Typing in Braille is tricky, requiring clunky and expensive dedicated devices--some costing as much as US$6,000--with limited functionality beyond their primary design purpose. But a team of researchers at Stanford University in California, including an undergrad on loan from New Mexico State University, have created a touchscreen interface that brings the ability to write in Braille to tablet PCs.
Back in June when the latest edition of TOP500 dropped (TOP500 lists the world's top supercomputers), Japan's K Computer leapt ahead of China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer to become the biggest, baddest computing platform on the planet. But after more than a year of slipping down the ranks as its competitors across the Pacific surged ahead, Oak Ridge National Labs Jaguar supercomputer is poised to become the fastest computer in the world once more.
We all know that one of the biggest obstacles to electric car adoption is the long, often overnight recharge time. But Nissan claims that they've created a new charging system that'll fill up your car (Nissan would undoubtedly prefer to say "your Leaf") in only ten minutes--not much different than a regular trip to the Earth-killing pump.
Pervasive, persistent optimism is one of those uniquely human traits/flaws - we tend to believe things are better than they really are, or that negative consequences won't befall us, even if they befall others. It stands to reason that people would adjust their expectations when confronted with harsh reality, yet they don't. Our brains are to blame, according to a new study - we're wired to have a positive outlook.
We have been enjoying plenty of BigDog/AlphaDog videos of late, showing off the US Marines' sure-footed four-legged robot. Well apparently the US isn't the only country planning to build a pack of quadruped bots. Check out this small South Korean robot dog, prancing quietly around a trade show.
Last US summer, as sweet crude oil gushed unabated into the Gulf of Mexico, the overriding emotion was one of frustration. It wasn't just directed at the well owner, BP, or at rig-builders Transocean and Halliburton, or even the government and its difficult-to-understand oil flow estimates. The inability to shut off the well was one thing - but why, in an era of nanotubes and autonomous robots and invisibility cloaks, couldn't we just clean it up?
Today in somewhat creepy Japanese tech: a company called REAL-f is creating what it calls 3DPFs - that's 3D Photo Forms - of human faces that generate uncannily realistic replicas of faces in a kind of vinyl-resin. The result is either a mask-style replica or a full mannequin head that is accurate down to the blood vessels in the eyes.
An American company headquartered in Texas has received government clearance for a new kind of medical device aimed at reducing incision-site infections that result from surgical procedures. But rather than battling microorganisms with pharmaceutical cocktails or some kind of post-surgical treatment, Nimbic Systems' Air Barrier System (ABS) keeps surgical sites free of bacteria and other bugs by creating a cocoon of purified air around the incision site for the duration of the surgery.
A while back, John Carmack (of "Doom" and "Quake" fame, as well as the founder of Armadillo Aerospace) issued a challenge: launch a rocket to more than 100,000 feet (or a bit over 30km), get a GPS reading from up there, and recover the launch vehicle, and US$5,000 is yours. Some additional benefactors pushed the Carmack prize to roughly $10,000. And as you will see in this video, Derek Deville might just claim it.
Behold, your galactic centre. This Hubble image, captured with the space telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), is the highest-resolution pic of the Milky Way's galactic center taken to date, taking in a newly discovered group of massive stars, lots of super-hot gas, and roughly 35,000 square light years of space in one sweeping mosaic.
When the Euclid space telescope mission lifts off at the end of this decade, it will map galaxy clusters in infrared and visible light, helping to blueprint the large-scale structure of the universe. And a bunch of amateur science geeks who signed up for the competition will use their specialised skills to elucidate those findings.
Here in Australia, a simple sunburn is often the least of our worries. Australia's long hours mean we record some of the highest numbers of melanoma cases in the world, with over 10 000 cases new cases reported annually, according to the Cancer Council Australia. That makesit the fourth most prevalent cancer in this country. So we think it's fitting that an Australian team are part of a new study that has successfully identified four key genetic markers that increase the liklihood of developing the skin cancer reponsible for. over 1000 deaths a year.
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