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Monday, 29 June 2015

TASTY TECH EYE CANDY OF THE WEEK LIV


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Tasty Tech Eye Candy Of The Week (June 28)
By Tracy Staedter,
Discovery News, 28 June 2015.

Throwable cameras, 3D-printed hearts and cars and magnetically levitating hoverboards right out of the 80s movie 'Back to the Future' round out this week's Tasty Tech gallery.

1. Throwable Camera

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In July, you'll be able to purchase the new throwable camera from the Boston start-up company Bounce Imaging. Developed by MIT alums, the camera gives rescue personnel and law enforcement a way to see and image an environment that may be inaccessible or even hazardous. The so-called "tactical sphere" comes equipped with cameras and sensors that transmit panoramic images to a smartphone.

2. Audi Moon Rover

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Car maker Audi is getting into the Moon Race. They've announced that they're supporting the Part-Time Scientists group and entering the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition with a quattro all-wheel drive vehicle. The company plans to develop an aluminium vehicle that will launch into space in 2017. Once on the moon, solar panels will harness sunlight, save it to a lithium-ion battery, and use it to power four electric wheel hub motors. Winners of the XPRIZE will receive US$30 million to develop their vehicle.

3. Flexible Nanostructured Display

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A new lightweight display changes colour on demand, not with light or traditional technologies used in LCD displays, but by applying a specific voltage to an ultrathin nanostructured surface. The display is only a few microns thick - much thinner than a human hair - and could be made into displays as flexible as clothing that change colour on demand.

4. 3-D Dino Tracks

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Five dinosaur tracks salvaged from a quarry near Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany, have been used to create three-dimensional digital models that show how the individual footprints were positioned in relation to one another. That evidence, pieced together by palaeontologists from the University of Bonn, working with Dinosaur Park Münchehagen and the State Museum of Hanover, suggests that 154 million years ago, carnivorous dinosaurs immigrated to an island via a land bridge to hunt herbivorous.

5. 3D-Printed Car

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For an emission-free car to be totally clean, it needs to be manufactured without the use of fossil fuels. Designer Kevin Czinger who founded San Francisco-based Divergent Microfactories has developed a 3D-printing technology to print the world's first supercar, he's dubbed Blade. The car's frame is made from pieces of carbon fibre tubing connected by 3D-printed aluminium joints. Because Blade requires less manufacturing space and can be created faster, it uses less materials and energy to produce, greatly reducing emissions.

6. 3D-Printed Heart

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Experts from Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital have used computed tomography (CT) and three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE) to create an accurate 3D-printed prototype of a heart. Because the three-dimensional model is based on images of a real heart, it gives doctors a better way to diagnose and ultimately treat heart disease.

7. Rooftop Park

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A new building going up in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighbourhood will not only be the largest residential building in the area, but will also sport a green roof with some fantastic outdoor amenities. Residents will have access to an urban farm, a cross-training circuit and bocce ball court, among other features.

8. Ford's Electric Bicycle

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Ford CEO and President Mark Fields spoke at a media event this past week in San Francisco about Ford's role in the future of urban mobility. The company's Smart Mobility program is three-pronged, involving lightweight, folding electric bicycles for commuters that take trains into the city from the suburbs. The second prong is an app for drivers looking for parking spaces in the city. And the third prong involves ride-sharing vans that can be hailed like Uber cabs with an app.

9. Organ on a Chip

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This tiny chip has won a big prize. The organ-on-a-chip mimics real human organs, such as lungs and stomachs and allows researchers to quickly test drug combinations. It was developed by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute and won the overall prize for the Design Museum's Design of the Year Award for 2015. [Video]

10. Maglev Hoverboard

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Toyota's luxury car brand Lexus has created a prototype hoverboard called Slide that uses the same technology used for maglev trains. The device requires magnets to be embedded in the ground in order to repel those embedded in the board, limiting its range to special tracks. But to anyone who ever fantasized about riding a hoverboard, ala 'Back to the Future,' they'll take it.

Top image: Audi Lunar quattro all-wheel drive vehicle. Credit: Volkswagen Group.

[Source: Discovery News. Edited. Top image and links added.]

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