Tag: the-end

Microrobotic tentacles pick up bugs without squishing them

Some researchers develop soft robots , while others specialize on building tiny ones. This robotic tentacle by a team of engineers from Iowa State University, however, is both soft and tiny. In fact, that’s a true-to-size ant encircled by the tentacle in the picture above and not a scaled-up version of the bug. Associate electrical/computer engineering professor Jaeyoun (Jay) Kim wanted to “pioneer new work in the field with both microscale and soft robotics.” So, he and his team set out to make microtubes using a silicon-based material called PDMS, measuring 8 millimeters in length and less than a hundredth of an inch in width. The engineers admitted that it was tough to design a teensy tentacle that can delicately handle small and fragile objects. In addition to figuring out how to peel off such tiny tubes from the production templates, they also had to add modifications to the tubes to give them more coils — they detailed the process in their paper published on Scientific Reports . According to Kim, his team’s microrobotic tentacles could be used for medical applications, since they don’t squeeze an object to pick it up — they’re “soft, safe and small” and just gently wrap around what they’re trying to hold. Thanks to the way they work, they won’t damage tissues, nerves or even blood vessels during medical procedures. [Image credit: Jaeyoun (Jay) Kim] Filed under: Robots Comments Source: Scientific Reports , Iowa State University

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Microrobotic tentacles pick up bugs without squishing them

Army and Air Force team up for laser-based landmine sweepers

Used to be that if the US military wanted to clear a roadway, runway or airfield of deadly IEDs (improvised explosive devices), they’d have to send in highly-trained and heavily armored explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams a la ” The Hurt Locker. ” Problem is, this method is as ploddingly slow as it is dangerous to the servicemen and women involved. That’s is why the Army and Air Force are teaming up to burn those IEDs clean out of the Earth using lasers mounted on MRAP battle trucks . The technology is called the Recovery of Airbase Denied by Ordinance (RADBO) and was developed through the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center Prototype Integration Facility (AMRDEC PIF) at the Redstone Test Center in Huntsville, AL. It mounts an Air Force-built laser (similar to what’s used in the HEL-MD ) and a dexterous manipulator arm onto the Army’s Cougar I MRAP . That way, EOD crews won’t even have to leave the comfort of the cab to disable roadside bombs. The laser can reportedly fry an IED from 300 meters away while the manipulator arm can rip up to 50 pounds of disabled bomb out of the ground at a time. “We may see hundreds to thousands of small unexploded ordnance items on a runway or airfield but the RADBO will allow us to reduce the time it takes to get an airfield operational, ” Marshall “Doc” Dutton, Air Force EOD modernization program manager of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center said in a statement. “Currently, if a runway gets hit it can take days to weeks to get cleared. With the RADBO, runways can be cleared and operational at a much quicker pace.” The system is currently undergoing munitions testing before moving to Tyndall Air Force Base in September, though there’s no word on when it will actually begin active service. Filed under: Science Comments Source: US Army

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Army and Air Force team up for laser-based landmine sweepers

The US military is developing Star Wars-style hoverbikes

Last time we heard from Malloy Aeronautics, it was testing hoverbike technology with a robot-carrying drone . A few months later, it’s partnering with a Maryland-based defense company to develop a hoverbike for the US military . Working with Survice Engineering Co., the UK aeronautics company will set up shop in Maryland as part of “an ongoing research and development contract.” The duo will also work with the US Army Research Laboratory on the project that aims to create “a new class of Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle (TRV).” The goal is to replace some of the work a helicopter does with the hoverbikes, a vehicle that provides increased safety and costs significantly less. “With adducted rotors you immediately not only protect people and property if you were to bump into them, but if you ever were to bump into somebody or property it’s going to bring the aircraft out of the air, ” Malloy’s marketing sales director Grant Stapleton told Reuters . Funds from a Kickstarter campaign for those compact UAVs was used to build scale models capable of carrying a human — one of which was on display at the Paris Air Show. [Image credit: Malloy Aeronautics] Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Reuters Source: Malloy Aeronautics

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The US military is developing Star Wars-style hoverbikes

UCLA discovers how solar cells’ charges can last for weeks

Solar cells have always been inspired by photosynthesis, so it’s only natural for researchers to take cues from different aspects of the energy-making process. A team of UCLA chemists, for instance, have developed a way that will allow solar cells to keep their charge for weeks instead of just a few seconds like current products are capable of. According to Sarah Tolbert, UCLA chem professor and one of the study’s authors , they looked into plants’ nanoscale structures that can keep negatively charged molecules separated from positively charged ones. “That separation is the key to making the process so efficient, ” she said. The team has discovered that in order to mimic those nanoscale structures in plastic solar cells (which are potentially cheaper to make than silicon-based ones), they need to use two components: a polymer donor and a nano-scale fullerene acceptor. The team describes the process as follows: The UCLA technology arranges the elements more neatly — like small bundles of uncooked spaghetti with precisely placed meatballs (see image below). Some fullerene meatballs are designed to sit inside the spaghetti bundles, but others are forced to stay on the outside. The fullerenes inside the structure take electrons from the polymers and toss them to the outside fullerene, which can effectively keep the electrons away from the polymer for weeks. In short, those two can form the right “noodle and meatball” structure to keep different charges away from each other for days to weeks, greatly improving a cell’s capability to retain power. It’s also a plus that the components can auto-assemble, simply by putting them in water. The ability to store energy is a big deal for solar energy systems, since they need to be able to save enough power to use at night or during days when the sun isn’t shining as brightly. UCLA’s technology isn’t quite ready yet, but Tolbert and her team are already trying to figure out how to incorporate it into real solar cells . [Image credit: Jason A. Samfield/Flickr , UCLA Chemistry] Filed under: Science Comments Source: UCLA , Science

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UCLA discovers how solar cells’ charges can last for weeks

NASA mission sends back fuzzy, color ‘movies’ of Pluto

Sure, Pluto doesn’t have full-fledged planetary status anymore, but we’re still excited to get some pictures from the edge of the Solar System . The New Horizons spacecraft is carrying a “Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera” that takes stills in blue, red, and near-infrared, then puts them together for a color picture. It took a series of pictures between May 29th and June 3rd that show the dwarf planet and its largest moon, Charon revolving around their shared center of gravity. The mission will make its closest approach to Pluto on July 14th when it gets about 7, 800 miles above the surface (shown above in an artist rendering). You can check out the low-res animation after the break, and mark your calendar for the better look that’s just 24 days away. New images from @NASANewHorizons show Pluto and its moon Charon, now in color: http://t.co/yp6BZOrXmU pic.twitter.com/sCiFKTsa35 – NASA (@NASA) June 19, 2015 Filed under: Science Comments Source: NASA , New Horizons Mission

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NASA mission sends back fuzzy, color ‘movies’ of Pluto

The world’s thinnest light bulb is made from graphene

Forget LED light bulbs… in the future, your lighting may be made from carbon . Columbia University researchers have built a light bulb chip that superheats graphene to produce illumination. While that’s the same basic concept that you see in an incandescent bulb, the graphene filament measures just one atom thick — this is the world’s thinnest light bulb, and may be close to being the thinnest possible . It’s transparent, too, which could suit it to see-through displays . The technology should have uses beyond lighting things up, too. Generating this kind of heat on a small scale could lead to “micro-hotplates” that heat up chemicals for the sake of studying chemical reactions. Also, creating light at this scale is key to developing photonic processors that are much faster than conventional chips. The light will need to switch on and off much faster for any computing uses, but it’s a realistic possibility. [Image credit: Myung-Ho Bae/KRISS] Filed under: Displays , Household , Science Comments Source: Columbia University , Nature

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The world’s thinnest light bulb is made from graphene

Here’s how Xbox One backward compatibility works

The Xbox 360 had a dedicated spot in millions of living rooms, bedrooms and offices for nearly 10 years, and during that time, players purchased massive libraries of games. However, when the Xbox One launched in 2013, it didn’t include the ability to play or transfer Xbox 360 games, a disappointment for many fans. That’s why Microsoft’s announcement at its E3 showcase was so exciting: The Xbox One is getting backward compatibility this holiday, with a lineup of more than 100 fan-requested Xbox 360 games to start and more to be added as demand warrants. Xbox One backward compatibility runs an Xbox 360 emulator right on the console, which is no easy feat, Microsoft General Manager of Games Publishing Shannon Loftis explains during a chat at E3. Are you pleased with the response to the announcement of backward compatibility on Xbox One? It’s something that I, as a gamer, have been wanting. Actually, the genesis of backwards compatibility is that gamers asked for it. It took some time for us to figure out how to do it, but we did and the response has been amazingly positive. How does it work, technologically? It wasn’t easy. It took some pretty dedicated engineering effort and very talented engineers. What they did was they created a software-based 360 emulation within the Xbox One architecture. So, when you put your disc in the drive, we’re actually loading up an emulator, and then we put up a little portion of the Xbox 360 dashboard and you use that dashboard to launch into your game. You still have access though to all the great Xbox One features: game streaming, game DVR, screenshots. It works for digital games as well and your saved games do transfer. Gamers have put so much into 360 games, so much passion, energy, time, money, and that value I think is important for us to bring into the Xbox One story. Will every Xbox 360 game eventually be available via backward compatibility? It’s up to gamers to tell us what they want . We do all the work, but there is a little bit of work and part of that involves talking with the publisher and making sure that this is consistent with their goals for the game as well. So, as gamers ask us, we will deliver. Check here for everything happening at E3 2015! Filed under: Gaming , HD , Microsoft Comments

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Here’s how Xbox One backward compatibility works

CloudPlayer streams your music from Dropbox and Google Drive

DoubleTwist has released a media player separate from its main product, and this one can stream music straight from various cloud services. Aptly named CloudPlayer, the app links to your Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive accounts all at once to access any music files you’ve uploaded. The company says it “created CloudPlayer to provide an alternative to crippled, proprietary cloud music lockers that impose painful restrictions on what you can do with the music you own.” Unlike other services (company co-founder Jon Lech Johansen specifically targets Google Play Music in his blog post), DoubleTwist claims CloudPlayer doesn’t have a download or a device restriction, and it supports lossless audio. You can also choose songs and playlists to save for offline playback on the app. Finally, the media player can stream music through Chromecast and AirPlay devices (such as Apple TV), though you’ll have to shell out $5 for the feature as an in-app purchase. Otherwise, the app is free and up right now on Google Play — DoubleTwist says it’s “launching on Android first, ” so the player might head to other platforms in the future. A quick glance at the early reviews, however, shows that it’s having issues detecting music from OneDrive. The company says it’s a “bug with Microsoft’s OneDrive API, ” and it’s already taking steps to fix the problem. Filed under: Misc , Mobile Comments Via: Jon Lech Johansen’s blog Source: doubleTwist

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CloudPlayer streams your music from Dropbox and Google Drive

Honeywell gets YouTube videos to play over global in-flight WiFi

The days of staying offline during your international flights might be coming to an end. Honeywell and Inmarsat have successfully stress-tested their global Ka-band satellite internet access in mid-air, doing everything from streaming YouTube videos to holding conference calls. The dry run shows that space-based broadband should be viable around the world, not just in certain areas — fly to Europe and your mid-trip WiFi connection should vaguely resemble what you have back home. It’ll take a while before airlines get the Honeywell/Inmarsat hardware on their fleets (ground, but one of the biggest challenges is over. Filed under: Transportation , Internet Comments Source: Honeywell

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Honeywell gets YouTube videos to play over global in-flight WiFi

AT&T faces $100 million fine for quietly throttling data speeds

Look, it’s no secret that if you’ve got a old-school unlimited data plan from AT&T, your data speeds get throttled from time to time . Alright, it might be a bit of a secret — that’s why the FCC has just announced that it plans to slap the massive telecom with a $100 million fine for “severely” slowing down users’ connection speeds without adequately notifying them of the pokier speeds they might face. In case you haven’t been keeping count, that’s the single largest proposed fine in FCC history. A senior FCC official stated that service would at times get so slow that “basic mobile applications would not function, ” and that people who ran afoul of AT&T’s rules would get slower data speeds than others for an average of 12 days. First, though, a little recap. AT&T started offering unlimited data plans to its wireless customers in 2007, and finally stopped doing so in 2010. Here’s what happened a year after that, according to the FCC: AT&T implemented a “Maximum Bit Rate” policy and capped the maximum data speeds for unlimited customers after they used a set amount of data within a billing cycle. The capped speeds were much slower than the normal network speeds AT&T advertised and significantly impaired the ability of AT&T customers to access the Internet or use data applications for the remainder of the billing cycle. The news comes less than a week since the FCC’s new net neutrality rules officially took effect , but this investigation has been in the works for years now. That’s why the Commission is hanging its hat on the 2010 Open Internet Order, a troubled basket of oversight that basically got torn apart by Verizon in court last year. Verizon’s near-total legal win could have almost stopped the FCC’s investigation in its tracks, but the DC circuit court that heard the case upheld the Order’s stance on customer transparency so AT&T’s. Naturally, AT&T and sympathetic commissioners like Ajit Pai contend that the telecom did disclose the slowdowns, and that the FCC just ignored them all. Thing is, senior FCC officials didn’t think the disclosures AT&T did make were sufficiently straightforward. As far as they’re concerned, AT&T could’ve talked about its throttling program left, right and center, but it would’ve been meaningless unless those disclosures made clear what unlimited customers might run into. Filed under: Mobile Comments Source: FCC.gov

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AT&T faces $100 million fine for quietly throttling data speeds