Lifeboat Foundation

A transparent material that can be attached to a smartphone’s touch screen could help the device generate electricity whenever anyone taps it, researchers in China say.

Touch screens are now found on most cell phones and tablet computers. Using a touch screen typically involves finger taps, and scientists at Lanzhou University in China reasoned that the mechanical energy from these motions could be converted into electricity to charge the phone’s batteries, which could significantly extend the working time of these portable devices.

The researchers developed a new material based on a transparent silicone rubber known as PDMS. Scientists embedded wires in this rubber that were made of lead zirconate titanate that were only 700 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, wide. For perspective, this is about 140 times thinner than the average width of a human hair. [Top 10 Inventions That Changed the World].

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Google is working in secret at a spaceport in New Mexico to build and test solar-powered internet drones in a new initiative codenamed Project SkyBender, according to a report from The Guardian today. The company is reportedly renting 15,000 square feet of hangar space from Virgin Galactic — the commercial spaceflight outfit of business mogul Richard Branson — at the privately owned Spaceport America located near a town called Truth or Consequences. The lynchpin of Project SkyBender appears to be cutting-edge millimeter wave technology, which can transmit gigabits of data every second at speeds up to 40 times faster than modern 4G LTE.

Millimeter waves are thought to be the future of high-speed data transmission technology, and may form the backbone of 5G mobile networks. Aereo founder Chet Kanojia’s new startup Starry announced earlier this week it would use millimeter wave tech to bring gigabit internet speeds to people’s homes via Wi-Fi. Millimeter waves have much shorter range than current smartphone signals and are easily disrupted by weather conditions like rain, fog, and snow. Using what’s called a phased array, however, Google and others could potentially focus the transmissions over greater distances.

Google is currently testing the technique with a new solar-powered drone called Centaur and other units made by a division known as Google Titan, which the company formed after it acquired drone maker Titan Aerospace in 2014. The company has a deal with the FCC to continue testing until July, according to The Guardian. It’s also paying Virgin Galactic about $1,000 a day to use its hanger, as well as an additional $300,000 to Spaceport America to construct installations with servers, millimeter wave transceivers, and other tech onsite.

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This just in: Aipoly Vision* — a free AI app that runs on your iPhone/iPad** (Android coming) and recognizes objects and colors — is now live on the App store, Aipoly Inc. co-founder Alberto Rizzoli just told me in an email.

Of course, I immediately downloaded the app, launched it on my iPhone 6s+, and tested it. It works spectacularly. Its voice names objects or colors in real time as a walk around and also displays objects’ names. I am blown away. Here’s a sample:

Continue reading “‘Aipoly Vision’ AI app opens up the world live for visually impaired” »

Freedom!

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BEIJING, Jan. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Light Chaser Animation released Sent, its second work in virtual reality and its first VR story short.

Lately, some key figures in the movie industry have questioned the viability of narrative storytelling in the VR medium. Sent is Light Chaser’s first attempt in answering the question.

The 5-minute, 40-second short tells the story of an emoji “Goodbye.” The narrative begins inside the phone of a boy who is having a quarrel with his girlfriend. Behind the chat screen, all kinds of emoji characters are gathered and vie to be chosen and applied to the conversation. When the boy selects “Goodbye,” the emoji embarks upon a magical journey that would turn things in surprising ways for all.

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I do commend Sacramento for trying to put controls in place to reduce human trafficking; will it work?

What if banning smartphone encryption could stem the rising tide of human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery from which perpetrators force victims to engage in commercial labor services or sex acts against their will?

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When engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, say they are going to make you sweat, it is all in the name of science. Specifically, it is for a flexible sensor system that can measure metabolites and electrolytes in sweat, calibrate the data based upon skin temperature and sync the results in real time to a smartphone.

While health monitors have exploded onto the consumer electronics scene over the past decade, researchers say this device, reported in the Jan. 28 issue of the journal Nature (“Fully integrated wearable sensor arrays for multiplexed in situ perspiration analysis”), is the first fully integrated electronic system that can provide continuous, non-invasive monitoring of multiple biochemicals in sweat.

Continue reading “What new wearable sensors can reveal from perspiration” »

A cheaper way for VR wear for consumers; are consumers potentially being ripped off?

The Oculus Rift finally went on sale, but that $600 price tag is a bit too steep for some to justify. Fortunately, VR doesn’t have to be expensive. Take this virtual reality cycling rig that someone created for $40.

It’s the work of Paul Yan, who’s the animation director at Toys for Bob — the studio that developed Skylanders and kicked off the toys-to-life revolution. He previously figured out how to build an “Arduino thing” that could talk to a smartphone via Bluetooth LE and he wanted to put his contraption to good use.

Continue reading “VR cycling setup created for just $40” »

I can now see it; Nov. I go into my local Verizon store; and Pepper the robot greets me and takes my name and helps me get in line for the next service tech or takes me to show me the latest devices.

Pepper, the lovable humanoid robot, is preparing to take a step into entrepreneurship and staff its own smartphone shop in Japan.

Creator company SoftBank said it planned to open the pop-up mobile store employing only Pepper robots by the end of March, according to Engadget.

Continue reading “Phone shop will be run entirely by Pepper robots” »