British man given bionic butt

British man given bionic butt

IT manager Ged Galvin has been given a pioneering ‘bionic bottom’, following a motorcycle accident which left him with massive internal injuries.

He now uses a remote control to open his bowels.

Self-Cleaning, Super-Absorbant Solar Cells

Technology Review: Blogs: TR Editors’ blog: Self-Cleaning, Super-Absorbant Solar Cells

The accumulation of dust on the surface of a solar cell can block light and cut into cell efficiency. Researchers at Stanford have demonstrated that solar cells patterned at the nanoscale with domed structures absorb more light and, as a bonus, are self-cleaning.

A Revolutionary Compact – The Canon PowerShot S90

A Revolutionary Compact – The Canon PowerShot S90 :: Articles :: www.hardwarezone.com®

And that’s what makes the S90 so exciting. Canon has somehow managed to take the large sensor of the G-series and squeezed it into a compact camera body that’s only slightly larger than a regular compact. Not only that, they’ve included full manual controls, and a unique manual control ring that’s not even found on the G-series. All this would have been exciting enough, but they even threw in a fast f/2 lens, which is no less of a shot across the bow for near rival Panasonic LX3 which also features an f/2 lens.

The 50 Best Inventions of 2009

Full List – The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 – TIME

From a rocket of the future to a $10 million lightbulb, here are TIME’s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year

Creating 3D models with a simple webcam (w/ Video)

Creating 3D models with a simple webcam (w/ Video)

A group of researchers at the University of Cambridge, Qi Pan, Dr Gerhard Reitmayr and Dr Tom Drummond have created a program able to build 3D models of textured objects in real-time, using only a standard computer and webcam. This allows 3D modeling to become accessible to everybody.

Teenage girl on stairlift to millions after stumbling on handrail idea for a GCSE project

StairSteady: Teenage girl on stairlift to millions after stumbling on handrail idea for a GCSE project | Mail Online

When Ruth Amos created a design for a handrail as part of a GCSE project, her main focus was to ensure she would get a good grade.

The 16-year-old schoolgirl never expected that her design idea would be turned into a device that has helped change the lives of disabled and elderly people.

Now, three years on, she is running an expanding firm – and in a few years could potentially earn millions.

Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics

Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics – tech – 12 November 2009 – New Scientist

A contact lens that harvests radio waves to power an LED is paving the way for a new kind of display. The lens is a prototype of a device that could display information beamed from a mobile device.

Realising that display size is increasingly a constraint in mobile devices, Babak Parviz at the University of Washington, in Seattle, hit on the idea of projecting images into the eye from a contact lens.

One of the limitations of current head-up displays is their limited field of view. A contact lens display can have a much wider field of view. “Our hope is to create images that effectively float in front of the user perhaps 50 cm to 1 m away,” says Parviz.
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The University of Washington team will present their prototype at the Biomedical Circuits and Systems (BioCas 2009) conference at Beijing later this month.

European Researchers Plan Automated “Road Trains”

Technology Review: Blogs: Potential Energy: European Researchers Plan Automated “Road Trains”

n the proposed system, a professional driver would operate a lead vehicle. Other drivers could elect to pull up behind that vehicle and virtually link to it, establishing a wireless connection. That vehicle would automatically follow along behind the lead vehicle, freeing its driver to eat breakfast or read a book or whatever. Several other cars could also line up behind the lead vehicle, forming a sort-of train. When you approach your destination, you’d leave the train, resuming control of the car. A BBC infographic at the link above, and this illustration help explain it. Apparently, reducing wind drag could cut fuel consumption by 20 percent.

I wonder if this approach could help ease people’s concern about handing over controls to their vehicle. Will having a professional driver at the lead make the system seem safer? Or will adding the human element make it more dangerous?

Cheaper desalination

Cheaper desalination: Current thinking | The Economist

THERE is a lot of water on Earth, but more than 97% of it is salty and over half of the remainder is frozen at the poles or in glaciers. Meanwhile, around a fifth of the world’s population suffers from a shortage of drinking water and that fraction is expected to grow. One answer is desalination—but it is an expensive answer because it requires a lot of energy. Now, though, a pair of Canadian engineers have come up with an ingenious way of using the heat of the sun to drive the process. Such heat, in many places that have a shortage of fresh water, is one thing that is in abundant supply.

Ben Sparrow and Joshua Zoshi met at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, while completing their MBAs. Their company, Saltworks Technologies, has set up a test plant beside the sea in Vancouver and will open for business in November.

Panasonic prezinta la HIFI Arena revolutionarele plasme Viera NeoPDP

XtremPC – Articole

Pentru ca era televiziunii conventionale se apropie de sfârsit, Panasonic participa la expozitia HIFI Arena cu cele mai noi si spectaculoase tehnologii ale sale în materie de home entertainment. Noutatile vin odata cu seria revolutionarelor televizoare cu plasma Viera NeoPDP, al carei model Z11 va fi prezentat pentru prima data în tara noastra.
VIERA NeoPDP (Neo Plasma Display Panel) reprezinta un progres în tehnologia plasmei, oferind o gama de inovatii ce însufletesc fiecare detaliu. Imaginile în miscare rapida redate foarte precis, negrul profund si consumul redus de energie, datorat eficientei luminoase marite, transforma NeoPDP într-o tehnologie unica.