing and more. But the big vision is ubiquity: g-speak on every laptop, every desktop, every microwave oven, TV, dashboard. “It has to be like this,” he says. “We all of us every day feel that. We build starting there. We want to change it all.”"
Boing Boing
Police investigate Habbo Hotel virtual furniture theft
“Finnish police are investigating up to 400 cases of theft, with some members reporting the loss of up to €1000 (£840) worth of virtual furniture and other items, according to Detective Sergeant Marko Levonen. “We have done five home searches in five cities in Finland,” he said. This is not the first time Habbo Hotel, which allows users to meet friends and buy virtual goods, has been targeted.”
BBC News
Nokia Instant Community Enables Hyper-Local Social Networking
“Nokia Instant Community provides an instant way for communities to socially interact when in close proximity, without the need for Internet service. The technology, still in the research stage, and being developed by the Nokia Research Center and Tampere University of Technology, uses the device’s ad hoc wifi to connect with several devices across a location. The application could be used to chat, share pictures, songs and contact information with those nearby.”
PSFK
Defence lab reveals ultimate CCTV
“The camera was already trained on the two insurgents before the people watching the monitors had even spotted them. As they parked their vehicles and removed a large package from the back, it zoomed in and followed them. The two men moved across a patch of vegetation that made them trickier to see, so the surveillance monitor automatically switched to thermal imaging and followed them closely as they tried to conceal themselves behind a building. ”
BBC News
Recognizr
“A TAT Cascades powered prototype of the Augmented ID concept. Accurate mobile face detection and recognition using Polar Rose’s FaceLib. Recognizr shows how powerful computer vision and 3D graphics can be used to create fast, precise and aesthetic augmented reality. This prototype runs on Android.”
YouTube
Soft Sensors
“Her thesis, Soft Sensors, fuses the digital world with physical experience by creating computer controls out of felt. With so much anxiety about an increasingly digital existence, her project refreshingly points out the potential for truly warm and fuzzy interfaces. Using soft circuitry, Grant made an array of felt housings that—when stretched, squeezed, prodded or poked—change the electronic resistance which feeds into a computer.”
Cool Hunting
More and more complex pedometer games
“It uses a currency known as “watts”, which are obtained as the player walks with the device. Every 20 steps will earn the player one watt. It can communicate with other Pokéwalkers. Exchanges are not limited merely to watts, but also items and Pokémon. When players transfer a Pokémon from their game into their Pokéwalker, they can select which route they would like to take their Pokémon along. Depending on which route the player takes (such as in a grassland or by the sea), they will encounter different wild Pokémon and items. When players first begin their journeys with the Pokéwalker, the list of routes they can select from is short. But, the more players take a stroll with their Pokémon, the more routes will appear and the more Pokémon and items they will be able to get.”
Pasta&Vinegar
Another Way to Keep Track of the Elderly
“But another monitoring company disagrees. MobileHelp, based in Boca Raton, offers many of the same features as Lifeline: a base station and pendant, plus helpful live operators always available. But it also provides a separate mobile device with a built-in speaker that can be used to summon help, wherever there’s a cellular signal. Push a button, and a few seconds later an operator is on the line.”
NYTimes.com
piano gloves
“the design is composed of two digitally enhanced gloves that use arduino and processing to track the player’s movements and create the corresponding piano notes. the user puts on the gloves and then plays the piano on any flat surface, such as a desk or table. the gloves are spatially aware and can know what notes the user is intending to play.”
Design Boom
Observations: Tiny radio transmitters track flight of tropical orchid bees
“A group of researchers now has acquired far more specific data, attaching tiny, 300-milligram radio transmitters to the backs of male orchid bees (Exaerete frontalis) to track their movements.
The bees clocked in at an average of 9.5 meters per minute, usually logging more than three hours of air time a flight. The longest flight recorded was nearly two kilometers, and one intrepid bee soared over the Panama Canal, eventually ending up some five kilometers away before returning days later closer to where it had been caught.”
Scientific American
Wake Up World: A Social Alarm Clock
“The recently-developed iPhone app, which costs $0.99, supplies you with a username and secret code upon registering. You then share your secret code with other Wake Up World users, who can send you videos which appear at the time you set your alarm to “wake” you.”
PSFK
High-tech drivers ed for digitally savvy teens
“Its full USD 1,495 package aimed at beginning teen drivers, for instance, includes four 90-minute sessions on a state-of-the-art driving simulator, which lets students experience routine and extreme driving situations without risk to themselves or others. New drivers learn how to drive in rain, snow, fog and darkness on both suburban streets and highways; they also experience the consequences of texting while driving, going too fast or running a red light.”
Springwise
iPhone app lets users earn cash for small tasks
“Most listed jobs are in everyday locations where agents live; examples include collecting retail pricing and display information, event images, photos of items for sale and consumer surveys that can be completed anywhere an iPhone can be used. The Field Agent software uses the iPhone’s built-in tools to provide clients with information including agent history, GPS location, time and date stamps, and photo confirmations. Payments can range from USD 3 to USD 8, depending on the job’s degree of difficulty.”
Springwise
First human ‘infected with computer virus’
“Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading had a chip inserted in his hand which was then infected with a virus. The device, which enables him to pass through security doors and activate his mobile phone, is a sophisticated version of ID chips used to tag pets. In trials, Dr Gasson showed that the chip was able to pass on the computer virus to external control systems. If other implanted chips had then connected to the system they too would have been corrupted, he said. ”
BBC News
Sony Rollable OLED Display debuts at SID 2010
“Sony is exhibiting a rollable OLED display at the SID 2010. The 4.1-inch rollable display is only 80 micrometer thin and offers a resolution of 121ppi and full color. ”
I4U News
Adidas Match Tracker: Experience Soccer Games Like a Data Geek
“Adidas Match Tracker [adidas.com] succeeds in demonstrating the incredibly rich and detailed dataset that is generated during each single international soccer game. Each meaningful event, such as each pass, each shot, each block or each goal, has been tracked and recorded for the full 90 minutes of a typical match. The Match Tracker thus provides sports statistics enthusiasts and data addicts alike the power to explore and analyze a match from a completely different perspective.”
information aesthetics
The Entire Web Gets A TV Guide With Live Matrix
“Now, to be clear, there have been plenty of products that have attempted to be the TV Guide for the web as it relates to web video. But Live Matrix extends far beyond just video. It’s about anything taking place on the web. Audiocasts, auctions, chats, MMO games, etc. Live Matrix wants to organize it all. So far, they’re up to 80,000 scheduled events every week, and growing quickly. The main page of Live Matrix is a site that shows you what live events are trending (and the ones that just ended and which ones are upcoming) as well as featured events. Again, these must be online events — anything taking place in the real world (without some kind of Internet stream) will not be included in Live Matrix.”
TechCrunch
How It Feels To Walk With Honda’s Cyborg Legs
“Mundane activities like walking up the stairs and crouching down suddenly became fun and much easier—the saddle provides anywhere from 6.5 to 18 pounds of support when you lean back in it, which isn’t enough to sit down on, obviously, but it’s certainly noticeable and makes crouching easier. Personally, I had a little issue navigating the stairs and nearly fell backwards, as you can see in the video. Apparently my feet were too small for the sneaker sensors to pick up properly, making the whole device jerk my legs around more than was expected on the stairs. But even Asimo takes a tumble now and then, so wearing his legs, it was only natural that I had a stumble at some point. But when the shoes fit, the experience is absolutely natural.”
Gizmodo
The Seven-Atom-Long Transistor That Will Change the World
“Developed by the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Quantum Computer Technology (CQCT) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the atomic part is “the first electronic device in a silicon systematically created on the scale of individual atoms”. This means two things: One, it has the potential to reduce Moore’s Law to smithereens. The other one: It will eventually reduce current CPUs by a factor of one hundred, while accelerating processing speed beyond our wildest dreams.”
Gizmodo
Samsung unveils 19-inch Transparent AMOLED Display
“The new transparent OLED display could be used for head-up displays in car windshields or futuristic information terminals.
The transparent AMOLED technology is supposedly better than transparent LCD technology using less power and 1,000 times faster response speed. ”
I4U News
Patients Like Me: Share Disease Treatment and Symptom Information
“The first, almost obvious, feature allows people with a life-changing disease (e.g. ALS, HIV, Parkinson’s, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS) to connect to others in the same situation, for instance to learn how they treat their disease or to compare one’s own health progress with those of others. Even more, by sharing their own health profile, patients are empowered to exchange valuable data about the real-world effects of specific medical treatments. In practice, this means anyone can explore a rich collection of crowd-sourced data about individual diseases, symptoms or treatments. […] In what seems a quite revolutionary take on medical privacy, the diseases, treatments and symptoms of individual patients can be filtered, searched and compared. Alternatively, people with a specific symptom, let’s say “fatigued”, can investigate the effectiveness of the most popular treatments or compare their faith with the other 27,000 patients that experience this very symptom. ”
information aesthetics
A Rifle’s Third Eye Helps Shoot Around Corners
“Miniaturizing the hardware found in news broadcasting equipment, Hagerty devised a way to beam live, uncompressed high-quality video from the 1.5-pound camera at a speedy 30 frames per second; meanwhile, custom software overlays the shooter’s red target dot in the head-up display so that the view appears exactly as it does through the gun’s conventional scope, all with no delay.”
Gizmodo
The Buddy Radio: Using Social Media To Improve Patient’s Well Being
“Aimed at improving the well-being of people living with long term conditions, Buddy is a social media radio that lets users turn a dial on to select how they are feeling, and the service instantly broadcasts their mood in real-time to a range of social media platforms. By using social media, Buddy reaches out to friends and families, in addition to healthcare professionals, extending the community of carers.”
PSFK
LittleDog walking robot presages the future
“LittleDog, from Boston Dynamics, shows the amazing developments in four-legged locomotion that hint at a future where robots will be able to replace both humans and animals for many tasks. It shows remarkable stability for a four-legged creature (having six leg makes stability easier because you can stand on three legs while moving three legs).
Each of LittleDog’s legs has three electric motors, which gives it about 30 minutes of operation using lithium polymer batteries. A built-in “PC level” computer does the sensing, and controls the motors.”
guardian.co.uk
StreetMuseum iPhone app
“The Museum of London has launched an iPhone app which cleverly brings its extensive art and photographic collections to the streets of the capital… The free app, called StreetMuseum, has been developed with creative agency Brothers and Sisters and makes use of geo tagging and Google Maps to guide users to various sites in London where, via the iPhone screen, various historical images of the city appear”
Creative Review
Beatfly: The open source blimp
“On display at the Tokyo Make Meeting this past Saturday was Beatfly, a cleverly designed illuminated blimp created by Hideki Yoshimoto. Rather than just implement simple radio controls, he has playfully given Beatfly a number of control interfaces. You can drive it by iPhone, MIDI controller, Flash web interface, a standard keyboard, voice control, or even music.”
Gizmag
Freedom Driver Is a Miraculous Backpack-Powered Artificial Heart
“Questions remain about the power supply, and whether it will be enough to maintain not only heart function, but liver and kidney function as well. In effect, this device has become an additional organ that Okeke and his doctors will need to maintain and monitor until a new transplant heart (of the organic variety) can be located. It should be noted that doctors are confident Okeke could use the device indefinitely if it comes to that.”
Gizmodo
Generatus Creates Humorous Status Updates When Your Imagination is Tired
“Just type in your name, pick your gender, and add any tags you want (you’ll have to click on tags from generated statuses or the tag cloud; you can’t type them in yourself) and hit the Generate button. A lot of the output has to do with news or funny movie quotes, but some of them are just random. Sure, they can get a little cheesy or recycled, but I was surprised at how many statuses came out that I actually would have found very humorous would I have seen them in my Twitter stream or Facebook news feed.”
Lifehacker
An insider’s look at Ford’s virtual reality design tools
“The same lab also houses the so-called CAVE — Cave Automated Virtual Environment. This 3D environment is designed not so much for the ergonomics like in the PVM, but rather for style and craftsmanship. Four rear projectors generate 3D images on three sides and above the tester. The 3D glasses are equipped with motion-tracking sensors to further complete the environment. It really has a WOW-factor. Once you don the glasses and sit in the single elevated seat, it really gives the feeling of being in the vehicle.”
CrunchGear
InfoLadies of Bangladesh revolutionize rural life
“Bangladesh’s Infoladies ride from village to village on bicycles, toting netbooks and mobile phones, and set up infobooths where they use net-gathered info to teach hygiene, help with childbirth, assist with crop problems, and so on. There’s an army of them.”
Boing Boing
