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A Video Game Controller that Stimulates with Hot and Cold Sensations

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:45:19 -0400

An experimental new video game controller just revealed at this week’s SIGGRAPH conference includes a pair of thermoelectric panels on each side of a controller. Those surfaces heat or cool rapidly in reflection of what’s happening in the game, offering players a new sensory connection to what’s happening on the screen.

The controller temperature doesn’t swing wildly – less than 10 degrees in either direction in just five seconds – but apparently a small sensation is all that’s needed to add a rich layer of sensory experience to a virtual reality environment. No word on whether any major console makers are eyeballing such technology, but the idea is pretty cool. After all, remember how thrilling it was when our gaming peripherals started vibrating?

[Technology Review]

IKAROS Solar-Sail Craft Successfully Steers With Strategically Placed LCDs, Using No Propellant

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:30:00 -0400

One thing that may go unnoticed when you look at static images of IKAROS is that the sail rotates as the spacecraft glides along, collecting photons from sunlight as it goes to keep its forward momentum. IKAROS usually corrects its attitude via onboard thrusters attached to its main body, but if long-term space sailing is to become reality mission handlers need a way to create a disparity between the thrust on one part of the sail’s surface versus the rest of the sail.

To do this, JAXA researchers built eight blocks of thin liquid crystal panels into the edges of the solar sail, two on each edge. The panels are designed to be operated independently, so the LCDs can be activated on any part of the sail while on other parts they remain off. When activated, the LCDs reflect the incoming photons straight back, producing increased forward thrust; when deactivated, the incoming light is diffused, decreasing pressure on that portion of the sail.

In this way, mission controllers can keep sunlight pressure on a certain fixed spot by activating and deactivating LCDs even as the sail spins, causing a gradual shift in the craft’s attitude. The experiment continues, but for now it seems that JAXA engineers have figured out how to control the direction of a solar sailing spacecraft without using up precious propellant. That brings us one step closer to serious deep space travel beyond the boundaries imposed on conventional spacecraft by their limited fuel capacities.

[JAXA]

To Thwart Predators, South Korea Is Issuing GPS Devices to Schoolchildren

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:43:59 -0400

Starting in October, about 1,200 elementary school children in Anyang City, south of Seoul, will receive matchbox-sized GPS-embedded beepers. The devices can notify authorities of the kids' location and activate surveillance cameras.

The move comes a month after a 44-year-old habitual sex offender was arrested and accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl. That case, as well as other crimes against children, shocked the country and mobilized the government to declare war on child molesters.

The 8-year-old girl was abducted from her school, and officials have stepped up school security in response. After a trial run, the government might expand the GPS devices to the rest of the country, AFP says.

[AFP]

X-Prize Challenge Offers $1.4 Million for Revolutionary Oil Cleanup Tech

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:26:44 -0400

Inspired, of course, by the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- which as of this writing appears to still be contained -- the new X Challenge aims to provide impetus for both venture capital and innovative talent gravitate toward next-gen oil cleanup technology.

"The devastating impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will last for years and it is inevitable that future spills will occur -- both from wells and from transport tankers," stated X-Prize Chairman Dr. Peter Diamandis at this morning's official announcement of the prize in Washington, D.C.

The challenge will be a two-stage affair. Phase one calls for those vying for the prize to put their technical approaches to the problem before a panel of judges that will evaluate them for feasibility, cost, scalability, environmental impact, and the degree to which the technology improves over current methods like skimming and booms.

Phase two, of course, is the demonstration of the technology in action. Competitors won't actually take their ideas to the Gulf for testing -- all evaluations will take place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHSMETT) in New Jersey. But with any luck some of that technology will make it to the field eventually. The team with the single best technology will receive a $1 million prize purse, with second and third place taking home $300,000 and $100,000 respectively.

The prize's namesake and benefactor, Wendy Schmidt, is the wife of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the philanthropic force behind a handful of charitable foundations, including the Schmidt Marine Science Research Institute, which she co-founded with her husband.

Wireless, Implantable Glucose Sensor Could Revolutionize Diabetes Treatment

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:00:32 -0400

The round device is just a bit smaller than a Double-Stuf Oreo -- about 1.5 inches wide and half an inch thick -- and would be implanted in a person's torso. It's hermetically sealed, with an integrated antenna that wirelessly transmits data, a long-lived battery, and a pair of sensors. One sensor detects only oxygen, the other a reaction that involves both oxygen and glucose. No matter how dense the scar tissue surrounding the implant, the two-sensor combination compensates, allowing the device to correctly calculate glucose levels in the blood.

Most complications from diabetes, from blindness to heart attacks, can be mitigated with monitoring -- obsessive monitoring that involves blood-drawing finger pricks every 15 minutes, day and night. Most diabetics don't even test every hour.

The most advanced technology currently available for continuous monitoring uses a needle-sized sensor that pokes deep into the skin, connected via a wire or wireless transmitter to a pager-sized monitor. It provides blood-sugar levels in close-to-real time, but it's also a bit bulky and inconvenient: The needle-like sensors must be recalibrated daily and replaced every three to seven days, before the body encapsulates them with scar tissue and renders it useless.

Such rapid obsolescence doesn't apply to the implantable device, which was developed by researchers at the University of California at San Diego and biotech company GlySens. "The sensor we developed was designed from the beginning to be a long-term device, and designed to operate for very long periods," says David Gough, the UCSD bioengineer who led the research. In a paper published online today in Science Translational Medicine, Gough and his colleagues show that their sensor can function successfully for over 500 days -- at least in pigs. They hope to begin the first human trial later this year, and are hoping for FDA approval within three years.

Right now, the device transmits its data directly to an external display. But ultimately, the researchers hope that ultimately data from their sensor could be transmitted directly to a patient's smartphone, eliminating the need for any additional hardware. In combination with other technologies in development -- an algorithm-crunching computer that uses glucose data to calculate how much insulin a person needs to control his blood sugar, and an automatic insulin pump to dispense the dose -- the new sensor could help create a low-maintenance system that does the work of a pancreas.

"Continuous glucose monitors are very helpful, but the key thing is that you have to wear them, and that's a big challenge for many people," says Aaron Kowalski, research director for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's artificial pancreas project. He notes that, because current devices are still slightly conspicuous and require vigilance, teenagers and young adults are less likely to wear them. "So the idea of having a one-year sensor that is implanted is very, very appealing. A device that alleviates some of these real-life issues means you don't have to insert so much, you don't have to see it, and you can walk around and not have all this stuff stuck to you."

As Debris Threatens ISS, NASA Releases Top-Ten List of Space Junk Culprits

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:27:57 -0400

The Fengyun satellite that China blew up in 2007 is space enemy number one

This month, NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office released data naming the top ten incidents contributing to the space junk problem. The Fengyun fiasco is hands down the largest single contributor to the growing space junk crisis. NASA has identified some 19,000 objects larger than four inches that are running loose in orbit at extremely high rates of speed just waiting for a functioning satellite, a spacecraft, or the ISS to get in their paths. Of those, 2,841 are thought to have come from the destruction of Fengyun 1C.

Most of the garbage hurtling through space belongs to China and the Soviet Union, the report says, though Western commercial interests and space agencies also shoulder their shares of the blame. Some of the blame can even be divvied up; last year an operational Iridium communications satellite collided with a spent Russian Cosmos spacecraft, spawning nearly 2,000 pieces of smaller debris.

But Europe could soon take the top spot on the space junk tally. When the European Space Agency's Envisat Earth observation satellite goes defunct in three years, the ESA will be the proud owner of the largest and most dangerous piece of junk out there: a nearly 9-ton, $2.9 billion piece of orbiting detritus that won't be pulled into Earth's atmosphere for 150 years. The danger isn't that the massive satellite might slam into the ISS -- the chances of that are quite slim. But if it collides with another large piece of junk at high speed -- say, a rocket stage or another retired satellite -- the impact could release 10 times as much junk as the Iridium-Cosmos smash up.

With so much junk up there, the DoD has even warned of a scenario in which such a massive collision could trigger a cataclysmic chain reaction in which one impact begets another and then another until entire orbits are unusable. Unlikely, sure, but some insist it's possible. The good news is we're working on the problem. Northrop Grumman is working with DARPA to develop a ground-based radar system to help track space debris from the ground, and the U.S. Air Force is planning to launch a Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite in the near future that will help direct traffic in space. Assuming, of course, a piece of orbiting junk doesn't knock it clean out of the sky.

[Space, Network World, Voice of Russia]

The Army's New Robotic Tentacle Manipulator Uses Teams of Snakebots to Manipulate Objects

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:36:35 -0400

Like many of its counterparts, the individual RTM snake can slither into tight spaces, climb impassible obstacles, or swim where soldiers cannot, all the while beaming back images to the soldier controlling it by remote. Each snake is equipped with a sensor array, not least of which is a LIDAR scanner that lets it render 3-D depictions of objects, landscapes, or faces.

But the snakes also work in groups, acting more like fingers or the tentacles of an octopus. Arranging several of them on a circular base creates an array that can gingerly pick up, rotate, and inspect an IED or possibly even open a door -- a seemingly simple task that falls outside the capabilities of most robotic platforms. Its touch sensitivity allows it to do delicate work -- you don't want to squeeze a live munition, for instance -- yet in tandem the snakes could be reasonably strong.

The developmental hardware that the RTM program is currently working with spun out of research into snakebots conducted in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute and consists of three 9.5-inch tentacles and a large screen laptop for the operator. The master program runs advanced algorithms that are able to manipulate the motors in each link of the snakes to work in concert as though they belong to single organism. But the system is completely scalable, so a small custom array could be designed to give the Army's Warrior robot system a more dexterous "hand," while larger tentacle arrays could be fitted to larger vehicles or robots.

[U.S. Army via CNET]

Aging Odyssey Orbiter Creates Most Detailed Map of Martian Surface

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:34:01 -0400

The new Martian map is a composite of 21,000 images captured by Odyssey over the last decade that can be zoomed to scales as small as 100 meters across. While the newer Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will eventually trump that with higher resolution maps that can zoom in down to about one meter wide, it still has a lot of landscape to cover.

The above image is a detail of Mars' Valles Marineris, capturing a swath of terrain about 90 miles across, so that should give you some idea of how detailed the map really is. But rather than take our word for it, you can check out the real thing here. Taken on the whole it looks fairly unimpressive, but zoom in and you can see individual features on the Martian surface quite clearly.

Though Odyssey's "most detailed map" record will eventually be eclipsed, it still has the chance to capture one more record if it can hang on for a few more months. NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is currently the longest-operating Martian spacecraft, having operated for just more than nine years. Odyssey began orbiting in October of 2001, so if it can reach the new year, it will collect a longevity record as well.

[NASA JPL via New Scientist]

Last Shuttle Mission Will Test 3-D Video Docking System For Shuttle's Replacement (+Video)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:38:32 -0400

Last week, the STS-134 crew got a preview of the technology from Ball Aerospace, whose engineers designed the system with workers from Lockheed Martin, NASA's primary contractor on the Orion project. The new docking system involves an eye-safe flash Lidar Vision Navigation System and a high-definition docking camera. The system's resolution is 16 times that of the shuttle's, and it provides data from as far away as three miles, triple the shuttle's ability.

It's not often that engineers can test future spaceflight systems in space, notes Jeanette Domber, the project lead for the shuttle test, called "Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation" (STORMM).

"There's nothing like collecting data in this environment, compared to the testing we can do on the ground," she said.

On the 11th day of the last shuttle mission, astronauts will make a penultimate departure from the International Space Station and move about 3.5 miles away. As the shuttle slowly returns to the ISS, the Orion docking system will switch on. The shuttle will approach the station the way Orion would, and engineers at Ball, Lockheed and NASA will gather streams of data to improve their system's algorithms.

Astronauts will really be using the shuttle's existing docking system, but astronaut Andrew Feustel (currently co-starring in the Hubble IMAX movie) will take the new one for a test drive.

The tests will improve spacecraft docking capability regardless of what Congress and the White House decide to do with the Constellation program. It could be used by pilots or in unmanned craft, says Lisa Hardaway, Ball's chief engineer for the Orion project. If the Obama administration decides to send a vehicle to an asteroid, for instance, a system like this could simplify the rendezvous.

"The beauty of our instruments is that they can be used on any vehicle for any application. For any incarnation that Orion ends up in, our vehicle is still applicable," Hardaway says.

Befitting the space program's legacy, the system might also be useful for Earth applications -- its capability to determine shapes, intensity, and distance could improve terrain mapping, deforestation monitoring and hazard-avoidance systems in transportation.

The space shuttle uses different sensors as it approaches the ISS. At far distances, astronauts track their target with radar. As they approach the station, they use a trajectory control system and a laser.

The new system integrates everything, Domber says. The Lidar system sends out a laser pulse, which is reflected to a sensor and translated into computer data. The astronauts will know exactly where their spacecraft is relative to its docking target, and the high-def camera shows them a real-time view.

Lidar systems can be dangerous, especially for astronauts peering out the space station's cupola to catch a view of the action. Engineers had to build a small but powerful Lidar laser that wouldn't hurt astronauts' eyes, Domber says: "We have done eye-safe lasers that require much more power, and are larger, and we have done not-eye-safe lasers in a small package. We needed to combine the two to make it safe."

The laser fits in the palm of your hand, and the whole package is about the size of a bread box. It is the latest in a suite of new technologies meant to further NASA's goal -- if not Obama's -- to see Orion fly in 2013.

And the latest to help shepherd the shuttle into the annals of history. Learn more about it in this video.

The ISS's New Atomic Clock Will be the Most Accurate Clock in Space, Possibly the Universe

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:05:25 -0400

Cesium clocks, like the one the National Institute of Standards and Technology uses to keep the official time in the U.S., generally rely on the microwave signals that electrons emit when they change energy levels to keep highly precise, consistent measurements of time (it's estimated that the NIST's current clock won't gain or lose a second for more than 60 million years).

The cesium atoms are laser-cooled, then launched upward into a sensor cavity where instruments can tap into that microwave frequency that gives us our standard concept of the second, minute, hour, etc. A microgravity environment the atoms spend longer in the microwave chamber, and that should allow for better measurements of the microwaves emitted, making the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) 100 times more accurate as the clocks ticking away on satellites.

As a bonus, a single frame of reference in space could help atomic clocks back on the ground synchronize better, and it might even reveal if certain physical constants are as constant as physics says they are.

[New Scientist]