Lifeboat Foundation

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the first flexible wearable device capable of monitoring both biochemical and electric signals in the human body. The Chem-Phys patch records electrocardiogram (EKG) heart signals and tracks levels of lactate, a biochemical that is a marker of physical effort, in real time. The device can be worn on the chest and communicates wirelessly with a smartphone, smart watch or laptop. It could have a wide range of applications, from athletes monitoring their workouts to physicians monitoring patients with heart disease.

Nanoengineers and electrical engineers at the UC San Diego Center for Wearable Sensors worked together to build the device, which includes a flexible suite of sensors and a small electronic board. The device also can transmit the data from biochemical and electrical signals via Bluetooth.

Nanoengineering professor Joseph Wang and electrical engineering professor Patrick Mercier at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering led the project, with Wang’s team working on the patch’s sensors and chemistry, while Mercier’s team worked on the electronics and data transmission. They describe the Chem-Phys patch in the May 23 issue of Nature Communications.

Got to luv this.

Is this brand new type of battery the key to clean energy and off-grid electricity?

Lithium-ion batteries are having a moment. After becoming the de facto battery in laptops and cell phones over the years, they’re now starting to power electric cars (like those made by Tesla) and plug into the power grid.

Continue reading “A Battery Made From Metal and Air Is Electrifying the Developing World” »

On Thursday, Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc.

At first, it will also only run on a select number of devices — most of which are touch-enabled (think Google’s own Chromebook Pixel, the Asus Chromebook Flip and Acer’s R11).

Like numerous other announcements Google made at its I/O developers conference this week, the Android apps integration feature won’t be available for users until this fall. For the layman, that means that while you may be able to install Android apps, some of them might not be ideal until developers eventually get around to making things work correctly. You’ll be able to make a Skype call, work with Office files, be productive offline, and play games like Minecraft or Hearthstone.

Continue reading “Sneak peek: A first look at YouTube’s VR interface within Daydream” »

The new Wherecom S3, from Omate, has the ability to send the wearer’s GPS location to specific contacts in the event of an emergency.

A new smartwatch is promising something different: Keeping your grandparents safe. The new Wherecom S3, from Omate, was launched on Tuesday. It’s an Android-powered smartwatch with GPS, Wi-Fi, and 3G cellular connectivity, this means that the tech can function without a smartphone.

The watch has the ability to text, call, track paths through GPS, and remind individuals when it’s time to take medication. The S3 also has an emergency alert function in the form of a red SOS button on the side of the watch, which can be pressed in the event of an emergency to send the wearer’s GPS location to specific contacts.

Continue reading “This Smartwatch for Seniors Has GPS, WiFi, Cellular Connectivity, And an SOS Button” »

After more than a year of silence, Google’s wildest idea about smartphones is starting to come true.

Math isn’t everyone’s strong suit, especially those who haven’t stretched that part of their brain since college. Thanks to the wonders of image recognition technology, we now have Mathpix, an iOS app that lets you point your phone camera at a problem and calculates solutions in seconds.

The interface looks like any standard camera app: simply drag the on-screen reticle over the equation and the app solves it and provides graph answers where appropriate. More useful is a step-by-step guide offering multiple methods to reach a solution, making this a bona fide educational tool. It uses image recognition to process problems and pings its servers to do the mathematical heavy lifting, so it likely requires an internet connection to work.

Mathpix was envisioned by Stanford PhD student Nico Jimenez, who was advised by Stanford grad Paul Ferrell. The app’s other developers are high schoolers Michael Lee and August Trollback, which is impressive for an app that claims to be the first to visually recognize and solve handwritten math problems.

Continue reading “Point your phone at an equation and Mathpix will solve it” »

Google’s new virtual-reality platform, Daydream, will include VR-ready phones and a headset and controller set to come out in the fall. CNET sat down with Google VR chief Clay Bavor to talk about the company’s roadmap for the new technology.

Watch more CNET videos: http://www.cnet.com/video

Continue reading “Meet Daydream, Google’s vision for virtual reality” »

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A new highly efficient power amplifier for electronics could help make possible next-generation cell phones, low-cost collision-avoidance radar for cars and lightweight microsatellites for communications.

Fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile devices expected around 2019 will require improved power amplifiers operating at very high frequencies. The new phones will be designed to download and transmit data and videos faster than today’s phones, provide better coverage, consume less power and meet the needs of an emerging “Internet of things” in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.

Power amplifiers are needed to transmit signals. Because today’s cell phone amplifiers are made of gallium arsenide, they cannot be integrated into the phone’s silicon-based technology, called complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS). The new amplifier design is CMOS-based, meaning it could allow researchers to integrate the power amplifier with the phone’s electronic chip, reducing manufacturing costs and power consumption while boosting performance.

Continue reading “High-efficiency power amplifier could bring 5G cell phones” »

Inevitable, but still awesome!

Sony is the latest company to file a patent for a futuristic contact lens that does much more than improve vision.