A researcher at the Netherland's Eindhoven University of Technology has invented a new type of eyesurgery robot designed to steady the ophthalmologist's hands and minimize error -- always a good thing when it comes to having needles and knives near your peepers. Kind of like an Igor to a mad scientist, the robot is considered a "slave" to its "master" doctor, who controls the automaton's arms using two joysticks.
The doctor is still in charge of the cuts, but the technology makes sure the MD jabs that needle in at the exact same entry point each time without shaking to minimize ocular marring. Another notable feature is the robot's ability to switch between tools quickly, ensuring that if this whole doctor thing doesn't work out, it'll at least have a job at Hibachi waiting.
Our Sun's energy is the source of all life on the planet, sure. But what if it was also the source of the first organic compounds that gave rise to life itself? A team of Hong Kong researchers believe they've proved just that.
The team from the University of Hong Kong have published a report that apparently explains the phenomena of Unidentified Infrared Emission features. These features cause observable infrared emissions in stars and were originally thought to have been caused by simple polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules comprised of carbon and hydrogen. However, this report pins the source of the UIE features as complex organic compounds—structurally akin to coal—that are made naturally by stars and ejected into space. Trace amounts of these compounds can be found in interstellar dust clouds.
This isn't the discovery of extraterrestrial life, mind you, as these compounds are organic but can't be classified as either alive or dead. However, they are the first evidence that stars can naturally generate compounds on this scale of complexity—and quickly, producing them in a matter of weeks.
"Our work has shown that stars have no problem making complex organic compounds under near-vacuum conditions," said Prof. Sun Kwok, of the research team. "Theoretically, this is impossible, but observationally we can see it happening."
Volcanoes are incredible sights on their own—but toss in a stupendous sunset, and you've got yourself a photo, homie. This shadow scene looks like the world turned upside-down.
What you're seeing here is just the shadow of Mount Rainier cast up upon low clouds. No magic, no strange natural phenomenon. Just a fantastic find by photog Nick Lippert. Half apocalyptic, half idyllic.
Facebook thought it was bragging when it announced recently that just 0.06% of its 1 billion daily user logins were made by hijacked accounts. But that's a hell of a lot of logins by hackers and spammers: 600,000/day, according to Sophos. Their new incredibly complicated super-friends scheme should fix this.
Well, it's not nearly as exciting as a new iPhone, but Apple recently announced a bit of news that will set people in certain circles abuzz. The company's lossless audio codec, ALAC, is going open source. Similar to FLAC, the Apple Lossless Audio Codec offers some file compression while still delivering a bit-for-bit recreation of the original source material. The primary difference being that Apple devices and software do not support FLAC (at least without some tinkering) but can handle the Cupertino developed ALAC. The decision to release the code under the Apache license won't have much of an immediate impact on your digital audio routine, but expect support for ALAC to start popping up in more media players (both hardware and software) soon.
Nerd Facebook Google+ has added another collection of decent features to its web interface, now showing "What's Hot" on the network and building "Ripples" infographics to show how posts have been shared with other users.
The changes aren't immediately noticeable. The What's Hot section appears at the bottom of your Stream and consists of a slightly irrelevant collection of updates from people you don't know, which Google's system has somehow decided are popular. It's a little strange seeing nonsense from strangers sitting in your Stream, to be honest.
As for the Ripples post sharing data, that's found within the drop-down menu to the right of each post. Click on that and an infographic appears, illustrating how your photograph of your shoes has spread around the world — and if any popular, big-time Google+ users have stumbled across it.
Fishermen in Córdoba, Argentina caught athree-eyed wolf fish in a reservoir fed by a local nuclear power plant, which will surely hinder the plant's owner's attempt to run for local office.
The fishermen say their discovery, which actually bears no resemblance to Blinky the three-eyed fish from The Simpsons, has begun to worry local residents who live near the reactor. And instead of feasting on their catch, and presumably gaining superpowers from its probable high levels of radiation, the men have decided to let it be tested to see if the mutation was actually a result of it being exposed to the water from the nuclear plant. After that they plan to have it embalmed for posterity, or sell it to Fox as a promotional item for their long running, and eerily prophetic, animated series.
Looks like Google's latest flagship Android phone is slightly less awesome than it was — no Corning Gorilla glass, just 'fortified glass'. Of course Samsung didn't actually speak about the glass originally, we just hoped-and-wished it was furnished in Gorilla.
We all saw it coming and, sure enough, it's finally happened. After all the rumors and opaque comments, Sony has just bought out Ericsson's share of Sony Ericsson, effectively assuming ownership of the entire venture. Ericsson confirmed the buyout this morning, adding that it will receive a cash consideration of €1.05 billion in exchange for its 50 percent stake. Sony, meanwhile, will now have the chance to integrate smartphones more tightly within its arsenal of tablets, laptops and gaming devices. The agreement also gives Sony an IP cross-licensing agreement and ownership of "five essential patent families" pertaining to wireless tech, though the breadth of this coverage remains unclear. The separation won't be finalized, however, until January 2012, pending regulatory approval.
Your fancy new iPhone deserves a fancy new case lest it get dinged, scratched or covered in unsightly fingerprints. But Miniwiz thinks you'd be better off wrapping it in discarded rice husks and plastic bottle caps, some of the ingredients that go into its completely recycled Re-Case.
The rice husks are reclaimed from farmers who usually dispose of them as agricultural waste, and are mixed with "post-consumer thermo-plastics" to create an engineered material known as Polliber. The rice husk material actually serves to strengthen the poly propylene plastic ingredients, which get slightly degraded during the recycling process. The new material can be created with minimal CO2 emissions, and the Re-Case, and its packaging, are completely recyclable themselves. But besides being better for the environment, the $25 case also features a contoured back allowing a user to stash an RFID security card inside, as well as that distinct textured finish of something that's been recycled, letting everyone know you put Earth first, you unkempt hippy. Get it here.
Is it possible to improve on something as minutely refined as the Nokia N9 simply by adding another color variant? Well, that depends on what color weʼre talking about. Sure, we already have black, cyan, and magenta, but what weʼve been missing -- until now -- is white. Plain, simple, ethereal white. It happens to be one of the hardest hues for a manufacturer to pull off without making a handset look tacky, or making its surface susceptible to the general grubbiness of everyday life. But Nokia did a smart thing: it added a glossy coating that completely changes the look and feel of the device.
Nokia doesn't just have phones on display, check out their new audio product, the Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster. The line includes headphones and earbuds (Purity In-Ear Stereo Headset), whichever tickles your fancy, and with that trademark M on the side, you can bet they'll bear a healthy price tag when they hit shelves.
It's hard to believe that it was ten years ago today that Windows XP first hit retail shelves. It's even more astonishing when you realize that it was still the most popular operating system in the world until the beginning of this month. The sun may finally be setting on the stalwart OS that has powered countless home and business PCs (it crossed the 400 million mark way back in 2006), but it's still number two -- right behind it's youngest brother Windows 7 and well ahead of the black sheep, Vista.
Sure, our relationship with Microsoft's OS has had its ups and downs, but it's clear we've developed an attachmentto the ol' bird. After all, consumer demand kept it shipping on PCs until late 2010 and Redmond has pledged to support it until April 8th of 2014. If nothing else, XP will be remembered for its incredibleresilience.
An artificial skin that senses pressure, pinches and touch sounds like a macguffin from The Outer Limits, but that's what a team from Stanford University has cooked up on the back of its pick-up truck. Sensors made of silicon films with a matrix of liquid carbon nanotubes ensure the material snaps back to its original shape no matter how frequently it's pulled about. When compressed, the electrical conductivity of the skin changes, and by measuring where and by how much, it knows the location and pressure of where you jab your fingers.
The team wants to combine this super stretchy film with a much more sensitive sensor and if it can do it, then the technology could end up as an artificial skin for burn victims, covering prosthetic limbs or even replacing your multitouch display -- just be careful, you might hurt Siri if you pinch-to-zoom her too hard.
Tokyoflash has always been more about the showy aspects of time, rather than the practical telling of it. And that trend continues on here with a Tron-inspired schema that's gone from original fan concept to wrist-wrapping product completion. Dubbed the Kisai Seven, this watch takes its cues from the aforementioned Disney flick, and incorporates two pulsing LED rings -- available in blue or white -- that are customizable via three animation pre-sets. Timepiece collectors interested in this bit of avantchronographic kit can snatch it up late night on the 25th when it's set to be released. You might wanna order up quickly, though, as the company's offering a special two-day only price of $99 that'll get a bump to $139 shortly after. Like what you see fellow '80s nostalgist? Then get your credit cards at the ready. Tomorrow's only a day away.
When the first iPhone came out, the camera was an afterthought, only tossed in to feature match its competitors. Fast forward four years and it's an entirely different story, Apple has made it a point of emphasis and the camera in the iPhone 4S sh-sh-sh-shines.
But how much has it really improved? Lisa Bettany took the same picture with every iPhones (that's right, original, 3G, 3GS, 4, and 4S) to see the differences and PetaPixelstitched 'em together to show you how each new generation improved upon the previous model (aside from the original and 3G, that is). And it's a HUUUGE difference. Like seeing the world for the very first time again different. The 3GS was the first big jump in camera quality but then it just went up from there with the lovely 4 and the king of the hill, stupidly detailed 4S.
Putting vital performance stats where they're always visible, the Sportiiiis adds a simple heads up display to almost any pair of glasses so an athlete doesn't have to glance down at a wrist monitor or smartphone to know if they're keeping pace.
The HUD easily straps to the arm of a pair of glasses, positioning a thin boom just below the wearer's right eye. And instead of using a complicated, cluttered stats display that's projected onto the lens, or even directly into the eye, the Sportiiiis has a simple set of seven colored LEDs that light up and flash to indicate an athlete's performance. The HUD wirelessly connects to existing performance monitors such as pedometers or heart rate chest straps using the ANT+ protocol, and the user can configure exactly how the LEDs light up in response to their current level of activity.
For example, the green LED in the middle could illuminate once they've reached their optimal heart rate, while the surrounding yellow LEDs would make it easy to tell when they're above or below their target. It could even be configured to serve as a simple speedometer while biking, or flash faster or slower based on the intensity of their current workout. The Sportiiiis also provides an audible cue of your current heart rate with a simple tap, while double tapping will easily switch between paired sensors currently in use. It will be available sometime in November for just $199, and come with more i's than any product name should ever need. More here.
Want to catch every frame of your next extreme sports wipeout in all of its grotesque glory? GoPro knows where you're coming from, and has updated its line of high definition helmet cams to help you capture every bone-breaking moment. The HD Hero2 competitively boasts that it's twice as powerful its 2009 predecessor, the original HD Hero. The new helmet cam promises to capture 1080p 16:9 footage from atop your sweaty noggin at both narrow (90-degree), wide (170-degree) and medium (127-degree) angles, and can snap up to ten 11 megapixel photos per second.
The camera's mini-HDMI port, composite out, USB, SD card and HERO ports will help you share the spoils of your spills when your adventure ends -- at least until this winter, when GoPro's WiFi BacPac promises to enable live broadcasting and camera control over WiFi. Best of all? The Hero2 kills the original HD Hero's confusing 3-digit code interface in favor of a simple language-based menu.
The HD Hero2 comes in three $300 configurations: outdoor, motorsports, and surf editions, all of which are compatible with existing accessories. Too rich for your blood? Then you'll be happy to know that the previous models are getting price drops -- $200 for the original HD Hero and a paltry $150 for its "960" variant.
That trendy unshaven look usually requires a careful amount of shaving in the morning. So Remington has upgraded their beard and stubble trimmer with a slick touchscreen and an electronically controlled cutting blade that can be electronically adjusted for a precise amount of ruggedness.
The monochrome display, which sits just beneath the trimmer's plastic housing, provides details on its charge level, remaining run time and whether or not it's been locked. While a set of touch sensitive up and down arrows allows the height of the trimming blade to be adjusted to one of 175 different length options, from 0.4mm to 18mm. That blade's also titanium coated and self-sharpening, so it should be able to handle even the steel wool that grows on my face. And the $50 Touch Control Trimmer can be charged via a wall outlet, or from your laptop's USB port if you're a real multitasker in the morning. Get it here.
