Hasta La Gadget!

GE has announced that its research division is working on a new development that it hopes will help spread the adoption of natural gas vehicles in the United States and around the world. GE is working in partnership with Chart Industries and scientists from the University of Missouri to develop an affordable home refueling station for natural gas vehicles. The researchers are working on the program through Advance Research Projects Agency for Energy or ARPA-E.

The goal of the ARPA-E program is to develop a natural gas home fueling station that could sell for $500 per unit and reduce fueling times from 5 to 8 hours to under an hour. There are at home refueling stations for natural gas vehicles available today, but they cost about $5000 and have long refueling times. Refueling commonly requires 5-8 hours for natural gas vehicles, typically meaning overnight refueling. The program hopes to improve the adoption of natural gas vehicles by average drivers with a fast and inexpensive home refueling station.

There are an estimated 15 million natural gas-powered vehicles operating globally with more than 250,000 in the United States. Most of those vehicles in the United States are commercial fleet vehicles such as buses and delivery trucks, but there are some passenger cars. The recharging station the researchers are working on would be fundamentally different from systems already available. The researchers are working on a system that chills, densifies, and transfers compressed natural gas more efficiently and the device will be a simpler design with fewer parts and will be able to operate quietly. The program is intended the last 28 months and cost approximately $2.3 million.

GE researchers are working on a home refilling station for natural gas vehicles is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

McDonald’s has denied that staff at a Paris restaurant assaulted “father of augmented reality” Professor Steve Mann, insisting that no damage to the researcher’s Google Glass-style wearable computer was caused. In a new statement provided to SlashGear, McDonald’s says that it has individually interviewed “several staff members” at the Paris restaurant, and “all independently and consistently expressed that their interaction with Dr. Mann was polite and did not involve a physical altercation.”

Mann claimed earlier this week that, while on a family holiday in France, he was assaulted by employees at a McDonald’s restaurant in Paris. The professor, who has been involved in wearables research for several decades, was wearing the latest iteration of his EyeTap head-mounted display, which is permanently fixed to his head and requires special tools.

According to Mann, while he showed staff at the fast food eatery documentation explaining the nature of the augmented reality wearable and was initially told that there was no problem with him wearing it on the premises, a subsequent altercation with other staff led to an assault. Employees attempted to grab the wearable headset from his head, and then ripped up the letter from his doctor that he had brought.

McDonald’s, however, says its own investigation suggests the encounter was significantly different. Rather than the aggressive attitude Mann describes, McDonald’s says staff insist that “they did not damage any of Mr. Mann’s personal possessions.”

According to the chain, the French brand has contacted Mann and is waiting on further content. It has not commented on the photos captured by Mann’s EyeTap headset itself, which seem to show staff tearing up the doctor’s letter.

McDonald’s Statement:

“We share the concern regarding Dr. Mann’s account of his July 1 visit to a McDonald’s in Paris. McDonald’s France was made aware of Dr. Mann’s complaints on July 16, and immediately launched a thorough investigation. The McDonald’s France team has contacted Dr. Mann and is awaiting further information from him.

In addition, several staff members involved have been interviewed individually, and all independently and consistently expressed that their interaction with Dr. Mann was polite and did not involve a physical altercation. Our crew members and restaurant security staff have informed us that they did not damage any of Mr. Mann’s personal possessions.

While we continue to learn more about the situation, we are hearing from customers who have questions about what happened. We urge everyone not to speculate or jump to conclusions before all the facts are known. Our goal is to provide a welcoming environment and stellar service to McDonald’s customers around the world.”

McDonald’s denies Steve Mann wearables assault is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Doctor Evil would be positively giddy at the thought of strapping the laser that has set a world record at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to the head of the shark. The laser at the National Ignition Facility set a world record for the highest power laser shot in history using a collection of beams. The collection of beams delivered over 500 trillion watts of peak power.

The laser used 192 individual beams fired at the same time to deliver 1.85 MJ of ultraviolet laser light. The hugely powerful laser beam was shot at a target only 2 mm in diameter. The laser used 12,500 times more electricity than all of Britain required in 2006. I’d hate to pay the electricity bill.

The laboratory where the record was set was specifically built for testing and designing high-powered lasers. The National Ignition Facility is the world’s foremost laser research center. The laboratory has a goal of creating a laser powerful enough to ignite hydrogen fusion.

“For scientists across the nation and the world who, like ourselves, are actively pursuing fundamental science under extreme conditions and the goal of laboratory fusion ignition, this is a remarkable and exciting achievement,” said Richard Petrasso, senior research scientist and division head of high energy density physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a press release. “The 500 TW shot is an extraordinary accomplishment by the NIF Team, creating unprecedented conditions in the laboratory that hitherto only existed deep in stellar interiors.”

[via Wired]

New laser breaks record for highest power beam at 500 trillion watts is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft has lately become big on touchscreens — sometimes, really big — which makes it only natural that the company would want to explore Windows 8’s on-screen keyboard in detail. As User Experience team member Kit Knox explains, the company has made an about-face from the days of unceremoniously foisting touch on a desktop OS. Windows 8’s keyboard is not only optimized for fingers, but accommodates the little subtleties that others might miss, like the typical postures for tablet use and our tendencies to frequently hit certain wrong keys. The crew at Redmond ultimately hopes to bring out all the advantages of touchscreen keyboards while reminding us of some creature comforts from old-fashioned physical buttons. The surest way to understand Microsoft’s keyboard research will likely be to pick up a Surface tablet this fall, but those of us who can’t wait to put fingers on real glass can hop over to Knox’s all-encompassing overview at the source link.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Microsoft delves into Windows 8 touchscreen keyboard design, wants us to be extra-comfy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest crew of the International Space Station has safely docked, with Expedition 32 delivering Flight Engineers Suni Williams, Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide to the orbiting research platform. The mission saw the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft dock with the Rassvet module at 12:51am EDT today, having spent two days in orbit beforehand.

Hatches opened around two and a half hours later, reuniting some of the old hands of the ISS. Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin ran the new arrivals through a welcome process and then a safety briefing.

The new crew took off on Sunday, bringing the multi-national crew into orbit, and the mission coincides with another historic moment in space history. It’s the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first time an American spacecraft docked with a Russian spacecraft.

Expedition 32 will end on September 17, and is expected to include two spacewalks, as well as scientific research into small satellite ejection, a new aquatic habitat, and an international disaster monitoring system. In total, more than 240 experiments are expected to be undertaken; there’s a summary of some of the goals here [pdf link].

[via Michael Interbartolo]

New International Space Station crew safely docks on historic anniversary is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.