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Encyclopedia of Life Collects All Living Creatures on One Site
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Science, Videos,
For the first time, all 1.8 million earthly species, including those recently discovered, will become available for scientists, students, and the rest of us common folk. Conceptualized by 2007 TED Winner E. O. Wilson, a consortium of educational and scientific institutions, including NASA, is creating an evolving Encyclopedia of Life (EOL,) an online database to help find out about and protect our planet.
Included in the online tome will be images, sound, video, location maps, and a multitude of information. Although individual pages were created in the ‘90s, in January the project received enough funding to research and categorize more scientific data. The EOL should be completed within the next ten years, unless another million species are discovered first.
Read More 
| EOL
Gallery: Encyclopedia of Life Collects All Living Creatures on One Site
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Kansas State University Associate Professor Scott DeLoach has recently received a $219,140.00 grant from the Department of Defense to support his research on mobile sensoring networks. DeLoach will be studying such characteristics as bots having knowledge of its team’s organizational structure, environment, individual capabilities, reasoning, and goals. His intent is to create bomb-detecting bots and their controllers that are better able to search and destroy weapons of mass destruction, just in case there may actually be some somewhere.
Read More | Space Daily
Gallery: WMDs No Match for Bots
Cooper-Hewitt Sponsors Planet-Saving Gadget Show
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Science,
From now until September, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is presenting “Design for the Other 90%.” Created to encourage others to find new gadgets that will aid those who are less fortunate, the show features the LifeStraw, a mobile water purification tool, the Big Boda Load Carrying Bicycle which can carry hundreds of pounds of cargo, and the Pot-In-Cooker, a storage container that can double the amount of produce while extending shelf life. Again, Gear Live offers kudos to companies that have enough sense to round up those with techno-knowledge and help them to save the planet.
Read More | HULIQ
Gallery: Cooper-Hewitt Sponsors Planet-Saving Gadget Show
Electronic noses have been utilized for several years in the food and beverage industries. Even NASA has developed one to detect pollutants in spacecrafts to predict a possibly lethal concentration. Now University of Warwick and Leicester teams in the UK have developed a new nose that they are hoping to use for selecting odors that are disease specific. The sensors are coated with a synthetic mucus which gives it “improved odor discrimination” and controls the rate detection. The scientists predict that the nose will become available in the next couple of years. Pass the artificial Kleenex.
Read More | BBC
Gallery: Electronic Nose Features Phlegm
My cat gets almost as stressed out as I do in certain situations, so I am relieved to know that Japan’s Medical Life Care Giken has developed a product that can tell me just how uptight she actually is. The round, pin-size patch is placed on a center of a dog or cat’s paw pad and changes color depending on the sweatiness, and hence stress level, of your pet. Not only did I not know that my poor kitty perspires through her paws, this means our last year’s worth of Yoga lessons could have been used for extra kibble. Grace, say “Oohhmmm.”
Read More | CNN
Gallery: Pet’s Stress Measured by Pad Patch
Arab Academy for Science and Tech Assistant Professor Mohamed Abou El Nasr has just won third prize in a Wireless Design Contest in San Jose. He has created a Wifi aquarium that allows you to control lights, temperature, filter, and even feeding of your fish by using a system with a webcam to keep track of the little guys. You will also receive a daily e-mail to let you know that your fish are still afloat.
The Wi-Aquarium seems to us a great concept to adapt for out other pets. Wouldn’t it be wonderful not to have to drag our hamsters, frogs, and pet tarantulas everywhere we go and still know that they will be well cared for during our absences?
Read More | The Raw Feed
Gallery: WiFi Gets Wet
Beware of the Dark Side of Video Gaming
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, Science, Video Games,
If you want to perform as well as Darth Vader, then you must think like him. That’s the rationale of NeuroSky Engineers that have devised technology that makes video gamers concentrate so that their brain waves provide biofeedback to implement future games or toys. Their prototype headset works similar to that of an EEG, which measures the brain’s baseline activity, including focusing and relaxing. Placing that output on a varying 1 to 100 scale, it changes as a result of physical and mental distractions.
“Most physical games are really mental games,” said Koo Hyoung Lee, NeroSky’s co-founder. “You must maintain attention at very high levels to succeed. This technology makes toys and video games more lifelike.”
The researchers also feel that this tech could boost mental focus and be useful to those who have hyperactivity disorder, ADD, or autism. The headsets are scheduled for release later this year, and some of us are going to hide when we see Darth making his way around the corner to challenge us to a light saber contest. If heavy concentration is what it takes to win, then we surely don’t stand a chance.
Read More | CNN
Gallery: Beware of the Dark Side of Video Gaming
Mark III To Make More Realistic Holographs
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, Misc. Tech, Science, Video Games,
MIT researchers have come up with a method of making a holographic video system that will work with PCs with graphics cards and game systems. The display will be small enough to add to a home entertainment center, should have resolution as adequate as analogue TV, and will cost about $200.00 to consumers.
This new system, referred to as Mark III, follows its predecessors from as far back as the late 80’s holographic display, and is composed of a redesigned acousto-optic modulator with a higher bandwidth. It then creates a three-dimensional model of any object through brightness and frequency of light. The device is slated to be released within the next couple of months.
Read More | Technology Review
Gallery: Mark III To Make More Realistic Holographs
Scientist Creates Clone Bot
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Science, Videos,
Hiroshi Ishiguro has a twin, in an odd kind of way. Meet Geminoid, the scientist’s own Frankenstein’s monster created in his own image. In his research at the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Hiroshi replicated his own posture and lip movements in the clever bot, then covered him with silicone skin. He even has the capability to add little twitches to make him seem a little more lifelike. We are trying to consider the possibilities of what this application could mean if used in public office to protect some of our higher ups, but then we think that probably just one of those is sufficient.
Read More | Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Gallery: Scientist Creates Clone Bot
Researchers at MIT have created their own version of the “Jetsons’” Rosy the Robot named Domo. Designed for the elderly or infirm, the bot can grasp dishes out of your dishwasher and put them away or assist in other simple clean up chores. Domo is the next generation of robots built at MIT, a combination of Kismet, who can interact with humans, and Cog, who can manipulate objects.
“The real potential of robots in the future is going to be realized when they can do many types of manual tasks, including those that require interaction with humans,” said Aaron Edsinger, one of Domo’s creators.
Although many such robots are already out in the world in such areas as assembly lines, they cannot adapt to new situations the way that Domo can. They are hoping to make robots capable of ignoring the clutter when performing menial tasks. We just want MIT and funders NASA to know that we would be willing to test drive the bot if it can overlook that large pile of junk mail in the corner and just head straight for the empty pizza boxes.
Read More | Space Daily
