Nearly 1,000 industrial and service robots are being showcased at Japan’s International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. The robots range from simple pet like robots that react to your movements, to extremely sophisticated pain feeling robots that allow you to practice dental or medical procedures. Need a ping-pong partner? How about a baby robot that teaches you how to breast feed? There are robots for practically any occasion or application. In the video below you’ll see a very life-like “dental patient” humanoid, which actually took me a few seconds to realize it was not real. It feels pain and reacts accordingly. With a $600k+ price tag, you’ll probably feel the pain too.
Get theater tickets, order and pay for snacks, then order a taxi home using only your mobile phone. Sound convenient? Oulu City Theatre in northern Finland is partnering with Nokia to do just that.
“It is often said that theatre is somehow old-fashioned. I’m hoping this will build the opposite picture,” the head of Oulu City Theatre, Ahti Ahonen, told Reuters.
The technology, NFC (near-field communication), is used by waving your phone over smart tags which transmit information back and forth. The theater is beta testing the technology with Nokia and teleco operator TeliaSonera through the end of this year, and will continue if the project is successful.
The powerful new Astronomy.net search engine will be able identify any star or constellation from uploaded amatuer photos. You can take a picture of the night sky from almost any vantage point in the world, upload your photo to the search engine, and it will search through its massive database of constellations and stars and show you the details of what your picture contains. Additionally, your photo is also saved and used to expand the astronomy database. As more users upload photos to the search engine, it becomes even more powerful and precise.
The search engine uses astrometry, which is a branch of astronomy that studies star positions, motions, and measurements in space, to determine specific items in the photos. The stars in each photo are identified by taking 4 stars at a time and comparing that to their database of celestial positions and measurements. The search engine and database are currently in production and initial relase date is spring 2008.
According to a warning from cryptographer Adi Shamir, the man behind the “S” in the widely used RSA encyrption algorithm, increasingly sophisticated computer chips could possibly lead to undetected bugs in calculations. This increases the risk that these bugs could be used to crack public key encryption algorithms. Not just PCs could be affected but cellphones and any other device with a computer chip could as well. The real danger is that once a vulnerability is found millions of PCs could be attacked simultaneously. This is not a new phenomenon, as other calculation bugs have been discovered, such as, Pentium’s FDIV division bug and a recent multiplication error in Microsoft Excel.
A new study says massive use could overload the Internet and lead to brownouts by 2010 unless backbone service providers an estimated $137 billion in new infrastructure. The predicted ‘Exaflood’ is being attributed to video and other heavy Web content according to the70-page report by Nemertes Research Group. From the study: “Our findings indicate that although core fiber and switching/routing resources will scale nicely to support virtually any conceivable user demand, Internet access infrastructure, specifically in North America, will likely cease to be adequate for supporting demand within the next three to five years.” Service providers already plan on spending about $72 billion on upgrades, but this report claims it’s not enough. Is this just more ‘Y2K-like’ paranoia, or is this a genuine problem? Via Macworld;Press release
It’s no secret that the current traffic control light system is severly antiquated. We’ve all sat at a traffic light of an empty intersection and wondered why the light didn’t turn green. Or have been at an extremely congested intersection and scratched our heads in disbelief as only a few cars made it through each cycle. We waste hours sitting in traffic because the current traffic systems and infrastructure simply can’t handle current traffic levels. Or can they?
Most of the existing traffic systems were built in the 1960s and ’70s, when traffic levels were just a small percentage of what they are today. Computers didn’t have enough computing power to calculate complex systems to speed traffic along according to levels at that moment, so they were simply programmed to repeat in cycles. At the time they worked efficiently. With some changes to the current systems, traffic flow could be improved by as much as 95%.
Gibson Guitar continues their reign as the leader in guitar and music technology when they announced their newest guitar, a self tuning and adjusting guitar, aptly named the Robot Guitar. With a touch of a button, the Gibson Robot Guitar automatically tunes to the key you select. You can actually see the knobs on the head of the guitar turn as each string is tuned. Not only do you get automatic key changes but the guitar constantly adjusts itself to remain in tune. You can play for hours and still have perfect intonations.
From the press release:
1. The Gibson Robot Guitar eliminates tuning problems for guitarists. It automatically tunes to standard A440 tuning.
2. It also allows players to access six commonly used altered tuning presets at the push of a button. These tunings were used on many well know hit songs, giving players easy access for the very first time.
3. The Gibson Robot Guitar allows the guitar to be intonated in seconds after string changes, truss rod adjustments or change in weather conditions.
4. Finally, with the locking tuner, single string changes or changing the entire set of strings are an automated breeze.
What’s usually the most important detail when purchasing a new car? Performance? Sometimes. Airbags and safety ratings? Nah, I live in the edge. Cupholders? I hope not. Paint color? Bingo. Auto companies spend millions of dollars determining what color consumers want and will sell the best. Research groups and customer surveys help determine auto paint colors that can, ultimately, make or break a new vehicle model.
Nissan has developed a new paint coating that it calls “paramagnetic”, which can change colors instantly. This technology applies an electric current to an iron oxide polymer layer of paint that changes color based on the level of the current and number of iron oxide particles. Theoretically, almost any color could be produced in this manner. The one downfall is that the electric current needs to remain on to keep that color. Once the car is turned off the paint will revert back to white.
Silicon Valley-based Nanosolar’s Powersheet was named innovation of the year by Popular Science. The Powersheet is a solar cell made with printing-press style machines that set down a layer of nanoparticle ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil. The panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute.
Nanoparticle ink is a proprietary ink developed by Nanosolar that makes it possible to simply print the semiconductor of a high-performance solar cell on highly conductive yet low-cost foil.
Nanosolar’s cells use no silicon and the company’s manufacturing process allow it to create cells that are as efficient as existing cells for as little as 30 cents a watt versus about $3/watt for existing silicon-based solar cells. For comparison purposes, to compete with coal that cost per watt has to be in the $1 per watt range.
Nanosolar is backed by several heavy hitters including Google’s founders, Benchmark Capital, SAC Capital, GLG Partners, OnPoint Technologies (the US Army’s private equity fund), and others including a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Drooling for a chance to invest in this company? Stand in line - the firm is privately held and is presently not accepting any new capital.
Cree, a company in North Carolina that specializes in LED lighting, has converted their entire office place to use LED lighting exclusively. The building’s parking lots, entryways, lobby and conference rooms are now lit by their XLamp LEDs Apparently, these new LEDs consume around 48% less energy than the incandescent, fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lights they replaced. And as Cree’s CEO states, ““The conversion of Cree’s site demonstrates that the LED Lighting Revolution is well underway…” Press release
The search engine uses astrometry, which is a branch of astronomy that studies star positions, motions, and measurements in space, to determine specific items in the photos. The stars in each photo are identified by taking 4 stars at a time and comparing that to their database of celestial positions and measurements. The search engine and database are currently in production and initial relase date is spring 2008.
Most of the existing traffic systems were built in the 1960s and ’70s, when traffic levels were just a small percentage of what they are today. Computers didn’t have enough computing power to calculate complex systems to speed traffic along according to levels at that moment, so they were simply programmed to repeat in cycles. At the time they worked efficiently. With some changes to the current systems, traffic flow could be improved by as much as 95%.
Nissan has developed a new paint coating that it calls “paramagnetic”, which can change colors instantly. This technology applies an electric current to an iron oxide polymer layer of paint that changes color based on the level of the current and number of iron oxide particles. Theoretically, almost any color could be produced in this manner. The one downfall is that the electric current needs to remain on to keep that color. Once the car is turned off the paint will revert back to white.
