Creative New

Via popsci

Next-generation super-phones won’t just be slimmer versions of today’s devices; they will be entirely different machines. Chipmakers are reinventing every processor that powers your portable. From PS3-quality videogames to built-in cameras that can fill in for your current point-and-shoot, a chip for it is in the works. And thanks to shrinking transistors, the new phones won’t be any larger or more power-hungry than today’s ultrathin models. Below, we’ve pulled together the technologies being released in the next year and a half to build the smartest smartphone possible.

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Via NASA

NASA’s first test flight for the agency’s next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system is launching in 2009. The test flight, called Ares I-X, will bring NASA one step closer to its exploration goals — to return to the moon for more ambitious exploration of the lunar surface and to travel to Mars and destinations beyond.

The Ares I-X flight will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I crew launch vehicle. It also will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the integrated Orion crew exploration vehicle and the Ares I launch vehicle stack — data that will ensure the vehicle system as a whole is safe and fully operational before astronauts begin traveling into orbit.

By shoving objects around on a table, UMan figures out how they work.

Via technologyreview

To assist humans around the house, robots will need to be able to deal with the unfamiliar. But while researchers can preprogram robots to do increasingly sophisticated tasks, they face a much bigger challenge in teaching them to adapt to unstructured environments. A robot developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, however, is able to learn to use objects that it has never encountered before.

The robot–called the UMass Mobile Manipulator, or UMan–pushes objects around on a table to see how they move. Once it identifies an object’s moving parts, it begins to experiment with it, manipulating it to perform tasks.

video:MIT

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Information from millions of Web pages that use the animation software is now available to search engines.

Via technologyreview

The Web would be useless without search engines. But as good as Google and Yahoo are at finding online information, much on it remains hidden, or difficult to rank in search results. On Tuesday, however, Adobe took a major step toward opening up tens of millions of pages to Google and Yahoo. The company has provided the search engines with a specialized version of its Flash animation player that reveals information about text and links in Flash files. It’s a move that could be a boon to advertisers, in particular, who have traditionally had to choose between building a site that’s aesthetically pleasing and one that can be ranked in a Web search.

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Via summerscience

A password system based on drawings has been developed at the University of Newcastle. Research has shown Background Draw-a-Secret (BDAS) to be more reliable and secure than current password systems that use numbers or words.

‘Psychological studies show that people recall images far easier than words or numbers’, explains Jeff Yan, a Computer Scientist at Newcastle. ‘So the system helps the common problem of the forgotten password. We developed BDAS on Personal Digital Assistant’s but potentially it could be used for any password-protected system, cash-points and iPhones, for example’.

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ICON Aircraft’s new A5 light recreational airplane

Via businessweek.com

ICON Aircraft, a privately held startup based in Los Angeles, hopes to turn aviation into a powersport, like Jet Ski and motorcycle riding. On June 12, it unveiled the A5, a $139,000 plane intended for recreational flying that will be available in 2010. The A5 is aimed squarely at the Light Sport Aircraft category devised by the Federal Aviation Administration four years ago. The new class makes it easier for individuals to take to the air. The A5 is one of the first aircraft designed specifically for this market, which ICON expects could be worth as much as $2 billion annually.

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Via businessweek

Students at Art Center College of Design created their visions for the “Next Lunar Rovers” in a transportation design project sponsored by NASA. The design brief, which tasked students with designing the optimal lunar rover for the next moon mission, called for the designs to support the unique functional challenges of such a vehicle while inspiring everyone that sees it to want to go for a drive on the moon. The designs were also meant to serve as an icon to jumpstart interest of the public in lunar expeditions. Here are the student’s proposals for such a vehicle.

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Natural Interaction

Via baekdal

We were all amazed when the Wii controller came onto the market. The ability to swing a virtual tennis racket, play golf or bowling similar to the way we do it in real life was quite spectacular. But a company called Softkinetic has taken this a step further. Now you don’t need a controller at all.

Softkinetic is using 3D cameras to track your movement and converts it to similar movements in a virtual space. If you need to jump over an obstacle you simply jump, if you want to reach out for something, you simply do that.

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Via engadget

Bet you didn’t see this one coming. With everyone’s eyes fixed firmly on Sprint’s supposedly forthcoming US WiMAX deployment in Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, DC, DigitalBridge Communications has snuck in to steal a little of the spotlight. As we speak, America’s first mobile WiMAX deployment has gone live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming courtesy of Alvarion’s BreezeMAX gear. The firms are hoping that high-brow tourists that come to tackle the black diamonds of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort will also bring their WiMAX-enabled device and / or WiMAX card to send enviable photos back home, but only time will tell if folks find value in the offering. DBC is expected to expand the network’s reach in the area (which currently hits 3,000 homes and businesses), and then “add mobile capabilities throughout its 200,000-household footprint.”

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Via smart-machines

Zappos.com is going robotic with the use of robots to handle some of their warehouse work. The company has bought a Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System from Kiva Systems. The system comprises of several orange-colored robots, called Kiva workers that can handle a plethora of different jobs involving inventory in warehouses.

Zappos will use these robots to speed up the process of finding, packaging and shipping a customer’s order. The robots will work in the company’s Kentucky warehouse and will streamline the process of getting customers’ shoes (which is Zappos’ main product) shipped.

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