.


What I hear I forget,
what I see I remember,
what I do I understand.



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12 bids received for site at Hillview Avenue

SINGAPORE : The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said the tender for a commercial and residential site at Hillview Avenue closed on Thursday with a total of 12 bids.

The highest bid of S$289.77 million came from Tuas Technology Park, while the joint bid by Sing Holdings Limited and Fragrance Group Limited came in second at S$282.21 million.

Sim Lian Land and Sim Lian Development jointly handed in the third highest bid of S$268 million, while the lowest bid was S$175.80 million from Leng Hoe Development.

Colliers International's Director of Research & Advisory, Chia Siew Chuin, attributes the healthy number of bids to the site's proximity to the upcoming Hillview MRT Station and an established private residential area.

She added that it will also enjoy "future potential spill-over benefits" from upcoming land developments along the railway track.

"The highest bid price at S$673 per square foot per plot ratio (ppr) received for the tender of the subject site is generally reflective of the market expectations, where the land price gaps between the top three bids are about 3 to 8 per cent apart," Ms Chia said.

She estimates breakeven for a new project at the site at S$1,100 per square foot.

The 99-year lease site measuring 14,294.3 square metres has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 40,025 square metres.

It was launched for public tender on February 28. URA said the decision on the tender award will be made at a later date after evaluating the bids.

- CNA/ms




[ By Millet Enriquez | Posted: 28 April 2011 2124 hrs ]

Mapletree Commercial Trust debuts on Singapore Exchange

SINGAPORE : This year's second-largest initial public offering (IPO) has a flat showing on its first trading day on Wednesday.

Mapletree Commercial Trust opened a tad higher but soon gave up early gains to end at its IPO offer price of 88 cents.

The real estate investment trust (REIT) is the most actively traded counter in the Singapore Exchange during the session, with some 140 million units changing hands.

The counter rose briefly to 89 cents, and reached a high of 90 cents but the buying sentiment fizzled out causing the stock to end its first trading day at 88 cents.

The REIT had offered about 713 million units to institutional and retail investors during its IPO.

REIT manager Mapletree Commercial Trust Management said the total placement tranche and public offer was about 8.38 times subscribed.

The offering of 712.89 million units consist of a placement tranche of 548 million units for institutional investors, and a public offering of 164.8 million units.

Cornerstone investors, including the AIA Group, Hillsboro Capital, Itochu Corporation and NTUC FairPrice Cooperative, have subscribed to a total of 302 million units.

These are separate from the offer.

Distribution per unit for the first year of the Trust's listing (2011/2012) is 4.97 Singapore cents, and 5.42 Singapore cents in the second year (projection year 2012/2013).

The REIT owns VivoCity and office buildings such as the Bank of America Merrill Lynch HarbourFront and PSA Building.

Part of the S$893 million in IPO proceeds will be used to pay for the acquisition costs of the two office buildings.

The proceeds will also be used to fund loans, issue and debt-related costs and working capital.

The IPO follows the mega US$5.4 billion offering by Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH) last month, and the S$3.45 billion offering by Global Logistics Properties late October.

The performance of these two other mega IPOs have been dismal.

At press time, HPH closed trading at 7 per cent below its offer price $1.01 and Global Logistics Properties closed two cents below its IPO price of S$1.96.

- CNA/ch




[ By Linette Lim | Posted: 27 April 2011 2131 hrs]

The Verticopter

.

How can a fan work without blades

How can a vacuum cleaner never lose suction?

High Tech Office at Work - P&G

[ extracted from The Straits Ttimes ] 

A Cheap, Portable Way to Monitor Unborn Babies

BIOMEDICINE

A nonprofit creates a new heart monitoring machine employing wireless technology.

An inexpensive portable device could make it easy to monitor fetal health in remote locations, and it might also provide an alternative to more expensive machines currently used in doctors' offices in the developed world.

The device, a cardiotocography machine dubbed Sense4Baby, was designed by engineers at the nonprofit West Wireless Health Institute, a medical research organization whose mission is to use wireless technology to reduce the cost of health care.

"We designed Sense4Baby from the ground up to be low-cost," says Joe Smith, West Wireless's chief medical officer. "It takes every advantage of consumer-scale microelectronics and ubiquitous low-cost communication infrastructure." The institute is now planning field tests of the device in Mexico and is in talks to organize tests at major health-care systems in the United States. The device has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Cardiotocography machines are currently used by obstetricians, typically during the third trimester and in high-risk pregnancies, to measure fetal heart rate and uterine contractions as an indicator of fetal distress. The heart rate of a healthy fetus drops during a contraction and then rapidly comes back to normal. "If the doctor sees a lack of change or early or late changes in heart rate, it could be a sign of trouble," says Steven Garverick, an engineer at West Wireless who has been leading the project.

Sense4Baby uses the same basic sensors as existing devices: Doppler ultrasound to measure fetal heart rate and a pressure sensor called a tocodynamometer (or toco) to measure the force of the contraction via the tension of the maternal abdominal wall. But it eliminates the large bedside machine used to process these measurements in standard cardiotocography, replacing it with a Bluetooth transmitter and a smart phone or tablet running custom software.

[ Technology Review - MIT - WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011BY EMILY SINGER ]

Ultrasharp 3-D Maps

A missile-targeting technology is adapted to process aerial photos into 3-D city maps sharper than Google Earth's.


Technology originally developed to help missiles home in on targets has been adapted to create 3-D color models of cityscapes that capture the shapes of buildings to a resolution of 15 centimeters or less. Image-processing software distills the models from aerial photos captured by custom packages of multiple cameras.


The developer is C3 Technologies, a spinoff from Swedish aerospace company Saab. C3 is building a store of eye-popping 3-D models of major cities to license to others for mapping and other applications. The first customer to go public with an application is Nokia, which used the models for 20 U.S. and European cities for an upgraded version of its Ovi online and mobile mapping service released last week. "It's the start of the flying season in North America, and we're going to be very active this year," says Paul Smith, C3's chief strategy officer.


Although Google Earth shows photorealistic buildings in 3-D for many cities, many are assembled by hand, often by volunteers, using a combination of photos and other data in Google's SketchUp 3-D drawing program.


C3's models are generated with little human intervention. First, a plane equipped with a custom-designed package of professional-grade digital single-lens reflex cameras takes aerial photos. Four cameras look out along the main compass points, at oblique angles to the ground, to image buildings from the side as well as above. Additional cameras (the exact number is secret) capture overlapping images from their own carefully determined angles, producing a final set that contains all the information needed for a full 3-D rendering of a city's buildings. Machine-vision software developed by C3 compares pairs of overlapping images to gauge depth, just as our brains use stereo vision, to produce a richly detailed 3-D model.


"Unlike Google or Bing, all of our maps are 360° explorable," says Smith, "and everything, every building, every tree, every landmark, from the city center to the suburbs, is captured in 3-D—not just a few select buildings."


C3's approach has benefits relative to more established methods of modeling cityscapes in 3-D, says Avideh Zakhor, a UC Berkeley professor whose research group developed technology licensed by Google for its Google Earth and Street View projects. Conventionally, a city's 3-D geometry is captured first with an aerial laser scanner—a technique called LIDAR—and then software adds detail.

[ Technology Review - MIT - TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2011 BY TOM SIMONITE ]

Unmanned System - Desired Capability

1. Scalable
2. Mission Configurable (Different platforms and payloads)
3. Sensor-Shooter Configuration
4. Multi-platforms control with single operator
5. Multi-payloads control with single operator
6. NLOS operation
7. Common GCS for all platforms
8. Multi-GCS concurrent operation

VTOL Tilt Wing Coaxial Helicopter flights

SmoothFlow (Traffic)

Concept to influence traffic light condition base on request from driver.

Fill in the details soon...

Dialing with Your Thoughts

Think of a number: Numbers oscillate on a screen at different frequencies— an EEG headband picks up on these signals to enable mobile phone input using thought control.

Credit: University of California, San Diego

Dialing with Your Thoughts

A new brain-control interface lets users make calls by thinking of the number—research that could prove useful for the severely disabled and beyond.

Researchers in California have created a way to place a call on a cell phone using just your thoughts. Their new brain-computer interface is almost 100 percent accurate for most people after only a brief training period.

The system was developed by a researcher at the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues. Besides acting as an ultraportable aid for severely disabled people, the system might one day have broader uses, he says. For example, it could create the ultimate hands-free experience for cell-phone users, or be used to detect when drivers or air-traffic controllers are getting drowsy by sensing lapses in concentration.

Like many other such interfaces, the system relies on electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes on the scalp to analyze electrical activity in the brain. An EEG headband is hooked up to a Bluetooth module that wirelessly sends the signals to a Nokia N73 cell phone, which uses algorithms to process the signals.

Participants were trained on the system via a novel visual feedback system. They were shown images on a computer screen that flashed on and off almost imperceptibly at different speeds. These oscillations can be detected in a part of the brain called the midline occipital.

They exploited this by displaying a keypad on a large screen with each number flashing at a slightly different frequency. For instance, "1" flashed at nine hertz, and "2" at 9.25 hertz, and so on. This frequency can be detected through the EEG, thus making it possible to tell which number the subject is looking at.

"From our experience, anyone can do it. Some people have a higher accuracy than others," who himself can only reach around 85 percent accuracy. But in an experiment published in the Journal of Neural Engineering, 10 subjects were asked to input a 10-digit phone number, and seven of them achieved 100 percent accuracy.

In theory, the approach could be used to help severely disabled people communicate but he believes the technology doesn't have to be limited to such applications. "I want to target larger populations," he says.

"It's interesting work," says a cognitive neuroscientist at Dartmouth College who published work last year on a similar concept called the Neurophone. "People have used this sort of visually evoked response before, but the notion of making it small, cheap, and portable for a cell phone is attractive."

The Neurophone used a brain signal known as the P300. This signal is triggered by a range of different stimuli and is used by other brain-control interfaces to gauge when something has caught a person's attention. But this typically involves a longer training period.

However, the director of the Center for Innovation and Neuroscience Technology at Washington University, is not convinced. "Reducing the size of the processors to a cell phone is a natural step," he says. He says the kind of visually evoked response used in the research has been around for years, but it usually requires a large visual stimulus, which small cell phone displays are unlikely to elicit.

[ TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2011 - BY DUNCAN GRAHAM-ROWE ]

Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - AE500

SOD - AE500
(Automatic Extraction 500m) 

• Obstacle avoidance (auto)
• Obstacle overcome (auto)
• Tele-operation
• 200kg payload
• Return home function
• Payload protection

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EPOC neuroheadset

Based on the latest developments in neuro-technology, Emotiv has developed a revolutionary new personal interface for human computer interaction.

The Emotiv EPOC is a high resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset.

It uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expressions and connects wirelessly to most PCs. 

Headset Features: 

• Limited edition design 
• 14 saline sensors offer optimal positioning for accurate spatial resolution 
• Gyroscope generates optimal positional information for cursor and camera controls 
• Hi-performance wireless gives users total range of motion 
• Dongle is USB compatible and requires no custom drivers
• Lithium Battery provides 12 hours of continuous use

The limited edition EPOC is released in the US in limited quantities, and early users will have access to the Emotiv App Store and the very first games and programs developed exclusively for this one-of-a-kind neuro-technology platform. Developers are currently utilizing Emotiv EPOC technology in a variety of new and exciting ways.

Artistic and creative expression - Use your thoughts, feeling, and emotion to dynamically create color, music, and art. 

Life changing applications for disabled patients, such as controlling an electric wheelchair, mind-keyboard, or playing a hands-free game.

Games & Virtual Worlds - Experience the fantasy of controlling and influencing the virtual environment with your mind. Play games developed specifically for the EPOC, or use the EmoKey to connect to current PC games and experience them in a completely new way.

Market Research & Advertising - get true insight about how people respond and feel about material presented to them. Get real-time feedback on user enjoyment and engagement. 

Included Free with the Emotiv EPOC: EmoKey

EmoKey links the Emotiv technology to your applications by easily converting detected events into any combination of keystrokes. EmoKey is a nonintrusive, lightweight, background process that runs behind your existing applications or games.

EmoKey lets you create profiles that define how detections are mapped to keystroke combinations. Your profiles can then be saved and shared so you can use profiles that your friends have created for your favorite games and software.

EmoKey profiles can be as simple as linking the Expressiv smile detection to characters such as ":)", so that chat applications instantly know when you smile. Or they can be as complex as linking a "lift" command to a sequence of keystrokes that trigger a levitation spell in a game. 

When combined, the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset and Emokey make your inputs more simple, personal, natural, and direct. There's no need for keystroke combinations, simply smile or focus on a command and your applications respond.

Use EmoKey to interact with your digital applications like instant messaging and virtual environments, or experience your current PC games in a completely new way.

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Batteries that Recharge in Seconds

A new process could let your laptop and cell phone recharge a hundred times faster than they do now.

Foam power: This lithium-ion battery cathode can be used to make a battery that holds as much energy as a conventional one, but can recharge a hundred times faster. 

A new way of making battery electrodes based on nanostructured metal foams has been used to make a lithium-ion battery that can be 90 percent charged in two minutes. If the method can be commercialized, it could lead to laptops that charge in a few minutes or cell phones that charge in 30 seconds.

The methods used to make the ultrafast-charging electrodes are compatible with a range of battery chemistries; the researchers have also used them to make nickel-metal-hydride batteries, the kind commonly used in hybrid and electric vehicles.

How fast a battery can charge up and then release that power is primarily limited by the movement of electrons and ions into and out of the cathode, the electrode that is negative during recharging. Researchers have been trying to use nanostructured materials to improve the process, but there's usually a trade-off between total energy storage capacity (which determines how long a battery can run before needing a recharge) and charge rates. "People solved half the problem," says Paul Braun, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Braun's group has made highly porous metal foams coated with a large amount of active battery materials. The metal provides high electrical conductivity, and even though it's porous, the structure holds enough active material to store a sufficient amount of energy. The pores allow for ions to move about unimpeded.

The first step in making the cathodes is to create a slurry of polymer spheres on the surface of a conductive substrate. Because of their shape and surface charge, the spheres self-assemble into a regular pattern. The Illinois researchers then use a common technique called electroplating to fill the space between the spheres with nickel. Next, they dissolve the polymer spheres, and most of the metal, to leave a nickel sponge that's about 90 percent open space. Finally, they grow the active material on top of the sponge.

"It's some distance to a product, but we have pretty good lab demos" with nickel-metal-hydride and lithium-ion batteries, says Braun. The Illinois group has made lithium-ion batteries that charge almost entirely in about two minutes. The method should be applicable to the cell sizes needed for laptops and electric cars, though the researchers have not made them yet.

"The performance they got is unprecedented," says Andreas Stein, a professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota. Stein pioneered the polymer-particle templating method that Braun's group used. Braun's work is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Jeff Dahn, professor of physics at Dalhousie University, is skeptical that these electrodes will ever end up in products. "When you look at the flow chart for making this structure, it's pretty complicated, and that is going to be expensive," he says.

Braun acknowledges: "There are lots of people coming up with elegant [electrode] structures, but manufacturing them is tricky." He says, however, that his fabrication process combines existing methods that are currently widely used to make other products, if not to make batteries, and that it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt them. The process would add extra steps to making a battery, but these steps aren't particularly expensive or complex, Braun says.

Braun's group will next test the electrode structure with a wider range of battery chemistries and work on improving batteries' other half, the anode—a trickier project.

[ MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011 - BY KATHERINE BOURZAC ]

Top bid for Bendemeer plot defies expectations

The top bid of $543 million put in by United Engineers Developments Pte Ltd for the plot of land at Bendemeer Road/Whampoa East was well over the expectations of many.

This is the third time in three months where we have seen record bids for Government Land Sales (GLS) sites—the first one was the site at Bishan Street 14 ($869 psf ppr), then came the Bartley site ($620 psf ppr), and now this. 

In fact, experts only expected the bid to hit $750 psf ppr, so $775 psf ppr is unexpectedly high. The second highest bid of $482.2 million came from Sherwood Development, a 12% difference! And at $775 psf per plot ratio, we can expect the breakeven cost to be around $1,200, so can you imagine the selling price? We’re guessing somewhere around $1,400 psf thereabouts.

With a 99-year leasehold and a pretty good location at the city fringe, you can easily reach the CBD area since Boon Keng MRT station is just a few minutes away. Some say that residents staying at the higher floors should be able to see the Marina Barrage as well as the city. This means a super awesome view!

But right now, all that we know is that United Engineers are planning roughly 700 units of 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-bedders as well as lofts and penthouses on this plot that spans roughly 200,400 sqft. We’ll be eagerly awaiting the launch of this new condo!

Array Camera Technology

Array Camera Technology - Company: Pelican shows Slim phone-camera prototype

Pelican Imaging believes its array camera technology will mean slimmer smartphones that still have high-resolution cameras. (Credit: Pelican Imaging) 

In academic circles, light-field photography is nothing new. Now, though, a start-up called Pelican Imaging has unveiled a prototype of the technology geared to improve mobile-phone cameras. 

Light-field photography--and the related concept of a plenoptic camera -- is a complicated concept involving an array of small images rather than one large one. Essential to the process is computational image processing that can extract an actual photograph from the jumble of raw data.

And not just any image, but several images. Light-field photography captures enough data that a person can adjust focus after the shot has been taken and perform actions such as setting a shallow depth of field to blur out backgrounds or the opposite to make both the foreground and background of a landscape sharp. 

Pelican, though, has a less exotic sales pitch that's probably better suited to phone makers and the casual snapshooters who tend to use phones for taking pictures: a thinner phone. 

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company announced today that it's built a prototype of its camera, which it boasts is "the industry's thinnest high-resolution camera, targeting smartphones and tablets." 

"Pelican's technology has the potential to upset the traditional tradeoff between the sensitivity and resolution of a camera and its thickness," Levoy said in a statement. "We have been investigating these aspects of computational photography in our laboratory at Stanford for a number of years, through the Stanford Multi-Camera Array, which is big, slow, and expensive. Pelican's solution is small, fast, and inexpensive--which makes it a very exciting technology." 

[ Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20031227-264.html#ixzz1JGmeczbs ]

[ Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20031227-264.html#ixzz1JGlfOYyD ]

[ by Stephen Shankland ]

Height Priority Re-broadcast Strategy

• Highest point be the rebo-station.
• Lower point send telemetry to higher point.
• Request will flow through highest point to lower point.

to fill in the details...

 

Woodland Blk 888 serves great porridge. Can try if you want something simple and tasty...

 

White Chicken Rice - Jurong East Swimming complex nearby Big hawker center

The main Hawker center next to Jurong East swimming complex serve very tasty Chicken rice (White). Had it again today... however they've increase the price for the Thigh meat order... now SGD 3 per plate... No more cheap, nice and satisfied :(

Very nicely done Tom Yam fried rice... but remember to ask to reduce the hotness if you can't tolerate it. Slight spicy is nice... Will try it again when visiting West Coast Shopping Center again... :)