Stretchy Artificial Skin Lets Prosthetic Hand Sense Heat, Humidity, and Pressure It’s so sophisticated, it can even tell the difference between a dry and soggy diaper

Prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by an amputee’s thoughts or muscle movements already exist. But what if they could also sense the environment and then send that information back to the amputee’s nervous system?

 

In order to create prosthetics that can function more like real body parts, scientists are designing artificial skins that pick up on tactile information. So far, these skins have gotten very good at sensing pressure—in fact, a skin designed by Stanford engineers is 1,000 times more sensitive than human skin. Another is self-healing.

But a new skin built by researchers in South Korea may be the smartest artificial skin yet. It’s stretchy, like real skin, and it can sense pressure, temperature, and humidity. It even has a built-in heater so it feels like living tissue. The researchers tested the artificial skin on a prosthetic hand, and they hope that some day, it will interface with a patient’s nerves so amputees can feel everything the fake skin feels.

“For prosthetic devices and artificial skin to feel natural, their temperature profile must be controlled to match that of the human body.”

“The prosthetic hand and laminated electronic skin could encounter many complex operations such as hand shaking, keyboard tapping, ball grasping, holding a cup of hot or cold drink, touching dry or wet surfaces and human to human contact,” they write in the paper, which was published today in Nature Comunnication

The bulk of the new skin is composed of a flexible, transparent silicone material called polydimethylsiloxane — or PDMS. Embedded within it are silicon nanoribbons that generate electricity when they’re squished or stretched, providing a source of tactile feedback. They can also sense whether an object is hot or cold.

The humidity sensors are made up of capacitors. When the polymer surrounding a capacitor absorbs water, the moisture changes the polymer’s ability to store a charge. The capacitors measure that storage change and use it to determine the moisture levels of the environment.

The researchers tested the humidity sensors in a somewhat unconventional way. First, they compared the artificial skin’s humidity readings to the measurements of a commercial humidity sensor, and the results matched up pretty well. That’s normal protocol. But just to be extra scientifically rigorous, the researchers had the prosthetic hand prod various diapers, and it turned out it was able to distinguish between wet and dry diapers. Success!

Next came the heating element.

“For prosthetic devices and artificial skin to feel natural, their temperature profile must be controlled to match that of the human body,” the authors write. Thermal actuators control how much heat the artificial skin emits. And although there are very simple ways to measure whether or not the skin maintains a steady 98 degrees Fahrenheit, the researchers preferred to place the hand on a plastic baby doll (hopefully it was washed after touching those soggy diapers) and then measured the amount of heat the hand transferred to the doll. It was within the normal human range.

Zhenan Bao, an artificial skin engineer at Stanford, who was not involved in the new paper, called the work exciting. She said that although the authors have created artificial skins with temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors before, integrating it with the stretchy substrate is novel.

By adjusting the shape of the silicon nanoribbon patterns, the researchers can adjust how stretchy the skin is. For regions where the skin doesn’t need to stretch, such as the fingertips, the nanoribbons are packed in a tight linear pattern to maximize sensitivity. For areas like the wrist, which need more flexibility, the nanoribbons form a more loopy pattern, allowing for more room to expand by up to 16 percent.

“This is an important demonstration of the applications of stretchable electronics,” said Bao.

The team is still working out the best way to get the sensory information from the artificial skin to the brain of the amputee. They did manage to transfer pressure information from the skin into the brain of a rat, but the paper cautions that the method may not be safe to use in people.

At the very least, perhaps this invention will fulfill every parent’s dream: Diaper-changing robots.

This Device Reads Your Mind Through Your Veins

In recent years, scientists have been developing new and creative ways to put electronics in the brain. These devices are useful for paralyzed patients to control prosthetic limbs with their minds, to help locked-in patients communicate with the outside world, or to help researchers better predict seizures in epileptic patients. But implanting them requires opening the skull, an intrusive procedure. Now researchers from the University of Melbourne have created a device that can be inserted into the brain through the blood vessels, no invasive surgery required. The study was published this week in Nature Biotechnology.

The device, about an inch long, looks similar to a stent, an apparatus placed around the heart to open up clogged blood vessels—in fact, the researchers named it a “stentrode.” To insert it, the researchers put a catheter into a vein in the neck, then snake it through the blood vessels into the head until the end is in the desired part of the brain, next to the motor cortex. Once the catheter reaches the right spot, the stentrode sticks to the sides of the blood vessel, where it can collect data from the activity of neurons nearby. The data reaches the researchers’ computers through a wire that comes out of the neck.

When the researchers tested the device on sheep, they found that the stentrodes were sensitive and transmitted good data. They also stayed in the sheep for 190 days without issue, indicating to the researchers that the devices could stay in humans for a long time without issue.

The stentrode, and similar devices that can be implanted in the brain without opening the skull, might even be useful beyond a medical capacity, becoming commonplace and changing the way we interact with computers. Of course, the necessity of a wire coming out of a user’s neck is less than ideal, so these devices might first have to become wireless if they’re going to become widespread among the population.

The researchers hope to test the stentrode in humans next year.

Air Into Water

 

 

Air Into Water

Johathan Ritchey has invented the Watermill, which is an atmospheric water generator. It converts air into fresh water.

This latest technology invention produces fresh water at a cost of about 3 cents a liter (1 quart). Originally designed for areas that do not have clean drinking water, the Watermill is for households that prefer an eco-friendly, cost effective alternative to bottled water.

Atmospheric water generators convert air into water when the temperature of the air becomes saturated with enough water vapor that it begins to condense (dew point).

“What is unique about the Watermill is that it has intelligence,” says Ritche. This makes the appliance more efficient. It samples the air every 3 minutes to determine the most efficient time to convert the air into water.

It will also tell you when to change the carbon filter and will shut itself off if it cannot make pure clean water.

– See more at: http://www.inventor-strategies.com/Latest-technology-inventions.html#sthash.us0CrFXa.dpuf

Car Gps Tracking

 

 

Car Gps Tracking is fairly common in new vehicles, providing drivers with tracking and navigation.

However, latest technology inventions have made car gps tracking systems more sophisticated, allowing for a wide range of additional uses.

Smartbox technology is one example of how car gps tracking systems are being used to lower car insurance.

A comprehensive recording of a driver’s habits allows insurance companies to provide “pay-as-you-drive” car insurance.

City officials in New York City are considering how car gps tracking could be used as “Drive Smart” technology.

Most large cities have a limited capability to change the infrastructure of their roadways.

A car gps tracking system that integrates with traffic information would give drivers the ability to select routes in real time that were more fuel efficient, less congested, faster or shorter.

A driver’s recorded routing selection could then be used to penalize or reward drivers by lowering or increasing their related licensing fees or by calculating mileage based “road-use” fees.

Eventually, such a system would replace gasoline tax since these revenues will decline as more vehicles become less dependent on fossil fuels.

3D Printed Car

 

The latest technology inventions in 3d printing are

rapidly changing how things are being made.

It’s an emerging technology that is an alternative to the traditional tooling and machining processes used in manufacturing.

At the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, a little known Arizona-based car maker created a media sensation by manufacturing a car at the show.

It was a full scale, fully functional car that was 3d printed in 44 hours and assembled in 2 days. The video below shows the car being made.

The car is called a “Strati”, Italian for layers, so named by it’s automotive designer Michele Anoè because the entire structure of the car is made from layers of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (A.B.S.) with reinforced carbon fiber into a single unit.

The average car has more than 20,000 parts but this latest technology reduces the number of parts to 40 including all the mechanical components.

“The goal here is to get the number of parts down, and to drop the tooling costs to almost zero.” said John B. Rogers Jr., chief executive of Local Motors, a Princeton and Harvard-educated U.S. Marine.

“Cars are ridiculously complex,“ he added, referring to the thousands of bits and pieces that are sourced, assembled and connected to make a vehicle.

“It’s potentially a huge deal,” said Jay Baron, president of the Center for Automotive Research, noting that the material science and technology used by Local Motors is derived from their partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge,Tennessee.

This technology can use a variety of metal, plastic or composite materials to manufacture anything in intricate detail.

People tend to want what they want, when they want it, where they want it, and how they want it, which makes this technology disruptive in the same way digital technologies used by companies like Amazon and Apple disrupted newspaper, book and music publishers.

Imagine if you could customize and personalize your new car online and pick it up or have it delivered to you the next day at a fraction of the cost of buying one from a dealership?

What if you could make a fender for a Porsche, or a tail light for a Honda, for a fraction of the cost of buying from a parts supplier? How revolutionary would that be for the automotive industry?

It’s already happening.

Jay Leno, the former Tonight Show Host and avid car enthusiast is famous for his collection of vintage automobiles.

One of the challenges with collecting antique cars is replacing parts. You can’t buy them because they’re obsolete and having a machinist tool the part doesn’t always work and often requires costly modifications until the part fits.

So Leno uses 3d printing technology to make parts for his cars. “These incredible devices allow you to make the form you need to create almost any part”, says Leno.

John B. Rogers Jr. believes that in the near future a car will be made in just 60 minutes.

The company is already organizing a worldwide network of “Microfactories” where you can order and pickup your personalized, customized car.

Batman Envy? Cool New Cars Could Drive Themselves, and Talk

This week’s CES trade show goes beyond robotic dogs, smart bras, and curved TVs. It’s unveiling smart, energy-saving cars of the near future.

 

Automakers are showcasing new battery-powered and hydrogen smart vehicles, including a car that will sell for about $30,000 and a futuristic one that’s so sleek it could be the envy of Batman.

These cars promise to go farther on a single charge, drive themselves (at least partly), or operate the lights, appliances, and garage doors of our homes. Some are just concepts that may never get built, but others like General Motors’ all-electric Chevy Bolt will go on sale next year.

We see the vehicle of the future as more than just a mode of transportation.

Bob Carter

They debuted this week in Las Vegas at CES, a consumer electronics trade show that’s gaining cachet in the auto world as cars increasingly become computers on wheels. At least nine automakers and 115 auto-tech companies showed their products, taking up 25 percent more square footage than last year—even though a major auto show takes place next week in Detroit.

“Automakers are seeing that technology is playing a bigger part in the car,” said Laura Hubbard, spokeswoman of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes the annual show. “They don’t talk about themselves as auto companies,” she said in an interview of the shift. “They see themselves as mobility companies.”

So the companies didn’t unveil just cars, they announced partnerships and plans. General Motors will invest $500 million in Lyft, the ride-hailing service, to create a network of on-demand autonomous vehicles. Toyota named the team for its $1 billion research effort, in connection with Stanford and MIT, to develop artificial intelligence and robotics. Ford described how it’s using Amazon products to marry smart cars with smart homes so drivers can operate wifi-connected home devices.

Why Solar and Wind Thrive Despite Cheap Oil and Gas

Low oil prices are rattling stock markets, but investors remain bullish on solar, wind, andother clean energy. Here are three reasons why.

 

The prolonged plunge in fossil fuel prices is rippling across the globe. Yet it’s barely put a dent in the booming market for clean energy, heralding perhaps a new era for wind and solar.

Oil prices of less than $30 a barrel—the lowest in 12 years—have shaken stock markets and ravaged the budgets of major producers such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. Along with falling gas prices, they’ve slashed the profits of fossil fuel companies, which are delaying dozens of big projects worth an estimated $380 billion and laying off thousands of workers.

In Texas, home to shale-rich oil deposits, once-crowded trailer parks that housed workers are now largely empty.

But solar, wind, and other clean energy? They’re expanding. Last year, they attracted a record $329 billion in investment—nearly six times the total in 2004, according to a report this month by Bloomberg New Energy Finance or BNEF. Wind and solar also installed a record amount of power capacity.

Yet the clean energy revolution is not immune to market forces. In the United States, where gas prices are now below $2 a gallon in many places, sales of SUVs rose last year while those for electric or fuel-sipping hybrid cars fell.

“We’re not saying there’s no impact, but we’re not seeing a significant impact yet,” says Angus McCrone, BNEF’s chief editor. “There’s a lot of momentum behind clean energy.”

He and other experts explain why:

1. Prices have fallen as government incentives have risen.

Oil and gas may now be a lot cheaper than a few years ago, but solar and wind are cheaper, too. Since 2008, according to U.S. government data, prices have plummeted 60 percent for large-scale solar, and 40 percent for wind.

Solar and wind are “competitive in many countries,” says Alex Klein, senior research director of renewables at IHS Energy, a research firm. He notes they don’t compete much with oil, used mostly as a transportation fuel, but they do compete with natural gas, used to power plants that produce electricity.

Despite low natural gas prices, solar and wind accounted for 60 percent of new U.S. power capacity last year and will likely account for 70 percent this year, says Marlene Motyka, U.S. alternative energy leader at Deloitte.

Such competitiveness is new. “The last time oil was at this price, the cost of renewables was much higher,” says Jonathan Grant, director of the climate change team at PwC (also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers.)

Their economics could improve. “For renewables, particularly solar, substantive improvements in cost and efficiency are not only possible but likely,” writes Sott Nyquist, director of McKinsey & Company’s Houston office. In contrast, he says, coal is facing steeper costs partly because of tighter U.S. regulations, and gas is already using technologies that are highly efficient.

Solar and wind got a huge boost in December, when the U.S. Congress renewed their tax credits for another five years. BNEF expects this extension will add an extra 20 gigawatts of solar power—equal to the total amount installed via solar pnaels in the U.S. prior to 2015.

2. Demand has expanded, driven partly by public policy.

Countries are looking to renewable energy to meet the pledges they made as part of the UN climate accord last month in Paris. They agreed to cut the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted when oil, gas, or coal are burned.

Some, such as India, also see renewables as a way to reduce their severe air pollution. China is cutting back its use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, even though it’s cheap.

Developing countries in Africa, where many people don’t have access to a central power grid, are pursuing solar projects as a quicker and less costly way to provide electricity. Wealthier countries are using solar to create microgrids that can keep the lights on when storms like Hurricane Sandy knock out the grid.

States and local governments are pushing low-carbon or carbon-free energy alternatives as well. In the U.S., dozens of states now require they account for at least a certain amount of their electricity. Hawaii has pledged to get all its power from renewables by 2045, Vermont has pledged to get 75 percent by 2032 and California, 50 percent by 2030.

I don’t see businesses stepping back.

Marlene Motyka

3. Corporate and investor support is strong.

Companies are making similar pledges. The Paris climate summit prompted a “tipping point” in corporate support, says a report this month from Influence Map, a nonprofit based in the United Kingdom. The report says more than half of the world’s largest companies now back steps to cut heat-trapping emissions and a third support putting a price on carbon.

“The corporate side is here to stay. I don’t see businesses stepping back,” says Deloitte’s Motyka. In a recent Deloitte analysis, more than 55 percent of companies report generating some of their electricity on-site, 13 percent of which comes from solar panels or wind turbines.

Renewables are attracting capital. A recent study by Goldman Sachs says the combined market size of low-carbon technologies—including wind, solar, LEDs, and hybrid or electric vehicles—now exceeds $600 billion, about the size of the U.S. defense budget.

Investments are expected to rise. Some oil-importing countries, including China and India, have saved money from low prices that they can invest in renewables. Even some oil-exporting countries are investing in solar. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Kuwait are trying to curb fossil fuel use at home so they can maximize profits for oil exports.

“Fossil fuels will be here for decades to come, but their share will fall,” says PwC’s Grant. Even in the transportation sector, where oil is so important, he expects electric vehicles will eventually catch on—but not because of price.

Record 51 Million Vehicles Recalled Last Year, NHTSA Reports

DETROIT — Automobile recalls hit another record last year as stronger government enforcement and widening recalls of exploding air bags pushed the total above 51 million vehicles.

The 2015 number barely beat the old record set in 2014, after that total was adjusted downward from nearly 64 million to eliminate double counting in the massive recalls of air bag inflators made by Takata Corp., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The agency recorded almost 900 separate recalls last year, beating the 2014 record of 803, the agency said. The number was higher due largely to automakers reacting to millions of dollars in fines levied against Fiat Chrysler, General Motors and Takata for reporting safety problems too slowly. Many of the recalls involved small numbers of vehicles as manufacturers moved faster to correct problems.

The Takata recalls, which began in 2014 and extended into 2015, were by far the biggest contributor to the new record, NHTSA said.

A deployed airbag is seen in a 2001 Honda Accord at the LKQ Pick Your Part salvage yard on May 22, 2015 in Medley, Florida. Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Takata makes air bag inflators that can explode with too much force and hurl shrapnel into drivers and passengers. In the U.S., about 23 million of its inflators have been recalled on 19 million vehicles sold by 12 auto and truck makers. Eight people worldwide have died and over 100 more have been hurt by the exploding inflators.

Pretty Curves Abound, But Big Changes Afoot at Detroit Auto Show

The government has said there likely will be more Takata recalls in the future.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind, in remarks prepared for a speech Thursday at the Washington Auto Show, said the agency has worked to spot defects faster. “But identifying defects is not enough; we have to make sure they get fixed,” he said.

In the speech, Rosekind announced a digital advertising campaign urging people to keep their families safe by getting recall repairs done. The yearlong campaign called “Safe Cars Save Lives” promotes use of NHTSA’s search engine that allows drivers to enter their car’s vehicle identification number to find out if any recalls repairs haven’t been made.

“The campaign makes a simple point: Taking action on a safety recall keeps you and the people you love safe,” Rosekind said.

On average, automakers fix 75 percent of cars covered by a recall in 18 months, but that means a quarter go unrepaired.

Rosekind’s agency also announced it’s working on regulations that could add text messages, email and social media to the current method of notifying owners of recalled cars and trucks by mail. The agency is seeking public input on what methods would work best.

The moves come just a week after two announcements in Detroit about speeding up adoption of autonomous cars and reaching an agreement with automakers to work together on boosting safety efforts.

Mysterious Fault Downs Reaper Drones

The US Air Force’s flagship Reaper drone is plagued by a mysterious technical fault which causes the craft to fall out of the sky, a report says.

An investigation by the Washington Post found that the unmanned drone – which conducts surveillance and airstrikes against Islamic State – has been hit with a number of technical problems.

It said that electrical faults have caused 20 Reaper drones to be destroyed or to suffer at least $2m (£1.4m) in damage in the last year – the worst annual toll ever.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that investigations have traced the problem to a faulty starter-generator, but cannot work out why it keeps failing.

Since 2001, more than 400 large US military drones have crashed.

Video: How Do Drones Find Their Targets?

The Post said: “Military drones have slammed into homes, farms, runways, highways, waterways and, in one case, an Air Force C-130 Hercules transport plane in midair.

“No one has died in a drone accident, but the documents show that many catastrophes have been narrowly averted, often by a few feet, or a few seconds, or pure luck.”

In one incident, documents obtained show that a $3.8m (£2.6m) Predator drone crashed near Kandahar because the pilot did not realise she had been flying the aircraft upside down.

Another crashed because the pilot pressed the wrong button on his joystick.

Video: 2015: RAF Reaper Hits IS Vehicle

No-one has died in a drone incident, but errors have resulted in a number of near-misses.

The drones are manufactured in the US but are also used by the Royal Air Force and the Italian Air Force.

RAF Reaper drones are being used for surveillance and airstrikes against IS targets in Syria and Iraq.

Operators control the drones using computers on the ground.

Saudi grand mufti says playing chess is forbidden in Islam

 

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti Sheikh Abdullah al-Sheikh during a television program said playing chess is forbidden in Islam, British newspaper The Guardian reported.

Responding to a question on a television show in which he issues fatwas (religious decrees) after listening to viewers’ questions, Sheikh said playing the board game is ‘haram’ (forbidden) as it encourages gambling and is a waste of time.

He claimed that the game was “included under gambling” and was “a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players”.

Al-Sheikh justified the ruling by referring to a verse in the Quran banning “intoxicants, gambling, idolatry and divination”.

Iraq’s Supreme Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani too had issued a decree terming the game ‘haram mutlaqan’ (forbidden absolutely or under any circumstances), with or without betting.

Also Read: Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti calls suicide bombers ‘criminals’

The game of chess, a board game can be traced back to an ancient version called Chatrang, popular in Persia during the 600BCs.

The name ‘chess’ is a variant of the Persian ‘shah’ (king) that replaced the original ‘shatranj’ and ‘ajedrez’ and came to be modified through dialect across Europe as ‘check’ and later ‘chess’.

Gameplay in chess is of two kinds: tactical and strategic. Tactics is concerned with the immediate action taken by each player, as in the advancing and positioning of a piece, while strategy is focused on achieving long-term positioning advantages.