A cloaking device that makes you appear completely invisible is still trapped in the realm of science fiction. But researchers at Duke University have successfully created a cloaking device that works with sound instead, making an object completely invisible to SONAR and other acoustic imaging techniques.
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If fishing for you is more about pulling the most catches out of a lake—instead of simply using your wits to outsmart nature—then the more gear the better. And while fish finders have been around for decades, the FishHunter is the first to turn your smartphone into a window to what lies below the water’s surface.
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Space may be the final frontier of exploration, but there’s plenty of Earth left unmapped, too—from the giant canyon recently discovered beneath Greenland
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If you’re the outdoorsy type who likes to fish, a new project is up on Indiegogo that will help you improve your catch. The project is called ReelSonar and it’s a high-tech fishing bobber. It looks pretty much like a normal fishing bobber except it has sonar technology inside, and can communicate with your smartphone.
That sonar technology is able to shoot ultrasonic sound waves into the water up to 150 feet deep to find where the fish are hiding. The fancy bobber connects to your Android or iOS smartphone using Bluetooth 4.0 to show you where the fish are. The bobber will even sense the water temperature and salinity and suggest the best bait to use.
When the fish finally come to bite your bait, the bobber will light up and the app will signal that fish are nearby. The app will even give you the relative size of the fish and estimate how many fish are nearby. Once you find a honey hole, you can tag the location of the spot using GPS.
The first 300 orders can get a ReelSonar unit and the app for just $79(USD). After that, the price goes up to $99. If the project reaches its $70,000 funding goal by January 21, the product will be released this Summer.
Scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a prototype system that could one day aid the congenitally blind by converting video into auditory cues. The “Sonar Vision” works in a similar way to a bat’s echolocation system, but instead of chirping, uses a video camera embedded in a pair of glasses. A laptop or smartphone then converts the images into sound, which is transmitted to a headset. After 70 hours or so of training, that allowed users to identify objects like faces or houses, position objects in space and even identify individual letters. Surprisingly, researchers also found that after only several hours using the device, regions of the cerebral cortex dedicated to sight became activated for the first time in the congenitally sightless. That could possibly let doctors “wake up” regions of the brain never before used, according to the team, “even after a lifetime of blindness.”
[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Science, Alt
Via: Ubergizmo
Source: CEA
A bunch of researchers over at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have managed to come up with a new device that will assist congenitally blind people to “see” again, at least, up to a certain extent. Touted as a kind of “sonar vision” device, it is capable of transforming images into sound, which is the opposite of what fictional characters like Daredevil (aka Matt Murdock) process, which enables the blind to perceive visual information using the ear.
Basically, this sonar system will turn images into sounds thanks to a clever combination of a video camera that has been embedded in a pair of eyeglasses, alongside a laptop for processing purposes and a pair of headphones. Someone will need to go through approximately 70 hours of specialized training beforehand so that they can identify the different kinds of shapes transformed into sound. Once the training period is over, the blind person could end up being extremely adept at perceiving information, including the location of a person in a room, as well as reading words and letters.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: NEC DNA Analyzer Miniaturized, Blood Pressure Monitor Loses Cuff,
Canadians well-versed in their history are very aware of Sir John Franklin‘s ill-fated 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage: a British voyage that set out to establish a sailing route through the Arctic and ended with the untimely, mysterious deaths of its two ship crews. No human ever found the abandoned ships, which makes it all the more fitting that the next best shot at discovery might come through a just-launched autonomous underwater vehicle from the University of Victoria and Bluefin Robotics. Meet the Mano, a new sonar-toting robot that can produce detailed undersea maps all by its lonesome while keeping a steady altitude above the ocean floor. It can only operate for 12 hours at a time, which will keep humans in the area, but its ability to run untethered below storms and cold Arctic winds should dramatically expand the territory that researchers can cover during their share of a larger five- to six-week journey. There’s no guarantee that the Mano will hit the jackpot, or find something recognizable even if it does. Still, any mapping should improve navigation for modern boats — and hopefully prevent others from sharing Sir Franklin’s fate.
Filed under: Robots, Science, Alt
University of Victoria’s Mano underwater robot to prowl Arctic waters for legendary ships originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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