Technabob » research

Robotic Fish Patrols Harbors for Pollution

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:00:39 +0000

Scientists and researchers are constantly looking for ways to monitor the pollution in harbors around the world. This week, scientists moved a special robotic fish from the lab to sea trials. The robot fish is going to be used to patrol harbors autonomously in the search for pollution. The goal is to reduce the time it takes to detect a pollutant in the harbor from weeks to seconds.

SHOAL’s robotic fish can also help with underwater security, diver monitoring, and search and rescue efforts. Each of the fish is about 5 feet long and has a fin on the back that moves back and forth to propel it just as a natural fish would move. Each of the robot fish costs $31,600(USD) and packs in numerous sensors to pick up common pollutants.

The fish are able to swim without any input and send data back to the shore station up to half a mile away. The fish use artificial intelligence software to avoid obstacles, map their location, and return to base when the battery packs run low. The battery packs are good for about eight hours per charge. The reason the robot is designed to look like a fish is so it will blend into the environment, and can also maintain a small turning radius.

[via MSNBC]

DARPA SeeMe Lets Soldiers Launch Their Own Personal Satellites

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:00:46 +0000

Launching a satellite can cost millions of dollars – not counting the millions of dollars your average satellite costs to build. The military and various governmental organizations have satellites in orbit that are able to peer from space to the surface of the Earth to help soldiers get a better look at the battle field. The problem is that not all areas on the globe are covered by satellites at any given time.

DARPA is soliciting responses from corporations to build a very interesting satellite system called SeeMe. The system has a small launch vehicle sized like a missile that would hang under fighter jets wings. This particular missile could apparently be mounted under a civilian aircraft. The aircraft would then take off and fly to cruising altitude where it would launch the missile into space.

Once the missile was at its precise orbit, a small disposable satellite would launch with optics that can see exactly where the soldier who requested it is, and start providing coverage in as little as 90 minutes. The idea is that these small SeeMe satellites would be able to provide personalized space-based surveillance coverage on demand.

DARPA sees the system operating with a constellation of disposable satellites able to stay in orbit for 60 to 90 days before burning up on reentry. The launch system may be in the form of another DARPA project called Airport Launch Assist Space Access, designed for payloads around 100 pounds.

For more information on SeeMe, head over to the DARPA website.

The Great California Meteor Rush is on!

Shane McGlaun — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:45:06 +0000

I watched the Discovery Channel program Meteor Men a few times, certainly enough to understand that little pieces of meteor could be worth big money. On April 22 a gigantic fireball explosion rocked parts of northern California and Nevada. The fireball in the sky was a meteor estimated to have been about 154,300 pounds.

The explosion heard was a sonic boom of the giant meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Parts of that meteor hit the ground and have already been found by treasure seekers. However, so far only small portions of meteor have been found. Some researchers believe that there have to be large pieces out there waiting to be discovered.

“Only small pieces have been found. There have to be big pieces out there,” SETI Institute meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens said before the trip. “We’re just hoping to collect more meteorites for research.” The photo you see here is a group of NASA researchers heading to a NASA blimp to be used as an aerial platform to search for the meteor fragments. Meteors of this magnitude generally happen once per year around the Earth, but typically they happen in uninhabited areas. This meteor happened to plunge into the Earth’s atmosphere near populated areas and was witnessed by many people.

[via The Telegraph]

Flexrotor UAV Takes off Like a Helicopter, Flies Like an Airplane

Shane McGlaun — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:00:15 +0000

The military in the United States and other militaries around the world are making heavy use of unmanned aerial vehicles these days. UAVs are being used for many reasons with one of the main reasons being that a UAV allows aircraft to be put into action without a pilot being placed in danger. Many of the UAVs are small and portable so soldiers in the field can deploy them to gather intelligence.

Most the UAVs we have take off and land like a normal airplanes. The Office of Naval Research has been sponsoring another UAV program called Flexrotor that is nothing like a conventional drone. The Flexrotor is a UAV that takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter, but transitions to horizontal flight of a fixed wing aircraft for cruising distance and speed.

Development of the Flexrotor entered its second stage, in which participating companies are working on the ability for the aircraft take off, land, and transition to horizontal flight in strong winds. This stage of the program will also see work continue on the automated maintenance system. The system will be able to take care of the maintenance of the aircraft such as refueling without any input from maintenance personnel, and will act as launch and landing pad.

[via Phys.org]

High-Tech Avalanche Research Team Helping to Create Better Ice Cream

Shane McGlaun — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:30:20 +0000

I think making better ice cream is science we can all get behind – unless you’re lactose intolerant. Researchers at the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Davos, Switzerland are working with Nestlé to devise better tasting ice cream. The Institute is using its high-tech equipment typically used for learning more about avalanches to make our frosty treats taste better.

The scientists are using a technique that they use when studying ice crystal formation in avalanches to figure out why ice cream loses flavor and texture after sitting in the freezer too long. The key bit of tech used to hone ice cream to a creamy and freezing point is an x-ray machine. The machine allows the scientists to look closer into the structure of ice cream than ever before.

How creamy and tasty ice cream is depends on the size and shape of the ice crystals. Apparently the larger the ice crystals are, the chewier and less tasty the ice cream is to eat according to the researchers. We already knew that the quicker you can freeze ice cream, the creamier it is thanks to smaller ice crystals. Part of the reason ice cream doesn’t taste as good after a while is blamed on our freezers that can fluctuate a few degrees in either direction. That slight temperature fluctuation allows part of the ice cream to melt and then refreeze causing a loss of flavor and texture. The goal of the study is to create ice cream better able to withstand fluctuations in temperature.

[via MNN]

Golden Silk Orbweaver Spider Silk May Find Its Way inside Future Electronics

Shane McGlaun — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:00:05 +0000

I hate spiders. They’re gross looking and even the ones that I know aren’t poisonous I still find extremely disturbing. Growing up in rural area, I spent plenty of time in the woods as a kid and have distinct memories of trying to peel spider webs out of my hair while imagining an angry, homeless spider is hiding just behind my ear waiting to crawl into my brain. Spider silk is some sticky stuff. It turns out that in the future, spider silk may be used inside electronic devices to help dissipate heat.

A Japanese mechanical engineer named Xinwei Wang has been investigating spider silk from a spider called the Golden Silk Orbweaver that is known for making complicated webs. The engineer was testing the spider silk for external connectivity and discovered that it is about 800 times more effective at conducting thermal energy than any other organic material tested.

In fact, it was better than almost all non-organic materials tested including copper, iron, and silicon. Another interesting factoid is that the research team discovered that by stretching the silk to 20% of its capacity, thermal conductivity also increased by 20%. Typically, when material is stretched it loses thermal conductivity. There are no plans to use this spider silk for making electronics right now, but in the future spiders webs inside your computer could be there to keep your PC cool rather than because you don’t keep it clean.

[Iowa State University via GizMag]

83-Year-Old Woman Gets the World’s First 3D Printed Jaw Transplant

Shane McGlaun — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:38 +0000

At some point in the future, if we needed a new body part, I always figured science would be able to grow one. If you need any new kidney just sprinkle a few cells, top with miracle grow, and wait until you new kidney is ready. I never really thought about what we to do if we needed a new bone of some sort other than using stainless steel.

An 83-year-old woman needed a new lower jawbone last year for transplant and instead of a traditional implant, the medical team used a 3D printed jawbone manufactured by LayerWise. The transplant was carried out in the Netherlands last June and it has just now been announced. The implant was printed out of a titanium powder using a laser, layer-by-layer until the finished product was completed. The implant is a complicated part with articulated joints and cavities to provoke muscle attachment along with grooves to direct the regrowth of nerves and veins.

According to the team, it took 33 layers of titanium melted using the laser for 1 mm of height. That means that the finished jawbone had many thousands of laser passes. One of the interesting parts of the 3D printed jawbone is that it has a special double bridge that was attached and false teeth screwed in the that dental bridge. Also interesting is that the finished titanium jawbone weighs 107g, which is about one-third heavier than the replaced bone.

[via BBC]

Researchers Figure out How to Extract Power from Cockroaches

Shane McGlaun — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:13 +0000

I would bet we can all agree that we really don’t want cockroaches in our homes. They are disgusting little creatures after all, and any time I see one I’m convinced that I’m now eating roach poo. Scientists have found a good use for roaches though; they are actually using some straight up Matrix tech to turn roaches into copper-tops.

The process of using roaches to create power has something to do with an enzyme roaches have that can be turned into a cockroach biofuel cell. The enzyme from the roach is able to break down sugars in the digestive tract into simpler sugars called monosaccharides. A second enzyme is introduced that oxidizes the monosaccharides and results in the release of electrons or creation of power.

So far, the system only produces around 100 µW of power, which admittedly isn’t much. Who knows what be done with that little bit of power in the future, perhaps something along the lines of little remote-control roaches to invade roach strongholds and disperse bug killer. According to the researchers, hailing from Case Western Reserve University, the little bugs aren’t harmed in any way. The electronics that are used to create power can be removed from the insects with no lasting effects.

[via medGadget via OhGizmo!]

Army Wants to Make Fat Soldiers Thin by Injecting More Fat Cells

Shane McGlaun — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:00:08 +0000

One thing that Kung Fu Panda taught me is that portly warriors can still kick butt- skadoosh! The U.S. Army feels differently though and wants all of its obese soldiers to slim down, with very good reason. Overweight soldiers may not have the stamina to keep up with their skinnier counterparts in a combat situation and that could be bad for the portly soldier and the rest of the squad. The U.S. Army recently handed out a round a small business research awards, and one of the projects that was green lit is very interesting.

The coolest of the projects that received grant money is one proposed by a team of scientists at Boston University that want to figure out if you can grow brown fat cells and then inject them into the human body as a way to boost metabolism and burn fat, leading to weight loss. The human body has both brown adipose tissue and white adipose tissue. The white fat cells make people obese, yet the brown fat cells help burn calories.

In fact, a recent study showed that a pockets of brown fat cells can burn as much as 250 calories in a three-hour time span. Those brown fat cells can even steal energy from white fat cells, further stunting obesity. The researchers hope to develop a method of growing those brown fat cells and injecting them into the body with the goal of helping overweight soldiers lose weight. You can bet that if the team is successful, this will also be highly profitable in the private sector with obese people looking for a way to lose weight.

[via Wired: Danger Room]

Wi-Fi and Gonads Don’t Mix, Says Study

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:00:27 +0000

Guys, if you are the sort that uses a notebook with Wi-Fi running in your lap all day long, there is a new reason not to. Over the past few years, the main reason to not do that for me was the fact that notebooks were randomly catching fire. No one wants a battery fire on their kiwis.

Now, the latest reason is that researchers are claiming that Wi-Fi radiation kills sperm. A team of scientists from Argentina found 29 guys willing to upload into a sample container for the study. Part of the sperm was placed under a notebook with Wi-Fi running and another sample portion was placed away from Wi-Fi at the same temperature.

Apparently, once the sperm was looked at under the microscope, 25% exposed to Wi-Fi signals were no longer swimming. The control group with no Wi-Fi exposure saw only 14% of the sample no longer swimming. Other scientists say that there isn’t anything to worry about yet. This is just one small sample, and an artificial setup, so it might not have any real world implications.

[via Reuters]

WalkSafe: Early Warning App Tries to Keep You from Getting Run Over

Hazel Chua — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:00:07 +0000

It’s a common sight to see people using their mobile phones while doing a whole lot of other stuff, like when they’re shopping or grabbing a drink from the vending machine or buying lunch. While that’s definitely not ideal, at least it hurts a whole lot less when you bump into people or some display at the store instead of what could be bumping into you, if you use your mobile while you cross the street.

Taking that into consideration, researchers from Italy’s University of Bologna and the Smartphone Sensing Group at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire have come together to develop the WalkSafe app that pays attention for you when you can’t.

The app makes use of the phone’s rear-facing camera and image recognition algorithms to warn to the preoccupied user. It can even detect which way the cars are facing in the road and whether or not they’re moving, for instance.

WalkSafe alerts the user of any potential threats through audible or vibrating alerts. I think the app is definitely an innovative one, but really, mobile phone users should be more responsible and not rely on the app to let them know that they’re about to be run over by some delivery truck headed straight towards them.

If you want to give WalkSafe a try, it’s available for free download over on the Android Market now.

[via PopSci via Dvice]

Virtual iCub Robot Counts Like a Human

Conner Flynn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:00:03 +0000

The iCub robot is creepy enough, but now it turns out that there’s a virtual version of the robot that researchers are playing around with. This virtual version is capable of counting by linking its body to the numbers, just like humans.

It’s called SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes). It means that people associate small numbers with the left side of our body and large numbers with our right. Take pressing a button. People respond faster with their left hand when the number is small and with their right hand when the number is large.

This virtual iCub has been given this quirk. The idea is that this simulation of iCub will be exposed to these processes and it might help it form connections in the same way a human does.

[via New Scientist]

Researchers Try to Turn Urine into Biofuel, Destined to Celebrate with a Urinal Cake

Conner Flynn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:00:14 +0000

Fuel cells. Where are they? They still have not hit the market and replaced batteries. It would be nice to see them in daily use since we would just need to refill them with liquids instead of wasting so many batteries and having them end up in landfills.

Part of the problem is having an infrastructure and supply chain for such liquid refills. That’s where urine comes in handy. We all produce it everyday, so it is widely available and cheap. Researchers at the University of the West of England in Bristol have started experimenting with urine as the fuel for a microbial fuel cell.

Microbial fuel cells generate their power from bacteria feeding on the sugars and give off electrons. Did you know that humans produce 6.4 trillion liters of urine every year? That’s just humans. If you include farm animals there’s 38 billion liters every day right there.

So far, tests have produced a very small amount of power (peaking at whopping 8 milliamps). By miniaturizing and stacking microbial fuel cells, they hope to increase the power significantly. It’s fascinating stuff. Just think – one day our toilets could power our homes.

[via BBC News via geek]

HyQ Quadruped Robot Kicks, Trots and Rears Up

Conner Flynn — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:00:26 +0000

If they create anymore quadruped robots, we are going to need to build some robotic zoos to house them. We have BigDog, AlphaDog and now HyQ. HyQ was developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), in Genoa. This hydraulic quadruped can do a bunch of new tricks.

Not only can HyQ run and jump, it’s legs are also actively compliant, which means that the robot can change the stiffness of each limb. It’s impressive to watch it do it’s thing in the video. In some ways, more impressive than it’s predecessors.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

This ‘bot can negotiate rough terrain, thanks to actuators that absorb shocks and vibrations without damage to the body. It can even kick! HyQ weighs 70 kilograms and can walk and trot at speeds up to 6 kilometers per hour. It can rear up like a horse, as well as squat jump and get all four feet off the ground. This looks like the most capable robot dog/horse yet.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

Using a Touchscreen Through Your Pocket Made Possible by Microsoft PocketTouch

Range — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:15:25 +0000

Have you ever needed to use your phone inside you pocket? I haven’t, but I’m sure it could be useful in some situations. New technology from Microsoft Research could allow you to use a touchscreen through fabric. The system is called PocketTouch and yes, you can now use your smartphone from the outside of your pocket.

The touch panel is sensitive enough to detect finger inputs through all sorts of fabrics. This might sound good, but it might look awkward in some circumstances, like in a meeting. Stroking your pocket usually implies something different than composing an email or sending a text, if you know what I mean.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Microsoft thinks that the back of a PocketTouch screen could be used like this to read gestures, and already have it deconstructing text characters. I can see this being useful to teens everywhere, who want to send secret text messages without anyone knowing.

[PC World via DVice]

iCub Robot Acts Like a Baby, Now Crawls

Conner Flynn — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:00:01 +0000

Robots today are such babies. Especially the ones designed to mimic babies. iCub thankfully doesn’t cry all of the time. He does however now crawl on the floor like a baby. Though not very well.

He demonstrated this feat at the recent IROS 2011 event, trying to crawl on the floor. I say trying because he doesn’t do a very good job at crawling. In fact, the video shows him barely moving forward. Nice to know he would be easy to run from anyway. Given time he should get better, but for now this robot modeled after a three and a half year-old child is no speed-demon.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Aside from learning to crawl, this bot is all about exploring how human cognition develops, using facial expressions and adaptive learning techniques. The idea is that iCub can learn in the same way a child would.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

Researchers Read Brain Signals to Recreate Video

Shane McGlaun — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:00:51 +0000

This is one of the strangest things I have ever seen and it reminds me more than a little of Total Recall. Scientists at UC Berkeley have discovered a way to be able to reconstruct video that a user is watching solely by reading brainwaves. The research team worked with other people on the research team and placed them into an MRI machine and made them watch short samples of randomly-selected video clips.

Gallant Lab researchers Shinji Nishimoto, An T. Vu, Thomas Naselaris, Yuval Benjamini, Bin Yu and Jack L. Gallant used a complex computer program that looked at the minute changes in blood flow inside the brain during an fMRI and then used those changes to approximate the video that the person being studied was watching on YouTube. Obviously, the video recreated isn’t high quality, but it is a close approximation to what was actually being viewed.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The computer used shapes and colors to approximate the video images giving them the rough and general feel of the video being seen by the participant. The cool part is that future applications for this software may allow us to actually watch our dreams or daydreams.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via ABCNews]

Glowing Kittens Bred by AIDS Researchers

Shane McGlaun — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:19:11 +0000

I would like a glowing cat just for the fact that I tend to step on the dumb felines at my house because they don’t get out of my way when it’s dark. If they glowed, I would be able to see them, not step on them, and when they barricade themselves under my bed I could find them. These cute glow in the dark cats have a higher calling than just making it easy to find them at night.

Scientists have inserted an anti-viral gene into the genetically engineered cats that help the resist the feline form of AIDS. The gene for a fluorescent protein called GFP was also inserted into the cats as well. Apparently, the glowing gene was simply inserted as a way to monitor the activity of altered genes. “We did it to mark cells easily just by looking under the microscope or shining a light on the animal,” said Dr Eric Poeschla, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US.

The genes for glowing and for resisting feline AIDS were inserted into the feline eggs known as oocytes. Both cats and humans have proteins that typically fight infections that are not able to fight AIDS, whereas the anti-viral gene helps produce a protein that can resist AIDS-causing viruses. The researchers report that there was a reduced replication of the feline AIDS virus in the (glowing) cats with the additional gene.

[via BBC]

Robot Worm Slithers Around Obstacles, Wants to Be Your Hero

Conner Flynn — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:36:19 +0000

Robot makers are always drawing from nature to create new and interesting robots that can handle earth’s environment. The latest comes from a University of Leeds researcher, who wants to build a better worm. One that can slither around obstacles.

Worm nerds might recognize that the robot is modeled after the C. elegans nematode, the rest of us just call it creepy. The thing about C. elegans nematode is that it is a tiny free-living worm with a very simple nervous system that controls the way that it moves. This of course makes it ideal to use in robot form.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The idea is that this worm could be used for search and rescue operations in the future. Especially earthquakes. So instead of Superman flying down and digging you out of the rubble, you may have a worm to thank for your rescue, which isn’t nearly as cool, therefore I suggest we give it cape and costume. Superhero worms would be awesome.

[via Machineslikeus]

Researchers Implant Glowing Sensor to Detect Blood Sugar in Mouse

Shane McGlaun — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:00:30 +0000

First off, no that isn’t some sort of deformed penis with the world’s tiniest testicles in the photo below. Get your mind out of the gutter. It’s a bald mouse that a team of researchers from Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo are using as a test rodent for a cool new sensor that may someday help make monitoring blood sugar less painful for diabetics.

The glowing blue stick you see in the tweezers is a new sensor that the team has been working on that glows to show the mouse’s blood sugar. The sensor uses glucose-responsive fluorescent hydrogels inside and is 1mm in diameter. It is designed to be easily injected under the skin and can be removed with tweezers like a splinter.

The sensor has shown to be accurate and durable enough to stay inside the body for up to 140 days in mice. The team is working on calibrating and testing the sensor further to improve the accuracy and duration of the sensor. Eventually the hope is that the sensor can be used in humans to allow blood sugar monitoring without having to prick the finger to draw blood for conventional testing.

[via MedGadget]