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The eye is a delicate thing. Most ocular implants that get too hands-on with your squishy sightballs cause rejections problems, but a new implant developed by the Boston Retinal Implant project shrinks the components significantly, allowing your eye to take on its cyborg enhancements without casting them off violently as unwelcome invaders.
A new report by the US Government Accountability Office is claiming that the majority of US E-Waste recycling services should reconsider dumping our 20 million plus pounds of waste on Asia, where it's cheaper but also less effective. Many of the major electronics manufacturers (Samsung, Sony, Best Buy, more) have been proudly rolling out recycling services in greater numbers over the last year or so, but the new information confirms that tonnes of recycled e-waste never makes it to the actual "recycling" part, at least as far as US standards go.
In a panel at GigaOm's Mobilise conference today, Motorola VP of Applied Technology Fred Kitson revealed some prototype display technologies they have in the works, confirming the company has more on the mind than the damn RAZR. One phone prototype Kitson described involves an embedded projector that made use of 3 lasers that project on a wall, while another makes use of a headset display. He also made mention of home displays that could automatically detect your phone as you move into a target range, and dedicate a portion of that screen to your mobile.
New Scientist today is summarising the world of political spin detection software--behavioral scientist Paul Ekman claims he can analyse a speech's text for words that indicate untruths and deception. Others look to analyse the tenor of the voice, and facial recognition to spot lies is becoming more of a reality. But unfortunately, much of the bullshit detector tech here seems like it may be drowning a bit in the selfsame goo.
Graphene is getting a lot of publicity these days. It is being hailed as the future of the electronics industry—the material that will eventually replace silicon. It has also recently been confirmed as the world's strongest known material. Now, researchers at the Berkeley Lab have thrust graphene into the spotlight once again thanks to the TEAM 0.5: the world's most powerful transmission electron microscope. It has produced the first "stunning" images of graphene's individual carbon atoms.
I don't know what's going on over the pond, but it appears that September is robot spider month in the UK. First we saw the 50 foot robot spider that terrorised Liverpool, and now researchers from Queen Mary, University of London have developed a spider attack simulator that helps determine how bees avoid camouflaged predators. Although, I think its real purpose is to satisfy a juvenile urge to screw with their tiny little minds.
You have probably heard stories about patient injuries or death occurring when someone introduces a heavy metal object into the same room as an MRI machine. Obviously, we are talking about some seriously powerful magnets here. However, the US$10 million magnet currently under construction at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida is expected to reach 100 tesla when finished—about 67 times more powerful than a typical MRI machine.
The NY Times has a piece today about the monumental task of forging a pressure hull out of raw titanium to be used in the replacement for the legendary Alvin, the Navy's only currently operational deep-sea scientific sub that first explored the wreckage of the Titanic. Where Alvin could dive 3.9km down, its successor can go up to 6.4km under (hence the serious forging above), which will open up 99% of the ocean floor for exploration. That's a pretty big deal.
I've spent the morning at Philips Research Labs in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and I've seen some pretty amazing inventions that may not be far away from a shop near you. One of the coolest was these magnetic LED tiles that allow you to build any kind of 2D- or 3D-shaped display by just attaching one to the next. The results, combined with the beauty of the animated colour LEDs behind the diffusing glass, are stunning. The way it works seems like magic.
Researchers at Penn State have cooked up a new plastic that can be cooled by simply running a current through it. It uses the electrocaloric effect to rearrange its individual atoms when charged, allowing for heat to more easily come and go. By wrapping up a chip in the stuff and zapping it with current, researchers hope they've found a way to make more efficient heatsinks for laptops and other gear with small, hot enclosures. Right now the process requires too much voltage to be feasible (120v, rather than the couple of volts your laptop battery could give it), but manufacturing improvements could make it ready for prime time, and Intel seems interested.
I've spent the morning at Philips Research Labs in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and I've seen some pretty amazing inventions that may not be far away from a shop near you. One of the coolest was these magnetic LED tiles that allow you to build any kind of 2D- or 3D-shaped display by just attaching one to the next. The results, combined with the beauty of the animated colour LEDs behind the diffusing glass, are stunning. The way it works seems like magic.