SUBWING

Subwing is a new revolutionary watersport product that reinvents the way we explore the sea. The multi award winning Subwing makes human underwater flying possible, with virtually full freedom of movement, letting you glide trough the water like a dolphin. Simply attach the double wing contraption to a boat or jet ski and get dragged under water, you can tilt the wings and dip, dive, twist and turn, to achieve a thrilling sensation.

Source:

Read More

Honda’s New Asimo Now With AI And A Creepy Smile

Remember the Asimo? Honda first introduced it about 15 years ago but now they are back with a better, blacker, badder version. With a smile. A creepy, malicious smile that tells you all sorts of weird you can imagine from a robot. And artificial intelligence laden robot too, which could single out multiple faces and voices in a crowd. It also has been enhanced with 13 degrees of hand dexterity and the ability to run faster, forwards and back, jump smoothly, and climb up and down the stairs effortlessly. It opens bottles and pours drinks like an expert and it can even express sign language, or give you a warning signal that it’s about to take you over. Luckily it doesn’t run faster than 5.6 MPH so it won’t be too difficult to escape in case you deem it life threatening. However as it can also predict and react to what’s going on around it, so it would make it a challenge to shut it down without mastering some kick-ass martial arts moves. Just kidding. Now smile!

Source:

Read More

Inside The New Dragon Spacecraft

The Dragon V2 Capsule can carry humans, dock with the ISS, and land on its own.

Last night, SpaceX unveiled the Dragon V2 capsule, destined to eventually carry astronauts to the International Space Station.
Although the previous version of the Dragon capsule was flightworthy enough to deliver supplies, its life support system wasn’t reliable for human passengers. Dragon V2, on the other hand, will be able to carry seven astronauts for seven days.
When the capsule reaches the ISS, it will dock with the station autonomously. Unlike its predecessor, it won’t need the ISS’s robotic arm to reach out and grab it.
And this isn’t the only improvement. To land back on Earth, version one slowed its speed with parachutes before splashing into the ocean. This is now a backup technique for the new capsule (because the V2 can use its engines to land propulsively).

“You’ll be able to land anywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced at the unveiling. “Which is, I think, something that a modern spaceship should be able to do.”
The Dragon V2’s landing ability will make it quickly reusable, an ability Musk hopes will cut the cost of space voyages. “As long as we continue to throw away rockets and spacecraft, we will never have true access to space. It will always be incredibly expensive.”
So how much will reusability reduce prices? According to Ars Technica, NASA pays Russia about $71 million per astronaut for trips to the ISS. Musk thinks he can drop that number to $20 million or less.

Source:

Read More

Radical new icebreaker will travel through the ice sideways

Given that icebreakers clear a path for other ships by traveling through the ice head-on (or sometimes butt-on), then in order for one of them to clear a wider path, it would have to be wider and thus larger overall ... right? Well, Finland’s Arctech Helsinki Shipyard is taking a different, more efficient approach. It’s in the process of building an asymmetric-hulled icebreaker that can increase its frontal area, by making its way through the ice at an angle of up to 30 degrees.

Arctech refers to the ship as “Icebreaking rescue vessel NB 508,” although according to a report in New Scientist, it’s also known as the Baltika. It’s being built for the Russian Ministry of Transport, and will be used not only for icebreaking, but also for rescue and oil spill cleanup duties in the Gulf of Finland.

Source:

Read More

New e-skin lights up when touched, could make robots and walls more touch-friendly

The explosion in mobile devices has given us the opportunity to perfect touch interaction on screens. It’s now trivial to engineer interactive touch-sensitive surfaces into all manner of devices, but what if you need something a bit more versatile? A group of engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have created a new flexible material capable of responding to touch which can be applied to any surface. The so-called e-skin could give robots a better sense of touch, or make your living room wall into a giant touchscreen.
Led by UC Berkeley associate professor of electrical engineering Ali Javey, the team has successfully created a scrap of e-skin that responds to touch by lighting up a series of pixels. The samples of e-skin are only 16×16 pixels, but show incredible promise — this is the first time scientists have fabricated a user-interactive sensor network on flexible plastic. Each and every pixel contains a transistor, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), and a pressure sensor.

The more pressure that is applied to the e-skin, the brighter the pixels light up. This particular application is only possible because of the OLED pixels. Regular LCDs need a backlight, which would make a flexible film impossible, but OLEDs produce light from the pixels themselves.

Researchers used a backing of silicon to act as a support for a thin layer of polymer. The wafer was run through a machine that prints integrated circuits on standard computer boards. This allowed the team to layer the necessary sensor network composed of thin-film transistors made from semiconductor-enriched carbon nanotubes onto the rigid wafer. Once the circuitry was stacked on the polymer, it was simply peeled off the silicon backing, leaving a flexible film with all the electronics built in.

The team believes that a larger, and probably more advanced version of e-skin could be used to bring touch interaction to larger areas. This plastic film could be affixed to a wall, thus bringing the sci-fi video wall to fruition at long last. E-skin is a potential game changer because the material could be applied to almost any surface, in any shape without negatively affecting its operation.
The OLED pixels are, in some way, a proof of concept — it’s a handy way to visualize the technology in action. This same kind of flexible film could be used to graft touch-sensitivity onto robots, or even prosthetic limbs. It could do away with the bulky pressure-sensors currently used in such applications and provide a more natural surface.
Pressure-sensitivity is only the beginning. With only minor changes to the production process, Javey believes e-skin can be manufactured that detects temperature and light as well. These additional capability open the door to flexible bandages that monitor pulse and blood pressure in real time. A lot of things are possible if you can get an advanced sensor laminated onto almost anything.

Source:

Read More

8 Fascinating New Pills

The Anti-Alcoholism Pill that Cuts Back Drinking by 61%

Drinking problems, anyone? There might be a quicker solution now. Available in the UK since May 2013, the new drug, called Selincro, claims to cut alcohol consumption levels by 61%.

While current drugs help patients become teetotalers, this pill helps people with drinking problems cut back on the *amount* they drink. The drug works by modulating the reward mechanism in the brain.

A clinical trial of the drug helped patients cut the amount they consumed from 12.75 units a day to five units a day - a 61% reduction. Also, patients who underwent counselling as well as taking the drug reduced their "heavy drinking days" from 23 days a month to nine days a month after undergoing the treatment for six months, researchers said.

The Birth Control Pill for Men

Attention men: The day may be coming when you can take your own birth control pill with no side effects.

Scientists from Israel to Mexico to Texas are racing against each other to become the first to deliver a birth control pill that gives men the power to decide. While many men might be reluctant to take out the trash or ask for directions if they are lost, recent studies have shown that about 70 percent of men would be willing to take a birth control pill if it were available.

Mexican scientists from the UNAM University say they have discovered two proteins that are unique to sperm cells called CatSper and Slo3. These proteins essentially give sperm the energy they need to navigate a woman's ovaries and fertilize her eggs. The scientists are now trying to develop a molecule that can disable CatSper and Slo3, thus depriving sperm cells of the mojo they need to do their jobs.

At the same time, Texan researchers working on mice found that a compound called JQ1 acts as an inhibitor to sperm production and also sperm mobility. "Both of these are needed for fertility, but JQ1 prevents both," Li says of the findings. Though the mice were given injections, the team believes that a pill could eventually be developed for the same results.

In addition, back in 2010 it was reported that an Israeli professor created a new pill, called Bright Pill, that similarly jammed the biochemical machinery of sperm.

The Digital Pill that Monitors your Health

"Take two of these ingestible computers, and they will e-mail me in the morning," your doctor might say one day. While they look like normal pills, oblong and a little smaller than a vitamin, the pills are in fact microscopic robots which will monitor your systems and wirelessly transmit what is happening.

Created by Proteus Digital Health, a small company in Redwood City, CA, they do not need a battery. Instead, the body is their power source. Just as a potato can power a light bulb, Proteus has added magnesium and copper on each side of its tiny sensor, which generates just enough electricity from stomach acids.

As a Proteus pill hits the bottom of the stomach, it sends information to a cellphone app through a patch worn on the body. The tiny computer can track medication-taking behaviors — “Did Grandma take her pills today, and at what time?” — and monitor how a patient's body is responding to medicine. It also detects the person's movements and rest patterns.

The Password Pill that Authenticates You

Are You always forgetting your password? In June 2013, Motorola announced its intent to develop a line of pills containing passwords that will make authentication relatively seamless.

Users would take a daily pill, activated by stomach acid, that would send out an 18-bit, ECG-like signal. "Essentially, your entire body becomes your authentication token," explained Regina Dugan, senior vice president of Motorola's Advanced Technology & Projects.

The product has been tested, and successfully authenticated a smartphone. However, although the capsule works well and has been approved by the FDA, they don't plan to ship anytime soon.

The Birth Control Pill for Dogs

A new drug in the works, called "Chemspay," could be a non-surgical alternative to spaying female dogs and a major change for animal shelters. The contraceptive drug can either be administered orally or through injection, and based on trials it significantly reduces the number of eggs in a female dog's ovaries, making them sterile.

Along with SenesTech, a biotech company that specializes in "humane animal population management," Arizona scientist Dr. Loretta Mayer has been developing the contraceptive for some years now, and expects it to take at least until 2017 for Chemspay to gain FDA approval for distribution in the United States.

The Pill that Can Get you Drunk without Drinking

Want to put the Anti-Alcoholism Pill to the test? Thanks to a new technique developed by Russian professor Evgeny Moskalev, now you can get drunk without drinking. Moskalev has created an "alcohol pill" using a method that transforms alcohol into a powder, which can then be packed into potent pills.

He reports having tested his technique on liquor "containing as much as 96% alcohol content," notes MyFoxSpokane. Moskalev claims to be able to create an alcohol pill from just about any boozy beverage, including whiskey, cognac, beer, and wine. While it's not in production, the good Doc has proved his point!

The Bug Repellent Pill

Are you bugged by bugs? No more, because Mozi-Q, the first oral bug repellent, is available in Canada and the US starting this summer.

Recently approved by Health Canada, but also available in the US online, it's "great" for anyone who wants to enjoy the outdoors without being annoyed by mosquitoes, according to its creators. Mozi-Q works within 30 minutes, has no side effects, and repels mosquitoes and other bugs in a way that enables people to take back the outdoors.

The Gold Pill That Makes You Poop Glitter

You might not be made of money, but now you can drop golden stools with these digestible gold pills. Your poo-poo will shine with a captivating glittery and golden hue, and afterwards you can even sell your gold chocolate extract to jewelers! These Gold Pills were actually part of the "INDULGENCE" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of San Francisco, but they could, indeed, be ingested.

Source:

Read More

Abu Dhabi Airport's cool new 'sleeping pods'

HAVE a few hours to kill before your flight and struggling to keep your eyes open?
Well hopefully you're at Abu Dhabi International Airport and can flop into one of their new "GoSleep" sleeping pods.
The 'pods' are essentially chairs that convert into private flat beds. There have been 10 pods installed in Terminal 1 and 3, with an extra 35 due to be installed later this year.

The chairs include a sliding shade that the airport says will isolate the passenger from noise, light and crowds.
They will soon be upgraded to include internet access and secure storage for luggage and valuables. Travellers will also be able to charge their electronic devices on the chair.

Sleep areas are already available at some airports around the world, including Moscow Airport which is home to the "Sleepbox" a futuristic cabin that includes bunk beds, a TV, Wi-Fi connections and mood lighting.

Source:

Read More

New lithium-ion battery design that’s 2,000 times more powerful, recharges 1,000 times faster

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new lithium-ion battery technology that is 2,000 times more powerful than comparable batteries. According to the researchers, this is not simply an evolutionary step in battery tech, “It’s a new enabling technology… it breaks the normal paradigms of energy sources. It’s allowing us to do different, new things.”

Currently, energy storage is all about trade-offs. You can have lots of power (watts), or lots of energy (watt-hours), but you can’t generally have both. Supercapacitors can release a massive amount of power, but only for a few seconds; fuel cells can store a vast amount of energy, but are limited in their peak power output. This a problem because most modern applications of bleeding-edge tech — smartphones, wearable computers, electric vehicles — require large amounts of power and energy. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the best solution for high-power-and-energy applications, but even the best li-ion battery designs demand that industrial designers and electronic engineers make serious trade-offs when creating a new device.
Which brings us neatly onto the University of Illinois’ battery, which has a higher power density than a supercapacitor, and yet comparable energy density to current nickel-zinc and lithium-ion batteries. According to the university’s press release, this new battery could allow for wireless devices to transmit their signals 30 times farther — or, perhaps more usefully, be equipped with a battery that’s 30 times smaller. If that wasn’t enough, this new battery is rechargeable – and can be charged 1,000 times faster than conventional li-ion batteries. In short, this is a dream battery.

These huge advances stem from a brand new cathode and anode structure, pioneered by the University of Illinois researchers. In essence, a standard li-ion battery normally has a solid, two-dimensional anode made of graphite and a cathode made of a lithium salt. The new Illinois battery, on the other hand, has a porous, three-dimensional anode and cathode. To create this new electrode structure, the researchers build up a structure of polystyrene (Styrofoam) on a glass substrate, electrodeposit nickel onto the polystyrene, and then electrodeposit nickel-tin onto the anode and manganese dioxide onto the cathode. The diagram above does a good job of explaining the process.
The end result is that these porous electrodes have a massive surface area, allowing for more chemical reactions to take place in a given space, ultimately providing a massive boost to discharge speed (power output) and charging. So far, the researchers have used this tech to create a button-sized microbattery, and you can see in the graph below how well their battery compares to a conventional Sony CR1620 button cell. The energy density is slightly lower, but the power density is 2,000 times greater. On the opposite end of the bleeding-edge spectrum — increased energy density, but lower power density — then IBM’s lithium-air battery currently leads the pack.

Energy density vs. power density for a variety of battery technologies, including University of Illinois’ new microstructured anode/cathode li-ion battery

In real-world use, this tech will probably be used to equip consumer devices with batteries that are much smaller and lighter — imagine a smartphone with a battery the thickness of a credit card, which can be recharged in a few seconds. There will also be plenty of applications outside the consumer space, in high-powered settings such as lasers and medical devices, and other areas that normally use supercapacitors, such as Formula 1 cars and fast-recharge power tools. For this to occur, though, the University of Illinois will first have to prove that their technology scales to larger battery sizes, and that the production process isn’t prohibitively expensive for commercial production. Here’s hoping.

Source:

Read More