WHO'S THE FOOL NOW?: Gmail Motion was supposed to be an April Fools joke. The idea is that you use body movements for handling your email, such as pointing a thumb over your shoulder to reply. But the folks at ICT MxR Lab took up the challenge and created it for real using a Microsoft Kinect sensor. Nice one all around. Details at Engadget. Google announcement video and the real video.
GOAL: German researchers want to track what's going on in football games. Or rather, coaches and managers might want to track every movement of the ball and the individual players. And so researchers are using tracking chips and computer algorithms to analyse games and players. It's not really about the game, after all. Details at the BBC.
ENDURING CHIP: Back in 2005 a tetraplegic woman in the US had a tiny silicon electrode array implanted in her brain. It was part of a BrainGate system - hardware and software that senses signals from the brain connected with body movements. The system allows people to control computers, wheelchairs or bionic limbs by thought alone.1,000 days later the electrode array was still working, though not perfectly. The woman and her electrode are still participating in trials even today. Happy news. More at NewScientist.
SLOW HEAT: The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft set off towards Jupiter and Saturn in the early 1970s, and they're doing fine on their journeys. But, they're slowing faster than they should and physicists
have been puzzled. Now they've finally figured it out. It turns out heat was being reflected back from another part of the craft, causing a very slight push towards the sun, away from the direction of travel. Maybe it is rocket science, after all. More at TechnologyReview.
GOOP SCOOP: Ever tried picking up a blob of ketchup or mayonnaise? You probably didn't have much luck, even trying to scoop it with a flat piece of card or the like. The Furukawa Kikou robot known as SWITL does it astonishingly cleanly and with ease. Details of how its done are scarce, but it's quite the thing to see, so check the video. More at Engadget and video on YouTube.
- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz
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