German multicopter makes first manned flight. - StumbleUpon. It had to happen, and it was almost certainly going to be in Germany. Congratulations have to goto the team at e-volo they have possibly created a new manned flight platform, the first for many years. The platform of choice for many sUAS operators, the multicopter has been super sized to such an extent that manned flight is now possible. In their own words the team from e-volo have the following to say. Simple flight for the average person would be a dream come to reality for us. In the next few years we would like to make more of these simple to fly devices available at an affordable price. The flyability of this device, the simple and straight forward piloting making the possibility of flight available to the average person is a goal that we strive towards. e-volo and their manned multicopter The motors as well as control systems will be continuously worked on and developed to allow for extended flight time as well as a more efficient usage of available onboard energy.
Coin - StumbleUpon. Gravity lightMJ - StumbleUpon. Acoustic Levitation and the Tractor Beam, the Impossible just became Incredible... - StumbleUpon. Levitation and the defiance of gravities surly bond has been a science that struggled to keep up with its own mythology, until now. A team of Japanese researchers have this week demonstrated the first technology that not only brings the mythology of levitation to life but leap frogs it to create a tractor beam, lifting and moving objects across 3 dimensions using sound alone. Presented for your viewing pleasure is the astounding video of acoustic levitation in action, now including tractor beam.
Sit back relax and prepare to watch the future arrive, gliding effortlessly. Scientists from the University of Tokyo and Nagoya Institute of Technology are now able to levitate and move any object in 3 dimensions. This latest acoustic levitation technique uses multiple ultrasonic transducers (speakers) arranged in a phased array to create a standing wave that surrounds the suspended object forming a node, or sonic bubble. Reference: Research PapersReference: The Wire. Leap Motion - StumbleUpon. Forget WiFi, It's LiFi: Internet Through Lightbulbs - StumbleUpon.
Whether you’re using wireless internet in a coffee shop, stealing it from the guy next door, or competing for bandwidth at a conference, you’ve probably gotten frustrated at the slow speeds you face when more than one device is tapped into the network. As more and more people—and their many devices—access wireless internet, clogged airwaves are going to make it increasingly difficult to latch onto a reliable signal.
But radio waves are just one part of the spectrum that can carry our data. What if we could use other waves to surf the internet? One German physicist, Harald Haas, has come up with a solution he calls “data through illumination”—taking the fiber out of fiber optics by sending data through an LED lightbulb that varies in intensity faster than the human eye can follow. It’s the same idea behind infrared remote controls, but far more powerful. Photo (cc) via otto-otto.com. The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies In The Internet Of Things - StumbleUpon. 1. Nest (Google) For solving yet another pain point in building the smart home.
Following its game-changing "learning thermostat," Nest released the Protect smoke detector, again infusing a previously design-neglected home appliance with modern detail and functionality. From the Protect’s hands-free silencer and voice controls to its smartphone notifications and battery monitor, Nest has produced the first nonannoying smoke detector—and picked up $3.2 billion in cash from Google along the way. 2. For having the bright idea to make smartphone-tethered bulbs. 3. For unleashing simple connected products for the cautious consumer. Monitor your home. 4. For upping the activity-tracking game with a next-gen, supercharged wristband. 5. For opening a platform of Internet-wise devices to let users customize their connected homes. 6. For strengthening its products to stand out among the quantified-self crowd. 7. For giving users control of whatever’s plugged in. 8. 9. Microsoft Research uses Kinect to translate between spoken and sign languages in real time - StumbleUpon.
30 October '13, 08:31pm Follow Microsoft’s Kinect is a wonderful piece of technology that seems to know no bounds. Microsoft Research is now using it to bridge the gap between folks who don’t speak the same language, whether they can hear or not. As you can see in the video below, the Kinect Sign Language Translator is a research prototype that can translate sign language into spoken language and vice versa. The best part? It does it all in real time. In short, Kinect captures the gestures, while machine learning and pattern recognition programming help interpret the meaning.
While this is clearly a massive achievement, there is still a huge amount of work ahead. Guobin Wu, the program manager of the Kinect Sign Language Translator project, explains that recognition is by far the most challenging part of the project. Wu says there are more than 20 million people in China who are hard of hearing, and an estimated 360 million such people around the world. Top Image Credit: Microsoft. 9 Overlooked Technologies That Could Transform The World - StumbleUpon.
What I've noticed is that most people don't really pay attention to "science" news, unless it's something that they can see immediately. I think this is at least partially because of the amount of news that comes out daily - whatever we may think about the quality of news, there is just a flood of it, which makes picking out "interesting" items difficult. When I talk about (just for example) the idea of gene therapy, most people think that it is still complete science fiction, as opposed to a very near-term product that will be available.
Of course, CSP has been around for years, so it isn't really "new" to the average person. What they don't realize is the way that efficiencies have improved... And electronic currency is still in the "only oddballs use it" phase - people are aware of it, but mostly because of the issues bitcoin has had in the recent past.
Finally, of course, for a majority of people, the only science fiction they think of it Star Wars/Trek, or (advanced!) Kinect-like technology turns any surface into a touchscreen - StumbleUpon. Imagine a world where any surface could potentially become a touchscreen for your phone: your hands, clothes, a wall or table. That's the vision behind a new Kinect-like technology called OmniTouch, a wearable system that projects any multi-touch interface onto everyday surfaces, reports New Scientist. Perhaps the most convenient aspect of the technology is how it can be operated on the go, requiring no special calibration for each new surface it is used on. The system adapts easily to surfaces of most textures in 3D space, so it works even when the surface is not flat, such as with your hand, or perhaps a tree trunk.
The technology, which is primarily composed of a shoulder-mounted depth camera and a Pico-projector, was developed by researchers at Microsoft and is a vast improvement over previous prototypes that could only work on skin. A user study of the technology showed that dragging performance and touch accuracy approached the sensitivity of conventional touchscreens.