WIRELESS HANDS-ON: An Austrian man who lost the ability to move his
right hand had it amputated. The hand will be replaced by a bionic
hand controlled by signals from his brain. Sensors on his arm detect
the signals and send them on to the hand. A similar operation last
year helped a man who lost the use of one hand after being struck by
lightning. Bionics are improving day by day. More
here, and some video
here.
CONNECTED LIGHTS: GreenChip smart lighting puts computer chips into
lightbulbs and gives every lightbulb its own IP address. Controllers
are available so you can control the lights from your smartphone,
tablet or computer. Sensors also mean lights could adjust themselves,
for example by turning off if the room's empty. There's an app for
anything. Details for this illuminated network here.
PRINT A PART: The Vienna University of Technology, Austria, has
produced a small, light and low-cost 3D-printer that can be used for
creating small objects. The prototype is about the size of a carton of
milk and weights just 1.5Kg. Individual layers in the additive process
are just a twentieth of a millimetre thick, so the printer offers good
resolution. LEDs provide a high intensity light for hardening the
synthetic resin used to create objects. Doing for manufacturing what
desktop printers did to the printing industry. More information at
Tuwien.
WHEELCHAIR SIGHTS: Researchers at Lulea University of Technology,
Sweden, created a "sighted" wheelchair that detects obstacles in its
path. A laser scanner creates a simplified 3D map of the surroundings.
The map is represented by a haptic robot so the wheelchair user can
feel or see any obstacles. At the moment the laser beam only operates
at one fixed height, but the team are working on increasing its scope.
They need to get that laser beam at the right height. More
here.
SENSITIVE LOAF: If you want to find Earthlike planets beyond our solar system it stands to reason you'd need some giant satellite. But the
ExoPlanetSat is merely the size of a loaf of bread, even though it
includes powerful high-performance optics and new control and
stabilization technology. The optics record the dip in brightness as a
planet transits its star. And for accurate measurements it's crucial
to keep the satellite stable. The nanosatellite is expected to orbit
for 1 or 2 years. That's a big job for a tiny satellite. More at
Technology Review.
- Miraz Jordan Knowit.co.nz
Tech Universe: Monday 23 May
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