Category: Science
Sony saving us money for once – adds local garage petrol prices to its satnav displays
With it now costing more to drive to the shops than you spend on food when you get there, this little GPS innovation from Sony could be the answer to saving literally several pence a month.
Sony’s taken its Japanese PetaMap system and added support for local petrol price data – which can then be viewed on your Sony GPS system, letting users shave fractions of a yen off the price of each litre – just like the UK-based…
South Korean dog-cloning – build an army of Shebas for $50k a pop
If your faithful old mongrel is starting to get a bit wobbly on his legs and is going off his food, rip out a lump of its hair and head to South Korea – where “dog cloning” is a genuine service.
Two competing South Korean labs offer the chance to recreate a dog for anything between $50k and $100k, although, of course, this isn’t just so Paris Hilton can keep the same puppy…
The… brace yourselves… TARDIS wardrobe
The must-have Christmas gift of 2008 for the 3-11-year-old demographic, it is, and we can hardly believe such an amazing item exists, a TARDIS wardrobe! It is such a great idea. One of the world’s best ideas, alongside automatically slicing bread with a machine and trainers with air in the soles for extra bounciness.
Fashioned out of the finest canvas and non-sustainable pine, the TARDIS wardrobe boasts a “single rail” and “zippable doors.” But it’s not about features. It’s about shape and colour, and saying “POLICE BOX” in the correct font.
It is also the ideal Christmas gift for those in the 33-49-year-old sci-fi fan demographic, along with some Babylon 5 slippers…
Computer WINS BIG in poker tournament
Poker-playing computer Polaris kicked the bottoms of several top poker players last week, raking in a profit of some $150,000 for its developers at the University of Alberta.
The human players, with frankly stupid names like Nick “stoxtrader” Grudzien, Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko and IJay “doughnutz” Palansky, won two games, drew one and lost three to Polaris, which has…
Wingless electromagnetic air vehicle (UFO! UFO! UFO!) set to take off this year
Technically, that flying saucer to the left there is known as a wingless electromagnetic air vehicle, or WEAV for short. We’ll just scream “UFO!” and run from it in terror, though, if that’s OK.
It’s powered by “magnetohydrodynamics” – a way of propelling vehicles by ionising air with an electrical current then shooting it out at great speed. The thing also spins, to help keep it stable. It is, basically, your archetypal flying saucer.
The dream-machine of the University of Florida scientist Subrata Roy, WEAV will be undergoing test flights…
Steve Bennett, 43, from Manchester, has made a rocket. It'll be ready in 2013
Three cheers for British entrepreneurs! That man there is Steve Bennett. He’s built a rocket called Nova 2.
Steve’s rocket is a three-seater, one which he hopes is going to make him one of Britain’s first “space tourism” millionaires. He heads up the Space Technology Laboratory (!) of Salford University (!!) and has spent…
The Lite Machines "Voyeur coaxial-rotor VTOL UAV" (US Navy spy-copter)
One of modern life’s great pleasures is cruising YouTube for odd videos of experimental technology. A lunatic on a rocket bike. An inventor with a death-wish positioning his head a few inches from a spinning rotor. A man risking carbon monoxide poisoning and all kinds of exotic death by using jet engines he bought off the Russian eBay in his garage.
And today, this – a twin-propeller, hand-launched spy helicopter drone thing you carry around with you in a tube until it requires deployment in a spying situation. Then you set it free like a dove of peace.
Maker Lite Machines was commissioned to come up with this spying “solution” by the US Navy…
Look, no hands! Eye-tracking World of Warcraft interface lets you grind mobs on sight
Researchers at the De Montford University, UK are developing a pioneering new eye-tracking system to enable users to control computers with out touching a keyboard or mouse.
The Eye-Gaze system works by reflecting infrared light from LEDs below the screen to track movement using infrared cameras. Kind of like reversed Wii Remote, in a way. Essentially this can track where you're looking at the screen to within 5mm.
The "Heart Robot" that just wants to be cuddled
It looks like a Teletubby that’s had all its skin burned off in an industrial accident, but don’t let that put you off – the Heart Robot is very friendly on the inside.
Designed by The University of the West of England’s David McGoran, the robot likes a good cuddle. Its heart starts pounding when it’s particularly excited, plus its eyes flutter when you touch it – and its puny limbs tense themselves for a smack round the head or a shove down the stairs when it hears raised voices…
Terrorise tourists and amateur photographers with the "Image Fulgurator"
If you’re looking for a way of getting revenge on society without actually breaking any laws or getting yourself hurt, try this – it’s a way of projecting hidden text into other people’s photographs.
The “Image Fulgurator” uses a flash sensor to activate itself and beam your text onto walls, works of art and groups of innocent tourists at the exact moment someone’s shot is taken, so, hopefully, your target remains completely unaware you’ve just projected the word “tosspot” over the front of the Tate Modern.
Two large bottles of lager + Image Fulgurator…
