Future tech

It's nice to see Japanese scientists developing technology that can actually help the elderly help themselves for a change, rather than creating more robots that ostensibly are designed to minister to their needs but may well have ulterior motives. To wit: Honda is developing a lightweight walking assistance device that can be worn around the hip and thighs to help ease a person's gait.

The mechanism works with brushless motors that get their cues from hip angle sensors and commands from the control CPU, according to press release. Being that this is Japan, however--the land that's headed … Read more

Denmark-based Agroplast wants to transform pig urine into plastic dinnerware and household items.

We all have to have dreams, I suppose.

The company has essentially devised a way to better commercialize urea, a compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen, found in urine.

Other animal waste products like manure can be inserted into the system, but pig urine is particularly interesting because it is an environmental hazard, says Peter Tøttrup, a partner at Seed Capital, a Danish venture firm that also helps the government incubate start-ups. We ran into Tøttrup at the coffee urn at the … Read more

HDMI has certainly had its growing pains, but the connection is finally beginning to deliver on its original promise: a single-cable solution for delivering high-bandwidth, all-digital HD video and multichannel audio. HDMI is nearly universal in the home video market, present on all current HDTVs and Blu-ray players, as well as nearly all HD-capable cable and satellite set-top boxes; DVRs; game consoles; AV receivers; upscaling DVD players and recorders; and network video streamers such as the Apple TV. In fact, you realize just how convenient HDMI is when you come across a product without it--I'm looking at you, Nintendo Wii--and then have five cables (three component video wires plus two-channel stereo) instead of one crowding the back of your home entertainment system.

But one aspect of the HDMI promise remains unfulfilled: wireless HDMI. It's an attractive idea, especially for anybody with a wall-mounted flat-panel TV or a ceiling-mounted projector: have all of your HDMI-capable gear running into an AV receiver or HDMI switcher with a wireless HDMI transmitter, and have the TV equipped with a matching receiver--thus allowing you to have all your AV sources across the room from the actual display. We've been hearing about it for years, but to date, there are few--if any--products that you can actually buy. Here's a quick update on the wireless HDMI products we've heard about to date--including when (or whether) we can expect to see them: … Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif.--It's going to take nearly a decade and a half, but cellulosic ethanol will overtake corn ethanol, according to an enzyme maker.

Cellulosic ethanol, in terms of volume, will surpass corn ethanol production in 2022, Joel Cherry, senior director of bioenergy technology at Novozymes, predicted at the Nordic Green conference taking place here at SRI International. That's 14 years away.

Cherry has a good vantage point into the subject. Novozymes makes enzymes for companies that hope to take wood chips and other vegetable matter and convert it to fuel. Thus, he's in constant contact … Read more

Think Global, the Norwegian company making an all-electric town car, has reiterated that it will begin to bring its cars to the U.S. in 2009, and it's providing some more details.

The company makes the Think City, a modified version of an all-electric car originally developed by Ford. It can go 65 miles per hour at top speed and 110 miles on a single charge. Thus, it's not for freeway jockeys--instead, it's targeted at those living in urban cores who take relatively short jaunts and can charge the car up a night. The City will compete … Read more

With all the development of alternative energy today, it was bound to come to this: Introducing solar-powered brainwaves.

Well, not exactly. But this "electroencephalogram device" does use sunlight as well as body heat as a power source for a variety of functions, which researchers hope will include everything from playing video games to monitoring hospital patients, according to Dvice. The lightweight headset, developed by Belgian scientists at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center, tracks electrical impulses generated by thought or action.

There are many other systems in development to monitor brainwaves in a similar fashion, but this one is focused … Read more

When we first spotted ScienceDaily's report on a research project to invent the uncrashable car, our imagination went wild: Reactive armor? A high-density chassis more durable than an aircraft's black box? Laser beams to disable oncoming vehicles?

The reality, unfortunately, isn't nearly as exciting. Instead of making cool gadgets to save lives, the PReVENT project is more software than hardware. It uses existing technology that, in event of a possible collusion, allows the car's intelligent system to take over and execute evasive maneuvers.

Despite using currently available equipment, it will be some time before we see … Read more

Samsung has developed a new kind of cell phone battery that's powered by water and is aiming to bring it to market by 2010.

Here's how it works: When the handset is switched on, reaction between metal and water in the phone produce hydrogen gas. This is then channeled to the fuel cell, where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power.

Samsung says the new battery could last for up to 10 hours. Based on four hours of use daily on average, the hydrogen cartridge would have to be replaced about every five days.

The … Read more

The day is fast approaching when a holodeck in our living room may not be so far-fetched. First shown at CeBIT 2008, the Fitness@home virtual training system (PDF) is a first step toward a simulated reality facility, though we can hear Star Trek fans snorting at its baby steps. Still, this brainchild of Berlin's Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology (FIRST) is the closest we've seen in conjuring up some virtual-reality wizardry to place you anywhere you fancy: Mt. Everest, if you plan to do some serious StairMaster climbing, National Geographic-style; the Beijing Olympics, if … Read more