NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Meet The Fuel of the Future: Bugs

Archaean bacterium Credit: Corbis

In talking to ARPAe chief Arun Majumdar last week, I asked him about the future of transportation fuels.

Even with more hybrids and electric vehicles on the road, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says the American driver will rely on liquid fuels for the next 20 years. Corn-based ethanol needs big subsidies and is of dubious environmental benefit.

So to break the stranglehold of foreign oil, scientists and engineers are developing something called electro-fuels. The alternative fuel comes from running a charge of electricity through a solution containing strange microorganisms that feed on harmful ammonia or hydrogen sulfides. The charge induces to the organisms to convert carbon dioxide into the same kind of fuels we use to run our cars.

SCIENCE CHANNEL VIDEO: Future Transportation. Trains are getting faster. Cars are becoming more energy efficient. Planes are becoming more dependent on machines to fly. At this rate, future transportation suddenly seems closer than ever.

These bugs make the conversion without petroleum, biomass or sunlight –- all in an enclosed cell. The DOE is funding 15 labs across the country to find the best electro-fuel solution, and of course at a reasonable cost. Vice President Biden recently gave a nod to Boulder, Colo.-based OPX Biotechnologies, which claims it will produce its first renewable chemical product, BioAcrylic, at lower cost than petro-acrylic with a 75 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The company's second product is diesel fuel bio-processed from carbon dioxide and hydrogen, according to its website.

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A team at North Carolina State University is combining enzymes from one microbe that grows at 75 degrees Celsius (167 F) with a second one that feeds off hydrogen. This genetic marriage produces precursors to biofuels like ethanol and butanol.

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Majumdar told me only biofuels capture 1 percent of the energy from sunlight, while these new electro-fuels are approaching 100 percent efficiency.

The DOE has been under the gun with a Congressional and Federal investigation into the failure of solar tech Solyndra, as well as planned budget cuts to the very research program that Majumdar is so ecstatic about. It would be too bad if promising research -- even high-risk research -- gets scuttled by the S.S. Solyndra.

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Google's Next Android Serving: Ice Cream Sandwich

By the numbers, things should be swell for Android. Google's mobile operating system holds a massive lead in the U.S. smart phone market (52 percent to 29 percent for Apple's iOS's, according to the NPD Group), and its Android Market has now hosted half a million apps (even if 37 percent no longer appear there).

But Google's buggy venture into tablet software, Android 3.0 Honeycomb, has drawn few users. Wireless carriers have defaced Android phones with mediocre apps that users can't easily remove. And rivals like iOS have smartly copied Android's better features.

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Google is responding with the biggest rewrite to Android since its debut in 2008. Android 4.0 -- Ice Cream Sandwich in Google's dessert-centric sequence of release names -- merges phone and tablet versions of Android, rearranges basic controls and indulges in some sensible borrowing of its own. I got a walkthrough of "ICS" Tuesday afternoon here in Mountainview, Calif., from Google mobile-engineering vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer.

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Ice Cream Sandwich's most visible ingredient is its rearranged buttons. Instead of the traditional array of physical home, back, menu and search controls, ICS phones such as the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Galaxy Nexus phone will only feature onscreen home, back and "recent" buttons. (When you run an older app that expects a menu button, ICS crams it into the right of that lineup, with search moved to toolbars and menus.)

That's a risky move: After three years of programming people to expect the same lineup of icons, Google wants to reset things?

But the recent button's thumbnail views of open apps finally makes multitasking as elegant as in HP's now-abandoned webOS, complete with the ability to suspend an unwanted app by sliding its thumbnail offscreen.

Widgets, those handy interactive panels on the screen that let you check your calendar or see Twitter updates without jumping into those apps, also become more obvious in ICS, which lists them next to your apps.

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If an ICS phone ships with carrier-preinstalled bloatware, you can "disable" those apps, hiding them and preventing them from running without erasing them. Lockheimer, however, didn't rule out carriers overriding that limit.

Behind the screen, ICS should extend battery life with tweaks like doing routine online tasks in batches to minimize network use. But he wouldn't put a number on that improvement, saying it would depend on individual devices.

Other ICS upgrades reside in individual apps:

-- The browser lets you save pages for offline reading.

-- The People app, formerly Contacts, shows friends' social-media updates inline--Google Plus is built in, but Facebook can plug into it too--much like the corresponding app in Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 and HTC's Sense Android interface.

-- The camera app is supposed to cut down on shutter lag and adds an instant-panorama mode and silly photo-booth effects.

-- You can unlock an ICS phone by letting its front-facing camera recognize your face; you can also take pictures from the lock screen, as in iOS 5.

-- If you're worried about data overages (you probably shouldn't be), you can see which apps have used the most bandwidth.

-- You can share whatever's on the screen, such as a Web page or a contacts entry, with another ICS user whose phone supports the rarely-used "near-field communication" standard by tapping the two phones together.

The worst part of ICS? Your phone may never get it. Manufacturers and carriers have to deliver this update to users; only users of the "pure Google" Nexus S are assured of an update, while Lockheimer said Google has ruled out its Nexus One. That, sadly, doesn't depart from Android as we've known it.

Credit: Rob Pegoraro/Discovery

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Juggle 3D Objects in the HoloDesk

If you're tired of getting your hand slapped at the museum of holography whenever you try to reach out and touch a hologram, boy has your ship come in.

The Sensors and Devices group at Microsoft Research have developed HoloDesk, an innovative new system that lets users interact with 3D graphics. While rolling a virtual ping-pong ball around in a cereal bowl doesn't exactly sound thrilling, HoloDesk's technology could advance gaming, education, rehabilitation and design.

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The system works like this: An overhead screen projects a two-dimensional image through a beamsplitter (aka a half silvered mirror) into a viewing booth in front of the user. A Kinect camera is used to track the user's hand movements while a webcam tracks facial movements. Combine this together with a few custom algorithms and here's what you get when you look through the transparent display window: an environment of 3D objects that can be manipulated with your hands.

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Perhaps aspiring chainsaw or knife jugglers could use HoloDesk to practise on before they jump to the real thing. Have a look at the video and see what you think.

[Via GizMag]

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Spill-Resistant Gaming Keyboard

Levetron Mech4 Gaming Keyboard: $110

Keyboards have come a long way. They’re sleeker, smarter and even wireless, but what they haven’t been able to overcome is that pesky aversion to liquids. While it’s still a work in progress for other boards, AZiO’s Levetron Mech4 gaming keyboard is resistant to spills. The wireless keyboard’s components have been sealed to keep liquid from getting to it’s vulnerable parts, making it just what one needs when two out of the three meals a day is in front of a computer.

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Liquid-repelling is only one of the features that it has going for it, the Cherry MX Black keys have a lifecycle of 50 million keystrokes, anti-ghosting keys and an on/off key to disable the Windows menu. The modular look of the keyboard is a little over the top with the six macro triggers and modular number pad, but they are removable. The keyboard will be available starting October 30th.

Via: Maximum PC

Credit: AZiO

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Solid State Drive Boasts 1 Terabyte

Octane SSDs: $1.10 to $1.30 per GB

There’s always a first for everything, and apparently OCZ Technology has released Octane SATA 3.0 and Octane-S2 SATA 2.0, the first solid state drive to reach 1TB of storage capacity. A solid state drive is an alternative to a hard drive, instead of using moving parts like spinning drive heads and magnetic plates for storage, SSD's use semiconductors and flash memory chips. This leads to less power usage and faster access times, making it ideal for notebook computers. Although there is some doubt about the 1TB claim, no one’s dissing on the 560MB/sec of bandwidth and 45,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) thanks to it’s Indilinx Everest platform.

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Indilinx Everest controller provides the “instant on” feature that the company claims reduces boot times by 50 percent from previous OCZ SSDs. The platform also features "latency reduction technology," which helps the SSDs maintain their trademark low access times. While there’s no pricing available yet, (except for the per GB prices reported by Computer World listed above) the SSDs will be available by November.

Via: Gizmag

Credit: Octane

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How to Work in a Workout While You Work

FitDesk X: $229.99

In between the sloths who are content never working out and the nuts who must sweat their buns off every day, there exists a group in the middle. We want to workout, but find it difficult to squeeze it in. If only there were a way to multitask by exercising while working, gaming, emailing, reading -- the stuff we've already found time for in our busy schedules.

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Steady your elbows on FitDesk's padded foamcore, put a laptop, gaming device or book in front of you and (figuratively speaking) you're off! As a source of exercise, it offers a twin belt flywheel design with eight adjustable resistance positions. The built-in cyclometer tracks your time, speed and burned calories. And the standard seat accommodates riders weighing up to 250 pounds and standing from 58 inches to 76 inches. (An optional $25 seat post extender can up that max height to 82 inches.) At 33 pounds, it's fairly lightweight. And it folds up to just 16 inches by 47 inches and a foot tall. Since being released it appears to be getting favorable customer feedback. And if you already have a spin, road or mountain bike you like, their $80 Pro accessory can convert it into your own little working/workout station.

Credit: Revo Innovations

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Portable Laptop Side Monitor Boosts Productivity

Sideline Cinq: $249

In the office, it's fine to sport the very biggest, coolest monitor you can find -- or at least, stack multiple normal-sized monitors side-by-side. After all, several studies have found that more computing display space means greater productivity. Whether you believe that or not, once you leave the office, your expanded display options shrink. Laptops with very large or even dual screens tend to be on the heavy and expensive side. You could try using an iPad as a second display, but practicality and reliability come to question. In contrast, the soon-to-be released Cinq (pronounced "sink") by Mesa, Arizona-based startup Sideline Inc., is a nice blend of portability, functionality and affordability.

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Less than a pound, Cinq delivers 10.1 inches of smooth 720p/16:9 video using DisplayLink's lossless image compression technology. It can physically attach to your laptop in portrait or landscape position -- and auto-rotates when quickly changing between the two -- or be placed on the included adjustable stand, especially handy for one-on-one presentations. It gets both power and data from a single USB connection and has a built-in SD card reader for quickly referencing multimedia and other files. The space-saving Cinq comes with a protective neoprene case and all the accessories you need to ergonomically increase your viewing real estate on-the-go.

Credit: Sideline Inc.

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Shark Attack Victim Gets 'Bionic' Leg

Thought-controlled bionic limbs are still a way off (though not far). In the meantime, a project at Vanderbilt University is building the next best thing: a “smart” prosthesis that gives amputees a more natural gait.

Michael Goldfarb, a professor of mechanical engineering, at Vanderbilt's Center for Intelligent Mechatronics, has been working for several years with Craig Hutto, who lost his leg in 2005 when he was attacked by a shark. Hutto, who is a lab assistant, has offered valuable input on what works and what doesn’t work for amputees. That has gone a long way towards making the bionic leg comfortable and workable in real-world conditions.

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The bionic limb is a step beyong conventional prosthetic devices. It has a computer with a lot more processing power. For instance, Motors in the leg are controlled by sophisticated sensors that detect the user’s motion and move in unison. The hardware and software routinely checks if the wearer is stumbling, and if he is, causes the leg to plant itself in a stable spot.

Advances in battery and motor technologies have made it possible to run the bionic leg for days on a single charge. It;s also light, weighing about nine pounds, which makes a big difference when trying to climb stairs. Many amputees have a tough time with stairs and slopes because the artificial limb is so heavy. It's also a lot less cumbersome than exoskeleton-based designs.

All this adds up to a more natural gait.

'Iron Man'-Type Exoskeleton Aids Recovery

So far, the leg has gone through seven iterations –- fifteen if you count the work done on the electronics alone. Goldfarb's team is also working on arms and an exoskeleton to aid in physcial therapy. But eventually, such prostheses will likely become commonplace, and for many people like Craig Hutto, the act of taking a stroll won't be so daunting anymore. 

Image: John Russell, Vanderbilt University. A close up of Craig Hutto, wearing the leg.

 

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iPod Maker Designs Smart Thermostat

The Nest Learning Thermostat: $249.99

The innovative and intuitive technology that has come out recently serves the purpose of making life better and smarter. Every aspect of modern life has been improved upon by tech, but one important device has been barely updated: the lowly home thermostat. Enter the Nest. The Nest Learning Thermostat was created by Tony Fadell, former Apple SVP who had a big hand in creating the iPod.

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The thermostat learns from the heating and cooling preferences of home owner to create a custom heating and cooling schedule. It programs itself based on the temperatures set and learns the homeowner’s schedule throughout the week, which means it can turn down heating or cooling when you’re not home to save energy. Its simple design is in keeping its Apple cousin, just an outer ring to adjust the temperature and a color change, red for heating and blue for cooling. The Nest menu can be accessed by pushing on it, or through Wi-Fi to adjust schedules, temperature and check energy usage. No doubt this will be the “Dyson” of thermostats, it’s cleanly designed, smart and energy efficient. It also costs about three times more than a typical programmable thermostat.

Via: Reuters 

Credit: Nest Labs

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Ring Tower Aims to Put Taichung City On Map

Every city needs an architectural icon. They're anchors of identity and calling cards for the rest of the world. After all, look what the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal and the Empire State Building have done for their respective cities and countries.

Chicago-based STL architects are hoping to bring that same architectural identity to Taichung City, Taiwan, with their submission to the Taiwan Tower competition. Closing that loop is the firm's impressive proposal, which would create a dramatic circular tower at the heart of the city.

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Arching 1,049 feet above a park, the ring tower would incorporate sustainable energy initiatives like CO2 filters and solar energy. Featured in the central lobby would be a cultural museum and, like any good sky-scraping landmark, the tower would boast an observation deck, offering visitors stunning views of the park and Taichung City.

The tower's exterior, or "skin," would be pixelated with glazed openings that could be calibrated to let in 20 to 60 percent of sunlight, helping to cut down on material and cooling costs.

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To establish a sound foundation and resist lateral movement, the ring tower would be embedded several stories into the ground. By designing the stucture wider at the bottom, the architects would give the building a low center of gravity and prevent the building from twisting.

"We envision this reality as a coherent blend through an architectural landscape anchored by iconic venues that will satisfy the needs of locals, the industries and future trends," explained STL on their website.

[Via GizMag]

Image: STL

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