Filed under: Computers

You know those insect-like micro air vehicles (MAV) we’ve been seeing? Well, the ExoFly aerobot is based on that camera-equipped DelFly design, only this time it’s gearing up for a trip to Mars — maybe even Titan or Venus. Turns out flapping-wing flight is perfect for the low-density viscous Martian atmosphere. The current prototype — weighing 17g with a wingspan of 350mm and flight time of twelve minutes — is being tweaked for use in future missions to Mars.

The folks at Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University, who’ve teamed up with Ursa Minor Space & Navigation, plan on increasing the weight to 20g and adding an on-board solar cell, which they reckon should extend the flight distance to 15km. There’s also talk of using the digital terrain and image data gathered to simulate a 3D immersive environment for detailed analysis of extraterrestrial destinations — hopefully viewable by those of us who don’t have the billions to drop on a flight to Mars. [Via New Scientist Space]

Continue reading Robotic Fly Will Go to Mars for Research Missions

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Filed under: Cell Phones, iPhone

The campaign of Barack Obama continues to show that it’s the more tech-savvy of the U.S. presidential tickets. The Obama campaign has released a pair of new mobile tools for iPhone-carrying supporters. In addition to a specially iPhone designed version of its Web page, there is now an Obama iPhone application that has a number of features to help motivate and organize supporters and volunteers.

The iPhone application access your contacts and reorganizes them so that contacts in battleground states are listed at the top, instead of simply using alphabetical order. The application counts how many calls you make through the app and anonymously sends the tally (but no other data) back to the Obama campaign. The app shows how many calls you’ve made and how many calls the application has been used to make nationwide, motivating users by making them feel like they are part of a larger community.

The application also can access the iPhone’s GPS to locate the nearest Obama campaign office and local events. It also comes with “issues” and “media” links, which delivers statements and videos of Obama’s stance on issues.

The McCain campaign responded by asking, “What’s an iPhone?” [From: CNET and USA Today]

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Filed under: Video Games

Here’s an interesting one. That red / black Xbox 360 controller that was showcased back in July is now available to any ole consumer in the US, Canada, Latin America New Zealand and Asia, and it comes bundled with a Play & Charge Kit and red rechargeable battery for $64.99. For whatever reason, Microsoft’s totally missing a golden opportunity to cash in on the holiday shopping season by reserving the green counterpart as some “promotional item.” C’mon guys, is it really that hard to understand how irresistible a red and green gamepad tandem would be in late December?

[Via IGN]

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Filed under: Computers, Google

Web-mail sites like Gmail and Hotmail are incredibly convenient, but when doing things online, security should be a major concern and not all Web-mail systems are as secure as you might think. Your personal data may especially be at risk when accessing your e-mail from a public Wi-Fi hotspot if you don’t take the proper precautions.

Thankfully, Wired has started a wiki to collect tips for how to secure your Web-mail accounts. Most of them are pretty simple tricks that only take a moment to set up — turns out most of them just aren’t always that obvious. For example, you can force Gmail to always use an HTTPS (a secure connection that scrambles sent and received data) connection by checking a box in your Gmail settings. Similarly, Hotmail has an enhanced security mode, and you’ll find the link on the log-in page, just under the password box.

Check out the page for some more tips, and add your own if you have any. [From: Wired]

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Filed under: Computers

Here’s another mouth-watering concept on display at CEATEC today: Toshiba’s Media Server — not to be confused with some kind of nefarious explosive device from an early episode of Doctor Who. It uses NFC to download files from your cell phone, which in turn can be displayed on a TV via WirelessHD. But best of all, it’s shiny and looks nothing like some of the mundane media servers we’ve seen in the past, which is reason enough for us to want one, or perhaps a pair to make 2d12. Here’s hoping it gets past the concept stage.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, TV

What we’re watching tonight:

• CW (1080i) has season premieres of ‘Everybody Hates Chris‘ at 8 p.m. and ‘The Game‘ at 8:30 p.m.
• CBS (1080i) brings the season premiere of ‘Ghost Whisperer‘ at 8 p.m., series premiere of ‘The Ex-List‘ at 9 p.m. and season premiere of ‘Numb3rs‘ at 10 p.m.
• MNT (1080i) has the season premiere of ‘WWE: SmackDown’ at 8 p.m.
• Cartoon Network (1080i) premieres ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ at 9 & 9:30 p.m.
• TBS (1080i) brings MLB playoffs action with White Sox/Rays at 6 p.m. and Red Sox/Angels at 9:30 p.m.
• History (720p) has ‘Gangland‘ at 9 p.m. and the season finale of ‘Shockwave‘ at 10 p.m.
• Sci Fi (1080i) has the series premiere of ‘Sanctuary ‘at 9 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has ‘What Not to Wear‘ at 9 p.m. and ‘Say Yes to the Dress‘ at 10 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) has ‘America’s Toughest Jobs‘ at 8 p.m. and ‘Life‘ at 10 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Cincinnati/Marshall college football at 8 p.m.

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Filed under: Video Games

Of all the video game properties we’re excited to see get resurrected, ‘Punch-Out!’ certainly has the most difficult pedigree to live up to. ‘Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!’ is one of the greatest games to ever grace a console, and ‘Super Punch-Out!’ was a worthy follow-up that featured fantastic cartoonish graphics (for a Super Nintendo game).

The Wii will be getting its own ‘Punch-Out!’ installment next year with slick looking cel-shaded animations. Classic characters, including the protagonist Little Mac, Glass Joe, and King Hippo, are back to reap some arm-flailing chaos on your television.

We just hope that the control scheme is more carefully developed than that of ‘Wii Sports: Boxing‘ which, as far as we can tell, was developed with epileptic chimpanzees in mind. [From: BoingBoing]

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Filed under: Audio/Video, TV, Home Video, Televisions

Any Japanese consumer electronics show worth its salt will have plenty of cell phones and TVs. Since we’ve already covered some of the stranger new concept phones we saw while at this week’s CEATEC convention in Tokyo, we’re moving on to the televisions. Take a look at the following seven prototype TVs, and tell us which ones you like!

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Filed under: Computers

We’ve all seen or heard footage Stephen Hawking using an interface on his wheelchair to speak, but he’s relying on his limited ability to move in order to construct those sentences. 25-year-old Erik Ramsey tragically suffered an accident that left him unable to control any part of his body except for one thing: looking up and down. That was nearly nine years ago, and he’s now undergoing training with a device wired directly into his brain that may allow him to speak again — without moving a muscle.

Dr. Philip Kennedy, at the Office of Neural Signals in Duluth, Minnesota, is using Ramsey as his partner in developing a new neural speech technology. Kennedy sent Ramsey through an MRI and watched the patterns in his brain as he mentally vocalized saying different sounds. He’s now working with Ramsey to train a computer, monitoring for activity in those areas of his brain and turning that into speech. Ramsey still can’t put together words, but is able to make simple syllabic sounds after about a year of training. We’ll be following this one in the hopes that he’ll actually be able to speak in the not-too-distant future. [From: Esquire, via boing-boing]

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Filed under: Cell Phones, Cameras

It’s a beautiful autumn day, and you’re out in the wooded path beyond the railroad tracks just taking it all in and killing some time. Hey, what’s that? Why, it’s the cutest bunny rabbit you’ve ever seen! Time to pull out that 8-megapixel C905 and… oh, this sucks, you actually have to press a button to zoom in and out! Screw this noise — you’re a visionary photographer, not a manual laborer.

Happily, Sony Ericsson feels your pain, and a new patent application reveals that they’re hard at work on a system to control your cameraphone’s zoom level simply by moving it back and forth. Just get the phone closer to the subject, and boom, welcome to telephoto city, population one. We’re still totally cool with the old-fashioned way of capturing Pulitzer-winning shots, but we’re happy that someone’s thinking of this type of stuff so we don’t have to — that’d be work. [Via Unwired View]

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