Hoping to provide a safer home environment for the elderly and those with diminishing mobility, a team of researchers at the University of Manchester have created a pressure sensing smart carpet that can detect and even predict when someone might fall. More »
We’re not sure if Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos of the University of Patras in Greece like a tipple or not, but the pair have developed two algorithms that, when used with thermal imaging, could pick out drunk people in crowds. What is it that betrays your best intentions to look sober? As always, your face. Booze causes the blood-vessels in your visage to dilate, and the researchers used this principle to compare facial scans against a database of tipple-free mug shots. Likewise the duo found that when under the influence, the nose gets warmer, while the forehead cools — another visual check that the infrared can help identify. The hope is that using this technology, law-enforcement can make a judgement call based on more than just your wonky walk. But in our experience, the troublemakers are pretty good at outing themselves.
Scientists develop pair of algorithms that could enable thermal cameras to pick out drunk people originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple’s iPhone 4S has been knocked from the US smartphone sales top spot by Samsung’s Galaxy S III, retailer checks suggest, though the fast-approaching iPhone 5 may well flip things back in Cupertino’s favor. August was the first month that the iPhone 4S wasn’t the best-selling smartphone in the US, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley told CNET, having crunched the figures from retailers across the country.
Instead, Samsung’s Galaxy S III managed to grab pole position, Walkley claims. Stats for the Android flagship remain strong, too, the analyst says, while conversely Nokia, HTC and BlackBerry demand continues to waver.
That impressive GSIII demand has already caught the attention of Apple’s lawyers, of course. The Cupertino company has added the phone – along with the Galaxy Note, and other devices – to the list of models it hopes to have barred from sale in the US as part of the ongoing patent litigation between the firms.
Of course, the marketplace will shift again once the new iPhone arrives. Apple is expected to reveal the new model at an event on September 12, with sales tipped to begin roughly a week after that. Demand for the iPhone 5 will undoubtedly be high, and indeed the Canaccord Genuity analyst suggests that slowing sales of the iPhone 4S are likely prompted by customers holding off on picking up a new smartphone until the new model hits shelves.
Galaxy S III knocks iPhone 4S from US top spot (but iPhone 5 looms) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nokia is experimenting with graphene-based camera sensors, potentially smaller and cheaper than existing CCD and CMOS systems, that could allow future high-res PureView models to still fit in your pocket. Revealed by a freshly published patent application for “Sensing of Photons,” Nokia’s approach combines multiple layers of photo-sensing graphene that are stacked with color filters, each stack representing a single pixel.
Using three color filters – for red, green, and blue wavelengths – would allow the graphene sensor to build up a normal full-color pixel. It could also be more efficient in low-light than a CMOS approach, as used in current Nokia phones, as a single layer of graphene absorbs just 2.3-percent of passing light.
Meanwhile, the graphene-based system could be more sensitive to light than traditional camera sensors, reflecting light back out through the layers and so getting a second opportunity to register it. That could mean roughly twice the light detection efficiency, Nokia suggests.
The upshot, so the patent application insists, is a camera sensor that’s potentially easier and cheaper to manufacture, smaller and thinner than existing versions, and that also works well as a pre-amplifier for more traditional photocells. Stack the graphene sensor on top of one of those, it’s pointed out, and it will grab extra light/color data without blocking the majority of the light passing through.
Nokia’s PureView technology, as in the 808 PureView, has so far relied on an oversized sensor paired with high-quality optics and software trickery – most notably oversampling, where data from multiple adjacent pixels is combined to make for a more detailed and accurate end image – to work its magic. However, such oversized sensors aren’t particularly compatible with the compact smartphones in demand today; the new flagship Lumia 920 PureView expected to be announced this week is tipped to have a “mere” 8-megapixel sensor, though Nokia’s photography expert insists that doesn’t preclude it from delivering PureView-style magic.
If Nokia can refine and commercialize graphene sensors, however, that could mean big megapixel counts without big devices. Unfortunately there’s no indication of quite how far down the development process Nokia might be, so we’ll probably have to wait a while to see such devices reach the market.
[via WPCentral]
Nokia graphene camera tech tips true PureView without the bulk is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Making an electric car isn’t exactly easy, but the realm of things it’s not as difficult as space flight. Musk and his company has also recently made impressive strides in private spacecraft with the Dragon capsule docking with the ISS. Musk has recently made it known that he’s also planning a supersonic, electric powered hovering jet plane.
I’m no aeronautical engineer, but that sounds even more difficult than creating a spacecraft. The announcement came when Musk was talking about some of his plans for the future. He stated that he was considering whether it would make sense to create a parent corporation to own stock, presumably in an aircraft manufacturing company. The comment was made to the automotive website Jalopnik and Musk admitted that he wasn’t sure if it was feasible or sensible, that he was only considering it at this time.
It’s worth noting that aircraft able to take off and land vertically are difficult to maintain and create. There are only a few jet aircraft currently capable of taking off and landing vertically and all of them are military aircraft. The new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has a version that will land vertically but requires a short runway to take off. That aircraft has been plagued with failures in critical components supporting vertical landings.
One true vertical landing and vertical takeoff jet is the Harrier, still being used by both British and American militaries to this day. However, that aircraft isn’t considered supersonic. Battery packs would have to, very long way to be able to power an aircraft exclusively. Presumably, Musk is likely talking about some sort of hybrid aircraft. It will be interesting to see if Musk moves on with his plans for an aircraft.
[via The Register]
Elon Musk is planning a supersonic electric-powered hovering jet is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Sometimes I fear science is creating genetically superior mice who will one day take over the world. Not too long ago, I talked about a neuroscientist who had used technology right out of Star Trek to restore sight to blind mice. Scientists have now been able to restore the sense of smell to mice using gene therapy.
The mice used in the test were affected with a genetic disease eliminating their sense of smell. This particular disease affected microscopic hairs inside the mouse called cilia that allow them to detect chemicals in the air. Diseases that affect the cilia are also partly responsible for some diseases in humans such as blindness, deafness, and kidney disease.
A group of researchers led by the University of Michigan looked at mice in the test with a mutation in the lft88 gene that left them unable to smell. The scientists created a virus capable of infecting cells with a working version of the lft88 gene. The virus concoction was injected the nose of the mice on three consecutive days and proved successful in restoring the cilia and the sense of smell and the mouse.
One scientist involved in the experiments, Professor Philip Beales from University College London, said that the experiment was proof that we can get that gene back into the cells. After being treated with the gene therapy, the mice could use their sense of smell to find food. There is no indication on how long it might be before similar experiments can be performed on humans.
Dr James Battey, director of the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders said, “These results could lead to one of the first therapeutic options for treating people with congenital anosmia.
“They also set the stage for therapeutic approaches to treating diseases that involve cilia dysfunction in other organ systems, many of which can be fatal if left untreated.”
[via BBC]
Genetic therapy used to restore a sense of smell in mice is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We’ve seen a lot of images of an (alleged) iPhone coming soon with a bigger screen, and some numbers out from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the WPP-owned market analysts, underscore how a bigger iPhone may not be coming a moment too soon. In the last 12 weeks, it found that Android-based smartphones have continued to extend their lead over the rest of the pack, and the charge is being led by the big boys — literally.
Of all the Android devices that have been sold in the last three months, nearly one-third (29%) of them had a screen size of over 4.5 inches, with large-screened devices from Samsung, HTC, LG (pictured), Huawei and more. Apple’s current iPhone has a screen of 3.5 inches.
Kantar also found that Android’s market share in Europe has gone up by 20.2% in the past year; its devices now account for two-thirds of the smartphone market in Europe. In fact, as you can see in the table below, Android grew its share by double-digit percentages in just about every major market, except for the U.S., where it actually declined by 4.5% as iOS increased by nearly 9% over the same period a year ago.
Still, the U.S. appears to be an outlier at the moment (if not marching to the beat of a different drum altogether). Overall, there is not a single market among those surveyed by Kantar where Android does not have over 50% of all smartphone handset sales and is still growing stronger than the rest. And in some markets like Spain that percentage is even approaching 90%.
Across the eight most important markets, Kantar notes that Android has a share of 61%; while iOS is at 24%; and the rest all have 5% or less, led by Windows.
Going beyond straight handset sales, Kantar also takes a look at screen size and how that form factor impacts consumer behavior — the chief takeaway here being that the larger the screen the more likely a consumer will use that device for different services. (And if you think about long engagement times on something like the iPad tablet as the extreme of what happens when you have a large screen, this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.)
“It is interesting to look at the impact a larger screen size has on how consumers use their smartphones, particularly as the line between tablets and smartphones becomes more blurred,” analyst Dominic Sunnebo writes.
This seems especially true for services that need more input from a user, or rely on visual elements. ”Only 19% of consumers with a screen smaller than three inches download and watch videos, compared to 65% when the screen is five inches or more,” he writes.
Perhaps more importantly for carriers and handset makers, bigger screens as a result are also important for customer retention: that’s because the more engaged a consumer is with a device, the more likely they will stay loyal to a brand when they upgrade, Sunnebo says.
That has worked brilliantly for Apple up to now with its 3.5-inch devices — with iPhone owners being strong users of their devices, and also very loyal to the brand. The question is whether consumers will start to look for more, and if Apple will give it to them.
Hurricanes can be some of the most devastating natural disasters to hit the United States. The hurricane that hit New Orleans a few years ago caused massive devastation flooding. Luckily, Hurricane Isaac, which came ashore recently, didn’t do the sort of damage that Hurricane Katrina caused.
Hurricanes can have some interesting side effects in coastal areas by washing things ashore that were hidden off the coast for decades or more, under water and sand. Isaac uncovered a long-lost civil war era ship on a beach in Alabama. The ship was revealed in the sands on the beach near Fort Morgan.
But at this time, it’s unclear exactly how old the ship is or what the ship was used for. While some believe the boat was a blockade-runner during the Civil War, others believe that it could be a ship used to smuggle alcohol ashore during prohibition. If the ship were from the prohibition era, it wouldn’t be nearly as old as the Civil War era.
It’s incredible that under the sand on the beach, the ship hid all these years. It appears that the ship was simply uncovered in the sand after the high surf and lots of rain, rather than washing ashore, but how the ship came to be on the beach is unclear. You can see in the video the huge number of massive nails used to hold the wooden timbers of the ship together. It appears to have been a moderately large ship and it’s surprisingly well preserved.
[via Reuters]
Possible Civil War era ship discovered after Hurricane Isaac is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Batteries used to be the only way to power implantable gadgets, but additional surgeries are needed to replace the power packs once their juice runs out — a less-than-ideal solution for patients. Recent discoveries, however, have such medgadgets being powered by photons, hip hop and now high-frequency radio waves. Electrical engineers at Stanford built a cardiac device that uses a combination of inductive and radiative transmission of power, at about 1.7 billion cycles per second, to its coiled receiving antenna.
Previous prevailing opinion held that the high frequencies needed for wireless power delivery couldn’t penetrate the human body deep enough, and the lower frequencies that would do the trick require antennas too large to work as implants. That conundrum was solved by getting the high-frequency signals to penetrate deeper using alternating waves of electric and magnetic fields. That allowed a 10x increase in power delivery — up to 50 microwatts to a millimeter radius antenna coil — to an implant five centimeters below the skin. That antenna also was also designed to pull power regardless of its orientation, making it ideal for applications inside always-moving human bodies. Of course, the implant’s really just a proof-of-concept at this stage, but hopefully it won’t be long before battery powered implants go the way of the dodo TouchPad.
Filed under: Science
Stanford researchers make heart implant powered by radio waves, put batteries out of a job originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 23:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The world is no stranger to flexible batteries, but they’ve almost always had to be made in thin sheets — that doesn’t amount to a long running time if you’re powering anything more than a watch. LG Chem has developed a flexible lithium-ion battery that’s not just better-suited to our bigger gadgets but could out-do previous bendable energy packs. Researchers found that coating copper wires with nickel-tin and coiling them briefly around a rod results in a hollow anode that behaves like a very strong spring; mating that anode with a lithium-ion cell leads to a battery that works even when it’s twisted up in knots. Join multiple packs together, and devices could have lithium-ion batteries that fit many shapes without compromising on their maximum deliverable power. Some hurdles remain to creating a production-grade battery, such as a tendency for the pack to shed a small amount of capacity whenever it’s put under enough stress. LG Chem is fully set on turning these cable batteries into shippable technology, however, and could ultimately produce mobile devices and wearables that really do bend to their owners’ every whim.
Filed under: Wearables, Science
LG Chem develops very flexible cable batteries, may leave mobile devices tied up in knots originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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