19.02.11

Test Drive: GM's EN-V Electric Transporter, Half a Smart Car On a Segway Base

I took a ride in the automated, wirelessly communicating EV-V in a Las Vegas parking lot GM's EN-V concept (it stands for "Electric Networked Vehicle") is designed to fill the niche of urban,
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Dog Poo Powers a Streetlight In Massachusetts Park

Good dog parents might think they're doing their part by using biodegradable baggies to pick up after their pooches. But after Fido's feces go in the trash can and to a landfill, they release methane gas, a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect. A dog
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Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel

On your last flight, did you stare with envy at the people sitting in the exit row? Did you get a charley horse from trying to cross your legs under your tray table? Consider yourself lucky, pal. Your next budget flight might ask you to fly horseback style, squeezed
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Acoustic Fingerprinting Software Turns Any Cell Phone into a Touch-Sensitive Device

Cambridge, UK, firm Input Dynamics is trying to take the bite out of iPhone envy with a new software fix that turns any "dumbphone" into a touchscreen device.
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Video: Electric Version of Tiniest Manned Plane Ever Takes to the Skies

An ultralight kit plane designed in the 1970s has become the first four-engined electric plane to take to the skies. Weighing in around 175 kilograms -- including the pilot -- the
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New Method Swaps Pressurized Biomass For Petroleum in Plastics, Cosmetics

An accidental chemistry discovery could lead to a new method for making antifreeze, moisturizer and plastic bottles out of biomass rather than petroleum, according to researchers at Iowa
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Grid Could Meet Sudden Energy Demands By Storing Power As Liquid Oxygen

Cryonic technology could help meet the world's peak energy demands as well as cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, a new study says. No, not by freezing excess humans -- by
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A single pedal for braking and acceleration, to prevent accidents

An invention that's been around for two decades, but is only now getting any real attention, could change the way millions of people drive -- if people ever have the good sense to adopt it, its inventor says. Japanese inventor Masuyuki Naruse claims that placing the braking and acceleration
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China's two-lane-wide 'straddling bus' carries passengers overhead, lets traffic pass underneath

Public transit in a metropolitan area is all about balance; if there aren't enough public transit options, too many people choose to drive, clogging roadways and adding to pollution. But trains are expensive (and, if above-ground, contributors to traffic) and adding more buses to the road can
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Researchers unlock the secrets to bacteria's super-efficient microscopic motor tech

American motor engineering prides itself on muscle while German engineering is known for speed and precision, but neither of these century-old crafts can stand up to the multi-millennia advantage that evolution enjoys over them. Now Australian scientists have unlocked the design details of
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Dog Poo Powers a Streetlight In Massachusetts Park

Good dog parents might think they're doing their part by using biodegradable baggies to pick up after their pooches. But after Fido's feces go in the trash can and to a landfill, they release methane gas, a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect. A dog
Read more...


Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel

On your last flight, did you stare with envy at the people sitting in the exit row? Did you get a charley horse from trying to cross your legs under your tray table? Consider yourself lucky, pal. Your next budget flight might ask you to fly horseback style, squeezed
Read more...


You built what?! A real Iron Man suit

Anthony Le, 25, has been a fan of Iron Man since he was a kid, but when he heard that the comic-book superhero was hitting the big screen in 2008, he was inspired to build his own Iron Man suit. That version was more of a costume, but his new one, finished just in time for
Read more...


Proof-of-concept carshark software hacks car computers, shutting down brakes, engines, and more

Using homemade software and a standard computer port, a team of scientists has figured out exactly how easy it is to hack into a modern car -- scary news for motorists already wary of faulty brake and accelerator systems. The research team wrote code that allows
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Acoustic Fingerprinting Software Turns Any Cell Phone into a Touch-Sensitive Device

Cambridge, UK, firm Input Dynamics is trying to take the bite out of iPhone envy with a new software fix that turns any "dumbphone" into a touchscreen device.
Read more...


How It Works: The Most Advanced Gas-Powered R/C Car

The Most Advanced R/C Car LOSI 1/10 TEN-T TRUGGY RTR Top speed: 72km/h Size: 34.3 x 45 cm. Price: US$500 Get it: losi.com This 18-inch off-roader
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Build it: an LED lamp that visualises data from the web

The vast amount of information at our fingertips these days can be as distracting as it is useful. Tracking something like the movement of an index on the stock market by feverishly checking a ticker all day is often more than you want to deal with. So this cube lets you display data it receives
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Video: Electric Version of Tiniest Manned Plane Ever Takes to the Skies

An ultralight kit plane designed in the 1970s has become the first four-engined electric plane to take to the skies. Weighing in around 175 kilograms -- including the pilot -- the
Read more...


A new physics-based algorithm gives footballing bots the power of prediction

It can be very difficult to coax every individual on a soccer squad into stepping up the level of play all at the same time (just ask Australia's World Cup team). But at the RoboCup, the American team is doing just that, using a new physics-based algorithm that helps
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Divers use bar codes on tablet computers to visually control underwater bots

First dolphins caught on. Now underwater robots are using iPads to communicate, thanks to a new system designed at York University in Toronto. As Technology Review reports,
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Video: An incredibly accurate (working!) hoverboard replica would make future-Marty proud

The closer we get to the year 2015, the louder people lament that our world hardly resembles the one depicted in Back to the Future II. Although it will be awhile before any of us coast around in a flying Delorean, we've piped down our complaints, as a young
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The Future Is Clear Now

While Toyota and Volkswagen – the world’s two biggest car makers – are locked in a battle for global sales leadership over the next decade, driven by a new generation of hybrid and electric cars, Japanese maker Honda is working on technology that may well leapfrog them both. Most big
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'Imaginary' hardware interface lets users wield their own fantasy peripherals to control a real device

Imagine a gesture-based mobile device with no screen, no keyboard, and no other peripheral inputs or outputs, a mobile device that's not really a device at all. Can you see it in your mind's eye? If so, you're probably picturing something akin to a new
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Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon Could Demo Car-Stopping Power Next Month

U.S. Marines could deploy the non-lethal weapon if it proves viable Stopping a speeding
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Sanyo's Solar Parking Lots Charge Community Bikes Without Tapping the Grid

The future of community bike systems may not require much pedaling at all; Sanyo has just installed two "Solar Parking Lots" that serve as solar charging stations for 100 Eneloop electric hybrid
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Video: GM Goes Hands-Off With EN-V Robotic Pod Car

General Motors touted the automatic driving mode of its two-wheel electric car when it unveiled the vehicle last month in Shanghai, China. Now there's a video that
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Hovering vehicle can launch an observation platform 90 metres skyward

The Israelis are developing a hovering, rapidly deployable eye in the sky that smartly skirts the usual problems associated with hovering aircraft. Israel Aerospace Industries has worked up two functioning prototypes of a hovering
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You built what?! A real Iron Man suit

Anthony Le, 25, has been a fan of Iron Man since he was a kid, but when he heard that the comic-book superhero was hitting the big screen in 2008, he was inspired to build his own Iron Man suit. That version was more of a costume, but his new one, finished just in time for
Read more...


VTOL Flying Car

DARPA has requested the private sector's help in developing a lot of technologies once thought possible only in sci-fi novels, and they may have just jumped the shark in that regard. The DoD's future tech wing has issued a call for a
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Tiny Armored Car Unveiled as India's Newest Anti-Terror Weapon

The tiny battery-operated vehicle can squeeze into service elevators and withstand grenade blasts India
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