Hasta La Gadget!

Artificial schnozzes have been sniffing foreign objects for years now, but rarely are they engineered to sniff out specific things. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign have done just that, though, with a new snout that acts as a coffee analyzer. Reportedly, the device can “distinguish between ten well-known commercial brands of coffee and can also make a distinction between coffee beans that have been roasted at different temperatures or lengths of time.” The significance here is that this distinction is incredibly difficult to make, and it could one day help coffee growers determine whether batches are as good as prior batches on the cheap. More importantly, however, it could help the modern java hunter determine whether or not they’re walking in a corporate Starbucks or one of those “branded” kiosks with two-fifths the menu. Brilliant, right?

Artificial nose becomes coffee analyzer, sniffs out KIRF Starbucks venues originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mama always told us that there’d be trade-offs in life, but we aren’t so sure we’re kosher with this one. As the story goes, a team of Wolverines from the University of Michigan figured out a solution to an age-old problem: effectively lowering power consumption by a significant amount in electronic devices. Anyone with a smartphone yearns for better battery life, and while Stevie J may argue that no one reads for ten hours straight, we’d still rather have the option than not. The development revolves around “near-threshold computing” (NTC), which allows electronic wares to operate at lower voltages than normal, in turn lowering energy consumption. Researchers estimate that power energy requirements could be lowered by “10 to 100 times or more,” but unfortunately, that low-voltage operation would lead to “performance loss, performance variation, and memory and logic failures.” We appreciate the hard work, folks, but could you hit us back when the side effects are somewhat less daunting?

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UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen the magic of piezoelectrics before, but if a team of Cal Bears can really deliver, their spin on things will actually make a difference in the retail realm. Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have concocted so-called “energy-scavenging nanofibers,” which could one day be “woven into clothing and textiles” in order to convert into electricity the energy created through mechanical stress, stretches and twists. If everything works out, these movement-lovin’ clothes could theoretically power your phone and / or PMP as you walk, and for those concerned with cost, we’re told that the organic polyvinylidene fluoride materials use to make the nanofibers are easy and cheap to manufacture. Too bad there’s no direct confirmation that PVDFs are machine washable, but hey, that’s why you’ve got the local dry cleaners on speed dial.

Cal researchers create ‘energy-scavenging nanofibers,’ look to energize your next A&F sweater originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s cooler than the latest in technology? How about the latest in self-powering technology? University of Pennsylvania researchers have put together what seems like the world’s first photovoltaic circuit, which is to say that the electronic parts of your devices will no longer have to just consume energy, they’ll be able to harvest it directly from the sun. The most obvious application for this would be in smartphone touchscreens, which could recharge themselves while you sip your latte at the local sun-drenched coffee shop. Of course, such practical uses are still a fair distance away, as the team can generate only minuscule amounts of power at present, but the theory is in place and so is our attention. Don’t let us down, Penn!

Photovoltaic circuit makes solar-powered touchscreens possible, not yet plausible originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ll say the whole Robot Apocalypse meme is played out. We say it’s your lack of focus that’ll eventually be the downfall of society. Gurus at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne have been working on “evolving robots” for quite some time, but the latest breakthrough is easily the most astounding (and in turn, terrifying) of all. According to new research that was just made public, a gaggle of robots programmed to use Darwinian selection in order to learn, evolve and mutate have now successfully moved sans collisions through a maze and helped each other push tokens around in order to achieve a common goal. Moreover, some of the creatures even displayed early signs of a predatory-prey relationship, which effectively assures mankind that these cute little learners will one day assimilate to rule the world however they please. Keep laughing if you must — it’ll probably make the painful sting of reality a bit easier to take when Doomsday rolls around.

Continue reading Evolving robots navigate a maze, help each other, plot descruction of mankind

Evolving robots navigate a maze, help each other, plot descruction of mankind originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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