Solar Bag purifies water while you walk

Lack of access to clean water causes the deaths of millions of people worldwide and in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, clean water can be several days walk away. Producing a simple and cheap method of purifying water which doesn’t rely on first-world amenities such as a steady electricity supply, or batteries, has proven a significant challenge thus far, but a new prototype device created by Ryan Lynch and Marcus Triest offers hope of doing just this, for an estimated cost of around US$5.

VTech InnoTab 2: is it enough to keep little fingers off your iPad?

We've seen several products which turn your touchscreen devices into children's toys, from the iTikes range to the SmartPet toy dog ... but what if you don't want to encourage your little one to play with your iPad? VTech is about to release the InnoTab 2, its latest tablet computer for kids, which features a five-inch touchscreen, camera, video and MP3 players … but is that enough to keep little fingers off your iPad?

Pedal-powered washer could make a big difference in developing nations

In the developed world, we forget that there was once a time when washday meant “day” rather than “toss it in the machine and come back in 20 minutes.” In many parts of the world without access to electricity and clean water, that time is still now. Design students Alex Cabunoc and Ji A You of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles visited the the slums of Cerro Verde, Peru. There they saw women spending days on end hauling water and washing clothes by hand and they came up with a solution. They created the GiraDora, a foot-pedal washing machine that’s inexpensive and portable.

OUTRIDE case turns the iPhone into an actioncam

Perhaps you’re considering buying an actioncam, but can’t quite rationalize spending $300 or so when your iPhone already has a perfectly good video camera ... if only you could keep it from getting damaged. Well, mophie’s new OUTRIDE case for the iPhone 4 and 4S may be what you’re looking for.

Like the housing of the ubiquitous GoPro HERO, the OUTRIDE is made from clear impact-resistant polycarbonate and features a 170-degree wide-angle lens.

How to Set Up Multiple Monitors In Windows 8

According to recent data collected by the Windows Feedback Program for Microsoft, less than 15 percent of desktop users and less than 5 percent of laptop users connect their systems to multiple monitors. That's a shame because few upgrades can improve productivity as much as multiple displays can. Having additional screen real estate at your disposal lets you keep more application windows open and visible on-screen at the same time; it also simplifies the task of transferring data between applications, and minimizes the need to click or scroll through open windows to find you're looking for.

Working with multiple monitors is a great way to increase your efficiency, if you can afford the extra cost and you have enough space on your desk.

Windows 8 Enhancements

Though setting up and using multiple monitors is reasonably straightforward with Windows 7, Microsoft is introducing some major multimonitor-related enhancements to Windows 8. With Windows 8, Microsoft aims not only to simplify the initial setup process for multiple monitors, but also to make desktop personalization easier, to improve the usability of the taskbar, and to support side-by-side Metro-style applications.

Windows 8 will incorporate such enhancements as taskbar customization, personalization options, and easier Start screen access.

Google Fiber: Pros and Cons

Everyone, and I mean absolutely everyone, wants Google Fiber. And who wouldn’t?

Its service, with 1000 Mbps download and upload speeds, is 100 times faster than the Internet connection that most people have today. That means no more buffering videos, cloud gaming that doesn’t slow down the entire house, and the genesis of HD videoconferencing for the average Joe.

Apple's 3D maps

We all know that apple has acquired C3 Technologies a mapping company last year, there has been no doubt that Apple is using C3′s data for iOS 6′s 3D Maps feature. However, we thought it would be interesting to show a comparison of how similar Apple’s implementation is to C3′s web implementation by way of Nokia. Notice the same iPad billboard and the alignment of the cars in the parking lot.

Some interesting things to note:

Scientists create artificial mother of pearl

Mother of pearl, also known as nacre, is the hard iridescent coating found on the outside of pearls, and the inside of certain mollusc’s shells. Besides being a nice-looking material used for jewelry and other types of ornamentation, it’s also remarkably strong. Now, scientists from the University of Cambridge have discovered how to make the stuff themselves.

The scientists created a liquid solution composed mainly of calcium carbonate (the main ingredient in natural, mollusc-made nacre), mixed with ions and organic components. The inclusion of the last two ingredients keeps the calcium carbonate from crystallizing, as it’s precipitated from the solution to form a layer on the desired surface.

Next, a layer of “organic material” is added to that layer of precipitate – this second layer contains pores measuring ten nanometers across. Crystallization of the precipitate layer is then induced, while the covering layer of organic material remains as it was. This process is repeated a number of times, resulting in a coating made up of multiple alternating crystallized and organic layers ... just like real mother of pearl.

Although existing man-made coatings are tougher than the synthetic nacre, the fact that it can be made from inexpensive ingredients at ambient temperatures means that it could be a good choice for economical protective coatings.

“Crystals have a characteristic shape that reflects their atomic structure, and it is very difficult to modify this shape,” said Cambridge’s Professor Ulli Steiner. “Nature is, however, able to do this, and through our research we were able to gain insight into how it grows these materials. Essentially, we have created a new recipe for mother of pearl using nature's cookbook.”

A paper on the research was published yesterday in the journal Nature Materials.

Source: University of Cambridge

Razer Ouroboros adjustable mouse for right and left handed gamers

Named after an ancient symbol representing constant re-creation, the Ouroboros gaming mouse from Razer is all about customization and choice. The device features a fully adjustable body and symmetrical, ambidextrous design, with adjustable arched palm rest and back, and two interchangeable side panels. This means that the length, tilt angle and side configuration are all adjustable, giving the user significant room for personal customization.

iRobot introduces telepresence doctor

In a medical emergency, seconds count. But if the doctor needed is in another part of the hospital or even another part of town, then those seconds can stretch dangerously. If only the doctor could be in two places at once, then countless lives could be saved. This is one of the most promising applications in the emerging field of telepresence robotics and RP-VITA (Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant) - a joint development by the robotics firm iRobot and telemedicine company InTouch Health - is aiming to bring this closer to reality.

DARPA awards contract to create "smart suit" to improve soldiers' endurance

The Pentagon has long had a fascination with machines that turn soldiers into supermen. Back in the 1960s, it funded General Electric’s work on Hardiman, an exoskeleton that was intended to allow its operator to lift loads of 1,500 lbs (680 kg). Almost half a century later, it’s still pouring money into all sorts of exoskeletons, assisted lifting devices (think robotrousers) and similar aids. Now Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has been selected by DARPA to spearhead the effort to develop a new “smart suit” intended to improve the endurance of soldiers in the field.

GM working on Wi-Fi Direct-equipped cars to detect pedestrians and cyclists

General Motors is working to expand upon its vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems that are being developed to allow information to be shared between vehicles and infrastructure to provide advance warning of potential road hazards, such as stalled vehicles, slippery roads, road works, intersections, stop signs and the like. The automaker is now looking to add pedestrians and cyclists to the mix so a car can detect them in low visibility conditions before the driver does.

Pedal Lock secures, incapacitates your bike

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Pedal Lock clamps to the wheel of a bicycle to prevent a thief from making a quick or clean getaway

Owning and riding a bike can be very rewarding; it gives you the freedom to explore your surroundings, is cheaper than public transport in the longterm, and healthier than driving a car. Unfortunately being a bike owner means dealing with the possibility of having your favored mode of transport stolen, especially in urban areas where the incidence of bike theft is high. This means the majority of bike owners need to own and use a lock every time they park their bike up. Two Taiwanese designers have concocted a new way of preventing bike theft: one that sees the pedals used to both clamp the wheel of, and (if necessary) incapacitate, the bicycle.

FACE android conveys human emotions with facial expressions

The FACE robot is capable of mimicking facial expressions

 

Introduced by Japan’s Masahiro Mori, the “Uncanny Valley” principle states that the more a humanoid robot strives and fails to mimic human appearance, the less appealing it is to humans. In yet another attempt to cross the valley, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Pisa, Italy, endowed a female-form humanoid called FACE with a set of complex facial expression features. They did so in the hope of finding the answer to one fundamental question: can a robot express emotions?

Camera system automatically keeps fast-moving subjects centered in the shot

 

 

 

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A table tennis game, and the 1ms Auto Pan-Tilt system's shot of the ball

 

A friend of mine who works in television once told me how he was shooting a hockey game, and was impressed with his uncanny ability to keep the puck centered in the shot at all times ... it turns out that the “puck” he was following was actually a speck of dirt on his viewfinder. A new system from the University of Tokyo, however, can automatically follow moving objects such as pucks with amazing accuracy.

New catalyst could replace platinum to bring down the cost of microbial fuel cells

 

 

 

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University of Wisconsin researchers discover nannorod catalyst that works as well as platinum in generating hydrogen at a fraction of the cost

 

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) researchers have identified an inexpensive nanorod catalyst with efficiencies rivaling that of platinum. Composed of nitrogen-enriched iron-carbon nanorods, the new catalyst holds the promise of cheaper, more efficient microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that generate their own hydrogen from waste water.
The hydrogen fuel cell is the holy grail of green energy. It burns hydrogen and gives off nothing but water. What could be more environmentally friendly than that? The problem is, hydrogen isn’t just lying about in the ground like oil or natural gas. True, it’s the most abundant element in the universe, but on Earth all of it is locked up in water and other chemicals. To be used as an energy source, the hydrogen has to be extracted and, unfortunately, the main source of most commercial hydrogen today comes from fossil fuels – which sort of defeats the purpose.

Record-setting 500 trillion-watt laser shot achieved

 

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) have achieved a laser shot which boggles the mind: 192 beams delivered an excess of 500 trillion-watts (TW) of peak power and 1.85 megajoules (MJ) of ultraviolet laser light to a target of just two millimeters in diameter. To put those numbers into perspective, 500 TW is more than one thousand times the power that the entire United States uses at any instant in time. Pew-Pew indeed ...
The NIF is funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy which is responsible for enhancing national security through the application of nuclear science, and the news comes at a time when the U.S. military and various government agencies appear to be increasingly interested in the use of lasers as potential weapons.

Wacom Cintiq 24HD touch adds multi-touch to interactive pen displays

Muti-touch can be used to do things like manipulate a 3D model or pan, zoom and rotate an image

 

Muti-touch functionality was added to Wacom's Intuos5 graphics tablets earlier this year and, after winning much praise from users, it's no surprise to see it arrive on the company's Cintiq range of interactive pen displays. The Cintiq range was first introduced in 2005 and the addition of the Cintiq 24HD touch now allows users to use their fingers to pan, zoom and rotate the canvas at the same time as using the pressure and tilt sensitive pen.

New “spintronic” OLEDs join next-generation display technology mix

A new “spintronic” OLED glows orangish exposed to a magnetic field from the two poles of an electromagnet located on either side of the device (Photo: Tho Nguyen, University of Utah)

 

We’ve seen a number of next-generation display technologies emerge in recent years, such as Sony’s “Crystal LED,” Uni-Pixel’s time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS) technology, and quantum dot LED (QLED) display technology from LG and QD Vision, and now there’s another one to add to the mix. While displays based on the new “spintronic” OLED technology invented by physicists at the University of Utah are still some years off, the researchers say they should be brighter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the LEDs found in the current crop of TVs, computer displays, traffic lights and other electronic devices.

Dark matter filaments detected for the first time

A view of the distribution of dark matter in our universe, based on the Millennium Simulation. The simulation is based on our current ideas about the universe's origin and evolution. It included ten billion particles, and consumed 343,000 cpu-hours (Image: Virgo Consortium)

 

For the first time, a team of astronomers has "observed" a filament of dark matter connecting two neighboring galaxy clusters. Dark matter is a type of matter that interacts only very weakly with light and itself. Its very nature is mysterious. Mapping the dark matter filament's gravity was the key to the breakthrough. The result is considered a crucial first step by scientists. It provides the first direct evidence that the universe is filled by a lacework of dark matter filaments, upon which the visible matter in the universe is distributed like small beads.

Jörg Dietrich of the physics department at the University of Michigan, together with his co-workers, examined gravitational lensing in the Abell 222 and 223 galaxy clusters. These clusters each have about 150 galaxies, are about 2.4 Gly (1 Gly being a gigalight-year, or 1 billion light-years) distant from Earth, and are separated by about 0.4 Gly. Earlier work by Dietrich's team using the 8.2 meter Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, and the XMM-Newton x-ray space telescope discovered that these two clusters appear to be connected by a bridge of hot gas, as shown below.

Composite astrograph of the Abell 222 and 223 galaxy clusters as seen in visible light and by x-rays - the filament of dark matter between the two is suggested by the hot x-ray emitting gas (shown in dark red) gathered along the filament (Image: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ EPIC/ ESO (J. Dietrich)/ SRON (N. Werner)/ MPE (A. Finoguenov)

They suggested that the hot gas might be concentrated along a filament of dark matter, as is found in simulations of cosmological structures, but a strong case for that interpretation could not then be made.

Dietrich and his team decided to do a careful examination of the region of the two Abell clusters. They studied weak lensing effects and solved for the mass density function of the clusters and the region between them. Then by examining the mass density function of the region they were able to test their hypothesis.

A filament of dark matter has been directly detected between the galaxy clusters Abell 222 and Abell 223. The blue shading and yellow contour lines represent the density of matter Photo: (Jörg Dietrich, U-M Department of Physics)

"We found the dark matter filaments. For the first time, we can see them," said Dietrich. "It looks like there's a bridge that shows that there is additional mass beyond what the clusters contain. The clusters alone cannot explain this additional mass." At least 90 percent of the filament's mass is dark matter.

We are still left with the problem of demonstrating that dark matter filaments appear between most neighboring galaxy clusters, and the puzzle of what dark matter actually is. The discovery of a dark matter filament, however, is a huge step forward for cosmology.

This groundbreaking observation is consistent with modern cosmological models, but the story actually starts some 80 years ago.