Japan's Futuristic Robots

If you grow old in Japan, expect to be served food by a robot, ride a voice-recognition wheelchair or even possibly hire a nurse in a robotic suit — all examples of cutting-edge technology to care for the country's rapidly graying population.

With nearly 22 percent of Japan's population already aged 65 or older, businesses here have been rolling out everything from easy-entry cars to remote-controlled beds, fueling a care-technology market worth some $1.08 billion in 2006, according to industry figures.

At a home care and rehabilitation convention in Tokyo this week, buyers crowded round a demonstration of Secom Co.'s My Spoon feeding robot, which helps elderly or disabled people eat with a spoon- and fork-fitted swiveling arm.

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First Pure White LED

Scientists at Indian Institute of Science are claiming to have made advancements towards discovering a Holy Grail of the illumination industry — a white LED, a light-emitting diode that produces pure white light suitable for interior lighting of homes, offices and other buildings.

In a report presented, D. D. Sarma and Angshuman Nag point out that practical versions of these so-called white LEDs would be brighter, longer-lasting and more energy efficient than conventional light sources such as incandescent and fluorescent lamps and could replace them in the future. The existing versions produce tinted, unstable shades of white light that mar their performance.

The researchers report the first success in developing a new LED based on a new phosphor from semiconductor nanocrystals of cadmium sulfide mixed with manganese. It produces a stable shade of white light that remains constant over time and appears superior in overall performance in comparison to previous generations of white LEDs. The scientists now are working to boost its efficiency so that the white LED can be used in everyday applications.

Cardine, an Origami chair

Cardine is a folding chair formed with only 1 sheet of plastic and two pairs of fabric fasteners. This simple structure requires extremely few resources and energy for manufacturing. And the low cost to produce will make it a low price product; so anybody who wants to use will be able to have it. Cardine can be folded to a chair and also be unfolded at any time and place and it is almost weightless. Unfolded, Cardine is flat and takes a little space. It is easy to stack and will save space to keep. And its lightness will make one can carry tens of them at one time.

Cardine’s seat is flexible to fit the person’s body. Because the seat and backrest are formed together, as your weight presses the seat, the backrest automatically comes up and support one's back.

Mygo : An interactive guidance cane for the blind

Sebastian Ritzler, a design student in Germany, has created a feature-laden rolling white cane called the Mygo that will help the blind move around easily. The Mygo uses a sensor-camera combo to measure the ground below it and give the user real time feedback via a wireless headset. The cane also ends in a small wheel that uses a steering engine that helps the user steer by providing feedback through the grip. The Mygo is height-adjustable, tough, and waterproof and runs on a lithium-ion battery that will keep it going for around 6 hours. It has yet to go into production but Ritzler is aiming to make it an affordable innovation, something in the $200 range.

Healing brains with energy :Therapy could expand stroke treatment options

In one of the latest developments, in the treatment of stroke occurring due to clotting of blood in the brain, doctors at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill(U.S.A) have been successfully testing the method of exposing brain tissue to high-intensity infrared energy to keep it alive while it's cut off from blood, oxygen and nutrients caused by a blockage from the stroke.

The patients receive high-intensity infrared energy from a device, called NeuroThera, applied to their heads.Infrared energy therapy offers the potential for a new treatment where there are now few options. The only drug approved as a treatment for stroke is tPA, or tissue plasminogen activator. It helps restore blood flow to the brain by breaking up clots, the culprits behind the vast majority of strokes. But it must be given within three hours of the onset of symptoms. At best, about 5 percent of stroke patients are treated.

One advantage that NeuroThera is said to offer is that it can be used to treat patients up to 24 hours after the onset of stroke symptoms. Patients receive multiple bursts of energy-- enough to treat the entire brain. A complete treatment takes about an hour.It is being said that treatment with the device has no known side effects; the only downside being that patients must have their heads shaved to get the treatment as hair absorbs some of the energy intended to treat brain tissue.

BigDog The Military Robot - the Army mule

Developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the U.S. military, the BigDog prototype is arguably the world's most ambitious legged robot. Its stability and awareness of its own orientation make it the first robot that can handle the unknown challenges of the battlefield.

Each of the robot's aluminum legs has three joints that the computer can reposition 500 times a second using hydraulic actuators. And the robo-rover has eyes: It sports a stereo camera and laser scanner mounted where the head would go, if it had a head.

But unfortunately, for now, the robot is remote-controlled, but future versions will come unleashed, able to make intelligent decisions about their course without guidance from humans. The more powerful, autonomous BigDog will be ready for battle within the next eight years.

Dynamic Architecture- Rotating Skyscrapers

Think of buildings which can rotate and can take a shape as per your taste. This is Dynamic Architecture for us, brought in the form of rotating skyscrapers. A series of rotating skyscrapers will be built around the world, starting in Dubai, U.A.E.

Each individual floor is able to rotate slowly, based on commands issued by the owners of condos or apartments on that floor. Coordinated movements of the floors can also be done. The rotation of the floors uses power from wind turbines that are placed between floors and which rotate freely with the wind. Additional power is provided from solar cells on the tops of the individual floors.

The building is constructed around a central core; each floor is composed of individual pie-like sections that are pre-built and hoisted up the central core. It is being claimed that rotating skyscrapers can be constructed by just ninety people on the construction site which is pretty less compared to the typical skyscraper construction site, which may have up to 2,000 workers at a time.

McLaren Tech Centre

McLaren Tecnology centre is 5,00,000 sq.mt wide head quarters of McLaren automobile industry. It is covered by 50, 000 cu.mt wide ecology lakes. This building is shortlisted for Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize. The production of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren(the one in video) is done entirely at the McLaren Technology Centre.

Water in the surrounding lakes is pumped through a series of heat exchangers to cool the building and to dissipate the heat produced by the wind tunnels. Using 400 tones of steel between 8-10mm thick, the wind tunnel’s construction was the equivalent of building a fairly large ship.

It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth in May 2004. The office is large enough to hold more than nine Boeing 747 jumbo jets. McLaren has not disclosed the project's cost, but BBC News has suggested a figure of GB£300m. The ceramic tiles alone are costing £2.5m.

Russian test "Dad of all bombs"

Probably we have read in history books about the atomic bombs used in World War II. We have seen many science fictional movies where nuclear weapons were launched or detonated. Many countries have been negotiating to disarm their arsenals of nuclear weapons, other countries have been developing nuclear weapons programs for example India. India is still fighting for nuclear deal get to be done.

But Russia has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported on Tuesday.It was the latest show of Russia's military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States. The new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs." The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability.

Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment.The Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it's four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosive.
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Wars With Robot Armies

US army is going to replace human soldiers with robot soldiers in future. They already used bomb-sniffing robots to detect buried bombs in Afghanistan. Now they wanna extend this idea. The Us officials named this project as "new Manhattan project" and backed by billions of dollars.

Future military machines range from the Searcher, a small reconnaissance robot that will climb stairs, open doors and detonate booby traps, to the Hunter Killer, a pack of 10 roving attack robots linked by a Wi-Fi network. Pentagon want to deploy various types of unmanned vehicles by 2010.

Critics worry that killing will become as easy as that of video games. Till now we saw robot battles in either video games or movies. But US army wants to make it real. One thing is sure: surely it will lead to bloodier combat.

Intel Mini laptop of 100$ *servicing innovation*

Chip-maker Intel has joined forces with the makers of the $100 laptop.

The agreement marks a huge turnaround for both the not-for-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation and Intel.
In May this year, Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC, said the silicon giant "should be ashamed of itself" for efforts to undermine his initiative.

He accused Intel of selling its own cut-price laptop - the Classmate PC - below cost to drive him out of markets in the developing world.
"What happened in the past has happened," Will Swope of Intel told the BBC News website. "But going forward, this allows the two organisations to go do a better job and have a better impact for what we are both very eager to do, which is help kids around the world."

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child, said: "Intel joins the OLPC board as a world leader in technology, helping reach the world's children. Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children."
http://upcomigtech.blogspot.com/

Illuminate your room with the color of your choice

Ever felt like having ur home illuminated with the color of the lighting as per ur mood and requirement??.. If so u'll find the latest offering from Philips, a lamp named LivingColors, pretty much exciting.

Costing around 240$, LivinColors has the ablility to emit approximately 16 million different colors, and those should be sufficient for a lifetime's variations.

The lamp utilises 4 individual LED's; two red, one blue, and one green. By blending together each LED and experimenting with the brightness of each, it is possible to achieve any conceivable color. This can all be controlled via the included remote control which simplifies this process, and also remembers the last setting selected to automatically revert back to when the lamp is next switched on.

Google Operating System by 2010?

“Google”…everyone likes this word. If you feel for the past couple of years Google has managed to become the part of our daily life, you are not alone. Now the buzz is: its going to prepare its own operating system, which is Internet-connected. Means you can store your data on Google server instead of your own HD. Everyone can have an account on this world OS, and use it to search and store, create information, on gigantic information system.

How GooOS will be? One of the guess: This OS basically relies on the idea of a Remote-OS: the kernel and the boot components are loaded in a chip or in a proper 2GB usb key, while all the remaining apps will be downloaded from a secure Google server. Corporate version of GooOS, will let companies install a local cabinet in order to avoid waste of band. The pre-installed applications are absolutely minimal and will only consist of a File Manager, a spreadsheet, a text editor, a schedule and the Google Suite containing e-mail client, browser and IM. Thus booting time can be reduced as only few applications have to be loaded upon booting and connected devices will be automatically detected.

We’ve been hearing different rumors about this system. One of them is GooOS is completely depends on Ubuntu. If it is true, it should overcome the problems face by Ubuntu like less-user friendly interface, slow update etc.

MAGNETIC REFRIGERATOR NEEDS NO ELECTRICITY!!!

Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have created a refrigerator that cools using magnets instead of electricity

A group of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark’s project laboratory in Risø have discovered a cooling method that uses magnetic materials instead of electricity.The project’s researchers say the appliance’s cooling cycle efficiency will be 60 percent greater than that of conventional refrigerators.

It's a very nice concept and if implemented in a cost effective way I think this will be the technology we are going to use in the future for refrigerators.

Here is the link to this article....
http://www.denmark.dk/en/servicemenu/News/ScienceAndITNews/MagneticRefrigeratorNeedsNoElectricity.htm

The AirScooter II personal flying vehicle....

Inventor Elwood "Woody" Norris first developed high-end stereo speakers, an alarm that signals when a hip replacement has worn out, and now — the next logical creation — the AirScooter II, a personal aircraft that can hover or fly at speeds up to 55 knots. The aircraft weighs around 300 pounds and does not require a pilot's license to operate.

It operates on two rotors in a fashion similar to most helicopters, but is apparently easier to fly. The flight controls live in the motorbike-style handlebars and there are no foot pedals whatsoever, meaning the craft could be piloted by those without the use of their legs. Pricing hasn't been officially set, but the Nevada-based company, AirScooter (what's with these cryptic names?), expects to release the product this year for less than $50,000.

A bit rich for our blood, but damn if it wouldn't make a fine Engadget-mobile. We wouldn't mind showing up at the next trade show in this.

Tokyo sky city --Innovation --Check this out...

"Some Japanese architects want to change our approach to urban crowding. They think we can live in the sky, and they hope to build a vertical city twice the height of today's tallest skyscraper that would house, employ and entertain hundreds of people."

Cool stuff.... these are the screen shots taken from discovery extreme engineering...

It is believed that each sky city unit would be more than 3 times of the size of 986-foot tall Eiffel
tower. The above screen shot shows the difference...