General Motors is adding smarts to its vehicle crash test dummies. Photo / Thinkstock
SMART DUMMY: General Motors is adding smarts to its vehicle crash test dummies. The new dummies, each costing around $500,000, contain around 80 sensors that record and transmit crash test data 10,000 times per second. The 200 or so dummies come in all kinds of realistic shapes and sizes. They
feel the pain so we don't have to. More at Wired and video on YouTube.
CHEAPER CHIPS: The US Air Force Research Laboratory created the fastest interactive computer in the US Defense Department - by connecting 1,760 PlayStation 3 systems. It can perform 500 trillion floating point operations per second. The $2 million Condor Cluster also includes separate graphical processing units and coordinating servers. The cluster will be used for AI research, pattern recognition research and other tasks. All up it will use only 10% of the power of comparable systems and costs only 5 to 10% as much. It's easy being green. More at WPAFB.
UPON CHARGES: ElectroHub's charging pad charges anything that takes ordinary batteries - though you need to use the batteries supplied with the hub. This wireless charging station is designed to work with virtually all electronic devices. Put the device on top of the ElectroHub and leave it to charge. Cellphone makers: get creative! More at CNet.
HOT AIR PHONE: Or, for an alternate way to charge your iPhone: how about adding its own personal wind turbine? Tjeerd Veenhoven modded
his iPhone with a PC fan enclosed in a soft rubber skin, and used it to charge his iPhone. It took 6 hours, but hey, if you're stranded at sea or lost in the bush, you'd be glad of it, I'm sure. More at TjeerdVeenhoven.
3D RIPPLES: A recent Apple patents lets viewers see pictures in 3D regardless of their angle of view, without the need for 3D glasses. A special reflective screen has a rippled texture and projects different images to each eye. Multiple images projected to different points on the ripples let multiple users watch at once. Come on Apple, we're waiting for holograms! More at TechRadar.
- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz
