ANBARASUASOKAN

Posts

Digital autopsy: Replacing scalpels with scanners

By using raw data from Multi Slice Computerized Tomography (MSCT) and processing it through sophisticated software on high performance computer systems, Malaysian entrepreneur Mathavan (Matt) Chandran hopes to largely negate the need to slice open bodies at autopsy. His digital autopsy software exploits the power of existing 2D and 3D imaging and visualization equipment to observe and investigate the human body using high definition imagery. Chandran, CEO of iGene, a subsidiary of the InfoValley Group, believes that reducing family trauma and “placating religious sensibilities” are key driving factors in move toward minimally invasive autopsies. Other benefits include secure retrieval of data, both binary and 3D imaging, from central servers as well as the ability for law courts, forensic centers and hospitals to easily access that data. There is also the capacity to gear the digital autopsy platform to educating medical professionals and students in simulated diagnostics. Whilst au

Students crash rockets to develop new asteroid sample collection technique

In what at first glance seems like a terrible sense of direction, in March students from the University of Washington fired rockets from kites and balloons at an altitude of 3,000 ft (914 m) straight into the ground at Black Rock, Nevada: a dry lake bed in the desert 100 mi (160 km) north of Reno. This may seem like the ultimate in larking about, but it's actually a serious effort to develop new ways of collecting samples from asteroids. The test was part of the “Sample Return Systems for Extreme Environments” project. The idea is to find cheaper, more efficient ways of collecting samples from asteroids and hazardous areas on Earth, such as volcanoes and nuclear disaster zones, by using penetrators instead of soft landers or ground crews to hammer out sample cores. According to the team, this would result in lower cost than soft landing techniques by reducing the velocity and vehicle mass needed to gather the sample, minimizing damage on impact, as well as being mechanically s

Roadless wheel concept adjusts to all terrains

Graduate student Ackeem Ngwenya has combined the 6000 year-old wheel with modern materials to develop a new type of all-terrain wheel assembly that switches from narrow to wide tread at the turn of a screw. His Roadless wheel system, while envisioned for rural applications in his native Malawi, has the potential to be as big a change to road (and off-road) transport as was the introduction of anti-lock braking. We've all done it. Before embarking on a long driving trip on smooth-surfaced interstate highways or other roads of national importance, we'll raise the tire pressure to boost the gas mileage a bit. Stuck in the snow, mud, or sand? Let some pressure out of the tires to increase the contact area, while at the same time increasing the chances that the now floppy tire will grab hold. However, the benefits of trying to change the aspect ratio of a tire by simply changing pressure are rather minor, and often associated with a significant loss in tire lifetime. The Road

Review: i-H2GO hydrogen-powered remote-control car

At the end of last month, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies began shipments of its latest hydrogen fuel cell-powered remote-control toy car, the i-H2GO . Like its predecessor, the H2GO , it runs on hydrogen obtained from user-supplied water. The main thing that's new about the i-H2GO, however, is the fact that it is now controlled using a free app on the user's existing smartphone. I got my hands on an early production model, mainly just so that I could truthfully say "I've driven a fuel cell car." Like the H2GO, the new car comes with an included Refueling Station. The user pours purified water into that device, and it proceeds to electrolyze the H2O, separating it into H and O – hydrogen and oxygen. A plunger on the station rises as hydrogen fills its temporary holding compartment. The user then connects the car to the station using a built-in hose, and manually pumps the hydrogen from the station into the car. The car's fuel cell subsequently combines

Wired wood: Gizmag's top ten wooden gadgets

We may be surrounded by gadgetry clad in shiny aluminum and gaudy plastic, but there's still a place left in the digital age for the comfort, simplicity and beauty of wood. Perhaps its the trend towards a "green" aesthetic or some deeper drive to get back to nature, but we've noticed a growing number of consumer electronics offerings in recent times that mesh circuit boards and synthetics with the wonders of wood. With this in mind, we've scoured our resources to come up with this list of Gizmag's top ten wooden gadgets. OOOMS Wooden USB Stick OOOMS, a design company based in The Netherlands, has created a USB stick that is made of … a stick. The creators literally pick up sticks, based on quality and appearance, and professionally work them into unique USB sticks that can hold from 2 to 16 Gb. Wooden Records Amanda Ghassaei has developed a laser cutting system that can carve music into a wooden record . After pulling audio from a WAV file with P

New technique identifies counterfeit collectible stamps

Here’s good news for all you philatelists out there – scientists have discovered an easier new way of detecting counterfeit rare stamps. Unlike some existing methods, it doesn’t require the destruction of any part of the stamp, and can be done quickly by anyone who has access to the necessary equipment. First of all, it’s probably news to some people that there even are such thing as counterfeit stamps. Considering that some of the world’s most valuable stamps are worth several million dollars, however, it becomes easy to see why some unscrupulous folks would look into cranking out their own convincing copies. Traditionally, the authenticity of rare stamps has been verified by destructively analyzing individual components of them (such as a sample of the ink), or through inspections performed by highly sought-after experts. A team from Italy’s Università del Salento instead tried using a technique known as infrared spectroscopy . Putting it simply, IR spectroscopy involves

Stainless magnesium breakthrough bodes well for manufacturing industries

Magnesium alloys are very attractive for a range of weight-sensitive applications. They have the largest strength-to-weight ratio of the common structural metals, are lighter than aluminum and are particularly favored for being easy to machine and for their ability to be die cast to net shape. Unfortunately, magnesium alloys tend to corrode too easily. A team at Monash University in Australia has now discovered a novel and potentially game-changing approach to the problem: poisoning the chemical reactions leading to corrosion of magnesium alloys by adding a dash of arsenic to the recipe. Magnesium alloys are of great interest as lightweight replacements for aluminum, titanium, and steel components in a range of transportation and aerospace applications. However, such alloys corrode easily, and this often prevents their use as replacements for noncorroding metals, particularly in applications requiring high reliability over a range of environments. As a result, the use of magnesiu

Stephen Hawking chooses a new voice

Celebrated Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has selected and is using NeoSpeech's Text-to-Speech engine, VoiceText, as his new voice. VoiceText is integrated into Dr. Hawking's communicator, E Z Keys, enabling him to clearly communicate with the outside world. 'As a scientist and lecturer, it is imperative that Professor Hawking presents his findings in a clear and concise manner,' said Tom Pelly, Dr. Hawking's technical assistant. 'Professor Hawking was very impressed by NeoSpeech 's speech synthesiser, as it was by far the most natural-sounding and realistic of all of the off-the-shelf software voices that he has heard. This technology can help ensure that his vocals match his research in terms of credibility and believability.' Dr. Hawking, a renowned scientist, professor and author, suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative motor neuron illness. While the disease has not affected Dr. Hawking's intellectual capacity,

Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun tracks targets and avoids friendly fire

Anyone who plays video games will know that few things protect an area like a well-placed sentry gun. In the real world, though, even a person's bedroom or office could use a little protection sometimes, which is why one designer has built the Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun. Using a custom program and some servos, the sentry can automatically locate targets and unleash a stream of foam darts at over seven times the usual speed, while keeping its owner out of the crosshairs. Britt Liv Ulrike Michelsen, a chemical and biological engineering student from Germany, designed and constructed the sentry using mostly basic electronics and some plywood. This isn't the first time she's modified a Nerf gun, but building this robotic turret is arguably her most ambitious project to date. Luckily, the Nerf Vulcan already operates using an electric motor, so controlling the actual firing mechanism through a computer was just a matter of connecting it directly to an Arduino Uno and a laptop.

Dome of broken umbrellas takes to New York river

Take a pleasure cruise up the Harlem River this month and you surely won't miss the 24-ft (7.3-m) diameter Harvest Dome 2.0 which floats on the waters near Spuyten Duyvil Creek at the north tip of Manhattan, New York. Built to draw eyes to the city's watercourses, the dome is built from 450 discarded and broken umbrellas support by a floating ring made from 128 2-liter drinks bottles. The project is a sequel to the first Harvest Dome, and like it was built for Inwood Hill Park. The first dome came to an inauspicious end in 2011 when, en route to its final location, the pontoon of canoes transporting the dome shipwrecked and drifted to Rikers Island where, co-creator Amanda Schachter of SLO Architecture tells Gizmag, it was destroyed by prison officers. Perhaps it was the opportunity to make amends that drew a team of architecture grads and locals to volunteer to build the thing. Schacter and her husband and partner, Alexander Levi, turned to Kickstarter to fund version 2,

Oil spill-absorbing material inspired by cactus needles

When an oil spill occurs at sea, there are already a number of possible options for gathering the oil that floats in a layer on the water’s surface. Some of the oil also forms into tiny suspended droplets, however, which have proven much more difficult to gather. Now, Chinese scientists have developed what could be a solution – and it owes a debt to the humble cactus needle. Although it may seem that the only purpose of cactus needles is to protect the plants from peoples’ bare feet, they also help provide the cacti with water. They do so by collecting moisture from the desert air, which forms into droplets and is carried to the base of each needle via surface tension. There, it can be absorbed through pores in the plant’s surface. A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently taken that same principle, and applied it to a material that shows promise as a means of absorbing the oil spill droplets. At first glance, the material appears to simply have a rough sur

Holovision aims at life-size 3D projections

Close on the heels of the 21st century complaint of “Where’s my jetpack?” is “Where’s my holographic projector?”. Nothing spells “future” like having a conversation with someone whose life-size image is beamed into the room. Provision of Chatsworth, California wants to bring that one step closer to reality, with its Holovision life-size holographic projector. The company is currently running a Kickstarter campaign aimed at raising US$950,000 to fund the development of new technology for the projector, with hopes of unveiling it next year. The Holovision projector uses what is called aerial or volumetric imaging, which is a way of producing 3D images without special glasses, lenses or slits. It uses a digital LCD screen and a concave mirror to produce the illusion of a 3D image floating outside the projector. In the smaller versions currently made by Provision, this is about 30 cm (12 in) from the display surface, but in the life-size Holovision, this will be further. According

Instrumented Bodies gives music and dance some backbone

For the last three years, a small research team at McGill University has been working with a choreographer, a composer, dancers and musicians on a project named Instrumented Bodies. Three groups of sensor-packed, internally-lit digital music controllers that attach to a dancer's costume have been developed, each capable of wirelessly triggering synthesized music as the performer moves around the stage. Sounds are produced by tapping or stroking transparent Ribs or Visors, or by twisting, turning or moving Spines. Though work on the project continues, the instruments have already been used in a performance piece called Les Gestes which toured Canada and Europe during March and April. "The project began as a collaboration between members of our group in the Input Devices and Music Interaction Lab (specifically Joseph Malloch, Ian Hattwick, and Marlon Schumacher, supervised by Marcelo Wanderley), a composer (Sean Ferguson, also at McGill), and a choreographer (Isabelle