from Singularity Hub: ⇦ More videos at source
What if computers were more like a child’s wooden blocks?
Siftables are a new approach to computing developed by David Merrill and Jeevan Kalanthi. Each small square electronic tile has a small screen, motion sensors, and RF signals. The siftables interact with each other, letting you use orientation, proximity, and movement to control their performance.
from ReadWriteWeb:
In the emerging Internet of Things, everyday objects are becoming networked. Clothing is no exception.
It’s still early days for Web-enabled clothes – the best example so far is the Nike+ running shoe, which contains sensors that connect to the user’s iPod. But expect to see everything from your shirt to your underwear networked in the not too distant future.
In the following list of ten ‘smart clothing’ items, we showcase Internet pants, a proximity sensing shirt, a heart sensing bra, biosensor underwear, a “thought helmet”, and more!
Tagged clothing, interface, Internet of Things, sensors, Smart Clothes, top10
from NC State University:
Researchers from North Carolina State University have created a computer program that allows a car to stay in its lane without human control, opening the door to the development of new automobile safety features and military applications that could save lives.
Specifically, Snyder and his co-authors have written a program that uses algorithms to sort visual data and make decisions related to finding the lanes of a road, detecting how those lanes change as a car is moving, and controlling the car to stay in the correct lane.
from EngineerLive:
Researchers form the Fraunhofer Institute are working as part of the EU 3Plast research consortium to develop sensors that can be printed onto plastic film and attached to objects so that, for example, electronic devices can be controlled just by pointing a finger.
Rather than responding to a directly applied force or acceleration, the sensors react to tiny fluctuations in temperature and differences in pressure, thereby recognising a finger as it approaches.
from EVOKER:
Telecommunications researchers in Japan are attempting to create electronic sensors that can not only receive information from the brain, but could manipulate our neural pathways.
“Establishing connections between the brain and electrical instruments is important for understanding how the brain works and for controlling neural activity,” says Torimitsu, who heads NTT’s Molecular and Bioscience Group.
from Singularity Hub:
The University of Michigan has produced a miniature sensor that harnesses solar energy and could last for years without needing to be replaced.
Composed of a solar cell, processor, and battery, the tiny device is only 2.5×3.5×1mm in size – a thousand times smaller than a commercial version of its type.
from FastCompany: (via techn0ccult)
Just days after Cisco signaled it will horn into IBM’s turf by rewiring an aging city in Massachusetts, Hewlett Packard announced this morning the first commercial application of its own holistic blueprint–the torturously acronymed “CeNSE” (short for Central Nervous System for the Earth).
Much like IBM’s “Smarter Planet” campaign, HP proposes sticking billions of sensors on everything in sight and boiling down the resulting flood of data into insights for making the world a better, greener place.
from MIT’s Technology Review:
Engineers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have combined simple ultrasonic sensors, GPS receivers, and cellular data networks to create a low-cost, highly effective way to find the nearest available parking space.
The Rutgers researchers say that making detailed parking data widely available via Web-based maps or navigation systems could alleviate traffic congestion by allowing travelers to decide whether to park in a central garage, hunt for street parking, or choose another mode of transportation in advance.
If drivers choose street parking, it could help by suggesting parking spaces to users through a navigation device or cell phone.
