ALL WORK; NO PLAY: Lockheed Martin's Collaborative Human Immersive Laboratory has engineers building virtual spacecraft. Motion tracking and virtual reality let teams explore and solve problems or design and refine plans before they build physical versions of craft. Using the lab saves time and money. And really, it's not like play at all, really. More at LockheedMartin and video on YouTube.
SPACE CALLING: You have your satellites, and then you have your Android smartphones. You'd think they'd be a bit different, but British researchers aim to put an Android-powered satellite into lower-earth orbit. Strand-1 will take photos of Earth. The satellite is only 30 cm long and weighs less than 5 Kg. The standard smartphone components it uses are smaller, weigh less and cost less than those used in aerospace. It used to be aerospace that drove miniaturisation, now it's smartphones. More at Wired.
BAND AID ENGINEERING: Clearly there are advantages to being an engineer. Tal Golesworthy, an engineer in the UK had a heart problem — it was likely his aorta would rupture. Risky surgery seemed the only answer, until he designed his own solution. He used MRI scans, computer-aided design and rapid prototyping to develop a compression bandage. 2 years later the polymer mesh was inserted, probably saving his life. Details at TheEngineer.
SAFETY HOG: In the UK the Saferider project is working out how to add safety systems to motorbikes. In proof of concept tests laser scanners, haptic feedback, smart helmet-cameras and radar were added to a bike. A cheek pad in the helmet warned of vehicles in the blind spot, for example. The tests showed the systems could be helpful. Sounds like all that gear would be heavy enough to slow down smaller bikes and probably make them less safe. More at the BBC.
PRESS 1 TO SMILE: Hmmm, should that be a colon or a semicolon in the smiley? With or without a dash? There's plenty to think about in choosing emoticons without also figuring out how to type them. Now you can annoy all your friends by plugging an emoticon keypad into the USB port on your regular keyboard. Smileys with a single keypress, how enchanting. More at Geek.
- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz
Tech Universe: Tuesday 1 February
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