Siri was a DARPA project

Focus on the BIG picture

Eyes in the Sky that see TOO Much

Humanoid

The airship finally takes off - Hybrid Air Vehicles has first civil customer

By Vincent Rice

23:01 September 6, 2011

The Hybrid Air Vehicles heavy-lifter in Discovery Air livery

Image Gallery (10 images)

The famous and well documented Hindenburg disaster of 1937, when the hydrogen-filled airship burst into flames whilst attempting to tether to its moorings in New Jersey, killed off the 'lighter-than-air' aircraft industry, as well as 35 unfortunate souls. Since the 1970's however, a determined band of, mostly British, aviation engineers has been battling to design and build a commercially viable 'air vehicle'. Many false starts, experimental craft and research projects followed (funded mostly by the U.S. military) but viability remained elusive, until now.

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Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British Company founded in 2007 by the late Roger Munk and a direct descendant of those previously unsuccessful efforts, has recently achieved two massive commercial wins that seem to indicate that the airship has a very rosy future indeed. The clue is in the company name, however. These are not the cigar-shaped gas-filled 'balloons' of yesteryear but hi-tech semi-rigid lifting bodies that rely on vectored thrust from onboard engines and the aero-lift from the body shape for up to 40 percent of their lifting capacity with helium providing the rest. In addition, the use of pontoons on the underside of the hull that feature hovercraft-like skirts and driven fans means that that the aircraft can land on earth, concrete or water without ground crew.

This versatility plus an ability to stay airborne for 21 days and a potential lifting capacity of up to 200 tonnes finally enabled HAV to win a US$517million contract (€370million) in conjunction with Northrop Grumman to supply a Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) to the U.S. Army for deployment in Afghanistan starting in 2012. Whilst the LEMV is a relatively small vehicle designed for surveillance, HAV has now announced a civil customer for their heavy-lift variant.

Discovery Air Innovations of Canada has agreed to purchase a number of vehicles capable of lifting 50 tonnes and making way at 100 knots (185 km/h/115 mph) with the intention of providing cargo services to remote regions of the 'frozen North' at greatly reduced cost. Construction of the first vehicles will start in 2012 with commercial service beginning in Canada in 2014. DAI may buy up to 50 of the vehicles over time depending on how operations progress.

Hybrid Air Vehicles see a large number potential uses for their craft in mapping and geographic monitoring, in humanitarian aid provision, offshore drilling support and, of course, luxury tourism. With these two major contracts in their pocket it looks as if the era of the airship has finally come, again.

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Apple heads into choppy waters as new iPhone awaited - Yahoo! Singapore Finance

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-heads-choppy-waters-iphone-110650153.html

By Poornima Gupta

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc faces an unusual phenomenon when reporting earnings this time around: low expectations.

Few are expecting the world's most valuable technology company -- which surpasses Wall Street expectations with near regularity -- to deliver a bumper quarter once more on Tuesday.

The main reason: consumers holding out for the new iPhone.

Apple may still surprise market watchers, but many Wall Street analysts and investors remember how chatter over the launch of a new iPhone last year caused Apple to miss quarterly expectations in the fall, for the first time in years.

The iPhone 5 is only expected to hit store shelves around October -- just in time for the holidays -- with a thinner, larger screen and fine-tuned search features. Couple that pre-launch lull with slowdowns in Europe and China, Apple's biggest markets outside of North America, and sentiment on the Wall Street darling is more muted than many can remember in a while.

"No longer is Apple the company that beats every time," said Tim Lesko, portfolio manager at Granite Investment Advisors, which owns Apple stock. "I expect Apple to beat Apple's guidance, but I don't know whether they will beat Wall Street's guidance."

Tony Sacconaghi, analyst with Bernstein Research, sees a reasonable chance Apple will miss expectations on revenue, citing "macroeconomic weakness in China and Europe, a product cycle lull in the iPhone, a later than expected introduction of the new iPad into China, and the late quarter introduction of new Mac notebooks."

Any hiccup in demand for the best-selling smartphone can have a big impact on both revenue and profits as the five-year old device accounts for nearly 50 percent for Apple's revenues. And it comes at a time Samsung and other manufacturers that use rival Google Inc's Android software are chipping away at its market share.

Apple is expected to report fiscal third-quarter earnings of $10.35 a share on revenue of $37.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Top Wall Street analysts are betting the numbers will undershoot that. Apple may miss the average sales forecast by about 0.2 percent, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine's SmartEstimates, which places greater emphasis on timely forecasts by top-rated analysts.

IPAD'S LAUNCH IN CHINA

But some analysts also think the Street is underestimating the impact of a late iPad launch in China, a focal point of intense expansion for the company and a huge driver of growth.

Apple began selling the tablet there on Friday, but many had expected it to ship last quarter.

Sales in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan jumped threefold to $7.9 billion in the second quarter, accounting for about 20 percent of Apple's $39.2 billion in total revenue.

The company typically introduces a new iPhone every year, but has yet to reveal any details on the next model.

However, people familiar with the situation have told Reuters the new iPhone will have a bigger display and that Apple has begun to place orders for the new displays from suppliers in South Korea and Japan.

Meanwhile, Apple's iPhone 4S is just three quarters old, which is relatively new by any standard. But many fans of the phone now see it as a cyclical product with somewhat predictable launch timeframes, preferring to wait a few months to buy the new model, analysts said.

Wall Street estimates Apple sold about 29 million iPhones, down from 35.1 million sold in the March quarter. Sales of the new iPad, expected to be 14 million to 15 million, is likely to offset part of the anticipated sequential drop in iPhones sales.

Apart from concerns about iPhone purchases, Wall Street is worried about the rising prominence of Google and Amazon.com in the mobile market, particularly with the launch of Google's smaller and cheaper Nexus 7 tablet, which is gaining popularity.

Still, no one is bearish in the longer term on the world's largest technology company by market value and most Apple watchers believe the company will make up any lost iPhone volume during the holiday season.

"Big picture, it doesn't matter," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. "They are still the share gainer in the larger scheme of things. This is clearly a timing issue."

BIG HOLIDAY SEASON EYED

Wall Street expects that the outlook for this year's holiday season will be enormous for Apple as it may include the launch of a new iPhone as well as a potential new "mini iPad."

Apple has been working on a smaller tablet, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

It is unclear when Apple will launch such a tablet, but some clues are emerging on the timing of the new iPhone.

When Verizon -- one of the wireless carriers that work with Apple -- was asked on Thursday why customers have been holding back on handset upgrades, CFO Fran Shammo said: "There is always that rumor mill out there with a new phone coming out in the fourth quarter and so people may be waiting."

Investors will pick apart executives' comments for clues to new product introductions. While Apple has a policy of never giving advance details or timings on new products, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer has often hinted of "product transition" in earnings conference calls preceding a launch.

Wall Street estimates Apple sold about 4 million Macintosh computers as the PC market saw growth sputter in the quarter.

The lackluster expectations do not appear to have affected Apple's stock, which is up nearly 50 percent so far in 2012. The stock has been choppy since a high of $644 in April. It closed Friday at $604.30 on the Nasdaq.

"Of all the quarters, this is the one that seems to have widest range of opinion," said Granite's Lesko.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, Editing by Gary Crosse)

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Why Doesn't Apple Want You To Know About Apps And Data Privacy?

This is a really rather strange decision by Apple, to pull the app "Clueful" from the Apps Store. It's rather difficult to think of any benign reason for it.

Bitdefender, the Romanian anti-virus company, created an app called Clueful, which looks at what your various apps themselves look at. Do they access your address book for example, your GPS location information and so on? This was approved by Apple and went into the Apps Store. Now it has been withdrawn again.

An app that told iPhone users whether their other apps were breaching data privacy has been removed from Apple's store in mysterious circumstances.

Clueful would say if your other programmes were accessing your address book, tracking your GPS co-ordinates or farming information from social networking accounts.

Neither Apple nor the app's developers, Romanian-based Bitdefender, have revealed why, after just two months, the program has been pulled.large:

Now why would they do that? We'd all be rather interested in who has access to such information, wouldn't we? As Adrian Kingsley-Hughes points out, the number of apps that do access information we probably don't know they're accessing is large:

Bitdefender took a look at over 65,000 apps and discovered that tens of thousands of apps were specifically programmed to raid address books and upload the data. Of the apps that access address book data, over 40 percent of them don't encrypt any data collected, which means that personal information is sent over WiFi and cellular data connections in plain text format that anyone could intercept and read.


It's not just address books that apps are raiding. 41 percent of apps tested use the location services feature to track user's whereabouts, although users can use the settings in iOS to control this.

There are obvious advantages to Apple's walled garden approach to apps. It significantly reduces the possibility of malicious code being inserted for example. But it also seems to have its downside as well: apps that reveal things that Apple would prefer unrevealed seem not to be allowed.

It's an interesting practical question. How much such control are we happy with Apple having? What's the correct balance between their power protecting us and their power protecting them?












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Now, transparent solar cells that allow windows to generate electricity: Now, transparent solar cells that allow windows to generate electricity

Now, transparent solar cells that allow windows to generate electricity

Washington: UCLA researchers have created a new transparent solar cell – a breakthrough towards giving windows in homes and other buildings the abilit...

Source: http://goo.gl/mag/oGfW1

Washington: UCLA researchers have created a new transparent solar cell – a breakthrough towards giving windows in homes and other buildings the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside.

The team described a new kind of polymer solar cell (PSC) that produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light, not visible light, making the cells nearly 70 percent transparent to the human eye. They made the device from a photoactive plastic that converts infrared light into an electrical current.

"These results open the potential for visibly transparent polymer solar cells as add-on components of portable electronics, smart windows and building-integrated photovoltaics and in other applications," said study leader Yang Yang, a UCLA professor of materials science and engineering, who also is director of the Nano Renewable Energy Center at California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI).

Yang added that there has been intense world-wide interest in so-called polymer solar cells.

"Our new PSCs are made from plastic-like materials and are lightweight and flexible. More importantly, they can be produced in high volume at low cost," he said.

Polymer solar cells have attracted great attention due to their advantages over competing solar cell technologies. Scientists have also been intensely investigating PSCs for their potential in making unique advances for broader applications. Several such applications would be enabled by high-performance visibly transparent photovoltaic (PV) devices, including building-integrated photovoltaics and integrated PV chargers for portable electronics.

Previously, many attempts have been made toward demonstrating visibly transparent or semitransparent PSCs. However, these demonstrations often result in low visible light transparency and/or low device efficiency because suitable polymeric PV materials and efficient transparent conductors were not well deployed in device design and fabrication.

A team of UCLA researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute, the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and UCLA's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have demonstrated high-performance, solution-processed, visibly transparent polymer solar cells through the incorporation of near-infrared light-sensitive polymer and using silver nanowire composite films as the top transparent electrode.

The near-infrared photoactive polymer absorbs more near-infrared light but is less sensitive to visible light, balancing solar cell performance and transparency in the visible wavelength region.

Another breakthrough is the transparent conductor made of a mixture of silver nanowire and titanium dioxide nanoparticles, which was able to replace the opaque metal electrode used in the past. This composite electrode also allows the solar cells to be fabricated economically by solution processing. With this combination, 4 percent power-conversion efficiency for solution-processed and visibly transparent polymer solar cells has been achieved.

"We are excited by this new invention on transparent solar cells, which applied our recent advances in transparent conducting windows (also published in ACS Nano) to fabricate these devices," said Paul S.Weiss, CNSI director and Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences.

Their study has been published in the journal ACS Nano.

Apple Granted ‘Mother Of All Software Patents’ That Could Destroy Android Rivals

Apple Granted 'Mother Of All Software Patents' That Could Destroy Android Rivals

http://www.cultofmac.com/179550/apple-granted-mother-of-all-software-patents-that-could-destroy-android-rivals/

This patent could be Apple's biggest weapon against the competition yet.

Apple has been granted what has been described as "the mother of all software patents," which covers a whole host of features that Apple pioneered with the iPhone. Not only is this huge for Apple in its fight against copycats, but it could have a significant affect on almost every single device that rivals the iPhone or the iPad.

Patent number 8,223,134, entitled "Portable electronic device, method, and graphical user interface for displaying electronic lists and documents," covers the user interface Apple designed for email, telephone, camera, video player, browser, widgets, search, notes, maps, and most significantly, a multitouch interface.

These are all features that have now made their way into almost every Android and Windows Phone smartphone and tablet on the market, and one Android fan believes its affects could be "swift and lethal."

Kevin Krause over at Phandroid writes:

Apple's latest patent should give Google and its stable of Android device manufacturers reason to worry. Granted just today, the latest addition to the Cupertino-based tech giant's stable of intellectual property could be the mother of all smartphone software patents [...]

The bad news for Android and its hardware partners is that this patent will likely become a stable of future patent infringement claims coming from Apple's court. The effects could be swift and lethal, depending on how descriptions of user interface elements are leveraged.

As you'd expect, the news hasn't be well received by Android users, who have argued that Apple's plan for dominance should not include taking down all of its competitors. Instead, they believe the company should just… compete.

However, Jack Purcher from Patently Applemakes a very good point:

In 2007, Samsung, HTC, Google and all others in the industry didn't have a smartphone with the likes of Apple's iPhone features. They didn't have the solutions that Apple eloquently brought to market to make a smartphone truly smart. Apple carefully and meticulously crafted a full end-to-end smartphone solution. So when the copycats and their followers whine in public and on blogs that Apple should learn to compete instead of initiate litigation – I bowl over with laughter.

Admittedly, it does appear that Apple uses its legal team to fight the opposition all too frequently. A recent report found that the Cupertino company is at the center of 60% of all major patent suits. However, Apple has made its feeling towards copycats perfectly clear, and it will do whatever it takes to prevent other companies from stealing its intellectual property.

In a recent interview with Walt Mossberg at the D10 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple doesn't want to be anyone's design house.

Source: Fortune

Design review (US Government) - Wikipedia

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_review_(US_Government)#section_1

HideReview process

Design review is also required of medical device developers as part of a system of design controls described in the US Food and Drug Administration's governing regulations in 21CFR820. In 21CFR820.3(h), design review is described as " documented, comprehensive, systematic examination of the design to evaluate the adequacy of the design requirements, to evaluate the capability of the design to meet these requirements, and to identify problems." The FDA also specifies that a design review should include an independent reviewer.

Mission Concept Review (MCR)

The MCR affirms the mission need and examines the proposed mission's objectives and the concept for meeting those objectives.

System Requirements Review (SRR)

The SRR examines the functional and performance requirements defined for the system and the preliminary program or project plan and ensures that the requirements and the selected concept will satisfy the mission.

Mission Definition Review (MDR)

The MDR examines the proposed requirements, the mission architecture, and the flow down to all functional elements of the mission to ensure that the overall concept is complete, feasible, and consistent with available resources.

System Definition Review (SDR)

The SDR examines the proposed system architecture and design and the flow down to all functional elements of the system.

Preliminary Design Review (PDR)

The PDR demonstrates that the preliminary design meets all system requirements with acceptable risk and within the cost and schedule constraints and establishes the basis for proceeding with detailed design. It will show that the correct design options have been selected, interfaces have been identified, and verification methods have been described.^[2]

The following are typical objectives of a PDR:

• Ensure that all system requirements have been allocated, the requirements are complete, and the flowdown is adequate to verify system performance
• Show that the proposed design is expected to meet the functional and performance requirements
• Show sufficient maturity in the proposed design approach to proceed to final design
• Show that the design is verifiable and that the risks have been identified, characterized, and mitigated where appropriate

Critical Design Review (CDR)

The CDR demonstrates that the maturity of the design is appropriate to support proceeding with full-scale fabrication, assembly, integration, and test. CDR determines that the technical effort is on track to complete the flight and ground system development and mission operations, meeting mission performance requirements within the identified cost and schedule constraints.^[3]

The following are typical objectives of a CDR:

• Ensure that the "build-to" baseline contains detailed hardware and software specifications that can meet functional and performance requirements
• Ensure that the design has been satisfactorily audited by production, verification, operations, and other specialty engineering organizations
• Ensure that the production processes and controls are sufficient to proceed to the fabrication stage
• Establish that planned Quality Assurance (QA) activities will establish perceptive verification and screening processes for producing a quality product
• Verify that the final design fulfills the specifications established at PDR

Production Readiness Review (PRR)

A PRR is held for Flight System and Ground Support projects developing or acquiring multiple or similar systems greater than three or as determined by the project. The PRR determines the readiness of the system developers to efficiently produce the required number of systems. It ensures that the production plans; fabrication, assembly, and integration enabling products; and personnel are in place and ready to begin production.

Test Readiness Review (TRR)

A TRR ensures that the test article (hardware/software), test facility, support personnel, and test procedures are ready for testing and data acquisition, reduction, and control. This is not a prerequisite for KDP E.

System Acceptance Review (SAR)

The SAR verifies the completeness of the specific end products in relation to their expected maturity level and assesses compliance to stakeholder expectations. The SAR examines the system, its end products and documentation, and test data and analyses that support verification. It also ensures that the system has sufficient technical maturity to authorize its shipment to the designated operational facility or launch site.

Operational Readiness Review (ORR)

The ORR examines the actual system characteristics and the procedures used in the system or end product's operation and ensures that all system and support (flight and ground) hardware, software, personnel, procedures, and user documentation accurately reflect the deployed state of the system.

The following are typical objectives of an ORR:

• Establish that the system is ready to transition into an operational mode through examination of available ground and flight test results, analyses, and operational demonstrations
• Confirm that the system is operationally and logistically supported in a satisfactory manner considering all modes of operation and support (normal, contingency, and unplanned)
• Establish that operational documentation is complete and represents the system configuration and its planned modes of operation
• Establish that the training function is in place and has demonstrated capability to support all aspects of system maintenance, preparation, operation, and recovery.

Flight Readiness Review (FRR)

The FRR examines tests, demonstrations, analyses, and audits that determine the system's readiness for a safe and successful flight or launch and for subsequent flight operations. It also ensures that all flight and ground hardware, software, personnel, and procedures are operationally ready.

The following are typical objectives of a FRR:

• Receive certification that flight operations can safely proceed with acceptable risk.
• Confirm that the system and support elements are properly configured and ready for launch.
• Establish that all interfaces are compatible and function as expected.
• Establish that the system state supports a launch "go" decision based on go/no-go criteria.

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Signal Purpose

Terrex Features

Sense, Shoot and Suppress

Israeli hover-jeep returns to flight testing

BY 

UNMANNED EDITOR

 – MAY 10, 2011POSTED IN: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAV) NEWS, UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLES (UGV) NEWS

AirMule

The “AirMule” robot hover-jeep being developed in Israel is back in flight tests following modifications: but the radical ducted-fan VTOL craft still has yet to fly untethered.

According to makers Urban Aeronautics:

Our AirMule prototype has recently resumed its flight testing after a systems and structural upgrade that lasted 4 months. The vehicle is now flying with an expanded sensors suite and the new, energy absorbing wheeled landing gear … Initial results from the tests look very promising.

The AirMule’s original skid-type landing gear has now been replaced by a wheeled undercarriage evidently able to absorb greater shocks. According to Urban Aero, the wheels will also permit rolling takeoffs, which will (as is also the case with helicopters, tiltrotors, jumpjets etc) permit the AirMule to get airborne carrying a greater load than it could lifting off vertically.

Urban Aero’s “fancraft” designs – the AirMule is the only serious one as yet to move off the drawing board – use ducted fans, essentially enclosed helicopter rotors, for lift. The addition of proprietary Venetian-blind style slats to direct the air flow, coupled with modern fly-by-wire controls, is expected to conquer the traditional disadvantages of ducted fan aircraft: an Urban Aero offering will be easy to fly and will not need to tilt itself to maintain a hover in windy conditions, nor to achieve cruise power.

The firm has plans one day to offer manned craft, but for now it is proceeding with the unmanned AirMule. It’s hoped that military customers might use the robot hoverjeep for resupplying embattled troops fighting in cities, where the fancraft’s precise-hover abilities and the fact that it can’t smash off its rotors as easily as a helicopter might let it carry out missions that choppers couldn’t.

Unpiloted aircraft seem unlikely to take up a routine troop- or passenger-lifting role in today’s climate, but it is thought that the military might use them for casualty evacuation as well as resupply. More traditional unmanned missions such as surveillance and strike wouldn’t call for the AirMule’s specialist design and aren’t really seen as likely roles for it.

Manned, future versions of the AirMule would be quite close to being full-fat Jetsons flying cars in some respects: they would be somewhat quieter than helicopters and would offer not just full VTOL but a rock-steady hover providing “comfortable access” to high-rise windowsills, according to company reps. By necessity, having developed from an unmanned craft intended to operate in a difficult comms environment, manned “X-Hawk” hoverjeeps would need no highly-trained pilot – they would be quite capable of flying themselves with only minimal supervision.

However, Urban Aero long ago gave up on the idea that its designs could fly powered by ordinary, low-maintenance engines of the sort found in cars. The AirMule is powered by a gas turbine, so it will never be cheap or really very quiet. Furthermore the need to keep the main lift fans large is such as to dominate the craft’s layout – payload, machinery etc must be packed in around the edge of the fan disc. This minimalist deck plan may mean that future designs are sufficiently awkward as to be hard to love.

Certainly Urban Aero has struggled to attract major backing and development is proceeding slowly as a result. “We are now working to secure additional funding that will carry us through the next few years and up to full scale development and production”, says the firm.

Source: The Register

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THROWABLE ROBOTS TO JOIN BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN

At dusk, a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan approach a building. It's surrounded by a low wall, and looks empty, but the wooden front gate is shut. A soldier pulls a small robot out of his backpack that shaped something like a dumbell and throws it over the wall. The little robot rights itself and starts rolling around the grounds, transmitting pictures via it's camera. An infrared scan shows nobody inside, but there's a bomb behind the gate. The platoon calls up its bomb disposal team.

By May, real, throwable robots, called Scout XTs, will be doing jobs just like that. Built by Minneapolis-basedReconRobotics Inc., they weigh about a pound and can be dropped onto concrete from 30 feet up. They have two wheels and an onboard camera that can also see in the infrared. Between them the U.S. Army and Marines have ordered 1,126 of them.

The concept isn't unlike the telepresence robot built from a recycled laptop or the Romotive chassis that works with a smart phone as its "brain." But these are designed for military use, and so were built with the ability to work the moment they hit the ground -- there's no need to worry about whether it is right side up, or rough terrain. They are also simple to control.

The Scout XT is one of several robots that are making their way to battlefields -- the South Korean military is working on a remote-controlled robot grenade. Robots can be in areas where it's dangerous for human soldiers, and small ones can fit into small spaces, such as under a car to check for bombs. via: ABC News

Photo: The Scout XT; Credit: ReconRobotics

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Surveillance Cameras System using an Ad Hoc Network

Surveillance Cameras System using an Ad Hoc Network

The Murata Uemura Laboratory at Ryukoku University is researching a surveillance camera system using an ad hoc network.

"Conventionally, data has been managed on a server, but with this system, the idea is that data is shared using only ad hoc network devices. If a server is used, there's the problem of how to manage data if the server goes down. But by managing data using the devices alone, even if one device is absent, its data management can be done by another device. So this eliminates the problem."

This system consists of two kinds of wireless devices: those with a camera, and those without. When a device with a camera takes a picture, the data is sent to a neighboring device as well as being stored on the original device. Because devices may enter or leave the network, the method used to send the data is broadcasting, which doesn't specify the receiving device. In other words, all devices within the signal reception range receive the picture data at the same time. When a neighboring device receives the picture correctly, it sends it on to the next one. This process is repeated to distribute and share the picture among all the devices.

This system is expected to help prevent crime in two ways. Firstly, criminals don't know where they're being photographed from, so they can't find a blind spot. Secondly, even if a criminal breaks one device, the data has already been shared with other devices, so the photographic evidence isn't lost.

"I think this technology could also be used in emergency situations. If antennas go down in a fire or earthquake, the network won't function. But an ad hoc network could be constructed. We think this system could be utilized in that kind of way."

Unmanned first

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/google-patent-application-keeps-track-of-your-moves-to-automate/

Google patent application keeps track of your moves to automate mobile actions

By Joseph Volpe posted Apr 20, 2012 12:53PM

A shimmy and a shake could be all it takes to launch apps in the future, that's if this latest patent application ever pans out. Filed back in October of 2011, the folks over at Google are looking to make accelerometers useful for more than just screen orientation. According to the claims, after a training phase wherein this hypothetical program would associate specific application launches with geographic location data, your Pavlovian smartphone could then automate workflows and effectively anticipate your needs. Essentially, you'd have a mobile device that would know what to run wherever you were, hinging upon how you hold it. At least, that's the schematic covered in this USPTO document. Will it ever see the light of day? Hard to tell. Mountain View's just a-brimming with those 20 percent time projects.

Source: USPTO

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/ibm-battery-500/

IBM's building an air-breathing EV battery that goes 500 miles on a single charge

By Daniel Cooper posted Apr 20, 2012 12:01PM

IBM's planning an end to range anxiety with an EV power pack that runs on air and travels 500 miles on a single charge. "Lithium Air" batteries draw oxygen into a nano-structured carbon cathode, where it is stored and reacts with lithium ions and electrons to generate electricity. When you plug the vehicle in, the unmolested oxygen is released back into the air as if it was breathing. The technology's significantly lighter than what's found inside a Chevy Volt and IBM has enlisted the help of chemical giants Asahi Kaseiand Central Glass to turn it from successful experiment to fully-fledged product by 2030. If you'd like to learn more, we've got a gallery of candid pics from inside the testing lab, explanatory video and, yes, even a press release full of information for you to steep your brains in.

Launch Photo Gallery

Show full PR text

IBM Research Boosts Battery 500 Project with New Materials Partners

Asahi Kasei and Central Glass to enhance electric vehicle lithium-air battery innovationSAN JOSE, Calif. - April 20, 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that two industry leaders -- Asahi Kasei and Central Glass -- will join its Battery 500 Project team and collaborate on far-reaching research with the potential to accelerate the switch from gasoline to electricity as the primary power source for vehicles.In 2009, IBM Research pioneered a sustainable mobility project to develop lithium-air battery technology capable of powering a family-sized electric car for approximately 500 miles (800 km) on a single charge.As partners in the Battery 500 Project, Asahi Kasei and Central Glass bring decades of materials innovation for the automotive industry to the team. They will expand the project's scope and, although the scientific and engineering challenges to its practical implementation are extremely high, exploring several chemistries simultaneously increases the chance of success.Asahi Kasei, one of Japan's leading chemical manufactures and a leading global supplier of separator membrane for lithium-ion batteries, will use its experience in innovative membrane technology to create a critical component for lithium-air batteries.Central Glass, a leading global electrolyte manufacturer for lithium-ion batteries, will use its chemical expertise in this field to create a new class of electrolytes and high-performance additives specifically designed to improve lithium-air batteries."These new partners share our vision of electric cars being critical components of building a cleaner, better world, which is far less dependent on oil," said Dr. Winfried Wilcke, IBM's Principle Investigator who initiated the Battery 500 Project. "Their compatible experience, knowledge and commitment to bold innovation in electric vehicle battery technology can help us transfer this research from the lab onto the road."Most electric vehicles can only travel about 100 miles before needing to recharge using today's lithium-ion batteries. This is a significant barrier to electric car adoption unless a new battery technology can be developed that is affordable, lightweight, compact and has the capacity to power a typical family car several hundred miles or more on a single charge.For a car running on today's lithium-ion batteries to match the range provided by a tank of gasoline, car manufacturers would need a very large battery which would weigh down the car and take up too much space. Lithium-air batteries have higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries, due to their lighter cathodes and the fact that their primary "fuel" is the oxygen readily available in the atmosphere. To popularize electric cars, an energy density ten times greater than that of conventional lithium-ion batteries is needed, and these new partners to the project can help drive lithium-air technology towards that goal.New materials development is vitally important to ensuring the viability of lithium-air battery technology," said Tatsuya Mori, Director, Executive Managing Officer, Central Glass. "As a long-standing partner of IBM and leader in developing high-performance electrolytes for batteries, we're excited to share each other's chemical and scientific expertise in a field as exciting as electric vehicles.""We are very focused on addressing environmental challenges and limitations with diverse technology to build a brighter future. This alliance allows us to explore a new path to developing an improved rechargeable battery performance that can not be met with conventional technologies," said Tetsuro Ohta, Head of Advanced Battery Materials Development Center, Asahi Kasei.This research will take place at IBM Research - Almaden in California.About The Battery 500 ProjectThe switch from gasoline to electricity as the primary power source for vehicles stands to be one of the most important technology shifts of the first half of the 21st century. Recognizing this need, scientists at IBM Research-Almaden started the Battery 500 Project in 2009 to develop a Lithium-Air battery that could travel 500 miles on a single charge. Leveraging IBM's leadership across science and technology in chemistry, physics, nanotechnology and supercomputing modeling in both its Almaden and Zurich laboratories, this research is also done in conjunction with the other Battery 500 Project collaborators, including national laboratories.