Tech Universe: Monday 07 May 2012

• PUNCHY: Missing your loved one? Call them up on your smartphone and hug the Hugvie instead. The plush toy has a pocket for your cellphone and a microcontroller and vibrators that produce a throbbing sound like a heartbeat. The throbbing changes according to the volume and tone of the caller’s voice. Aww, better hope the other person’s not angry when you call. DigInfoTV.
• SKELETON KEY: I hate fumbling with a door key when my arms are full of shopping. Now researchers from AT&T Labs are working on a door that opens when you touch the handle, even though the door’s locked. The idea is that a smartphone sends an inaudible acoustic signal through the person’s skeleton. The door handle receives the signal, and if the vibration signature is correct, the door unlocks. Nice idea. Innovation News Daily.
• THE CRUSHER: Afghanistan may have as many as 10 million anti-personnel landmines in its soil. Komatsu Japan has developed the D85EX-15 deminer machine to help with the enormous task of clearing the mines. The 38 ton machine is heavily reinforced with blast armour and can be controlled remotely. A drum on the front spins flails through the top layer of soil. It detonates and crushes mines. The deminer climbs slopes as steep as 30 degrees, and clears up to 500 square metres of land per hour. That’s one mine for every 3 people in the country. Gizmodo.
• BROLLIES UP!: The Anti-Piracy Curtain isn’t a cloth to throw over your laptop. Instead it’s used for real-life pirates trying to board vessels at sea. Current anti-piracy systems fire water from a high-pressure canon. The curtain system uses special nozzles that make hoses whip around violently while spraying a lot of water into a pirate’s boat with the aim of sinking it. The hoses can spray more than 1 cm of water a minute into a pirate boat. The hose sprays enough water to prevent a ladder being raised. What next? The anti-anti-piracy umbrella? DigInfo.tv.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEIu-WG-D-s

• THE HAPPY GAMES: Researchers from the University of Auckland designed a special video game to help young people with depression. SPARX guides the player through challenges that help them practice handling various life situations and emotions. The study showed the game could be as effective as counselling in helping treat depression and anxiety. Anything that works…. Medgadget.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgocT0YyV8M

Tech Universe: Tuesday 08 May 2012

• OIL SUBMARINES: Imagine a submarine only a tenth as wide as a human hair. Now imagine it has a surface that absorbs oil, from an oil spill at sea, for example. A team from the University of California has developed such proof-of-concept subs in the lab. The subs are propelled by bubbles created from internal oxidation of tiny amounts of hydrogen peroxide and can move very quickly. A swarm of such subs could gather droplets of oil and take them back to a collection point. Even ridiculous sounding ideas may have merit. BBC.
• MIDDLING SOUND: Hearing impaired people who use cochlear implants inside their ear still need to wear a microphone and other electronics outside the head. University of Utah engineers have prototyped a tiny microphone that could be implanted in the middle ear. The new system, once reduced in size and approved, would implant everything except a small charger inside the head. The implant works by using an accelerometer to detect vibrations in the bones of the ear and convert them to outgoing electrical signals that can then be rendered into sound. Ingenious. University of Utah.
• SEA SAMPLER: Robots on Mars are busy sampling the rocks around them. But now an underwater robot is sampling the sea in Tasman Bay, to help protect local fisheries and producers. The Environmental Sample Processor has an Internet connection so researchers can send a command to collect a particular sample and results can be sent right back. The processor detects micro-organisms such as bloom-forming phytoplankton. It’s what they do with the results that really counts. Cawthron Institute.
• RIPE OR NOT RIPE?: As fruits and other produce ripen they produce tiny amounts of ethylene. MIT have developed a sensor consisting of an array of tens of thousands of carbon nanotubes with added copper atoms and tiny beads of polystyrene. The sensor can detect those traces of ethylene and send data on ripeness to a scanner. Attached to cartons, the sensors could help suppliers and shop owners monitor the produce they’re carrying or selling and make sure it’s displayed before it’s too ripe. Perhaps they could also use it to track the ripening process and tune up how they carry and store the fruit. MIT News.
• SUN BATHER: The Solar Orbiter from the European Space Agency should be ready for launch in 2017. The spacecraft will fly as close as 42 million km from the Sun — closer than the orbit of Mercury — while a thick heatshield will protect it. The temperature at that distance is around 500 degrees. Its mission is to study the solar wind, helping us understand the flow of charged particles in the solar system. The craft will carry 21 separate sensors. I have a few organic sensors I’d like to put in a sunny spot. BBC. Solar Orbiter:

Tech Universe: Wednesday 09 May 2012

• THE ENEMY WITHIN: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the US want to monitor the health of soldiers on the battlefield. They hope to use nanosensors to do it. They’re calling for proposals for tiny sensors that could be used inside the body to provide continuous, noninvasive, and highly accurate measurement of a variety of conditions and substances. The sensors could, for example, watch for infectious diseases or chemical or biological agents. If DARPA develop it I’m sure there are plenty who could use it. Innovation News Daily.
• UNDERWATER SWIMS: In Antwerp, Belgium, city officials wanted a new outdoor swimming pool. So they’re building a floating pool, moored at the Docklands. The whole thing is 120 metres long and can accommodate 600 people. The floating area consists of an Olympic size swimming pool, 2 event venues, several floors and a restaurant with a lounge terrace. In winter the pool can be used for ice skating. An old ferry boat connects the floating pool to the land. The floating pool can be moved to a new location if necessary. Do they empty the pool first or just float the whole thing to a new location? Bustler.
• NANO ENLARGEMENT: Nanowires are very good at transporting electrons, but their surface area is small. The surface area is important in things like catalytic activity, perhaps in batteries or solar cells where greater surface area could mean better yield. That’s why researchers at Stanford University found a way to boost the surface area with sinuous chains of metal oxide or noble metal nanoparticles. The decorations work like branches and leaves to increase the available surface, leading to dramatic improvements. You can’t fault getting more of a good thing. Stanford University.
• SUGAR BANDAGE: Removing medical dressings can be painful, so how about a dressing that just dissolves into glucose your body can safely absorb? Scientists at Pennsylvania State University spun starch into fibres. The fibres can then be combined to form products like bandages or napkins. As the products degrade they form glucose that can be safely absorbed. Starch is abundant and cheaper than both cellulose and petroleum-based materials. Surely the glucose could be a bit of a worry though. Pennsylvania State University.
• SUIT UP: Olympians in training in the UK have been wearing a special suit that tells them when their movements are correct. The MotivePro suit contains sensors that send data to a nearby computer. When the athlete gets a movement right the computer sends a tiny impulse to the sensors that the athlete feels as a vibration. This immediate feedback helps the athlete improve their moves. The suit can also be used to train people like nurses how best to lift patients or heavy equipment. Instant feedback is a winning strategy. Daily Mail.

Tech Universe: Thursday 10 May 2012

• CHEAP SLEEP: With increasing tourism comes a greater demand for cheap accommodation. That why China’s first capsule hotel has just opened in Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. The capsules are extremely small rooms with a bed, TV set, dresser, computer desk and wireless broadband. Communal laundries and lounges round out the facilities. Snorers have their own wing in the hotel. Sounds ideal for people travelling on the cheap. Chinanews.com.
• DEEP SLEEP: In Dubai they’re diving deep. The Water Discus Hotel will include 21 underwater rooms around 10 metres deep, along with an underwater diving centre, a spa, garden and open terrace above the waterline. The disc-shaped hotel will have one section above and another below water. A special lighting system will illuminate the flora and fauna outside. All of which won’t disrupt the seabed or sea life at all, I’m sure. The Daily Mail.
• POWER BOX: In a disaster power supplies may be disrupted and difficult to restore. A groups of students from Princeton University created a prototype Power in a Box system that fits in a standard shipping container and could be readily delivered to where it’s needed. Inside the container are a 12 metre telescoping tower and wind turbine and a series of solar panels. It’s designed to replace diesel-powered generators in areas cut off from other power sources. Except, how will it be delivered in a disaster? Princeton University
• DIAGNOSIS OF CROWDS: Malaria can be hard to diagnose, so how about enlisting crowds of people to play a game to do the work? Researchers at the University of California tested a computer game played on a tablet or smartphone where players assessed images of microbes. Their predictions for malaria came within 1.25% of those from an expert pathologist. Maintaining interest in the game may be the bigger problem. The Ozcan Research Group.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdnV1WfOsPM

• DENSE ENERGY: 250 billion solar nanocrystals on the head of a pin! These solar cells from the University of Southern California are really tiny and could be painted onto a surface. The nanocrystals, made of the semiconductor cadmium selenide, are cheap to fabricate but not very efficient. Cadmium is also toxic and restricted in commercial applications. Once the researchers have overcome those problems though, we could start seeing solar cells we can paint or print onto the surface we need them on. Sigh, so many otherwise good things are toxic. University of Southern California.

Tech Universe: Friday 11 May 2012

• MARATHON SUIT: Two weeks after starting the London Marathon the final competitor finished the course. The competitor may have been slow, but considering she’s paralysed from the chest down and was walking with the aid of a bionic ReWalk suit it’s an unparalleled achievement. Motion sensors and an onboard computer system read the wearer’s intentions and move the suit in response, allowing them to walk. So you decide: is 2 miles per day a slow walk or a fast one? The Telegraph.
• DRILL AND GROW: Those fillings in your teeth really just plug up a hole. But scientists at the University of Maryland have created a filling that can also regenerate the tooth structure. After drilling harmful bacteria remain in the cavity. In the new material nanoparticles of silver and calcium include antibacterial agents and regenerate tooth minerals. Your dentist won’t be using it though, as it hasn’t yet been tested on human teeth. I want nanostuff that means there’s no drilling at all. University of Maryland.
• WELL-LIKED: Do you want to buy the clothes everyone likes? One shop in Brazil is using hangars that display in real time the number of Facebook Likes the item has received. For the Fashion Like campaign the company posts photos on a dedicated Facebook page and invites viewers to Like the items that appeal. That is so open to trolling. Springwise.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4qdNb6FvGY

• 1.5 KILOPIXEL EYES: Pioneering eye implants have given 2 British men who were completely blind the ability to see light and some shapes. Now they’re wearing behind their retinas a thin 3mm square microelectronic chip with 1,500 light-sensitive pixels which replace the function of photoreceptor rods and cones in the eye. A fine cable runs from the sensor to a control unit under the skin behind the ear. Now the men have to learn to correctly interpret the signals from the chips. This is part of a clinical trial of the chips, but may eventually lead to some people having at least partial vision restored. Now that’s definitely an augmented reality. BBC.
• SINGLE TOUCH: Disney Research are working on a sensing system called Touché that recognises various kinds of touch. It exploits the fact that different tissues in the human body have different capacitive properties. With a single wire, the system can discriminate between a single finger, several fingers, an elbow, a hand, a pair of hands and so on. This could open up a broad range of applications, such as controlling a music player simply by tapping a finger on your wrist. That could lead to some very discreet apps. Disney Research.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4tYpXVTjxA

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.

Tech Universe: Monday 30 April 2012

• BATTERY DRAG: The Tûranor PlanetSolar is a 95-tonne carbon fibre catamaran that is about to complete a circumnavigation of the globe. The 31-metre yacht has more than 530 square metres of photovoltaic panels and 10 tonnes of lithium batteries to store the electricity generated by the panels. After around 18 months at sea only 3 panels have been lost and only 5 of more than 1200 electrical connectors have failed. It’s a shame the batteries account for around 10% of the total weight. New Scientist.
• INVISIBLE WRITING: The Penveu is a relatively inexpensive chunky pen that contains gyroscopes and accelerometers. Plug the Veu component into your computer and then use the device like a mouse with a range of around 12 metres. Or use it in pen mode to apparently write or draw on any screen in various colours and thicknesses. The device can also store up to 32 Gb of files. The gadget’s intended to replace expensive electronic whiteboards. An interesting product with terrible marketing. Penveu.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUCPQ7IFdAA

• MONEY SINK: To some the abandoned quarry at the base of Tianmashan Mountain in China is just a giant 100 metre deep hole in the ground. To others it’s a ready-made site for a luxury hotel and theme park. Construction on the Intercontinental Shimao Shanghai Wonderland has begun and the hotel should open in a year or two. Three of the hotel’s 19 floors will be above ground. The building will also feature an underwater restaurant and 10 metre deep aquarium. A hotel with theme park sounds much better than a hole in the ground. Shanghaiist.
• FROM THIN AIR: The Eole Water wind turbine is ingenious. We’re used to wind turbines creating electricity, but this one draws water out of even dry desert air. The turbine contains a generator, cooling compressor and humidity condenser to extract water from air, then the water runs down into a storage tank from where it can be drawn off by an ordinary tap. The WMS1000 turbine can produce up to 1200 litres of water per day. Who knew dry air actually held so much water? Eole Water.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhe4jDWfFAY

• CAREFUL ROBOT: A wearable robot from the Tokyo University of Science in Japan is designed to help carers safely lift people in and out of bed. The exoskeleton weighs around 5 Kg and uses pneumatic artificial muscles to help with lifting. Rubber bladders contract when pressurised air is pumped in and give up to 30 kg of instant support. A sensor in the jacket responds to voice commands and the body’s acceleration. The suit will be released commercially next year. The carers should be glad of this one. New Scientist.

Tech Universe: Tuesday 01 May 2012

• GLARINGLY INEFFICIENT: Researchers at MIT have produced glass that doesn’t have glare and where water droplets just bounce right off. Surface textures on the glass consist of an array of nanoscale cones that are five times as tall as their base width of 200 nanometers. The shape of the surface makes the glass self-cleaning, anti-fogging and free of glare. The glass could be used in solar panels so they can retain their efficiency, or perhaps touchscreen devices. I want house windows and spectacles that don’t get dirty. MIT News.
• RETINA SCREEN: Bionic Vision Australia is working on a bionic eye that they hope to test next year. An implanted chip with 98 separate electrodes will stimulate the retina so people with genetic eye conditions can see large objects such as buildings and cars. A camera in a pair of glasses sends data to a processor which then sends it on to an implant in the retina. They are also working on a more accurate high-acuity device that could help people recognise faces and even read large print. How about a way for a computer to use the implant as a display? The Verge.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0G9odShF4

• FAST FOOTING: The BiOM lower leg prosthetic from iWalk adds a bit extra: sensors and power that make walking easier. Lower leg prosthetics usually making walking harder and more tiring as they are a dead weight. The BiOM though replicates the action of foot and ankle, Achilles tendon, and lower calf to propel the walker forward. In retrospect it seems obvious. Forbes.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_krd4fWVUM

• DRUGS ON DEMAND: Scientists at the University of Glasgow are working on producing drugs and other chemicals via 3D printing. They take chemical constituents and pass them through a printer which synthesises them to create something different. For example, the printer may have 2 nozzles each printing a different kind of component that can be combined during the process. In their tests the researchers have already printed some molecules of anti-cancer drugs. Uh oh, this could lead in both desirable and undesirable directions. BBC.
• UNDERCOVER DESK: If you ever thought of taking cover under a desk during an earthquake, then you might not want to know that many desks wouldn’t do much of a job of protecting you. A new design of desk from Israel though can be easily carried by 2 children but can withstand vertical impacts of up to 1000kg. The combination of structure and material absorbs and transfers energy so that the space underneath remains intact. The table’s already licensed for distribution in Israel. Will the floor beneath the desk legs stand up to the impact though? Wired.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj2Ng0WTofo

Tech Universe: Wednesday 02 May 2012

• HERE HERE: China’s Beidou GPS system now has 13 of its 35 satellites in orbit. That means the system is now partially operational, and competes with the functioning US and Russian systems. 24 out of 31 of Russia’s Glonass satellites are operational. Meanwhile Europe has 2 out of 26 of its Galileo GPS satellites in position. Now how about paying more attention to where we’re going, rather than where we already are? Space, anyone? BBC.
• THE SILICENE AGE: Where graphene is a sheet of carbon only 1 atom thick, silicene is a sheet of silicon only 1 atom thick. European scientists created silicene by condensing silicon vapour onto a silver plate. When the scientists measured its properties they were found to be similar to those of graphene. Silicene should work better than graphene in silicon-based electronic devices. Silicene is the kind of name that conjures dinosaurs. New Scientist.
• NOVEL TEES: A team at the University of Exeter has invented the most transparent, lightweight and flexible material ever for conducting electricity. The GraphExeter material, adapted from graphene with molecules of ferric chloride, is also transparent over a wide light spectrum. The research team is now developing a spray-on version of GraphExeter. They say the material could be used for many purposes, such as teeshirts or solar panels. Transparent teeshirts? University of Exeter.
• CLOTHES FORCE: Colorado State University are developing solar-powered clothes from natural fibres such as cotton and linen. The clothes should allow hikers, skiers and others to charge their devices on the go. After modifying the fabrics to make them more durable they incorporated flexible solar panels within the apparel. It sounds like they need to talk to the University of Exeter. Still washable? Discovery News.
• HOT OR NOT?: The world’s largest solar thermal plant project is at the Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University for Women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 36,305 square metres of collector surface has been installed on the roofs to provide power to heat water for the 40,000 students and staff. Each 10 square metre panel weighs 170 Kg and has been specially mounted to survive fierce sandstorms. How much hot water does an institution in a hot country really need? Inhabitat.

Tech Universe: Thursday 03 May 2012

• HANDS-ON MAP: Systems developed to help robots navigate could be used to help blind people. Researchers at at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in France created a pair of glasses equipped with cameras and sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes. The system produces a 3D map of the wearer’s environment and their position within it in real-time then feeds the map to a handheld electronic Braille device. The Braille map is updated fast enough for the user to walk through an area. Provided your map reading skills are up to speed. New Scientist.
• UNIVERSAL PIXELS: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope digital camera has 3.2 billion pixels. The camera will capture the widest, fastest and deepest view of the night sky ever observed as it surveys the entire visible sky every week. It’ll generate about 6 million gigabytes of high quality and scientifically valuable data per year. When completed in 2014 the camera will have 189 sensors and over 3 tons of components, all sited atop a mountain in Northern Chile. And the processors to work with all that data? SLAC News Center.
• TRAINING WHEELS: It’s important for babies to learn to crawl and discover their world, but some babies with disabilities just can’t do it. Engineers at the University of Delaware, have created a robot wheelchair designed for kids aged 6 months to 3 years. It’s operated by a joystick and includes sensors so it won’t crash into things. It’s good to get the joystick training in early. Boing Boing.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWISOvOiT0o

• DRIVING PATTERNS: Honda created a system to monitor the acceleration and deceleration patterns of a vehicle and determine whether the driver’s driving pattern is likely to create traffic congestion. Then it gives the driver feedback to encourage smooth driving. The smooth driving can alleviate or prevent congestion and also reduces fuel use. Honda plan to begin the first public-road testing of the technology in Italy and Indonesia this year. You have to wonder how they picked those 2 countries to start the testing. Honda.
• WHAT GOES AROUND: An ongoing problem with solar cells is their low efficiency. Researchers at the University of California have shown that solar cells that emit light as well as absorb it can be more efficient than those that don’t emit light. They demonstrated that the better a solar cell is at emitting photons, the higher its voltage. The researchers say there’s a thermodynamic link between absorption and emission that produces this unusual effect. Or maybe it’s just the pay it forward principle. The Optical Society.

Tech Universe: Friday, 4 May 2012

• SMART CARD: Rapid Diagnostic Tests are becoming popular: a sample is added to a small slide and after a short time the slide changes colour, offering a quick diagnosis. But reading the tests correctly and using the information is prone to human error. Scientists at the University of California developed a small attachment and app so a smartphone can photograph, enlarge, read and validate the test results. A health worker can then add information and send the whole record to a server. Collating such data on a map quickly shows trends and patterns for disease. It’s great to see these technologies being put together for such useful purposes. University of California.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji1E5MKPZ9E

• AIR MIXER: Nothing is free from side effects. We’ve heard of wind farms affecting birds, but now it seems they may change the local weather too. A study from the University of New York found a significant warming trend over wind farms, particularly at night. The turbines play a role in mixing warmer and cooler air. Farmers who worry about the effect of frost on their crops should maybe look into this. Perhaps they could make money from generating power while saving the costs of preventing frosts. The Telegraph.
• FOLLOW THE WIND: One man in Beijing’s Tangzhou Wangji Yongle Town created his own high-speed wind-powered car, with a range of 140 Km. It took him 3 months and 10,000 yuan to build. Not bad. ChinaSmack. Video:
• TRUTHFUL TROLLEY?: Lambent Shopping Trolley Handle incorporates LED lights and a barcode reader. A shopper scans an item they’re considering buying and lights on the handle light up to display a value for criteria such as food miles, salt or fat. In tests shoppers changed their buying behaviour in response to the lights on the handle. And that would never be open to ‘manufacturer suggestions’, of course… Discovery News.
• QUAKE NEWS: NASA is starting to test the Real-time Earthquake Analysis for Disaster Mitigation Network, or Readi. It’s a network of GPS sensors in the US Pacific-coast states of California, Oregon and Washington. The point of the system is to analyse earthquake events quickly to help with disaster response and tsunami predictions. While data from the devices has been analysed in the past, that has often been well afterwards. This project will check the data within minutes of a shake. Well, gosh. Analysing information when it’s most useful. What an idea! BBC.

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.

Tech Universe: Monday 23 April 2012

• NEW SPIN ON SOUND: At Dundee University a rubber disc in a canister of water lifts itself, floats and starts rotating for no apparent reason. Driving it is a beam of ultrasound shaped like a helix or vortex below the canister. Scientists used this demonstration to prove that they can now use ultrasound to not only push objects, but to turn and steer them as well. This could give surgeons the ability to target drug delivery or manipulate cells. This needs a theramin soundtrack for best effect. BBC.
• DARK FERMIONS: Ah, the Majorana fermion — theorised in the 1930s and finally observed this month. The Majorana fermion sounds like a sci-fi plot device, right on the border between matter and anti-matter. One theory even suggests it’s a component of Dark Matter. Scientists in Holland teamed an Indium Antemonide nanowire with superconductors and a strong magnetic field. A pair of Majorana fermions appeared at either end of the nanowire. Bringing a little dark into the light. Delft University of Technology.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWEjsWDJNg

• HUNT THE MICROBE: Sometimes microbes, such as those for TB, hide in the human body and are very difficult to detect. Tests can take a long time and delay treatment by weeks or months. Scientists at the University of Central Florida can detect microbes quickly using nanoparticles. Polymer-coated iron oxide nanoparticles are chemically modified to specifically bind to unique DNA markers. When they bind, a magnetic resonance signal can be read on a computer or smartphone, signalling the presence of the pathogen. The researchers hope to develop this into a rapid, sensitive lab test. Kind of like radar for microbes really. University of Central Florida.
• HYDROGEN ZINC: Hydrogen’s a useful gas but it’s currently made from fossil fuels and producing it releases CO2. A student at the University of Delaware found a way to instead produce hydrogen from highly concentrated sunlight and zinc oxide powder. A conical reactor feeds zinc oxide powder through hoppers onto a ceramic layer inside a cavity. Sunlight is concentrated into the cavity where it produces pure zinc vapour that then reacts with water to produce solar hydrogen. The zinc itself is also a valuable fuel, and the zinc oxide byproduct can be used again. The beauties of recycling. University of Delaware.
• BATTERY BOOSTER: Lithium ion batteries are very popular. Most commonly the anodes are made from graphite, but 3M found that using silicon as a base instead can boost battery life. Matched with high-energy battery cathodes, the silicon-based anodes can increase cell capacity by more than 40%. That’s quite a tweak. Business Wire.

Tech Universe: Tuesday 24 April 2012

• SHARK EYE: One problem in West Australia is the number of people killed by sharks. Technicians in Perth, Australia, have designed a drone with a heat-sensitive camera that could be used to spot great whites. The images are streamed back to base in real time. When a heat signature is detected the drone can move in for a closer look. The Cyber Eye can fly 10 hours on just $25 in petrol, and is easy to control. The designers say it’s much cheaper and more accurate than current helicopter and plane patrols. It sounds like an ideal task for drones. The West Australian.
• DOTTY STORAGE: A team of Taiwanese and US researchers is using nanodots that can write and erase data 10 to 100 times faster than current products. Discrete silicon nanodots, each approximately 3 nanometers across, are arranged beneath a thin metallic layer. The researchers shine extremely brief pulses of green laser light on very precise portions of the metal to create a charge and write or erase data on the dot below. This technique creates a stable and long-lived data storage platform. What would we do without lasers? ScienceDaily.
• POLYSOLAR: German company Heliatek have developed a new kind of solar panel made of small, organic molecules deposited on polyester films. The panels are flexible and lightweight and could be wrapped around the columns of a building or integrated into windows. The panels use short molecules called oligomers instead of polymers, which gives more control during manufacture. The panels convert 8% of the energy in light into electricity, compared with 15% for conventional silicon solar panels. But where there’s low light and high heat they can produce more electricity. Lots of heat, but not much light: sounds like just the thing for Parliament. Technology Review.
• STEPPING UP: DARPA’s robotics challenge has one contender that can climb steps. The robotic humanoid from Boston Dynamics has two legs and only one arm, but can speed its way up a set of stairs. At this stage the robot seems to be only going up, not down again, but I guess some challenges take longer. Mashable.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqCmX5dMYHg

• DRIFTING TIME: Spacecraft need to know the time so they can navigate correctly. At the moment timing signals usually bounce around between the spacecraft and Earth, introducing long delays. NASA now plan to fly a Deep Space Atomic Clock that will allow a spacecraft to calculate its own navigation data in real time. NASA expect the clock to multiply navigation and radio science data while reducing mission costs. The mercury-ion trap atomic clock drifts no more than 1 nanosecond in 10 days. I suppose there’s no interplanetary time server to keep it accurate either. JPL.

Tech Universe: Thursday 26 April 2012

• TAKE THE TUBE: Travelling by plane can be boring: packed in like sardines, droning engines, and probably not much to look at. ET3 would like to move us around much quicker and more cheaply, using capsules in evacuated tubes. Car sized passenger capsules would travel in 1.5m diameter tubes on frictionless maglev. Air is removed from the tubes, with airlocks at transfer stations. Electric motors accelerate the 6-person cars which then coast the rest of the way. ET3 aim for regional transport to be at 600 Kph, but international travel at 6,500 Kph. Imagine: a bit over an hour to travel to Hawai’i, except I bet the tubes won’t cross the Pacific. ET3.com.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McpWcn-1RZU

• BIKE FIXINGS: Bike Fixtation in the USA have a great idea: work stands, vending machines, kiosks and bike pumps in public places. The Work Stand, for example, is made of steel for durability. It provides a couple of ways to hold your bike and has 8 bicycle tools tethered by stainless steel aircraft cable. The Vending Machine dispenses snacks, and also items such as inner tubes, patch kits and locks. Several different models of pumps can be bolted to a concrete surface. All it needs is an Internet kiosk where the less experienced can look up how-to videos for fixing a bike. Bike Fixtation.
• PLASTIC REPLICATION: DNA and RNA are the basic replicators of life forms. They evolve over time. Now researchers have created a new self-replicating molecular system called XNA, where the X stands for ‘xeno’, or ‘alien’. DNA contains natural sugars. To make XNA the researchers replaced the sugar with a polymer. Plastic is taking over the world. MedGadget.
• GO FOR GOLD: Brain surgery’s a rather delicate matter, and for surgeons removing cancerous cells they really don’t want to take out more of the brain than absolutely necessary. Scientists at Stanford University have created spherical nanoparticles from gold coated with a metal called gadolinium and a layer of silica. The nanoparticles were shown to accumulate in cancer cells during tests on mice. Heated with laser pulses, the particles can be detected with a sonogram to produce real-time images of the tumour. That means surgeons should be able to accurately remove just cancerous brain cells. It’s a shame that heating with laser pulses doesn’t handle the destruction of the cancerous cells too. New Scientist.
• FULL SOLAR JACKET: The Tokyo Institute of Technology are making more than a gesture towards solar power. They’ve clad their 7 story Environment and Energy Innovation Building with 4,500 solar panels. The 650 KW the cells generate is supplemented by 100 KW of fuel cells, so the building itself generates about half the energy it needs. Shiny. Asahi Shimbun.

Tech Universe: Friday 27 April 2012

• SKI CHAIR: Use a wheelchair but sick of being stuck in snow? Wheel Blades can fix that for you. The tiny skis quickly and easily lock on to the small wheels on a wheelchair allowing the chair to more easily roll across snow or ice. The blades can be quickly adjusted to fit wheels of various widths. The Wheel Blades can also be used on pushchairs for children. Most surprising: that these haven’t been invented before now? Wheel Blades.
• QUICK CHANGE: The Adaptrac tire inflation system is designed for mountain bikers to inflate and deflate the tires on their bikes while riding and without dismounting. The system uses special hubs, a dual control valve and a C02 power pack/regulator. Gauges and handlebar controls mean the rider can quickly check and change the pressure. Rechargeable CO2 tanks do the work. Well, there’s more weight to drag uphill. Adaptrac.
• WHAT’S IN A NAME?: If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a Lamborghini perhaps the BMC impec Automobili Lamborghini Edition could work for you. The only thing is, it’s a bicycle not a car. At 20,000 Euros it carries a very hefty price tag too. The bike uses a BMC impec carbon frame fitted with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 electronic shifting and unbranded carbon wheels. Only 30 of the bikes will be sold. And the Lamborghini part? Colours, some suede and the logo cover that. That’s an awful lot of money for a logo. Cycling News.
• LIVING IN LESS: How wide is the house or apartment you live in? 10 or 15 metres or more? How would you cope with a house that’s only 1.33 metres at its widest point? Etgar Keret’s House in Warsaw is being built in the tiny gap between 2 buildings. It’s intended as an art installation that will also serve as a studio for creators and intellectuals from all over the world. The builders hope to open the house by mid-2012. Only skinny tenants need apply. Centrala.
• GUIDE TO THE ASTEROIDS: Near-Earth Asteroids have become the latest target for mining activities. US company Planetary Resources, Inc. has developed a family of deep-space prospecting spacecraft called the Arkyd-100 Series. Those spacecraft will fly in low-Earth orbit and help determine suitable targets for later swarm expeditions. The ultimate goal is to take resources such as water and platinum from asteroids. Make way for the hyperspatial express route. Planetary Resources. Miraz says: I find this really disturbing, for many reasons. We’ve laid waste to our own planet. Should we really start laying waste to the rest of the solar system?

There was no Tech Universe on Anzac Day, 25 April.

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.

Tech Universe: Monday 16 April 2012

• NEW YORK YELLOW: Nissan’s NV200 vehicle is specially designed to suit duty as a New York taxi cab. It includes features such as USB, power chargers and GPS for the passengers, a huge glass sunroof and easy to clean seats and floor. One version of the cab includes a ramp for wheelchairs. The vehicle can carry 4 passengers and luggage, has sliding doors, a Hearing Loop System for the hearing impaired and an intercom for talking with the driver. The cabs will start service from 2013. WiFi would be a nice touch too. Nissan.
• NOISY NUMBERS: Random numbers are used for all sorts of purposes, such as air traffic control, electronic gaming and encryption. But numbers generated electronically aren’t usually truly random. Researchers at The Australian National University believe they’ve found a source of truly random numbers by using the noise in the vacuum of space. Vacuum is not completely empty, dark, and silent. Instead virtual sub-atomic particles spontaneously appear and disappear in it, creating random noise. The researchers are using that noise to generate their random numbers. Quantum theory apparently guarantees that such numbers will be unpredictable. That’s the theory, but has it been tested yet? The Australian National University.
• THE BAG OR THE PILOT?: The single-seater Elektra One Solar plane derives its power from solar cells on the wing surfaces. The carbon composite plane can fly for more than 8 hours with a payload of around 100 Kg, including pilot. Hmm, this one’s for skinny pilots only. Inhabitat.
• SERIOUSLY ALARMED: The Ramos alarm clock won’t let you sleep in. To turn it off you have to get out of bed, go in another room and punch in a unique code. The remote keypad then sends a wireless signal to turn off the alarm The US inventor says the only other way to stop the alarm would be to smash the clock. That’s drastic. BBC.
• OVERSIGHT: The US Air Force is busy capturing imagery with their drones — masses of it. The only problem is, there’s too much data for the Air Force to interpret, digest and use well. So essentially their eyes are bigger than their stomachs. Wired.

Tech Universe: Tuesday 17 April 2012

• PRESS THE FLESH: Forgotten your EFTPOS card again? The Japanese Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank is installing scanners that read your palm instead of a card for validation. Customers first register their biometric info with the bank then can go to a branch, enter their birthdate and PIN and scan their palm for cash. It’s good not to have to fumble for the plastic card, but do you really want to follow the person who clearly has flu? I hope they wipe the scanner between uses. Discovery News.
• LIGHTS OUT: A potential new test for explosives has been developed at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The problem at airports and other borders is to determine whether bags contain explosive material. The team created a specialised polymer that is brightly fluorescent. In the presence of substances similar to explosives though the fluorescence is quenched. So it’s dangerous if it doesn’t glow — that’s good to know. Asian Scientist.
• FLU ON A CHIP: A lab test for the H1N1 flu takes around 3 hours and is quite costly. Researchers from Boston University have condensed the flu test down to a prototype microfluidic chip that can do the job accurately in the doctor’s office for only a few dollars. A sample is placed on the slide which then channels it through a column that extracts RNA, and another that produces DNA. Finally a climate-controlled lower channel replicates the DNA so it can be detected by an external reader. The next step is to reduce the time the test takes and further reduce the cost. At least 3 hours with a chip would give a same-day result. Boston University.
• RISING SOLAR: An ongoing problem with solar panels is their inefficiency. Researchers at MIT have found that making towers of cells increases their output by between 2 and 20 times. The biggest boost came on cloudier days and in winter months. Unfortunately the cost per unit of energy is higher than for flat panels, but since more fit on a given area and the output is more uniform they could be more easily integrated with a grid. Even solar panels are going 3D now. MIT News.
• GOLDEN SAVINGS: Some power plants use copper to convert their waste CO2 into methane that can provide electricity. But copper’s not very stable, can easily oxidise to become much less efficient and create unwanted byproducts. Researchers at MIT found that adding nanoparticles of gold to copper makes it much more stable. Electrodes coated with the hybrid nanoparticles also need less energy to convert CO2. Of course, gold is an expensive metal, but for industrial-scale use the additional cost may be outweighed by the energy savings. Sometimes you have to spend a lot to save a lot. MIT News.

Tech Universe: Wednesday 18 April 2012

• DANGER, PRISONER: South Korean authorities are experimenting with robot prison guards. The robots patrol the corridors at up to 2 Kph, looking in the cells. When they identify suspicious or problem behaviour by prisoners they alert the guards. The guards in the control room can control the robot with an iPad and speak to the prisoners. When a robot’s battery runs out it returns to a charging station on the wall. These look pretty functional, but just wait till they come out with Dalek or Cylon models for the harshest prisons. IEEE Spectrum.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCIYGdlH9Y0

• SOFT TOUCH: Scientists for the Universities of Austria and Tokyo have created solar cells that are thinner than a thread of spider silk. The device is made up of electrodes on a plastic foil, about about 1.9 micrometers thick in total. The cell is soft and flexible and so less prone to damage than conventional cells. It could perhaps be attached to clothing for powering medical devices or sensors. Or perhaps use it on cases for smartphones and tablets. PhysOrg.
• CASH ON A CHIP: The Royal Canadian Mint has created its own form of digital currency. The MintChip is a digital file that can be mathematically verified by software without requiring personal details. First you use a secure physical chip to add an amount to your smartphone, the Cloud or other digital wallet. Then you can exchange MintChips for goods or services that cost as little at 1 cent. The Mint is currently challenging developers to create apps for MintChip. Anything that helps us spend, spend, spend. The MintChip Challenge.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PX-vW4VccY

• TWINKLE, TWINKLE MANY STARS: After 10 years of work astronomers have released a detailed image containing more than 1 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Data from two near-infrared telescopes were combined to create the image which contains 150 billion pixels and can be panned and zoomed. The dataset and image provide valuable information to astronomers, and are interesting for the general public. So many stars, and that’s just our galaxy. The University of Edinburgh. View the image.
• EASY TOUCH: Barcodes and QR codes get data into devices such as smartphones via the camera. Touchcode comes from a German company called Printechnologic and it’s different because it uses the touchscreen. It’s an invisible electronic code you can add with a regular printer to product packaging, tickets or almost anything else. Press the printed material to the touchscreen of your phone to enter the data into the device. The phone may respond with video content, a website or other material. It wasn’t explicit, but there must be an app for that. Printechnologic.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2cQWbEZx0M

Tech Universe: Thursday 19 April 2012

• OIL SUCKERS: Engineers at Rice University have created sponges made of carbon nanotubes with boron mixed in that could be used to soak up oil spills from water. The sponge is extremely hydrophobic: it doesn’t absorb any water, but just floats on the top. It’s magnetic though so can be moved and directed with magnets. The main attribute though is that it soaks up 100 times its weight in oil which can then be squeezed or even burned out without harming the sponge. The sponge can then be used again. Now let’s see them devise oil tanks filled with the sponges in the first place so oil never spills. io9.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCKyMn-2edo

• PAPER 2.0: Italian scientists have come up with an upgrade to ordinary paper. Their process uses nanotechnology to make paper waterproof, magnetic, antibacterial or even fluorescent without modifying the basic properties of the paper. That means you can still write or draw on the paper as usual and even recycle it. The process adds specific nanoparticles to single molecules of the paper, meaning it doesn’t add a layer on top. Instead the particles wrap around each fibre. The process could, for example, create antibacterial paper money or food wrappers. I want to see the waterproof, antibacterial, magnetic, fluorescent banknotes clumping together. Forbes.
• HUD’S UP: What say you’re walking around wearing glasses with a heads-up display? Probably only the HUD will be in focus and the rest of what you see won’t be. A new contact lens from iOptik aims to give us clear vision in two separate parts of our field of view. The central part of the lens sends light from the HUD towards the middle of the pupil. The outer part sends light from the surrounding environment to the pupil’s rim. This means that light from both separate images is in focus at the same time on the retina. The company is making these prototype lenses for DARPA, but hope to license the technology for public use too. Some experts suggest the lenses may just give the wearer motion sickness. No using the HUD on a bus then. BBC.
• ICE PHONES: Surrounded by ice and snow you may be too cold to risk taking your gloves off. So how do you use your smartphone or tablet’s touchscreen then? ISGLOVES (pronounced ice gloves) from Singapore cleverly combine nanotech and bamboo yarns to create conductive and touch sensitive gloves. The gloves are then capped with mittens for warmth. Slip off the mitten cap to tap a gloved finger on your phone, then slide the cap back on to warm up your hands. Of course, your phone may freeze, but at least your fingers won’t. FIETT PTE Ltd.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqaoX2ByeL4

• CODDLE THE KIDS: Car airbags can save lives — for adults, anyway. But children and toddlers are still at great risk. A company in Sussex, UK, has created the Carkoon to protect young children. The special carseat has a cover that deploys in a fraction of a second on impact to protect the child from flying debris and fire. The seat also sends a signal to emergency services, including a GPS location. The Carkoon is quite pricy and not yet commercially available. That makes an airbag seem a little inadequate really. BBC.

Tech Universe: Friday 20 April 2012

• MODEL BRAIN: Brain surgeons have to start somewhere with practicing their techniques. The Cybram 001 Cybernetic Brain Artery Model is a life-size see-through plastic patient fitted out with cerebral blood vessels so students can learn how to do certain types of brain surgery. A circulation pump and pressure control circuit realistically simulate blood flow and pressure, while a touch panel allows the surgeon to set blood pressure and heart rate in the model. The model can be used for training surgeons, equipment testing and for education. How did brain surgeons practice in the past, I wonder? DigInfo News.
• GARBAGE UNDER THE SUN: Landfills eventually reach capacity and are then generally sealed with a polyethylene cap, covered in soil and grassed over. That can be good to look at, but the noxious waste below ground means the area can’t really be used for much. The Hickory Ridge landfill in Georgia, USA is covered instead with more than 7,000 thin-film photovoltaic solar panels on top of a special membrane. The landfill now produces enough energy to power around 225 homes. Garbage in; power out. Scientific American.
• INFO GREED: The Department of Homeland Security in the US are buying a war surplus camera to keep a rather comprehensive eye on the southern border. The Kestrel camera provides high resolution images of entire miles of border in a single frame. The DHS plan to attach the camera to a blimp or aerostat to watch for illegal immigrants and illicit activities. Then they hope to find software that can handle the glut of data the camera produces. Just watch the data stack up till it’s useless. Wired.
• HOMER PAGE: The University of Oxford and the Vatican plan to digitise 1.5 million pages of rare and ancient texts in a project that’s expected to take 4 years. The project will include works by Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Hippocrates along with many church texts and Hebrew manuscripts. The work is made possible by a donation that aims to help democratise access to information. Slowly, slowly, the world’s files are going online. Ars Technica.
• FILE — MELT: Keeping your super-secret documents on a memory stick? We all know what happens when you lose the USB stick. But now there’s a thumb drive being used by the British Secret Service that can destroy confidential files. An embedded GPS device lets the owner track where the USB stick is. It has a battery that recharges when it’s plugged into a computer. The owner can block access to documents via an encoded text message or though a web app, and if all else fails, they can issue a remote destroy command where a high voltage charge melts the chip. Imagine that self-destruct command glitching and firing by mistake or by virus! BBC.

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.

Tech Universe: Tuesday 10 April 2012

• PAPERING THE CRACKS: We know only too well that earthquakes shake things up. The side-to-side strain can cause masonry to crumble. Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology believe they can reinforce walls with a specially designed wallpaper. They start with strong glass fibres woven together to create an elastic covering. Then a flexible soft adhesive of polyurethane beads penetrates the walls and glues everything together. In simulated earthquakes the wallpaper didn’t tear and helped stop walls crumbling. That may give occupants time to get out safely, which is good. But it looks as though it’ll be harder to tell how dangerous a building is afterwards. Discovery News.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR0paa-u61M

• WATCH THE WIND BLOW: Over at Hint.fm they have a real-time map that shows the wind blowing across the mainland USA. It’s actually an art project that takes data from the US National Digital Forecast Database. A key shows how fast the wind is blowing according to the map shading. It’s all rather hypnotic really, but I want one for New Zealand. Hint.fm.
• OUR 3D WORLD: Imagine pointing a scanner round your living room and seeing the room assembled as a 3D image on your laptop. That’s what the consumer-level Matterport does. Its target market includes real estate agents and architects. The handheld device has a range of around 5 metres, and accuracy varies with distance. Then imagine printing scaled models on your 3D printer. That could be fun. Matterport.
• DRUG PROGRAMS: BIND-014 is a nanoparticle that can be carefully programmed. Its job is to specifically target solid tumors and deliver drugs to destroy them. Human trials are in their early stages, but the drug seems to be much more efficient and at much lower doses than previous treatments. A little can go a long way when it’s in the right place. io9.
• DOUBLE OR NOTHING: Don’t like the pain of an injection? One designer has the answer for you: get two jabs instead of one. The new design of cannula — a tube used in hospitals and doctors surgeries for delivering drugs — has an additional small needle on the front. That needle, so tiny you can barely feel it, delivers a small amount of local anaesthetic. That numbs the spot where the regular injection goes in so you don’t feel that either. Twice as cunning. BBC.

Tech Universe: Wednesday 11 April 2012

• MIND GAMES: Ever played Tetris? Eye specialists at Glasgow Caledonian University are getting kids with ‘lazy eye’ to play Tetris for an hour a day to sort out their vision problems. Lazy eye, properly called Amblyopia, is where one eye focuses better than the other. The kids wear special goggles that show the falling blocks clearly to the lazy eye, but less clearly to the other. That forces the brain to be more active and can re-start some dormant cells. After around 10 days the vision problem is fixed. Now do it for myopia please. BBC.
• SIGHT IN MIND: In Australia the Monash Vision Group are working on a bionic eye to improve vision. A biologically inert chip is inserted into the brain, but can be tuned up by doctors without further surgery. The chip receives wireless signals from a special pair of glasses which detect which way your eyes are looking and then turn a digital camera in that direction. The glasses process the camera signal and send it to the brain as electrical signals via the implanted chip. The chip directly stimulates the visual cortex and the wearer’s brain eventually learns to interpret these signals as sight. Researchers hope to do their first patient tests by 2014. Spectacular. Monash Vision Group.
• HOLEY LIGHT: We think of optical telescopes as collecting huge amounts of light. All the light is focussed by refraction or reflection on a single point, usually involving carefully crafted, heavy and costly lenses or mirrors. A different approach by the US Air Force Academy instead uses a lightweight ultra-thin plastic disc called a photon sieve. The sieve is perforated by millions of microscopic holes. Each hole bends light at a different angle, creating a focal point. The sieve is cheap and easy to manufacture at large sizes, and it can be tightly folded and unfurled again. Just try that with a standard mirror! The downsides are that it can only take black and white pictures and since it receives less light it doesn’t image dim objects. There’s always a case for the quick and dirty approach, so I’m sure someone will find these photon sieves useful. New Scientist.
• SIGHT IN TOUCH: If you can’t see or hear then communication is pretty tricky. The Lorm alphabet though allows communication by patterns of touch on the hand. The Mobile Lorm Glove has been created in Germany to help wearers send and receive text messages, emails and chat using the Lorm alphabet. Sensors on the palm read touches and send them via Bluetooth to a phone. Small vibration motors on the back of the glove take signals from a phone and let the wearer feel the words. The makers hope to also develop the system to allow wearers to read ebooks and audio books. By translating between touch signals and email and other forms of messaging, it means deaf blind people can really open up their communication channels. Soon it may be true that on the Internet no-one knows you’re deaf blind. Design Research Lab.
• SOUND OF SILENCE: Ever wished for just a few minutes of peace and quiet? It turns out we can’t really stand true quiet. The anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis is 99.99% sound absorbent. Metre thick fibreglass acoustic wedges, double walls of insulated steel and 30 cm thick concrete make it utterly silent. The chamber’s used for testing products and research into sounds and sound quality, but it’s not a human-friendly place. The silence removes cues we need for balance, so you have to sit down. Then you can hear your heart beating, your lungs, your stomach. Most people last only a few minutes before they start to hallucinate and have to get out. The half hour of quiet may be worth it though. The Daily Mail.

Tech Universe: Thursday 12 April 2012

• HEALING TOUCH: A group of Chinese and Australian scientists has created a handheld plasma torch that can kill bacteria on the skin. The device could be useful for ambulance crew, military personnel and in natural disasters. The low-cost torch uses a 12 volt battery and doesn’t require an external gas feed. In experiments plasma at 23 C (around room temperature) successfully inactivated a biofilm created from 17 different layers of bacteria. There’s a new bit of gear for the survival kit. CSIRO.
• HEALING FILM: Toray’s Self-cure Coat Film is a protective film for laptops, smartphones, touchscreens and other devices. The special film puts a self-repairing layer on top of a PET base. The self-repairing layer has high viscosity and elasticity so if it’s scratched it repairs itself in 10 seconds or less. The Japanese company have been supplying small amounts of the film for a while, but are about to move into mass-production. Sounds good for those who like to drop their phone into a pocket or bag. Tech On.
• SHOOT FROM THE TONGUE: The Kinect is pretty good at recognising whole body movements, but researchers in Japan aim to refine its ability to determine how a person’s tongue is moving. Some people have oral motor function disorders that affect their ability to speak or swallow. To help with therapy they need to exercise their tongue. First the Kinect recognises the facial area and eyes. Then it estimates the position of the nose, and from that, the mouth area. The researchers created some video games that use tongue position for actions such as shooting. Now they just need to improve recognition accuracy. Imagine a world where sticking your tongue out could fire real bullets. Scary. DigInfo News.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWIl3CtH6SE

• FLOWER POWER: One way to generate energy from sunshine is to concentrate the rays reflected from a bank of mirrors onto a central point. AORA tulip-shaped towers in Southern Spain don’t need cooling, mineral salts or oil, but instead just use the air that’s all around us. The air inside the tower heats up to around 1,000 C, then it’s channelled into a combustion chamber which powers a turbine generator to produce electricity. An external power supply switches on when there’s no sun, so the Tulip can provide continuous power to the community. Tulips in the desert sound a lot more pleasant than plain old towers. Reuters.
• LOST A PROTON?: Scientists at the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology in Barcelona have created a scale so sensitive it can weigh a mass as tiny as 1 yoctogram. That’s less than the mass of a proton. That might not mean much to your diet, but it could help doctors distinguish between markers of disease that differ by only a proton. The scales involve short nanotubes, low temperatures and a vacuum. Oh, 1 yoctogram = 1 septillionth of a gram. It’s impossible to imagine even 1 millionth of a gram, let alone 1 septillionth! New Scientist.

Tech Universe: Friday 13 April 2012

• SLEEP BEHIND THE WHEELS: Picture a pop-top camper and I’m sure you see a motor vehicle. The Kamp-Rite Bushtrekka though is designed to be towed by a bicycle. The 4-wheeled trailer has 3 main compartments with over 180 litres of storage. Add a Tentcot on top and you’re set for a good night’s sleep. The 20 Kg trailer unit includes fully adjustable levelling jacks to make sure it’s set up solidly on even rough ground. Loaded up, that’s going to be quite some extra weight to push. Kamp-Rite.
• WHALES ONLINE: There aren’t many North Atlantic Right Whales left in the world, and one of the main causes of death for the animals is collisions with ships. The problem, of course, is knowing where the whales are. That’s where a new iOS app has a part to play. Acoustic buoys listen for whale calls and send the data to an iOS device in a nearby ship’s bridge. Between the whale calls, GPS and a vessel’s Automatic Identification System it manages to mark the locations of the whales in near real-time. The Whale Alerts app is free to use, and designed for vessels that travel along the East Coast of North America where the whales live. Two words: Maui’s Dolphins. Wired.
• BLEEDING PLANES: If you damage your skin the bleeding lets you know. But if materials such as plastic are damaged there may be no way to tell. Now researchers have created a new genre of thermoplastics that bleed when they’re damaged and then heal themselves. When the links that connect the plastic’s molecular chains are broken it produces a red warning colour. The materials are likely to be used for aircraft or ground vehicles to help indicate damage. Hooray: more scope for horror movie blood excesses. io9.
• BUDDY BACKUP: Firefighters, soldiers and others sometimes need to carry an injured person out of harm’s way. The traditional method is to load them across the shoulders in a fireman’s carry. The Injured Personnel Carrier is a simple backpack-like harness that holds them securely, while allowing the person doing the carrying to keep both hands free. The special harness is easy to apply while the injured person is on the ground. Then the person who will carry them lies down, slips the straps over their shoulder, rolls over and stands up with the injured person on their back like a backpack. Simple but effective. Agilite.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbonwQ0YNBs

• QUBIT OR NOT QUBIT: Looking for a computing challenge? The Rainier processor in the D-Wave One computer system is designed to perform a single mathematical operation called discrete optimization. It does so alongside your normal computing platform running its usual operations. The superconducting 128-qubit processor chip is housed inside a cryogenics system within a 10 square meter shielded room. To program the processor you just need some basic quantum physics and machine learning skills. So not one for hobbyists then. D-Wave.

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.

One of the things I’m becoming increasingly concerned about is the loss of one of our birthrights: a view of the stars and the night sky, and the right to a period of darkness every day.

Moscow from orbit, 2012. Image from apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120412.html

Increasingly light pollution is washing out our skies, making it harder and harder to see the stars.

For every street light, house light and sign that blindly tosses out light in all directions we lose a little more of the dark. Every stray photon steals a little more dark.

And that dark is something we need for good health. Studies have also shown that animals and plants need it too.

Dark down South

That’s why I’m particularly interested to follow the progress of the night sky in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island.

The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is considering a case to establish the Aoraki Mackenzie Starlight Reserve, centred on Canterbury University’s Mt John Observatory at Tekapo and on Mt Cook Airport. …

The Mackenzie Basin’s predominantly clear skies, stable atmosphere and lack of light pollution make it an ideal candidate for reserve status. The Mt John Observatory has six telescopes and can observe 50 million stars on a clear night.

[Via Starlight reserve decision likely to be in June | Stuff.co.nz.]

The video below shows night sky at Mt John in New Zealand.

Dark Skies

The International Dark-Sky Association is a fabulous source of information on dark skies:

The International Dark-Sky Association is the only non-profit organization fighting to preserve the night. Join us as we work to protect wildlife, cut energy waste and stop light pollution.

They say about Starlight Reserves:

Definition: a public or private land possessing an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and nocturnal environment that is specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural, heritage and/or public enjoyment mission of a large peripheral area. The International Dark Sky Reserve consists of a core area meeting the minimum criteria for sky quality and natural darkness, and a peripheral area that supports dark sky values in the core and receives benefits from them as well.

What we can all do for free

1. Go outside at night and look up. It’s simple, quick, easy and free. Just look up, and see the stars. Watch carefully for a few minutes and you may see a passing satellite, or the ISS.
2. Check the lights on and around where you live. Do you have house lights on at night when they don’t need to be? Turn them off — you’ll save power and money. Point outside lights towards where the light’s needed, and avoid having them spray light in all directions.
3. When it grows dark close the drapes or pull the blinds so the lights inside aren’t needlessly shining out into the world. It’ll keep your house warmer and so reduce your power bills too.

Tech Universe: Monday 02 April 2012

• DOWN LOW: James Cameron spent 3 hours almost 11 Km down in the deepest part of the ocean the other day when his specially constructed capsule dived to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench. While the descent took 2.5 hours, the ride back up was only 70 minutes long. That dive proved the technology, and should mark the beginning of many future dives. The enormous pressures at that depth caused the capsule to physically contract by around 7 cm. So the walls really were pushing in. National Geographic. Video:
• HIGHS AND LOWS: Apollo 11 was one of the most famous expeditions to the moon. Five F-1 rocket engines sent the Apollo 11 mission on its way and then fell into the Atlantic when they were spent. Jeff Bezos used state-of-the-art deep sea sonar to find the rockets 4 Km below the surface. Bezos Expeditions aims to raise at least one of the engines from the sea floor, and hope that although NASA own the equipment they’ll make it available to the Smithsonian Museum. It seems undersea’s all the rage. Bezos Expeditions.
• LIGHT FROM THE PAST: You may think that ancient settlements are gone without trace. That’s not so, as human activity leaves its marks on soil, which may have higher levels of organic materials, a finer texture and lighter appearance. That difference can be seen by satellites as areas that reflect more light. A researcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained software to recognise these lighter areas in satellite images already recorded in the last 50 years. The satellite imagery provided evidence of 14,000 settlement sites spanning eight millennia in 23,000 square kilometres of northeastern Syria. In conjunction with digital elevation data collected in 2000 by the space shuttle the researcher was able to estimate the volume of larger sites, suggesting their longevity. That’s a clever way to re-use old images. Nature.
• LIGHT TOUCH: Take a very special camera that can fire pulses of laser light and then record with extreme accuracy how long the photons take to bounce back. By applying an algorithm to those time differences the software can reconstruct items that are hidden by intervening objects from the camera’s view. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used this technique to see around corners. The camera fires 60 laser pulses, each to a slightly different position and each only 50 quadrillionths of a second long. The reconstruction algorithm then takes all the data and creates an image of what the camera can’t see. The camera can record images every 2 picoseconds, the time it takes light to travel just 0.6 mm. At the moment it takes several minutes to construct an image, but researchers hope to reduce that to just a few seconds. Clever. Very clever. Nature News.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWDocXPy-iQ

• TINGLY TAT: Nokia have filed a patent for a tattoo using ferromagnetic inks that vibrate based on commands from your phone. The ink material would first be demagnetised, then applied to your body. Then the ink needs to be magnetised again so it’s sensitive to magnetic fields. Then your phone could send out a specific magnetic field that makes your tattoo vibrate. You want to be very careful about where to apply that tat. Unwired View.

Tech Universe: Tuesday 03 April 2012

• BENDY PLASTIC: LG has begun mass production of the world’s first flexible, plastic e-ink display. It has a resolution of 1024×768 and is lighter and thinner than glass displays of comparable size. E-ink displays can run for months on a small battery and are well suited for reading text. I’m not sure I’d want text I’m reading to be flexing too much. ExtremeTech.
• SPENDY PLASTIC: Paper money’s old hat. Canada’s switching to plastic money for all denominations of what used to be paper bills. They’re switching to polymer because they say the new notes are easy to verify and hard to counterfeit. The layers of plastic that make up the notes can be encoded with holograms that change colour when the money is bent, but which are very hard for counterfeiters to reproduce. Still old hat: New Zealand went to polymer bank notes more than a decade ago. Technology Review.
• THE DARK NIGHT: The Carnegie Institution’s Las Campanas Observatory is high in the Chilean Andes where the air is clear and the skies are dark. Soon the Giant Magellan Telescope will be joining it to help astronomers probe the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Casting is already underway on the seven 8.5 metre diameter primary mirror segments. 3 million cubic feet of rock will be blasted from the site in 70 controlled blasts, leaving a solid bedrock foundation for the telescope. The $700 million telescope is being built by a consortium of institutions. Seeing what no-one has seen before. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
• CADDY ON CALL: Out for a round of golf? Can’t be bothered toting your own golf clubs? The robot CaddyTrek golf caddy could be for you. It follows you around at a distance of about a metre. The lithium ion battery lasts for about 27 holes, and 250 watt dual motors and treaded wheels mean it can handle most golf course terrain and climb hills up to 30 degrees. You wear a small transceiver so it can follow you, but a small remote also lets you send it on ahead or call it back to you. And for non-golfers how about a shopping trolley version? CaddyTrek.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Et9CC8rJ8

• FARM IN A BOX: Growtainers are farms in shipping containers. The containers are set up with food grade materials such as shelving, irrigation, LED lighting and controllers that link back to your computer. Heat, light and watering are all controlled by the computer. The aim is to achieve high yield with low energy inputs and the convenience of choosing a location for the farm. For example, a Growtainer might be parked behind a school, community hall or even a cafe and provide fresh food that doesn’t depend on the weather. Sounds good for vegies, but what about livestock? Growtainers.

Tech Universe: Wednesday 04 April 2012

• GIANT LEAP: The Sand Flea jumping robot from Boston Dynamics is an impressive little beastie. It’s a small platform on 4 wheels. If it meets an obstacle its remote driver makes it swivel to point a CO2 powered piston down at the ground. Then it fires the piston and leaps into the air, as much as 7.6 metres high, and a little forward. That’s enough to let it jump onto a roof or through a second floor window, for example. It can jump 30 times before the piston needs recharging. The US military are deploying the Sand Flea to Afghanistan to help see what’s in walled compounds. I’d have thought they’d do better with a small RC helicopter to fly above the compounds. Army Times.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4ZZQkcNEo

• SMILE, YOU’RE ON CAMERA: Those TV crime shows where the computer spends hours matching a face? So slow! Hitachi Kokusai Electric in Japan developed a system that can search through data on 36 million faces in one second. Results come immediately and show thumbnail images of potential candidates. Click a thumbnail to see associated recorded surveillance footage. This system could be used in large stores, railway stations or perhaps at public events. Some speed is achieved by grouping similar faces and detecting faces when the footage is recorded. Maybe it’s time for masks to become trendy? DigInfo News.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiFx39WHYlI

• SMILE, YOU’RE ON TV: If you buy a new Samsung LED HDTV make sure to read the manual. Some of the top-of-the-line models include a built-in, internally wired HD camera, twin microphones, face tracking and speech recognition that can connect to the Internet. That’s pretty cool and you have some degree of voice control with it. But the problem is that there’s no hardware switch on the camera or mic and no light or other sign they’re switched on. All of which means the world could be watching you if the TV’s accessed by someone with bad intent. Read that manual carefully. HDGuru.
• MONEY MAGNETS: Vending machines can verify the authenticity of a banknote because of the magnetic ink it contains. So you’d think bundles of banknotes would be even more magnetic, and they are. Physicists at the University of Washington tried using an ordinary handheld metal detector to detect banknotes concealed behind different kinds of materials. With some refinements this could help police catch people trying to smuggle cash across borders. You’d think if money’s magnetic it would attract more. New Scientist.
• SATELLITE SAFETY: With enough resources you can get access to live satellite imagery of a specific area on the planet. It’s what you can do with that access that’s interesting. In the case of the Satellite Sentinel Project, whose offices are in the USA, it’s tracking the movements of rival armed forces in the Sudan and warning civilians when the troops are coming. That gives the locals time to flee. Analysts receive reports from people on the ground and then gain satellite access to grab pictures. By analysing the photos they can estimate where tanks and troops are heading. The images are also detailed enough to document things like mass graves or body bags near freshly dug pits. That’s seriously smart spying. The Guardian.

Tech Universe: Thursday 05 April 2012

• FLY AND DRIVE: The 3-wheeled PAL-V flying car is in a class of its own — Personal Air and Land Vehicles. The small, sleek 2-seater handles like a motorcycle on the roads. Stop and unfold the single rotor and propeller though and you can fly it as a gyrocopter. It flies below 1200 metres, runs on petrol and can reach speeds of up to 180 Kph both on land and in the air. Now that would be a great holiday vehicle. PAL-V.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgHSaNtAMjs

• QUAKING ELECTRONS: A scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan noticed something very interesting around earthquakes. It seems that as much as 40 minutes before an earthquake the number of electrons high in the ionosphere increases. The observation was made while using the Total Electron Content of the upper atmosphere to analyse GPS signals and find out why they fluctuate. No-one knows yet why or how this increase happens, but it promises a useful area of study for earthquake prediction. Fascinating. BBC.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAVxsvE5ceM

• CABLE FREE KIT: Soldiers these days carry loads of equipment, plus all the cables, batteries and chargers that make it work. A new fabric from Intelligent Textiles in the UK will help reduce the load as the material itself conducts both electricity and data. Built-in redundancy will allow devices to still receive the power they need even if the fabric is ripped or cut. The fabric’s ability to carry power and data also means the soldier need only worry about a single battery that powers everything. Hmm: less clutter but potentially a single point of failure. BBC.
• CLEAN KIT BAG: Doing your OE and wondering how to wash your clothes effectively on the cheap? The Scrubba bag makes it easy. The bag has a built-in flexible washboard. Add a few litres of clean water, some shampoo or other soapy liquid, seal it up and knead it for 30 seconds. Rinse and dry. The bag weighs around 150 grams and is almost pocket-sized. Fresh and clean on your OE. Scrubba.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7lLzVltvmc

• SKATE THE FOLD: Skateboards are great for riding on but a pain to carry around. SNAP Skateboard fixes that by making its boards foldable. The aluminium skateboard has 3 sections. For storage, the two ends fold away rather like a drop-leaf table. In use the ends are locked into position by high strength steel support pins. When folded, it’s 36 cm long. Aircraft grade aluminium makes for a very strong board. Very discreet. SNAP Skateboard. Video.

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.

Yesterday we and friends walked our dogs at the Maupuia Walkway (Old Prison Road) (I’ll add an active link once I have some photo permissions). It’s on the Miramar Peninsula.

At the top of the hill is a reservoir and we later went on up there for a look. It’s worth a visit, with some great views.

But as we walked back to the car one of the group spotted these beautiful delicate fungi in the grass beside the road. I whipped out my iPhone, and was able to capture some pleasing photos.

When I came home I searched mightily but couldn’t discover the name of this beauty, although I did find out New Zealand has around 20,000 species of fungus.

The largest specimen had a stalk around the same height as my iPhone 4S. All the fungi were in amongst a normal mix of grass and clover.

If you have any idea what they are, I’d love to know. Meanwhile, just enjoy.

I know the first photo is totally out of focus, but I like it anyway. It shows how the top folds up, while the second photo shows how it folded right over into a sort of parcel.

One belated thought: maybe it’s a flower, not a fungus?

Unknown fungus.

Unknown fungus.

Unknown fungus.

Unknown fungus.

Only two of the daily Tech Universe were published this week.

Tech Universe: Monday 26 March 2012

• SOCCER ON THE SEA: Real Madrid may be best known for soccer but their Resort Island located in the UAE will garner some attention too. The billion dollar holiday resort is due to open in 2015 and will include sports facilities, a stadium, a fun park and hotels. But the big news is that the 430,000 square metre facility is to be built on an artificial island. With rising sea levels, I sure hope it floats. Real Madrid.
• 1 TRILLION IN 1: Seagate are using heat-assisted magnetic recording to squash 1 trillion bits into a single square inch of a hard drive. Extremely precise lasers raise the temperature of an iron alloy substrate on a disk to about 650 degrees Kelvin in less than a nanosecond. This reduces magnetic interference, so data can be packed in more tightly than usual. Before long Seagate should be able to release 3.5″ discs that can store 60 terabytes of data. Remember the days when they needed a forklift for a 5 Mb hard drive? Wired. 5 Mb hard drive on a forklift.
• DOTTY GLOVES: Researchers at Duke University have a process that can dynamically change the texture of polymers at will. By applying a specific voltage to a polymer film they can create or remove creases or craters in the film. This means they can cause patterns such as dots, segments, lines and circles to appear or disappear. Possible future uses could include gloves whose fingertips can be tuned to suit climbing or gripping, self-cleaning surfaces or drug delivery. It could be rather interesting if made to be touch sensitive too. Duke University.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad-GJnxhaXc

• INWARD LOOKING: NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, known as NuSTAR, is being launched soon. The mission will deploy the first focusing telescopes to image the sky in the high energy X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The big difference here is that previous telescopes haven’t been able to change focus. NuSTAR will look for collapsed stars and black holes near the centre of our galaxy. It will also check out young supernova remnants and some extreme active galaxies. X marks the focus. NASA.
• IN A SPIN: The Permoveh, or Personal Mobile Vehicle, from Kyoto University is an unusual wheelchair — it moves sideways or obliquely as easily as forwards and backwards. The omnidirectional wheels include rollers that move at 90 degrees to the main direction of travel, making sideways movements as easy as going forwards. Clever, but it does rather resemble a tank. Kyodo News.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thKHERie-Ek

Tech Universe: Friday, 30 March 2012

• ON YOUR BIKE: If your bicycle seat is low enough to easily mount the bike or put your feet down when stopped then it’s almost certainly too low for pedalling. Elev8Bikes solve this problem with a seat you can raise and lower, even while riding. The seat post is split and the seat is attached only to the top bar, hinged near the handlebar. The rider presses an actuator button on the handlebar to raise and lower the entire seat and top-tube with a gas pump. This should boost the number of casual cyclists deterred by problems getting on and off the bike. Elev8Bikes.
  Video.
• GLUE HIGH: Steel and concrete are used in tall buildings because they’re strong. But they’re not very environmentally friendly. That’s why one architect in Vancouver is aiming to make a 30 story building from wood, without using steel or concrete. The structure will use strands of wood glued together. The architect claims the building will lock in CO2, unlike cement that generates a lot of CO2 when it’s created. That glue had better have a lot of stickability. CNN.
• THE JELLIES ARE COMING: Researchers from the US have developed a robotic jellyfish, the Robojelly, powered by hydrogen and oxygen in water. 2 bell-like structures made of silicone fold like an umbrella. Artificial muscles made of carbon nanotubes, platinum and a nickel-titanium alloy contract when heated. When a mix of hydrogen and oxygen meets the platinum it generates heat and water vapour. That heat moves the muscles, pumps out water and starts the process again. The device could be used for military surveillance or water monitoring. Or a lava lamp revolution. University of Texas at Dallas.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2OSJQhHQp8

• PERFECT HARMONY: The National Ignition Facility in the USA generates nearly 100 times more energy than any other laser in operation. Recently the facility’s 192 lasers fired in perfect unison, to deliver a record 1.875 million joules of ultraviolet laser light to the target chamber. The shaped pulse of energy was a mere 23 billionths of a second long but it generated 411 trillion watts of peak power. The ultimate goal is to achieve fusion ignition. Brief but bright. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
• COLD INTERNET: The Internet just has to go through — this time via undersea fibre optic cables through the Arctic between Europe and Japan. The new cable routes are some 8,000 Km shorter than current overland routes. As the cable goes past Canada it’ll bring Internet to some remote communities that have had to rely on satellite until now. The new undersea cables have become possible because of reduced ice in the Arctic. One problem though is that the cable-laying ships aren’t designed for Arctic waters, meaning additional support vessels will be needed. Going where no cable has gone before. Discovery News.

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.

Tech Universe: Monday 19 March 2012

• HOT SPOTS: The US Military’s Active Denial System isn’t like a microwave oven because the radio wave frequency it uses is too slow and doesn’t penetrate deeply enough. But the weapon does create an unbearable sensation of heat that causes a person to move away. The 95 gigahertz heat ray is effective from even 1,000 metres, and could be used for crowd control, mob dispersal, checkpoint security and similar purposes. The weapon’s stealthy: there’s no warning that the heat is on its way, but it’s very effective. If you can’t stand the heat head for the kitchen. Sydney Morning Herald.
• PINK SPOTS: It seems the Cardiff Council in Wales want to use some special technology to deter antisocial behaviour in certain areas of town. They’re thinking of installing pink lighting because it highlights pimples on teenage skin, and they think boys will avoid areas where the lights are coloured pink. And troublesome teenagers would never think of destroying the lights, I’m sure. BBC.
• 560 MILLION SPOTS: NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mapped the entire sky in 2010. It collected more than 2.7 million images taken at 4 infrared wavelengths of light — that’s more than 15 trillion bytes of returned data. Now the individual WISE exposures have been combined into an atlas of more than 18,000 images covering the sky and listing the infrared properties of more than 560 million individual objects. The WISE mission was responsible for many discoveries, including a new type of asteroid and a new class of star. That’s a lot of imagery to process. Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• CELL PEEL: Twin Creeks Technologies in the USA has found a way to make thin wafers of crystalline silicon that halves the cost of making silicon solar cells. Their Proton Induced Exfoliation uses less silicon and reduces manufacturing costs. While silicon blocks are traditionally cut up by saw, creating a kind of sawdust waste, the new process fires hydrogen ions to a precise depth in a block. Hydrogen bubbles form that lift a thin layer of silicon away from the rest, leaving no waste. It’s good to know exfoliation can be so useful. Twin Creeks Technologies. Video:
• PRESS PLAY: Use conductive ink to print circuits on paper and all kinds of things become possible. For example, the prototype Listening Post poster shows a map and thumbnail images of bands performing nearby. Press the thumbnail image on the poster so a short music clip plays, and you can book tickets to listen to them live. The poster and similar products have been developed by a British research partnership. And when the paper with printed circuits reaches the end of its useful life — can it be recycled, or must it go to landfill? BBC.

Tech Universe: Tuesday 20 March 2012

• LIGHTS ONLINE: Disappointed that you’re too far from the South Pole to see an aurora. Would seeing one on a live cam be any consolation? The Canadian Space Agency have a live aurora cam where you can watch auroras as they happen. The camera’s in the city of Yellowknife, near the Arctic Circle and operates until late May. Don’t worry if you miss out though, as the site has a replay page and feature videos of the best auroras. All the light show, not too much of the cold. Wired Science. Auroracam
• SHORT-TERM VIEW: DARPA has a new programme called Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements, or SeeMe. It aims to give US warfighters access to on-demand, space-based tactical information by using a constellation of small satellites. The programme could launch a couple of dozen satellites from an aircraft into a very low-earth orbit. Each satellite, costing around $500,000, would last 2 to 3 months before burning up in the atmosphere. Warfighters could call up imagery from a satellite as and when they needed it. Burning money. Again. DARPA.
• CLENCHED HANDS: Astronauts have many problems. One is that the air inside their pressurised suits makes the fingers of their gloves stiff and hard to close. The Robo-Glove General Motors are developing will help by reducing the amount of force required to grip an object. Actuators and pressure sensors in the gloves determine when the wearer is grasping an object. Then synthetic tendons automatically retract, pulling the fingers into a gripping position and holding them there until the sensor is released. No more dropped screwdrivers then. General Motors.
• FLAT EYES: Tests on 27 astronauts who flew long-duration space missions with NASA showed that micro-gravity deforms their eyeballs. The results suggest that longer missions have more severe effects. Astronauts already suffer bone loss and muscle wastage, so now there’s one more thing to worry about. It seems like mimicking gravity on spacecraft is something that really needs thinking about. Sydney Morning Herald.
• MOON PEOPLE: Russia’s Federal Space Agency aims to land cosmonauts on the Moon by 2030. The Russians are already building a new spaceport in eastern Russia called Vostochny, which will be the launch site for rockets from 2018. The agency has many other ambitious plans too, especially for Mars, Venus and Jupiter, but first they need to sort out the problems that have plagued their recent launches. SPACE.com.

Tech Universe: Wednesday 21 March 2012

• NEXT TOP MOLECULE: Imagine moving individual molecules around to create a new substance. That’s what scientists at Stanford University have done. They used a scanning tunneling microscope to move and place individual carbon monoxide molecules on a clean sheet of copper to create an entirely new substance called molecular graphene. What they were doing was tuning the fundamental properties of electrons to behave in ways rarely seen in ordinary materials. The researchers hope this marks the beginning of new designer nanoscale materials with useful electronic properties. I sure hope we’ll have whole TV programmes dedicated to the next top molecule. Stanford University.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7NxWZF5NF4

• NEXT TOP RESOLUTION: Virtual Reality goggles and the like display images only a few millimetres from your eyes, unlike computer screens that are usually centimetres away. So screen resolution really is all-important. Replicating Reality microdisplays cram in the pixels for Near-To-Eye applications that will really immerse the viewer. They’re soon to launch microdisplays that use 2048*1536 pixels. Each pixel renders red, green and blue information, helping to create a smooth image, and fooling the brain into believing the image is reality. But what we see on screen is reality, isn’t it? Replicating Reality.
• ROUND AND ROUND: Cardiac pacemakers send electrical signals to the heart to keep it beating in a healthy rhythm. To do that the pacemakers need batteries, or some other source of power. But batteries need replacing from time to time. Researchers at the University of Michigan have a novel idea for powering the devices: harvest energy from the reverberation of heartbeats through the chest and use it to power the pacemaker. The researchers don’t yet have a prototype, but they do have a concept. The believe they can use a piezoelectric ceramic material to briefly expand in response to the vibrations. Those expansions can create an electric voltage. Magnets boost the electric signal and help generate 10 microwatts of power — more than enough to power the pacemaker. It sounds too circular to be true. EurekAlert!
• HANDS DOWN: When your passenger plane arrives at the terminal the pilot is guided in by hand signals. But how could hand signals be used to guide a robot plane, for example when landing on the moving deck of an aircraft carrier? The plane has to recognise different body postures such as arms up or arms down even as the person moves with the motion of the ship, and then correctly match the gesture to an instruction. Researchers at MIT have been developing algorithms to do this. One technique uses short bursts of overlapping video that allow the algorithm to calculate the probability of a particular gesture. So far they can manage 76% accuracy. It all turns out to be surprisingly complex really. MIT News.
• SCAN SCAN: CT scans are something of a necessary evil. They’re an extremely useful tool for doctors, but the radiation dose for a standard chest CT scan is equal to about 70 chest X-rays. That high dose is OK in an emergency, but a real consideration if routine scans are needed. Doctors could use low-dose scans instead but then it takes days of processing to derive useful information from the image. GE’s Veo system processes low-dose scans in as little as one hour. First, carefully tuned algorithms reduce the X-ray power by up to 90 percent. Then new computer processors quickly derive meaningful data from the images. That means the people who need regular scans don’t need to worry so much about the radiation. Good job, GE! Intel Corporation.

Tech Universe: Thursday 22 March 2012

• SILK SHIRT DEFENCE: In adverse conditions anthrax spores enclose themselves in a tough coating and become dormant. The spores can survive heat, radiation, antibiotics and harsh environmental conditions, but not silk. Or at least, not when the silk is treated with chlorine compounds. Researchers immersed silk for an hour in a chlorinated solution then let the silk dry. When they tested E. coli bacteria and spores of a close anthrax relative almost all the bacteria and spores were killed within 10 minutes. This coating could be useful for protecting homes and offices against an anthrax attack, or for purifying water in emergencies. It sounds too simple to be true. American Chemical Society.
• SOUND THEORY: Extremely fast planes like the Concorde cause problematic sonic booms when they break the sound barrier. An MIT researcher thinks he may be able to solve the sonic boom problem by using one pair of wings on each side of the plane. A computer model suggested that the design could produce significantly less drag than a conventional single-wing aircraft at supersonic cruise speeds. Less drag means less fuel and less of a sonic boom. The specially shaped wings would be placed one above the other but curved to create a kind of flattened triangle as seen from the side. So far, though, it’s all theory. The design may not fly after all. MIT.
• HIGH LEVEL TESTING: NASA’s Starshade is a disc-shaped screen that blocks light from the atmosphere to give astronomers a better view of distant planets. The problem is it needs to be lifted high into the air and hover for hours. That’s why they’re using a 75 metre long blimp called Eureka that can stay in place for up to 2 days. For steering it uses a 4 propeller vectoring system controlled by a joystick. The blimp will also be fitted with various sensors so that while it’s hovering up in the air it can do research on things like air quality, earthquake fault lines and methane emissions. Testing the blimp starts soon. Nice multitasking, NASA. Wired.
• FLYING LOW: If you just love being in the water then perhaps a Subwing would interest you. The Subwing is an articulated board with one wing for each hand. It’s towed behind a boat travelling at about 2 knots, but takes you underwater. Twist the wings in different directions for dives, sideways movements or spins. The board’s designed to be used with only a diving mask, or perhaps a snorkel. The penguins have underwater flying down — without a board. Subwing.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VgA32p_6fE

• SMART SURVEYS: If you’re surveying people about their health to gather disease data then the good old-fashioned way is to use pen and paper. Researchers in Kenya though found that using smartphones was cheaper than traditional paper survey methods, once you got past the initial cost. But then, in some places paper is a very limited resource anyway. The study took both paper-based surveys and smartphone-based surveys at 4 influenza surveillance sites in Kenya. The smartphone surveys were more accurate, had more complete responses and had results available in 24 hours. The paper surveys took several weeks before their data was even uploaded. Perhaps census takers should consider this too. EurekAlert!

Tech Universe: Friday 23 March 2012

• STAND ALONE: An alternative to a wheelchair for a paraplegic is the TEK Robotic Mobilization Device from Turkey. The wheeled device allows the user to stand, sit and bend over while holding them securely with supporting belts. The electric device means the user is mobile, and in fact it fits in smaller spaces than a wheelchair. The user easily enters the device while it’s in front of them, and they can move it from a parking place to where they need it with a remote. All it needs now is a better name. TEK Robotic Mobilization Device.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gb5poTdUMg

• MAPPING BODIES: The Bodymetrics Pod is designed for clothing shoppers. A shopper steps into a cubicle where 8 Kinect for Windows sensors arranged in a circle scan their body. 5 seconds later, proprietary software produces a 3D map of the customer’s body. The customer can then use that 3D map to shop for jeans and find the pair that fits best. Bodymetrics has plans to help people use the system at home to map their bodies then shop online for clothing, trying on garments virtually. And with any luck aggregated data could lead manufacturers to improve the fit of their designs. Microsoft.
• PHOTO DIFFS: How can you determine that 2 photos are the same, when one has been resized or otherwise altered? This is a huge problem for law enforcement and other agencies trying to eliminate images of child sexual exploitation from the Internet. Microsoft’s PhotoDNA technology has at least part of the answer. The technology calculates the particular characteristics of a given digital image, creating a hash value which is like a digital fingerprint. Where this system differs from others is that it can still match images, even after they’ve been altered. The system can also quickly and reliably find similar images from amongst billions of images. This goal’s good but the technology has some scary implications. Microsoft.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THlDdjMjfkU

• MILK MACHINE: There are some cities in the UK, France and northern Spain where you’ll find an unusual vending machine that moos at you. The vending machines accept your Euro coin and dispense farm fresh milk into a container you supply. Sounds healthier than a fizzy drink dispenser. CubeMe.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=denPis65KW0

• TALKING THROUGH STONE: Researchers from the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University used nearly massless neutrino particles recently to send a message, literally. The neutrinos passed at almost the speed of light through 240 metres of stone to spell out a word at the other end. Neutrinos can penetrate almost anything they encounter, so this could open up communications channels in places where it’s nearly impossible now. One example is for submarines trying to communicate over long distances through water. Another may be for communicating with astronauts on the far side of the moon. Don’t get your hopes up for a neutrino based smartphone though. This test was carried out at Fermilab because it takes massive amounts of high-tech equipment to communicate a message using neutrinos. The stumbling block is always the infrastructure. Rochester University.

Notes: I write a Tech Universe column for the NZ Herald. This is a fun assignment: Tech Universe brings 5 headlines each day about what’s up in the world of technology. Above are the links from last week as supplied. The items that were published in The Herald may differ slightly.

While I find all the items interesting, some are just cooler than others. I’ve marked out those items.