One day these nanowires will make your whole dashboard touch

If "wearable" is the big buzzword of CES this year then "flexible" can't be far behind. Cambrios Technologies isn't a company you might associate with it - LG's G Flex and Samsung's transforming curved TV are certainly more eye-catching - but the company's ClearOhm silver nanowires are likely to enable the next generation of flexibly flexible touch panels, including turning your whole car dashboard into one vast finger-responsive surface.

That's because they're better at electrical conduction than indium tin oxide, the current touch-sensor material of choice, as well as being more readily applied to flexible plastic substrates, Cambrios says. Meanwhile, they're also highly transparent - again, more so than the existing materials - opening the door to overlaying practically invisible touch sensors onto any surface without obscuring what's underneath.

It's not just touch panels, either. The highly-conductive silver nanowires also have applications in extra-efficient solar panels, Cambrios' Sri Peruvemba told us, and lighting panels, which also benefit from the fact that the nanowires are practically indestructible.

Cambrios is working with one of the biggest touch panel manufacturers - serving some tier one clients around which there have been no shortage of flexible or curved display rumors lately - and already has its nanowires in the touchscreens of shipping products. They range from smartphones up to 27-inch Lenovo touchscreen all-in-ones, though what has us really interested is even bigger and smaller applications.

Peruvemba couldn't tell us which companies have products using the ClearOhm nanowires in the pipeline, but said that by IFA 2014 - in early September - there should be some big name announcements out. Our fertile imaginations are already thinking of tablets and laptops that you can stroke all over to control, but we'll have to wait until later in the year to find out for sure.That could include a curved smartwatch - with a touch sensitive surface that tracks all the way around the wrist, and which won't break no matter how many times you snap it on and off - or even a fully touch-enabled dashboard, breaking infotainment control out from the usual 6- to 8-inch embedded touchscreen.

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Laptop searches by U.S. border agents ruled legal

For most people, one's laptop is a like a trusted friend, packed full of data that one would not give out part and parcel to just anyone, particularly not strangers. Random laptop searches at United States borders have been taking place for years, and have been the subject of much outcry, particularly due to the complete lack of suspicion needed to perform the search. Civil rights attorneys filed a lawsuit against this activity, citing reasons of being unconstitutional, but a New York judge has dismissed their complaint, giving border agents the go-ahead.

Travelers, when entering the United States, are vulnerable to potential laptop searches by border agents. These searches aren't guaranteed to take place, but if you're one of the unfortunate travelers who gets tagged, you have no say in having your digital data picked through. There have been instances where laptops have been confiscated, such as the case regarding Pascal Abidor, a French-American citizen who, upon entering the U.S. border territory, had his laptop confiscated by the border personnel.

It is being argued that allowing border agents to search laptops -- which includes the machines of news photographers and those of similar professions -- will give access to both sensitive and confidential information. The judge had a different view of this however, saying that, in the case of Abidor, who was abroad researching Shiite history, he "cannot be so naive to expect that when he crosses into Syrian or Lebanese border that the contents of his computer will be immune from searches and seizure at the whim of those who work for Bashar al-Assad or Hassan Nasrallah."

Thus was part of U.S. District Judge Edward Korman's final decision, dismissing the lawsuit and ruling that reasonable suspicion is not needed to perform a laptop search. The plantiffs, it was ruled, did not show any injury resulting from the searches, and legal precedents were used to conclude that US border crossings allowed for government searches -- reasonable suspicion aside -- in the name of national security.

Said ACLU lawyer Catherine Crump: "Unfortunately, these searches are part of a broader pattern of aggressive government surveillance that collects information on too many innocent people, under lax standards, and without adequate oversight." The organization is debating about appealing the judge's decision, though whether it will is yet to be determined.





SOURCE: Associated Press

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Tagged sharks send auto-tweets when swimming too close to shore

Shark attacks, while not terribly frequent when viewed in light of how many people visit the beach every day, are a valid concern for beach-goers and have been increasing in recent years. To give surfers and others an edge over the ocean-bound creatures, researchers tagged 300 or so sharks with transmitters. Similarly situated are receivers for the transmitters under the water that keep an eye on where the sharks are and send out tweets when they get too close.

Specifically, when a shark comes within a kilometer of the shore line in various spots in Western Australia, the receivers will detect the sharks fitted with transmitters and will send out a tweet under the @SLSWA Twitter account -- Surf Life Saving WA. Those who follow the Twitter account will then be able to see when a shark is nearby, as well what kind of shark it is and the time it was detected.

One tweet, for example, sent not too long ago shows a Tiger shark detected at the Mullaloo South receiver around 3AM. If shark activity seems too high in one area, but another section of the beach hasn't seen any activity for a while, beach goers are able to make a better decision about where it is potentially safer to swim or surf -- a method that is near instant, rather than posted warnings and other manual means of advisement.

Said the SLSWA rep Chris Peck: "You might not have got some of that [sharks in vacinity] information until the following day in which case the hazard has long gone and the information might not be relevant." Not surprisingly, the tagged sharks are also being used to gather data concerning patterns of shark movement, potentially leading to additional uses farther on down the road.





SOURCE: ars technica

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A 3D jello printer made out of old CD-ROM drives is the final frontier of 3D printing

The world of 3D printing — while still not particularly viable for consumer use — is rapidly advancing. We’re still far off from a Transmetropolitan-style Maker that can print up almost anything so long as you load in some (actual) garbage for fuel, but the medium has made some major strides. A Harvard scientist was recently able to 3D-print rechargeable batteries, while other researchers were able to 3D-print free-standing structures using liquid metal.

Today the frontier of 3D printing is becoming much more bold and complex, and it all led up to this 3D printer made out of discarded CD-ROM drives that prints little figures inside of jello shots.

Over on SpritesMods, one intrepid party-goer realized jello shots for a 25th birthday party could be spiced up with some food dye and a syringe, but found the process of creating the figures by hand to be a bit tedious. So, a 3D printer was created by breaking down the parts of some old CD-ROM and DVD drives, and mounting the usable parts, such as the stepper motors, to a wood base.

A tube was hooked up to a syringe that held the dye, which in turn was connected to the injection needle. One of the CD-ROM drive’s tray ejector was positioned near the syringe’s plunger and used to inject the dye.

A few different figurines were hard-coded into the printer’s AVR microcontroller by way of specifying different dye injection coordinates. The printer only needed around 10V of power to function, so it was hooked up to a laptop battery, making the rig somewhat portable.

Rather than just using a dye that’s just for looks, it was made out of banana liquor, food coloring, and a bit of corn starch to keep it from running within the jello shot, making it not only visible, but functional. After all, you wouldn’t want to tell people at a party that you displaced alcoholic content from the jello shots, right?


SOURCE: Geek

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Scientists create most accurate clock in the world

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have created what they say is the most accurate clock anywhere in the world, able to keep its ticking rate to a variation of less than two parts per every quintillion. This number, not only too infinitesimal for the average mind to comprehend, is also 10 times more accurate than any other clock out there.

The clock achieves this by using the element ytterbium, something that provides it with stability that the scientists say could have uses beyond simply telling time. Unlike clocks that use pendulums, the ytterbium clock utilizes approximately 10,000 rare-earth atoms cooled to 10/millionth of a single degree over absolute zero and then snared in a laser light optical lattice.

This light signal is them beamed at a precise frequency, moving electrons in the caesium atoms. Such is essentially the clock’s version of a tick, only the ticks number at 518 trillion times per second. This causes the stability, with larger numbers of atoms being responsible for a more stable rate. Furthermore, to get to this accurate rate, timing takes only one second rather than about 5 days, which is the current standard.

Said Andrew Ludlow, a physicist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, “The stability of the ytterbium lattice clocks opens the door to a number of exciting practical applications of high-performance timekeeping.” Among these could be navigational uses, for example. Information about the clock was published in the journal Science.




SOURCE: Telegraph

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Motorola Mobility job listing hints at future wearable technology ambitions

Google is no stranger to wearable technology, having created Glass and all. But a job listing that has cropped up for Google-owned Motorola Mobility hints at a larger picture of the company’s wearable technology ambitions, with things like “the new Motorola” and its “future in Google” being mentioned alongside a description for the prospective hire.

Motorola, likewise, has more than dabbled in the areas of wearable technology, with one of its examples visible in the image above. Where it is heading with its new ambitions is yet to be seen. What we do know from the looking at the job listing, however, is that whatever it is will be aimed at the consumer in a way that has mass appeal.

The job listing calls for someone who has extensive experience in design, and one of the requirements for the position is “7 years plus in a senior position of Industrial Design,” with it being preferred that the candidate have “15+ years of work experience in design of tech, consumer product and/or apparel.” We also get a glimpse of the larger picture: “The wearables design team will lead the establishment of our brand in the massive competitive and growing space of wearable connected products.”

The question as this point is where Motorola – and Google by proxy – is heading. Smartwatches are one area of wearable technology where companies are scrambling to get their own devices onto consumers’ wrists, but the potential extends beyond that and smartwatches have received more than a bit of criticism, among them being claims that the younger generations won’t want to wear them.

At the D11 conference, we got a good look into how the company sees the next generation of wearable technology. Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group chief Regina Dugan showed off an electronic tattoo that would decrease authentication processes, for example. Also discussed was a “smart pill” that transforms one’s body into an authentication token.

Says the job listing: “Our ambition is to make Motorola a recognized leader in design of all things mobile. We will do this by creating product experiences that are lead by consumer insight and intuition, keen design sensibility and cutting edge technologies. We want our products and brand to be experienced and loved by millions of people worldwide. We want to create the new Motorola.”

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