Jul 10
Jul 02
Factor intros Vis Vires bike with Garmin ANT+ tracking down to the crank (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Cyclists who want ANT+ sensors frequently have to either buy multiple devices or resign themselves to relatively limited tracking. Not so with Factor Bikes’ new Vis Vires. The high-end road bike comes with a specially mounted Garmin Edge 510 or 810 bike computer, giving it speed and other basic ride data from the start; more advanced models bring ANT+ aware cranks that register leg power at the pedals. You’ll want to save up if you’re interested, however. The entry Vis Vires Ultegra Di2 and its companion Edge 510 will ship in January for $7,830. An Ultegra Di2 variant with ANT+ cranks will arrive at the same time for $10,441, while the lighter, Edge 810-equipped Dura-Ace Di2 launches this August for a hefty $13,051.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Factor Bikes
Jun 29
You can touch people from all over the world with kindness, but now you can use something called the Tactilu to literally touch people, even when you’re miles apart.
The Tactilu is a wrist device that lets its wearers communicate and “touch” each other, but only on the wrist for obvious reasons. Its described by its maker as a bracelet for remote tactile communication.
The Tactilu is powered by an Arduino Pro mini microcontroller and a custom circuit board with a Bluetooth module. It connects and communicates to another device via Bluetooth or through the Internet to deliver the other person’s “touch” using actuators mounted on the inside of the bracelet.
It’s still a work in progress, so expect to see more changes to its shape and form before the final version’s eventual release.
The Tactilu was made by Poland-based design studio panGenerator together with the Polish bureau of Cheil for ITAKA Foundation.
[via Creative Applications Network via Dvice]
Jun 25
Jun 20
Relax. Take it easy.
For some people, those words are easier said than done. I mean, how hard can it be to relax and just bum around? Apparently, it’s hard if you’re stressed out at work or have to broker deals that just aren’t coming together.
That’s what PIP is for. It’s a biosensor and app system that encourages you to relax by turning it into a video game.
The PIP biosensor is supposed to be held between the player’s thumb and forefinger. It communicates to your iOS or Android device via Bluetooth to work with the games that it comes with. PIP works by measuring the user’s galvanic skin response, which is a natural reaction to stress.
The games encourage you to reduce this stress and relax through app’s gameplay.
For example, “Relax & Race” will have the player control a flying dragon through a race course. The more relaxed the user is, the faster the dragon flies. If the player is all tense and wound up, then the dragon will fly slower. Its makers plan on offering three games when the system first comes out.
The PIP biosensor system is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, where a minimum pledge of $99(USD) will get you one of your very own, plus a game of your choice.
[via C|NET]
Jun 03
Although there have been attempts at lensless cameras before, few of them would replace our point-and-shoots when they’re frequently expensive, or capture photos outside of the visible light spectrum. We shouldn’t have either of those problems with Bell Labs’ new prototype. The experiment uses an LCD as a grid of apertures that filter the light reaching a sensor. As that sensor can piece together an image simply by grabbing random aperture samples and correlating the data, it only needs a sliver of the usual information to produce a usable shot. The lens-free, mostly off-the-shelf approach could lower the costs of both the sensor and the overall camera, but it could also lead to simpler comparison tools: the correlation makes it easier to tell if an object is missing, for example. Bell Labs hasn’t talked about any production plans, but we have a hunch that Alcatel-Lucent would rather not let its research wing’s technology go to waste.
Filed under: Cameras, Science, Alt
Source: Cornell University Library
May 31
It seems we can never be content with how sensitive our camera sensors are to light. Scientists in Singapore are working on a new camera sensor technology made from graphene that will supposedly make future cameras 1,000 times more sensitive to light and uses 10 times less energy than current camera sensors.
In turn, this will produce way better low-light photos, to the point where we hopefully don’t even have to bother with ISO. Plus, the scientists working on the new technology say that these new sensors will be the fifth of the cost of current camera sensors, meaning that we could see camera prices drop significantly in the future.
The sensor works by trapping light-generated electron particles far longer than current sensors can, while only being made from a single sheet of graphene. The sensor will be able to be used in a number of different cameras, including infrared cameras, traffic cameras, as well as satellite imaging cameras, thanks to the wide spectrum of light that the new sensor can capture.
Plus, Assitant Professor Wang Qijie from Nanyang Technological University says that the research team is keeping “current manufacturing practices in mind,” which means the camera industry “can easily replace the current base material of photo sensors with the new nano-structured graphene material.”
Obviously, it’s too early to tell when we’ll be seeing these new sensors in consumer cameras, but they’ll ultimately hit the enterprise and government first, being used in security cameras, traffic cameras, etc. Of course, graphene is already set to be used in new flexible OLED screens, so the technology will definitely be on its way to the mainstream soon.
VIA: CNET
SOURCE: Science Daily
Graphene camera sensor 1,000 times more sensitive to light is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
May 30
This isn’t an ignominious box you’re looking at — it’s the potential future of military sensors. The device is DARPA’s first reference design for a ground sensor based on ADAPT (Adaptable Sensor System), a modular Android processing core that does the hard work for surveillance gear. The mobile technology inside is miserly enough to run on its own power, and smart enough to simplify both networking and remote control. More importantly, it should be cheap: DARPA expects to cut sensor development times from several years to less than one, with lower costs to match. The agency starts field testing the ground sensor this summer, and it’s already contemplating air- and sea-based ADAPT designs. Catch an example of DARPA’s airborne sensor experiments after the break.
Filed under: Misc
Source: DARPA
May 27
Researchers with the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies are working on a virtual therapist that appears lifelike and is aimed to help those who need some type of counseling but aren’t yet ready or able to see a live worker. In addition, the digital shrink, because of the way it is designed, can be used to monitor the minute details of a person’s body language over time, helping a live counselor monitor progress.
The virtual therapist is designed to look as much like a real human as possible, with realistic body movements and facial expressions similar to those you’d observe from a live in-person counselor. The therapist “observes” its client by means of a webcam and a gaming sensor that is mounted above the display, with the person’s various movements, facial expressions, and other such shifts being recorded in relation to the corresponding question.
The information that is gathered from the “clients” are fed into a computer where the virtual therapist’s software lies. Such data is used to aid the software in guiding the virtual shrink in how it should approach clients and what questions it should ask, and how it should interpret the body language of clients that respond to the questions.
For example, a certain tone of voice and facial movement, such as an aversion of eyes or a brief smile, all indicate different mental aspects of the client, and can help the virtual therapist pin-point whether the person is suffering from depression, anxiety, or other such disorders. One big purpose of the virtual therapist is in PTSD cases, helping soldiers address the issue and proceed towards live counseling.
The center responsible for the work spends a lot of time collecting data from hundreds of military personnel, helping provide the data needed for the software to eventually identify the signs of PTSD. Other experiments being carried out by the researchers include the creation of a 3D human face hologram, and virtual full-size human projections that interact with real humans.
SOURCE: BBC News
Researchers create virtual therapist with webcam and game sensor is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
May 25
iPhone biosensor cradle brings us one step closer to having tricorders (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
It seems like every day we’re getting a little bit closer to having tricorders, and today’s no exception. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed hardware and software that turns the iPhone into a powerful biosensor that’s useful for toxin and pathogen testing as well as medical diagnosis. The package consists of a cradle that contains an assortment of lenses and filters which line up with the handset’s camera, along with an app that guides the user through the testing process. At the core of the device is a photonic crystal slide which basically turns the iPhone into a high-resolution spectrometer. While the cradle only contains about $200 worth of parts, it’s just as accurate as laboratory equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars, with the added bonus of being hand-held. The team just received an NSF grant to explore other applications for the device and is working on a cradle for Android phones. Hit the break for a demo video and a peek into the future.
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Alt, Apple
Source: University of Illinois
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