Guitar and iPad join forces as the iTar

Starr Labs is developing a new iPad dock that uses the power and versatility of Apple's tablet, combined with its patented, button-based electronic guitar fingerboard to create a new digital instrument called the iTar

The phenomenal success of music-related mobile apps has forced many of us old timers to have a good rethink about the way we make music in the 21st Century. For many musicians - including The Gorillaz and Bjork - Apple's iPad is taking center stage in the production of modern music. Digital instrument innovator Harvey Starr is also looking at the iconic tablet as a way of giving more people the chance to experience the power of Starr Labs' custom-built electronic guitars at a fraction of the cost. Pairing the iPad with his company's button-based electronic guitar fingerboard, Starr is developing a new hybrid monster called the iTar.
                       Starr Labs has been making the acclaimed Ztar electronic guitars for nearly 20 years, attracting the attention of such luminaries as Stanley Jordan and Living Colour's Vernon Reid along the way. The arrival of the iPad has offered the company the chance to pair its patented, 6-string, 24-fret fingerboard technology with the powerful processor inside the popular tablet to create a versatile, creative and powerful new digital instrument.

The iTar won't come supplied with an iPad, of course, but the Bo-Diddley-like square body will be home to a dock for securing the tablet in place while performing. Starr Labs is currently working on an application that will provide virtual strings across the touchscreen display of the docked device, but users will also be able to create and store custom playing surfaces.
"If you want strumming bars (strings), an X/Y control pad, 2 joysticks and 5 knobs, you can have it," Starr Labs' Jason Begin told Gizmag. "If you want to trigger the fingerboard without strumming six strings, you can do that as well with a giant tapping surface on the iPad screen. The pairing of our fingerboard also allows users to have tactile control over other third party applications like synthesizers and samplers. It can also be used a simple button matrix for use with other music applications."
The coming together of iTar and iPad will offer much more than just a touchscreen digital guitar. Inventive use of apps could see users creating a full complement of backing musicians to support each performance, capturing great musical moments via a mobile recording studio and mixing desk, learning to play via onscreen video tuition and demos, or even running some video imagery in the background while belting out some tunes. There may even be interactive, Guitar Hero-like gaming possibilities to explore.
"Technically speaking, the iTar will be made of a high impact plastic that will withstand the bumps and bangs of its portable nature and due to its modular design, will break down easily for travel and storage," says Begin. "The fingerboard will be USB 2.0 bus powered via the iPad itself so there will be no need for batteries or clumsy wall warts. The docks will also feature professional quality I/O that you would find on our flagship Ztar models (MIDI/Audio)."

Planned options include an external MIDI connector, an extended-life battery module, and high quality external speakers. Starr Labs has also developed an interactive full RGB LED fingerboard as a deluxe option that can be custom configured by the user to create personalized graphics along the fingerboard, or tied in with gaming or learning apps. A stand-alone iTar fingerboard option will also be offered to iPad owners, which should appeal to non-guitar players that might like to use the surface as an array of mappable MIDI buttons.
There's also talk of extending the modular design beyond the iPad and into smartphone territory, and also branching out into other operating environments like Android.
"We're in the thick of development now," Harvey Starr told us. "The hardware is coming together nicely and I'm just making changes now for better functionality and ease of production. We should have working software in a few weeks."
The first production iTar system is scheduled to ship two months after the closing of its current Kickstarter crowd-sourcing appeal - around February 2012 - although Starr is also looking into other ways to fund the project. The planned list price will be US$199.
Starr told us that more information on the iTar will be available on the company's website in the next couple of weeks.

Nest Learning Thermostat learns user habits and programs itself

The Nest Learning Thermostat is capable of self-programming itself via its user's habits, activity sensors and Internet-gathered weather information

While programmable thermostats are nothing uncommon these days, many users adjust the temperature manually utilizing the thermostat's basic feature only. On the other hand, it's certainly difficult to develop an appropriate program corresponding to the volatility of daily life. Designed by a team led by ex-Apple engineer Tony Fadell, the Nest Learning Thermostat offers a new take on automatic temperature adjustment. Featuring a simple knob-based design, the unit is capable of self-programming itself via a combination of its user's habits, activity sensors and Internet-gathered weather information, thus increasing energy savings without much effort on the user's part.

Heating costs are usually 50 percent of an average household's energy bill. A properly programmed thermostat, however, can cut energy costs by 20 percent, Silicon Valley-based startup Nest indicates. Still, according to a 2011 study by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, 90 percent of thermostat users do not program their thermostats at all, sticking to the manual operation only.
It reportedly takes seven days for the Nest Learning Thermostat to come up with an initial personalized schedule for the user and bring noticeable energy savings. After installing the unit on the wall, users are required to answer a few questions about their household. The only thing that needs to be done in terms of operation, is setting the temperature reasonably by turning the brushed steel ring. A timer indicates how long it will take to reach the desired temperature.
Utilizing 150-degree activity sensors, the Auto-Away feature adjusts the temperature depending on whether someone is at home or not, while a WiFi connection takes the current weather and forecasts into account. A "Nest leaf" icon on the display indicates when the energy is being saved and after some time, the energy spending history becomes available.
The Nest is optimized for ease of use - operation is done via the knob, with the unit's front surface acting as a button. A proximity sensor automatically brightens the screen when the user approaches. Provided the device is connected to WiFi, settings can also be managed online, or via the Nest Mobile smartphone app for iOS and Android.
The Nest Learning Thermostat comes with three separate temperature sensors, AES-128, SSL/TLS, WEP and WPA/WPA2 encryption support for security, and the capability to pair multiple Nest thermostats, for simultaneously managing the temperature in multiple locations. Powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the unit displays its data via a 320 x 320-pixel 1.75-inch display with 24 bit color.
The Nest Learning Thermostat will be available by mid-November, priced at US$249.
Take a look at the following video explaining the self-programming feature:

Stretchy pressure-sensitive material could serve as robot skin

Stanford's stretchable pressure-sensitive material incorporates coatings of tiny 'nano-springs'

Robots, prosthetic limbs and touchscreen displays could all end up utilizing technology recently developed at California's Stanford University. A team led by Zhenan Bao, an associate professor of chemical engineering, has created a very stretchy skin-like pressure-sensitive material that can detect everything from a finger-pinch to over twice the pressure that would be exerted by an elephant standing on one foot. The sensitivity of the material is attained through two layers of carbon nanotubes, that act like a series of tiny springs.
The sensor material is made by first spraying nanotubes in a liquid suspension onto a thin layer of transparent silicone. Although the nanotubes are initially deposited in random clumps, some of them align with one another when the silicone is stretched for the first time, in one direction. Even after the material is allowed to rebound back to its original size, the clumps remain aligned, and will do so indefinitely.
When the silicone is then first stretched in a direction perpendicular to the previous one, some more of the clumps align with one another, facing in that direction. The result is a sheet of silicone coated with "nano-springs" that can be stretched in any direction, that will retain their orientation through repeated stretchings.
Two of these sheets are joined together face-to-face, with the nanotube clusters on the inside. Between them, however, is a third layer of silicone, which is more malleable. This layer stores an electrical charge, like a battery.
When the three-layered material is subjected to external pressure, the middle layer compresses, altering its electrical charge. The conductive nanotube coatings on either side of it, acting like the positive and negative terminals on a battery, detect this change. In this way, the material is able to register not only the fact that it is being pressed, but it can quantify the amount of pressure that it is being subjected to.
Complicating things is the fact that the middle layer will become thinner when the material is being compressed and when it's being stretched. The pattern of the pressure, however, should make it possible to deduce what's going on - compression tends to take the form of a spot of pressure, whereas stretching results in a line of pressure between two points.
Another transparent, stretchable pressure-sensitive material was recently demonstrated by scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute of Silicate Research. It also incorporates electrodes that detect changes in electrical capacitance.
A paper on the Stanford research was published this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

WikiSensor app turns an iPhone into a peripheral-free radiation detector

The WikiSense app and some black tape turns an iPhone 4 into a radiation detector

Earlier this month, we reported on the Scosche RDTX-Pro that connects via a dock connector to turn an iPhone or iPod touch into a radiation detector. That device is set to go on sale in Japan from next month but if you're not in Japan or just don't want to shell out extra cash on any peripheral hardware, then the WikiSensor app might be worth a look - it won't be as accurate, but the only extra bit of kit you'll need is some opaque black tape.
                                To convert your iPhone into a radiation detector all you need to do is install the WikiSense app and stick some opaque black tape - electrician's tape should do the trick - over the iPhone's front-facing camera. Since the CMOS sensors used in smartphone cameras like the iPhone's don't just pick up visible light but also high frequency waves from radioactive sources, such as gamma and X-rays, covering the lens means only those waves make it through to the sensor. Once activated, the application then counts the number of impacts the sensor receives and translates that into a value in microsieverts per hour.
The makers of the app admit it won't give a precise reading, but rather an approximate one that should be validated by more professional tools if a reading above five microsieverts per hour is detected.
The team behind the app plans to develop a tool that uses data gathered from various users to generate a map showing radiation levels in different locations - hence the wiki prefix. With the ultimate vision of developing a platform that uses a network of devices - particularly smartphones - as a sensor network to measure various aspects of environmental quality, the company also has plans to develop apps to measure Wi-Fi waves, relay antenna waves, magnetic fields, earthquakes, greenhouse gases, UVA/UVB light, oxygen and temperature.
The WikiSensor app has only been calibrated for use with the iPhone 4 and is available now for US$0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

Microsoft HoloDesk lets users handle virtual 3D objects

The Sensors and Devices group at Microsoft Research has developed a new system called HoloDesk that allows users to pick up, move and even shoot virtual 3D objects
Does anyone remember the animated version of Star Trek from the 1970s? The Emmy-Award-winning series was the very first outing for the now familiar Holodeck, although it was called the recreation room back then. Despite some landmark advances in holographic technology in the years since - such as the University of Tokyo's Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display - nothing has come close to offering the kind of physical interactivity with virtual objects in a 3D environment promised by the collective imaginations of sci-fi writers of the past. While we're not at the Holodeck level just yet, members of the Sensors and Devices group at Microsoft Research have developed a new system called HoloDesk that allows users to pick up, move and even shoot virtual 3D objects, plus the system recognizes and responds to the presence of inanimate real-world objects like a sheet of paper or an upturned cup.
Unfortunately, the research team hasn't revealed too much about how its new natural user interface system works, but here's what we do know. It's about the size of a filing cabinet and is made up of an overhead screen that projects a 2D image through a half-silvered beam splitter into a viewing area beneath. A Kinect camera keeps tabs on a user's hand position within the 3D virtual environment, a webcam tracks the user's face to help with placement accuracy, and custom algorithms bring everything together in (something very close to) real time.
The user looks down through a transparent display into the viewing area where holographic objects can be picked up and stacked on top of real-world ones, and real hands can juggle virtual balls or shoot them at targets, or play with a non-existent smartphone. The researchers also seem to have included the ability to remotely collaborate on shared multi-user virtual projects. Interestingly, objects in the virtual world still appear to obey the laws of real-world physics, but that doesn't mean that they have to - the beauty of a virtual world is surely that anything is possible.
As you can see from the following proof-of-concept Microsoft Research video, the development does suffer from some jerkiness and image dilution when real-world objects enter the viewing area, and there are also a few placement and tracking issues, but it's a major step forward and in its current stage of development might find immediate use in gaming, education and design.

Rotundus GroundBot spherical surveillance robot broadcasts live in 3D

The Rotundus GroundBot spherically-shaped surveillance robot is equipped with a pair of cameras providing its remote operator with a live video feed in 3D
Remote-controlled unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have proven exceptionally useful in military applications, but according to Swedish company Rotundus, they can be equally well applied to civil security. Rolling through mud, sand, snow, or even floating in the water, the Rotundus GroundBot spherically-shaped robot is equipped with a pair of cameras, providing its remote operator with a live video feed in 3D.
   
Controlled remotely or via a programmed autonomous GPS-based system, Groundbot can be equipped with wide-angled cameras (for 360-degree vision), night vision (IR) cameras, microphone and loudspeakers, as well as sensors for radioactivity, gas, humidity, fire, heat, smoke, biological material, explosives, or narcotics. GroundBot has all its sensors and cameras well-protected inside the hermetically sealed sphere, which means no sand, mud, water, or even gas can get inside. This makes it well-suited for uses such as investigating suspected gas leaks. It also withstands overturns, drops and knocks.
Able to move and turn in multiple directions with smooth acceleration and deceleration, GroundBot is driven via a patented pendulum-based mechanism. In order to start rolling, a built-in motor raises the pendulum located inside the sphere, thus changing the center of gravity. This causes Groundbot to roll in the desired direction.

With a top speed of 10 km/h (6 mph), GroundBot is reportedly virtually inaudible and comes with knobby tire treads for all-terrain operation, or without them for use on paved surfaces. It operates for 8-16 hours depending on mission profile, while it takes 3-4 hours to recharge its battery. Featuring a polycarbonate housing with high friction coating, Groundbot's size is comparable to an automobile tire, measuring 60 cm (23.6 in) in diameter, while weighing in at 25 kg (55 lbs).
According to Rotundus, Groundbot is suitable for security at places such as airports, train stations, power plants, borders and warehouses, and for applications such as perimeter protection and stadium/event surveillance. American Unmanned Systems has acquired an exclusive license for production, marketing and sales of the unit in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The following video presents Groundbot operating at an airport.

Waterproof fabric anntena could save people lost at sea

A life vest incorporating one of the fabric antennas, being tested in Finland
A patch about the size of the leather name tab on a pair of jeans could save your life one day - should you be stranded at sea, that is. In a project overseen by the European Space Agency (ESA), researchers from Finnish company Patria and the Tampere University of Technology have created a flexible fabric antenna, that can be sewn into life vests. Once activated, that antenna transmits its coordinates to earth-orbiting satellites, that can immediately relay the location to rescue personnel.
The device utilizes the Cospas-Sarsat worldwide search and rescue satellite system, an international project that has been in use since the Cold War. Cospas-Sarsat incorporates satellite-based receivers, that are continuously listening for emergency radio beacons from transmitters on ships, aircraft or people. When a signal is received, it is relayed to a ground receiving station, followed by a mission control center, and then a rescue coordination center.
When sea trials of the antenna were conducted, its location was attained within a matter of minutes.

Not only is the device flexible, lightweight, and wear- and waterproof, but it is also surprisingly small for an antenna that transmits at such low frequencies. Larger antennas are typically required for these frequencies, which are what Cospas-Sarsat is set up to receive.
Along with the life vest-mounted antenna, the ESA project is also developing one that could be attached to a diving vest. The device could perhaps find its way into the high-tech fisherman's gear being developed through the European Safe@Sea project, which is designed to stop a boat's engine when the fisherman falls overboard, and to inflate upon contact with the water.
Previously, wearable antenna technology has been focused more on military applications

New material claimed to store more energy and cost less money than batteries

The low-cost, high-density energy-storage membrane, created at the National University of Singapore
Researchers from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI) have created what they claim is the world's first energy-storage membrane. Not only is the material soft and foldable, but it doesn't incorporate liquid electrolytes that can spill out if it's damaged, it's more cost-effective than capacitors or traditional batteries, and it's reportedly capable of storing more energy.
The membrane is made from a polystyrene-based polymer, which is sandwiched between two metal plates. When charged by those plates, it can store the energy at a rate of 2 farads per square centimeter - standard capacitors, by contrast, can typically only manage an upper limit of 1 microfarad per square centimeter.
Due in part to the membrane's low fabrication costs, the cost of storing energy in it reportedly works out to 72 cents US per farad. According to the researchers, the cost for standard liquid electrolyte-based batteries is more like US$7 per farad. This in turn translates to an energy cost of 2.5 watt-hours per US dollar for lithium-ion batteries, whereas the membrane comes in at 10-20 watt-hours per dollar.
Details on how the material works, along with data on factors such as charging/discharging times and longevity have not yet been released. Principle investigator Dr. Xie Xian Ning, however, has stated "The performance of the membrane surpasses those of rechargeable batteries, such as lithium ion and lead-acid batteries, and supercapacitors."
The NUSNNI team is now looking into opportunities for commercializing the technology.

Why You Never Really Log Out of Facebook

Facebook admits it went too far. The social network is quietly retracting a cookie that continued to report your Facebook user ID even after you "logged out" of the site. But it's not sorry about five other cookies that persist after you sign off. What, you didn't think Facebook would ever let you actually for real seriously 100 percent sign out, did you?

When Australian programmer Nik Cubrilovic first blogged on Sunday about how Facebook logout didn't seem to actually, uh, log out, the company went into damage control mode, insisting that "Facebook does not track users across the web," which was pretty funny given that Facebook has a tracking feature its CEO literally calls "Facebook Across the Web." The company also said, "logged out cookies... are used for safety and protection..."
Except it turns out one cookie wasn't used for "safety and protection," as a Facebook engineer has admitted to Cubrilovic now that the press storm is subsiding. One cookie, "a_user," continued to report your user ID back to Facebook after you logged out, until you shut down your browser entirely. The cookie was only visible to Facebook, but the site could have used it to track your visits to other sites if it wished, since a great many websites feature "Facebook Connect" widgets that load content from facebook.com — transmitting cookies to Facebook each time they do so.
The social network, to its credit, now destroys "a_user" on logout.

But there are five other cookies that still remain after you "log out" of Facebook, and that stick around even after you restart your browser. Cubrilovic runs down what each of them is ostensibly for; Facebook says they, variously, track failed login attempts to thwart hackers, track new account creations to thwart spammers, track total logins to identify computers in internet cafés, remember your browser language, remember your device dimensions, and report the time, to the milisecond, of you last few browser requests, for performance reasons.

The problem is that, whatever it says about the intent behind these cookies, Facebook could be using — or decide in the future to use — some of them to track us for less noble reasons. The milisecond request log, for example, could be trivially traced back to a specific Facebook user using the company's server logs, as Cubrilovic points out. And given its long history of rolling back user privacy, do you really trust the social network? Cubrilovic:

These cookies, by the very purpose they serve, uniquely identify the browser being used - even after logout. As a user, you have to take Facebook at their word that the purpose of these cookies is only for what is being described.

Trust is nice, but concrete protections are nicer: Log in to Facebook using something like incognito mode, install a privacy plugin like disconnect.me to minimize the power of Facebook's cookies, and/or manually clear Facebook cookies in your browser preferences. Isn't social networking fun?!

Drink-mixing typewriter lets you taste your words

A Russian tinkerer has created a typewriter that mixes drinks based on the keys that are pressed
Hoo boy, you just know Hunter S. Thompson would have loved this. A Russian tinkerer going by the name of morskoiboy has created a typewriter (?) that squirts a different type of syrup or liqueur into a glass with every keystroke. That same liquid is used in a big single-character LCD-like display, that shows users what letter they're typing. This means that different cocktails can be created, simply by typing in different words.
   
According to morskoiboy, the cocktail typewriter is actually the first thing he's ever built.
The user starts by connecting an upside-down bottle of alcohol (or water or milk) to the top of the machine, as one does with a water cooler. This supplies the base liquid for the drink. Its flow is switched on and off using an IV rate flow regulator, purchased at a drug store.
Each key is connected to a syringe, into which a different type of colored syrup/liqueur has been drawn. When that key is depressed, its syringe's contents are forced into a splitter, where the liquid is routed through a series of tubules and into the display. Different segments of that display will be filled with liquid, depending on what letter it's representing - the letter A is made up of seven segments, for instance, so the liquid from the A key's syringe would be split into seven tubules, each one filling a different segment. The machine also has regulators on the side, to control the speed at which the syrup flows.

From there, the liquid mixes with the alcohol from the bottle, then proceeds out of a tap on the side of the machine and into a glass. What it will taste like is anyone's guess. "You can try to imagine that each letter can have a taste (L-Lime, A-Apple), a color (R-Red, G-Green), or a name (K-Kahlua, J-Jagermeister)" morskoiboy suggests on his website.
The whole thing is a little difficult to describe, but the video below illustrates the process nicely.

Australia's first LTE mobile broadband network launched

Telstra has launched a USB 4G mobile broadband modem in Australia
Australians are getting their first taste of LTE (long-term evolution) mobile network speed. Telecommunications provider Telstra launched its USB 4G mobile broadband modem today with the promise of coverage in capital city CBDs and 30 regional and metropolitan centers with download speeds ranging from 2 Mbps to 40 Mbps and upload speeds of 1 Mbps to 10 Mbps.
Telstra flipped the switch on its first LTE base stations in May and began piloting services for business customers last month.
As well as significantly increasing speed compared to currently available networks, the company says its LTE service will provide an added boost for real-time applications like video conferencing and internet gaming by reducing network latency.

The LTE coverage is currently limited to a radius of 5 km (3.1 miles) from the center of capital cities and 3 km (1.9 miles) in regional areas where the network is available.
There are plans to add 50 more locations to the 4G coverage list by the end of 2011 and Telstra says it's working with manufacturers to bring 4G-powered smartphones online in 2012.
The 4G USB modem runs dual mode 4G/3G HSPA technology so it can switch to 3G networks when the faster option isn't available.
The modem is being offered on 24 four month contracts starting at around AUD39 per month with 4GB included data. Outright purchase of the modem costs $299. More pricing and coverage information can be found at the Telstra site.

Copper nanowires could mean cheaper touch screens, solar cells and foldable electronics

A new flexible film made of copper nanowires and plastic conducts electricity illuminating a small light bulb (Image: Ben Wiley, Duke University)
In June 2010 we reported on the success by researchers at Duke University in developing a technique capable of producing copper nanowires at a scale that could make them a potential replacement for rare and expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) in touch screens and solar panels. However, the water-based production process resulted in the copper nanowires clumping, which reduced their transparency and prevented the copper from oxidizing, thereby decreasing their conductivity. The researchers have now solved the clumping problem and say that copper nanowires could be appearing in cheaper touch screens, solar cells and flexible electronics in the next few years.
Back in 2010, when Benjamin Wiley, an assistant professor of chemistry at Duke University developed the water-based copper nanowire production process with his students, PhD candidate Aaron Rathmell and undergraduate Stephen Bergin, he said that once the clumping problem was solved, he believed the conductivity of the copper nanowires would match that of ITO and silver nanowires - an also expensive alternative to ITO. That belief appears to have now been borne out with a new technique that eliminates the clumping problem resulting in copper nanowire films that have the same properties as those currently used in electronic devices and solar cells.
The new technique organizes copper atoms in water to form long, thin, "non-clumped" nanowires that are then transformed into transparent conductive films and coated onto glass or plastic substrates. Unlike ITO films, which are generally created using a slow and expensive vapor disposition process, the copper nanowires could be coated in a roll-to-roll process as the new technique is water-based and the copper nanowires are flexible.
This flexibility also means copper nanowires could be used to build flexible electronics - another advantage over ITO films, which are fragile and lack flexibility. Whereas ITO films' structure break after just a few bends, the copper nanowires maintain their conductivity and form when bent back and forth 1,000 times.
But it's cost where the big gains lie. Indium is a rare earth element, costing as much as US$800 a kilogram, while the silver used to create inks containing silver nanowires that can serve as an alternative to ITO costs around $1,400 per kilogram. Compare this to copper, which costs around $9 a kilogram and it's easy to see why Wiley says the copper nanowires are a natural choice for use in the next generation of displays and solar cells.
Wiley says that, with continuing development, copper nanowires could be in screens and solar cells in the next few years, which could lead to lighter and more reliable displays and make solar energy more competitive with fossil fuels. He co-founded a company called NanoForge Corp in 2010 to manufacture copper wires for commercial purposes. The company received a US$45,000 North Carolina IDEA grant earlier this year for the refinement and scaling up of the manufacturing process of copper nanowires and is now filling orders.
The results of the Duke team's research showing the properties of the copper nanowires produced using the new technique is published online on September 23 in Advanced Materials.

Etymotic HD-15 electronic earplugs only block the loud noises

Etymotic's HD-15 High-Definition electronic earplugs let users hear normally when things are quiet, but kick in when sudden loud noises occur
If you work someplace where sudden loud noises frequently but intermittently occur, it can get kind of frustrating - you pretty much have to choose between protecting your hearing with ear plugs, or being able to hear what people are saying when it isn't noisy. Your basic earplugs, unfortunately, don't let you hear when things are quiet, but then activate when loud noises occur. Non-basic earplugs, however, do that very thing. Etymotic Research's HD-15 High-Definition electronic earplugs contain tiny microphones, that instantaneously cause the plugs to block incoming sound waves when they detect noises over a given threshold. When the noise has ceased, the earplugs let the user hear normally again.
Not only do the HD-15s not impede hearing when it isn't noisy, but with the flick of a built-in switch, they can also amplify ambient sound by 15 decibels. In either setting, they will still block sudden, loud impact sounds when they occur. They have a noise reduction rating of 25 decibels.

These earplugs aren't the first hearing protection devices to use such technology. The QUIETPRO+ Intelligent Hearing System also uses an integrated microphone to detect loud noises, at which point its noise-reduction function kicks in. It additionally features a conductive microphone that is located inside the user's ear canal, so they can talk to other people by radio without unfiltered background noise drowning out their voice.
Sensear utilizes a similar system, in which directional microphones enhance speech, but block other sounds. It appears that one advantage that the HD-15s have over QUIETPRO+ and Sensear is that everything is contained with the plugs themselves, with no additional hardware required.
The HD-15 High-Definition electronic earplugs are available for US$499 via the Etymotic website. The company also makes versions optimized for people shooting guns, and for military applications.

In-shoe device harvests energy created by walking

A new in-shoe device is designed to harvest the energy that is created by walking, and store it for use in mobile electronic devices
Although you may not be using a Get Smart-style shoe phone anytime soon, it is possible that your mobile phone may end up receiving its power from your shoes. University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering researchers Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor have developed an in-shoe system that harvests the energy generated by walking. Currently, this energy is lost as heat. With their technology, however, they claim that up to 20 watts of electricity could be generated, and stored in an incorporated rechargeable battery.
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While the details of the energy-harvesting technology are proprietary, it is said to involve a process known as "reverse electrowetting," which was discovered by Krupenkin and Taylor. It converts mechanical energy to electricity via a microfluidic device, in which thousands of moving microdroplets (of an undisclosed non-toxic, inexpensive liquid) interact with "a groundbreaking nanostructured substrate." The process is said to have a power density of up to one kilowatt per square meter (10.76 sq. ft.), plus it works with a wide range of mechanical forces, and is able to output a wide range of currents and voltages.
The battery is hermetically sealed, for protection against water and dirt. In order to get the power from it to the phone or other mobile device, the two would have to be temporarily physically joined with a wire, although the researchers are also looking into the use of conductive textiles and wireless inductive coupling.

Besides directly powering the phone, the device could also serve as a mobile WiFi hotspot, linking the phone to a wireless network. Having its own hotspot constantly nearby could drastically increase the phone's battery life - this is because the phone would only need to transmit in a low-power standard such as Bluetooth in order to reach the device, which would then use its own battery (which would be continuously getting recharged, by walking) for the high-power long-range transmissions to the network. Krupenkin claims that this could allow phone batteries to last up to ten times longer than normal.
The U Wisconsin technology is currently in the process of being commercialized, through Krupenkin and Taylor's company, InStep NanoPower. If it does make it to the marketplace, it may have some competition - Dr. Ville Kaajakari is also developing a piezoelectric device for shoes, that generates power as its user walks.

Solid-state capacitor said to combine best qualities of batteries and capacitors

A method developed at Rice University allows bundles of vertically aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes to be transferred intact to a conductive substrate
Capacitors are able to charge and discharge more quickly than batteries, and can do so hundreds of thousands of times. Batteries, on the other hand, are able to store more energy than capacitors. There are also electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), otherwise known as supercapacitors, that can hold battery-like amounts of energy while retaining the charge/discharge speed of regular capacitors. EDLCs incorporate liquid or gel-like electrolytes, however, which can break down under hot or cold conditions. Now, a new solid-state supercapacitor developed at Houston's Rice University is using nanotechnology to get around that limitation.
The Rice researchers started out by growing an array of 15-20 nanometer bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes, each up to 50 microns in length. This "nanotube forest" served to maximize the surface area available to electrons.
That array was subsequently transferred to a copper electrode, that included thin layers of gold and titanium to help with electrical stability and adhesion. In an atomic layer deposition process, the bundles (which served as the primary electrodes) were next doped with sulfuric acid to boost their conductivity. They were then covered with aluminum oxide, which served as a dielectric layer, and aluminum-doped zinc oxide, which acted as the counterelectrode. Finally, the circuit was completed with a top electrode of silver paint.

The Rice supercapacitor is reportedly stable and scalable, holds a charge under high-frequency cycling, and isn't adversely effected by harsh temperatures. It could also be incorporated into other materials, allowing for electric car bodies that double as batteries, or microrobots that serve as their own power supply.
"All solid-state solutions to energy storage will be intimately integrated into many future devices, including flexible displays, bio-implants, many types of sensors and all electronic applications that benefit from fast charge and discharge rates," said Cary Pint, who co-led the research.
Technology that combines the attributes of capacitors and batteries is also being developed at the University of Illinois, where scientists are creating nanostructured lithium-ion batteries that charge and discharge 10 to 100 times faster than regular li-ions.

International team discovers planet made of diamond

00:15 August 26, 2011

The 'diamond planet' orbiting the radio wave-emitting pulsar J1719-1438 (Image: Swinburne Astronomy Productions)
A girl's best friend may have just gotten a whole lot bigger with the news that an international research team has discovered a small planet they think may be made of diamond. Although the planet is calculated to have a diameter of less than 60,000 km - which is about five times the diameter of Earth - it has slightly more mass than Jupiter. With the planet likely to be made largely of oxygen and carbon, its high density means it is almost certainly crystalline, meaning that a large part of the planet may be similar to a diamond.
The discovery was made by a team of researchers from Australia, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S., led by the Swinburne University of Technology's Professor Matthew Bailes. Using the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Australia, Lovell radio telescope in the U.K. and one of the Keck telescopes in Hawaii, they identified an unusual star called a pulsar known as PSR J1719-1438 located 4,000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens in our Milky Way galaxy.
Pulsars are small spinning stars only around 20 km (12 miles) in diameter that emit a beam of radio waves. As the star spins, the emitted radio waves sweep repeatedly over Earth where radio telescopes are able to detect a regular pattern of radio pulses.
The astronomers noticed that the arrival times of the pulses from PSR J1719-1438 were systematically modulated and concluded that the gravitational pull of a small companion planet orbiting the pulsar in a binary system was to blame. The modulations tell the astronomers that the planet orbits the pulsar in just two hours and ten minutes, and that the distance between the two objects is 600,000 km - which is a little less than the radius of our Sun.
Because if it were any bigger it would be ripped apart by the pulsar's gravity, they also know that the companion planet must be small at less than 60,000 km in diameter. With slightly more mass than Jupiter, which has a diameter of almost 143,000 km, it is the planet's high density that Professor Baines says provides a clue of its origin.
The researchers believe that the "diamond planet" is the remnant of a once-massive star, most of whose matter was siphoned off towards the pulsar. PSR J1719-1438 is what is known as a millisecond pulsar because it spins very fast - rotating more than 10,000 times a minute. It also has a mass roughly 1.4 times that of our Sun, yet is only 20 km in diameter.
With around 70 percent of millisecond pulsars having companions of some kind, astronomers think that it is the companion in its star form that transforms an old, dead pulsar into a millisecond pulsar by transferring matter and spinning it up to a very high speed. The result is a fast-spinning millisecond pulsar with a shrunken companion, which is most often a white dwarf. However, because PSR J1719-1438 and its companion are so close together, the researchers say the companion must be one that has lost its outer layers and over 99.9 percent of its original mass.
"This remnant is likely to be largely carbon and oxygen, because a star made of lighter elements like hydrogen and helium would be too big to fit the measured orbiting times," said the CSIRO's Dr Michael Keith (CSIRO), one of the research team members.
Although there are a lot of stars "twinkling like a diamond in the sky," don't expect "diamond planets" to be all that common.
"The rarity of millisecond pulsars with planet-mass companions means that producing such 'exotic planets' is the exception rather than the rule, and requires special circumstances," said Dr Benjamin Stappers from the University of Manchester.
The "diamond planet" discovery is reported in the journal Science.

Plastic2Oil process turns plastic waste into fuel

The Plastic2Oil plant in Niagara Falls, New York, converts non-recyclable plastic into fuel (Photo: JBI)

While a lot of people may be doing their part for the environment by sending their discarded plastic items off for recycling, the fact is that much of the plastic currently in use is non-recyclable. In a not particularly eco-friendly process, some of this plastic is burned to generate electricity, while much of it simply ends up in landfills. Canadian company JBI, however, has developed a process that uses those plastics as a feedstock, and turns them into fuel.

JBI's Plastic2Oil process starts with a variety of unwashed post-commercial and industrial non-recyclable plastics, which are fed through a shredder and a granulator - the system can handle up to 1,800 pounds (816.5 kg) at a time. It is then heated in a process chamber, after which it proceeds into the main reactor. There, a proprietary (read "secret") reusable catalyst is used to crack the plastic's hydrocarbons into shorter hydrocarbon chains, which exit the plastic in a gaseous state. Those gases are captured, compressed and stored.

Gases containing gasoline and diesel can be condensed and separated, the resulting liquid fuel then temporarily stored in tanks. Methane, ethane, butane and propane "off-gas" out of those tanks, and are subsequently compressed and stored themselves. The butane and propane liquefy upon compression, allowing them to be separated, stored and sold, while the others are used to help power the system. Emissions that make it into the atmosphere are said to be less than those that would be produced by a natural gas furnace.

The whole process, for one 1,800-pound load, reportedly takes less than an hour. According to JBI, almost 90 percent of the plastic's hydrocarbon content is captured and converted into fuel. Approximately two percent of the feedstock is left over as waste, which can be removed while the system is operating. It can then be dumped in a landfill, or burned for fuel, as it has a heating value of 10,600 BTU/lb (24,656 kJ/kg).

On June 14th, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued the permits necessary for JBI's Niagara Falls three-processor pilot plant to begin operations. The plant, which has a footprint of 1,000 square feet (93 sq. m.), is capable of processing 22 tons of plastic per day, and operates continuously.

The company now plans on opening up more Plastic2Oil plants, and will concentrate on building a few plants each containing several processors, as opposed to many plants each with one processor - this is said to make the most sense for keeping construction costs down, and for maximizing production capacity. Some of the plants will be managed and owned solely by JBI, while others will be run as joint ventures.

A similar system, that utilizes a fluidized bed reactor for converting non-recyclable plastics into a variety of products, is being developed by the University of Warwick in the UK.

South Korea plans to withdraw printed textbooks from schools by 2015

South Korea plans to digitize all textbooks which are in use by Korean schools by 2015 (Image: San Jose Library via Flickr)

The South Korean ministry of education has announced a ground-breaking plan to digitize all textbooks which are in use in Korean schools and thus completely phase out printed materials by 2015. This opens a huge market for manufacturers of tablet PCs, laptops and smartphones as the Korean education ministry has revealed it will spend US$2.4 billion on buying appropriate devices and digitizing content for them.

The Korean government's "Smart Education" scheme will see the creation of a cloud computing network in order to allow students to access digital textbooks and store their homework so it can be accessed via any internet-connected device, including tablets, smartphones, PCs and smart TVs. The plan also includes introducing more online classes from 2013 so that students who are sick or unable to attend school due to weather conditions will be able to participate in virtual classes.

The ministry plans to digitize all primary school textbooks by 2014 and all mid and high school textbooks by the following year. Both, digital and printed textbooks, will be in use during the transition period and nationwide academic tests will also be held online. As part of the shift to digital, all schools will have wireless Internet access points set up by 2015 and the ministry will provide free tablet PCs to low-income families.

Korean officials quote the latest OECD report into digital literacy, that aimed to test how 15 year olds from different countries use computers and the internet to learn. The report found that Korean teenagers came out on top compared to students in 19 countries.

"That's why Korean students, who are already fully prepared for digital society, need a paradigm shift in education," the ministry official said in the JoongAng Daily newspaper.

Certainly, such a policy will provide a significant boost to the IT sector in South Korea and the ministry points out that digital textbooks will be cheaper than printed versions.

5 differences between Google+ and Facebook

Circles:
On social networks, privacy is an important issue – especially the need to interact with specific sets of people. For instance you may want to share your Saturday night exploits with your friends, but definitely not with your boss or your clients. Facebook does this with lists while Google+ uses a feature called circles. Users can drag contacts into circles that represent friends, work, weekend cricket group or whatever they choose to name the circle. Google claims this experience is easier and better than Facebook's lists.

Hangouts:
While Facebook chat is a text only feature, Hangouts will enable users of Google + to speak with each other face-to-face using a high-definition group video chat. Facebook could counter this with the help of Microsoft, which is an investor in Facebook and has just bought Skype. A video calling feature using Skype on Facebook could easily take on Hangouts.

Sparks:
Google wants to make Google+ a one-stop-shop for information. Sparks allows the user to consume all the possible information on selected topics in one place. Just set up a spark for the topic of your choice and get all the latest from what friends are sharing or from blogs on the Internet. Facebook does not have a feature that allows topic based feeds from the Internet.

Huddle:
A Huddle will allow users to chat with a specific set of people at any given time in a feature similar to BlackBerry Messenger groups. Group chats are not supported on Facebook yet.

Instant Upload:
Photos and videos from the phone will automatically be uploaded to Google+. Users can decide to share whatever they want, whenever they decide, without the hassle of transferring the photos to a computer and then uploading them to share with friends. Users can upload pictures to Facebook directly as well but it is not an automated feature.

Finally:
This is at least the fourth time that Google has tried to tame the social media beast. Previous failures include Orkut, Google Wave and Buzz. So will Google+ make the report card look good, given that naysayers are carping that it may be too late for Google to fell the Facebook giant? Watch this space for more

Taking a snapshot to migrate tasks between a computer and a mobile phone

Synchronizing data between a computer and a mobile phone has generally required connecting the two devices via a USB cable. For simple tasks many people even resort to manually typing text from one device onto another. Apple's iCloud is designed to take the hassle out of this task by automatically syncing data between your various devices over Wi-Fi, but MIT graduate student Tsung-Hsiang Chang and Google employee Yang Li have developed a system called Deep Shot that makes it possible to transfer simple computing tasks between devices simply by taking a photo of the computer screen with a smartphone's camera.
Designed to work with Web applications, Deep Shot exploits the fact many Web apps use a standard format called the uniform resource identifier (URI) to describe their current state. URI's are those long links that contain extra information, such as the start and end points and geographical coordinates in Google Maps, for example.
While these links can be copied and pasted and emailed, Deep Shot simplifies things by sending the URI between two devices over Wi-Fi via software installed on both the phone and all the computers with which the phone will interact.
The camera comes into play when uploading data to the phone by identifying the application open on the screen using existing computer vision algorithms. It is also used to identify the specific computer the camera is trained on - work or home, for example - when downloading data from the phone to a computer. The system will also resize the application window to match the framing of the photo.

Because URIs use a standardized set of codes, the system can also transfer data between different applications - from one map application running on a computer to another installed on a mobile phone, for example.
While it is easy to extract information from some Web applications, such as Google Maps, others can be more difficult but the developers say the system should work with any application that reveals its state through URIs with minimal additional coding. In theory, it could also work with off-the-shelf software with some minimal modifications to their code by the software developers. Currently the system works with several common Web applications, including Google Maps and Yelp.
Because Deep Shot was developed when Chang was doing an internship at Google, the search giant owns the rights to it. Google hasn't made the system publicly available yet but Chang expects it to and says he'll be among the first to install Deep Shot when it does.