Clipmarks | solitonix's clips

Robo-skeleton lets paralysed walk

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:39:21 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Robo-skeleton lets paralysed walk

A robotic suit is helping people paralysed from the waist down do what was previously considered impossible - stand, walk and climb stairs.

ReWalk users wear a backpack device and braces on their legs and select the activity they want from a remote control wrist band.

Users walk with crutches, controlling the suit through changes in centre of gravity and upper body movements.

The device effectively mimics the exoskeletion of a crab.

Former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof has been paralysed for the last 20 years following an injury during his service in the Israeli military.

He says the device has changed his life.

"I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like. Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye to eye, not from below."

So we ARE the aliens after all...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:03:09 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

New Flying Saucer

Subrata Roy, an engineering professor at the University of Florida, is trying to patent his design of a circular, spinning aircraft he dubs WEAV, short for wingless electromagnetic air vehicle.

Roy applied his experience doing U.S. Air Force-funded plasma research to develop the propulsion system devoid of typical aircraft parts such as propellers and engines. Here is how it works: Electrodes lining the vehicle’s surface ionize the surrounding air. This creates plasma on the vehicle’s exterior. An electrical current sent through this plasma generates a force that not only produces the necessary lift and momentum. It also stabilizes the vehicle in windy conditions.

Looking like a flying bundt pan, the WEAV design is partially hollow and continuously curved. This larger surface area improves lift and control.

USAF and NASA have expressed interest in the WEAV. Credit: Subrata Roy, University of Florida

The will to become transparent...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:51:03 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Invisibility cloak one step closer, scientists say

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device.

One approach uses a type of fishnet of metal layers to reverse the direction of light, while another uses tiny silver wires, both at the nanoscale level.

The two teams were working separately under the direction of Xiang Zhang of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley with U.S. government funding. One team reported its findings in the journal Science and the other in the journal Nature.

wrap whatever you wanted to cloak in the material. It would just send light around. By sending light around the object that is to be cloaked, you don't see it

Each new material works to reverse light in limited wavelengths, so no one will be using them to hide buildings from satellites, said Jason Valentine, who worked on one of the projects

Electro-Magnetic Skyscrapers

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:43:41 GMT

clipped by: solitonix
clipper's remarks: In this futuristic scenario controlled Electro Magnetic force (E.M.) will be a key element in the building industry. This controlled E.M. force will free humanity from the need to waste our planet resources by making the E.M. technology the ultimate sustainable method. E.M. Structures will be able to support each other simply by pure physical magnetism that can also direct electricity. By using magnetic fields as a construction material there can be Infinite vertical and horizontal expansions due to the final liberation from gravity. Tokyo was chosen to set the first example for the rest of the world in building a series of Electro-Magnetic Skyscrapers and these buildings will be able to migrate like birds. Self sufficient energy cubes will provide the basic needs to the community. By using built-in energy resources in every E.M. Cube (such as photovoltaic cells on the sides of the cube, Wind turbines, air shafts forcing wind into energy, water conservation tanks etc.)

Clip Source: www.geotectura.com

Electro-Magnetic Skyscrapers

Clip Source: www.geotectura.com

WatAir

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:59:28 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Clip Source: www.geotectura.com

WatAir

Clip Source: www.geotectura.com

Sun Hopes

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:30:14 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Clip Source: www.israel21c.org

Israeli inventor puts his head in the clouds

Joseph Cory's helium balloons made from fabric coated with photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. These balloons are much cheaper to build and install than existing solar panels, and also take up far less room, which is significant in an urban environment.

You can tell Joseph Cory is a dreamer. Turn to his company's web site, Geotectura.com, and you see a host of ideas ranging from the wild - a one-meter square movable 'house' for the homeless, to the wacky, electro-magnetic skyscrapers that float above the ground. But out of this riotous imagination, Cory, a new breed of environmental architect, has developed a number of award-winning schemes that could help deal with some of the world's most pressing problems - lack of renewable energy, and water scarcity.

The Israeli scientist, who is shortly to complete his PhD at the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Architecture and City Construction, at Haifa's Technion Israel Institute of Technology

Google, Yahoo to Search Inside Flash Files

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:10:38 GMT

clipped by: solitonix
clipper's remarks: At long freaking last !!!!
get out on the streets & celebrate !!!

Clip Source: www.pcworld.com

Google, Yahoo to Search Inside Flash Files

Adobe announced Tuesday that Google and Yahoo are adding search capabilities that will enable users to look inside the content of files encoded in Adobe's Flash file format -- SWF.

The content inside SWF files has heretofore been ignored by the search engine giants, but Adobe has worked with both companies to make sure that their search engine technology can now look inside existing and future SWF content, including text, hyperlinks, audio and video content.

"And content producers are now able to put Flash files online and know that they're going to bring more users through organic search. The good thing is that they don't have to do anything to enable this capability -- it works on any SWF file," Everett-Church told Macworld.

Google is already beginning to offer search results including data inside Flash files, and Yahoo will follow suit with an update to its Yahoo Search engine, according to Adobe.

3D Content Navigation For All

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:58:20 GMT

clipped by: solitonix
clipper's remarks: Just watch
as soon as Flash 10 will soon be released
which enables such 3d capabilities
websites would embrace this kind of Navigation
on the verge of abuse .

Clip Source: www.citrinitas.com

Interactivity/Navigation:

Currently the environment can be walked through by using the interface of the VRML viewer, using either the mouse or the keyboard arrows. Alternatively there are animated viewpoints that can be accessed in linear sequence. Both these methods are insufficient in achieving non-linear navigation, which is integral to this project and hyperlinks that join the blocks will be undertaken in future incarnations.

01// Keywords

free association, thesaurus, zooming, entirety/detail, gestalt, organic,evolving, architecture, topkapi palace, rhizomatic growth, infinite, time travel, non-linear, the image work, search engines, internet surf, data visualisation, 3D navigation, 2D navigation, charts.

Typography:

I used a sans serif typeface (DIN), which is highly legible since legibility was a major issue: The text would need to be read in a 3D environment and would certainly undergo perspective distortions.

Rotating & Vibrating

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:09:21 GMT

clipped by: solitonix
clipper's remarks: Residence for single moms & unemployed, government funded.

Clip Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

Architect David Fisher designs first rotating skyscraper for Dubai and Moscow

Prefabricated floors will spin around a concrete core in undulating forms controlled from the architect’s laptop

Extravagant plans were unveiled yesterday for the world's first swirling skyscrapers, with each floor rotating up to once an hour to form an ever-changing profile on the skyline.

By prefabricating the rotating units, Mr Fisher said, he can save at least 10 per cent of normal construction costs. He estimates it will take only six days to assemble each floor around the concrete core.

Plans require the buildings to be self-powered by horizontal wind turbines that spin between each floor to generate electricity. Solar power will be provided by photovoltaic cells on the roof of each rotating floor, 15 per cent of which will be exposed to sunlight at any one time.

'Naked Nomad' leaves millions

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:56:32 GMT

clipped by: solitonix
clipper's remarks: wasn't he leaving Millions
would we still bother reading ?

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

'Naked Nomad' leaves millions

A MAN who rejected possessions and walked naked around the country has been declared dead, leaving his sister an estate worth millions of dollars. Victor Flanagan, also known as the “Naked Nomad”, was declared presumed dead in the Supreme Court in Perth last week – more than a decade after he last spoke to his sister.

The West Australian said a multimillion-dollar beachfront property near Busselton would be left to his sister, Violet Georgina Jenkins.

He would don a sarong w hen walking through towns and a pair of thongs when there were prickles underfoot.

In a newsletter for environmental awareness group The Great Walk, Mr Flanagan was described as “a gentle man who walked this earth with love and care for the environment around him”.

“He walked barefoot from Perth to Papua New Guinea, becoming known as the Naked Nomad, making the news in his plight to share his truth with the outside world,”

He said his goal was simply to be in touch with nature.

The cyborg Era

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:30:46 GMT

clipped by: solitonix
clipper's remarks: is this a desirable future ?

Clip Source: spacecollective.org

Time aggregation metaphor

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:23:41 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Clip Source: flickr.com

Multiple sets of spirals described by seed pod succession; inspired by Maxwell's papers on electromagnetic force fields.

The Art of Knowledge

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:16:23 GMT

clipped by: solitonix
clipper's remarks: We ask for A new paradigm for visualizing Content

Clip Source: spacecollective.org

Visualization

We live in an age when information is more prolific and widely available than ever before, and to visualize it is to understand it. The projects in this category demonstrate the ways in which designers and scientists tackle the extremely small and the extremely large in order to bring them to a human scale, facilitating our ability to comprehend great amounts of data.

A new Forum Metafor ?

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:05:28 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Clip Source: argunaut.org

Argunaut

The Argunaut project was formed with the following goals:

to develop appropriate tools to assist moderators of e-discussions

to unify awareness and feedback mechanisms in e-discussion environments

to combine AI analysis module with online monitoring module

to implement cross-platform (currently with Digalo and
FreeStyler)

to study the moderator's role, especially in synchronous, graphical e-discussions

Argunaut: An Intelligent Guide to Support Productive Online Dialogue

No More Spam ! :-) ! :-) ! :-)

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:51:47 GMT

clipped by: solitonix

Clip Source: www.ynet.co.il

בשורה לצרכנים: חוק מניעת שליחת דואר זבל בדרך לאישור

על פי הצעת החוק, שאושרה לקריאה שנייה ושלישית, מפרסם שישלח דואר זבל ללא קבלת הסכמה מהצרכנים ייקנס ב-202 אלף שקלים. חברות הפרסום יוכלו לשלוח הודעות דואר זבל רק למי שנתן את הסכמתו לכך במפורש מבעוד מועד

שישלח דואר זבל ללא קבלת הסכמה מהצרכנים ייקנס ב-202 אלף שקלים. חברות הפרסום יוכלו לשלוח הודעות דואר זבל רק למי שנתן את הסכמתו לכך במפורש מבעוד מועד

ועדת הכלכלה אישרה היום (ג') לקריאה שנייה ושלישית הצעת חוק ממשלתית למניעת שליחת דואר זבל. החוק אמור להיכנס לתוקף בתוך חצי שנה מאישורו הסופי. החוק מתייחס להודעות דואר זבל שנשלחות בדואר האלקטרוני וכן באמצעות פקסים, הודעות טקסט בטלפונים הסלולריים או באמצעות הודעות טלפוניות מוקלטות

כמו כן, גובה הקנס לשולחי דואר זבל ללא מתן אפשרות לצרכנים שהסכימו לכך בעבר להודיע כי הם מסרבים להמשיך ולקבל הודעות פרסומיות, יעמוד על כ-67 אלף שקלים.

בנוסף, בית המשפט יוכל לקבוע פיצויים למי שקיבלו דואר זבל, ללא צורך בהוכחת נזק, בסכום של עד 1,000 שקלים לכל הודעה.

ח"כ ארדן