Olympus creates one of the world's thinnest industrial videoscopes

Olympus has created a new industrial videoscope with a tip that's just 2.4 millimeters wide

Have something in a narrow space that you want to inspect? Well, you could do worse than using Olympus’ new iPLEX TX industrial videoscope. With a tip diameter of 2.4 millimeters, it’s one of the world’s thinnest such devices, but its image is also much more clear than those of other “fiberscopes.”
On previous 2.4mm-wide devices, the video image was a composite of the output of multiple optical fibers, the borders between which could plainly be seen obscuring the picture.

Google launches its first Chrome OS-based desktop - the Chromebox

Introducing the Chromebox, the first Chrome OS based desktop computer

Google and Samsung have expanded the Chrome OS family of devices with the introduction of the first desktop computer based on Google's cloud-based OS. The Chromebox features the same cloud-centric focus of previous Chromebooks, but in a compact desktop configuration – meaning you'll need to provide your own mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
The basic premise of Chrome OS is simple – your average PC user spends most of their time on

The PowerA MOGA brings console-like game controls to Android phones

The PowerA MOGA provides a tactile response not found with a touch screen

The PowerA MOGA is a Bluetooth game pad that brings traditional console controls to your Android smartphone. Set to launch in late 2012, the MOGA controller features dual analog sticks, as well as two triggers and a full set of face buttons, in an overall design that is reminiscent of the Xbox 360 controller, minus the directional pad. Most importantly, the MOGA has a grip to hold any Android smartphone up to 7.8 cm (3.07 inches) wide, allowing you to keep your thumbs on the control pad at all times.
Smartphone games have grown increasingly complex, and often times a touchscreen is unable to

G-POD: Your futuristic garden lounge or portable office has landed

G-POD is a futuristic looking portable unit that comes in four different options, designed to create a backyard lounge, dining room or office

While the G-POD may resemble a cabin from the London Eye’s giant Ferris wheel, the prefabricated pod does come with some backyard benefits. The futuristic looking pod is a portable unit that comes in four different options, designed to create a backyard lounge, dining room or office. Created by the British garden specialists, Ornate Garden in Birmingham, U.K., the G-POD series features rotating or fixed spheres that create a practical outdoor living addition.
At the top of the range, the Deluxe Summerhouse is 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter and features a

Microsoft unveils Windows 8 Release Preview

The Windows 8 Metro User Interface

Microsoft has unleashed the Windows 8 Release Preview as a free download available to PC users wishing to take it for a test drive. As expected, this third and final pre-release version shows significantly more polish than its predecessors and offers increased personalization options in addition to some welcome new apps in the form of News, Sport and Travel.
The Release Preview follows on from the Developer Preview and Consumer Preview and offers more than a mere nip and

Students develop portable sign-language translator

The MyVoice prototype

Sign Language is definitely a boon to deaf people when it comes to communicating with each other, or with non-deaf people who are trained in the system. If a hearing person doesn’t regularly deal with the deaf, however, then there's an obvious communication barrier. In order to address that situation, a group of engineering technology and industrial design students from the University of Houston have created MyVoice – a prototype American Sign Language (ASL) translator.
MyVoice is a portable device that incorporates a

Mission to Mars meets reality TV

Dutch company Mars One is planning an extremely ambitious way to land mankind on Mars and keep us there: a reality TV show (Image: Mars One)

The first people to colonize Mars might be reality TV show contestants. No, this is not a joke - it's a tremendously ambitious, eyebrow-raising plan devised by Dutch company Mars One. Next year, the company aims to

Vocaloid keyboard lets your fingers do the talking - or singing

The Vocaloid keyborad lets users input lyrics with their left hand and 'sing' with their right (Photo: DigInfo)

Growing out a of a research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at Spain’s Pompeu Fabra University in 2000, Yamaha’s Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer that lets those with a voice like Roseanne Barr after a big night out synthesize more pleasing vocals by inputting lyrics and melody. While the current commercial version of Vocaloid 3 requires these inputs to be prepared on a PC prior to a performance, Yamaha has now developed a Vocaloid keyboard prototype that lets users input lyrics and melody and generate a

Carbon nanotube solar cells point to possible transparent solar window future

A researcher from Adelaide's Flinders University has developed a prototype solar cell that uses a layer of transparent carbon nanotubes sandwiched between conductive glass to collect solar energy

Imagine if every window of the 828-meter (2,717-foot) high Burj Khalifa in Dubai was capable of generating electricity just like a PV panel. That's the promise of solar window technology like the RSi and Sphelar cells systems. Rather than using costly silicon for window-based collection of solar energy, Dr Mark Bissett proposes using a very thin layer of carbon nanotubes instead.
As part of his PhD at the Flinders University School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Dr Bissett has developed a proof of concept prototype solar cell that is made up of two sheets of electrically-conductive glass with a layer of functionalized, single-walled carbon nanotubes sandwiched between them. As the nanotube layer is only between 100 - 200nm thick and the two sheets of glass are just 60µm apart, the

Western Digital releases first 2 TB My Passport portable drive

Western Digital's My Passport line of portable storage drives is now available in capacities up to 2TB

Like many digital file hoarders, I keep copies of my numerous albums of multi-megapixel photos, High Definition videos, audiophile-quality digital music files and important documents on an external hard drive to safeguard against hardware failure. Despite having lots of storage space available on my laptop's hard drive, I also move rarely-used files off my device and into an external vault - probably a habit picked up when storage space was still counted in megabytes. It's not practical to carry something like WD's MyBook storage solution around with me when I'm on the move but the company's newly-improved line of My Passport mini drives are a good fit, particularly when they're now available with up to 2 TB of

Ant behavior inspires more efficient warehouse robots

Fraunhofer's Multishuttle Moves robots, in the distribution center mock-up

When it comes to groups that work together to get a job done, ants have pretty much got the process perfected. That’s why computer scientist Marco Dorigo studied the creatures’ behavior, and created his Ant Colony Optimization model – an algorithmic technique that can be applied to human endeavors, when efficiency is the order of the day. Scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics have now applied these algorithms to a swarm of 50 autonomous shuttle robots working in a parts warehouse, in an effort to create a new and better type of materials-handling system.
The warehouse is actually a 1,000 square-meter (10,764 sq-ft) research facility, equipped to

Pulp and paper mill waste could be used in cheaper batteries

Scientists have created a rechargeable battery using the lignin from pulp and paper mills

Scientists have discovered that lignin, a plentiful byproduct of the pulp and paper industry, can be used to store an electrical charge. They've used the material to create a prototype lignin-based rechargeable battery, and suggest that it could one day be used as a less expensive, safer alternative to the precious metals currently utilized in battery cathodes.
Lignin is found in plants, and is the second-most common polymer naturally produced by a

New York to Beijing in two hours without leaving the ground?

An ETT (Evacuated Tube Transport) line in which car-sized passenger/cargo capsules would travel

Although there are similarities to the Startram concept we looked at recently, this take on maglev-like transport is all on terra firma and, if it ever eventuates, would take passengers from New York to Beijing in just two hours. Advocates of Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) claim it is silent, cheaper than planes, trains or cars and faster than jets.

                      

The basic plan is, well, as old as the enabling patent, US Patent 5950543, whose description is quite thorough. Issued in 1999, there remain seven years on the term of the patent, which is assigned to ET3.com, Inc., a licensing organization that hopes to head an alliance of players to fund and construct demonstration

Troika's kinetic LED chandelier is a vision of the future

Troika's kinetic chandelier, Thixotropes, combines LED lighting, carbon and steel banding to stunningly beautiful effect (Photo: Troika)

Let's play a game of word association. If I said to you "LED lighting", the chances are the first thing you'd say would be ... well, honestly, I have no idea. But if I were to guess, I think a lot of people would say bright, or efficient, perhaps cool, or possibly colorful. I would too. My hunch is that the word beautiful would be used much less frequently.
                But that's a perception that might soon change, if London design studio Troika has anything to say in the matter. Which it does. Its mechanized, kinetic and grand LED chandelier, named Thixotropes, is, quite simply, a beautiful vision of the lighting of the future.
Strictly speaking Thixotropes isn't a single entity, but eight "mechanized systems" of carbon, steel

Researchers get partial memory control and create "hybrid" memories in mice

Researchers have gained partial control of a specific memory and created 'hybrid' memories in mice (Image: Shutterstock)

You may remember – pun intended – that earlier in the week we reported on research that may provide an explanation of how memories are stored in the brain. In related news, a team consisting of researchers from the Scripps Research Institute, the University of Oregon and the University of North Carolina has found a way to partially control a specific memory in mice by turning neurons in their brains on and off. Although the research is in its early stages, the scientists say it could lead to a better understanding of how memories form and maybe even provide ways to change people’s thought patterns.
Knowing that stimulating various regions of the brain can trigger behaviors and memories, the

Asetek prototypes liquid-cooled laptop

Asetek has created a new slim form factor liquid cooling system for laptops and All-in-One computers

Gamers and overclockers will already be familiar with the performance and quiet operation benefits of liquid-cooling the internal components of desktop computer systems. Power users these days are not necessarily sitting in front of the beige base tower of old, however – other formats like the All-in-One and laptops have benefited from significant processing, memory and storage boosts in recent years. We've

Piezolelectric graphene could have wide-reaching applications

Lithium atoms (red) deposited on graphene were shown to give the material piezoelectric qualities

Scientists have succeeded in endowing graphene with yet another useful property. Already, it is the thinnest, strongest and stiffest material ever measured, while also proving to be an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. These qualities have allowed it find use in everything from transistors to supercapacitors to anti-corrosion coatings. Now, two materials engineers from Stanford University have used computer models to show how it could also be turned into a

Anti-stick coating reduces F1 downforce losses

The Zircotec anti-stick coating being applied

UK coatings specialist Zircotec develops products at the very leading edge of technology. Two seasons ago it was providing ceramic coatings to protect composite F1 diffusers from heat, and now it is developing coatings for aerodynamic surfaces which are clawing back lost down-forces.

             Zircotec has featured in Gizmag before due to some of the coatings it has developed that

NASA and GM develop power-assisted Robo-Glove

NASA and GM engineers have created Robo-Glove, a power-assisted glove designed to keep astronauts and autoworkers from getting repetitive stress injuries

Having trouble getting the lid off that pickle jar? Well, perhaps the Human Grasp Assist device can help. Designed through a collaboration between GM and NASA - and also known as Robo-Glove or K-Glove - the device is based on grasping technology initially developed for the hands of the space-going Robonaut 2. Essentially a power-assisted work glove, Robo-Glove is designed to minimize repetitive stress injuries in

U Grok It uses your phone to find your misplaced things

U Grok It is a smartphone-based system that allows you to find missing items, that have been tagged with radio-frequency labels

Last year, we told you about a smartphone-based system that can be used to find your missing stuff, known as BiKN. It consists of an electronic case that the phone slides into, which tracks the whereabouts of paired radio frequency tags that the user attaches to their car keys, purse, children - you name it. The phone displays the location of the sought items, or can sound an alarm if one of them gets too far