Developages - Development and Technology Blog

It’s time to break out the Alsatians people; our future robot overlord masters now have a face. ‘Jules’ is the name of their equivalent of Adam, and was developed as part of a project called ‘Human-Robot Interaction’ at Bristol’s robotics lab by a team of engineers. For the time being its sole job is to mimic people’s facial expressions by mapping them onto electronic motors under the flexible rubber skin. Developer Peter Jaeckel (we’ll start getting scared when Robert Hyde gets signed to the project) sees application of the technology on robots in the workplace, care, education and in space. “Robot appearance and behaviour need to be well matched to meet expectations formed by our social experience. If people were put off, it would counteract all efforts to achieve trustworthiness, reliability and emotional intelligence” he says. Peter seems oblivious to the fact that ‘trusting’ robots is the first step towards damnation, but unless anyone fancies travelling back in time to stop him, it looks like the research will continue. Of course such a story wouldn’t be complete without a freaky video showing the thing in action, you can check it out below. - Paul Lester [DailyMail] robot bionics future

Original post by nafiz

We’re not at the nanotech nurse robots swarming through our blood system stage just yet but, in the meantime, Philips has designed a fiendishly clever pill, called [I know, I know] the ‘iPill’. The Intelligent Pill is target at “assisting drug development and enabling new therapies for debilitating and life-threatening digestive tract disorders such as Crohn’s disease, colitis and colon cancer.” So how does it work? The iPill determines its location in the intestinal tract by measuring the local acidity of its environment. Since different areas of the intestinal tract have different pH levels, the iPill knows where it is and can be programmed to release the good stuff from its drug reservoir via a microprocessor controlled pump. “The combination of navigational feedback, electronically controlled drug delivery and monitoring of the intestinal tract promises to make iPill technology a valuable research tool for drug development,” said leading pharmaceutical drug delivery expert Dr. Karsten Cremer of Pharma Concepts GmbH. “In particular, I recognise the potential of this technology to improve drug candidate profiling and selection, which could ultimately accelerate the development of new drugs.” The good bit is that it’s ready for mass manufacturing. The downside, they’re not making one for hangover headaches.-Martin Lynch [Philips] technology medicine health

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Honda is still messing around with robots and similar devices, recently showcasing its new ‘Robo-legs’, a kind of lower-body exoskeleton designed to make life easier. Rather than walking for you this device is more for additional support. It targets factory workers and those who spend a lot of time on their feet, or consistently lift heavy loads, the elderly and those suffering from conditions like arthritis. The legs support the hips, knees and ankles and comprise of a bicycle seat onto which you park your rear and a pair of shoes that you need to slip into at the other end. Sensors inside the shoes detect what your legs are trying to do and adjust the motors built into the device to support them and though it apparently takes a bit of getting used to, trials so far have gone well. There are still a few more hoops to jump through but plans are afoot (snigger) to test them in real world environments before rolling them out. You can view a video of the robot legs being demoed below. - Paul Lester [Wired] Honda robots bionics

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Samsung led the way with 500GB laptop drives back in June but now Hitachi and Fujitsu have finally woken up and announced their first 500GB mobile offerings in time for Christmas and all that downloading you′re planning to do come the holidays. Hitachi′s 500GB Travelstar 5K500.B [that’s 250GB per platter] is a 2.5in drive with a 3Gbps SATA interface, 5400rpm spin speed and featuring “advanced encryption″, presumably 128-bit. No price yet but it’s due out in December and boasts what Hitachi claims is the lowest power consumption in its class at 1.4Watts. Well, it would that is, if the new Fujitsu′s MJʌ 500GB drive didn′t also draw down just 1.4Watts. The MJʌ [pictured] is virtually identical on all the other stats too: 2.5in drive, 3Gbps SATA interface, 5400rpm spin speed. However, it does have one notable difference in that it’s offering 256-bit AES encryption support, which should make civil servants in charge of our ‘sensitive’ details feel a little more relaxed about leaving their laptop it in the back of a taxi next time they get a little loaded. Sadly, that extra protection won′t come in time for the boozy Christmas parties, as the MJʌ is not due to arrive until ‘early 2009′.-Martin Lynch laptop storage hdd

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The BBC has been in touch with Gizmodo UK about a new TV show it’s putting together about technology and how it has affected our lives over the past four decades. The same people that brought us Edwardian Country House and Who Do You Think You Are are seeking a family to take part in a Back To The Future look at the impact of gadgets and consumer technology. They will be transported back to the 1970s to start and then fast-forwarded through the 1980s, 90s and up to the present. The series will start with the family in a typical 1970s house surrounded by only the consumer tech you could expect from that era. They say: “In the 1970s the family will experience life without the technology we’ve begun to take for granted; they’ll live a seventies life in a seventies house without Sky +, Facebook and the Wii. It’s a chance to see how we did homework without the Internet, how we socialised without mobile phones in an era where encyclopaedias and dial phones were the order of the day. As the family move through the 70s they’ll road test all the gadgets and appliances that would have been available during that decade, from 70′s telly, vinyl and games consoles to slide projectors and deep freezers. They’ll see firsthand how far technology has come and its impact on our family life. It’s a huge nostalgia trip for mum and dad and it’s a chance to see just which family member really is the most technologically savvy.” Seeing as we here at Gizmodo UK are known for loving our gadgets and tech to an obsessive degree, the Beeb thought Gizmodo readers might be hiding the perfect family for the series. Find out what they are looking for after the jump.This is what the Beeb want: Are you a home-owning family with at least three children between the ages of eight and eighteen? Are you keen to show your children how much life has changed since your childhood? Are you interested in modern history and how technology has transformed the family home? Or maybe you’re looking for a challenging but rewarding nostalgia trip? For more details on this exciting opportunity, please contact either Michael Fraser on 020 7241 9349, or Laura Jackson on 020 7241 9308 or email michael.fraser@walltowall.co.uk or laura.jackson@walltowall.co.uk Well, what are you waiting for? If you do get picked, let us know how you get on.-Martin Lynch technology tv bbc

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Panasonic is set to become a very, very large electronics company indeed following confirmation that it plans to takeover struggling Sanyo Electric in a deal suggested to be worth up to £5.5bn. The new Panasonic would become a £70bn giant. The deal, the biggest ever in the Japanese consumer technology sector, will give Panasonic access to two key technologies: batteries and solar panels. Sanyo is currently the leading global supplier of rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, cameras and other portable devices - earning Sanyo almost $4bn annually in revenues. Sanyo also makes nickel-metal hydride batteries for gas-electric hybrid cars for Ford and Honda and has a lithium-ion battery deal with Volkswagen. Panasonic works with Toyota and the deal would place Panasonic at the forefront of future car battery technology. Goldman Sachs, Daiwa Securities SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking currently hold a 70% stake in Sanyo, which they paid $2.5bn for back in 2006. Panasonic has yet to agree financial terms but if it goes ahead, it may spark other large consumer tech mergers in the cut-throat Japanese market.-Martin Lynch [Businessweek] technology merger consumer

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I′ve worked a long time on my deathly pale pallor and I have no intention of cultivating a healthy glow now but, some of you may feel better with that year-round orangey glow. Yesterday we had a light that helps stop you getting the winter blues and today we have one that guarantees you a tan at your desk. Many facial tanners [and I′m no expert] require your mug and the lamp to be just 6ins or so apart which is uncomfortably close. But, the Upper Body Tanner uses a whopping 400W halogen lamp and a reflector to give you that bronze sheen from up to 4-feet away.Maybe someone should have told the girl leaning forward in the promo shot. There’s a 30-minute safety switch so that you fall well short of going crispy. Available from Pro-Idee for £175.-Martin Lynch [Source]

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Like an oversized backside wriggling its way into a new sofa, chip and pin has overcome early problems to become an accepted form of payment and security for credit and debit card purchases. Online shoppers will tell you that this is scant consolation when purchasing goods over the internet though, and luckily Visa Europe has come up with a chip-n-pin-esque solution to help offer peace of mind.Its one-time code card has a numeric keypad on the back and when you purchase something online you simply enter your pin and are given a one-time-use code. Enter this code on the site and payment is authenticated. It’s a remarkable piece of engineering since it’s no larger than a normal credit card and contains a built-in battery, though there’s no information on how long this’ll last. Visa has just announced that a number of Europe’s leading banks are interesting in trialling the card over the next few months and if successful it could be winging its way to you early next year. - Paul Lester [Visa Europe] Visa credit card payment

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We all know that the future of interaction with our PCs and consumer technology will involve gesture control but start-up Mgestyk Technologies claims to have cracked it now. What’s more, they claim their system uses nothing more than an ‘affordable 3D camera’ and its custom software to make playing games, opening applications and surfing the Web a mouse and keyboard-free experience. In the video you can see plenty of demonstrations of people doing all of the above but we’d be surprised if the reaction times of this system could in any way match those of a decent gaming mouse. That said, market watchers Gartner, have predicted [optimistically] that the mouse will be dead in just 3-to-5 years. However, the Mgestyk video is certainly fun to watch and the company promises - because it hasn’t launched anything yet - that the end result will cost the same as a high-end webcam. If you′re interested, you can sign up for the system here.-Martin Lynch [Source] PC software future

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If you thought the whole world was going solid disk drive (SSD) mad, then you′d be wrong. The world’s biggest hard drive maker, Seagate, has just confirmed that it will not be entering the mobile SSD market because there’s no money to be made. Although Seagate will launch an enterprise SSD next year, it is steering well clear of the mobile and consumer SSD space . Seagate CEO Bill Watkins, speaking to journalists in London, said: “The problem is you can’t make money out of it [mobile flash memory]… I don’t need to get into a market I can’t make money out of. I can get into that market any time - all I have to do is show up with a product and price it. The problem is, I can’t show up with a product that’s any better or significantly better than what they’re getting now so I have to match their price. “And right now if you look at it whether it’s Micron or Samsung or SanDisk - they’re selling at a loss. To do the product is not a big deal but to make money at it - it’s important to us. When Samsung can’t make money at this… it’s a tough market.” IDC predicts that mobile SSDs will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 85% from now until 2010. That said, it also believes that SSDs - sexy and all as they are - will ship no more than 32m units by 2010, compared to 600m HDDs.-Martin Lynch [Silicon] storage ssd technology

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We all know solid state disk (SSD) drives are faster, quieter, more reliable [and more expensive] than hard disk drives (HDDs) but SanDisk has just announced a new technology that will allow SSD drives to perform up to 100 times faster than they can now. Called ExtremeFFS (Flash File System), it will accelerate random write speeds by up to 100 times over existing systems. This new flash file management system operates on a page-based algorithm, which means there is no fixed coupling between physical and logical location. With ExtremeFFS, a written data sector is put where it’s most convenient and efficient. The result, says SanDisk, is a jump in random write performance by up to 100 times, as well as increased endurance for the SSD. A key element of ExtremeFFS is “usage-based content localisation”, where the flash management system ‘learns’ user patterns, putting the most commonly accessed data in the place quickest to retrieve it from. And will we have to wait years for this ‘breakthrough’? Thankfully, no. The tech will appear in SanDisk SSD drives from next year.-Martin Lynch [SanDisk] storage ssd technology

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Feeling down? Kicking the cat more often? Are the dark evenings and general winter pall making you depressed? Could you be suffering from seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.)? Philips might not be able to alter the Earth’s axis and change the clocks to provide you with more sunshine but what it can do is give you a clock. Not just any old annoying alarm clock either, but its goLITE BLU (did I just read ‘Blu’ in the title of a non-Sony product?). Sunshine makes us feel great which is why winter makes people go a little batty. This Philips clock though is the latest in light therapy, providing just the blue light our bodies need to convert into the hormones that put the pep in our step. According to Philips, research shows that low-intensity blue light (470 nm, like that from the goLITE) is ‘twice as effective at managing our body clocks compared to other sources of light’. Apart from the fact that it might help you not top yourself on these dark winter days, it’s basically a clock. A pretty one, yes, but one with a £175 price tag. Oh God, my eyes, my eyes!-Martin Lynch [Philips] health gadget home

Original post by nafiz

A new concept in seating has been unveiled that takes robotic leg technology and applies it to your humble office chair. Oki Electric Industry, makers of the jumping Robot Leg have teamed up with furniture maker, Okamura to show off the Leopard, a seat that “fits the body, in which the back and seat of the chair follow the movement of the user’s body from seating and reclining through to standing.” Unlike the jumping Robot Leg though, this will not surprise innocent office workers by catapulting them out of the office window. Probably.Oki says that understanding the structure and features of the thigh to hip joint muscles was essential to creating the chair which is designed, believe it or not, to cradle you like a babe. When you sit into it, the seat “feels as if it’s wrapped around from the back, and fits perfectly to the back”. Also, when you stand, the seat raises a little too to help you move your lard ass upwards. “OKI’s robotic technology is based on studies of human movement and leverages new mechanisms for applications in the future technology of mechatronics,” said Yutaka Asai, Chief Technology Officer at OKI. “After thorough discussion, OKI focused on a situation where a child is held by the parent on the lap - that is, to develop a seat that can embrace the sitter through robotic technology based on an understanding of the human skeletal structure and muscular mechanisms. Adopting the very human concept of ‘embrace and wrap,’ OKI and Okamura decided to develop the concept jointly.” The Leopard chair is expected to come to market next year but, before jumping for joy, the companies say the chair is designed for “occupants weighing between 55 to 60kg”. Us fat Europeans may have to wait for a stronger version.-Martin Lynch robot work design

Original post by nafiz

The big Firefox news today is that the latest research stats from Net Applications show that Mozilla’s browser captured 20% of the market for the first time. For many though, this might be eclipsed by the news that pre-release versions of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 now include the Private Browsing feature, or ‘porn mode’, as it has become affectionately known. Firefox programmer Ehsan Akhgar, explained:”Private Browsing aims to help you make sure that your Web browsing activities don’t leave any trace on your own computer. It is very important to note that Private Browsing is not a tool to keep you anonymous from Web sites or your ISP, or for example protect you from all kinds of spyware applications which use sophisticated techniques to intercept your online traffic. Private Browsing is only about making sure that Firefox doesn’t store any data which can be used to trace your online activities, no more, no less.” Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari and the Beta 2 of IE 8 from Microsoft also sport a so-called ‘porn mode’. Firefox users will be able to download a more stable version of Firefox 3.1 soon.-Martin Lynch internet browser online

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‘Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, that’s Martini’. Oops, sorry, ‘…..that’s LaCie Internet Space’. OK, it doesn’t have the same ring as the old Martini ad jingle but it does pretty much offer you access to your files [music, video, data etc.] over the Net, even if it doesn’t get you bladdered. The minimalist-styled Internet Space is a network hard disk drive that promises to be really easy to use and will allow you access over the Net to your content, even when the PC is off. Promising idiot-proof set-up “in minutes″, the drive purports to be an all-singing-all-dancing remote storage location for use with PCs, UPnP or DLNA-certified players/adapters. It will also allow you to set up a personal Web portal so you can allow friends and family to access up to 1TB of your photos, music and videos. LaCie Internet Space will stream multimedia files [videos etc.] through your local network to compatible media players such as the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, as well as act as an iTunes music server. “The Internet Space is a user-friendly solution for customers wanting easily accessible network or remote storage for multiple computers or UPnP/DLNA media players,” said Christa Dabilly, LaCie Product Manager. “Whether you are looking for a quick and painless way to access your photo collection securely from your friend’s house or to share your last vacation photos with family, friends or colleagues, this device is a perfect NAS solution for remote use.” It comes with HipServTM DesktopMirror software, to back-up and restore files and there’s an additional USB 2.0 port for the really paranoid to hook up a spare HDD for extra safety. The 500GB and 1TB drives cost £134 and £180, respectively.-Martin Lynch [Lacie] PC storage gadget

Original post by nafiz