Students at Brigham Young University are developing a high-tech piece of baby wear that will help put parents worried about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at ease. Using a built-in pulse oximeter, their wireless smart sock can monitor both a sleeping child’s heart and breathing rates without hindering them from getting the rest they need. More »
On the face of it, Samsung’s latest report on working conditions at the factories of its Chinese suppliers follows just the kind of careful, lawyer-scrutinized language we’d expect from a big multinational. It repeats the manufacturer’s earlier insistence that no children have been employed, while at the same time admitting that there have been “several instances of inadequate practices at the facilities” concerning workers being made to do too much overtime, not being given proper contracts, and being fined if they turn up late or are absent — issues which had already been revealed at one supplier, and which Samsung promises to fix by the end of 2014.
Burrow further into the document, however, and Samsung’s list of promised “corrective actions” implies that its internal investigation has uncovered evidence of other serious problems. These include “physical and verbal abuse,” sexual harassment, a lack of first-aid equipment and inadequate safety training. Some information is also conspicuous by its absence — at least in the short report linked below — including clarity on how widespread any of these failings were among the 109 companies (and 65,000 employees) that have now been audited. Did they crop up at just a handful of factories, or were they endemic across China? We have no idea, but given how much data Samsung has now dutifully amassed, it surely does. We’ve asked the company for more detail and will update if we hear back.
Source: Samsung
As you might have heard, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is working hard to ban those sets of tiny magnets after a handful of reports of them being swallowed by children who then require surgery to have them removed. But it turns out that companies like Zen Magnets and Buckyballs might still be able to sell their products if the magnets are sold individually. More »
Toshiba has revealed a new robot intended to explore the radioactive mess of Japan’s Fukushima No.1 reactor in Tokyo, a four-legged beast that can birth a second, separate robot to squeeze through narrow spaces. The tetrapod ‘bot – which resembles a Toshiba-branded coolbox on spindly legs, and carries both a camera and a dosimeter – is remotely controlled by a wireless operator, and has clever onboard intelligence that allows it to totter across uneven terrain without tumbling.
In fact, the artificial smarts are so good, the robot can automatically avoid obstacles as it wanders through the Tokyo Electric power plant, in addition to climbing stairs. A maximum speed of 1km/h (0.6mph) means it’s hardly going to worry the 18mph DARPA cheetah robot which broke records back in March, but should be enough a fair amount of exploration given its 2hr battery life.
Toshiba developed the robot because there are still plenty of areas at the Fukushima plant where wheeled or tracked alternatives simply can’t get through. However, it’s not small – standing more than a meter high, and over half a meter wide – and so there’s a second camera robot that can be deployed via a robotic arm, for narrower gaps.
That companion ‘bot – a little taller than a 1U rack unit – is tethered back to the main tetrapod via a cable, but carries its own battery good for an hour of use. It’s even slower than its parent, with a top speed of 0.12mph, but means the safety team can navigate through pipes and around toppled equipment.
Toshiba says the next stage is to give the robot the ability to install shielding, end leaks, and remove obstacles, helping make the power plant safer for human involvement. There’s no word on when it might first go exploring.
Toshiba reveals four-legged Fukushima robot explorer is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google has poached a US highway safety executive to work on its driverless cars program, NHTSA deputy director Ron Medford, to better guide its autonomous cars through evolving legislation. Medford, who has worked at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2003, will jump ship to Google’s automotive division from January 7, 2013, as the new Director of Safety for Self-Driving Cars.
“Deputy Administrator Medford brings a long history of working on safety issues involving automobiles and other consumer products,” an NHTSA spokesperson said in a statement to Wired, “and will use that experience at Google.” Prior to his position at the NHTSA, Medford worked at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where he was Assistant Executive Director for Hazard Identification & Reduction.
Interestingly, Medford has also worked with Segway-creator Dean Kamen in the past, taking time during a sabbatical to look at safety issues around the self-balancing scooter as well as the iBOT mobility system that – though now discontinued – harnessed a complex array of sensors and other autonomous features to help disabled users move around their environment.
The relative safety of self-driving cars has been something Google has been pushing strongly in the years it has been developing its project. The search giant insists that, in fact, its system is safer and more responsive than a traditional, human-piloted car; however, there are lingering concerns around whether the driverless system is sufficiently safe from malware, and though public road testing is ongoing, Google must outfit each car with not one but two human occupants in case they need to wrest control from the computers.
Medford’s role at Google will be to help the company navigate as smoothly through developing regulations as it does through traffic. Simultaneously, the NHTSA will be running its own program to investigate the regulatory requirements around self-driving vehicles.
Google grabs NHTSA safety exec for self-driving cars project is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
You need your house to feel safe over the holidays, whether you’re heading out of town, or staying home to host family between turkey time and New Year’s Eve. That’s where technology can help. Here’s a look at the essential items to consider when you’re defending your castle this holiday season. More »
There are already mobile GPS apps that we can use to help locate a person, but that assumes that the mobile device is with the person. Which is why I’m quite intrigued by the Leo. It’s a GPS wristwatch meant to be worn by children that is supposedly very hard to remove.
According to inventor Jason Sullivan, the Leo has an optional locking mechanism and a tamper-proof strap. The locking mechanism is made of “titanium-woven steel” that is supposedly so tough that you’d need a pair of bolt cutters to take the watch off once it’s been locked. With respect to its tracking features, the Leo works with a mobile app that can be used to send a signal to the watch to send back its location.
The wearer can also press the Leo’s panic buttons to send a text message to a predetermined number – parents, guardians, etc – as well as place a call to 911. The watch can also be configured to automatically send an alert if the wearer leaves or enters an area or if the wearer exceeds a speed limit. Here’s Jason demonstrating the watch on the Ricki Lake Show:
Jason’s company Guardian Lion is currently raising funds for the Leo watch on Indiegogo. As of this writing if you pledge at least $119 (USD) you’ll be one of the first to get a Leo wristwatch. It looks like a very useful product, but I’m a bit concerned by a couple of things. First of all, the Leo’s official website contains banners and logos of media establishments, including Engadget and Reuters, implying some sort of endorsement or press coverage of the Leo:
However, from what I can tell neither Engadget nor Reuters has talked about the watch. Engadget wrote about another Guardian Lion product back in 2005, but they have not released anything about the Leo. All I can find on Reuters is a press release from 2011. So why are the banners there? The other thing that makes me wary about the Leo is that Jason clearly states in the video above that the watch is also a cellphone. There’s also an image on its website that supports that claim. Note the send and end call buttons on the watch:
But for some reason Jason and his company failed to elaborate on this feature, whether on their website or on their Indiegogo page, which seems strange because it should be a major selling point of the product. Let me make it clear: I’m not accusing anyone of anything and I hope all of this gets cleared up. But considering the company is already asking people for money without a final product on sale, I just thought I’d share my observations before you plunk down your hard-earned cash.
[Guardian Lion via CNET]
As printed media becomes more and more irrelevant, advertisers have had to devise clever ways to grab a magazine reader’s attention. And to promote the safety features of its vehicles, Peugeot ran this brilliant ad that simulates what would happen in a head-on collision. More »
This deliciously absurd parody of Delta Airline’s safety video starts a bit slow, but it skyrockets into laughing my underpants off altitude in a few seconds. Please, you watch. More »
Toyota‘s tiny Scion iQ is facing a recall over a potentially big problem, with the dinky four-seater being called back after a fault potentially preventing the airbag from safely deploying was identified. The issue centers on cabling for safety sensors under the front passenger seat, which – if damaged by foreign objects near the seat rails – might stop the airbag from firing in a crash, or the seat belt pre-tensioner from working properly.
Innocently running the passenger seat forward and backward, with objects in the rear footwell, could be enough to incur damage, Toyota has warned. “Cables for the sensors located in the seat track can come into contact with an object placed near the seat track and become damaged” the Japanese company’s US arm said in a statement on the recall, “as the front passenger seat slides forward or backward.”
However, no actual crashes or injuries have been recorded as a result of the fault, and Toyota says it will only begin notifying owners from early December. The repair process – which involves examining the sensors and cables for damage, and then fitting new protective covers – takes around an hour, the company claims.
Approximately 11,200 2012 and early 2013 Scion iQ models are affected by the recall, the latest in a series of safety call-backs for Toyota. In October, the company announced that as many as 7.43m vehicles were at potential risk of an electric window switch overheating or even catching on fire. Earlier in 2012, more than three quarters of a million cars were recalled after suspension issues were identified.
Toyota recalls Scion iQ over airbag failure is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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