Hasta La Gadget!

Scientists have been rethinking the so-called Goldilocks zone commonly used to roughly estimated if a planet is habitable. The Goldilocks zone is the area around the solar system where the temperature would be just right for liquid water on the planet’s surface. The problem is a refreshing of the Goldilocks zone definition has pushed some planets previously believed to be in the habitable zone outside that range.

One of the planets that have been pushed outside the Goldilocks zone is Kepler-22b. That particular planet was once deemed the most habitable world outside of our solar system. However, under the new definition the planet no longer looks as though it would support life. Scientists Ravi Kopparapu from Penn State University says that the definition of a habitable zone hadn’t been updated in 20 years.

He and colleagues settled on a new definition that involves a host stars temperature and estimates of how well the atmosphere of the planet would absorb heat from the parent star. Laboratory experiments conducted in recent years have offered new figures for how water and carbon dioxide absorb light from different types of stars. These experiments in turn were integrated into a new formula and some planets previously believed to be in this habitable zone are now outside it.

This means that some planets that scientists previously believed could be habitable are now too hot. At the same time, it also means the planets scientists had previously believed to be too cold are now in the habitable zone. Interestingly, the Earth is now not as habitable according to the new Goldilocks definition as it was once believed to be. Under the previous definition, the Earth was exactly in the middle of the Goldilocks zone in our solar system. The scientists now believe that the earth is actually only a few million kilometers away from the edge of our solar system’s Goldilocks zone where the planet would be too hot to support life.

The scientists believe that this could be because the current Goldilocks zone definition still doesn’t take into account clouds and how they might reflect heat from the parent star. The scientists are unable to take into account cloud cover on the planet because we can’t see exoplanets to determine if they have cloud cover. Anyone who’s been through a Texas summer will agree that environment here on earth is very close to being uninhabitable in some areas.

[via NewScientist]

Turns out Earth isn’t so habitable after all is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tobii is a company that has been creating eye-tracking technology for a long time. The company has announced the launch of its latest generation of eye tracking technology called the Tobii X2 Eye Trackers. The eye tracking technology is designed to be highly portable and more affordable for researchers to integrate into research projects.

The manufacturer says that the eye tracking technology will dramatically expand insights and applications for scientific and commercial research of human behavior. The new X2 product line supports both 30 and 60 Hz frame rates. The hardware uses a modular design and has hardware options to accommodate a variety of study designs and stimuli dimensions.

Tobii designed the new tracking technology to be the smallest and lightest weight eye tracking research system on the market. The device gets power from a single USB cable and has modular hardware. Ahe system has options making it appropriate for use on laptops, computer monitors, tablets, TVs, ATMs, and just about anywhere else.

The product also has a larger track box, which is the physical space where the system is able to track the participant, allowing the participant to be tracked at their most natural distance from the screen. The system is also able to offer accurate data no matter the ethnicity of the subject or whether they use glasses. The new system is available for purchase now at an undisclosed price.

[via Tobii]

Tobii X2-60 Eye Trackers launch aimed at the research community is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

DARPA is looking for input from companies in the electronics industry, researchers, and other interested parties on technology that sounds like something out of a Mission Impossible movie. No, they don’t want exploding sunglasses or anything like that. The research group is looking for electronics that are able to disappear into the environment by dissolving on command.

According to DARPA, after a military battle it’s not uncommon for key electronic devices to be left lying on the battlefield. The fear is that these devices could be picked up by the enemy and repurposed or used to glean intelligence that could harm the United States, its soldiers and allies. DARPA is seeking input on a way to develop electronics that could simply dissolve into the environment on command.

The program is called Vanishing Programmable Resources VAPR. DARPA has issued a special announcement for a Proposers Day could be held before a full solicitation. Participants are asked to conduct basic research into materials, devices, manufacturing, and integration processes as well as design methodology to develop electronics such as an environmental and biomedical sensor that can communicate with a remote user. The key aspect of this is for the electronics to be able to dissolve into an unusable state on command. Last year, researchers showed of self-dissolving electronic circuits which melt after a pre-set amount of time, but offered no on-demand triggering mechanism.

“Commercial off-the-shelf, or COTS, electronics made for everyday purchases are durable and last nearly forever,” said Alicia Jackson, DARPA program manager. “DARPA is looking for a way to make electronics that last precisely as long as they are needed. The breakdown of such devices could be triggered by a signal sent from command or any number of possible environmental conditions, such as temperature.”

DARPA is working on a new program designed to improve electronics for use on the battlefield. The improvements aren’t to make the electronics more durable or to last longer. Rather, the improvements DARPA is seeking are ways to make the electronics kill themselves on command.

DARPA says that the use of electronics on the battlefield has grown significantly and that it’s almost impossible to track and recover every device. DARPA says that after an operation is over, electronic devices can often be found scattered across the battlefield and could be captured by the enemy and repurposed. Captured electronic devices also give the enemy opportunity to compromise the advantage of the US military.

DARPA wants to create electronics under a new program called the Vanishing Programmable Resources or VAPR program. The goal of this program is to create transient electronics or electronics capable of dissolving into the environment around them. The electronics developed under the program will be required to maintain current functionality and ruggedness of conventional electronics, but when triggered they would be able to degrade partially or completely.

DARPA says that once the dissolve command was triggered the electronics would be useless to any enemy that might find them. DARPA has issued a special announcement for a Proposers Day to be held in advance of a full solicitation. DARPA wants these Proposers Day participants to conduct basic research into materials, devices, manufacturing, and integration processes. The goal of the program is a technology demonstration with a circuit representative of an environmental or biomedical sensor able to communicate with a remote user.

[via DARPA]

DARPA wants electronics that die on command is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ford, Daimler AG, and the Renault-Nissan alliance will jointly a develop a fuel-cell system for eco-conscious motoring, with the first mass-market, “affordable” model tipped for 2017. The pact – which follows a similar agreement by BMW and Toyota, also concerning fuel-cell technology – will see a single fuel-cell stack and system that will form the basis of a new range of cars from each marque, with the same underlying technology rebranded to suit different consumer segments.

Fuel-cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs, power their motors by combining hydrogen and oxygen, with water the only physical byproduct. A high-pressure tank contains the hydrogen, while oxygen is extracted from the air.

The three companies involved have, they point out, a cumulative total of over 60 years of fuel-cell vehicle development, and more than 6m miles in test driving and demonstration models. Work on the homogenized stack will take place in multiple locations around the world, while teams from the three companies will also look at collaborating on other components FCEVs will require so as to achieve further economy of scale.

Unlike the BMW-Toyota partnership, however, which will take an active role in pushing the development of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, Ford, Daimler, and Renault-Nissan instead hope that their work “sends a clear signal” to existing hydrogen network stakeholders that they need to pull their finger out and get working.

Still, that focus means today’s deal may result in a workable car – or cars – before BMW and Toyota have something ready for the forecourts. The trio today claim 2017 is the earliest a fuel-cell vehicle may be on the market, whereas BMW and Toyota gave themselves a little more wiggle-room, estimating that they would have something prepared by 2020.

Ford, Daimler and Renault-Nissan team on fuel-cell cars by 2017 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.