The Technology Thread

[Apollo]

(adds exoskeleton to Chart)

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

It's Time to Enable Two-Step Authentication on Everything. Here’s How.

http://gizmodo.com/its-time-to-enable-two-step-authentication-on-everythin-1646242605

This is really important to do if you don't want to be hacked. They have all the major sites and it's pretty long so I'm not gonna try and repost everything here but you need to do this if you haven't yet

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

DARPA's Crazy But Genius Plan to Replace Batteries With Propane

If you’re a soldier doing reconnaissance in enemy territory, you’ve got a lot of problems. Taking fire, staying invisible, and enduring the elements are obvious. Battery life is a little less so. The idea that propane is a solution to these woes? That sounds crazy.

And yet, battery life remains an increasingly cumbersome struggle that the military faces. As American soldiers become increasingly reliant on technology, they demand more power sources. One dependable option is the standard Ultralife UBI-2590 battery, pictured below. Weighing over three pounds a piece, these brick-sized devices can power anything from a radio to an antenna to a smartphone. But since the batteries have a limited capacity, soldiers need more than just one for a mission. They might need a few dozen. After all, there aren’t many wall outlets for recharging in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Enter DARPA. With the support of DARPA’s Trans App program, a team of engineers from Ultra Electronics built a lightweight, 350-watt propane generator that’s capable of charging in batteries in the field. It’s also practically silent. At a recent DARPA demo day the team showed me the invention, which isn’t much bigger than a duffel bag. I had to ask if it was running. (It was.)

At first, a propane-powered generator might not seem like such a game-changing innovation. But consider our recon soldiers camped out in far flung locations, transmitting potentially life-saving intelligence while struggling to evade detection. Once they’re out of battery power, the soldiers can’t do their job. Firing up a gasoline-powered generator would give away their position, and dropping more batteries into the area risks lives. So these soldiers lug in as many charged batteries as they think they’ll need—sometimes adding nearly a hundred pounds to their already heavy load of gear.

Propane is not nearly as heavy as lithium ion battery cells. Thanks to the impossibly quiet new DARPA-funded generator, soldiers can carry in a few batteries and recharge them on the fly. To give you an idea of how much weight this new invention can save, check out the illustration below. On the left are 100 UBI-2590 batteries. On the right is the equivalent amount of gear a soldier would need to generate the same amount of power on a mission:

Bear in mind the simple, brutal fact that each of those 100 batteries weighs over three pounds. The propane generator weighs just 11 pounds, and the tank weighs an extra 20. Smaller four-pound tanks work just as well.

Effectively, DARPA wants to replace dozens of pounds of gear in a soldier’s pack with just a few pounds of propane. It sounds like an ambitious but simple goal, one that could save lives. Now if they could juuuuuuuuust figure out how to turn fatigues into a giant solar cell, nobody would have to carry any power sources at all.

http://gizmodo.com/darpas-crazy-but-genius-plan-to-replace-batteries-with-1695354917

That is huge news for our boys out there fighting the good fight

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The $400,000 F-35 Pilot Helmet Can See Through the Pilot's Aircraft

This is one of the priciest pieces of pilots’ head gear ever constructed. The F-35 Gen III Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS), with the tremendous price tag of $400,000, is so advanced that it lets pilots see through their own airframe.

According to Lockheed Martin and manufacturer Rockwell Collins this piece of integrated hardware and software is “the world’s most advanced biocular helmet-mounted display system,” designed to provide pilots with revolutionary situational awareness:

All the information pilots need to complete their missions – airspeed, heading, altitude, targeting information and warnings – is projected on the helmet’s visor, rather than on a traditional Heads-up Display. This approach greatly reduces the pilot’s workload and increases responsiveness. Additionally, the F-35’s Distributed Aperture System (DAS) streams real-time imagery from six infrared cameras mounted around the aircraft to the helmet, allowing pilots to “look through” the airframe. The helmet also provides pilots night vision through the use of an integrated camera.​

Its main features include:

-Biocular, 30-by-40-degree wide-field-of-view with 100 percent overlap

-Virtual head-up display

-Look-through-aircraft capability via DAS imagery

-High accuracy tracking with auto-boresighting

-Active noise reduction (ANR)

-Digital night vision sensor

-Ejection capability to 550 KEAS (circa 633 MPH)

-Lightweight and well balanced helmet

-Custom helmet liner for precise fit and comfort

-Multiple interpupillary distance (IPD) settings

-Video recording

-Picture in picture

-Compatible with eyeglasses and laser eye protection (LEP) devices

https://www.f35.com/about/capabilities/helmet

That is pretty damn amazing

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Will The Next Generation of Displays Be 3D?

In a few short years, touchscreens have revolutionized the way we interact with technology. But to make the best use of our senses, the next generation of displays will not be flat, but have 3-dimensional, reconfigurable surfaces.

At least, that’s the belief of Lancaster University’s Jason Alexander, whose lab is prototyping 3D displays to study how we interact with them. Over at The Conversation, Alexander discusses how 3D displays could change our relationship with technology:

Displays with pixels that can physically protrude from the surface will allow developers to enhance familiar applications such as architecture, design, terrain modelling and photography by rendering computer-generated 3D scenes in three dimensions in the real world. This will opens all sorts of opportunities for novel applications in team collaboration, tangible entertainment and ways to make computing more accessible to those with disabilities.

Devices will be able to change their form and function: a mobile phone that mutates into a TV remote control, and then into a videogame controller, re-configuring itself to provide appropriate interfaces. Apps will not only be able to modify a visual display, but also dynamically change the physical properties of the device.​

The video below shows an interactive bar graph designed by Alexander’s lab. The display allows users to perform basic data visualization tasks, such as displaying and filtering data, organizing it into rows and columns, and making annotations. All things that, admittedly, you can do quite easily in Excel, but this sort of tactile manipulation might allow us to spot trends and patterns that we wouldn’t have noticed on a 2D screen. Who knows? Also, watching these colorful bars rise and fall is way more exciting than making barcharts the old fashioned way.

[YT]UC6l6dy04zI[/YT]

Okay, it does look a little like a Lite Brite at this point, but tangible interfaces are still in their infancy. If you’d like to try your hand at transforming a flat display to a 3D one, Alexander’s even invented a prototyping tool to help you get started.

http://theconversation.com/five-yea...but-another-tablet-revolution-is-coming-39650

Will be amazing to see what this tech is like in 20 years

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Delphi's Autonomous Audi Made It From San Francisco To New York City

Delphi’s driverless SQ5 covered almost 3,400 miles while crossing 15 states and the District of Columbia in nine days.

Delphi packed their SUV full of autonomous features that should make it into production in just a few years from now. The coast-to-coast trip was the longest automated drive in America so far, and with 99 percent of the distance covered in fully autonomous mode, Delphi calls it a success despite missing that crucial final percent. What should help is that they gathered nearly three terabytes of data along the way.

Jeff Owens, Delphi’s chief technology officer, says the fact that the vehicle encountered complex driving situations such as traffic circles, construction zones, bridges, tunnels and even aggressive drivers in both urban areas and at highway speeds, this achievement should accelerate their future product development quite a bit.

[YT]46tyLsU0WsE[/YT]

With Delphi being a British company, the global game for the autonomous crown is very much on.

http://jalopnik.com/delphis-autonomous-audi-made-it-from-san-fransisco-to-n-1695458887/+maddiestone

That is a big achievement

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Affordable Electric Cars Are Coming Soon, Study Says

For many of us, purchasing an electric vehicle is still a pie in the sky dream. But that might be changing soon, if a new peer-reviewed study is correct that the cost of electric car batteries is falling much more quickly than we assumed.

Lithium ion batteries make up anywhere between a quarter and half the cost of electric cars today. By systematically reviewing over 80 cost estimates published between 2007 and 2014, researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute found that the cost of Li-battery packs used by leading manufacturers like Tesla and Nissan is falling by roughly 8 % per year. That’s similar to the rate that was seen with the nickel metal hydride battery technology used in hybrids like the Toyota Prius.

What’s more, it means that battery cost is rapidly approaching a threshold that could make the average Joe think seriously about trading in his gas guzzler. According to MIT Technology Review:

The authors of the new study concluded that the battery packs used by market-leading EV manufacturers cost as little as $300 per kilowatt-hour of energy in 2014. That’s lower than the most optimistic published projections for 2015, and even below the average published projection for 2020. The authors found that batteries appear on track to reach $230 per kilowatt-hour by 2018. Depending on the price of gas, the sticker price of an EV is expected to appeal to many more people if its battery costs between $125 and $300 per kilowatt-hour.​

Of course, other factors matter when it comes to giving up gasoline, including EV ranges and the expected useful lifespan of the battery. Another recent study gives us hope on these fronts, as well: Analyzing power fade over time, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab found that even after batteries have lost 20 percent of their originally rated energy storage capacity, they could still meet the daily travel needs for more than 85% of US citizens.

We should take all of this with a healthy dose of skepticism—energy costs projections are often wrong—but still, electric vehicles do seem to be moving mainstream fast. If Elon Musk had it his way, we’d all be getting driven around by autonomous Teslas this summer, but more realistically, ten years out doesn’t sound like too much to hope for.

http://www.technologyreview.com/new...ectric-cars-may-arrive-sooner-than-you-think/

The sooner the better

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Watch Olympus' Dope Image Stabilization Work Its Shake-Free Magic

Olympus’ 5-axis image stabilization is some of the best out there. The system allows you to usable shoot images in conditions where the results would horribly shaky. This video captures a view of what the sshake-free guts look like under the hood. It’s hypnotizing.

[YT]wyIwmDnI09A[/YT]

The stabilizationfound in cameras like the Olympus OM-D E-M5 II is a sensor-shift system, meaning that it works by adjusting the position of the image sensor in relation to the movement of the camera. It's in the camera, as opposed to in the lens.

Observe. Your wobbly hands are no match.

http://petapixel.com/2015/04/06/thi...sor-shift-stabilization-looks-like-in-action/

I know several folks who need this

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Intel's $150 Stick That Turns a TV Into a Windows Desktop Is Now on Sale

The Intel Compute Stick, a snazzy $150 dongle that can turn anything with an HDMI port into a full-fledged Windows computer, made a bit of a splash when it touched down at CES 2015. And now it's landing for real, preorders have started at Amazon and Newegg.

The slight catch is that the retailer on Amazon seems to be listing the good version of the stick (Quad-core 1.33GHz Intel Atom with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of solid state storage) for $180 right now, with a 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, Linux version for $130. Meanwhile Newegg's got the good one for $150 plus shipping.

And then it's also worth noting that between January and now, the playing field has changed juuuust a touch. Google's dongle that turns any TV into a ChromeOS machine has been announced—and for cheaper—but if you have designs on running Windows applications on your TV, the pricier Intel stick is still the way to go.

How does it hold up under pressure? We don't know just yet but you can bet we'll put it through its paces as soon as we get our grubby little paws on one. It looks like the stick actually touches down on May 6th, and we can't wait to mess with one.

http://liliputing.com/2015/04/intel-compute-stick-mini-pc-now-available-for-pre-order.html

It is amazing that we can stick a freaking decent pc into essentially a USB stick now

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Whoops! Did LG Just Out a New 8K iMac?

Screen resolution always marches to the steady pace of pixel-density progress, and LG may have accidentally let slip Apple’s next resolution-gratuitous display.

According to an explainer on 8K displays posted in LG’s newsroom, spotted by 9to5Mac, LG boldly states that “Apple has also announced that they will release the ‘iMac 8K’ with a super-high resolution display later this year.”

Wait...what? Apple hasn’t announced anything of the sort, but LG seems pretty confident that one is coming this year. Last year, Apple revealed a stunning 5K iMac (pictured above) that surpassed the pixel density of many display competitors, and Apple could have a similar trick up in the near future. Either way, LG definitely made a mistake, but whether the slip is outing a non-existent product or revealing the iMac’s future months in advance, we don’t know for sure. But LG is one of Apple’s major display partners, so it’d make sense if the company knew a lot about Apple’s upcoming display plans. We’ve reached out to LG and Apple for clarification.

Personally, I’m still waiting for 4K to reach my laptop. 8K, in something other than some ludicrously huge and expensive television, just seems like a distant dream, a fantasy that Apple and LG might be looking to make a reality.

http://9to5mac.com/2015/04/06/lg-pu...ill-release-imac-8k-with-8k-screen-this-year/

Macs are known for their quality displays

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

An Oddly Shaped Spherical Fan Blows More Air Than It Sucks

The new Q fan looks more like a basketball than a fan, but using an internal turbofan it can actually blow about seven times more air than it sucks.

Presumably inspired by the futuristic-looking bladeless fans that Dyson has developed, Panasonic has decided to show the world that its product designers are just as capable at creating oddly shaped devices that can efficiently cool and refresh a room.

So what kind of scientific sorcery allows this bladeless fan to pump out more air than its pulling in through its intake? As you can see in that cutaway image the air moves through specially engineered channels after passing through a turbofan which increases its pressure. And as the air leaves the fan through a series of holes, the breeze it produces induces additional air flow around its outlets.

It not only makes the fan more efficient at moving warm or cold air around a room, it also means it can run quieter without a sacrifice in performance.

This new trend in highly engineered fans also means companies can charge more than they do for those cheap $30 fans you usually end up buying during a summer heat wave. Panasonic’s new Q fan will sell for just north of $330, but at least there’s some genuine innovation and design in there to help justify the cost.

http://gizmodo.com/an-oddly-shaped-spherical-fan-blows-more-air-than-it-su-1695929031

I am not a fan of fans in most instances

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Google's Wireless Service Could Come With Free International Roaming

Yes, Google wants to be a wireless carrier. Not to take the whole world by storm (yet), but to push the limits of what wireless carriers do. The latest possible perk? Service outside the US at no additional cost.

According to reports from The Telegraph, Google’s in talks with the UK carrier Three so that its upcoming service will be able to offer voice, text, and data to Americans traveling abroad at no additional charge and without the trouble of switching SIMs or getting a local plan.

Sounds great, right? You bet, but there are a few potential catches. Who knows if these talks are any more widespread than with just one carrier in the UK. And besides, Google’s already been pretty clear this is just a teeny tiny pilot project, and it could even be constrained to Nexus 6 owners only. You might be hard-pressed to get in on the fun.

Still, one of the biggest, most annoying, and most unavoidable annoyances of traveling is figuring out what stupid contractual hoops you’ll have to jump through to ensure that your all-knowing pocket supercomputer will continue to allow you access to the entirety of recorded human knowledge without charging you like a bajillion dollars on the sly. And if Google can show that it’s possible, that could put pressure on other, bigger providers to step up their game. After all, Google Fiber got Comcast to (at least promise that it’s going to) roll out 2 Gbps internet. Here’s to hoping SIM-swapping days could be over soon.

http://mashable.com/2015/04/06/google-three-partnership-report/

I would love to get in on that

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Kitchen Timer Atop a Paper Towel Holder Will Never Go Missing

If there’s one contraption in your kitchen that never gets lost in a drawer, it’s your paper towel holder. It’s as essential to baking and cooking as your stove is—so integrating a one-handed kitchen timer on top of one is not just clever. It’s downright brilliant.

With clear markings allowing it to be easily set to the minute, the mechanical timer on this paper towel holder can actually count off a full hour. But it will never be in the way when you’re juggling a counter full of ingredients. Instead, it will actually remain closer to eye level at all times while you’re bustling around in the kitchen. At $44 it’s a bit pricey, until you think of all the cooking timers you’ve had to buy, and re-buy, because they disappeared into that one catch-all utility drawer we all have in our kitchens.

http://www.thegreenhead.com/2015/04/royal-vkb-paper-towel-holder-kitchen-timer.php

I just use the digital timer on the oven

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Tech Blogger Says He Watched As Youths Wirelessly Broke Into His Car

http://jalopnik.com/tech-blogger-sa...relessly-broke-1696012518/+kcampbelldollaghan

We are going to need much better security in our cars the more digital they go

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Lightest Full-Face Helmet Ever Brings Motorcycle Safety To Bicycles

With mountain bike racers now reaching motorcycle speeds, the full-face protection of a DOT-certified, full-face helmet is needed. But, street-legal motorcycle helmets have always been too big and too heavy. Enter this new Kali Protectives Shiva, the smallest and lightest helmet of its kind ever made.

Kali says the $500 Shiva weighs 1050 grams in size medium, give or take slight manufacturing variances. Below is a picture of a size large on a scale, weighing an actual 1065 grams.

This is super impressive. Where other similar helmets like the Airoh Aviator 2.1 claim to be lighter, their real world weights are often measured at hundreds of grams heavier. While Airoh states the Aviator weighs "from 980 grams," independent tests have shown it to weigh as much as 1304 grams for a large. That makes the Shiva the lightest DOT-certified, full-face helmet there is.

Kali's founder Brad Waldron says he's able to achieve such a low weight through a systemic approach to the helmet's construction. This isn't a case of employing radical new materials like Smith's bicycle helmets and their Koroyd construction, it's a case of optimizing existing materials so they perform better.

Brad's background is in composites design for the defense industry. While at Northrop Grumman, he worked on projects including the B-2 stealth bomber. With Kali Protectives, he's bringing that expertise to action sports.

Like every other helmet made since the 1960s (with the exception of the Smith mentioned above), the Shiva is made using an expanded polystyrene foam liner housed in a hard outer shell. Whether it's carbon fiber, plastic or fiberglass, the shell's job is to deflect impact energy, spread point impacts across a larger area and prevent penetration. The styrofoam's job is to absorb that energy, slowing your head's deceleration to a non-lethal rate.

In traditional helmets, the two pieces are constructed separately, then fitted together. This inherently results in a small gap between the two pieces. Look at a chart of impact energy over time and, with a traditional helmet, you'll see a spike as the shell impacts the ground, followed by a second, larger spike as the foam closes the gap and hits the shell.

http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com...rings-motorcycle-safety-1696286436/+ericlimer

If your a parent and have the money that would be a wise investment

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Halfbike Is the Standing Desk of Bicycles

If you were under the impression that a pair of large wheels supporting a seat under your butt was the only gas-free way to get around a city, you've clearly forgotten about the innovative Halfbike first introduced last year. But that's OK, because there's now a new and improved version for urban dwellers that promises the same workout in a sleeker design.

There's actually nothing wrong with a traditional two-wheeled bike. At least until you try to squeeze it into an elevator, onto a subway car, or take it almost anywhere in an urban setting other than the street. To make it easier to transport and store, the Halfbike II uses a smaller front wheel than most bikes have, and trades the back wheel for a pair of tiny tires giving it the appearance of a large tricycle.

However, the Halfbike II is still ridden like a traditional bicycle using pedals closer to its mid-section. The big difference is that there's no seat, so you have to stand the entire time. It results in a smaller footprint for the bike making it easier to squeeze through traffic and crowds while riding, and thanks to a folding handle, it's even easier to take with you on public transportation.

The only trade-off of the Halfbike II's unique design is that cycling becomes a slightly more rigorous workout. But that's the same reason people opt for a standing desk at work, right? So whether or not being harder to ride is viewed as a pro or a con is up to each individual rider.

The first backers of Kolelinia's Kickstarter campaign for the Halfbike II can pre-order the innovative cycle, with a July delivery, for just $350. And assuming it reaches its $50,000 crowd-funding goal and everything goes smoothly as the bike goes into production, the final retail version is expected to sell for around $600. So it's pricier than a cheap used bike no one would ever want to steal, but you can also easily bring the Halfbike II up to your office during the day to ensure it's safe while you're at work.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774841427/halfbike-ii

That is really cool, I want one

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

DARPA Hacked Together a Super Cheap Google Glass-Like Display

Helmet-mounted displays are priceless on the battlefield. And expensive: The proto-Google Glass headset, for instance, is absolutely useful for the average soldier, but way too pricey to be practical. That’s why folks at DARPA are freaking out about the heads up display that researchers hacked together for a few hundred bucks.

Let’s get one thing straight: This is hardly the new F-35 helmet—that insanely overpriced fighter jet’s Gen III Helmet Mounted-Display System (HMDS) that shows the pilot all of the essential information needed to slam through the sound barrier and launch missiles at enemy aircraft.

It’s also so advanced, it effectively turns the entire plane into glass by using a series of infrared cameras mounted on the hull to enable the pilot to “look through” the airframe.

The whole set up also costs about $400,000. That’s what makes DARPA’s garage-built version so interesting.

A team of young engineers built the whole setup at a cost that’s likely less than the price of the chin strap cost on the F-35 HMDS. I tried a hacked-together prototype of the device at a recent DARPA demo day in rural Virginia. It doesn’t exactly look like a Star Wars prop, but that’s part of the point. It’s built to be useful, and it is. Based on what I learned about the simple feature set, it actually sounds like it could save soldiers lives.

The new helmet-mounted display system is designed for infantry soldiers, not fighter pilots. However, the objective to optimize attention remains the same. If you’re leading a patrol into enemy territory, there are a million things to worry about. You’re the one tasked with finding the safest, most efficient path to your destination. You’re the soldier who needs to identify any insurgents who may happen to cross your path. You’re the first line of defense if you walk into a fire fight.

The DARPA device focuses on these key use cases. All three of the programmed features I saw at the demo day focus on navigation and threat detection. The entire system is built within DARPA’s TransApp ecosystem, the same ambitious software initiative that powers thousands of soldiers’ smartphones on the battlefield.

One view through the helmet-mounted display is a simple satellite view of the terrain, the mission plan, and the soldier’s position. Another related view, shown in simplified form below, provides data more directly related to the soldiers. Note the marker for a known IED. These features are all based on the Maps app developed by TransApp as a way not only for soldiers to replace the World War II era methods of charting out points on paper with protractors. It’s honestly not much different than the navigation features on Google Glass. The display also detects the soldier’s head movements so that it always shows the relevant orientation.

The third view is perhaps the most interesting, as it plugs into the military’s larger database of known insurgents and civilians. (One other application of this information is an app called WhoDat which is kind of like a collection of baseball cards made up of locals, their affiliations, and their level of hostility.) This view will enable the soldier to flip through profile pictures of known locals, helping to identify who’s a threat and who’s not.

While it’s easy to draw comparisons between this cheap and easy helmet-mounted display and the not-so-cheap and not-so-easy Google Glass technology, the design is much more utilitarian. The display can flip up and down so that the soldier wearing it can enjoy an unobstructed view whenever he or she wants. As such, the display itself is opaque and lacks the augmented-reality effect of some heads up displays.

All that said! This very high tech and ultra useful device costs about the same as a good smartphone—not the price of a fancy house. That means that more soldiers could take advantage use of the potentially lifesaving technology which, let’s be honest, is inevitably more important than making killing easier.

http://gizmodo.com/darpa-hacked-together-a-super-cheap-google-glass-like-d-1695961692

DARPA is always doing cool stuff

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

New FLIR Security Camera Turns Hours Of Footage Into Bite-Sized Clips

A security camera is a useful tool for providing evidence when something obvious happens in your home, but what’s happening during all the other hours it records that you simply don’t have time to watch every night? FLIR’s new FX Wi-Fi camera uses intelligent motion tracking to create a simultaneous replay of everything it’s captured happening throughout the day so you can easily review it in just minutes.

FLIR has long been known for its professional-grade thermal and other imaging products, but following up on the success and popularity of the FLIR ONE smartphone accessory, the company is continuing to make its technologies available in consumer-level products that don’t cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

The FLIR FX, positioned as a sort of Dropcam/GoPro competitor, is a compact 1080P Wi-Fi-enabled camera with a wide 160-degree field-of-view, a microSD slot (with an 8GB card included), two-way audio communication, and six built-in IR LEDs giving it night vision with a range of about 33 feet. When used on its own it has a wireless runtime of about two hours of continuous recording, but that doubles to around four hours when perched on its included indoor stand. And at any time the FX can also be connected its microUSB power adapter letting it run and record indefinitely.

One of the biggest advantages to internet-connected security cameras is that they allow footage to be recorded remotely so it’s always safe, but also easily accessible from a mobile device. So FLIR is also introducing an online cloud storage service for the FX, as well as accompanying iOS and Android apps, allowing live feeds or recordings from the camera to be accessed and viewed wherever you are.

For redundancy reasons the camera captures to both its own microSD card and the cloud at the same time in the event the Wi-Fi connection the FX is relying on goes out. When no internet is available it will continue recording to its microSD card without interruption, and when it’s able to connect to Wi-Fi again it will then upload and backup all the footage it’s captured locally.

But since watching through a full day’s worth of security footage probably doesn’t sound like the most exciting way to spend every evening, the FLIR FX uses server-side image processing technology called RapidRecap to generate a sort of instant replay of what the camera has recorded throughout the day. It’s essentially a highlight reel that combines all of the day’s automatically-detected activity into a much shorter clip (or multiple clips if it’s been a particularly busy day) that includes overlaid time stamps of when each event occurred.

If something in the RapidRecap happens to jump out at as being suspicious or worth a closer look, the user can simply tap on a specific time stamp in the replay video to jump right to when that footage was recorded for review or saving if it’s important.

The FLIR FX apps and cloud service even let you set up instant alerts for those times when you want to know the second something suspicious is happening. But to ensure your smartphone or tablet isn’t bombarded with a constant stream of false-positive alerts when your dog wanders into the living room, or a bird lands in your backyard, the FX includes a clever SmartZone feature. Users can specify hot spots in a stream using a customizable grid and alerts will only be sent when motion is detected in those regions. In other words, it’s the perfect way to keep your dog off the furniture while you’re not at home.

The FLIR FX can even be used as a 30 FPS action cam when paired with an optional weatherproof housing that includes a standard tripod mount on the bottom. Recording can be manually stopped and started using a single button on top of the camera, but the FX can also create its own mobile Wi-Fi hotspot allowing you to connect a mobile device directly to it for stopping and starting recordings, capturing photos, or reviewing footage right from the app.

Available for pre-order starting today, the indoor version of the FLIR FX, which includes a stand and other mounting hardware, will sell for $199. While an outdoor version, which adds a weatherproof housing that includes additional IR LEDs for enhanced night vision capabilities, sells for $249. There’s also the aforementioned optional sport housing for using the FX like an action camera, and a windshield mount so the device can be used as a dashcam.

The FX’s accompanying cloud services will be available in three subscription tiers, starting with a free option called FLIR Cloud Basic that stores videos dating back 48 hours and allows the user to generate three of the RapidRecap highlight clips each month. But there’s also a $10/month or $100/year FLIR Cloud Plus option that boosts that to seven days of storage and unlimited RapidRecaps, and a $20/month or $200/year FLIR Cloud Premium option that provides 30 full days of online storage for your footage.

In terms of image quality the FLIR FX certainly can’t compete against the more expensive GoPro which is now capable of capturing footage at 4K resolutions. But it’s also a considerably cheaper option that still does full 1080P recording. And since you can also use it as an advanced security camera or even a baby monitor, suddenly that $200 price tag sounds like a fantastic deal if you don’t spend every waking minute on a mountain bike.

https://fx.flir.com/site/flirus/articles/FLIR-Store/10800029

That's pretty nifty

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Students Built the World's Smallest Electric Wheelchairs

Three-year-old Tanner Jensen and his 20-month-old brother Skyler were both born with a rare genetic condition known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy which means they can’t walk, crawl, control their heads, or even lift their arms. But life for the young brothers will soon be improving thanks to students at Brigham Young University who built the pair a set of tiny affordable electric wheelchairs.

Motorized wheelchairs for younger children already exist, but they can end up costing upwards of $15,000 which many families can’t afford even with health care—and the Jensens need two of them. And they’re often so large they require expensive modifications made to a home in order to be used.

So five undergraduate mechanical engineering students from BYU’s Engineering Capstone program challenged themselves to build the world’s smallest electric wheelchair for the Jensen brothers. And after a year of designing and testing, they perfected a chair made with a PVC pipe frame that weighs just over 20 pounds, but can actually support a child up to 50 pounds.

And the price tag, including batteries, wheels, motors, the electronics needed for a joystick controller, and a padded seat, came to just $495. That is probably the most significant accomplishment the students were able to achieve. And because they’re posting the plans for their wheelchair design to a website called The Open Wheelchair Project, any family with a child in need should be able to afford and build one of their own.

http://news.byu.edu/archive15-mar-wheelchair.aspx

That is freaking awesome

 

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A Magnetic Field Detector 1,000 Times More Efficient Than Those Before

Measuring magnetic fields with accuracy is important, whether it’s for geological exploration or medical imaging. Now, a team from MIT has developed a new laser-based magnetic field detector that’s 1,000 times more efficient than previous examples.

One way to measure magnetic fields is to shine laser light through synthetic diamonds with nitrogen vacancies—points where a carbon atom is missing from the diamond lattice. When laser light passes though such a vacancy, photons bump an electron in the space into a higher energy state; the presence of a magnetic field can affect the spin of that electron when its energy state drops back down, causing a difference in the new resting energy level. Measuring the differences in the energy states allows scientist to measure the strength of a magnetic field.

The only problem is that a lot of such readings are required to accurately measure a magnetic field. Usually, lasers have been shone at the surface of a synthetic diamond, limiting the number of readings that can be acquired. Now, the MIT team has developed a diamond chip in which laser light can bounce around inside—like a ball on pool table—providing a path length of over a meter and, in turn, yielding far more readings than in the past. The result is a sensor that’s 1,000 times more efficient than those that have gone before it.

The researchers reckon they could be able to create a miniaturized version of the chip that could be used in battery-powered devices—making accurate magnetic field measurement truly mobile.

http://phys.org/news/2015-04-magnetic-field-detector-efficient-predecessors.html

That's a huge development

 

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This Super-Stable Aluminum Battery Can Charge in 60 Seconds

This may look like a scrap of kitchen foil, but it’s actually a new kind of aluminum battery that could out-perform the lithium-ion cells in your smartphone.

Developed by chemists from Stanford, the new battery swaps out lithium from the cell in favor of aluminum. In the past, aluminum batteries have failed fast, managing just 100 recharge cycles before they start to degrade.

The new cell uses aluminum for it anode—the negatively charged electrode in the battery—and graphite for the positive cathode. The whole lot sits inside a salt, liquid at room temperature, which acts as the electrolyte. The resulting cells can undergo 7,500 recharge cycles without losing capacity—far better than old aluminum cells, and in fact better than li-on batteries that usually begin to suffer after 1,000 cycles.

The battery can also charge incredibly quickly, reaching full capacity within a minute. Compared to li-on batteries they’re also rather more robust, too: the “new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it,” said Stanford chemistry professor Dai Hongjie, who created the cell, in a press release.

There are, however, some downsides. First, the cells can only muster 2 volts across their electrodes—just over 50 percent of the voltage that li-on batteries can provide. Nor do they pack energy into themselves as efficiently, managing to store just 40 watts of electricity per kilogram, compared to 200 or so for li-on batteries.

Neither of those are deal breakers. Tweaks to the electrode design could boost voltage, and speedy charging may in fact be more desirable than absolute energy capacity for a given size. But for now, it’s at least interesting to know that a lackluster battery technology may yet prove incredibly useful.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/06/stanfords-battery-charges-in-one-minute/?ncid=rss_truncated

The advancements in battery tech as of late has been truly impressive

 

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The Large Hadron Collider Is Back, Baby

It's been closed for renovations and upgrades since 2013, but on Sunday, the Large Hadron Collider powered on with no sign of complications, and successfully carried two proton beams, fired in opposite directions, around its 27km circumference.

“After two years of effort, the LHC is in great shape,” CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Frédérick Bordry, said of the particle accelerator's recent upgrades, in a statement. “But the most important step is still to come when we increase the energy of the beams to new record levels.”

Sunday's beams circulated at a relatively tame injection energy of 450 GeV, but the LHC is now equipped to operate at an energy of 6.5 TeV per beam (nearly double the per-beam maximum prior to 2013's shutdown. If things go according to plan, CERN scientists say they'll be conducting 13 TeV proton-proton collisions before summer:

The Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism, dark matter, antimatter and quark-gluon plasma are all on the menu for LHC season 2. After the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, physicists will be putting the Standard Model of particle physics to its most stringent test yet, searching for new physics beyond this well-established theory describing particles and their interactions.The LHC’s second run began with the introduction of a proton beam into the 17-mile ring. A short while afterward, a second beam, traveling opposite the first, was introduced. These two beams will continue to circulate; by summer CERN staff hope to double the beams’ energy being to the output of its first run. By summer, scientists hope to start colliding beams.​

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32160755

Hell yeah! The LHC kicks ass!

 

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Why You Should Care About VP9, Google's Clever Video Codec

As the ongoing Meerkatification of humanity proves, the internet (in one form or another) is becoming more and more about video. At peak times, Netflix and YouTube alone account for half of all web traffic. That’s an understandably huge burden for ISPs to carry. But as well as making the pipes bigger, we can also shrink down what goes through them.

Video codecs are the clever algorithms that take raw video data and shrink it down to a manageable amount of data. Every codec is a tradeoff between preserving quality and decreasing file size, but not all codecs are created equal; far from it, in fact.

Over on the YouTube developer blog, Google has a fantastic (and very easy-to-understand) post on the benefits of its VP9 video codec, the technology that’s already being used to stream YouTube videos to some users. According to Google, VP9 cuts the file size of a video in half — meaning where you previously could stream 480p video over your crummy connection, you’ll now be able to get 720p.

You don’t need a stats degree to see why that’s important. Over half of internet traffic is video; if you can cut the file-size of those videos in half, you decrease total internet traffic by a quarter. You’d have to string a helluva lot of fiber-optic to get the same kind of improvement overnight.

That importance is another thing that makes VP9 such a killer technology. Unlike many codecs that came before it (and continue to challenge it), VP9 is an open-source standard. Open-source (and royalty-free) means free-to-use; free-to-use means the tech is far more likely to be built into web browsers and smartphones, and used by video giants like Netflix.

Ultimately, that means prettier, faster-loading videos for you and your grandma, and cheaper internet bills for YouTube (so fewer ads now, pretty please?). Not bad for, fundamentally, a clever bit of math.

http://youtube-eng.blogspot.ca/2015/04/vp9-faster-better-buffer-free-youtube.html

Pretty clever

 

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Here's Why Roku Has A Chance To Win The Streaming Wars

The single best reason to buy a Roku? You’re looking at it. Roku is the only streaming media box that does all the comparison shopping for you. Why pay $3 to rent a movie when you can stream it with your existing Netflix plan, or on Crackle for free? And soon, Roku’s comparison shopping will become more powerful than ever thanks to a brand-new feature.

That new feature is called the Roku Feed. And I think it—or a derivative—could change how we watch movies.

First, some background: Today Roku announced a bunch of pretty simple updates to its lineup of streaming media boxes. Individually, they don’t sound like such a big deal.

The $50 Roku Streaming Stick is getting a little faster

The $70 Roku 2 is getting a lot faster (as fast as the Roku 3, but it loses the “marriage saver” headphone jack on the remote)

The $100 Roku 3 adds a microphone so you can search for things with your voice instead of hunt ‘n peck on a keyboard floating in the middle of your TV

The smartphone companion app adds voice search too, so you don’t have to buy a Roku 3

Clearly, voice search is going to be pretty damn convenient. Hell, I’m a born California journalist, and I still have trouble spelling Ah-nold’s last name. Way easier to find a classic action film just by speaking into a microphone, as long as Roku has such a film in stock—and with the sheer volume of Roku channels on offer, chances are I’ll find plenty.

But what about brand-new movies, ones still in theaters—or in the legal limbo that exists between when studios will let you rent a film that’s out on DVD? That’s the whole idea behind the new Roku Feed.

The Roku Feed is pretty simple. You pick from a list of upcoming movies, ones with a lot of buzz. You know, the kinds of movies you might want to go see in theaters, but haven’t decided if you want to spend $8 a pop?

If you decide, “No, I’m not going to drag my family to the overpriced theater,” you’ve now got a new, intriguing option.

You can choose to “follow” that movie with Roku, and in exchange, Roku will let you know every time it comes down in price over the entire “streaming lifecycle” of the flick. The first time you see it, perhaps it costs $15 to purchase. Too rich for your blood? A couple weeks later it might be available to rent on Vudu for $5 instead. Perhaps M-GO will have a dollar special. And eventually, perhaps it’ll be included free with your Amazon Prime, Netflix or Hulu Plus subscription.

Theaters are going to hate this—hate, hate, hate—because it could mean that going to the theaters will no longer be the only mass movie watching event. The same way people organize themselves in social groups (and on social media) to watch the latest episodes of hit new TV shows—so too could they do with streaming movies at each of these different price tiers.

In this future I’m imagining, people won’t just individually, eventually, suddenly notice that a movie they wanted to watch is available to stream anymore. Everybody who subscribes to their favorites will get notified, giving streaming movies de facto street dates. We’ll all stream movies together.

As soon as someone figures out how to actually notify them, that is. Right now, the way Roku displays the feed is pretty damn limiting: you actually have to go to a place called “My Feed” on your Roku box to see what’s new, and if any of the movies you’re “following” have magically become available while you were looking the other direction.

Clearly, this isn’t optimal. Obviously, there should be a smartphone app that pushes you notifications whenever your long-awaited content arrives—perhaps even help you plan a viewing party by hooking into social media. There’s a big opportunity here.

But strangely, it’s an opportunity that these streaming pioneers seem to be overlooking as they’re launching their new products. Neither Sling TV nor PlayStation Vue—two new services which let you stream live television over the internet—have any sort of notification system to tell you when your favorite programming will appear. Like Roku, their creators seem to believe that would-be customers will just sit down and start watching whatever’s available instead of planning ahead. My wife and I chat daily about what to eat for dinner when she gets home. Why can’t my wife and I plan dinner and a movie the same way we would if a theater were involved?

It doesn’t have to be this way—and I bet it won’t be for long. Someone will build a platform that aggregates, organizes, and notifies cinema and television lovers about all the options out there—both live and on-demand—and my money’s on Roku. The company’s clearly on the right path, and Roku has the most to lose. There’s no need to buy a Roku box when any old smartphone or dongle can stream Netflix, after all.

Today, you buy a Roku to save time and money finding content you could probably stream somewhere else. Tomorrow, you might buy one to opt into a new movie-going lifestyle—one where your friends come along for the ride. One where you stream movies you’d never considered streaming at all.

http://gizmodo.com/heres-why-roku-has-a-chance-to-win-the-streaming-wars-1695991852

Some cool ideas in there, if they ever come to fruition I may just switch over from Chromecast

 

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NASA Invests In Ultra-Lightweight Tech For Missions To Mars And Beyond

For future deep-space missions, NASA wants to reduce the mass of its spacecraft by 40 percent. To do it, they'll need ultra-lightweight (ULW) materials. Today, the Agency announced its selection of three proposals that will develop and manufacture these materials "for future aerospace vehicles and structures."

"Lightweight and multifunctional materials and structures are one of NASA's top focus areas capable of having the greatest impact on future NASA missions in human and robotic exploration," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington, in a statement issued this afternoon. "These advanced technologies are necessary for us to be able to launch stronger, yet lighter, spacecraft and components as we look to explore an asteroid and eventually Mars."

More details:

Composite sandwich structures are a special type of material made by attaching two thin skins to a lightweight core. Traditional composite sandwich structures incorporate either honeycomb or foam cores. This type of composite is used extensively within the aerospace industry and in other applications making it possible for future journeys to Mars. The ULW materials being developed by NASA vary significantly from traditional cores and are expected to result in a significant decrease in mass.

Phase I awards of the solicitation are valued up to $550,000, providing awardees with funding for 13 months to produce 12-by-12-by1-inch ULW core panels. Technologies selected to continue to Phase II will demonstrate the ability to scale up to 2-feet by 2-feet by 1-inch and ultimately to produce 10-feet by 11-feet by 1-inch ULW core panels, with NASA providing up to $2 million per award for up to 18 months.

The three awards selected for contract negotiations are:

HRL Laboratories LLC of Malibu, California: Ultralight Micro-truss Cores for Space Launch Systems

ATK Space Systems LLC of Magna, Utah: Game Changing Technology

Development Program Ultra-Light Weight Core Materials for Efficient Load Bearing Composite Sandwich Structures

Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama: Ultra-Lightweight Core Materials for Efficient Load-Bearing Composite Sandwich Structures​

Today's announcement comes on the heels of NASA's recent selection of 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP), "to advance concept studies and technology development projects in the areas of advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites."

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/apri...ightweight-materials-for-journey-to-mars-and/

When NASA gets in the game with tech related stuff it usually has huge implications in the commercial world down the road