Entries Tagged 'Technology' ↓

An inventor working at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI) in Paris, France, has come up with a new type of synthetic rubber. The rubber can be cut, torn, or ripped, and then pressed back together to form a bond as strong as if it had never been torn in the first place.
The potential uses of this new material are numerous. Self healing bicycle tires, bags that reseal, and gloves that repair tears.
Check out the article at New Scientist: Smart rubber promises self-mending products

PhysOrg has an article about a new type of wallpaper developed by Philips. The idea is to have the wallpaper contain conducting strips that could be used to power electronics. Everything from TVs to room lights and even general purpose outlets.

Since the strips are embedded in the wallpaper, the outlets could be positioned anywhere on the wall, without having to run cables inside the wall. With the prevalence of flat panel TVs that are often hung on the wall, this could be a really good way to eliminate unsightly cables.

The article also made me wonder if this same type of wallpaper might be adapted to other types of cabling. Perhaps speaker wires or network connections.

Read the original article at PhyOrg: Wired Wallpaper Offers Alternative to Outlets

Io9, a new blog that I’ve been reading lately, posted a very interesting story about a new device that is being developed. The device is a synaesthesia machine.

“Synesthesia (also spelled synaesthesia), is a neurologically-based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.”
Wikipedia

Basically it means that one sense, such as taste or sight, can be stimulated by another sense, like hearing or smell. This new device artificially duplicates this type of sense, by hooking a camera and a cell phone vibrator to your fingers. Allowing them to feel things that are seen by the tiny cameras attached to your fingers. So you can feel things like the doorknobs across the room. This is really cool technology. And I think it would be really fun to try out. For more info, read the technical paper. Fingersight: Fingertip Visual Haptic Sensing and Control

Via Io9: Fully-Functioning Synaesthesia Machine

Gizmodo had a really interesting post about a new type of fabric. It seems that this fabric is strong enough to withstand numerous explosions without being torn or ripped.

By using a technique called helical-auxetics, the company can create a fabric that actually gets wider as it is stretched rather than thinner. Which effectively makes the fabric much stronger than traditional fabrics.

I could really see this technology used around where I live to create hurricane proof shades and covering for windows. It would be a lot cheaper and easier to store to have reusable fabric rather than plywood sheets.

Check out the article: Zetix Blast-Proof Fabric Resists Multiple Car Bombs, Makes Our Heads Explode

Popular Science pointed me at an interesting development. A team of students from the Pennsylvania State University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have designed a helicopter that can be launched from a submarine at periscope depth. The helicopter can hold two people and can be launched from existing missile silos. Once launched, it floats to the surface and then takes off.

The idea of launching an aircraft from a submarine isn’t new. The Germans used auto gyros during World War 2. But the auto gyros were difficult to launch and recover. They also could only be assembled and disassembled while the sub was on the surface. So after the war, there was little interest in pursuing that model. Until now, no one has really experimented with an aircraft launched from a submarine.

You can find more info on the new helicopter, called the Waterspout, here.

Jan Chipchase a researcher at Nokia gave this very interesting presentation on how cell phones are changing peoples concept of self and place. I was really intrigued by this video. Mainly because I wonder what the future will hold for us as our “connectedness” increases. Watch the video. I personally think it will be worth your time.

Via TED: Jan Chipchase: Our cell phones, ourselves

The big news today is that Ethanol based fuels may actually be just as bad for the environment and for public health as Gasoline. In fact, Ethanol can even increase smog in some areas of the country. Ethanol is a plant, usually corn, based fuel that can be produced locally in our country. E85 is the most commonly used type of ethanol fuel.
This is really bad news for the alternative fuel crowd, because E85 has been pushed recently as a viable alternative to Gasoline. It seems that while certain chemicals and pollutants that Gasoline produces are reduced or not present when burning ethanol based fuels, others that are just as bad are increased.
I’m all for reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and for finding better fuels that don’t pollute the environment. But we really need to be smart about it. There are a lot of possible alternatives to Gasoline. Any alternative that we push, should be evaluated and properly studied to make sure that the alternative is actually better than the current system(Gasoline). Especially if the alternative is going to be more expensive than Gasoline.

Via Wired: Ethanol Fuel Greener, But Not For Lungs
And LiveScience: Surprise: Ethanol as Deadly as Gasoline For Now
Stanford Study this is all based on: Effects of Ethanol (E85) Versus Gasoline Vehicles on Cancer
and Mortality in the United States (PDF format)

Found this very interesting map(click on it for a bigger view) from the February edition of National Geographic. It maps out the percentages of single men vs the percentages of single women across the country. Seems that there are a lot more single Women on the east coast than on the West coast. There doesn’t seem to be any definitive reason for this distribution, but I suspect that it has a lot to do with industry. All of the largest male concentrations are in known technology centers, whereas some of the largest female concentrations are in fashion and publishing centers. The tech industry is known for being heavily male dominated, just as the fashion and publishing industries are strongly female dominated. Industry dominance explains some of the concentrations, but not all. So I think it is probably a little more complex than that. According to this map, I live right between a high single female area and a high single male area. Now, if only I could find a way to leverage this to find myself a girlfriend, I would be all set. Maybe I should move to New York.

Map found at CreativeClass