Hasta La Gadget!

One of the best things about Google is, for better or worse, the company seemingly has no sense of technological limits. Be it sending people into space for the X-Prize or offering rural Wi-Fi via weather balloons, the company is not afraid to test its own limits.

Back in early 2007, the company filed a patent application for barge-based data centers, which use the water both to cool and power themselves.

The application, which was granted on Tuesday, outlines datacenters based three to seven miles off shore in 50 to 70 meter deep water. The ocean’s waves generate electricity that powers the data centers. There seems to be a good deal of doubt whether the company would ever actually utilize the technology, but heck, it’s Google, so you never know…

Pop open the champagne and pour your hardworking robot vacuum a glass–it’s now a Robot Hall of Fame Inductee.

iRobot’s seven-year-old Roomba is one of five in the class of 2010 inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame, along with NASA’s Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the DaVinci Medical Robot System, Huey, Dewey and Louie from the 1971 Bruce Dern film “Silent Running and the T-800 Terminator from James Cameron’s 1984 film “The Terminator”. A brainchild of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, the Hall of Fame, according to a university spokesman, “recognizes excellence in robotics technology worldwide and honors the fictional and real robots that have inspired and embodied breakthrough accomplishments in robotics.”

Epson, along with partners Impressx and Engage, has
unveiled a multi-touch screen interactive desktop at the UK’s Gadget Show Live, according to Vnunet.com. The 52-inch X-Desk uses projectors–a natural fit for Epson, who sells a ton of the things–to transform a surface into an interactive display. The idea is to “[blur] the lines between the physical
and virtual worlds, allowing people to physically interact with digital content
such as photos, videos, documents, maps and information,” according to the company.

Here’s how it works: place an MP3 player, a cell phone, or other device on the surface, and the X-Desk gives you immediate access to whatever media is contained in the device. Users can also move media around on the surface. The report said that the system consists of a rear-projection screen, a camera, a PC with custom software, optical sensors that register and interpret touches on the
surface, and an Epson 3LCD projector. No word yet if the company plans to produce the X-Desk, but it probably won’t be any time soon.

When Alaska’s Mount Redoubt volcano erupted last month, scientists figured out a way to “see” and track lightning inside the plumes of ash coming out, LiveScience reports.

Here’s what happened: A team of researchers scrambled to set up a system, called a Lightning
Mapping Array, that could see through the dust and gas of an eruption and reveal the lightning storm happening within the tumultuous clouds, the report said. Meteorologists use these arrays to issue storm warnings, but they’re rarely used for volcanic eruptions–and this is the first time researchers were able to set it up beforehand in time to catch the initial lightning.

“The lightning activity was as strong or stronger than we have seen in
large Midwestern thunderstorms,” said physicist Paul Krehbiel of New Mexico Tech in the article. “The radio frequency
noise was so strong and continuous that people living in the area would
not have been able to watch broadcast VHF television stations.”

When Michael Arrington asks for something, people tend to listen. Back in July of last year, the TechCrunch founder posted about his dream project–a $300 touchscreen tablet with no hard drive, designed to simply surf the Web. That project, naturally, was deemed the CrunchPad.

Pictures of the device have subsequently “leaked out,” showing up, among other place’s on Arrington’s own CrunchGear site.

The blogger addressed the leak today on TechCrunch, writing,

[F]rankly we weren’t planning on talking about it at all, it just isn’t the right time yet. But, to make a long story short, someone accidentally published some photos we took to the Web.

The device is admittedly not yet ready for prime time. So, did the device really leak out without Arrington’s consent? Did he intend to float the thing to gadget blogs he knew would be more than willing to snap up a few blurry shots? My guess is that either way, Arrington’s enjoying the added traffic push this morning.