Unlike the mechanical sensors currently used to regulate robotic touching, the Belgian researchers used optical sensors to measure the feedback. Under the robot skin, they created a web of optical beams. Even the faintest break in those beams registers in the robot's computer brain, making the skin far more sensitive than mechanical sensors, which are prone to interfering with each other.
Robots like the da Vinci surgery station already register feedback from touch, but a coating of this optical sensor-laden skin could vastly enhance the sensitivity of the machine. Additionally, a range of Japanese robots designed to help the elderly could gain a lighter touch with their sensitive charges if equipped with the skin.
Really, any interaction between human flesh and robot surfaces could benefit from the more lifelike touch provided by this sensor array. And to answer the question you're all thinking but won't say: yes. But please, get your mind out of the gutter. This is a family site.
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Whereas current crime scene investigators need to carefully measure every aspect of the scene for later recreation in the lab, researchers from the University of Salamanca have devised a geometry procedure that maps out the entire crime scene based on the measurement of a single item.
The control item, along with three vanishing points in the photo, are measured against the geometry of a specially calibrated camera lens. By calculating how the size of the control item relates to the warp of the lens, the researchers can reconstruct the exact measurements of the crime scene in 3-D, all from a single photo.
The process is still in the testing phase, but it might not be long until a policeman can tell a crime scene investigator to "enhance" a photo and actually receive another view of the picture, instead of a condescending stare.
]]>New technology adds flexibility to wireless communications, and can passively monitor the integrity of bridges and other structures
Using a novel manufacturing process, a group of NC State researchers have created shape-shifting antennas that can be bent, cut, twisted and even stretched, and will return to their original shape.
The durable antennas are made by injecting a liquid metal alloy into elastic casings made of various materials, depending on the specific qualities the user wants. The gallium and indium alloy remains liquid at room temperature, taking on the physical flexibility of the surrounding material. Elastic silicone is good for making very flexible wire-like antennas, and other materials could be custom tailored for specific uses with applications far beyond mere communications.
For instance, the military could roll large antennas up into small packages for deployment, then quickly unroll them to set up a field communications center rapidly. The antennas could also be used to keep tabs on the integrity of naval vessels like submarines. Since its shape dictates an antenna's frequency, it could be embedded into the hull of a vessel; should any deformation occur, the frequency would change, alerting crews to the damage.
The same principle could have myriad civilian applications as well. Antennas built into civil infrastructure like bridges and tunnels could alert authorities if support structures begin to break down. Imagine the tragedy that could've been averted if the government had a means to detect the design flaws that brought down the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis in 2007, or the gridlock (and near tragedy) that could've been avoided on the San Francisco Bay Bridge in October had someone realized a part of the bridge was on the verge of falling.
[PhysOrg]
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The experiment, launched aboard the space shuttle Atlantis last month, is part of an ISS outreach experiment that lets students on the ground follow test subjects as they live life (and sometimes don't) in orbit. And it should yield some interesting results.
For instance, though the butterflies should be able to fly given that the ISS is pressurized, who knows what flying in microgravity will be like for such delicate creatures? Will they grow naturally, or will the environment impede their growth, similar to the way it causes astronauts to atrophy during long space missions. Will they fall victim to some kind of Simpsons-esque calamity?
To keep up with this intrepid duo, you can periodically check in on the project's Facebook page.
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Now, the French blog Secret Defense has published the clearest photos yet of the secret plane, and the mystery has only deepened.
The plane pictured above is clearly a next-generation UAV, but the question of which next-generation UAV it is has led to some debate. At first look, Steve Trimble of The DEW Line thought it resembled Lockheed's Polecat. However, Popsci's resident UAV expert Eric Hagerman pegged the mysterious drone as Boeing's X-45. Then again, John Pike of GlobalSecurity.net noted "for every UAV program we know about, there's one that we don't know about," suggested the new UAV may be part of some previously unannounced program.
In many ways, the confusion only highlights the uniformity of the next generation of UAVs. Both the X-45 and the Polecat incorporate stealth features, resemble the flying-wing shape first perfected by the B-2, and have just enough development behind them that battlefield testing doesn't seem unreasonable.
Amazing. A mere seven years after the CIA carried out its first drone strike, the Predator's replacements have already arrived in theater.
[Secret Defense, via The Dew Line]
]]>Astronauts say the next crew launch vehicle should have disaster odds of just 1 in 1,000
NASA's Astronaut Office wants the next vehicle carrying astronauts into space to have launch disaster odds of just 1 in 1,000, compared to the 1 in 129 odds of a shuttle launch disaster. It also wants the vehicle to have crew escape or launch abort capability, to meet NASA's human-rating safety standards, and to undergo thorough testing and analysis with independent oversight.
No astronaut is scheduled to testify before a House subcommittee this Wednesday, but a host of NASA officials, private industry representatives and safety experts are slated to appear. President Obama will then decide exactly what type of safety standards American astronauts can expect in the coming decades.
The leading next-gen manned vehicle remains NASA's Ares rockets, even if the program has been dogged by budgetary issues and technical concerns. NASA has already tested an official Launch Abort System for Ares that won one of our Best of What's New awards for 2009.
Aside from testing the rocket itself, The U.S. space agency has also conducted a launch test of an alternative escape system, called the Max Launch Abort System. Such a design could make its way into an Ares rocket alternative, if NASA somehow decides to go with a different launch vehicle.
Private commercial spaceflight could also enter the equation, such as SpaceX's Falcon 9 heavy-lift rocket. But Florida Today reports that NASA and independent safety experts remain cautious, and would want to first see private vehicles successfully delivering cargo to the International Space Station.
[via Florida Today]
]]>Robots show off as caretakers, entertainers and industrial muscle at Japan's International Robot Exhibition 2009.
]]>Want a nap? Hate walking? Need uncomplaining workers? Robot makers have something for you
Many of them showcased their skills at Japan's International Robot Exhibition 2009, along with a host of human handlers. Consumers in the market for a pair of robot skates need not hold their breath for much longer.
Launch the gallery for a selection of our favorite 'bots.
]]>Turkish officials aim to launch their own search engine and government-issued e-mail accounts
Google would still likely reign supreme as far as Web services, but the chairman of Turkey's Information Technologies and Communication Board has bet that Muslim countries would prefer using a Turkish search engine that eliminates info that leaders might find offensive. That could range from politically sensitive topics to smut.
But Foreign Policy magazine sees the real kicker for Internet surveillance in Turkey's government-issued e-mail accounts. Known as "the Anaposta," the project would provide 10-gigabyte e-mail accounts to all citizens from birth, and even put the e-mail address on citizen identity cards. That would supposedly allow Turkish citizens to avoid "foreign networks" such as Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.
The Turkish government says that having data route through servers in other countries represents a security risk. Of course, that assumes Turkish citizens would prefer the risk of their e-mails ending up in the hands of government analysts or intelligence services.
Still, Turkey does not stand alone in wanting more control over its population of netizens. China has long sought to censor and control the flow of online information with its Great Firewall. The UK government is pushing communications firms to hold onto online records, if only to see who contacted whom as opposed to the actual contents of e-mails, forum posts or in-game messages. And the CIA has invested in a firm that specializes in monitoring social networks.
[via Foreign Policy]
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The team of astronomers observed a specific quasar (HE0450-2958 for all you space wonks) that, by all appearances, has no host galaxy. Researchers thought that perhaps the quasar's host galaxy was hidden behind a large mass of space dust, but using ESO's Very Large Telescope, they determined that this is not the case. What they did find is that an unrelated galaxy nearby is producing stars like it's going out of style -- something like 350 suns per year, 100 times more quickly than other galaxies in the universal neighborhood.
So what's the rush? It turns out that the frantic rate of star formation isn't a result of anything in the companion galaxy's construction, but of the one quasar itself. The quasar is bombarding the companion galaxy with highly energetic particles and fast moving gas streams, pumping it full of matter and energy. It is also inching toward the companion galaxy, where it will eventually merge and take up residency. At that point, all the matter and energy the quasar spewed into the companion galaxy will become its own galaxy.
As such, researchers think black hole jets could catalyze galaxy formation by providing the energy and matter necessary to create stars. The theory also provides an explanation as to why galaxies with more massive black holes contain more stars.
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