Hasta La Gadget!

Ready to have your mind blown? What if 250 DVDs could fit onto a storage module no larger than a quarter? According to research conducted by brilliant geeks at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, it’s all within the realm of feasibility. Reportedly, an easily implemented technique “in which nanoscale elements precisely assemble themselves over large surfaces” could soon blow open the doors to significant improvements in data storage capacity. Without getting too Ph.D on you, the process essentially works by taking advantage of just how precise molecules can self-assemble. The end result has researchers achieving “defect-free arrays of nanoscopic elements with feature sizes as small as 3 nanometers, translating into densities of 10 terabits per square inch.” Per square inch, son.

[Via TheStandard, thanks Apoc]

Filed under: Storage

Self-assembling nanoscale discovery could catapult data storage capacity originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Mar 2009 06:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a struggle we all face. There’s the urge to bike to work each day, and then there’s the realization that you’re too huge / lazy / tired to make it on your own. Brilliant minds at MIT understand your frustration, and rather than asking you to drop a few grand on a bona fide electric bike, they’re developing an apparatus that can convert any standard bicycle into one that’s juiced. The GreenWheel contains an electric generator, batteries and an electric motor, all of which only need a wheel to be respoked in order to fit in. Under its current configuration, a single GreenWheel (yes, one can be added to each wheel) can propel a bike and your faineant derriere for around 25 miles; start peddling and that range doubles. There’s no clear indication of when these things will splash down at your local bike shop, but word has it that Copenhagen and South Africa are already looking to add it to their public transportation systems by 2010.

[Via DVICE, thanks Scott]

Continue reading GreenWheel converts any Huffy 10-speed into an electric bicycle

Filed under: Transportation

GreenWheel converts any Huffy 10-speed into an electric bicycle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen birds tasked with carrying around sensors in order to provide data about external happenings, but up until now, tracking birds’ migration patterns from start to finish has been a tedious, if not impossible task. Gurus from York University in Toronto have apparently figured out the solution, and it all sounds much simpler than you might imagine. By equipping birds with minuscule “backpacks” — which weigh less than a dime and use geolocators to collect all sorts of information about flight times, patterns, stopovers and speed — scientists can get an accurate look at where the animals were and when they were there. In a recent test involving 34 birds, researchers were able to retrieve the packs from 7, and while that may not be a majority, biologist J. M. Stutchbury noted that this “was 7 more than anybody else.” Right you are, Doc.

[Via New York Times, image courtesy of PaulNoll]

Filed under: GPS

Geolocator-equipped backpacks to track bird migrations originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve nothing but respect for the researchers, engineers and all around brainacs that call MIT home, but unless our minds are simply too feeble to grasp the connection here, we can’t figure how this “sixth sense” device actually relates to one of Bruce Willis‘ most well known films. At any rate, what we do have here is a wearable device that is comprised of a mobile projector, a webcam and a cellphone — a package that was thrown together for around $300. Once strapped on, signals from the webcam and projector are relayed to internet-connected smartphones in order to project data onto basically any backdrop. Somehow, the device can even “take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger.” The actual hows and whys seem to be a mystery, but if we had just developed a gizmo as ripe for commercialization as this, we’d probably keep most of the secrets under wraps as well.

[Via Blorge]

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Wearables

MIT concocts wearable “sixth sense” device, Bruce Willis is like “what?” originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s pretty clear by watching the demonstration video (which is lurking in the read link, just so you know) that this stuff is still pretty preliminary, but we could definitely see it going places with the right people behind it. The Interface Database Concept was dreamed up by Alan Sien Wei Hshieh, and by utilizing a relatively simple set of Javascripts, he was able to overcome traditional platform incompatibilities that can so often hamstring medical hardware / software in day-to-day usage. The creation aims to enable “seamless and intuitive data transfer” and to “define a set of gesture and multitouch commands that will override controls and input devices that may be difficult to use on medical devices.” The aforementioned vid shows off gesture-based transfers and even an accelerometer-based cross-platform transfer, both of which make you forget that we’re just talking about X-rays and blood tests.

[Thanks, Kara]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Conceptual interface brings gesture-based data transfers to medical realm originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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