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Flexible chassis

Vehicle design adapts to traffic At the CeBIT computer trade fair in Hanover in March, researchers from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) presented a prototype for an intelligent city car with the ability to change its dimensions to fit the traffic situation. The EO smart connecting car, as it is known, can also contract its chassis while on the move, thereby making it half a meter shorter. Flexible wheels that can be turned at 90 degree angles enable the car to be driven sideways into the smallest of parking spaces and to turn on the spot. The aim of the scientists is ultimately to develop a small city car that can drive autonomously and easily be linked up to other vehicles in a “road train.” The road train concept, which is already practiced around the world in truck transport, could increase the efficiency and range of electric vehicles due to the fact that energy is transferred from one car to another during travel. (04/11/2012, Source: scinexx)

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Pay with your smartphone

Fingerprint identification Smartphones could soon replace cash and credit cards – for example, when you board a means of public transport with your smartphone in your pocket, it is recognized by sensors and the fare is automatically debited. A few brief taps on the touchscreen could easily pay for goods purchased in a shop. One challenge that remains for financial transactions via smartphone is confirmed user identification to prevent misuse. The Japanese electronics company Sony has now filed a patent that it claims can identify account owners quickly and reliably by their fingerprints. In contrast to comparable systems from other manufacturers, the camera sensor used for this is located directly behind the smartphone display, rather than above it or on the back. The new technology is also intended to enable video conferences to have a more natural feel as participants no longer need to keep looking away from the camera in order to see each other’s faces. (04/10/2012, Source: BBC)

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Haptic navigation system

Prototype steering wheel increases attentiveness AT&T Labs in Austin, Texas, the research arm of the US telecommunications company AT&T, has presented a prototype for a new steering wheel aimed at helping drivers navigate by means of haptic feedback. It should make it unnecessary for drivers to take their eyes off the road to look at a screen, and should also render the computerized voices of conventional navigation systems redundant. The steering wheel from AT&T Labs uses vibrations to indicate when the driver has reached the right point to make a turn. If the steering wheel vibrates in a clockwise direction, it means turn right, while anticlockwise vibration is an indication to turn left. Trial runs in a driving simulator have shown that a driver’s attention span – the time spent looking at the road – is improved by several percentage points by the new system. For test drivers of retirement age, the benefits of the haptic feedback system proved particularly significant when combined with audio route information. (04/04/2012, Sources: Popular Science, Technology Review)

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Cheaper silicon solar cells

Production with no material loss The start-up company Twin Creek Technologies in San Jose, California, has announced that it has found a way of significantly reducing the production costs of the semiconductors used in silicon solar cells. Currently, about half of the silicon used in production goes to waste. Twin Creek Technologies now expects to commence production of extremely thin semiconductors measuring only 20 microns, which will involve practically no material loss. Although these semiconductors are very thin, they will be well suited to further industrial processing, since the application of a thin metal layer will ensure the necessary stability of the silicon. The company has already successfully demonstrated the new process in a solar cell factory in Mississippi. The cells produced in this way will cost only 40 US cents per watt of power rating – the costs currently amount to at least 80 cents per watt. (03/28/2012, Source: Technology Review)

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Recycling by laser

A new method of cleaning printed paper Printing on paper has long since been a simple and relatively inexpensive process even for the private user. On the other hand, the subsequent recycling or incineration of printed matter entails high costs and CO2 emissions. British scientists from the University of Cambridge have now developed a method that allows dye on printed paper to simply evaporate by means of a laser. The green laser with ultrashort pulses removes the dye to such an extent that no residues are visible to the naked eye. The fiber structure of the paper is not damaged in this process. Produced in series, this “unprinter” could make for up to 79 percent lower emissions than conventional recycling processes, according to its developers – with no significant increase in costs. In the future, suitable recycling lasers could thus stand alongside domestic printers, making the purchase of new paper supplies largely superfluous. (03/27/2012, Source: scinexx)

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6,000 km across the Pacific

Robots set new world record Four self-propelling marine robots from the U.S. company Liquid Robotics have set a new world record. In the course of a research project, the “Wave Gliders” were released into the sea off San Francisco in November 2011 with the task of examining the quality and composition of the sea water; they have now covered a distance of 6,000 kilometers over the Pacific Ocean. The previous record for unmanned sea craft was around 4,600 kilometers. The Wave Gliders do not require fuel: These nautical robots, which resemble oversized surfboards when seen from the ocean surface, are propelled solely by the natural wave movements of the Pacific. Solar cells supply the energy required by the installed sensors for analyzing the sea water. The acquired data are then transmitted to shore via a satellite link. (03/26/2012, Source: BBC)

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New Lytro

Camera allows subsequent focusing The start-up enterprise Lytro in Mountain View, California, has launched a new camera on the market that allows pictures to be sharply focused even in retrospect. With its elongated shape, the Lytro camera is more reminiscent of a small telescope than a conventional digital camera and has a capacity of either eight or sixteen gigabytes. It is operated via a touch screen on the back. The focus control can be ignored while the picture is being taken, since it is possible to subsequently focus on the desired areas of the image by means of appropriate software on a home computer. This is possible because the entire light field of a picture is recorded, which – unlike with conventional cameras – also includes the original direction of the incident light rays. (03/22/2012, Source: Golem, Lytro)

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Smartphone as an accident risk

App prevents use while driving Writing text messages and making phone calls at the wheel greatly increase accident risk. A joint software development of Rutgers University and the Stevens Institute of Technology in the USA will therefore prevent drivers of motor vehicles from using smartphones by simply locking the device for the person behind the wheel. The biggest challenge consisted in allowing the software to reliably distinguish between drivers and passengers, so that the latter can continue to telephone while the vehicle is in motion. For this purpose, an inaudible sound impulse is sent to the smartphone via car radios with Bluetooth feature, so that the phone can precisely determine its own position within the vehicle. At least for the USA, the developers regard this technical solution to the problem of distraction by smartphones as an alternative to a possible prohibition of their use by the driver. (03/20/2012, Source: Heise)

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Biofuel from algae sugar

More efficient production Chemists from the Bio Architecture Lab in Berkeley, California, have used genetically modified bacteria to significantly increase the efficiency of conversion of algae sugar into ethanol to around 80 percent of the potential yield. Algae, with their high sugar content, have long been regarded as a promising basis for the production of biofuels. Until now, however, the relatively low yield of ethanol from the raw material has precluded their commercial use, since only a small portion of the sugar could be effectively converted. Algae as a broad base for future biofuels would have the additional advantage that their cultivation on sea coasts would not compete with agricultural land for food production. (03/19/2012, Source: scinexx)

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“Green wave” in city traffic

App calculates optimal speed The quickest route by car through a city is not necessarily the shortest, but the one with the fewest stops at red traffic lights. A U.S. team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University is therefore testing a newly developed smart phone app which recommends to its users the optimum speed that will ensure the maximum number of green traffic lights. An estimated one-fourth of the inner-city fuel consumption of passenger cars can be saved by minimizing stop-and-go traffic. This app, named SignalGuru, makes use of cameras installed in smart phones as sensors that detect the traffic light phases. The data acquired by the cameras on the dashboards of as many cars as possible should prove sufficient to calculate traffic speed recommendations for the drivers of following vehicles. Initial tests of this software have already been successfully conducted in Singapore and the U.S. city of Cambridge. (03/16/2012, Source: Heise)

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